This past Saturday, I had the honour of joining a group of invited urbanists and sustainability experts, in a special dialogue put on by The Prince's Foundation for the Built Environment, and Vancouver's Simon Fraser University. Among other things, the event was to launch a new partnership between these two innovative organizations around research and curriculum for sustainable urbanism.
Architecture
The Bowery is Booming (For Better or Worse)
Karrie Jacobs walks the Bowery, and finds it transformed by new development. Falling off the preservationist's radar, the Bowery has been left open for architectural experimentation.
Metropolis Magazine
Finland's First Skyscrapers
An Italian firm plans to build the first skyscrapers in a central district in Helsinki, intended to house both homes and offices.
Helsingin Sanomat
Autistic Kids Love SketchUp
SketchUp isn't just for urban designers- it turns out that it makes perfect sense to autistic children, giving them a tool that taps their skill at visual communication.
Newsweek
Mapping: Not Just For Geographers Anymore
Citizen volunteers are democratizing the field of online mapping, spreading out to document neighborhoods and streets worldwide.
New York Times
Is Starchitecture Over?
The Nottingham Contemporary, a stark new museum building in London, exhibits none of the architectural excess of the past several years in contemporary architecture, says critic Tom Dyckhoff.
The Times Online
Man-Made Mountain Proposed in Berlin
An architect in Berlin has proposed replacing the city's now-unused Tempelhof airport with a giant man-made mountain, dubbed The Berg.
The Architect's Journal
Making Gritty Pretty
Cities around the world are finding that turning industrial ruins into green public space is far more cost effective and fun than tearing them down.
The Walrus
The Tension Between Form and Function
Prizewinning architect Thom Mayne says that tension inspires him, while admitting that he'd love to design more demanding, artistic buildings.
The Cornell Daily Sun
'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
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.
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
Contribute
TECH-320: Advanced SketchUp Webinar
Advanced SketchUp Webinar
Wednesday, December 2, 11am PST/2pm EST
$49.95 (includes 30-day access to video recording)
Learn More:
TECH-320: Advanced SketchUp - Modeling Buildings
- Friday Funny: Chicken Supports Chicken Ordinance
- Class Divide in NY Inclusive Buildings
- Alternative Fuels Won't Change the Expense of Driving
- Not Just About Jobs
- Suburbs See Rise in Kids in Poverty
- Judge Rules Army Corps Responsible for New Orleans Flooding
- BRT PDQ in DF
- Investing in Infrastructure
- The Bowery is Booming (For Better or Worse)
- Are Prefabricated Overpasses the Answer?
Learning from TTI -- Michael Lewyn
Automobility and Freedom: Conflicts and Resolutions -- Todd Litman
Somewhere Between Blight and Gentrification... -- Diana DeRubertis
The Future of American High Speed Rail: Regional and Slow -- Robert Goodspeed
Prisoners of The Village -- Nate Berg
Student Writing Competition - Deadline Extended!
APA Urban Design and Preservation Division
Nov 20, 2009
NEW NCI 2009 Best Practices Report
National Charrette Institute
Nov 19, 2009
Los Angeles County Department of Public Health (DPH) Request for Proposals
Los Angeles County Department of Public Health (DPH)
Nov 19, 2009
Build your expertise in sustainable planning, public participation, urban design or real estate
Rutgers University -- Professional Development Institute
Nov 18, 2009
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