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ANN feature: Michael J. Crosbie: Sitting Down with Kevin Roche: "I learned everything I know about architecture from Eero": "The most important thing one can achieve in any building is to get people to communicate with each other. That's really essential to our lives. We are not just individuals, we are part of a community."- ArchNewsNow.com

Oliver Wainwright and Peter Walker: Grenfell Tower fire: "Disaster waiting to happen": fire expert slams UK tower blocks: Architect Sam Webb says breaches of fire safety standards in UK are common and lessons from Lakanal House have not been learned...regulations were “long overdue an overhaul”...- Guardian (UK)

Paul Keskeys: How Do You Build the Perfect Skyline? Why does it even matter? ...a skyline reads as a gargantuan architectural billboard...Skylines which evolve slowly inevitably give rise to individual moments of architectural triumph, controversy and outright animosity... a skyline can form an honest reflection of a city’s complex, often turbulent history... [images]- Architizer

Australian musician behind energy-harnessing eco-village in Victoria: Set in a historic gold mining district...Castlemaine seems to be sprouting a number of ‘green’ developments...The latest...a 30-home, 1.39-hectare eco-village site, designed by Geoff Crosby...who has already achieved success with another Living Building Challenge-designed project... [image]- Architecture & Design (Australia)

Rowan Moore: National Gallery of Ireland - Dublin’s treasures breathe at last: Now a €30m revamp has let in some air and light: The architects...are not obvious casting for a work of subtlety and nuance...In places, Heneghan Peng’s touch lets them down. The stairs that rise next to one of the lift towers could do with a bit more joy and delicacy. The courtyard could be a touch more hospitable... [images]- Observer (UK)

Meg Miller: The Complex Restoration Of Antoni Gaudí’s Wild First Commission: The Casa Vicens estate [in Barcelona] was the first project for which he started developing his signature style. ...it will open as a public museum: ...his buildings aren’t simple to maintain - or to restore. -- Joan Baptista Serra de Martínez (1925); José Antonio Martínez Lapeña; Elías Torres; David García; Martínez Lapeña-Torres Arquitectes; Daw Office [images]- Fast Company / Co.Design

Bruner Foundation Announces 2017 Rudy Bruner Award for Urban Excellence Gold and Silver Medalists: SteelStacks Arts and Cultural Campus in Bethlehem, PA, Receives Gold Medal and $50,000. Projects in Boston, Chicago, Los Angeles, and New Orleans Receive Silver Medals and $10,000. -- WRT Design; John Friedman Alice Kimm Architects; Sasaki; Ross Barney Architects; Kronberg Wall Architects; Macanoo [images]- Bruner Foundation

ASLA Announces Newest Honors Recipients -- Charles Birnbaum/The Cultural Landscape Foundation (TCLF); Gustafson Guthrie Nichol; Gary Hilderbrand/Reed Hilderbrand; Elizabeth K. Meyer; Kenneth Bahlinger; Janette Sadik-Khan; etc- American Society of Landscape Architects (ASLA)

George Kafka: RIBA Tells a Tale of Two Londons: Why Mies Failed and Stirling Prevailed: "Mies van der Rohe and James Stirling: Circling the Square" deals closely with the work of two of the 20th century’s most formidable architects: ...“Architects are finally free to build whatever they want!”- that is, as long as the prince approves. [images]- Metropolis Magazine

George Kafka: Barbican Exhibit on Japanese Houses a Veritable Architectural Playground: "The Japanese House: Architecture and Life after 1945" highlights Japanese architects’ thrilling, seemingly impractical, sometimes topsy-turvy experiments with the house...inclusion of the scale models fosters a spatial experience that architecture exhibitions nearly always lack; thru June 25 [images]- Metropolis Magazine

Meg Miller: Design Lessons From A Century Of Sci-Fi: The curator for "Into the Unknown: A Journey Through Science Fiction" at the Barbican explains how the genre has shaped design, from branding to architecture, over more than a century: Patrick Gyger takes us through the history of science fiction from the 19th century to today, and trace the trajectory of design; thru September 1 [images]- Fast Company / Co.Design

Exhibit shows off the people in Philly's factories: When curator Nina Rappaport first started studying factories...she loved the buildings...But these days, she finds herself more drawn to the people who work in those factories...telling their stories in “A Worker’s Lunch Box" at the Slought Gallery [in Philadelphia, thru July 21]...Her “Vertical Urban Factory"...now on permanent display in Brooklyn, in the Industry City’s Innovation Lab. [images]- Philadelphia Inquirer

