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Following a rare show of bipartisan support, the Bird-Safe Buildings Act of 2019 has passed the United States House of Representatives and is now headed for consideration by the Senate. The bill would require "each public building constructed, acquired, or of which more than 50% of the facade is... View full entry
The City of Chicago has put out an RFQ seeking architects interested in working on small-scale commercial improvement projects within some of the city's "underserved neighborhoods." Describing the Neighborhood Opportunity Fund (NOF) initiative that is fueling the RFQ call, a city website explains... View full entry
The new 265,000 square-foot Lowell Justice Center courthouse in Massachusetts designed by Finegold Alexander Architects has opened to the public. The $146 million facility houses Superior, District, Housing, Juvenile, Probate, and Family Court facilities, including 17 courtrooms... View full entry
First Lady Melania Trump has shared an update on the construction progress for a new 1,200-square-foot tennis pavilion that is currently taking shape on the South Lawn of the White House. In a social media post published today, Trump writes, "I am excited to share the progress of the Tennis... View full entry
In a statement posted the American Institute of Architects (AIA) website, the organization explains that a group of former AIA presidents have written a letter directly to President Donald Trump denouncing the "Making Federal Buildings Beautiful Again" executive order. Previously on... View full entry
The United States House of Representatives has passed a bill establishing a council that will lead the planning, design, and construction of a new museum slated for Washington, D.C. dedicated to women's history. The bill—H.R. 1980, Smithsonian Women's History Museum Act—passed... View full entry
The National Trust for Historic Preservation, the Society of Architectural Historians (SAH), and the National Organization of Minority Architects (NOMA), Docomomo US, and the American Society of Landscape Architects (ASLA) have joined the American Institute of Architects (AIA) in voicing deep... View full entry
In a seven-page draft executive order obtained by the Chicago Sun-Times, Trump declares that the federal government since the 1950s has “largely stopped building beautiful buildings that the American people want to look at or work in.”
Future federal government buildings, he decrees, should look like those of ancient Rome, Greece and Europe.
“Classical architectural style shall be the preferred and default style,” he states.
— The Chicago Sun Times
The Chicago Sun-Times has published the draft text of President Donald Trump’s proposed “Making Federal Buildings Beautiful Again” executive order that seeks to impose a classically-inspired architectural style on the nation’s federal buildings. The American Institute of... View full entry
Following reports that President Donald Trump is planning to issue an executive order mandating that classical architectural styles become the nation's defacto architectural motifs, the American Institute of Architects (AIA) has issued statement opposing the idea. 1/ The American Institute... View full entry
Is neoclassicism about to make a big comeback? It looks likely, as a new executive order under consideration by President Donald Trump attempts to make classicism the "preferred and default style" for new and upgraded federal buildings. According to an exclusive report by... View full entry
The Center for Architecture in New York City is currently presenting a collection of "superior public building projects" via a wide-ranging exhibition created in collaboration with the New York City Department of Design and Construction (DDC) that seeks to celebrate some of the city's most... View full entry
A recent study of the Illinois State Capitol Dome in Springfield, Illinois has discovered “some obvious flaws on the exterior of the dome,” including significant cracking "on all four compass points" where bracketed structures support the interior stone columns below the dome, The... View full entry
Los Angeles area architect Ric Abramson has been selected to head a new Urban Design and Architecture Studio housed within the City of West Hollywood's Community Services Department. Abramson, whose practice, WorkPlays studio*architecture, is based in West Hollywood, has been active in the... View full entry
Today’s libraries have also evolved into complex institutions compressed into small spaces, making their design needs equally intricate. ... In the end, the problem of how to build good public architecture briskly and frugally has little to do with design and everything to do with bureaucracy. Virtually no one feels the urgency or has the clout to reform a sclerotic system. — New York Magazine
The council housing designed 50 years ago for a progressive London borough remains a potent symbol of the achievements of postwar social democracy. — Places Journal
Prompted by Mark Swenarton's recent book, Cook's Camden, Douglas Murphy looks at the radically experimental public housing estates built by the London borough from 1966 to 1975, and the reevaluation of these extraordinary projects currently underway in our own era of unaffordable cities and... View full entry
