In 2026, for the first time in Olympic history, two cities will host the games together: Milan and Cortina dAmpezzo, Italy. The latter is close to the Austrian border, and about 150 miles northeast of the former. Ahead of the 2026 Winter games, a new stadium in Milan designed by David Chipperfield Architects (DCA) is now under construction. Arena Santa Giulia is a collaboration between DCA and Arup.The venue will have a generous piazza. (Courtesy DCA)Arena Santa Giulia is one of two permanent venues to be built for the 2026 Olympic Games. Its architecture, DCA said, is meant to echo the elliptical form of Milans old Roman amphitheater. The stadium will be able to host 16,000 spectators. Its exterior will be fronted by three metal rings that each size up in width as the building rises. In renderings these rings are depicted with programmed screens that list out the games or activities happening within. In the evening, LED lights will glow through the glazed portions of the circular stadium, subtly illuminating the building from within.These features will open onto a piazza down below. Inside the stadium will be ample circulation areas to usher spectators to seating sections. A speakeasy lounge, small concert spaces, and other mixed-use programming will be located inside as well.The venue will be able to host 16,000 spectators. (Courtesy DCA)The new arena will be a major contribution to the public infrastructure of the city, and the result of a collaborative process and enthusiasm from all sides, David Chipperfield said in a statement. The form of the building is rooted in Milans rich cultural heritage, Chipperfield continued. It echoes the elliptical form of the citys former Roman amphitheatre, giving a contemporary expression to a historic archetype and creating a new place for gathering and collective entertainment.In the speakeasy lounge there will be bar seating and tables located closer to the stage. (Courtesy DCA)When not watching sports or other entertainment there are lounge and bar spaces to kick back in. (Courtesy DCA)The city of Cortina dAmpezzo hosted the 1956 Olympics, and already has infrastructure in place to host this round. Christophe Dubi, Olympic Games executive director, stated that the steering committee prioritized the use of existing infrastructure, so as to make the events impact as minimal as possible.It is not up to a city or a region to adapt to the Games; it is for the Games to adapt to a city and a region, Dubi said in a statement. In other words, we first promote the use of existing facilities. The second option is to use temporary venues if it makes sense.Construction is slated for completion in December 2025. (Courtesy DCA)The third and last choice is to build a full-time, permanent venuebut only if it is needed by the community, Dubi continued. Santa Giulia Arena is the perfect example of something that is needed. There is no such arena in Milan; in fact, there arent many in Italy. It can be used for sports, concerts, and entertainment.Arena Santa Giulia is slated for completion in December 2025, just ahead of the start of the 2026 Winter Olympics, which will take place February 222, 2026.

Nearly a century before it was a hip smattering of bars and cafes, the neighborhood now known as Frogtown (and more formally known as Elysian Valley) was a harsh industrial landscape, built far beyond the human scale to rival Detroit, Pittsburgh, and Chicago as the manufacturing center of the nation. Everything from airplane parts to soap was produced in hastily constructed factories clinging to the southern edge of the Los Angeles River, all 51 miles of which had been rapidly concretized following a devastating inland flood in 1938. This artificial landscape, entirely transformed for the sake of utility within a matter of years, has not been easy to adapt to a post-industrial economy; even less so to a post-COVID cultural sphere. The natural elements present across the site, however, offer some advice: Vegetation grows in the cracks of its concrete riverbed; water pools in its depressions; damselflies, carp, herons, and other wildlife take shelter all across the gray expanse. Time apparently stops for nothing and no one. Nature makes due.The landscaping outside relates to vegetation along the riverfront. (Gavin Cater)The need and inevitability of adaptation learned from observing the surefooted, unfolding spirit of nature are front of mind for Michael Breland and Peter Harper, who operate their architecture firm BrelandHarper from a repurposed corner studio of their own design on Silver Lakes Hyperion Avenue. When tasked with converting more than 50,000 square feet of underused factory buildings on the northwest corner of Frogtown into a set of flexible office spaces, the two preserved the structurally sound elements without being too sentimental about the rest. The first question you have to ask yourself with adaptive reuse projects is whats working here and whats not, Michael Breland told AN. There will always be elements of these projects that cant be saved from demolition, which is what separates preservation from adaptive reuse. Biodiverse gardens line the exterior walkways. (Gavin Cater)While modernizing the former factories, they additionally set out to update the reputation of the office park, a campus type long associated