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Amanda Kolson Hurley: Why Is the Alt-Right So Angry About Architecture? ...in the video age, avant-garde buildings can become potent symbols in the hands of groups like Infowars and the NRA: ...[Infowars video] “Why modern architecture SUCKS"...comes on the heels of...National Rifle Association’s “clenched fist” ad...both bear the same message about modern architecture: It is the province of the liberal urban elite, and that it stands for oppression. [links to videos]- CityLab (formerly The Atlantic Cities)

Christopher Hawthorne: The NRA puts architecture, and L.A., in the crosshairs: ...a bilious, minute-long video ad released by the National Rifle Association...appeared one day before Infowars, the conspiracy-happy website...posted a video even more screed-like...called “Why Modern Architecture Sucks: And How It’s Used as a Tool of Social Engineering.” -- Frank Gehry; Anish Kapoor; Renzo Piano; Gordon Kaufmann [links to videos]- Los Angeles Times

Sadiq Khan appoints David Adjaye, Alison Brooks and Sadie Morgan/dRMM as design advocates for London: London mayor has appointed 50 architects and designers...to work with local councils to improve the quality of the built environment across the capital...as part of the Good Growth by Design programme... -- Alex Ely/Mae Architects; Roger Hawkins/Hawkins\Brown; Paul Karakusevic/Karakusevic Carson Architects; Dan Hill; Sunand Prasad,; Paloma Strelitz/Assemble; Peter Murray/New London Architecture; etc.- Dezeen

Katharine Schwab: AI Is Reshaping What We Know About Cities: Machine learning is helping urbanists confirm - or disprove - longstanding theories about cities: But as this nascent field develops, it’s also facing its own challenges...The biggest one? Data..."methods need to be incorporated into tools that put them into the hands of planners and architects themselves.” -- César Hidalgo/MIT Media Lab; Nikhil Naik- Fast Company / Co.Design

China unveils plans for world's first pollution-eating 'Forest City': China is no stranger to contemporary architecture that boggles the mind...Liuzhou Forest City...certainly seem to fit the bill. The 342-acre, self-contained neighborhood will comprise more than 70 buildings...covered with 40,000 trees and almost a million plants...up to 30,000 people could call the Forest City home..."a place where nature is flowing." -- Stefano Boeri Architetti [images]- CNN

Lonely Giant of the Taipei Skyline Is About to Get Some Company: Taipei 101...was built to attract attention and business. Now it will be joined by a new crop of skyscrapers: ...altering the skyline of an otherwise surprisingly low-rise city. -- Yasuhiro Sube/Mitsubishi Jisho Sekkei; Antonio Citterrio Patricia Viel; Renzo Piano Building Workshop/Kris Yao Artech- New York Times

Blair Kamin: Tool kit offered to improve Chicago's Pedway; city should put it to use: ...underground network...links more than 50 downtown buildings...report correctly concludes, the Pedway is hard to find, hard to navigate and...as visually appealing as a long hospital corridor...report's chief strength is not found in sexy design ideas, but in a rigorous diagnosis...and the array of solutions it lays out...has some troubling gaps. -- BuroHappold; Davis Brody Bond; Billings Jackson Design; City ID- Chicago Tribune

Will preservationists again change the course of Albright-Knox expansion? ...while Buffalo's preservation community sometimes plays the role of vocal minority on major projects...criticism of the plan is also mounting from national experts..."There is no good reason to alter the building other than to appear hip and contemporary..." -- Paul Schweikher (1957); Gordon Bunshaft/Skidmore, Owings & Merrill/SOM (1962); E.B. Green (1905); Shohei Shigematsu/OMA [images]- Buffalo News

Mark Byrnes: A Modernist Masterpiece, Under Fire in Buffalo: Gordon Bunshaft was a singular force behind Modernist architecture...Now his greatest gift to his hometown [Albright-Knox] may be at risk: The plan...would see Bunshaft’s tranquil gap between his black box and the 1905 building filled in...[his] galleries and courtyard would be demolished...many critics have not been kind to the idea. -- Skidmore, Owings & Merrill/SOM (1962); Shohei Shigematsu/Office of Metropolitan Architecture/OMA [images]- CityLab (formerly The Atlantic Cities)

