To live is to leave traces. The architectural photographer, artist, writer, and political activist Elizabeth Felicella embodied this precept in the most evanescent of ways. Felicella died on December 22, 2024, after a two-year battle with leukemia. She would not have liked the word battle. For her, life, even when most elemental, was the art of leaving traces, in the sense given by the precept. A true artist-intellectual, Felicella would have recognized its author as Walter Benjamin, philosopher of lifes tragic drama. She might even have found his words too obvious here. But anyone who knew Elizabeth or worked with herand there are manywould recognize their special aptness in summarizing her spirit.Reading Room: A Catalog of New York Citys Branch Libraries, 2008-2013. Excerpt. (Elizabeth Felicella)What Felicella left for us were mostly photographs, of architecture, landscape, and the societies that these arts have helped to build, and to which they belong. An acutely conceptual photographer, New York was her muse. In 2016, the Center for Architecture exhibited Reading Room: A Catalog of New York Citys Branch Libraries, a selection from over 2,000 photographs taken with a large-format camera of the citys 210 branch libraries, inside and out, arranged serially and straightforwardly in a grid.In effect, Felicellas entire body of work can be seen through this grid. Architecture was for her a public art, in which sense there were no more noble buildings than the citys humble, ubiquitous branch libraries. As documented by her keen, careful eye, these modest monuments to learning and living stand in stark defiance of the picture-postcard views of skylines and skyscrapers with which the city is conventionally portrayed. Over the several decades of her professional career, Felicella photographed hundreds of works of architecture and landscape architecture by and with some of todays most distinguished practitioners. It is tempting to think retrospectively that she may have also been inviting them and us to add their work, whatever form it took, to the visual list of mostly anonymous public monuments she would eventually compile in Reading Room. But even the Center for Architectures generous walls could not have contained the resulting portrait of contemporary architecture and landscape design, matter-of-factly arranged.Photographs are themselves commemorative. They detach from their objects and live lives of their own. In print, online, or on gallery walls, this is mostly how architecture and design leave their own traces and are remembered. Frequently, Felicellas photographs are populated by what our professional language awkwardly calls users, to the point sometimes that figure and ground trade places, and those who give life to buildings and landscapes become objects of our attention in themselves. So too with natures traces. Mist, snow, morning dew: More than just portraying buildings and landscapes in use and over time, Felicellas photographs capture tiny morsels of time, moments that, like the building arts themselves, defy times passage.Architecture Research Office, Rothko Chapel Renewed, Houston, Texas, 2020. (Elizabeth Felicella)Felicella, a graduate of Bard College, studied fine art as a Fulbright Scholar at the Hochschule der Knste (HdK, now the Universitt der Knste) in Berlin, after a period of graduate study in German literature at Columbia University. Staying on at HdK to teach, she became immersed in the architectural debates coursing through the newly reunited city. Upon returning, Felicella, who also served during this period as managing editor at Zone Books, turned toward decisively architectural photography as an artistic practice and a professional career. Uniformly, Felicellas most frequent collaboratorsour language calls them clientsspeak of her and her photographs as if they were one. They also speak of seeing their own work differently through her eyes. The art of photographing buildings and landscapes in ephemeral use is also one of recognition. It is rigorously time consuming. The best of relationships between the architect-designer and photographer is therefore a sustained experience, a slow, intermittent performance over days, sometimes weeks, even seasons, or years. Felicellas photographs recognize life and work as a series of social relationships. Even when her object is made to pose most severely and with brightest polish, we glimpse a wry smile, a wink of acknowledgement that after all, we are in this together.During the COVID-19 interregnum, Felicella documented the subtle adjustments made to the Rothko Chapel in Houston by her frequent collaborators, Architecture Research Office (ARO), for whom she photographed numerous other works. The design problem was the lighting, specifically the skylight; ARO had worked with the lighting designer George Sexton Associates to soften the daylight and illuminate the paintings in the most invisibly delicate of ways. Felicellas photographs respect and record the harsh geometry of both space and skylight, while deferring to the inherent resistance of Rothkos paintings to reproduction. In the most poignant of these, two visitors sit on a bench in a manner that mirrors the chapels symmetries. When we note photographs date as the spring of 2021, the measured gap that separates the two figures on the axis established by Felicellas lens becomes, uncannily, the gap of social distance to which an entire society had become accustomed in the year immediately prior.Michael Van Valkenberg Associates, Brooklyn Bridge Park, Brooklyn, New York, 2021. (Elizabeth Felicella)That same year, Brooklyn Bridge Park, designed by Michael Van Valkenberg Associates with numerous others, was completed after over 20 years of planning, design, and construction. Felicellas photographs record the parks development through its entire course. In them, the city breathes. Children play, couples stroll, crowds mill about, pets pitter-patter. Most of all, bridge and skyline stoop down to greet rocks and grass and foliage. Their movements are registered unsentimentally, and again the citys inhabitants are far from mere scale figures. Instead, the ensemblepark, buildings, bridge, peoplebecomes an act of public appearance, a demonstration of what it means to navigate a city as its made, and to participate in its making. The park appears in this light also in Directions, a collaborative work with Robert Sullivan in Places Journal (2018). Sullivans text asks what it means to ask directions in the parks vicinity. Felicellas photographs juxtapose park with city in a manner that shows indirectly, and mainly now from the side of the city, the directions from which that question is asked.Raymond Farm, New Hope, Pennsylvania. (Elizabeth Felicella)Another Felicella adventure, conducted under pandemic restrictions, was a five-day photoshoot that turned into a long-term residency at Raymond Farm near New Hope, Pennsylvania, where the midcentury architect-designers Antonin and Nomi Raymond relocated after two decades in Japan. Working with a team of scholars and preservationists on a book and exhibition project that would become Uncrating the Japanese House (2022), she photographed Shfs, the archetypal Japanese house designed by Yoshimura Junz for exhibition in the Museum of Modern Art in 1954 and then crated and reassembled in West Fairmount Park, in Philadelphia. Antonin Raymond had been Junzs mentor in Japan; the Raymonds, along with their New Hope neighbor George Nakashima, remained part of a circle linking modern architecture to Japanese tradition. Welcomed by the Raymonds granddaughter Charlotte, Felicella stayed for several months in the Quaker farmhouse the couple had transformed into a studio-residence, photographing its many personalities, alongside those of Nakashimas furniture studio nearby, still operated by his family. Together, what this ensemble would enact for us would be a pivot from the past to the present, a performance in which the most compelling dramatic tension centers on us, here in the present, rather than on a distant and ultimately unknowable plot. With these words, Felicella could have been describing her lifes work. In actuality they describe an imaginary projection of her architectural photographs, gathered on the stage of the New Century Club (1893), designed by the Philadelphia architect Minerva Parker Nichols. The photographs were among the 247 Felicella made as a submission documenting Nicholss work to the Historic American Buildings Survey (HABS), published in an edited volume accompanied by an exhibitionincluding a selection of Felicellas photographsat the University of Pennsylvania in 2023.Idlewild: An Atlas of the Periphery of Kennedy International Airport. Excerpt, Broad Channel. (Elizabeth Felicella)There is a through line here. HABS had its origins in the New Deal, under the auspices of which New Yorks branch libraries hosted numerous civic programs and works of public art, and the Brooklyn Public Library, where Felicella also exhibited Reading Room and was the Librarys first Artist in Residence, was renovated and extended. Felicella was fiercely committed to progressive politics; she regularly volunteered on political campaigns in her Morningside Heights neighborhood and traveled to Albany to lobby state lawmakers with strategic intent. More epically, a distinct combination of historical optimism and irony, along with family ties to the world of airline workers, found her for years roaming the edges of Idlewild, now JFK, photographing the environs of this gigantic piece of public infrastructure that was built when New Yorks New Deal airport, LaGuardia, overflowed. She titled the project Idlewild: An Atlas of the Periphery of Kennedy International Airport.Felicellas last work, left incomplete with her passing, was Picturing Investment: WPA Infrastructure in New York, a photography and writing collaboration with her domestic partner, George Stolz. With support from the New York State Council for the Arts (NYSCA), Felicella had set out to produce a photographic survey of selected pieces of infrastructure built under the New Deals Works Projects Administration in the state. The few photographs she was able to make, very shortly before her diagnosis, are haunting not only for their circumstances, but also for their stillness, the temporary equilibrium between city and nature that they strike. In one, an enormous steel-and-concrete pylon descends from the Henry Hudson Bridge, to nestle among an improbable forest of bare trees. As if reflecting on the interpenetrating layers of her work, Felicella seems to be asking whether our attention should be trained melancholically on the past or enigmatically on the present; on the machine in the garden or on the garden itself; on the history from which the bridge sprang or on that to which it now belongs. A visual historian of New York, the city we shared, Elizabeth Felicella knew too well that the point is to see what stands before us, here and now.Reinhold Martin is Professor of Architecture at Columbia University; Elizabeth Felicella was his distant cousin and close friend.

Following the abrupt cancellation of a new building for the Vancouver Art Gallery slated to be designed by Herzog & de Meuron, the institution has issued an RFP that invited 14 Canadian architecture firms to compete for the commission instead. The list of architects comprises of Diamond Schmitt, Formline Architecture & Urbanism, Hariri Pontarini Architects, hcma, Henriquez Partners Architects, KPMB, Michael Green Architecture, OMB, Patkau Architects, Perkins&Will, Revery Architecture, Saucier+Perrotte Architectes, Teeple Architects, and 5468796 Architecture. As previously reported by AN, the Herzog & de Meuron design was abandoned in early December due to institutions inability to cover ballooning construction costs. The project, which originally began in 2014 with a budget of $350 million, had experienced numerous delays and grown to a cost of $600 million. Though the team had broken ground on the new building in 2023, progress was minimal, and the museum expects to start from scratch on the site following the selection of a new design team. In a press release, Anthony Kiendl, CEO and executive director of the Vancouver Art Gallery, repeatedly emphasized that the redesign would be economical to avoid the delay and inflation that plagued its predecessor.Our goal is to create a new building that celebrates art in all its forms and is emblematic both of our country and our mission, but that also prioritizes achievability, practicality, and fiscal responsibility, he said. Inherent in this choice is a careful assessment of how we can engage our community in meaningful ways; build within our means and realize a new Gallery that reflects Canadas extraordinary architectural talent.In the meantime, the institution will continue to operate in its current home, a repurposed provincial courthouse facing downtown Vancouvers Robson Square. The new building will be located further east, near BC Place, Rogers Arena, and the Vancouver Public Library. An expected completion date for the project has yet to be announced.

Announcing the official brand launch of DowelLam.Today, StructureCraft announces the official launch of a new brand, DowelLam. In 2017, the company brought the Dowel Laminated Timber (DLT) panel to the North American market with the worlds largest automated DLT manufacturing line. Since then, StructureCraft has delivered over 100 projects across nearly every typology, including significant buildings for Microsoft, Princeton University, and Hines. DowelLams Abbotsford facility, established by StructureCraft in 2017, is a state-of-the-art 50,000-square-foot manufacturing hub designed to produce DLT, the largest such facility in the world. (Courtesy DowelLam)In 2025, as demand for DLT continues to grow, StructureCraft has formed the DowelLam division to solely focus on designing, manufacturing and delivering DLT products to a growing range of clientele across North America.About DowelLam: The First All-wood Mass Timber PanelDowelLam is a global leader in mass timber manufacturing, recognized for delivering Dowel Laminated Timber (DLT) panels to significant projects throughout North America. Since 2017, their team has built over 3 million square feet (over 300,000 square meters) of DLT, including a proprietary profile, Acoustic DLT, across every project type, including educational, office, institutional, public and residential buildings. By merging traditional doweling with cutting-edge machinery and automation, DowelLam delivers mass timber panels that are free of metal and adhesives between laminations.DowelLam manufacturing process (Courtesy DowelLam)DLT, as the first all-wood mass timber panel, uses hardwood dowels (rather than glue or nails) to bond the edgewise softwood dimensional lumber strands together, resulting in structural panels ideal for floors, roofs, and walls. DowelLam offers unique advantages to owners and designers, including structural efficiency, sustainability, architectural quality, and economy. Groundbreaking Innovation in an Acoustic PanelDowelLam is the only large-scale North American supplier of Acoustic DLT (ADLT), a high-performance panel which integrates a built-in acoustically absorptive membrane into the underside of the DLT, allowing the mass timber to remain exposed while meeting both structural and noise reduction demands.Washington State School for the Blind Life Skills Training Center in Vancouver, Washington, built with DowelLams Acoustic DLT. (Lincoln Barbour)The Largest DLT Facility in the WorldDowelLams state-of-the-art Abbotsford facility is a 50,000-square-foot manufacturing hub designed to produce DLT, the largest such facility in the world. The plant houses advanced equipment and automation, enabling the efficient production of panels over 60-feet-long, with precise control over panel dimensions and dowel placement to meet structural and architectural requirements. The production process integrates computer-based technology with sustainable practices to produce minimum waste. Dowel press applying 10 tons of pressure horizontally and vertically on DLT panels and hydraulically pressing hardwood dowels into softwood lumber. (DowelLam)From lumber grading, visual optimization and finger-jointing to moulding, pressing, CNC milling, and coatings, the entire facility is optimized for quality and efficiency. Panels are customized with profiles for aesthetic or acoustic purposes and can be reinforced with structural sheathing or screw systems for enhanced performance. Automated notching and coating ensure panels are ready for site installation, while engineers review dowel placement and panel configurations to meet project-specific demands.StructureCrafts Role in the MarketStructureCraft is an award-winning group of creative structural consulting engineers and specialized builders, having realized over 350 efficient and beautiful structures across the world since 1998. With the introduction of DowelLam, StructureCraft renews a focus on their core purpose: to engineer and build beautiful and efficient structures that people love to own and use.KF Aerospaces Centre for Excellence at the Kelowna International Airport in Canada designed and built by StructureCraft. (Shawn Talbot)Start a Conversation and Stay ConnectedDowelLam is thrilled to introduce its newly established website, highlighting a selection of innovative built projects, DLT profiles, and our updated DLT Design Guide (2025). Follow its social media channels for the most up-to-date news, insights, and exciting announcements from DowelLam. dowellam.com linkedin.com/company/dowellam instagram.com/dowellam