Samuel Cochran: Ai Weiwei and Herzog & de Meuron's New Collaboration Is Breathtaking: The dream team's latest installation in New York transports visitors into a vast, darkened surveillance state: Big Brother is watching at the Park Avenue Armory..."Hansel and Gretel" transforms the venue's vast Drill Hall into its own darkness-cloaked surveillance state; thru August 6 [images]- Architectural Digest

Eileen Kinsella: Ai Weiwei Transforms the Park Avenue Armory Into a High-Tech Surveillance State (and It’s Fun!): ...an installation that ultimately feels hollow: While decidedly thought-provoking, the work fails to offer solutions or answers to the obvious “Big Brother” questions, which leaves it feeling a bit superficial, albeit selfie-friendly...Applying this technology to real life, however, is truly terrifying; thru August 6 -- Herzog & de Meuron- artnet News

Victoria Stapley-Brown: Spy games: Ai Weiwei and Herzog & de Meuron turn the Park Avenue Armory into a panopticon playground: ..."Hansel and Gretel," which looks at how surveillance changes the perception of public space, is a mix of menace and fun: The traditional Germanic fairytale of lost babes in the woods takes a 21st-century twist; thru August 6- The Art Newspaper

Robert Ayers: A Hole Beyond Measure: Anish Kapoor on His Watery New "Descension" and the Intersection of Meaning and Not-Meaning: Q&A re: how the effect of the void relates to scale, his works’ relationship with the public, and - most intriguing of all - about how art can carry meaning.- ARTnews

Alexandra Lange: All About Frank: MoMA tries to wrest the spotlight from the “world famous architect": I wish the museum had decided the time to put Wright in his place was now...his pitch remains hard to resist, hard to subvert. The result is an exhibition that seems like a half measure: plenty to see, but unsatisfying both for the superfans and the anti-fans, like me, that wouldn’t mind letting the man...rest in peace. [images]- Curbed

Vanessa Quirk: Urbanist, Marketeer, Horticulturalist: Curator Barry Bergdoll breaks down "Frank Lloyd Wright at 150: Unpacking the Archive" and explains why he hopes the show will signal a Wrightian renaissance...and learning to live with the messy contradictions that make Wright Wright.- Metropolis Magazine

Suzanne Stephens: Unpacking the Archive: An eccentric show at the Museum of Modern Art uncovers little-known corners and crevices of the architect's staggering body of work...“This is an anti-retrospective,” says Barry Bergdoll, the curator of "Frank Lloyd Wright at 150: Unpacking the Archive"...handsome installation frames the works on display with an understated rigor; thru October 1 [images]- Architectural Record

Diana Budds: Frank Lloyd Wright Was A Great Architect - But He Was Even Better At Branding: ...perhaps his greatest achievement was constructing his persona...."Frank Lloyd Wright at 150: Unpacking the Archive" at the Museum of Modern Art sheds new light on [his] career and reveals how he became the most famous architect of the 20th century. [images]- Metropolis Magazine

Jane King Hession and Debra Pickrel: Wright in New York: Looking Back on Frank Lloyd Wright’s Final Years: As he was overseeing the construction of the Guggenheim Museum, he became a New Yorker - a condition the architect was somewhat ambivalent about; excerpt from " Frank Lloyd Wright in New York - The Plaza Years, 1954-1959"- Metropolis Magazine

Philosophy on Exhibit: How Wright Brought His Biggest Ideas to the World: "Wright on Exhibit" by Kathryn Smith chronicles the 100 exhibits he designed throughout his career. This excerpt introduces us to some of the giant ideas America’s first real starchitect wanted his public to embrace. [images]- Metropolis Magazine

ANN feature: Taliesin East: "Frank Lloyd Wright in New York: The Plaza Years, 1954-1959" by Jane King Hession and Debra Pickrel (Book Excerpt): A Plaza home and office had much to offer the architect, including prestige, prospect, and refuge - an elegant perch from which to survey the city he loved to hate.- ArchNewsNow.com

Jennifer McMaster: Toyo Ito & Associates: Gifu Media Cosmos, Gifu, Japan: ...an inventive and imaginative example of the potentials inherent in timber construction...a community center and library...a surprising interior...a sprawling, latticed timber roof, and a series of 'globes,' which hover over the interior space...[They] play off each other beautifully..., with the hard, woven lines of the timber ceiling contrasting the soft, ethereal globes. [images]