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When reading through architectural media, it's easy for larger architecture firms or "prominent" names to rule headlines. However, many design practitioners and groups are making impactful changes in the industry and their communities beyond the media clout. This is the case for architectural... View full entry
The new 20,000-square-foot Children’s Institute (CII) campus in Los Angeles designed by Frank Gehry is set to open later this month. This is the non-profit’s first-ever purpose-built home in the community of Watts. Located at Success Avenue and East 102nd Street in South Los... View full entry
Workwear brand Carhartt has teamed up with heavy metal band Metallica’s nonprofit All Within My Hands foundation in an effort to attract a new generation of workers in the skilled trades. Carhartt announced that it is donating all online sales made this past Labor Day to the foundation’s... View full entry
After Hurricane Sandy hit in 2012 an Airbnb host reached out to the billion-dollar online vacation rental company to propose an idea. The host asked if she could offer her home to people who had been evacuated to stay free of charge. Since then the team from Airbnb has evolved the host's... View full entry
The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development is close to finalizing a major reform of its extensive senior housing portfolio, allowing nonprofit owners of 125,000 apartments to tap private sources of financing for the first time.
HUD built nearly 2,900 of these properties over the past three decades. Though owned by nonprofits, the federal government funded their construction and subsidized tenant rents.
— Wall Street Journal
The nation's recent crop of senior housing projects could see much-needed improvements come to reality as the United States Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) loosens rules dictating where nonprofit building owners can draw funds from to make building repairs. Tom Davis... View full entry
Deborah brings extensive experience to Van Alen in successfully mobilizing professionals across various sectors —architecture, urban design, ecology, public health--—to take an interdisciplinary approach that effects positive change, particularly among underserved communities. — Van Allen Institute
Deborah Marton has been selected to lead the New York City-based Van Alen Institute as the group's new executive director. Marton will replace David van der Leer, who announced plans to step down in October 2018. Marton is currently the executive director of the New York Restoration Project... View full entry
Portland's urban renewal agency has named three finalists to shape the redevelopment of the soon-to-be-vacated downtown post office blocks.
Not among them: a headline-grabbing but unlikely proposal for two massive skyscrapers, the taller of which would be nearly twice the height of any existing building in Portland.
— oregonlive.com
Prosper Portland has selected 3 finalists for the 14 acre post office site located in the heart of the city: McWhinney, Related Cos., and Continuum Partners. It comes as no surprise that William Kaven's two tower proposal was not selected. Broadway Corridor total development site of 32 acres... View full entry
[Healthabitat, the non-profit Paul Pholeros co-founded,] developed a model called Housing for Health...working with Aboriginal communities, conducting a survey of all housing and completing urgent repairs using mainly local Indigenous contractors, and adding whatever upgrades or repairs they can afford until the money runs out.
The organisation has improved more than 8,000 houses – a third of Australia’s Indigenous-controlled housing stock – and with them the lives of 55,000 people.
— The Guardian
More on Archinect: New study suggests Aboriginal collective memory reaches back more than 7,000 years Mindscraper: high-rise educational facility renderings in Sydney unveiled by Grimshaw & BVN An illustrated history of Canberra, the Australian capital designed by American architects Peter... View full entry
This case study looks at the origins of, and factors that led to, the “death” of the best-known humanitarian architecture organization in the world.
However, it will also reveal that AFH is regenerating via its worldwide network of chapters, which it had begun developing around 2004, and which gathered more formally under the name Architecture for Humanity Chapter Network upon AFH’s closure.
— nonprofitquarterly.org
To get caught up on Architecture for Humanity's history as a non-profit:Architecture for Humanity begins crowdsourced rebranding campaignArchitecture for Humanity to file for bankruptcyArchitecture for Humanity to shut downCameron Sinclair and Kate Stohr, co-founders of Architecture for Humanity... View full entry
Nine months after abruptly shutting down and filing for bankruptcy, Architecture for Humanity has begun a campaign in efforts to rebrand itself as a "collectively defined, collaboratively run, and inclusive" non-profit. Launched Tuesday, the AFH Chapter Network is gathering opinions and ideas... View full entry
In the last decade, much has been written about architecture for the greater good, and it would seem that the field, as a whole, is invested in bringing design to underserved communities. Yet all of this talk — at conferences, in the press, at universities — has focused hardly at all on how to put together a career in social design. — Places Journal
On Places, Virginia Tech graduate Will Holman gives an honest report of his experiences volunteering, studying and working at Arcosanti, Rural Studio, and Youth Build. Does the architecture profession need to do more to support young architects who take this path? View full entry