Sharjah is often a surprise to first-time visitors. Upon arrival, they find little of the glitz and architectural excesses of neighboring Dubai, and instead a more modest, even walkable city, bustling with street life. A town of seafarers and pearl divers until the mid-20th century, Sharjah missed out on most of the oil wealth that reshaped the UAE after independence of 1971. As a result, nation-building efforts left a trace that is still present in its urban fabric, in the shape of modernist schools and office buildings that often relied on the same typology repeated across the emirate. Buildings such as the now-vacant Radisson Blu Resort, designed by The Architects Collective, are currently on the radar of architecture enthusiasts (see the recent Building Sharjah volume). And yet, here like elsewhere, modernism was a double-headed beast, at once bringing progress and dispossessionsomething that was made evident by DAARs poignant installation for the 2023 Architecture Triennial. While the Triennial is young (disclosure: I worked for the first one in 2019 as its head of publications), the Sharjah Art Biennial, on view at various venues through June 15, 2025, is now in its 16th iteration, and each edition consolidates the emirates standing as a global art center. (Its driving force, Hoor Al Qasimi, topped ArtReviews Power 100 list last year). This year, the Biennial is organized by a team of five renowned curators: Alia Swastika, Amal Khalaf, Megan Tamati-Quennell, Natasha Ginwala, and Zeynep z. They have succeeded in putting together an organic show, where the interests of each are (usually) discernible, yet the seams are (almost) invisible. Under the title to carry, they ask us to consider what we bring with us when we travel, flee, survive or stay. Displacement is as poignant a topic as its ever been, as people from the U.S.Mexico border to Gaza are having to carry their home, however they might understand it, with them. But its also the burdens we all carrytraumas, difficulties of generations pastsomething that resonated on a personal level, as I attended the biennials opening while grieving a recent death.Mahmoud Khaled, Pool of Perspectives 2030, 2025. Commissioned by Sharjah Art Foundation. Installation view: Sharjah Biennial 16, Arts Palace, Al Dhaid, Sharjah, 2025. (Motaz Mawid)With each edition the Biennial also expands its presence in the city and beyond, and there are now over a dozen venues stretching as far as the emirates eastern coast. Central to Al Qasimis vision for the Biennial has been the repurposing of the Sharjahs architectural heritage, the modernist as well as the older one. Here, there is no such thing as Abu Dhabis Saadiyat district with its big-name museums. Instead, the Al Mureijah spaces in central Sharjah (designed by Mona El Mousfy, who was shortlisted for the 2019 Aga Khan Award) are a collection of reconstructed coral-stone houses, complemented by new buildings that follow the ancient street pattern. One pleasingly gets lost in the alleys, and the galleries ever-changing proportions make for a visit that is never boring. While the breadth of the artists backgrounds and career stages, and the amount of new commissions, is itself an achievement, not all of the works feel substantial. The Biennial is at its best when it establishes connections with its distinctive spatial contextwhen the artworks convey a sense of specificity and texture that is a much-needed antidote to sanitized white-cube spaces elsewhere. In Al Mureijah, Jorge Gonzlez Santos has taken over one of the few unrenovated houses, turning its roofless rooms and leafy courtyard into a peaceful arrangement of objects by the Tano peoples of Puerto Rico. Joe Namys bamboo and palm-frond broadcasting tower speaks to the early history of radio, with a sound montage that enters in an unexpected dialogue with the adhan of nearby mosques. One of the newer galleries works well for the standout combination of works by Monira Al Qadiri and Stephanie Comilang, both portrayals of the liquid identities that define contemporary life in the Gulf.Doruntina Kastrati, The Dance of Sand and Steel, 2024. Commissioned by Sharjah Art Foundation. Installation view: Sharjah Biennial 16, Old Al Dhaid Clinic, Sharjah, 2025. (Shanavas Jamaluddin)A short walk away along the corniche are two large 19th-century merchant houses, which were among the first venues of the Sharjah Art Foundation. Here, Himali Singh Soin and David Soin Tappeser continue their haunting material and sonic explorations of the Indian subcontinent (the formers Static Range was recently at the Art Institute of Chicago) with a film about the Great Indian Hedge, planted by colonial Britain to prevent salt smuggling. The interplay of art and place is perhaps most successful in the agricultural town of Al Dhaid, almost 40 miles east of Sharjah, where the rooms of a 1970s clinic, entered from covered paths amid a leafy garden, have been transformed into exhibition spaces. Inside, the copper-wire weavings of Ximena Garrido-Lecca and the sculptures of Luana Vitra propose a fresh, non-didactic take on the conflicts over land that are at play in places like Peru and Brazil, while Akira Ikezoes canvases and stop-motion film make bitter fun of the technocratic hubris that has led to historys worst nuclear accidents.YAZ publication annotations. Installation view: Sharjah Biennial 16, Arts Palace, Al Dhaid, Sharjah, 2025. (Shanavas Jamaluddin)Just outside, the Guatemalan artist Hellen Ascoli has taken over a crumbling mud-brick house, where her installation of sliding fabrics and timber frames remind us of the global history of building technologies that are only apparently simple. The wasteful megaprojects that plague the rest of the UAE are hinted at in Mahmoud Khaleds arresting empty pool, tiled in digitally printed azulejos that at once hail to former Portuguese colonial presence in the Gulf, and mock the aesthetic of architectural renders.Hellen Ascoli, The World Upside Down, 2024. Commissioned by Sharjah Art Foundation. Courtesy of the artist and Proyectos Ultravioleta, Guatemala City. Installation view: Sharjah Biennial 16, Arts Palace and Farm, Al Dhaid, Sharjah, 2025. (Danko Stjepanovic)This Biennial has many threads. They arent always readable but yield unexpected resonances across space and timemost evidently in the in the seaside exhibition venues of Al Hamriyah, where a 1970s government office sits next to a pristine white block. The themes of futurity and of ideas being carried by sonic waves underpin a new work by Luke Willis Thompson. Whakamoemoea is a fictitious broadcast delivered by a real-life television journalist, relaying a future in which sovereignty in New Zealand is returned to the Mori. In a standout film, Chibayish, Alia Farid takes us to the disappearing marshes of Iraq. What could have easily been told as a didactic story of ecological damage is insteadthanks to a camera that always stays close to its subjectsan intimate, humble portrait of a waning way of life, where environmental threats are barely hinted at and yet impossible to ignore.Andrea Bagnato is a writer and researcher working at the intersection of urban history and political ecology.

Stanford Universitys campus is a stately Californian milieu designed by Frederick Law Olmsted and Shepley, Rutan, and Coolidgethe Bostonian progeny of H. H. Richardson which just celebrated 150 years of practice. Its late 19th-century architecture harkens back to East Coast schools of an equal, albeit much older caliber like Harvard, Yale, et al. Later additions by SOM, William Wurster, SWA, and others dot the illustrious 8,180-acre locale. A new administrative building at Stanford University by Olson Kundig and SWA takes cues from the campuss understated midcentury modernism, architects shared. The new building hosts the Center for Advanced Study in Behavioral Sciences (CASBS) at Stanford University, a research center that combines legal scholars, humanists, public policy practitioners, philosophers, and technical experts.The 1,700-square-foot facility is a milestone for Stanfordthere hadnt been a new ground-up project on the campus since 1954. That year, CASBS was founded with help from the Ford Foundation, and it moved into a new small complex to the campuss south across from Juniperro Serra Boulevard.The building is the first new structure on Stanfords campus since 1954. (Aaron Leitz/Courtesy Olson Kundig)The original CASBS building from 1954 was designed by William Wurster, the San Francisco architect who founded the College of Environmental Design at UC Berkeley with Catherine Bauer. The new building by Olson Kundig and SWA, completed in 2024, isnt aesthetically far off from the Wurster project.The new building was called for in a 2015 master plan for Stanford by EHDD, a San Francisco architecture firm. Olson Kundig joined the project team in 2016, and successive schematic design phases ensued the following years with SWA. According to Olson Kundig, the administration building was intentionally designed in order to complement the understated midcentury architecture of the existing campus. It frames the final open edge of CASBSs campus, Olson Kundig added.The narrow footprint afforded architects the opportunity to provide ample natural daylighting. (Aaron Leitz/Courtesy Olson Kundig)The Olson Kundig and SWA facility faces a historic courtyard with outdoor gathering spaces for lectures, and informal exchanges between students and faculty. The new architecture has a loggia which faces the courtyard, taking advantage of the temperate climate. Ample natural daylight washes over the interior spaces thanks to generous fenestration.The building frames the research centers northern edge. (Aaron Leitz/Courtesy Olson Kundig)The research center is a place for legal scholars, humanists, public policy practitioners, philosophers, and technical experts. (Aaron Leitz/Courtesy Olson Kundig)Margaret Levi, CASBSs former director, helped raise much of the funding for the project. Sarah Soule, the research centers current director, said in a statement the new building is a perfect physical manifestation of Margarets vision for CASBS and the social and behavioral sciences more generally.Shoule added Levi believes that to solve the worlds grand challenges, scholars need to work in a non-traditional way. And to solve todays systemic problems, we need systemic solutions. This building heralds a new era of interdisciplinary collaboration and discovery at CASBS. It enables us to further realize our mission of leveraging interdisciplinary research in service of solutions for some of the worlds most vexing challenges.

Last August, five architecture offices were shortlisted to redesign sections of Londons British Museum: 6a architects,David Chipperfield Architects, Eric Parry Architects and Jamie Fobert Architects,Lina Ghotmeh Architecture, andOMA.Lina Ghotmeh Architecture (LGA) was announced the competition winner. The Paris office will redesign British Museums Western Range galleries, which currently store hundreds of artworks and significant back-of-house areas in the 1850 building completed by architect Sir Robert Smirke. The commission is one of the largest and most prestigious in the world. LGA entered the competition with a wide team of consultants: artist Ali Cherri, conservation architect Purcell, and Arup are all in the winning group. Holmes Studio, a London office, will do graphic design and wayfinding. Plan A will be responsible for design team coordination.The project will help improve accessibility. ( LGA)British Museum said in a statement LGA was the unanimous favorite out of the applicant pool, which garnered 60 submissions at first. Nicholas Cullinan, the British Museums director, said Lina Ghotmeh came out on top thanks to her offices exceptional and materially sensitive architectural vision. The competition process was organized by Colander Associates, a London consultancy, on behalf of the British Museum. The judging panel included: Yvonne Farrell, Meneesha Kellay, Mahrukh Tarapor, and Sarah Younger.Renderings by Lina Ghotmeh show British Museums collection interspersed within cavernous rooms lined in masonry. Some materials are course, and have a pinkish hue, while others are striated and white.The walls will be lined in masonry. ( LGA)The jurors likened Ghotmehs approach to that of an archaeological dig, in how Ghotmeh looks at a buildings past to support its reimagination and future. My team and I are thrilled to embark on this journey for the renovation of the Western Range of the British Museum, LGAs founder Lina Ghotmeh shared. This competition has been an exciting process shaped by dialogue and multiple voices, Ghotmeh continued. I am looking forward to continuing this rich and collaborative process as we work towards transforming this section of the museum into an extraordinary spacea place of connections for the world and of the world.Competition model submitted by LGA ( LGA)The selection committee added Ghotmeh ultimately showed a deep understanding and sensitivity towards the Museum, the complexity of collections display and artifacts interactions with diverse visitor groups. Ghotmehs vision especially resonated with the panel because of its archaeological approach to architectural design. Lina Ghotmeh was born in Lebanon, and runs her studio in Paris. Past work on major cultural landmarks LGA embarked on includes Herms Leather Workshop in Louviers, Normandy, which finished in 2023; and the Estonian National Museum in Tartu. She also received the commission to design the Serpentine Pavilion in 2023.Earlier, Ghotmeh won the Grand prix AFEX 2016 and the Mies van der Rohe Award in 2017. Shes taught at Yale, Harvard, University of Toronto, and elsewhere.British Museum said the final design will be shared in mid-2026.

Brought to you by:Architect: hcmaLocation: New Westminster, British ColumbiaCompletion Date: 2024In New Westminster, British Columbia, a new aquatic center by hcma architecture + design has redefined notions of progressive design. Known as the tmsewtx Aquatic and Community Center, the building was planned in close collaboration with First Nations communities while also targeting ambitious sustainability goals. Through a tightly insulated envelope of standing-seam metal, minimal glazing, and precast concrete, the structure is the first to achieve the Canadian Green Building Councils (CAGBC) Zero-Carbon Building-Design-Standard, an impressive feat given the abnormally high energy demands of aquatic facilities. The new building was built between the ravine, and two existing structures, which were required to remain open for the duration of construction. (Courtesy hcma)Tasked with designing a replacement for the existing Canada Games Pool and Centennial Community Center, hcma began the project with a comprehensive study of the surrounding site. In precolonial times, the land surrounding the community center held the headwaters of the nearby Glenbrook Ravine, but the two had been disconnected by subsequent development. Working with PFS Studio, the projects landscape architect, hcma reestablished the original course of the waterway and decided to position the new building along this path, bucking the east-west orientation of New Westminsters urban grid. The restored waterway creates the basis for a new rain garden and park space which hugs the buildings southern elevation. New Westminster also required that the existing pool and community center remain open for the public during construction, further constraining the floor plate of the new building. Accordingly, the new structure fills much of the space between the ravine and its predecessors.Scalloped precast concrete panels adorn the aquatic centers sawtooth window bays. (Nic Lehoux)While the plan of the building was shaped by natural and logistical constraints, the structures height was modulated to accommodate different internal programs. Our desire was to break down the overall scale of a very long, large building by giving each program component its own roof shape, said Paul Fast, principal at hcma. These roof shapes respond directly to the volumetric and natural daylighting requirements of each unique program. They were then united with a continuous corner facade line that only breaks at the lobby, signifying the entry space, he added.This variation in ceiling height was achieved through the use of folded-plate roof systems constructed using mass timber and steel girders. A special roof system was devised above the lap pool, which is the buildings largest program in terms of volume. Here, a sawtooth configuration was engineered to create skylights, bringing indirect northern light into the space.A sawtooth roof was engineered above the lap pool to filter natural light into the space. (Nic Lehoux)As previously mentioned, indoor pools consume high amounts of operational energy. To maintain consistent temperature within a large volume of water, the pools are constantly heated, and energy is also expended to ventilate and dehumidify the space. In an effort to limit energy waste, hcma separated tmsewtxs aquatic facilities into two natatoriums: a leisure pool with higher water and air temperatures and a cooler lap pool for competitive swimmers. The inclusion of a leisure pool was a result of community engagement sessions held during the design process. As the project team learned, many community members were discouraged from using the old Canada Games Pool because of its focus on competitive athletic use.Energy usage within the natatoriums was further reduced through the use of the InBlue filtration system, a state-of-the-art filter that continuously extracts bio-solids from the water. A conventional filtration system retains bio solids until the filter system is cleaned out, which normally occurs every 2 to 3 years. The use of the InBlue system requires less overall chlorine usage. Unlike conventional systems, it also leverages gravity, limiting the energy required to pump water through the filter.The building features a leisure pool to cater to non-competitive swimmers. (Nic Lehoux)According to the architects, the new tmsewtx facility represents a 92 percent overall reduction in energy usage compared to its predecessors. This feat was accomplished through the cutting edge systems including heat recovery ventilators, the aforementioned pool filtrations system, all-electric mechanical systems, and a rooftop photovoltaic array, which is expected to produce 5 percent of the facilitys yearly operational energy. Envelope design was also central to these sustainability achievements. Low carbon materials such as standing seam metal, precast concrete, and mass timber were specified for the exterior, while a robust secondary layer of insulation contributed to the reduction in operational energy use. In addition, the building was detailed to maximize air-tightness and eliminate thermal bridging.The tmsewtx Aquatic and Community Center is targeting LEED Gold certification, and has already become the first project in Canada to meet CAGBCs Zero Carbon Building Design Standard, which takes into account operational energy efficiency, airtightness, and embodied carbon. Because of the projects success, hcma hopes that it will serve as a model for the design of future aquatic centers, demonstrating how this building typology can effectively reduce energy use.The massing of the tmsewtx Aquatic and Community Center was optimized to improve energy performance. (Nic Lehoux)The inclusive aims of the new building are perhaps best summarized by its name, tmsewtx, which translates to Sea Otter House in hnqminm, a local First Nations language. Selected by a naming advisory panel of Indigenous representatives, the name was chosen because of the playfulness, joyfulness, and family-oriented nature of the sea otter, according to a press release from hcma.tmsewtx Aquatic and Community Center won the civic category in ANs 2024 Best of Design Awards and was a finalist for project of the year.Project SpecificationsArchitect: hcmaStructural Engineer: Fast + EppMechanical Engineer: AMEElectrical Engineer: AES EngineeringLandscape Architect: PFS StudioCost Estimation: Ross TempletonCivil Engineer: Aplin & MartinAcoustic Engineer: RWDIWayfinding & Signage: hcmaPublic Art: James HarryProject Manager: Turnbull ConstructionContractor: Heatherbrae BuildersStanding Seam Metal Panels: Parker JohnstonPrecast Concrete: API PrecastExterior Glazing: Columbia GlazingGlass: Garibaldi Glass

