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"And to me, as an African American, just realizing that this has actually come to be, that there's an actual National Museum for African American History and Culture on the Mall of Washington, D.C., and this museum should have happened years and years ago, but the realization that finally in America we're at a place where we can accept it ... It's one of the most prominent sites on the Mall. It's not somewhere tucked away. — Zena Howard, on Curbed
Architect Zena Howard talks about what first drew her to architecture, the National Museum for African American History and Culture on which she worked as Senior Project Manager, and her outlook on the status of women in architecture.More on Archinect:Read an excerpt from the new “Where Are the... View full entry
“The one thing that everybody's sort of excited about is this idea that the stadium is designed as much for the tailgating, the pre-game, as for the game itself,” Ingels says in the 60 Minutes promo. — CityLab.com
When sports fans think football, they think...moats? Although the proposed stadium for the still-offensively-named Washington Redskins hasn't officially found a site, team owner Dan Snyder is pushing for it to be located next to the Anacostia River, which would provide context for Ingels' moat... View full entry
After officials announced that Metro, Washington’s subway system, would be shut down for 29 hours, riders began preparations for another problematic travel day in a city already well known for its cramped and sometimes dangerous train commutes.
The controlled chaos began early Wednesday and will continue until 5 a.m. Thursday, affecting 91 Metro stations that provide 700,000 rides each day in the city and its suburbs.
— the New York Times
DC residents took to Twitter and other social media to voice their frustration with the unexpected shutdown, which was prompted by an emergency inspection of some 600 electrical cables.Residents have been left to face grueling traffic, delayed buses, or surge-priced Ubers. The Department of... View full entry
James Corner Field Operations is transforming the National Building Museum's Great Hall into a glacial landscape of ICEBERGS for the museum's annual Summer Block Party installation, following two wildly successful years with Snarkitecture's monochromatic BEACH and BIG's gigantic maze. Today... View full entry
As the cityscape of Washington D.C. continues to evolve, another project is in the works at the National World War One Memorial at Pershing Park. Today, the U.S. World War I Centennial Commission announced that 25-year-old architect Joseph Weishaar of Brininstool+Lynch and New York veteran sculptor Sabin Howard won the Centennial Memorial design competition with their proposal, "The Weight of Sacrifice". Not a bad start for Weishaar's professional career, no? — Bustler
Here's a glimpse of the winning proposal:More about the project on Bustler. View full entry
To understand how strange this pairing of client and architect is, you have to contemplate two things: the deeply embedded social progressivism that has become the standard worldview of international architectural firms such as BIG; and organizations such as the NFL, a private club for 1 percenters that bullies municipalities and treats its own players’ health with indifference. Can this marriage last? Is BIG motivated by naivete or cynicism? — The Washington Post
WaPo's art and architecture critic Philip Kennicott discusses the oddities of BIG's recent commission to design a new stadium for the Washington Redskins — and the team's problematic name is just the tip of the iceberg.More on Archinect: Bjarke Ingels Group, BIG, tackles NFL stadium design for... View full entry
It is fervently hoped that when the 45th president takes the oath of office outside the Capitol on 20 January 2017, a $60m project to restore the building’s august cast-iron dome will have been completed. [...]
“There’s never been a major renovation of the dome. It’s important work and was long overdue. It apparently has a thousand cracks and pieces have been falling off for years but, once this work is done, it should be good for another 150 years.
— theguardian.com
Related stories in the Archinect news:U.S. Capitol building to receive much-needed faceliftTurns out the Washington Monument is shorter than we thoughtHistory breaks down the Lincoln Memorial’s bizarre rejected designs View full entry
The wildly successful BEACH installation is down to its final exhibition days at Washington D.C.'s National Building Museum. Since opening on July 4, over 120,000 visitors both young and old "splashed" around in its bubbly waters, lounged about on the "shore", and perhaps saw a live band rock out... View full entry
For those who assume Los Angeles has the worst traffic in the United States: Not so fast.
Drivers in Southern California spent a whopping 80 hours sitting in traffic in 2014, according to a new report by the Texas A&M Transportation Institute and the traffic data company Inrix.
But the city with the dubious distinction of most time lost behind the wheel is Washington, D.C., researchers say, where commuters clocked 82 hours of delays in a single year.
— latimes.com
Other metro areas snatching top spots according to the 2015 Urban Mobility Scorecard report:San Francisco-Oakland CA (78 hours)New York-Newark NY-NJ-CT (74 hours)San Jose CA (67 hours)Boston MA-NH-RI (64 hours) View full entry
The trend toward living in less square footage isn't just about battling rent hikes: in Orange County, the able-bodied and financially resourceful are choosing to habitate (and sometimes co-habitate) in so-called micro or mini-apartments. Although the definition varies, anything below 500 square... View full entry
Architect Frank Gehry’s modified design for the National Eisenhower Memorial received final approval from the National Capital Planning Commission Thursday, the final step in the federal approval process that has dragged on since 2011.
The commission voted 9 to 1 to move forward with the design for a memorial park on a four-acre site along Independence Avenue in Southwest Washington.
— washingtonpost.com
Previously in the Archinect news:Chairman of Eisenhower Memorial Commission to step downEisenhower Memorial clears key hurdle on Gehry designEisenhower Memorial to consider plan that removes most of Frank Gehry’s designsEisenhower memorial, politics as usualPanel rejects design for... View full entry
Following Bjarke Ingels Group's wildly successful BIG Maze last summer, one could only wonder how Washington D.C.'s National Building Museum would one-up itself this time around. Enter Alex Mustonen and Daniel Arsham of Snarkitecture, who envisioned the 10,000 square-foot indoor BEACH that opened... View full entry
Last summer, the National Building Museum in DC installed BIG's giant wooden maze in its atrium, and attracted over 50,000 visitors. Exactly a year later, the museum is planning another large-scale public installation to draw blockbuster attendance: BEACH, a playa-themed ball-pit for the museum's... View full entry
Instead, he lives on Buena Vista Terrace SE, a grim stretch of low-rise apartments pushed up against the Maryland border. And on Buena Vista Terrace, just standing outside can get you in trouble. [...]
The law is meant to fight disorderly conduct, but some lawyers and the people arrested for the “crime” say it’s routinely used to harass people seen as undesirable: protesters, the homeless, and black men.
— washingtoncitypaper.com
It’s hard to find a landmark building in Washington more polarizing than the Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial Library. Designed by legendary German-born architect Ludwig Mies van der Rohe, the city’s central library was never much loved by Washingtonians. If anything, its popularity has gone downhill since its 1972 opening. [...]
But now, as a four-year process wends its way toward a final design, it’s clear Washingtonians shouldn’t expect a major overhaul of Mies’s flawed design.
— washingtonian.com
According to the Washingtonian, Mecanoo (the firm leading the redesign) will release updates to their redesign (along with local partner Martinez & Johnson) later this month. But only after many of the proposed redesign elements have already been nixed: a "3-story rooftop addition"; replacing... View full entry