with suburban seas of asphalt pushed up against thin strips of manicured lawns and bland building envelopes. By contrast, Breland-Harperacting as the landscape architects, in addition to their roles as architects and interior designerslined the exterior walkways with biodiverse gardens that soften virtually any place the buildings meet the ground. The border between the campus and the river is likewise blurred by landscaping, allowing employees to quickly escape the office environment. The site is raised several feet above the rivers edge, so our way of trying to connect was largely through the landscaping, Harper said, by using some of the plants that grow in the river that started to filter beyond the property line. Rough bricks give way to smooth stucco and warm wood finishes. (Gavin Cater)And unlike other, heavier-handed approaches to adaptive reuse in the Los Angeles areasuch as Eric Owen Mosss work along Culver Citys Hayden Tract or ZGFs readapted Spruce Goose Hangar for GoogleBreland-Harpers Los Angeles River campus only quietly announces the transformation of its antiquities. Clues can be found in material transitions, where rough bricks give way to smooth stucco and warm wood finishes, and where building additions (an awning here, an interior wall and skylights there) compensate for what was apparently missing. Our main challenge, said Breland, was tying together these buildings that were all built at different times and with different uses without heightening their contrasting elements. Masons fabricated weeping CMU walls by hand across the property to be in dialogue with the original CMU walls while creating a more organic visual language throughout.The interiors were flexibly designed so as to accommodate various future uses. (Gavin Cater)A challenge of the project involved tying together buildings built at different times and with different uses. (Gavin Cater)While a handful of local businesses, including Paper Chase Press and 10 Speed Coffee Frogtown, have already taken residence, BrelandHarper designed the project to adapt to the unknown. The interiors are flexible, accounting for walls that are currently shifting, being added and coming down by new leaseholders over time, Breland said. Adaptation is not a fictional thing ten years in the future when its a single campus for multiple clients.BrelandHarper was responsible for the architecture, interiors, and landscaping work. (Gavin Cater)Los Angeles is not the young city it once was; its architects, in the near future, will have to retrofit the citys aging structures to meet the needs for building density. The path to obsolescence in architecture is the inability to see its value and ability to change, Peter Harper told AN. The way to keep older buildings embedded in our culture is to find new uses for them.Shane Reiner-Roth is a writer and lecturer on architecture and urbanism.

Spring is HereIn New York, Laura Gonzalez creates a romantic shopping fantasia for famed Parisian retailer PrintempsByRichard Martin March 24, 2025East, Interiors (Gieves Anderson/Printemps)SHAREParisian designerLaura Gonzalezcould have easily been overwhelmed by a project that involved hard-launching a famed and venerable French luxury retailer inside one of Manhattans most well-respected art deco buildings, One Wall Street. The challenge: How to marry the rich heritage of the Printemps brand, founded in a classic Boulevard Haussmann building in Paris in 1865, with the architectural style of a classic Manhattan address?Gonzalezs answer was to flex. Instead of developing a singular style to define this important new addition to the Financial Districts cultural landscape, she created ten distinct spaces by turns colorful and whimsical, futuristic and fresh, and reverential to the brands and the buildings storied pasts.Read more about the storied store on aninteriormag.com. New YorkRetail

From the top of the Ferris Wheel at the 1893 Chicago World Columbian Exposition, Simon Pokagon, an Indigenous rights activist born in 1830, addressed the burgeoning city, and saw an apocalyptic tide of change. How unlike the Chi-Kag-Ong of the red man! he wrote in the New York Times Sunday Magazine. The shoreline of the lake, with its fleet of canoes; the marsh and winding river, with flags and rushes fringed; the scattering wigwams and the red men were nowhere to be seen. But in their place rose roof-on-roof, with steeples tall, smoking towers and masts of ships as far as [the] eye could see. All had changed, except the sun and sky above. They had not, because the great spirit, in his wisdom, hung them beyond the white mans reach. Pokagon, a member of the Potawatomi tribe, and his critique of the dispossession and distortion that came along with this tide of canonical architecture has a special place in the permanent installation at the MacArthur Foundation headquarters in Chicago, which opened this fall. Curated by two Indigenous artists and scholars (John Low, of the Pokagon Band of Potawatomi, and Andrea Carlson, of the Ojibwe tribe), We Will Tell Our Story crafts an intervention that corrects the historical record and materializes Simon Pokagons critique of Chicago architecture from within, in building with its own history of distorted settler-colonial narratives.The exhibition was designed by Michigan-based Seven Generations