M. Paul Friedberga pioneering landscape architect, artist, planner, and educatordied on February 15 at age 93. News of Friedbergs passing was shared by The Cultural Landscape Foundation (TCLF). Charles Birnbaum, TCLF president and CEO, interned for Friedberg in the 1980s, and the pair had been close ever since. In describing Friedbergs legacy, Birnbaum said the late visionary was serious about the idea of childs play and an unrepentant believer in the virtue of cities when U.S. cities were at their nadir.Friedberg was renowned for his tenure at City College, where he established the Urban Landscape Architecture program. Hes also remembered for his work at public housing sites in New York, and St. Louiss Pruitt-Igoe on spaces for children.Friedberg was born in 1931 in Brooklyn but spent his childhood in Pennsylvania. He went on to earn a degree in horticulture from Cornell University. Friedberg started his eponymous New Yorkbased practice in 1958.Friedberg enthusiastically embraced the participatory design movement of the late 1960s, Michael Allen a history professor at West Virginia University, told AN after the landscape architects death.Aerial view of Friedbergs Jacob Riis Plaza (Courtesy M. Paul Friedberg & Partners)One of Friedbergs first projects was at Pruitt-Igoe, the canonical St. Louis public housing development by Minoru Yamasaki. Friedberg worked alongside community activist Macler Shepard; he was brought onto to help save the development in the mid-1960s, almost a decade after construction ended, when the project was in dire straights. In his essay Incomplete by Design: Reconsidering the Life and Death Pruitt-Igoe, Allen notes that 70 percent of Pruitt-Igoes roughly 12,000 residents were under the age of 12. Together with Shepard, Friedberg interviewed children at Pruitt-Igoe to inform the ultimate design for new outdoor spaces.Allen told AN that what made Pruitt-Igoe stand out was how Friedberg treated children there as clients. Friedberg listened to their needs and developing playground models with their input, Allen said. His work led to the construction of well-used adventure playgrounds in 1967, an under appreciated bright spot for the troubled housing project amid its decline.Friedbergs master plan for Pruitt-Igoes open areas delivered a 250-seat amphitheater, and six playgrounds replete with wooden modular furniture. Later, in 1971, late St. Louis architect Charles Fleming was tasked with another master plan to save Pruitt-Igoe, nevertheless one that ended in vainPruitt-Igoe was demolished in 1976.Fountain at Peavey Plaza in Minneapolis (Jim Winstead Jr./Wikimedia Commons/CC BY-SA 2.0)Prior to Pruitt-Igoe, Friedberg had garnered acclaim for his work in Harlem at Carver Houses, and at Jacob Riis Houses in Lower East Side. Today, Jacob Riis Plaza is widely considered among Friedbergs best works. Then came Peavey Plaza in Minneapolis, and Central Parks Billy Johnson Playground.At Jacob Riis Plaza, Friedberg said he employed something he called a total play environment, a space that encouraged physical, emotional and sensory exercise and participation. Landscape architect Peter Walker said in 2004 that what Jacob Riis Plaza was to landscape architecture, Mies van der Rohes Barcelona Pavilion was to architecture. Like Mies Barcelona Pavilion it was unlike anything seen before in the modern city, Walker said.Later, Friedberg helped revitalize New Yorks Battery Park City; he also designed projects in Canada, Japan, and elsewhere. He was awarded the ASLA Medal in 2015.Friedberg is survived by his wife, Doris Shahar, and three children.

Architecture and design firm Ultramoderne recently asked the question: What would Frank Gehrys 1980s concept of cheapskate architecture look like right now? Coprincipal Yasmin Vobis elaborated: With construction as expensive as it is today, how can standard construction methods be at the core of a progressive approach to architecture? And how can this attitude allow architecture to be more generally accessible to the public at large? The studio provides one answer with its latest two-family residential project, Friendship. Ultramoderne applied ingenuity and enlisted community collaboration in the development of a new sustainable blueprint that can be used toward future projects. The 4,300-square-foot duplex occupies a previously vacant lot next to I-95 on Friendship Street in central Providence. Although similar in size to the areas surrounding triple-decker homes, Friendship grabs the attention of passersby with its black corrugated-metal facade. The sleek exterior is a quiet base on which the windows and light monitors are placed across the building. The latter offer a unique anatomical view of the buildings structural bones as they exhibit the wood framing behind translucent acrylic panels. In one location, the device is used to reveal a hint of the bright pink fiberglass to the street. These touches offer a playful, abstract sensibility to Friendship while also contributing to the buildings high R-value.Friendship is similar in size to the areas surrounding triple-decker homes. (Courtesy Ultramoderne)Ultramoderne coprincipal Aaron Forrest shared with AN that Friendship began when he received a tip from the project builder that the design team could obtain discarded materials from local construction projects and use them for Friendship. Although Forrest was initially skeptical, this idea ultimately spurred the projects success. In the end, all of the wood flooring, tile, and skylights were sourced this way, and it allowed us to get a much higher level of finish in the project than the budget would otherwise have allowed, he explained. The newly gained experience and strategy from Friendship will be used for future endeavors, Forrest added, including a new 12-unit multifamily project with the same developer. Friendships black corrugated metal facade, with a peek at the pink insulation. (Courtesy Ultramoderne)Vobiswho teaches at UC Berkeley, as does Forrestreflected that the process of creating Friendship changed how Ultramoderne designs. We had to reexamine the basic ingredients of architectureits organization and typical construction methods in this cityin order to find a generosity in the spatial design while also keeping things as cost effective as possible, she said. This challenge and constant exchange with the client was ultimately also the most rewarding part of the project and has made us rethink the way we approach projects in the future. Ultramoderne, with structural engineer Brett Schneider, also explored the creative potential of mixed-material architecture through studio courses, and the results were recently published by Birkhauser in the book Heterogeneous Constructions.The team used discarded material for skylights, wood floors, and more.(Courtesy Ultramoderne)Translucent acrylic panels offer a glimpse of the wood framing. (Courtesy Ultramoderne)All over Providence, the phrase What Cheer can be found in businesses and on government paraphernalia like the citys seal. It stems from the original greetingWhat Cheer, Netop!extended from the Narragansett Native Americans to city founder Roger Williams in the early 1600s. Translated from Narragansett and English, it means, Hi, neighbor or Greetings, friend. Ultramodernes Friendship takes up the kind part of this ethos. The sensibility is even formal, as seen in the loosely symmetrical layout of the two homes mirrored across a demising wall. Below, they share a garage, and above, a rooftop terrace, which encourages engagement among residents.(Courtesy Ultramoderne)Ultramoderne created a loosely symmetrical layout for the two homes, as seen in the long section. (Courtesy Ultramoderne)Like the future neighbors of this Friendship project who might encounter each other on the outdoor deck, sometimes we need a nudge to make things happen. In the case of Friendship, a little push in a different direction went a long way and ultimately answered Ultramodernes initial question: Innovative architecture is still possible in todays economic climateit just requires a new approach.Project SpecificationsDesign architect: UltramoderneArchitect of record: UltramoderneStructural engineer: Boulay ConsultingCivil engineer: MJF Engineering AssociatesGeneral contractor: BSPVL ConstructionWindows: DoorwinGlass: ACRYLITE Resist

HKS is thrilled to announce the formation of the Building Brains Coalition, a first-of-its kind initiative that connects built environment professionals to those in the fields of neuroscience, psychology, climate science, and public health. The coalition builds upon the growing recognition that brain health is integral to human potential and societal progress. It represents a powerful collaboration among five leading organizations: The Center for BrainHealth, Center for Advanced Design Research and Evaluation (CADRE), HKS, Brain Capital Alliance, and Rice Universitys Baker Institute Neuro-Policy Program.Together, coalition members will reimagine how we design spaces to foster resilience, well-being, and cognitive thriving.Our global economy increasingly relies on brain-based skills, creativity, and emotional intelligence, emphasizing the importance of brain capital, said Upali Nanda, HKSs Global Sector Director for Innovation. By focusing on brain health, we can create environments that enhance cognitive flexibility, emotional resilience, and collective intelligencekey drivers of innovation and societal well-being. From city plans that foster access to healthy food, movement, and the arts, to interiors that support good air quality, acoustics, daylight, and cognitive engagementthe role of the built environment is only just beginning to be uncovered in this critical conversation that has recently emerged as the top priority for WHO, AARP and now, the World Economic Forum. The coalitions vision also aligns closely with the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), connecting brain health to quality education, decent work, sustainable cities and climate action.The Dallas region is a nexus for progress related to brain health and brain capital in the built environment. The 2024 Building Brains Summithosted in Dallas by HKS, CADRE, and the Center for BrainHealthwas an initiation point for planning the coalitions work, and many industry leaders from the area are bringing their brain health expertise to global audiences.In addition to the five founding partner organizations, the Building Brains Coalition is strengthened by the involvement of the Academy of Neurosciences for Architecture (ANFA), Brain Health ACTION (an AARP collaborative), Euro-Mediterranean Economists Association (EMEA), International Interior Design Association (IIDA), Simtigrate Lab (Georgia Tech), and Perkins&Will.We invite more partners to join this coalition. Visit the Building Brains Coalition page to sign up for membership and stay informed with news and updates. Together, we can shape the future of built environments to prioritize resilience, well-being and cognitive thriving.

