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Tom Dyckhoff: How successful is a city where freedom is only available to those with money to invest? Forty years ago, poverty, crime and de-industrialisation nearly killed off the West’s major cities. Today, an abundance of cash threatens to do a similar thing: Is a bankrupt city that gave the world hip hop, punk and disco successful? Or a rich one that gave birth to the cronut and the flat white? ["The Age of Spectacle: Adventures in Architecture and the 21st-Century City")- Icon (UK)

Kelsey Campbell-Dollaghan: The Big, Hot, Expensive Problem Facing Cities Now: Cities will lose billions, and the planet will suffer - but designers could help: ...mitigating the urban heat island effect...could have major benefits on a global scale...Some cities are already enacting policy...further proof that the battle for the planet will be fought in cities - and that architecture, infrastructure, and urban design will be important weapons against it.- Fast Company / Co.Design

Catesby Leigh: Monumental Folly: The proposed memorial to President Eisenhower becomes even less appealing: ....alterations have raised hackles among previously pliable review board members...The steel screen...is not about Ike. It’s about Gehry...The further away we get from symbolically oriented memorial design, the more we stray into the swamp of memorial sprawl...Why should the taxpayer be on the hook for this white elephant? -- Frank Gehry- City Journal/The Manhattan Institute

Inga Saffron: After Dilworth Park's Success, What About City Hall Courtyard? Renovating those outdoor areas would cost millions, but the city will dress up the courtyard temporarily this summer with a pop-up beer garden...promises to focus public attention on one of the city’s most thrilling, if neglected, outdoor spaces. But after a second pop-up next summer, the money runs out. Then what? -- WRT; Exit; Sikora Wells Appel- Philadelphia Inquirer

Take a look at the renderings for First and Broadway Park in Los Angeles: ...Mia Lehrer + Associates has taken suggestions from the Downtown community, altering their plans...Settling on a greener approach...a two-story structure, designed by OMA...will remain [and] include a rooftop deck and shade structure. [images]- Archinect

Veronica Simpson: Have Faith: Spiritual & Communal Identity: Major changes in the global faith community has brought exciting new opportunities...But what does this mean for architecture and design? ...sometimes, the shifting demands...are translated into spectacular opportunities, which contemporary architects...are seizing with relish. -- Hannah Lawson/John McAslan + Partners; JAJA Architects; Walters & Cohen Architects; Niall McLaughlin Architects [images]- FX Magazine / DesignCurial

Rowan Moore: Garden Museum: hallowed ground for the green-fingered: In the former church...[the museum] has grown into a distinctive new space: ...a new tissue...where inside and outside and new and ancient overlap...not just for garden enthusiasts, but open to children who may never have seen an earthworm. -- Alun Jones/Biba Dow/Dow Jones Architects; Dan Pearson Studio; Christopher Bradley-Hole [images]- Observer (UK)

Rob Wilson: Reflections on Soane: IF_DO’s Dulwich Picture Gallery pavilion opens: ...marking [the gallery's] 200th anniversary as well as the launch of the London Festival of Architecture: ...a series of...mirrored panels, only three of which are structural...supporting a lightweight timber and metal mesh roof...appears to float above the panels’ reflective surfaces...making nature and architecture appear to merge. [images]- The Architects' Journal (UK)

Andres Viglucci: Planets soar. Sharks swarm. Lasers sparkle. Humans rejoice: Frost Museum of Science...culminating a years-long, sometimes bumpy move from its cherished home of 55 years in Coconut Grove to a high-tech, $305-million architectural showpiece on Biscayne Bay...Everything...is bigger, better and cooler than the old...it ought to knock visitors’ socks right off... -- Grimshaw Architects; Rodriguez & Quiroga Architects [images]- Miami Herald

Joann Gonchar: The Contemporary Arts Center, MASS MoCA, Expands Within Its Historic Campus: Bruner/Cott & Associate creates a new home for installations by James Turrell, Laurie Anderson, Jenny Holzer, and others in North Adams, Massachusetts...three-story wing, known as Building 6...completes a long-envisioned circulation route...a “big, gracious infinity loop across the entire campus... [images]- Architectural Record

Architects see 50-year-old Wichita library as brutally honest: Depending on the eye and taste, the style can be seen as ugly or cool...There's a tendency in Wichita to vacate and demolish significant buildings when they turn around 50 years old...To some, the buildings become disposable at that point. -- Eric Wittman; Schaefer Schirmer & Eflin Architects (1967); Terry Wiggers/SJCF Architecture; Dean Bradley [images]- Wichita Eagle (Kansas)

Douglas Murphy: Digital baroque: The British architects combining ...the digital avant-garde with pomo’s sense of historic context, a new generation...is stepping into the limelight: ...but it is in real danger of being watered down by all the hacks pastiching their work...the digital future has never looked weaker. So what happens next? -- Tony Fretton; David Chipperfield,; Zaha Hadid Architects/Patrik Schumacher; Foreign Office Architects (FOA); Maccreanor Lavington; Caruso St John; David Adjaye; RARE Architecture; ACME [images]- Icon (UK)

Study to see how facility design affects dementia patients: ...the need for effective long-term care facilities, particularly for those with dementia, is growing at a rapid pace...KU School of Architecture, Design & Planning lecturer Farhana Ferdous has won a Toyota Foundation grant to study how the physical layout and spatial configuration...can best support residents’ well-being.- KU News (University of Kansas)

Google Doodle remembers Zaha Hadid's 2004 Pritzker Prize win: ...13 years ago today....illustration shows the Iraqi-born British architect standing in front of her studio's design for the Heydar Aliyev Center in Baku, Azerbaijan...."The type in today's Doodle finds inspiration in Hadid's energetic sketches"...- Dezeen

Call for entries: $100,000 Sustainable Home Competition: net-zero energy, single family home that has the best potential for wide-spread adoption in the Phoenix region; with intent to build at least 10 homes; deadline: August 15- AIA Arizona / City of Phoenix

ANN feature: Norman Weinstein: Book Review: "The Work of MacKay-Lyons Sweetapple: Economy as Ethic": Transforming the local and commonplace into the global and rare: Robert McCarter (with a little help from his friends) crafts a majestic survey long overdue.- ArchNewsNow.com

Lundgaard & Tranberg: Kannikegården, Ribe, Denmark: ...grows directly out of the local historical context...adds new, exciting features to the medieval city center: ...opposite the historically significant town cathedral...houses...the parish council and cathedral staff...a lecture theatre and an exhibition space...ruins integrated into the design...and made visible to the public... -- Schønherr Landscape Architects [images]