Three finalist teams have advanced into the last round of the search for an architect to renovate — or possibly redesign — Washington D.C.'s Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial Library. Back in October, the competition had already narrowed down the list of applicants to 10 teams with the invitation to create technical proposals on how they would approach renovating the Mies van der Rohe-designed library. — bustler.net

The search to find the architect team to help redesign the Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial Library continues as the competition narrowed down from 26 firms to 10 last month. These 10 teams were invited to create technical proposals on how they would approach renovating the Mies van der Rohe-designed library in Washington D.C. Firms are not expected to submit design concepts in this round. Proposals will be judged by a team of library, urban planning, architecture and preservation experts. — bustler.net

Mark your calendars for the fast-approaching DesignDC, the annual conference of education and networking at the Walter E. Washington Convention Center (Sept. 25-26) and the District Architecture Center (Sept. 27) in Washington, DC. For three full days, visitors can attend numerous education sessions that will cover just about every aspect in design.

In light of a new school year, a significant topic in this year's conference is continuing the discussion on school safety. — bustler.net

The vote came after Gehry presented the latest changes in the design, which included the restoration of bas-relief sculptures that had been eliminated in an earlier design and alterations in the statues of a young Dwight D. Eisenhower and of Eisenhower as president and World War II general. Excerpts from Eisenhower’s Guildhall Address, delivered after the allied victory in Europe and considered his most important speech, were also approved for the memorial. — articles.washingtonpost.com

The Hirshhorn Museum’s proposed Seasonal Inflatable Structure, also known as “the Bubble,” a project announced in 2009 and intended as an architecturally and culturally transformative space on the Mall, would operate at a loss in each of three scenarios examined in an assessment done by the Smithsonian. — washingtonpost.com

Ingels has been asked to envision a gateway, one that invites visitors to learn, rest and escape and then leads them north to the rest of the Mall. B.I.G. will be responsible for site and building investigations, programming, campus planning, architectural and engineering design concepts and cost analysis.

The area "suffers from some notable impediments, and the buildings within the landscape are not utilized in a fully functional and efficient way," the Smithsonian says. — bizjournals.com

Harry S Truman inherited a White House that was in horrendous shape. After the British nearly burnt it to the ground in 1814, the construction of 20th-century innovations—indoor plumbing, electricity, and heating ducts—had also taken its toll on the structure. The building was nearly 150 years old, and it showed its age. In November 1948, the building was in a near-condemnable state... So it had to be gutted. Completely. — nationaljournal.com

As a public-art stunt, the Seasonal Inflatable is troubling. The Hirshhorn should build it anyway. — Washington City Paper

For nearly 40 years, the F.B.I. has had its headquarters in a massive example of Brutalist architecture on Pennsylvania Avenue. But the federal government hopes to swap the building and its prime location for a sprawling new home in the suburbs, and there seem to be plenty of developers eager to help make that happen. — nytimes.com

At one time, the dorm housed as many as 40 or 50 prisoners packed together like sardines, according to Caperton. The plan is to convert the space into two or three one-bedroom apartments, which is a considerably more comfortable arrangement than the last residents of the building had. Caperton says that in the 1980s and '90s Lorton Prison had a reputation for being dangerously overcrowded. — wamu.org

“I would hate to stop the process and lose the momentum, especially since a lot of time, money, and effort has been expended on this memorial,” he wrote. “However, given the continued opposition with the Eisenhower family, I question whether we can ever resolve the differences ... and whether it would be in our best interest to continue to move forward.” — washingtonpost.com

The public doesn’t typically consider the Brutalist buildings historical — they consider them ugly. The Hoover Building in particular was named the ugliest building on Earth earlier this year by a travel Web site. And now that Penn Quarter has evolved into a posh residential community, neighbors of the building want it gone. — washingtonpost.com

The building, designed by Ludwig Mies van der Rohe, is a historical landmark but has been expensive and troublesome to maintain. The library’s management, led by D.C. Chief Librarian Ginnie Cooper, has been considering whether it can be renovated or expanded in some way, or if the library needs to find a new home for the central library. — washingtonpost.com

Smith is one of 20 landscape architects who have helped create a new online guide to the city’s important outdoor spaces, some world famous, others, such as the Civil War memorial at U and Vermont Avenue NW, not as well known. The Web site, The Landscape Architect’s Guide to Washington, D.C., was launched Sept. 13 by the American Society of Landscape Architects, and there is a version for mobile devices. — washingtonpost.com

The embattled Eisenhower Memorial in Washington has drawn the interest of Interior Secretary Ken Salazar, who will be reviewing the designs by architect Frank Gehry. The request could result in yet another delay for the project, which has already been plagued by a number of disagreements. — latimes.com