The California Institute of Technology, better known as Caltech, is a revered science and engineering university. Founded in 1891 in what is now Pasadena, the institution has a history of successful scientific research and development. Its faculty, alumni, and postdoctoral scholars have earned 47 Nobel Prizes, and its rocket scientists founded the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, which Caltech continues to manage for NASA. Now, thanks in large part to gifts from billionaire philanthropists Lynda and Steward Resnick, through their foundation and consumer products brand The Wonderful Company, Caltech is on a long-term mission to develop sustainability initiatives. In 2009, the Resnicks, with a matching gift from Gordon and Betty Moore, contributed $30 million to establish the Resnick Sustainability Institute, headed up by director Jonas Peters, Bren Professor of Chemistry at Caltech. The latest salvo is the Resnick Sustainability Center (RSC), part of a $750 million gift the Resnicks made in 2019, at the time, the largest donation ever for environmental sustainability research and the second-largest donation ever given to an academic institution, according to Caltech. The new $133 million RSC, an 80,000-square-foot hub currently housing four research centers, opened in October 2024. It is sited near the western edge of Caltech as a gateway building for all those who approach the campus from the west or the south. The constricted site was selected by the office of Planning, Design and Construction (PD&C), which oversees all new projects on the campus.Caltech wanted a building that would inspire research in four critical areas. (Michael Moran)After a search that included several prestigious national firms, Caltech chose the Yazdani Studio of CannonDesign, led by Mehrdad Yazdani. The selection and design review group included Peters, several Nobel Laureates, PD&C, Bernard Jazzar (the curator of the Lynda and Stewart Resnick Collection, representing the Resnicks), and the City of Pasadena Design Review Commission. Caltech challenged the design team to create a building that would inspire research in four critical areas: Sunlight to Everything, aimed at converting the suns energy into fuels and building more efficient electricity infrastructure; Climate Science, including the lowering of carbon emissions; Global Ecology and Biosphere Engineering, with a goal to help plants adapt to a changing climate and improving water and nutrient use; and Water Resources, with a focus on management and finding improvements in water treatment and reuse.The facade is wrapped in an undulating transparent skin of tilted and curving glass. (Tim Griffith Photography)Water management has a particular resonance for the Resnicks, whose privately held agribusiness The Wonderful Company sells pistachios, almonds, Fiji water, and POM Wonderful pomegranate juice. The company also owns a 57 percent stake in the Kern Water Bank, an underground reservoir in Southern San Joaquin Valley. Beyond other concerns about storage, The Wonderful Company recently weathered accusations of hoarding water during the destructive wildfires around Los Angeles in January. In response, the company issued a statement refuting what it referred to as false claims and stated that it uses less than 1 percent of the states water. Officials and media organizations, including factchecking site Snopes, debunked any conspiracy theories about the Resnicks hindering firefighting efforts. The intent of the RSC is to bring together all six scientific divisions of Caltech to work in a collaborative environment. Most university laboratories serve individual departments, like chemistry, biology, or physics. This building breaks new ground by fostering experimentation and exploration of sustainable concepts. Yazdani told AN, The building does not serve a single department. It is a research hub built around an idea.The architects had to answer the question: What will a building that brings together scientists from diverse disciplines feel like and look like? How will it inspire collaboration, experimentation, and discovery?The curtain wall is supported by timber and a tensile structure. (Tim Griffith Photography)To answer these challenges Yazdani created the ground floor and 4-story atrium that is like a town square, he said. Its a place that draws various disciplines together, allowing a critical exchange of ideas. Currently, four of the six Caltech divisions are already undertaking research in the facility, and there are proposals from the remaining two divisions. It is a building that welcomes ideas from all Caltech disciplines. To foster the concept of sustainability, every freshman takes an introductory course in this building. In addition, the Brinson Exploration Hub has a lab in the building devoted to planetary astronomy. In certain ways, Caltech is conducting an experiment that really hasnt been done before, Peters told AN. We are building an institute that really tries to pull, essentially, all of the campus toward problems and solutions in sustainability. The building is on track to achieve LEED Platinum certification.The architecture sets the tone. The Resnick Sustainability Centers basic design concept is a stack of flexible research labs at the core of the building that are then wrapped in an undulating transparent skin of tilted and curving glass, creating a light-filled atrium for collaboration and innovation.Research labs have virtually no vibration. (Chris Flynn Photography)Structurally, the building is a hybrid, with mass timber columns and slabs that wrap a reinforced concrete core, creating research labs with virtually no vibration and the ability to withstand potential earthquakes. Rooftop photovoltaic arrays generate power for the building, and native plants and stormwater drywells are part of a larger sustainability effort. Announcements about the RSC noted that photosynthesis served as inspiration for the project, and offsetting carbon emissions is a theme of the landscape concept, with carbon-sequestering trees and shrubs figuring into the design.The curtain wall of the RSC is supported by a mix of timber elements and a tensile structure. The exterior of the curved, sloping, cold-bent glass is highlighted by strips of aluminum. Multiple light studies were done to create the luminous space. Its like a cathedral, but for science, Peters exclaimed.Multiple light studies were done to create the luminous space. (Michael Moran)Another key feature is the buildings breezeway, which runs north south and separates the Resnick Sustainability Center from the Noyes Lab. The space invites Caltech students and facultyand even the publicto witness in-progress research.Yazdani explained: Bringing every Caltech student into this space puts an emphasis on how integral sustainability is to all the disciplines they will encounter throughout their education at Caltech.Sketches of the Resnick Sustainability Center at Caltech (Yazdani Studio of CannonDesign)The breezeway also opens access between the southern campus and the newly restored Beckman Lawn to the north, with spectacular views of the San Gabriel Mountains. To attract visitors, a portion of the curtain wall wrapper bends out away from the southern facade, creating a shaded porch. Leandra Davis, executive director of Planning, Design and Construction, said, You get a little taste of the building from the south campus.Yazdanis designs often dont reveal the whole story at first glance. Instead, they beckon visitors inside to learn more. At Caltech, the curved glass exterior not only wraps the 4-story atrium, but it also encloses several research labs and circulation spaces on the third floor, which creates layers of transparency and allows natural light to flow into the building. The move will hopefully inspire bright minds to develop solutions to help us respond to the climate crisis.Michael Franklin Ross is president of MFR Consulting Architects.An educator and architectural journalist, Ross has published over 90 articles and taught at USC, SCI-Arc, and UCLA.

Billings at architecture firms continued to decline in January. The start of 2025 continues a trend in softening business conditions that has been going on for the better part of two years now.The AIAs Architecture Billings Index reported a score of 45.6 for Januaryany number below 50 indicates a decline in billings. While this number is an improvement from Decembers, it signifies that the decrease in billings at architecture firms is happening at a slowed rate. As has also been the trend, inquiries into new projects continue to increase, meaning new work could be on the horizon for architects. This is coupled with a declining score for the value of design contracts, an indication that clients are less willing to reach deep into their pockets.AIA Chief Economist Kermit Baker again put the blame on inflation as a primary factor in the sluggish business conditions observed at architecture firms. He noted that as a result, firms have made cutbacks to positions at their practices.Stubborn inflation, persistently high interest rates, and labor concerns continue to weigh on the willingness of owners and developers to move ahead with construction projects, he said in a statement. Architecture firms have been moving to right-size their operations in response to softer market conditions. In addition to the regional average, the Architecture Billings Index also regularly reports on how four regions of the United States are faring. While in December billings in the West remained strong, they have since declined dropping from 52.2 to 48.8. The West still takes the top spot among all four regions, however, while the lowest again is the Northeast, reporting an index of 41.1, a dip from Decembers 41.1. As for the sectors architecture practices specialize in, no one sector appears to be faring that well as all again remain sub 50.January marks the first month of 2025, which saw a change of hands that ushered in a new federal administration which has already made sweeping changes to slash government departments and funding. The recent efforts by the executive office to defund federally backed programs could have drastic effects on the built environment and the projects and contracts architects work on moving forward. Stay tuned.

A federal lawsuit has been filed in U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York to stop housing from getting built atop Elizabeth Street Garden. The lawsuit is supported by high-profile artists, curators, and historians including JR, Patti Smith, Mara Miller, Klaus Biesenbach, and Jeffrey Brodie. Robert De Niro, Martin Scorsese, and others have also fought on the Gardens behalf. The Cultural Landscape Foundation (TCLF) simultaneously supports the lawsuit, which Elizabeth Street Garden (ESG), a local nonprofit, filed under the Visual Artists Rights Act (VARA). ESGs goal is to secure the Gardens status as an irreplaceable physical and social sculpture, integral to New York Citys cultural and environmental landscape. In addition to green space, the park displays statuary from founder Allan Reivers collection.The proposal is fighting is called Haven Green. It was first rolled out in 2019 by Pennrose, Habitat for Humanity New York City, and RiseBoro Community Partnership. Haven Green would deliver 123 units of affordable housing for seniors at Elizabeth Street Garden. This is not the first time the gardens future has come up in court. Elizabeth Street Garden Inc.run by Allans son, Joseph Reiverfiled a lawsuit against Haven Green in 2019 to stop it. The new lawsuit filed in federal court is the latest attempt by Haven Greens opponents to stymie the development project, which seeks to house seniors.Last October Elizabeth Street Garden received an eviction notice that was temporarily revoked, allowing the art-filled park to stay put until February 2025. In a statement this week, Elizabeth Street Garden said it remains steadfast in its commitment to both preserving Elizabeth Street Garden and advancing affordable housing solutions.We have identified multiple nearby city-owned and private sites, including vacant lots and unused buildings, which offer viable alternatives for creating even more affordable housing without sacrificing the Garden, ESG added. Despite the Citys messaging, these solutions provide real opportunities for housing without any loss to the community.Every day the City chooses not to seriously consider these alternative site proposals, we risk losing another opportunity to create affordable housing in the neighborhood, ESG continued. This is not a choice between saving the Garden and building affordable housingit is about rejecting false dichotomies and doing everything we can to preserve the one-of-a-kind Elizabeth Street Garden while achieving affordable housing for those who need it most.

Keeping TimeHesselbrand revitalizes an industrial loft in San Francisco with a European touchByEmily Conklin February 20, 2025Interiors, West (Adam Rouse)SHAREIn San Franciscos iconic Clocktower Building in South Beach,Hesselbrandhas inserted a unique loft residence into the landmarked architecture. In the 1990s the structure was converted to live-work lofts by David Baker, but after 30 years the London-based Hesselbrand was invited to put a European spin on one elevated and spacious residence. Hesselbrand first focused on the problem of natural light. Approaching the project as a work of adaptive reuse, designers recirculated access to and within the apartment by placing living and working spaces around the glazed perimeter. Previously, the industrial use of the building placed circulation on the outside, cutting off interior rooms from the sun.Read more on aninteriormag.com. Residential ArchitectureSan Francisco

A dreamy site-specific installation by New Yorkbased interdisciplinary artist Sanford Biggers illuminates the main chamber of the historic 1881 Sayles Hall at Brown University. The installation, Unsui (Cloud Forest), features 10 lighted cloud sculptures that are constructed out of aluminum, acrylic, and LED lights. Unsui, a Japanese word that translates into cloud, water, is used in Zen Buddhist tradition to refer to the wanderings of novice monks in search of their next teacher, or to any Zen practitioner who moves through life like a cloud, without being limited by attachments. The piece takes inspiration in part from Biggerss time studying Zen Buddhism in Japan. The cloud motif is something he frequently incorporates into his work. The theme will also appear in a new installation by Biggers debuting at Desert X this March.One of the impulses behind the installation was to create something that people can experience without any background information, said Biggers. They can make up their own impression and have their own experience that they can share with others.Biggers, who was a graffiti artist in his teens, has stylized the smooth faces of the clouds like an illustration. As light projects outward from the sculptures, shadows evade their flat surface. The effect is an almost cartoonish sky juxtaposed against the tangible history engrained in the wood rafters and stained glass windows surrounding it.The sculpturesmade of constructed out of aluminum, acrylic, and LED lightshang from the ceiling rafters. (Michael Vahrenwald/Brown University)Biggers was invited to create the work by artist and activist Carrie Mae Weems, who completed a campus residency with the Brown Arts Institute in 2023. Together, Biggers and arts leaders at Brown selected the 144-year-old Sayles Hall. I was thinking a lot about how bodies would move through the space and how its sort of a multi-purpose, multi-event space used by students, faculty, staff and visitors, Biggers said. Sayles Hall, a memorial to William Clark Sayles designed by Alpheus C. Morse, drew Biggers for many reasons including its history, patina and central location on Browns College Green. The space is most notable for two elements within: its housing of the oldest extant Hutchings-Votey organ in the world; and its display of a portrait collection of past university presidents, faculty members, and major benefactors. Through the installation, Biggers invites viewers to contemplate who is represented on the walls and who isnt.From the exterior of Sayles Hall, passersby can catch a glimpse of shape and light. (Michael Vahrenwald/Brown University)The Brown University Public Art Working Group, who reviewed Biggerss proposal, appreciate how the installation engages with the historic space without interfering with viewers experience of the portraits and other elements within it. We appreciated that Sanford was able to create a piece that is true to his artistic point of view but also resonated with the way the space has historically been used over many decades, shared Kate Kraczon, the Groups chair and chief curator for the Brown Arts Institute.Unsui (Cloud Forest) is expected to be on view through the end of 2025.

Nestled in the red clay of central Virginia, the town of Farmville sits at the intersection of Revolutionary War, Civil War, and Civil Rights Movement histories. For transdisciplinary designer, artist, and educator Curry J. Hackett, who operates a practice called Wayside Studio, that history is personal. Hackett attended county schools where his mother, artist Penny Stiff Hackett, taught art and whose practices were part of the landmark Supreme Court case Brown v. Board of Education. It was important for Curry to understand the land that his great-grandfather purchased many, many, many, many, many years ago, she told AN. Whenever we visited my grandmother, I would take Curry outside and I would walk through the woods, and I would talk to him about the significance of this and what it means for a Black person or Black people to own land. And once you get it, you just dont sell it. Because its hard for us to come by. Hacketts Black Virginian worldview is on full display in Waysides offerings. His father even played a role in the studios moniker: The name comes from his time as a civil engineer for Norfolk Southern Railroad and signifies equipment located at a grade crossing. Whether at the Harvard Graduate School of Design (from which he graduated with a masters, cheekily referring to the school afterward as the White Howard) or through public art projects like the Howard Theatre Walk of Fame, Hackett credits his mothers kin-keeping for helping him formulate his vision of Black futurity grounded not in ancient Egyptian iconography or Wakanda-like escapism but instead in the practices that sustained his ancestors.Diasflora (2020) in Washington, D.C. (Courtesy Lab)When I think about my future, I tend to think, How do I get back to the kind of agency that the last eight generations had? Hackett said.Up the road in Washington, D.C., Hacketts experience in the undergraduate program at Howard University helped solidify this worldview. At Howard, Hackett played trombone in the marching band, even marching in President Obamas first inaugural parade. He credits former dean of the architecture school Harry Robinson, who also served as his academic adviser, with fostering his interest in urban design and the relationship of people, culture, and life to the street and streetscape.Bradford Grant, Howards interim chair of the Department of Architecture, taught Hackett and served alongside him as an instructor when Hackett joined the faculty as an adjunct professor and critic. Hackett had this really rich kind of [mix] of creative impulses that he took advantage of at Howard, Grant said. And I think that really shaped some of his directions now that hes doing more professional and artistic work.Sticking around in D.C. after college led to a position working with DC Waters Clean Rivers Project, which fostered his interest in the intersections of infrastructure and public art. Two years into that venture he shifted from a staff position to working as a graphic design contractor for the projects public engagement team. He describes that shift, which provided him with the ability to pursue commissions like the Howard Walk of Fame project, as the first day of the rest of his life.Ugly Beauties (2024) by Curry J. Hackett of Wayside Studio with lighting design by Jelisa Blumburg, commissioned by Van Alen Institute (Cameron Blaylock)The diversity of Black experiences Hackett encountered at Howard helped him realize the uniqueness of his familys generational relationship with their land. This in part inspired AI Black History, the informal Instagram series that Hackett is perhaps best known for in the digital realm. Using Midjourney, Hackett portrays scenes of speculative Black realities like a Black family gathered for a portrait beneath a giant collard green plant and bathtubs-turned-planters on Harlem sidewalks. For Hackett, the interface offers an opportunity to share provocations, alternative visions of Black life that could exist with present-day technology and grounded in works by Black feminist artists and scholars like Stephanie Dinkins, Badia Ahad-Legardy, and Katherine McKittrick.Ive just been having fun folding Afro-descendant culture from various regions in the States in on themselves or cross-pollinating so-called Northern narratives with so-called South and Southern narratives, Hackett said. The artistic use of Midjourney has its critics, who point either to Midjourneys unsanctioned use of artists copyrighted material to train its modelwhich, a recent lawsuit alleges, is not without meritor the energy-intensive nature of generative AI. Hackett put it this way: I think people are uncomfortable with a tool that they are already uncomfortable with that [is] being used to render Black bodies and faces.Visitors to Hacketts So That You All Wont Forget: Speculations on a Black Home in Rural Virginia at Making HomeSmithsonian Design Triennial can see one of his AI pieces on CRT television that displays a mixture of AI-generated material and archival video. His family roots anchor the exhibition: A commissioned painting by his mother serves as the emotional and philosophical centerpiece of the installation.Installation of So That You All Wont Forget: Speculations on a Black Home in Rural Virginia by Curry J. Hackett, Wayside Studio in Making HomeSmithsonian Design Triennial at Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum. (Elliot Goldstein Smithsonian Institution)Hacketts speculative visions keep him busy. He spent the first two weeks of the year in Veracruz, Mexico, as part of ongoing research into how Black populations in the Americas make and remake cities on their own terms. The trip was the longest stretch hes been abroad. Upon his return, he began a second semester of teaching at the City College of New York as part of the Mellon Foundations Place, Memory, Culture incubator.Work will also bring him closer to home in Washington, D.C., as a public art strategist on the team behind the New Pennsylvania Avenue Plan, led by David Rubin Land Collective in collaboration with HR&A Advisors, where hell once again unite infrastructure and the arts. The plans commission was announced last fall, and it is expected to be completed in 2027. For David Rubin Land Collective, the fact that I lived in D.C. for 12 years was a kind of boon, Hackett said. The project is also one of the first examples where Im able to bring all of my experience to bear on a single project.Irene Vzquez is a queer Black Mexican American poet, translator, and journalist.

