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Dave Chappelle threatened to pull his various business ventures from his hometown of Yellow Springs, Ohio, if the village council went ahead with a plan to build — wait for it — more affordable housing in the area. — Rolling Stone
Dave Chappelle has turned into quite the evil troll in recent years over other hot-button issues which now extend into a proposed multi-family development project in his Dayton-area hometown. Chappelle owns several small businesses in the area under a holding company called Iron Table, which he... View full entry
The architecture practice run by Sir Norman Foster almost doubled its profits as it expanded in the Middle East and gained new business despite pandemic lockdowns.
Total revenues fell by £33m to £200m in the year ending 30 April 2021, accounts for Foster + Partners, the practice’s main trading company, show. But profits before tax almost doubled to £36.2m during the year, compared with £19.8m in the previous year.
— The Guardian
New projects included a planned luxury tower development in Greece and a new tourist destination on an artificial island in the Red Sea (although notably, the Tulip Tower did come off the books due to environmental concerns). Foster himself is worth well into the nine-figure range and has... View full entry
Just in time for the holiday shopping season, a new list from therichest.com has ranked the world’s top ten architects in terms of their total net worth. Big A architecture remunerates extraordinarily well for some, with the total list’s net worth nearing three-quarters of a billion... View full entry
A tiny new addition to Rem Koolhaas and OMA’s famed catalog will be launching in the USA in September after a successful European launch earlier this year. The new Centurion Card design is a collaboration between the Dutch studio and American Express aimed at updating the bulletproof old... View full entry
Global architecture firm Gensler has once again out earned all other practices in the United States. For the ninth year in a row, the San Francisco-based design giant has topped the list of Architectural Record's Top 300 U.S. Architecture Firms list. As typical, the 2020 list encompasses earnings... View full entry
The latest International Construction Cost Index has just been released, and the top spots don't really come as a big surprise: London, New York, Hong Kong, Geneva, and San Francisco are the planet's most expensive cities for construction. Compiled by design and consultancy organization Arcadis... View full entry
Ridership declines across all of the MTA’s trains and buses is becoming “more severe” by the day, the agency’s latest statistics revealed, causing $87 million in weekly revenue losses and raising the specter of more debt and drastic cuts to much-needed long-term repairs. — Streetsblog NYC
Already dealing with financial pressure, New York's Metropolitan Transportation Authority is being hit especially hard by the coronavirus pandemic, as new ridership data in the latest Annual Disclosure Statement reveals. "Recent substantial declines in ridership and traffic in response to the... View full entry
In many of my conversations about career with soon to be graduates, recent graduates, early professionals, and even intermediate professionals salary is probably one of the most frequent topics. Here are some of the questions I hear from professionals looking for their first full time job, for... View full entry
Some know it as “The Beverly Hillbillies” mansion, others as Chartwell. Now, it has a new name: California’s chart-topper.
The Bel-Air residence of late media mogul A. Jerrold Perenchio has sold for the highest price in California history, about $150 million. The buyer is Lachlan Murdoch, son of Rupert Murdoch and co-chairman of publishing company News Corp., The Times has confirmed.
— Los Angeles Times
The spacious estate at 875 Nimes Road in Bel Air, also known as "The Beverly Hillbillies" mansion from the 1960s TV show, finally changed owners for an undisclosed amount, which sources familiar with the deal told the LA Times, was around $150 million. While the deal would easily beat the previous... View full entry
The Portuguese mint and National press has released new coins in honor of the country's Pritzker Prize-winning architect Eduardo Souto de Moura. Known for his stadium in Braga, Portugal and his House Number Two in Bom Jesus, Portugal, the 66 year-old architect is often praised for his ability to... View full entry
Waagner-Biro, the Austrian steel engineering company that built the dome of the Louvre museum in Abu Dhabi, has announced its insolvency and is fighting to save parts of its business by selling off subsidiaries. Austrian press reports say that delays in payment and spiralling costs of the Louvre project were chiefly to blame for the company’s struggles. — The Art Newspaper
Established in 1854 as a locksmith, Waagner-Biro has played a significant role in architectural steel engineering. Some of their high-profile projects include the spiraling roof of the Great Court in the British Museum, the dome of the Reichstag in Berlin, and a stage system for the Sydney Opera... View full entry
The limestone clad mansion in Bel Air owned by the late TV executive Jerry Perenchio just got a price cut.
But at $245 million, the commanding French neoclassical residence, which measures 25,000 square feet, is still the most expensive listing on the open market in the U.S.
The property, which came up for sale last year for a staggering $350 million, has long been the cream of the crop among high-end estates.
— Curbed LA
If you happen to have won the $1.6 billion lottery jackpot last week or simply don't know where to stash away all those extra tax-cut savings, here's a sweet dealio for you: the spacious 'Chartwell' Bel Air mansion at 875 Nimes Road was built in 1933 and also appeared in the 1960s TV show The... View full entry
In March, the Bank of Canada unveiled a new $10 bank note [...] The laurel leaf signifies justice, and the Canadian Museum for Human Rights building, designed by New Mexico architect Antoine Predock, is featured prominently. To contrast its striking modernism, the Library of Parliament’s vaulted ceiling is reproduced with a metallic sheen, as is the Arms of Canada insignia. — azuremagazine.com
Canada's new $10 note depicting Antoine Predock's Canadian Museum for Human Rights building on the back of the bill, along with an eagle feather and the laurel leaf. Canadian Museum for Human designed by Antoine Predock, located in Winnipeg, CA. RightsImage: Bob Linsdell/Wiki Commons. The front... View full entry
The construction of this and other so-called giga-mansions underscores a new gilded age in the United States and especially in LA. [...]
The splurge comes amid a housing shortage that has fuelled a homelessness crisis, with 57,000 people without permanent shelter in LA county [...]. The Los Angeles Times columnist Steve Lopez compared the city’s hilltop mansions to giant tombstones marking the death of humility.
— The Guardian
The Guardian takes a peek into the world of ultra-luxury real estate developer Niles Niami whose latest endeavor—the sprawling Bel Air hilltop giga-mansion with its four swimming pools, 20 bedrooms, movie theater, and nightly club aptly called The One—frequently makes the news for... View full entry
Construction spending for nonresidential buildings is projected to increase 4 percent this year and continue at that pace of growth through 2019. While the commercial construction sectors will generate much of the expected gains this year, by 2019 the industrial and institutional sectors will dominate the projected construction growth. [...]
However, in the face of a supportive economy, construction spending on nonresidential buildings disappointed last year.
— AIA
The American Institute of Architects has published its latest Consensus Construction Forecast, and it's looking quite rosy. Despite labor shortages and rising material costs that continue to have an impact on the construction industry, the report — supported by the last few editions of the... View full entry