Eleanor Jolliffe: David Adjaye's Museum of African American History is architecture at its powerful best: ...the architecture knows exactly when to defer to the exhibits and when to reassert itself: Walking through the history galleries is not a pleasant experience - it is an uncomfortable place to be white. It is, however, profoundly moving...Freelon Adjaye Bond/SmithGroup has handled a profoundly difficult building with great skill.- BD/Building Design (UK)

Olivia Martin: Canada's 150 Gets Nifty: Brutalist Building Revival: The National Arts Centre Reopens in Ottawa: All too often, AN reports the demolition of yet another Brutalist structure...So it was refreshing to celebrate the reopening of the NAC...The existing one-million-square-foot NAC...was on the public’s blacklist from the start...dubbed it “the Alcatraz on the Rideau"...the new wing builds out from the original terraces...creating an airy effect amidst the weighty frame. -- Fred Lebensold (1969); Diamond Schmitt Architects [images]- The Architect's Newspaper

Alan G. Brake: Kentucky Museum of Art and Craft by Christoff : Finio: A revamped museum in Louisville asserts its presence on Main Street: KMAC)is a small museum with big ambitions: ...intelligent renovation demonstrates how well-crafted architecture can better an institution, no matter the size, while enriching the remnants of a city’s history. [images]- Architectural Record

Oliver Wainwright: 'I wanted the building to fly': Renzo Piano's Santander gallery: Spain’s €80m levitating Centro Botín showcases nautical flair and offers visitors easy access to waterfront for first time: ...the roaring coastal road...has been buried, allowing the neighbouring Pereda Gardens to double in size, spreading over the sunken road to meet Piano’s shiny vessel...- Guardian (UK)

Oliver Wainwright: The Italian architecture that shaped new Unesco World Heritage Site Asmara: The newly listed Eritrean capital features...a startling collection of futuristic Italian architecture from the 1930s...the first modernist city in the world to be listed in its entirety...As the “little Rome” at the centre of Italy’s planned African empire, it became a playground for Italian architects to experiment. -- Odoardo Cavagnari [images]- Guardian (UK)

Kimiko de Freytas-Tamura: Art Deco Buildings Make Asmara, Eritrea, a Unesco Heritage Site: The country’s authoritarian government pushed for recognition of a city that was once a colonial playground for Italian architects of the 1930s: ...sometimes called “Africa’s Miami”...Critics of the government say it lacks the financial resources to maintain the historic structures.- New York Times

Sell or No-Sell: Design Firms Weigh Choices for Future Growth: ...architects, engineers and consulting firms take stock on why being acquired or staying independent best fits growth plans and culture. Design firms share how they made that decision... -- Cho Benn Holback; Quinn Evans; Magnusson Klemencic Associates; etc.- ENR/Engineering News Record

Debra Pickrel: How Frank Lloyd Wright Would Have Transformed Ellis Island: Before he died, [he] sketched out a remarkable plan to convert Ellis Island into a "city of the future": One of FLW’s final design concepts was for a “dream city”...Construction, to be privately financed, was estimated at $100,000,000. (approximately $810,374,172.19 today). [image - unpublished section from "Frank Lloyd Wright in New York - The Plaza Years, 1954-1959"]- Metropolis Magazine

Celebrating the 122nd birth anniversary of the genius who gave the world the geodesic dome: In Buckminster Fuller’s own words “I'm not a genius. I'm just a tremendous bundle of experience": ...“Bucky” Fuller is probably better known for his quirks than his innovation...He coined and popularized several terms such as ephemeralization, synergetic and Spaceship Earth... [images]- Architectural Digest India

Call for entries: 8th ISARCH Awards: open to students of architecture and young architects who have graduated within the last 3 years; cash prizes; deadline: October 15- ISARCH