The Jeff Harnar Awards for Architecture are now accepting submissions for 2025. The Jeff Harnar Awards program was created by Garrett Thornburg in 2007 to honor the memory of architect Jeff Harnar, known for his groundbreaking design in contemporary architecture in New Mexico. The deadline to apply is March 24, 2025.For 2025 the program includes the following six categories:Contemporary Architecture in the Southwest ($10,000 Prize)Unbuilt Architecture ($3,000 Prize)Unbuilt Landscape Architecture ($3,000 Prize)Innovative Regional Design ($3,000 PrizeJurys selection from all submissions)Student Architecture (First Place $2,000 and Second Place $1,000)Student Landscape Architecture (First Place $2,000 and Second Place $1,000)The Jeff Harnar Awards are made possible by the Thornburg Foundation, who has sponsored this program for the past 18 years. The University of New Mexicos School of Architecture + Planning organizes the competition and determines both the award process and selection of the jury.The award presentation and celebration will be held on April 11, 2025 at 5:30 p.m. at the School of Architecture + Plannings Garcia Honda Auditorium, located in George Pearl Hall at University of New Mexico.The award jury includes Chris Cornelius, University of New Mexico; Claudia Meyer Horn, Design Office; Gabriel Diaz Montemayor from University of Arkansas; Winnifred E. Newman, Clemson University; Monica Ponce de Leon, Princeton University; and Francisco J. Rodriguez, University of Illinois, Urbana Champaign. Best of Show submissions will be featured in a digital exhibition following the presentation. For application details and to submit an entry, visit this website.For additional information, please visit this link.(Courtesy Jeff Harnar Awards)(Courtesy Jeff Harnar Awards)(Courtesy Jeff Harnar Awards)(Courtesy Jeff Harnar Awards)(Courtesy Jeff Harnar Awards)

The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) has a total workforce of roughly 9,600 staffers. Last week, the new Trump-appointed HUD director, Scott Turner, was ordered to lay off about half of HUDs employees, or nearly 4,300 people. The move comes from a recommendation by Trumps Department of Government Efficiency, or DOGE, directed by Elon Musk. The downsizing could have serious ramifications for building projects that rely on HUD financing and also low-income households that depend on HUD to pay rent.Antonio Gaines, president of HUD Council 222 of the American Federation of Government Employees, told Bloomberg Law that employees tasked with enforcing civil rights laws, compiling housing market data, affordable housing construction, and post-disaster relief will bear the brunt of the firings.HUDs downsizing would likely make it harder for low-income families to pay housing costs, including those with Section 8 vouchers; to preserve and build affordable housing; and support homeless shelters. It will also limit access to data that researchers rely upon to identify and address inequities in the built environment.The mandate came around the same time the Trump administration ordered the GSA to sell off a wide array of the properties it owns and/or leases,creating an uncertain future for a number of remarkable buildings, including ones designed by Mies van der Rohe, Walter Gropius, and Victor Lundy. Under New LeadershipHUDs new director, Scott Turner, is a former NFL player turned politician. He previously worked in Trumps first administration as the executive director of the White House Opportunity and Revitalization Council after serving as a representative from Texas. He was confirmed to lead HUD in a 5544 vote on February 5.Turner has since created his own internal DOGE task force, modeled after the one Musk helms. HUD will be detailed and deliberate about every dollar spent to serve rural, tribal and urban communities, Turner said in a statement about the move.Thanks to President Trumps leadership, we are no longer in a business-as-usual posture and the DOGE task force will play a critical role in helping to identify and eliminate waste, fraud and abuse and ultimately better serve the American people, Turner continued. We have already identified over $260 millionin savings and we have more to accomplish. Later, Musks DOGE announced it had located $1.9 billion that was misplaced during the Biden administration due to a broken process. These funds were earmarked for the administration of financial services, but were no longer needed. Now the monies have been recovered.Following the PlaybookThe plan for downsizing HUD was outlined several months ago in the Heritage Foundations Mandate for Leadership: The Conservative Promise,a922-page document otherwise known as Project 2025.InChapter 15 of the Project 2025 guidebook, former HUD director Ben Carson outlined major policy changes hed like to see: Carson suggested devolving many HUD functions to states and localities. So-called Indian housing, for instance, might be moved from HUD to the Department of the Interior.Project 2025 was said to be a Christian nationalist initiative.It appears many of the plans strategies are now being enacted, and some of its shapers have been elevated to government roles, like Russell Vought, who again directs the Office of Management and Budget. He is referred to as an architect of Project 2025.Many of Heritage Foundations backers are real estate developers. The think tank was founded in 1973 by Joseph Coors, the Coors beer magnate, to help cut taxes for the uber wealthy. Its other sponsors include ExxonMobil, Bank of America, JP Morgan Chase, Shell, Dow Chemical, General Motors, Pfizer, the Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America, Altria (which produces Marlboro cigarettes), and hundreds of other corporations.Democrats Resist?In response to the anticipated HUD layoffs, on February 16, Democratic senators shared a letter to demand that Trump and Musk halt the HUD cuts. It was signed by Kirsten Gillibrand, Patty Murray, Chuck Schumer, Tina Smith, and Elizabeth Warren. The authors warned that reductions could jeopardize seniors, homeless veterans and HUDs capacity to address the nations housing crisis.The letter states that between 2012 and 2019, HUDs staffing levels fell by over 20 percent, and independent audits repeatedly pointed to capacity gaps across HUD. Its text reminds Turner that his own address to HUDs workforce on February 6 highlighted the many challenges facing HUD and communities: a housing affordability crisis, homelessness, and disaster recovery efforts and that President Trump, on his first day in office, signed an executive order to defeat the cost-of-living crisis. President Trumps reckless threats of blanket tariffs on friendly nations could drive up housing costs, deter new development, and slow rebuilding efforts in disaster-impacted communities. Freezing already obligated funds, cancelling necessary program contracts, and hastily gutting HUDs workforce will inevitably lead to costly delays, and many housing projects will fall apart completely, only making our current housing crisis worse, the senators wrote. They urge Turner to immediately stop any additional cuts to HUDs workforce and furnish ten questions that they want answered by February 21.Federal Housing Administration WoesAnother HUD component on the chopping block is the Federal Housing Administration. Created by Congress in 1934 and integrated into HUD in 1965, the entity provides mortgage insurance for individuals who might not otherwise qualify for coverage. The agency insures mortgages on single family homes, multifamily properties, residential care facilities, and hospitals throughout the United States and its territories.According to reporting on February 18, in Bloomberg, at least 40 percent of the operations staff are at risk of being laid off.The next morning, on February 19, HUD rebuked these claims when a spokesperson told CNN that suggestions FHA will cut about half its workforce are not accurate. According to CNN, the FHA is currently one of the largest mortgage insurers in the world and is actively insuring over 8 million single-family mortgages and thousands of mortgages for multifamily properties and health care facilities.The FHA generates income for the U.S. government through loans that generative a positive return. As reported in Bloomberg, the FHAs Mutual Mortgage Fund grew from $145 billion to $173 billion in capital over the last fiscal year, with a capital ratio of 11.47%. One staffer described the agency as the goose that laid the golden egg.Disaster ReliefThe downsizing could throw a wrench in climate resiliency and disaster relief efforts, too. The Green and Resilient Retrofit Program has been targeted for cancellation by Turners HUD administration.Created by the 2022 Inflation Reduction Act, it awarded more than $1 billion to private companies to help them upgrade apartment buildings for HUD-subsidized tenants, making them more energy efficient, according to NPR. The companies whove been awarded the upgrade money have not spent most of it yet, because real estate deals take years. The HUD staffer told of the cancellation said that means thousands of construction and other jobs the program generates might now be lost.Last October, Hurricane Helene decimated parts of North Carolina and Tennessee. Sarah Labowitz, aWashington Post contributor and nonresident scholar at Carnegie Endowment for International Peaces Sustainability, told AN that reconstruction funding for uninsured households will come from HUDs Community Development Block Grant Disaster Recovery money.With this latest round of proposed cuts, disaster relief in North Carolina, eastern Tennessee, and other locales impacted by global warming hangs in a state of uncertainty.

Well, it was nice while it lasted. A letter from U.S. transportation secretary Sean Duffy to New York Governor Kathy Hochul, indicates an end to congestion pricing in New York City. The system, 20 years in the making, went into effect on January 5. Passenger vehicles entering Manhattan below 60th Street are charged $9, with proceeds earmarked to fund transit projects for the Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA). The letter sent from the U.S. Department of Transportations Federal Highway Administration to Hochul on Wednesday, February 19 said the Central Business District Tolling Program (CBDTP), part of the Value Pricing Pilot Program (VPPP), will be terminated. Duffy called the program backwards and unfair. A timeline for when exactly when the program will be shuttered has not yet been determined.In the letter, Duffy outlines the administrations reasoning to shut down the program. These include the effects it has on working class individuals. Duffy also suggested that congestion pricings revenue should be pooled for making highway infrastructure improvements, rather than funding MTA projects. The letter mentions the Federal-Aid Act of 1916, legislation that requires that roads funded via federal money be free of tolls; Congress can approve an exception, but did not grant one for CBDTP. As for how its been going, in the days following the enactment of congestion pricing, traffic studies indicated gridlock lessened, with an average of 43,800 fewer vehicles per day, or 219,000 fewer vehicles per week.Theres so much evidence that people are experiencing a much less traffic-congested environment, said Janno Lieber, the chairman and chief executive of the MTA. Theyre seeing streets that are moving more efficiently, and theyre hearing less noise, and theyre feeling a less tense environment around tunnels and bridges.The move to red light the program doesnt come as a total shock. While there was pushback before it went into effect, its opposition continued to rally against congestion pricing even after January 5. On January 20, the day of Trumps inauguration, New Jersey Governor Phil Murphy wrote a letter to Trump urging him to stop congestion pricing, calling it a disaster for working and middle-class New Jersey commuters and residents. He asked that it be examined again by the federal government. It appears he got his way.

Its been more than 60 years since Archigram hit the press, but the magazine founded by Warren Chalk, Peter Cook, Dennis Crompton, Ron Herron, David Greene, and Michael Webb still hasnt lost its charge.Now, Distributed Art Publishers (D.A.P.) is reissuing all ten issues of Archigram, the publication which eventually snowballed into the experimental architecture practice we know today. D.A.P. launched a Kickstarter to help raise funds for the project, which went live this morning. Original copies of Archigram are sold on the market for $600 a pop. The project by D.A.P. to reissue Archigram will help democratize the publications proliferation.The first issue of Archigram was two pages long. (Courtesy D.A.P.)The first issue of Archigram went out in 1961 and was two pages long; it was created in part using an electric typewriter. Beatriz Colomina called Archigram a protest magazine against the stodginess of the architectural establishment. It remains so. Ever little and huge in its impact. Michael Sorkin said Archigram was architectures version of The Beatles.Dennis Crompton, an Archigram cofounder and longtime friend of AN, who passed recently, said after he and his friends started the magazine, the name stuck, and they went on to build a movement that changed architecture forever. For those new to Archigram, a fully illustrated readers guide will help provide context with tributes by 28 contemporary architectural luminaries, including: Tadao Ando, Shigeru Ban, Aric Chen, Beatriz Colomina, Mike Davies, Odile Decq, Neil Denari, Norman Foster, Kenneth Frampton, Nicholas Grimshaw, Ivan Harbour, Tom Heneghan, Steven Holl, Bjarke Ingels, and others.The reprint will also include original essays by Cook, David Grahame Shane, Shirley Surya, Helen Castle, and Reyner Banham.The reprints will introduce a new generation to canonical projects, like Walking City. (Courtesy D.A.P.)D.A.P. noted that all of Archigrams exquisite idiosyncrasies will be faithfully reproduced including its flyers, pockets, a pop-up centerfold, posters, gatefolds and an electronic resistor. The reprints will also have 8 posters, 10 gatefolds, an electronic resistor. The issues will be contained within a large-format clamshell box designed by Miko McGinty.(Courtesy D.A.P.)The publishing project will introduce readers to canonical projects like Walking City, Plug-In City and Instant City in the manner in which they were received decades ago: In book form, not on a screen. D.A.P. described the reprint as perhaps its most ambitious publishing project to date and as a labor of love conducted over the past two years in partnership with Designers & Books and Archigram.ANis in conversation with D.A.P. about programming to support the title and its intersection with the interests of ANs cofounder Bill Menking for next fall.

