ArchNewsNow




Today’s News - Tuesday, August 11, 2020

●  Saffron parses what looks to be a building boom in Philly that includes 3,600 new apartments (and some "bird-killing all-glass towers"): "A real neighborhood could finally emerge on the Delaware River. And that's just the waterfront" (developers "scrambling" to cash in on a "lucrative" property tax abatement program before it expires).

●  King parses RAMSA's deluxe Nob Hill condo project and Leddy Maytum Stacy's Mission Bay apartment building that includes units reserved for formerly homeless veterans: They "serve much different needs" but share "something more basic - the need for all housing to offer a sense of being at home - crucial if we're to build diverse, livable cities that will last" (backyards "to die for" included).

●  Eyefuls of the "father of New Urbanism" Leon Krier & Ben Pentreath's resoundingly approved Fawley Waterside "smart town" on the Hampshire coast that will include 1,500 homes and "swathes of other facilities" that "will sprawl beyond the boundaries of the now-demolished power station on to the surrounding national park."

●  Ravenscroft reports on MAD Architects' "sinuous" Wormhole Library on the Chinese island of Hainan overlooking the South China Sea - the first in a series of seven pavilions to be "built as part of a rejuvenation plan to improve public space along the coastline of Haikou Bay."

●  William Morgan cheers two new bus shelters near Providence, RI's new pedestrian bridge that are "handsome and distinctive - almost elegant, but could their design have been a little more adventurous? Why do we so often attempt architecture without architects?"

●  Dickinson parses Christopher Alexander "building a legacy in beauty. Starting with humanity in architecture that uses AI as a tool - versus the driver - of architects," it has evolved into the Building Beauty Program in Sorrento, Italy + perspectives of "5 central creator/implementators."

●  Harvard GSD's student- and recent grad-organized "Design Yard Sale raises $126,000 to benefit non-profit anti-racism organizations - a constructive way to celebrate both design's tangible fruits, and its potential for social agency."

●  Kate Wagner offers the fascinating "secret history of America's worthless Confederate monuments. Far from 'magnificent' artistic masterpieces, they are the Campbell's Soup Cans of Confederate hagiography - about as easy to produce as the average fire hydrant."

●  Architectural historian and preservationist Anna Marcum calls for "mass-removal" of "mass-produced" Confederate monuments: "They will not be missed. Put them in a field in the middle of nowhere. A simple plaque cannot right the ideological wrongs of the Confederacy."

●  Brazil's "government seeks to install antennas and cables above three architectural masterpieces by Oscar Niemeyer - reportedly designed to detect and 'neutralize' drones. Brazil's National Institute for Historic and Artistic Heritage was reportedly unimpressed by the plans."

●  Call for entries: Biodesign Challenge 21, international competition that partners high school and university students with scientists, artists, and designers to envision, create, and critique transformational applications in biotech.

●  Call for submissions: 1<WORLD<2: McHarg Center's McBlog is looking for perspectives on other ways of knowing/producing knowledge outside of the Western traditions; open to all students and early-career practitioners who wish to contribute to discourse re: ways of drawing and acting in the world-in-process.

COVID-19 news continues:

●  Davidson: "Pundits fired up their anti-New York prejudices: city folk are constantly exhaling all over each other. When hell is other people, the path to salvation runs through a cul-de-sac. Turns out it isn't" - as a new study reported in the Journal of the American Planning Association found - "density is not the enemy."

●  Crosbie's great Q&A with planner, urban designer, and Smart Growth advocate Shima Hamidi, who led the "new, landmark study" that "challenges assumptions about urban design and pandemics - density doesn't kill - sprawl does."

●  Mathias Agbo, Jr. pens a thoughtful letter from Nigeria: "As an African, my perspective is both unique to our continent and universal to everyone. Solving the new problems created by Covid-19 will ultimately mean tackling the old ones. So many designers and planners have offered viable solutions - now is the time for authorities to listen."

●  An impressive group of Canadian architects weigh in on how architectural design and practice is "changing in the face of the pandemic" - and "the sometimes worrisome, but often hopeful impacts of COVID-19 so far, in 11 different sectors."

●  AEC firms serving the hospitality sector "foresee mostly renovation and adaptive reuse, rather than new construction," and are "girding for a spate of hotel foreclosures - some of these properties will likely be converted to multifamily, mixed use, or student housing."

●  An illustrated scenario of "what coronavirus will do to our offices and homes," followed by input from Burney, Pearman, Choi, and others.


  


Be Orginal

Book online now!


NC Modernist Houses

 

 

 

Note: Pages will open in a new browser window.
External news links are not endorsed by ArchNewsNow.com.
Free registration may be required on some sites.
Some pages may expire after a few days.

Yesterday's News

© 2020 ArchNewsNow.com