Architecture

Alexei Barrionuevo explores San Francisco's starchitect deficit, finding a city "more interested in conserving its [history] than in making a statement." This approach comes in for criticism from the dean of starchitects himself - Frank Gehry.

November 19, 2012 - The New York Times

Mere months after it was completed, London's Shard has passed the title of Europe's tallest building to Moscow's Mercury City tower, a "beacon of pink mirrored glass," writes Oliver Wainwright.

November 19, 2012 - The Guardian

Robin Finn profiles Alexandros E. Washburn, head of the urban design division of the New York City Department of City Planning, and the work of his team, which has been responsible for "turning projects into places that people want to be."

November 13, 2012 - The New York Times

Call it "manipulation" or "visioning," but any way you look at it, illustrations of proposed projects have an immense impact on whether they get funded, approved, and built. Tristin Hopper looks at the "toolbox of tricks" employed by illustrators.

November 12, 2012 - National Post

The preservation and meticulous restoration of historic brownstones in Manhattan, and especially Brooklyn, over the last half-century has revived whole swaths of the city. A new generation of homeowners are exploring radical alterations to the form.

November 12, 2012 - The New York Times

The newest art museum in the U.S. will open on the campus of Michigan State University this weekend. Designed by architect Zaha Hadid, the Eli and Edythe Broad Art Museum's namesake believes it will spur a "mini-Bilbao effect" for East Lansing.

November 11, 2012 - The Wall Street Journal

Howard Blackson walks through the planning layers of San Diego for a history lesson as well as a look to the Next Urbanism.

November 11, 2012 - PlaceShakers

In response to a formal request from Congress, the National Capital Planning Commission (NCPC) has agreed to study potential changes to D.C.'s Height of Buildings Act of 1910, a step that could result in the eventual change of the controversial law.

November 8, 2012 - The Washington Post

"The City That Never Was" is the title of an upcoming symposium, and series of essays, organized by the Architectural League of NY to explore two decades of growth and decline in Spain through the prism of unrealized architectural ambitions.

November 8, 2012 - The Architectural League NY

A tower proposed by William Gottlieb Real Estate for a site adjacent to the High Line, being designed by architect Jeanne Gang, "promises to be one of the most talked-about buildings in New York," if it can get planning approval.

November 8, 2012 - Architectural Record

In a project initiated by the Sustainability Institute, and backed by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, development experts are taking innovative steps to address South Africa’s housing shortage.

November 8, 2012 - The New York Times

Emily Badger examines the intersection of neuroscience and architecture, an emerging area of study that promises to produce environments that support and enhance our brain function.

November 6, 2012 - Pacific Standard

Artist Stephen Glassman and a team of engineers and planners have developed a plan for transforming L.A.'s ubiquitous billboards into floating, globally connected urban forests. All that's needed for the first prototype are a few generous strangers.

November 6, 2012 - Curbed LA

Architecture critic Michael Kimmelman delivers his verdict on the Barclays Center, the new home of the Brooklyn Nets and the first phase of the larger Atlantic Yards mixed-use project. He has praise for the arena, but lambastes the larger plan.

November 2, 2012 - The New York Times

In the face of slow development in the U.S., renowned architects Richard Meier and Robert A.M. Stern have been exporting their distinctive styles overseas, where “people want to bask in the reflective glow of New York.”

November 1, 2012 - The New York Times

Among the iconic images of Hurricane Sandy's devastation is sure to be the video of the construction crane on the tallest residential building under construction in NYC being toppled by hurricane force winds and left dangling perilously in Midtown.

October 31, 2012 - CNN U.S.

The past week has seen the deaths of renowned architects Lebbeus Woods and John Johansen.

October 31, 2012 - BLDGBLOG

Inga Saffron reviews a trio of environmentally friendly rowhouses built for low-income families in Philadelphia's Logan neighborhood, which she proclaims are "superior to anything Philadelphia has done in half a century."

October 30, 2012 - The Philadelphia Inquirer

A lethal combination of a rapidly expanding modern skyline and the intersection of several major migratory flight paths have rendered Toronto one of the world’s most deadly cities for migratory birds, reports Ian Austen.

October 29, 2012 - The New York Times

Using Baltimore's Memorial Stadium, which was demolished in 2001, as a case study, Keith Eggener argues that the life of a building isn't confined to its physical presence as a whole object.

October 27, 2012 - Places