Thursday, May 23, 2013

Click here to see today's news:
Cheers for Denver's FasTracks, "a land-use plan designed to encourage TOD development in a region that long considered 'density' a dirty word," but "there are downsides to the current boom." -- Probably not as many downsides as Maryland's Silver Spring Transit Center, a 23-year saga that's ended up pretty much a "fiasco" (with everyone finger-pointing everywhere). -- Grabar grapples with the ramifications of the world's next tallest building in China that intends to "reinvent urban life" for 30,000 people (100 elevators included) - the developer "doesn't plan on stopping at 220 stories, either." -- Meanwhile, China's museum building boom (nearly 400 in 2011 alone) is hitting a snag: "many museums are going up faster than curators can fill them with works and audiences." -- Wood Marsh's "artistic treatment of materials" for a new apartment building makes it "destined to become a Melbourne landmark." -- Mays cheers a Toronto firm's solution for low-rise density in Dhaka, Bangladesh, that, if built, "could add an interesting page or two to the postwar history of this controversial housing type." -- Mariinsky II in St. Petersburg "has earned praise from all quarters," but "it is not without its critics." -- Wainwright wanders the "the inimitable world of Zaha Hadid Design," with everything from "jewelry that should come with a hazard warning to tables that have given up on legs - furniture from the future does not come cheap." -- Olcayto finds a "thoughtful, metaphysical side" of Correa during a tour of his RIBA show: "Still, Correa's bottom line is down to earth: 'Get drinking water to everyone,' he says." -- The British Council taps We Made That to design its "Ice Lab: New Architecture and Science in Antarctica" traveling exhibition. -- An Irish architect hopes to teach Medellín children about architecture and the environment "to give them more awareness of their roles in the design and planning" of their city. -- The AIA ABI heads to negative territory for the first time in 9 months, but "given that inquiries for new projects continue to be strong, we're hopeful that this is just a short-term dip." -- A good reason to head to Salt Lake City next week: CNU 21: "Living Community" conference. -- One we couldn't resist: Murg muses on the Whitney Museum's new graphic identity that looks more like "a line graph that got lost in a museum on its way to a sales report - it leaves us wondering, Why?"