Today Gensler Detroit announced the promotion of Antoine Bryant from co-managing director to managing director. The move comes on the heels of a previous appointment of Bryant as a juror for ANs own Best of Practice Awards, an annual award that honors businesses of all kinds within the AEC community. With over 25 years of experience in design, planning, and development, Bryants focus on creating equitable cities and environments makes him an asset to the firm as well as the panel for Best of Practice. Before Gensler, Bryant served as the Director of Planning & Development for the City of Detroit. Under this title, as with all his titles, he focused on community empowerment and championed disenfranchised neighborhoods to have a larger voice in the growth of their own communities. During his term, Bryant helped oversee the redevelopment of the blighted Fisher Body Plant, Plan Detroit masterplan, and created a historic preservation plan for the city. He is also on the board of directors for National Organization of Minority Architects (NOMA). As a voice for inclusive spaces, backed by truly supportive systems and not merely surface-level representation, Bryant brings a discerning eye to the Best of Practice jury. AN spoke with the managing director to learn more about the state of practice in both government and private firms, as well as his advice to applying to Best of Practice ahead of the March 28 deadline.AN: What prompted or inspired the move from city government to a managing position at Gensler?Antoine Bryant [AB]: The opportunity to join Gensler, a global design firm, is a natural extension of my work with the Planning & Development Department for the City of Detroit. It was incredibly satisfying to direct and collaboratively work toward creating policy directives and framework for the entire city to move toward.Now, in my role at Gensler, I am leading an amazing group of architects and designers on numerous projects throughout greater metro Detroit and beyond.AN:How does your work in planning and advocating for community equity and inclusion translate to the internal organization of a firm? Do these approaches or techniques overlap?AB:One of the primary assets in planning and advocacy work is the ability to understand people with compassion. Ive made this the foundation of my professional career, and it has helped me successfully build rapport with the communities we serve.This same approach translates directly to the internal maturation of a team, as individuals want to feel included, appreciated, and valued. If Im successful, then the morale rises exponentially, leading to a team that is laser-focused on accomplishing our collective goals. AN: As someone who has worn many hats and titles, in what ways do you think different practiceslike city planners, developers, and architecture firmsshould improve upon their work and relationships with one another?AB:I believe there is a real opportunity for a more synergistic approach toward design and development, especially here in the United States. A healthy appreciation for collaboration, as well as a respect for the intrinsic value each discipline brings, will ultimately lead to more defined growth for the entire built environment. Working together, early and often, will result in greater allegiance and a far more inclusive and satisfying result for our communities.AN: How do you strive for good practice in your own work? What is the meaning of good practice? AB:Whether we are working with a neighborhood group, corporate entity, developer, or a university, we must ensure that we understand their goals while examining the project contextually, acknowledging its place within the larger landscape.This comprehensive view of the project and the resulting high-quality, inclusive design solution are critical elements of a good practice. AN:What are you looking for in Best of Practice applications?AB:Good design, which should include: innovation, or are we providing creative ideas that are leading (or even changing) the narrative around this practice area?; responsiveness, or does the solution compassionately and completely address a broad scope of desires from the client, community, and the larger city?; and sustainability, which asks does the solution satisfy the necessity of environmental resiliency? Will the design solution last the next 50 years or more?AN: What advice do you have for those applying to Best of Practice?AB: My advice is to highlight the differentiators, purpose, and impact of your project. How does it stand above the rest in areas including but not limited to design, impact, and sustainability? How does it address the challenges presented by the client and how can you communicate design solutions clearly? How can you qualify the impact for the client and the community Acknowledging each of these parameters will strengthen the submission.Best of Practice submissions will be accepted until March 28, 2025by midnight ET. Early Bird registration ends February 28, 2025. Learn more about the application process and start applications here.

Painting the FloorRebekka Stanges Rkki Rugs take center stageByElizabeth Fazzare February 19, 2025Design, International (Rebekka Stange)SHAREAs a costume designer, Berlin-based talent Rebekka Stange knows fibers like the back of her hand, having created garments for theater and opera productions in France, Germany, the Netherlands, and Switzerland and for films by directors like Francis Lawrence and Roland Emmerich. Her latest venture allows her to explore their relationship to interior space. Officially launched in 2022 after a successful presentation during Salone del Mobile, her new company,Rkki Rugs, offers handmade Tibetan loop knotted carpets, designed with Stanges well-trained eye for hue, material, and detail. Dyed, woven, and finished in collaboration with artisans in Kathmandu, Nepal, that she met during a scouting trip in early 2020, Rkkis output is the result of a meticulous manufacturing process. But, from her studio in Germany, Stange approaches each rug like a work of art.Read more about the rugs on aninteriormag.com. rugs

The project team behind the National Juneteenth Museum have shared new renderings of the future building in Fort Worth, Texas, designed by BIG. The release coincided with a vote last week by the Fort Worth County Council which gave the institution the green light to begin site construction, a major milestone. BIGs design for the National Juneteenth Museum was first rolled out in 2022, as reported by AN. Renderings shared last week show a building that, for the most part, is still the same, with some slight variations.Renderings from 2022 reveal a much larger courtyard at the museums center, while the latest iteration has a smaller center space. The older building also had a footprint that went up closer to the site line, while this most recent version has a larger step back from the street, opening up more pedestrian space to the front.The design is centered around a signature public courtyard. (Courtesy BIG/KAI Enterprises)There are also differences in material choices: The 2022 batch of renderings show a building clad in much lighter wood when compared to the 2024 visuals. Despite these variances, the overall concept remains the same: A building with 12 ridges that flute out from a central courtyard. Douglass Alligood, a partner at BIG, is the projects lead designer. Aside from his work on the National Juneteenth Museum, Alligood is also behind a memorial for Buffalos 2022 mass shooting victims, Seeing Us, together with Jin Young Song.Our design for the National Juneteenth Museum is inspired by the resilience of the African American experience, transforming those stories into a space for reflection, education, and celebration, Alligood said in a statement. The museum will serve as a bridge between the past and future, honoring history while nurturing community growth and connection.A 25-seat theater will host concerts. (Courtesy BIG/KAI Enterprises)There will also be an expansive food hall. (Courtesy BIG/KAI Enterprises)Upon completion, the National Juneteenth Museum will offer 10,000 square feet of immersive exhibition galleries for storytelling and educational moments. The exhibition design of the museum will be headed by Local Project. As visitors walk through the galleries to view artifacts and information they will encounter interactive stations. The museum will also house a 250-seat theater, a Black Box flex space for traveling exhibitions, a business incubator, coworking space to support entrepreneurs, and a food hall.The museums signature space will be the National Juneteenth Plaza, a public courtyard and green space designed with gatherings and reflection in mind. According to the renderings, that exterior surfaces that face the courtyard will be perforated screens faced with a dark red patina.A business incubator space clad in wood will support entrepreneurs. (Courtesy BIG/KAI Enterprises)Galleries will host immersive exhibitions and storytelling moments. (Courtesy BIG/KAI Enterprises)The unanimous vote on February 11 by Fort Worth City Council granted the National Juneteenth Museum a 40-year lease at the site. With this approval, the building which currently occupies the site, the Southside Community Center, will be razed and the National Juneteenth Museum will go up in its place.The future National Juneteenth Museum is slated for completion in 2026.

The community had a lot of demands for the recently completed North Boulder Library, designed by the New Yorkbased practice WORKac: It had to be accessible, accommodate the local Spanish-speaking population, and respond to the neighborhoods recent growth and development. Plus, it had to be available to community groups and add a pollinator garden and makerspace kitchen in addition to hosting bookshelves and play spaces. The three-year process was the most extensive community engagement weve ever done, WORKac principal Amale Andraos told AN during an interview at the practices office on the Lower East Side. The result is a library that is playful, colorful, and responsive. WORKac, which Andraos has led with Dan Wood since its founding in 2003, was selected for the job through an RFP issued in 2018. At the time, the firm had recently completed its first library, a facility for Kew Gardens Hills in Queens, New York, and it has since completed a new branch location for the Brooklyn Public Library in Dumbo.A yellow spiral slide emerges from the mountain-facing facade, part of a future playground. (Bruce Damonte)The library for NoBo has been 25 years in the making, as residents were anticipating its arrival for decades before the RFP was issued. Its constituents had divergent opinions about its potential. For the occupants of the apartment complexes across the street, a library would mean increased traffic, blocked views, and less recreation space. For an immigrant population living in the adjacent mobile-home community, it could offer a place to learn and practice English.Cedar lines the north and east elevations of the library, and a contrasting standing seam metal cladding wraps its south elevation and roof. (Bruce Damonte)Though the brief called for architects to create an iconic building, Andraos and Wood approached the idea through sustainability and community engagement. This meant beginning from these concerns as the origin of the design process.A few years into the project, pandemic strictures threatened key aspects of the librarys design. The green roof was cut; cladding materials were swapped for more cost-effective alternatives; and library and community initiatives, like the garden, were cut back. Still, the project survived, and the building opened to the public in June 2024. In the end, it was the planning process and the community engagement that saved the project, Andraos reflected. The city ended up putting in a little bit more money, and the project was able to keep most of its features.The building, a pentagon in plan, is located on a triangular site close to Broadway, a main thoroughfare. New apartments have been built to the north, the mobile-home community is to the east, and picturesque views of the Boulder Flatirons are to the south. The site required more than just architecture: Dead-end streets abutting the site were connected, and a new roadway enables fire access. The main entrance to the library faces north, and a path was added that allows access on foot from the mobile-home community.Community meeting rooms are located on the second level. (Bruce Damonte)Wood explained how North Boulder Librarys polygonal geometries recall the high desert landscape and the mountain ranges on the horizon. To avoid interfering with the views of the residences lining the north end of the site, the peak of the building was positioned to align with 13th Street. Cedar lines the north and east elevations of the library, and a contrasting standing seam metal cladding wraps its south elevation and roof.WORKac positioned the librarys reading rooms with views of the mountains (Bruce Damonte)Like other freestanding buildings by WORKac, there is a formal attempt at landscape integration: Here, the single-story portion of the building on its north side is capped by a sloping roof with a walkway. An interactive art piece from Daily tous les jours, a Montreal-based design studio, installed on the ramp turns footsteps into a symphony of musical notes. (In a nice bit of synergy, the studio, which won a competition for the public art commission, was cofounded by Mounda Andraos, sister of WORKacs principal.) On the mountain-facing south facade, a yellow spiral slide hints at the forthcoming installation of a larger playground. Inside, private workspaces and community meeting rooms were placed to the north against the street, and reading rooms were given views of the mountains. Additional community spaces, including offices and classrooms for the Boulder Reads program, are located on the second floor.The green toile wallpaper design was conceived by from graphic designer Andrew Freeman, who referenced archival images of Boulder. (Bruce Damonte)The long reading room tapers in plan and section, which gives the space a sense of forced perspective. On the ceiling, the ductwork was left exposed and painted white. Color is used selectively and appears via linoleum floors and bathroom tiling. A staircase is bent at a sharp angle in plan, a nod to the areas geography, and its inside sports a green toile wallpaper design from graphic designer Andrew Freeman, who referenced archival images of Boulder to draw the scenes depicted in the pattern. Throughout, the Kawneer windows are shaped to mimic and frame the nearby peaks.Throughout the library, Kawneer windows frame the landscape. (Bruce Damonte)The library is open and bustling, but it is still a work in progress. Boulder Public Library director David Farnan has raised funds for the completion of the playground and makerspace plaza and is working to bring back other proposed features, including the green roof. In the meantime, the community has arrived to browse books, take courses, and, of course, use the slide.Theres something about libraries that is immediately clear that its for the community, Wood said. Whether youre a kid or an immigrant or someone who has lived there their whole life, its very clear that this is theirs, and there is an immediate takeover.

Simone Withers Swan, who introduced Nubian vaulted adobe construction to the Chihuahuan desert of Texas and Mexico at the turn of the 21st century, died in Tucson, Arizona, on January 16, 2025. She was 96 years old. Simone Swan was a legendary personality: mercurial, seductive, cultivated, curious, determined, imperious. She was by turns an architectural patron, architectural muse, construction foreman, and construction teacher. Based in New York City, where she started a public relations firm, Swan was recruited by Houston art and architecture patron John de Menil in 1964 to publicize art events associated with Menil and his wife, Dominique Schlumberger de Menil. From 1973 until 1977, Swan was the first executive vice-president of the Menil Foundation. Photographed with Andy Warhol, profiled in newspaper articles alongside Gloria Vanderbilt, Mica Ertegun, and Charlotte Ford, Swan was even the subject of a hit song by Carly Simon (Cow Town, from 1976s Another Passenger).From left: John de Menil, Andy Warhol, Simone Swan, Fred Hughes, Dominique de Menil, and Howard Barnstone in Buckminster Fullers geodesic dome for Expo 67, Montreal, 1967. (Courtesy Menil Archives, The Menil Collection, Houston)In Houston, she was the client for (but never lived in) one of the two original Tin Houses that architect Eugene Aubry designed for her and for gallery owner Fredericka Hunter. Louis I. Kahn was designing a weekend home for her in Southold, New York, the time of his death in 1974. She later commissioned Swan House, which Charles Moore designed for her in 1976 on the same Long Island site. It was a simple but poignant wood house that embodied what was most endearing in Moores architecture. She occupied the home for 25 years; later, she spent summers there and winters in West Texas. During the 1970s, architecture editor Peter Blake prevailed on her to write for his magazine, Architecture Plus, about contemporary architecture in Africa. Swans extensive friendship network included architects Howard Barnstone, Natalie de Blois, Carlos Jimnez, Christopher Genik, and Rick Joy.In 1975, Swan made the acquaintance of the Cairo architect Hassan Fathy. Between 1975 and 1980, she traveled to Cairo numerous times to help Fathy put his papers in order and to learn the basics of Nubian adobe construction. This was a traditional practice that Fathy became aware of in the 1940s, and which he subsequently promoted as a sustainable, socially responsible technology that enabled low-income people in arid climates to construct their own dwellings. What is singular about Nubian adobe construction is that it employs adobe domes and catenary adobe vaults to enclose buildings. No other materials are required, not even wood formwork. When, in 1991, Swan first visited the Trans-Pecos region of Texas, the far western tip of the state where El Paso and Marfa are located, she recognized parallels between its arid climate and desert landscape and those of Egypt. Adobe was already the most venerable building technology in the Trans-Pecos (and in the neighboring state of New Mexico and, across the Ro Grande, in the Mexican state of Chihuahua). In 1995, Swan acquired property outside the border town of Presidio, Texas, where she determined to build vaulted adobe structures. She found allies across the border in Ojinaga, Chihuahua: the adobe brickmaker Daniel Rodrguez Camacho, master adobera Mara Jess Jimnez, and adoberos Efrn Rodrguez and Roberto Hernndez.In 1998 Swan began construction of Casa Swan, a 1,600-square-foot, off-grid, desert house with adobe vaults and domes. With the aid of her colleagues from Ojinaga, she started an adobe construction workshop, teaching all phases of the manufacturing and construction process. Swan attracted an international array of students (including architect Ronald Rael) for what became the annual November workshop of the Adobe Alliance, the nonprofit she had started in 1993. Swan did not attract the support of officials in Presidio or Presidio County, for whom she remained an exotic outsider. Nor did she persuade people in Presidio or Ojinaga to build their own adobe houses, let alone launch a movement for self-built, affordable adobe housing. To document Swans work and that of the Adobe Alliance, Dennis Dollens wrote Simone Swan: Adobe Building, published by SITES in 2005. In 2016, she received an Honorary Lifetime Membership from The Earthbuilders Guild.View this post on InstagramA post shared by The Earthbuilders Guild (@theearthbuildersguild)Swans friend, Houston artist and patron Surpik Angelini, wrote of her: Simone was a soul whisperer to celebrated and upcoming artists, architects, anthropologists, philosophers, writers, filmmakers, musical composers, ecologists, freedom fighters, activists, and humble adobe builders, all geniuses in their own fields who changed our world for good. On a personal level, Simone was an unadulterated child, marveling at everything that brought new knowledge, and an old sage with an unerring wisdom rooted in many past lives in magnificent ancestral cultures.In a remembrance for The Earthbuilders Guild, Ronald Rael shared: We spoke often about the politics of adobe. I shared my belief that building with adobe is a political acta stance against capitalism and, in some cases, restrictive building regulations. It was a way to reaffirm ones connection to heritage, land-based practices, and sustainability, standing in opposition to a disposable, plastic society. Simone was equally passionate, and from those conversations emerged Adobe is Political, a mantra that became Simones tagline. Together, we envisioned architecture as more than constructionit was an ethical and moral statement, a social act with the power to transform. Simone Juliette Withers Swan was born in Antwerp, Belgium, on November 30, 1928, the only child of a Dutch-Belgian mother, Simone van den Berch van Heemstede, and an expatriate American father, Noble Withers. Swan spent much of her youth in what is now the Democratic Republic of the Congo. In 1949, she married Alfred Hjalmar Swan, Jr., in Los Angeles. They had two children, Eric H. Swan and Victoria Swan Takahashi, before divorcing. During the 2000s, Swan split her time between Presidio and Santa Fe, New Mexico, before moving to Tucson, where she lived with her daughter. After advancing age compelled her to sell Casa Swan in 2022, the Adobe Alliance suspended operations.By force of her personality and style, Simone Swan cut a swathe across the Chihuahuan Desert. She pursued the cause of adobe construction with dedication and diligence in the conviction that, as she asserted, adobe is political. Not only a material, adobe also became a method; a means of social reproduction; and an ethical imperative for building, repairing, and living responsibly in a damaged world.Stephen Fox is an architectural historian and a fellow of the Anchorage Foundation of Texas. He is a lecturer in architecture at Rice University and the University of Houston.

