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London Mayor Sadiq Khan has announced the appointment of Harvard GSD professor and architect Farshid Moussavi to a new two-year pilot program to improve public space and high streets in the city. The Town Architects program includes ten total names and is meant to "support the creation... View full entry
The developers behind the proposed MSG Sphere in London have withdrawn plans for the project. In a letter to the UK government’s Planning Inspectorate, developers Madison Square Garden Entertainment (MSG) said that the scheme had become “merely a political football between rival parties.”... View full entry
South Korean media outlets are reporting on a deal that would bring a new MSG Sphere design to the Seoul region just weeks after its controversial London predecessor was rejected over suspect environmental impact assessments and local opposition. The new 20,000-capacity venue will feature a... View full entry
Two weeks after London Mayor Sadiq Khan announced his refusal of planning permissions for the controversial MSG Sphere development planned in East London, the UK’s housing chief has issued a rebuke that may leave some glimmer of hope for the project’s eventual realization. Several UK-based... View full entry
The proposed MSG Sphere in East London has been scrapped with the late decision by Mayor Sadiq Khan to refuse planning permissions over grounds that its design causes a public nuisance to residents of the surrounding Stratford district. The long-controversial Sphere had been derided by critics and... View full entry
[The] MSG Sphere, a new concert hall planned for Stratford in east London – which would be as wide as the London Eye and as tall as Big Ben – could soon move a step closer to reality.
On Tuesday evening, the planning committee of the London Legacy Development Corporation (LLDC) will meet to consider its developer’s plans for managing the advertising display and its impact.
— The Guardian
Efforts to halt the development of the Populous-designed entertainment venue date back to late 2020, when the public consultation phase for the project was extended for a third time over concerns about light pollution. Plans were approved by the LLDC in March of last year contingent on an... View full entry
Bloomberg Philanthropies has announced a European expansion of its Asphalt Art Initiative on the heels of a new study from the organization and Sam Schwartz Consulting that revealed some eye-opening statistics about the improvement of blacktop spaces in urban areas. A total of 20 new cities will... View full entry
Climate activists in the UK are set for another round of high-stakes international climate meetings as London has just been announced as host of the 2023 Ecocity World Summit. The biannual summit has been held since 1990 and is a key platform for leaders to pore over and present effective... View full entry
The UK government has rejected the Foster + Partners-designed Tulip Tower, bringing an end to years of uncertainty over the project’s future. The scheme’s rejection by Housing Secretary Michael Gove and housing minister Christopher Pincher comes only one month after speculation within the... View full entry
The Greater London Authority is looking for architects to form a representative body in a new scheme formally announced by London Mayor Sadiq Khan on Monday. The mayor’s Architecture + Urbanism Framework will debut next spring with a fifty-member panel taken from the design community... View full entry
Foster + Partners’ hotly-contested Tulip Tower proposal in London may now spring to life once more as several UK outlets are reporting the £500 million ($691 million) scheme is set to be granted approval by housing secretary Michael Gove. Planned for the site opposite The Gherkin, the... View full entry
He [Kahn] was enthusiastic about welcoming “another world-class venue to the capital, to confirm London’s position as a music powerhouse” when the sphere was announced in 2018; yet the following year, his planning officers’ first report concluded that it did not comply with his own London Plan. He is in a bind. Will he side with the Labour borough and listen to the locals, or back his development corporation in the hope of using this brash bauble to buff the capital’s post-Brexit brand? — The Guardian
The Guardian critic Oliver Wainwright explores the sordid dealings behind the gigantic $1.8 billion orb he describes as "the apogee of 360-degree advertising, the ultimate building-as-sign […] the stuff of Robert Venturi and Denise Scott Brown’s neon-soaked dreams." The MSG Sphere... View full entry
London’s mayoral office has announced six shortlist finalists for the annual Fourth Plinth Commission in Trafalgar Square. The candidates for this year’s commission include an international slate of artists vying to be one of two winners that will replace Heather Phillipson’s THE END... View full entry
London Mayor Sadiq Khan has announced a plan to move London's city hall facilities from their current location within the Norman Foster-designed "glass gonad" building to the Wilkinson Eyre Architects-designed Crystal building in the city's Docklands district. The Foster building is a... View full entry
London Mayor Sadiq Kahn has announced a new commission that will "review and improve diversity across London’s public realm to ensure the capital’s landmarks suitably reflect London’s achievements and diversity." A press release announcing the creation of the commission states: "The... View full entry
