Architecture
Starchitecture and Sustainability: Hope, Creativity, and Futility Collide in Contemporary Architecture
Can today's contemporary architects, schooled in modernism and invention, in fact incorporate the sort of green building materials and techniques that make a real difference? And does design really matter? Josh Stephens takes a look.
From Contrast to Continuity: A New Preservation Philosophy
With the emergence of new traditional design patterns among contemporary architects, the standards and rules that have defined historic preservation are becoming obsolete. Steven W. Semes calls on planners and designers to create a new ethic of harmonious intervention into historic settings.
'No Credits, Just Prerequisites'
The Living Building Challenge is a new environmental rating system that focuses on required environmental design elements, diverging dramatically from the credit-based approach of the built environment's dominant rating system, LEED.
Metropolis Magazine
Really Quiet Neighbors
Architect Bill Bickford would like to turn Chicago's historic Three Arts Club into a columbarium, or building to house cremated remains. The former dormitory for women artists is revered by preservationists, but hasn't been in use since 2003.
Chicago Business
How Architects Learn: The Debate
Geoff Manaugh at BLDBLG talks about the role of the architecture student. Should they be allowed create experimental designs, even when the field of practice is so narrow it is unlikely they'll ever be able to design like that again?
BLDBLOG
Gropius Buildings Slated for Demolition
The Friend Convalescent Hospital was the first of Walter Gropius' modernist buildings to be destroyed at Chicago's Michael Reese hospital. Bulldozing began on Wednesday with more still to go.
The Chicago Tribune
Alex MacLean: Surveying a Changed Landscape
Photographer Alex MacLean talks about his book OVER: The American Landscape at the Tipping Point.
Northwest Hub
The End of An Era for Arts Centers
The new Dallas Performing Arts Center marks the end of a boom in the development of arts centers and a moment in American architecture, says Nicolai Ouroussoff.
The New York Times
Will Robots Build Your Next Project?
A brick wall is being built on a traffic island in New York without human hands. The robot doing the work is a brainchild of two architects as an illustration of 'digital materiality'.
Science Daily
Stretching Architectural Boundaries
Huffington Post highlights 11 astonishing architectural proposals from around the world [slideshow].
Huffington Post
The Complex Legacy of Julius Shulman
With a recent documentary, Julius Shulman is back in the spotlight. But the uncritical view of Shulman's legacy leaves a lot out, says Christopher Hawthorne.
Los Angeles Times
Testing Grounds
Housing development, architecture and community building have found a new learning lab in the lower Ninth Ward of New Orleans.
The Atlantic
Toronto Street Furniture Program Blasted
The city of Toronto is rolling out a new street furniture program. Lisa Rochon calls the new additions to the city's sidewalks an "assault on civic life".
The Globe and Mail
Wacky, Whimsical Buildings
This slideshow features colorful, bold buildings from around the world.
Fast Company
Ugliest Buildings in the World
Travel + Leisure Magazine picks their worst buildings ever, including a Michael Graves-designed office in Portland and the National Library of Belarus.
Travel + Leisure
Floating Houses for Flood-Prone Areas
As the city of New Orleans rebuilds its flooded and destroyed neighborhoods, a new design from architect Thom Mayne seeks to counteract the flood-prone area by simply floating.
NPR
How to Make Housing Affordable
Avi Friedman has some ideas of how to make housing more affordable. He says that the focus is too much on the mortgage and subsidies side and not enough on lower building costs.
Northwest Hub
Vancouver Reevaluating its Skyline
In a series of open houses to debate whether its building height restrictions should be changed, former Vancouver city planner Larry Beasley debated with architect Richard Henriquez.
Metro Vancouver



