From flooring to furniture, this roundup prioritizes recycled materials, circular design, and sustainability at-scale. (Courtesy AHF Products)Ingenious PlankAHF ProductsThis hybrid resilient flooring is made with a renewable and recycled core composed of natural wood fibers encapsulated in resin and raw materials. It is 100-percent PVC-free, suitable for residentialand light commercial applications. Available in 23 wood visuals, Ingenious Plank is dent-proof and durable while offering an attached pad for sound absorption.(Courtesy Rimadesio)RialtoRimadesioRialto is a freestanding furniture collection of bar cabinets, side tables, and consoles. Modern and linear design unite the pieces, as well as a focus on recyclable and recycled materials such as aluminum, glass, and wood.(Courtesy Hydro)Hydro CIRCALHydroMade from post-consumer aluminum sourced from old windows, doors, and facades, CIRCAL is the worlds first aluminum facade made entirely from scrap and produced at an industrial scale. The material is remelted, reducing carbon emissions and waste, and remade for facade, extrusions, windows, furniture, and more applications. (Courtesy Fiberon)Wildwood Composite CladdingFiberonMade with a minimum of 94-percent recycled content, Wildwood Composite cladding offers a long-lasting, low-maintenance, and more sustainable alternative to traditional wood cladding. It is available in a variety of board lengths and widths for more design solutions.(Courtesy REGUPOL)REGUPOL UpscaleREGUPOLUpscale is made from recycled rubber tires and planks to create flooring with slip resistance and acoustic benefits, making it suitable for healthcare, education, and other commercial applications. Custom colors are available, as well as a square or micro-bevel edge. Tiles and planks can be mixed and matched to create custom looks.(Courtesy CENTRIA)INTERCEPT+ Modular Metal PanelsCENTRIAINTERCEPT+ Modular Metal Panels incorporate modules of varying sizes for different depths, tapers, slopes, and perforation for diverse facade designs and easy-to-install rainscreens. The lightweight cladding uses 100-percent-metal substrate that is recyclable at the end of its life. (Courtesy Oldcastle APG)Moisture Shield Meridian DeckingOldcastle APGThese composite deck boards offer a low-profile wood grain with CoolDeck technology that reduces heat by up to 35 percent compared to standard capped composite decking. Its almost entirely made from recycled materials, including post-consumer plastic, industrial plastic, wood fibers, and other recycled content.(Courtesy Neolith)IgneaNeolithInspired by volcanic landscapes, the color of cooled matter, and the textures found in magmatic cycles, the Ignea collection features intense color with a riverwash finish. The sintered stone is made with up to 98-percent-recycled content and has a 98R seal for its recycled composition.

To Build LawCanadian Centre for Architecture1920 Baile Street, MontrealOn view through May 25What do architects do? At the risk of eliding the many other forms of labor involved, the easy answer is to say that they make buildings. Whether through physical or intellectual effort, the production of new buildings has been at the center of architectures disciplinary focus for centuries. Given the burning need to address climate change and other matters of pressing ecological concern, the Canadian Centre for Architecture (CCA) in Montreal has commissioned Groundwork, a series of three film-based exhibitions presenting the work of architects whose modes of practice shift their focus from completed buildings onto the processes of the buildings becoming. The highly compelling and fiercely urgent second chapter in this trilogy is now on display at the CCA. To Build Law presents Berlin-based bplus.xyz (b+)s campaign to use direct democracy within the European Unions governance structures to apply political pressure in favor of renovation and against demolition. Spearheaded by Arno Brandlhuber (b+), Olaf Grawert (b+), and Alina Ana Kolar (station+), the idea is straightforward: Given the embodied carbon and other material outlays present in Europes existing building stock, to demolish extant structures and replace them with new builds seems wholly incompatible with existing emissions-reduction commitments and public opinion. Fittingly, b+ is correctly and judiciously seeking to change the series of financial and regulatory norms that favor new builds on cleared sites.Installation view of To Build Law CCA. (Matthieu Brouillard/ CCA)To do so, b+ has partnered with station+ (s+, a teaching and research platform at ETH Zrich that uses film and television as narrative tools) and others to found HouseEurope!, an NGO gathering collaborators from several European countries to launch the European Citizens Initiative. If they can gather over one million signatures from EU citizens during a 12-month period, the European Commission will be obliged to consider their proposal, which calls for three changes: (1) to boost renovation markets with tax incentives, (2) to institute fair and harmonized standards for renovation, and (3) to apply intemporal life cycle assessments in the building sector. The current iteration of the office founded by Brandlhuber in 2006, b+ has demonstrated the ecological value (and photogenic appeal) of adaptive reuse through well-known projects such as Brunnenstrae 9 and San Gimignano Lichtenberg. The challenges that made these sites unappealing for speculative development created the very conditions that have allowed b+ to successfully intervene. Often, b+ has introduced ecological arguments where aesthetic appeals have previously failedfor example the successful campaign to prevent the demolition of Berlins Brutalist Musebunker, a former animal testing laboratory.Conceptually, To Build Law is divided chronologically into three parts. The first, presented across two galleries, covers the period 200723 and gives a project-based history of b+s practice. In addition to the works mentioned above, b+s incipient attempts at political activism are featured, such as its 2011 intervention in the Berlin state elections, in which it critiqued all major parties failure to address housing concerns. With Archipel, a 2012 exhibition, b+ reflected on the danger that its adaptive reuse projects were in fact contributing to the homogenization of Berlin. As with many recent CCA exhibitions, the materials illustrating b+s biography are presented horizontally on tables in a nonhierarchical fashion, leaving the visitor free to choose which items are worthy of more concentrated attention. Turning to the near present, To Build Law presents a 50-minute film directed by Joshua Frank that follows Brandlhuber, Grawert, and Kolar as they plan HouseEurope!s European Citizens Initiative. Viewers follow these principals through a series of meetings, lectures, and planning sessions. While the consequences of what they propose are radicalnothing less than the fundamental redirection of the European building industry and its laborers away from new construction toward adaptive reusetheir methods are presented as banal. Slow and thoughtful work within existing systems is central to their vision of activism, which is illustrated by the amount of time Franks camera spends on the setting up for and putting away of chairs after meetings. These gatherings are well lit, everyone speaks clearly, and disagreements lead to dialectical synthesis: Should Stop Demolition! or Ready for Renovation be the movements slogan? The answer is simple: It will be a combination of both.HouseEurope! assembly at Tempelhof Airport, Berlin, 2024, from the documentary film To Build Law. ( CCA)The same aesthetic smoothness present in b+s projects guides its attempts to influence the European political system. This is not a revolution from below, and hints of (West) Berlins radical politics and environmentalism of the 1970s and 80s are few and far between in To Build Law. Reuse is not a matter of squatting in neglected structures; instead, we follow Grawert and Kolar as they meet with a Swiss consultant who advises them how to market their campaign. Berlins history of ground-up activism on spatial issues offers, however, a clear prehistory for the initiative. To Build Law concludes with an assembly at the former Tempelhof Airport, an immense urban structure frequently at the heart of debates over what kind of city Berlin should become.If architecture is to follow b+ and HouseEurope!s lead, what are its chances of success? If the needed signatures are gathered, will the European Commission enact new laws? Globally, it seems doubtful, with President Donald Trump back in the White House, Canadas own carbon tax unlikely to survive the outcome of its next federal election, and Europes political-industrial consensus still shaken by rising energy prices caused by Russias invasion of Ukraine. Here the film gets across two crucial points. The first is that any political coalition in favor of adaptive reuse will be heterodox. As Grawert observes, many small-town conservatives unconvinced by modernist architecture already oppose new construction that will alter their picturesque townscapes. (But what happens when such people block new constructions to densify existing cities? The film does not answer this question, and viewers are left to suppose that all new building is in fact wasteful.)The second is that campaigns for adaptive reuse will necessarily excite some portion of the public more than other parts. Whereas measures favoring housing abundance and cost limitation may appeal to renters, subsidies for renovation are principally directed toward current homeowners. Generational unease also comes into play: While middle-aged professors (perhaps inspired by the specter of May 1968 and the 1973 oil crisis) may be convinced of the need for adaptive reuse, the younger generation, especially those 18 to 24 years old, is not. For Grawert, it is up to todays architecture students to convince their friends. All in all, we are left with the sense that architecture, which so often reifies the status quo, is not always an easy ally for progress, however it is defined.To Build Law exemplifies two overlapping tendencies in recent CCA exhibitions. Firstly, the use of film as a medium to reach new publics, both in terms of age and geographic location. CCA director Giovanna Borasis recent series of three films (201923) exploring new modes of living in the 21st century and curator Francesco Garuttis projects, which include Misleading Innocence: (tracing what a bridge can do) (2014), have put film at the forefront of the CCAs project. Secondly, many recent CCA exhibitions have sought to redefine architecture as a fundamentally ecological concern, one in which political and not technological solutions must rise to the fore. One example: 1973: Sorry, Out of Gas (2007) presented the 1973 oil crisis as an antecedent to our present moment and reminded visitors of the panoply of low-tech solutions popularized then and still available for use today. Its All Happening So Fast (2017) recast Canadian history as an unfolding series of ecological catastrophes. At the juncture of these, To Build Law once again invites architects and the wider public to rethink what architecture should be and how it can act as an ethical force.Installation view of To Build Law CCA. (Matthieu Brouillard/ CCA)To begin to answer this question, Grawert and Kolar organized a roundtable on Canadian policy and regulations at the CCA. Tear Down or Repair featured three young Canadian professionals, each charting their own course: Juliette Cook (Ha/f Climate Design), Alexandre Landry (LEnsemble), and Conrad Speckert (LGA Architectural Partners). While each of these three talented designers has adopted a different approach (from material reuse to changing building codes), what is most impressive is the fact that each identified a failing in the way architecture is conceived and set to work to ameliorate it.The final chronological chapter of this story looms over the exhibition: The drive to gather signatures opened on February 1.Meanwhile in Montreal, having begun with Chinese architect Xu Tiantians Into the Island (2024), Groundwork will conclude in the second half of 2025 with Carla Juaabas practice in Brazil.Peter Sealy is an architectural historian and assistant professor at the University of Toronto, where he directs the undergraduate architectural studies program. Previously, he held fellowships at the Canadian Centre for Architecture from the Power Corporation of Canada (2006) and the Mellon Foundation (201617) at CCA, where he also worked as a research assistant from 2007 to 2010.

