The mammoth, unfinished mansion on Strada Vecchia Road in Bel-Air has long been at the center of controversy, investigations and legal battles.

Its developer, Mohamed Hadid, pleaded no contest to criminal charges after prosecutors accused him of building a house far bigger than allowed. [...]

And investigators have looked into possible wrongdoing by a city building inspector scrutinizing the house. — Los Angeles Times

She told reporters that the council had finally managed to "resolve a historical anomaly in the city -- that an emblematic monument like the Sagrada Familia... didn't have a building permit, that it was being constructed illegally," Agence France-Presse reported. — CNN

Trulia isolated the markets in which building permits for residential construction are being issued at rates above historical averages, which have been calculated by looking at the number of permits issued each year between 1980 and 2016. The study also shows that Austin, Dallas and Houston, issued over 10% of all permits in the nation in 2017.These cities are projected to add about 130,000 new homes by the end of the year, their growth driven by abundant jobs and rising incomes and home prices. — The New York Times

The Frank Gehry-designed project has taken a smaller, but important step forward this summer, by filing for building permits with the City of Los Angeles...The latest iteration of the Grand Avenue Project, which has been proposed for well over a decade, calls for the construction of two high-rise buildings at 100 S. Grand Avenue, replacing an infamous "tinker-toy" parking structure...Related has set a 2018 groundbreaking date for the project, with completion targeted in 2022. — urbanize.la

Hanoi has faced the same population pressures as other Asian cities. But thanks to vague and informal conventions, the state has been able to avoid extreme levels of disservice, even to the most impoverished new urban areas. And the construction of homes themselves has remained at least loosely connected to the regulations of the more formal suburbs. Together these factors have prevented the formation of slums as they are typically defined. But how has this come about? — theguardian.com

“Words like ‘holocaust’ have been used in reference to the idea that our house could inspire a rash of tear-downs which could then be replaced with modern homes. I designed my house specifically within the design guidelines of this historic district and to be compatible, a good neighbor. But the term ‘modernism’ just clicks a switch in people’s brain and they can’t see the house for what it is.” — nytimes.com

Longtime partners Bohlin Cywinsky Jackson and Eckersley O'Callaghan have been brought in to revamp the 93-year-old former United States Mortgage and Trust Company building at the corner of East 74th Street and Madison Avenue, according to New York City building permits. — appleinsider.com

A German pensioner has been ordered to demolish her own home - because the house, built at the start of World War II, did not have planning permission. — thelocal.de

Lewis Mumford wrote that, in a city, “time becomes visible.” Not, it would appear, in Raleigh, North Carolina, where a city board has just decided that a rather discreet and understated modern house might need to be torn down because it damages the ambience of a historic district, which is to say it destroys the illusion that the neighborhood is a place in which time has stopped. — Vanity Fair

Pallets are omnipresent. (We) have found pallets not only in the small architectures of informal settlements in Buenos Aires, Istanbul, and Panama City, but in the blogs of self-builders throughout North America and Europe...Urban pioneers in Detroit, Camden and other failing Rust Belt cities reclaim pallets...But none of these builders have negotiated the gap between informal and formal economies with a permanent pallet building authorized by a building permit. - Wes Janz, Cabin(s) in the Woods — The Speakeasy: A Curatorial Research Blog