Follow this tag to curate your own personalized Activity Stream and email alerts.
We’re living through the birth of a new species of skyscraper that not even architects and engineers saw coming. After 9/11, experts concluded that skyscrapers were finished. Tall buildings that were in the works got scaled down or canceled on the assumption that soaring towers were too risky to be built or occupied. “There were all sorts of public statements that we’re never going to build tall again,” one architect told The Guardian. “All we’ve done in the 20 years since is build even taller.” — The Atlantic
The ascendency of “accidental skylines” in Midtown Manhattan, Downtown Brooklyn, Miami, and recently Austin and Los Angeles is becoming a defining design trait of American cities as we move into the century’s third decade. “It’s a message of power,” developer Don Peebles told the... View full entry
A new report looking at New York City's estimated construction for 2018-2020 predicts strong growth across all sectors of development. According to its forecasts, "New York City is in the midst of its second and most robust building boom of the 21st century," the report says. Put out by the New... View full entry
From egg-shaped concert halls to skyscrapers reminiscent of big pairs of pants, China’s top cities are famously full of curious monuments to architectural ambition. But as land prices in the main metropolises have shot into the stratosphere, developers have been scrambling to buy up plots in the country’s second and third-tier cities, spawning a new generation of delirious plans in the provinces. — The Guardian
"From Harbin “City of Music” to Dezhou “Solar Valley”, provincial capitals are branding themselves as themed enclaves of culture and industry to attract inward investment, and commissioning scores of bold buildings to match." View full entry
Between now and next fall, Mr. Holl’s office will dedicate five major arts projects in the United States. In the same period, dozens of new cultural commissions will open around the world, many by the biggest names in the architectural business, including David Adjaye, Herzog & de Meuron, Rem Koolhaas/OMA, Thomas Heatherwick, Fumihiko Maki, Mecanoo, and Robert A. M. Stern. — NYT
Despite earlier predictions and rumors to the contrary, Reed Kroloff reports on the Millions of Square Feet, Billions of Dollars: (from the new Tate Modern and Elbphilharmonie, to The National Kaohsiung Arts Center in Taiwan) of new cultural commissions. View full entry
L.A. has always been a place of experimentation, but now it appears to be in an architectural arms race, a competition to build the tallest, shiniest, and weirdest buildings. Adding to some Angelenos’ trepidation is how many of the projects popping up around the city are museums—built to last for 40 years or more, which is an eternity in a city known for knocking things down. — LA Magazine
Related:Is Zumthor's inkblot the right size for LACMA's art?Urban blight: a review of the Petersen Automotive MuseumThe Broad Museum opens its doors for a look beyond the veilTurn the 2 into housing (or a park or a solar array): Christopher Hawthorne's pitch for one of LA's most awkward freeways View full entry
Istanbul is the city of transformation and contradiction. As an urbanist, I am trying to keep record and make sense of this transformation and am especially interested in its winners and losers. At the moment we live in a giant construction site, where skyscrapers, mega projects and urban renewal projects are taking place all around. There is a gold rush to real-estate development. — theguardian.com
For the latest entry in the ShowCase series Archinect published the Shrine of the Virgin of "La Antigua" by Otxotorena Arquitectos. The project is located in Alberite, La Rioja, Spain and the architects main constraint was the need to "incorporate a preexisting stone archway in the design. This... View full entry
Evidently an impressive transformation is taking place – creating a truly modern metropolis. However Mr Hopkinson alludes to an almost cancerous growth on the outskirts of the nation’s capital city, and states that new builds fail to represent Chinese culture and imagination. Building projects on the outskirts of the city are viewed on an individual basis, without context and appear to result in “grids of square buildings of equal height, in a square plot, with uniform facades”. — blogs.independent.co.uk