People have exchanged Valentines Day cards on February 14 since at least the year 270, when it is said St. Valentine was executed for secretly marrying couples to spare men from war. Valentine wrote a letter to his jailers daughter, signing it Your Valentine. Hallmark however didnt start selling cards for the holiday until 1913. And while it is estimated 145 million Valentines cards are exchanged annually, that number leaves out the sentiments and love-centered puns shared digitally. AN editors combed through social media feeds to find the architects, industry organizations, and designers sharing messages of love today. From the use of hearts in the Arts and Crafts movement to a portfolio of red and pink buildings, here are some of the Valentines wishes circulating the architecture sphere this year.View this post on InstagramA post shared by Marvel (@marvel_is_design)Marvel ArchitectsMarvel Architects took to Instagram with memetic messages that make playful jokes perhaps only those in architecture can truly appreciate. The final slide in the carousel is an idea everyone can get behind, literally, Love everywhere for everyone. To: You From Marvel.View this post on InstagramA post shared by National Building Museum (@nationalbuildingmuseum)National Building MuseumThe Washington, D.C. institution shared a carousel of digital cards with idioms and puns about architecture, including (a personal favorite): Youre the Wright one for me! View this post on InstagramA post shared by Frank Lloyd Wright Foundation (@wrighttaliesin)Frank Lloyd Wright FoundationIn keeping with the spirit of the holiday, to share messages of love, the Frank Lloyd Wright Foundation posted images of handmade cards crafted by former fellows while at Taliesin and Taliesin West. The works of art use collage and incorporate illustrated patterns and designs reminiscent of Wrights work.View this post on InstagramA post shared by NBBJ Design (@nbbjdesign)NBBJ DesignIts not everyday one comes across a red or pink building, NBBJ Design noted in its Valentines Day social media post. The firm scoured its portfolio for projects with shades of pink and red, sharing images of the lit-up Hangzhou Sports Center in China, a spiraling red staircase at the American International University in Kuwait, among others. In its caption NBBJ wrote these hues are always a good structure for romance.View this post on InstagramA post shared by Ringo Studio (@ringostudiodesign)Ringo StudioRingo Studio shared an image of a rose-printed curtain hung inside an archway lined in shades of pink. The picture captures the immersive florals in a project the firm worked on for Venus et Fleur.View this post on InstagramA post shared by Royal Institute of British Architects (@riba)Royal Institute of British Architects (RIBA)RIBA looked back in its collection for V-Day inspiration, finding it in the work of C.F.A Voysey, an Arts and Crafts architect and furniture designer who used motifs of hearts in creative waysas wallpaper, knobs, tiles. View this post on InstagramA post shared by PANTONE (@pantone)PantonePantone has a long list of pink and red hues to pull from for Valentines Day content. The color brand elected for Pantone 1797, a classic rosy red for its themed post, sharing an image of a single rose. In the caption the company shared its own take on a classic poem we all know the words to: Rose are red, violets are blueView this post on InstagramA post shared by Van Alen Institute (@van_alen)Van Alen InstituteVan Alen Institute got creative with its words. The nonprofit shared a reel wishing its community partners a Happy VanAlentines Day, naming them all in a moving graphic.View this post on InstagramA post shared by UNStudio (@unstudio_architecture)UNStudioUNStudiogot creative and festive, sharing a slew of architecture- and building-themed digital cards, ripe for sliding into DMs.

The AltusGroup Board of Directors has named Katherine A. Klosowski-Blatz, a senior executive with decades of experience in the construction and manufacturing industries, as the organizations new executive director. She began her role on November 1, 2024. Klosowski-Blatz brings an extensive and diverse management background to AltusGroup, a collaborative of 13 North American precast concrete manufacturers dedicated to innovation powered by collaboration. Klosowski-Blatz has proven successful in driving innovation, portfolio life cycle management and achieving operational excellence on a global basis in addition to implementing organizational change management.Katherines blend of product development, strategic thinking and organizational expertise will help guide AltusGroup at a pivotal time for our organization, said AltusGroup chairman Tony Smith. We are innovating precast technologies that can give the building team more options with systems integration, continuous insulation and options for reducing our products carbon footprints. Her experience guiding product development while enhancing collaboration will enable us to leverage the strengths of our members to benefit AltusGroup and ultimately our customers across the building team. Klosowski-Blatz spent the majority of her 27-year career with BASF Construction Chemicals/Construction Systems (formerly Huls America and Degussa Building Systems), the predecessor to MBCC-GROUP. During her tenure, she held various leadership positions, including global director of commercial data excellence, global director of virtual design and construction, head of construction systems for the Asia Pacific region, and regional manager for product development and marketing. Throughout her career, she has driven profitable business growth, led successful projects, cultivated lasting customer relationships, and advanced digitalization initiatives.Joining AltusGroup marks a new chapter for both myself and the organization. I am excited to foster collaboration, refine our strategic vision, and drive innovation among our member companies. This presents a unique opportunity to implement meaningful changes in the construction industry through advancements in precast technologies and systems, said Klosowski-Blatz. Building on the success of my predecessor, John Carson, positions AltusGroup, our member companies and me to effectively address the challenges and opportunities of 2025 and beyond.(Courtesy AltusGroup)She succeeds John Carson, who in March 2024 announced his intent to retire by February 2025 after 12 years as AltusGroups executive director and an additional 10 years on the board of directors. Carson oversaw a dramatic expansion in AltusGroups coast-to-coast presence in the United States and Canada with AltusGroup members now operating 27 manufacturing facilities across North America. Carson also grew the market presence of AltusGroups flagship technology, CarbonCast, which uses carbon fiber grid as a wythe connector in insulated precast wall panels. To date, CarbonCast technology has been used on more than 2,500 structures comprising 65 million square feet of precast surface area.Johns dedication and entrepreneurial spirit were tremendous assets for AltusGroup over the past dozen years, said Joe Bunkers, the AltusGroup immediate past chairman who led the executive search. We have a novel organization based on the concept of co-opetition and he was especially adept at getting our members to collaborate for the greater good. We wish John all the best in his retirement from AltusGroup and thank him deeply for his vision, devotion and energy that contributed so much to our success as an organization. As the third executive director in AltusGroups 22-year history, Klosowski-Blatz brings a wealth of leadership experience from professional organizations. She has served as the national president of the International Concrete Repair Institute (ICRI) and as the past chairman of ASTM Committee D01.47. Klosowski-Blatz has been recognized with the Outstanding Achievements Award for authoring and publishing two ASTM standards, in addition to holding various board positions and committee chairmanships within industry organizations.About AltusGroupThe first-ever national partnership of precast companies dedicated to innovation powered by collaboration, AltusGroup challenges the brightest minds in precast to develop, speed and perfect technologies that improve the built environment. Technology platforms include the award-winning CarbonCast line of products featuring C-GRID carbon fiber grid reinforcing. The 13 AltusGroup North American precasters have an unparalleled network of manufacturing plants, technical staff and sales personnel to ensure architects, engineers and contractors get the help they needand the quality and performance they expect. For more information, visit link.

For a show known for its slow, methodical pacing, the second season of Severance begins with an uncharacteristically lively scene. Mark Scout (played by Adam Scott) appears within the lobby of Lumon Headquarters severed floor before taking off down one of many sterile white hallways. The panic gradually transitions into the uncanniness and foreboding were so used to in Lumons basement floor as a new team of employees, meant to replace his compatriots from season one, greets Scout. The midcentury office furniture, sterile white hallways, and pervading sense of alienation are welcome sights for viewers who have waited anxiously for three years to reenter Lumons dreaded severed floor. Severances story centers on the experiences of these severed employees, whose consciousness is split by implanting a chip into their brain, an innie consciousness they assume while working inside Lumon Industries classified severed floor and a consciousness they inhabit outside Lumon, and an outie consciousness that lives their lives on the outside without a relationship to what they do eight hours a day. Better in concept than in practice, Severance, season 1, saw the dual lives, innie and outie, of its four protagonists from Macrodata Refinement, run headfirst into each other in the season finale: Scouts innie realizes that theres something he must find for his outie in the bowels of Lumons headquarters, Hellys innie (played by Britt Lower) rebukes a room full of Lumons elite after realizing her connection to the company, Irvings innie (played by John Turturro) discovers his love life outside Lumon is more complicated than he realized, and Dylan Innie (played by Zach Cherry) realizes hes supporting more than just himself on his Lumon paycheck. Fans have been waiting for nearly three years for this second batch of ten episodes due partly to the 2023 WGA and SAG-AFTRA strikes. So far, the wait has been worth it, as Severance, season 2, continues to dish up condemnations of corporate culture via haunting shots of midcentury modern office spaces and office intrigue that verges on eldritch horror.Bell Labs again plays the headquarters role for the mysterious and cult-like Lumon industries. (Christopher Payne/Esto)Office as OppressorSeverances production design and interior architecture serve as a representation of the oppressiveness of Lumon as a company towards its employees. I always felt a sense of power in these (corporate) spaces, Severances lead production designer, Jeremy Hindle, told Curbed in 2022. Theyre there to dominate you and make sure that you know the rules. Hindles interest in midcentury design is felt in how fully the corporate architecture pervades the cinematography of Severance: Employees sit at stark white modular cubicles; canted inset ceiling lights hum above their heads; a field of monotone green-blue carpet at their feet; and tiny, computer-like devices, reminiscent of an early Apple product or ripped from the set of Jacques Tatis Playtime, sit at the desks.Most notably, Bell Labs again plays the headquarters role for the mysterious and cult-like Lumon industries, for whom the cast works. Severance portrays an ominous version of one of Eero Saarinens final masterpieces, its mirror glass exterior is perpetually reflecting a dismal, wintry landscape, and whose grand atrium, now replete with cultish imagery of Lumon founder Kier Eagan, hangs over Lumon employees. Severance cinematographer Jessica Lee Gagn has cited the use of close-up shots, wider lenses, and robotic camera movements in scenes of the severed floor to evoke feelings of surveillance and paranoia, whereas visual inspiration for desolate and deadpan exterior shots of Bell Labs was inspired by photographer Lewis Baltz, whose work hauntingly depicts architecture and desolation. These cinematographic choices frame Bell Labs oppressiveness, helping to articulate thematic elements in Severance: control, isolation, and mundanity. However, Lumon HQ is shown to be capable of speaking to us itself in episode one of season two, as it scares employees and provides false histories via an animated, anthropomorphized Bell Labs character, voiced by Keanu Reeves.It is in Bell Labs mind-numbing network of bare white corridors where the terror begins to creep in. (Ezra Stoller/Esto)Can buildings be the stuff of nightmares? Joshua Comaroff and Ong Ker-Shings book Horror in Architecture argues that they can. Organized by typology, Horror in Architecture weaves dead and decaying corpses, structures stitched together, abnormal building proportions, contorted bodies, sinister doppelgangers, and others into a comprehensive study on architectural terror. Lumon HQ is most like Ong and Comaroffs Trojan Horse idea, in which the exterior expression of a building masks the schizophrenia laden on the buildings interior, like a shell or body inhabited by something foreign. The production team achieved this effect by shooting the exterior of Bell Labs on location in Holmdel, New Jersey, but filming scenes of Lumons severed floor on three sound stages in New York.Liminal vs. Shock HorrorWhile Bell Labs expressionless facade creates a sense of isolation, its mind-numbing network of bare white corridors is where the terror begins to creep in. The ploddingness of Liminal Horror opposes the immediateness of Shock Horror, which is most concerned with the thrill and a payoff. Tension builds throughout a scene until climax: an adrenaline shot usually via jumpscare. We likely have the popularization of slasher movies of the 80s, billed as fun, uncritical romps, to thank for the abundance of Shock Horror in films and TV today. On the other hand, Liminal Horror is an existential horror that ruminates on itself and demands an audience interrogate something rather than be hopped up on adrenaline. The discordance of Severances architecture creeps up on you in moments where the size of Lumons severed floor becomes sublime and terrifying when scales shift radically. In season 1, episode 3, the main cast visits a recreation of Lumon founder Kier Eagans two-story home, which is fully encapsulated within the underground severed floor.Helly and Scout wander through a tunnel on the severed floor into a full goat pasture. (Courtesy Apple News+)The liminal horror aspect of the show sneaks up on viewers. In season 2, episode 3, Helly and Scout wander through a tunnel on the severed floor into a full goat pasture, complete with goat-tending Lumon staff, wrapped with the same white paneled walls of the hallway and less animal-filled office spaces. These moments of wild scalar oddity contextualize the subtle moments of alienation the audience feels in the series, like the size of the Macrodata Refinements floorplate, given it hosts four solitary desks that sit in the middle of a field of blue-green carpet, or the endless repeating white paneled hallways.Bell Labs is an ideal architectural setting for crafting a liminal horror folktale about control and surveillance. Its mirror glass feels unremarkable and lifeless as its surface primarily reflects adjacent parking lots to passersby, only broken up by thin black vertical mullions. Once inside, a rigorous 6-foot grid, interpolated from the 3-foot exterior curtainwall grid, stretches across the interior of the building, wrapping into ceiling grids and forming the basis for interior partition alignments that repeat ad nauseam unobstructed throughout the corridors and glass partitions of Bell Labs 2-million square feet; an Orwellian conformity to the building module. Inspirations in EerinessIf you were to delve into the far recesses of the internet, youd find other media properties that feel aesthetically linked to Severances schizophrenic basement floor. Show creator Dan Erickson has cited several aesthetic inspirations for Severance, including liminal horror media like videogames The Stanley Parable and Superliminal. Among the precedents named by Erickson, and the closest to Lumons severed floor, is The Backrooms, a creepypasta that posits that the worst death imaginable would be to die alone, slowly, isolated from the outside world, lying on cheap yellow high pile carpet. (For those born before 2000 or who are not constantly online, a creepypasta is a horror story that functions like a post-internet urban legend, as its copied and pasted between different online forums, changing as it grows in popularity.)The exterior curtainwall of Bell Labs, the Lumon HQ, is apparent from the inside as well. (Christopher Payne/Esto)Like Severances severed floor, The Backrooms is a never-ending series of hallways and rooms, a labyrinth from which its residents can never escape. You enter the Backrooms by noclipping (a term borrowed from video games for when characters fall through the games terrain) through our reality, descending into a forgotten postmodern service space, corridors wrapped in ugly yellow wallpaper and smelly yellow shag carpet. Unlucky victims are doomed to wander The Backroomss labyrinthine hallways until they die a slow death of malnutrition. The Backrooms merges a back-of-house area of a dying mall from the 80s aesthetic with a despair that Samuel Beckett might appreciate to create a populist allegory for our alienation from decaying late-modern architecture.Labyrinths have been an architectural typology in storytelling since Theseus fought the Minotaur. They also figure in the totalizing sensibilities of modernity: In 1962, around the same time Bell Labs was completed, Borges released Labyrinths, a collection of short stories of immense cities filled with chaotic, unnavigable architecture and stories of companies taking control of every aspect of daily life, as in The Lottery in Babylon. The Backrooms could be part of Borgess mind-bending despair, but Severance seems to be steering toward the center of the severed floor and away from its liminal midcentury hell. There likely isnt a minotaur waiting for Scout and his compatriots there, but notably, the most rebellious actions by severed Lumon employees seem to be when they form solidarity, as Scout and Helly when they make a pact with the Mammalian Nurturable department, who herd goats in a large white room on the severed floor. Perhaps the only way out of the basement is together, goats and all.Charlie Weak is a designer, writer, and labyrinth enthusiast based in Brooklyn, New York