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But death chambers and many solitary confinement cells — they’re officially called segregation units, not incidentally — are extreme cases. Architects should not contribute their expertise to the most egregious aspects of a system that commits exceptional violence against African-Americans and other minorities.
The least the American Institute of Architects can do now is agree.
— The New York Times
The New York Times architecture critic Michael Kimmelman has penned a column highlighting the moral implications of having architects design solitary confinement and execution facilities. In the article, Kimmelman explores the American Institute of Architect's reluctance to take a positive stand... View full entry
A new initiative focused on leveraging designers' "professional connections and privileges in the name of advancing justice" offers an easy and effective way of reaching professional organizations, leading architecture firms, political entities, and academic institutions via email. Hosted on... View full entry
Princeton University School of Architecture Dean Monica Ponce de Leon has issued a statement on behalf of the school offering solidarity with the growing protest movement seeking social and economic justice for Black people in America. In a letter sent out to the Princeton SoA community... View full entry
Following the now famous Black Lives Matter street mural in Washington D.C., activists later painted one in Oakland, California. This urban activism has garnered the attention of another city as well, Berkeley, who plans to paint a new street mural on Martin Luther King Jr. Way, in front of Old... View full entry
An unaffiliated group of architects, designers, theorists, urbanists, teachers, students, and built environment workers have joined together to spearhead a "pencils down protest" as an expression of solidarity with Black Lives Matter. "This moment demands a direct confrontation with architecture... View full entry
Stan Wischnowski, the top editor of The Philadelphia Inquirer, resigned on Saturday, days after an article with the headline “Buildings Matter, Too,” on the effects of civil unrest on the city’s buildings, led to a walkout by dozens of staff members. — The Philadelphia Inquirer
The inappropriate and offensive headline, conceived for a column written by The Philadelphia Inquirer architecture critic Inga Saffron, drew widespread condemnation from the public and journalists at the newspaper alike, and resulted in the newspaper's editors issuing a public apology for writing... View full entry
Following a somewhat lukewarm reception to an initial statement released over the weekend from AIA 2020 President Jane Frederick touching on the recent days of anti-racism protests, the American Institute of Architects Board of Directors has issued an in-depth follow-up letter indicating their own... View full entry
Community development non-profit Designing Justice + Designing Spaces (DJDS) has published a vision designed around the idea of "unbuilding racism" in light of the growing movement to abolish police and prisons that has garnered national attention in the wake of the anti-racism and policy... View full entry
Does the destruction of buildings matter when black Americans are being brazenly murdered in cold blood by police and vigilantes?
That’s the question that has been raging on the streets of Philadelphia, and across my architecture-centric social media feeds, over the last two days as a dark cloud of smoke spiraled up from Center City.
— The Philadelphia Inquirer
Inga Saffron, architecture critic for The Philadelphia Inquirer, offers a nuanced look at the relationship between protest, property destruction, and economic development in under-invested areas in her latest column. The article comes as cities around the country grapple with fierce protests... View full entry
University of Southern California School of Architecture Dean Milton S.F. Curry issued a statement today commenting on the ongoing racial justice-focused protests taking place nationwide. Curry's message comes as various architecture organizations and firms, including the American Institute... View full entry
Over the weekend as courthouses, monuments, business districts, and public spaces around the country became backdrops to fierce protests seeking justice for the killings of Minneapolis resident George Floyd and other Black Americans at the hands of police, a collection of architecture, design, and... View full entry
City residents and urbanists had reasons to believe Obama would usher in a new urban era. [...]
Now, as he leaves the White House, Obama’s legacy is being evaluated on many fronts, including within the realm of urban policy. In a new book called Urban Policy in the Time of Obama, academics appraise his successes and failures. CityLab spoke with the book’s editor, James DeFillippis, an associate professor in the Edward J. Bloustein School of Planning and Public Policy at Rutgers University.
— citylab.com
Related stories in the Archinect news:What does President Obama's final year in office mean for architecture?Black Lives Matter and the politics of protesting in privatized spaceTod Williams Billie Tsien Architects selected to design the Obama Presidential Center View full entry
I was completely moved by the corona motif. It seemed like a way to start to tell a story that moves from one continent, where people were taken, along with their cultures, and used as labor, then contributed towards making another country and new cultures. That history then continues in the decorative patterning of those panels. — New York Times
Adjaye. View full entry
Block a highway, and you upend the economic life of a city, as well as the spatial logic that has long allowed people to pass through them without encountering their poverty or problems. Block a highway, and you command a lot more attention than would a rally outside a church or city hall — from traffic helicopters, immobile commuters, alarmed officials. — the Washington Post
The article notes that, historically, highway construction decimated black communities, such as in St. Paul, Minneapolis, Baltimore, Oakland, and many other cities. In New York, Robert Moses explicitly used highways to clear "slums," in the process devastating parts of the Bronx and other black... View full entry
Mall of America’s ability to so zealously suppress the December 23 [Black Lives Matter] protest there highlights how, in a nation where more and more public life takes place in privatized spaces, the ability to exercise First Amendment rights has become increasingly contingent...
Legal arguments that free political speech should be allowed at malls center around the idea that the shopping center has replaced the town square as a place where opinions can be heard and exchanged.
— the Intercept
Related:Taking a stand against privately-owned public spacesFor in that death of malls, what dreams may come? Archinect Sessions #32, featuring special guest co-host, Nam Henderson!NY Mayor de Blasio's Times Square overhaul runs into massive opposition View full entry