Follow this tag to curate your own personalized Activity Stream and email alerts.
“We are not aiming at having more visitors or larger attendance, but we’re aiming at being more accessible, at having open doors,” he said in an interview. “As a civic institution, we should be like a library, where you can just walk in.” — LA Times
With its recent celebration of turning 40, the Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles received a generous gift of $10-million from MOCA Board of Trustees President Carolyn Powers. The goal of the museum's future is to aid and assist in a "civic-minded" vision for the museum, according to MOCA... View full entry
Zaha Hadid Architects designed a proposal for the Vauxhall Cross Island site in London. Located adjacent to Vauxhall Station, the proposal focuses on creating a Vauxhall district center by providing a mixed-use space to generate employment opportunities and a new public square to accommodate... View full entry
Located under a freeway overpass in Zurich, next to the Toni-Areal which houses the University of Arts and the Zurich University of Applied Sciences, is a new 240 square meter public architectural installation. The project has been carried out by ALICE (Atelier de la Conception de l’Espace)... View full entry
Modern architecture, during its heyday, was deeply concerned with its civic function; its mission to reform housing and improve the city was a moral imperative. But the failure of this utopian vision has served to...[give] rise to a profession in which its practice is defined increasingly by individual “star” architects and “architecture for architecture’s sake”... — AEI.org
In a piece on the civic benefits of music, literature, and architecture to the public sphere, Rebecca Burgess finds architecture to be somewhat lacking, based on the writings of Michael J. Lewis. Is this a complaint about the good old days in the vein of Prince Charles, or a meaningful critique in... View full entry
What do you do with a sad, funky, abandoned trolley terminus? Well, if it's the former Williamsburg Bridge Trolley Terminal under Delancey Street in New York City, you make the world's first underground park by virtue of adding some mirrors, skylights, and vegetation. One acre in size, the freshly... View full entry
“The project is being transformed from being non-figurative architecture to an overscale figurative photo-frame. That is, from being a modern, public monument to a postmodern pastiche,” [competition-winning architect Fernando] Donis wrote in an open letter. — Design Mena
Described by an internet commenter as "the St. Louis Arch minus the beauty or finesse," the Dubai Frame project is scheduled to open this month to the public. The somewhat controversial monument, which has not only attracted a scathing load of public commentary but an objecting open letter from... View full entry
Six teams of architects and landscape architects are still in the running for the 11th Street Bridge Park competition in Washington D.C. The nationwide competition is hunting for the best design to transform an old freeway bridge into D.C.'s first elevated park: the 11th Street Bridge Park. — bustler.net
Out of more than 40 teams and 80 firms that responded to an open call for submissions this past March, the jury selected the phase-one finalists -- who have all formed into the following interdisciplinary teams below:Balmori Associates / Cooper, Robertson & PartnersPiet Oudolf with Glenn LaRue... View full entry
At the intersection of these two domains – technology and civic life – a small and fascinating sector has been taking root for the last few years. [...]
Together, these types of companies and organizations have loosely come to define "civic tech" – and the potential for a future where technology finally, seamlessly, significantly alters how we relate to government and our neighbors.
— The Atlantic Cities
Not without its growing pains, the U.S. government is slowly learning to effectively use technology to connect to its citizens. The expanding field of "civic-tech" focuses on the sharing and distillation of government data, to grease the bureaucratic wheels and ramp up personal civic engagement... View full entry
