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Pratt Institute School of Architecture announced in late July the launch of the Kathryn and Kenneth Chenault Scholarship, an initiative started by Pratt Board of Trustee member Kathryn Chenault and her husband Kenneth to "support diversity in the School of Architecture." The school has... View full entry
The Graham Foundation for Advanced Studies in the Fine Arts has announced its slate of 2020 Grants to Individuals, a set of 52 awards totaling $320,800 in funding for research endeavors that highlight a multiplicity of architectural, urban, and social perspectives. As in years... View full entry
As institutions continue to respond to the direct effects of the COVID-19 pandemic, many have sought to implement new strategies for supporting students during this time of social and political unrest. Harvard GSD has announced a new emergency fund for current GSD students and 2020 graduates. The... View full entry
Princeton University School of Architecture Professors Paul Lewis and Guy Nordenson have been awarded a research grant by the Princeton University Funding Program for Rapid Novel and Actionable COVID-19 Research Projects fund to help propel the duo's work on "Manual of Urban Distance... View full entry
MIT Media Lab director Joichi Ito has faced pressure to resign after revealing that he took research funding from financier and alleged sex trafficker Jeffrey Epstein. But today Nicholas Negroponte, who cofounded the Media Lab in 1985 and was its director for 20 years, said he had recommended that Ito take Epstein’s money. “If you wind back the clock,” he added, “I would still say, ‘Take it.’” And he repeated, more emphatically, “‘Take it.’”
Both Joichi Ito, MIT Media Lab director, and Nicholas Negroponte, the founder of the MIT Media Lab, have come under scrutiny in recent days as news that a portion of the lab's funding was donated by convicted sex trafficking billionaire Jeffrey Epstein, MIT Technology Review... View full entry
Funding in US-based construction tech startups totals just $196.5 million across 44 deals halfway through 2019.
Still, $192.6 million across 44 deals is still significantly lower than the $1.274 billion raised by US-based construction startups in the first half of 2018.
— news.crunchbase.com
The bustling world of construction technology start-ups is off to a slow start in 2019, as mid-year funding statistics point to a marked drop in investment for these insurgent companies over 2018's blockbuster year, Crunchbase reports. Whether or not 2018's record investment, including Katerra's... View full entry
How do you raise the standard of living in the poorest neighborhoods in the country?
That’s what community developers, typically nonprofits that build and finance affordable housing, have tried to do over the last few decades. And yet [...] many of these communities remain stuck in poverty. [...]
This problem has stumped community developers for decades. But two local nonprofits think they’ve hit on something: They’ve created a private equity fund.
— marketplace.org
Shanghai’s spectacular skyline is studded with buildings shaped by architect Peter Guo-hua Fu. Now the McGill alumnus is setting his sights on a new project: taking McGill’s long history of world-class architecture education to the next level. — McGill
Peter Fu, architect and president of K. F. Stone Design says ‘McGill gave me a chance to change my life. Now that I have the chance, I really want to pay it back’. To honor the gift, McGill School of Architecture will be renamed the Peter Guo Hua Fu School of Architecture . View full entry
Today, the Greater London Authority released a biting investigative report on the Garden Bridge conducted by senior Member of Parliament Margaret Hodge. Last October, Mayor Sadiq Khan formally appointed Hodge to lead the independent review, as part of Khan's promise to investigate the decisions... View full entry
A proposal by Gov. John Hickenlooper to direct marijuana revenue toward building affordable housing and curbing homelessness offers a glimpse into the potential the new revenue can have on public services and projects...To the chagrin of pro-marijuana activists, Hickenlooper believes there is a correlation between homelessness, a need for affordable housing and substance abuse, including impacts from marijuana legalization. — The Gazette
Gov. Hickenlooper requested $18.3 million ($16.3 million from marijuana taxes and $2.0 million from the General Fund) toward affordable housing as part of his FY 2017-18 State budget this past November. The Gazette reports that Hickenlooper and his administration “are hesitant to acknowledge... View full entry
The indefatigable Paul Krugman takes a closer look at Trump's proposed infrastructure funding plans in his column for The New York Times, wondering why the President-elect would seek private equity for public projects. Is this a profiteering scheme that sneakily privatizes ownership of... View full entry
Ministers have repeatedly given more public money to London’s planned garden bridge, despite official advice against doing so, and risk losing more than £20m if the controversial project is cancelled, according to a report from the National Audit Office...The Garden Bridge Trust has yet to secure the necessary sub-lease on the area of the South Bank where the bridge will land, the report notes, while the main contractor [is] on standby and construction has been delayed for at least 18 months. — The Guardian
For previous news on this ongoing struggle: London mayor Sadiq Khan blocks extra funds for garden bridge Allies and Morrison propose an alternative to the garden bridge London's garden bridge, the saga continues Sadiq Khan investigates troublesome details in Thames garden bridge project View full entry
The Guggenheim Foundation's Helsinki museum, the design of which was chosen after a hotly anticipated competition last year, is now missing a major financial backer, namely, the government of Finland. Prior to its withdrawal, Finland was going to pick up construction costs and a portion of the... View full entry
“The Garden Bridge is a land grab,” says Michael Ball of Thames Central Open Spaces. “That is, a major piece of public space and amenity – the South Bank, the River Thames, and the views across central London – would be sequestered for private interests, albeit cloaked in some appearance of charity and beneficence. When I saw Pier 55 I realised it was an even more blatant example of the same idea.” — The Guardian
In this piece design critic par excellence Alexandra Lange analyzes two similar Thomas Heatherwick designed-projects, London's Garden Bridge and New York's Pier 55, in the hopes of discovering why one seems to be resonating with the public while the other has inspired satiric contests to replace... View full entry
In a major reversal, Gov. Jerry Brown is seeking state funds for a fledgling earthquake early warning system for California, which would allow for a limited rollout of alerts by 2018...Though the governor’s proposed funding is a big step for the system, it does not come with ongoing funds to operate it. An earthquake early warning system for California alone will cost about $23 million to build and $12 million annually to operate[.] — Los Angeles Times
More on Archinect:Checking in on Nepal, one year laterDeath toll climbs to 350 after powerful 7.8-magnitude earthquake hits EcuadorIn Los Angeles, landlords and tenants will share seismic retrofit costsShigeru Ban builds earthquake-proof homes in Nepal: "I'm encouraging people to copy my ideas. No... View full entry