A+E. (Courtesy MacArthur Foundation)Located in Holabird and Roches 1895 Marquette Building, an archetypal example of the Chicago Schools technological and formal innovations, the building has been celebrated, and landmarked, for its lobby, decorated with mosaics by Louis Tiffany and J.A. Holzer that depict Jacque Marquettes settler-colonial exploration of Great Lakes region in 17th century and his interactions with Indigenous people, who are represented inaccurately. The clothing and architecture depicted (teepees, feather headdresses) are associated with plains Indians further west. The European settlers are seen serenely passing a peace pipe in one mosaic, and in another Indigenous Americans calmly listen to Marquettes impassioned exhortations to the Christian faith.We Will Tell Our Story focuses on these misrepresentations explicitly. The consequences of this meeting were not Peace and Prosperity, but were conflict, dispossession, and diaspora, reads one panel. The first section of the museum visitors see as they exit the original lobby is labeled The dishonesty of the Marquette Building. While the original lobby is atmospheric, allegorical, and falsely idealized, the new exhibition, designed by Michigan-based Seven Generations A+E, which is owned by the Pokagon Band of Potawatomi, is didactic, scholarly, and text-heavy. Its primary architectural organizing device is a set of birch wood shelves and frames inspired by the domed wigwam, vernacular shelter for Great Lakes Indigenous people, which wraps around the perimeter of the exhibition, creating a sense of curvilinear embrace as it arches over visitors heads. The goal was to reference in an abstract and respectful way a traditional architectural or structural methodology, said Alex Hokkanen, Manager of Design Research + Sustainability at Seven Generations A+E.The lighting and materials similarly draw aesthetic counterpoints to the lobby. Delicate, bright track lighting, the light-hued wood, and brilliant block panels of Indigenous ribbonwork patterns contrasts with the more subdued colors and subtle lighting of the lobbys pointillist mosaics. Three curving exhibition walls that center the Potawatomi tribes experience are themed Recollections, Power, Time, and Land, all orbiting a structural column recast as the center-point of this circle.Birch wood shelves and frames inspired by the domed wigwam wraps around the perimeter of the exhibition. (Courtesy MacArthur Foundation)Throughout, theres an intense focus on not historicizing Indigenous people. The installation addresses the 20th-century urbanization of Native people in Chicago and elsewhere and emphasizes that no matter how old the cultural practices of Indigenous people may be, their persistence today makes them contemporary, not prehistoric artifacts. Were not gone, were not conquered, were also not discovered, said Low. Furthermore, the exhibit makes it clear that the wigwam and effigy mound can lay claim to the title of the first Chicago School of architecture.The contemporary dynamism of Indigenous life is expressed in the architecture of the exhibition as well. The cellular organization of the wigwam-like structure can be used to frame 2D works, as its done now with a selection of drawings and photographs of Indigenous people by Indigenous artists, and as a display case for 3D objects, so that new exhibitions can be rotated in and out. The present tense, as a general guiding principal, was very strong, said Hokkanen. The project began several years ago, when the MacArthur Foundation sought to refresh a previous exhibition in this space, which focused on the foundation and the Marquette building. In conversation with Indigenous community members, the foundation realized they had the opportunity to cede more leadership to Native voices, Native leaders, and Native artists, said Jamie Waters, a staff member at the MacArthur Foundation who was co-chair of the exhibition working group.Exhibition content emphasizes that no matter how old the cultural practices of Indigenous people may be, their persistence today makes them contemporary. (Courtesy MacArthur Foundation)The urge to demonstrably alter the lobby to point out its historical inaccuracies would be understandable, but between its landmark protections and the obvious progression in Indigenous depiction the two spaces demonstrate, the curators felt this fundamental contrast should be embraced. In and of itself its a history lesson of how white people thought about Indians at the time the Marquette building was built, said Low. We dont want to lose that lesson.Editors Note: Zach Mortices wife is a staff member at the MacArthur Foundation, though she was not involved in the organization, production, or promotion of We Will Tell Our Story.Zach Mortice isa Chicago-based design journalist and critic focused on architecture and landscape architectures relationship to public policy.

The Penn Station redevelopment saga, recently quiet but never dormant, has taken an abrupt plot twist, as proposals emerge and re-emerge against a background of renewed attention toand a high-level edict requiringclassical design. General Project Plan: Update or Scrap?On March 6, Assemblyman Tony Simone (with support from City Councilman Erik Bottcher, Borough President Mark Levine, and State Senator Brad Hoylman-Sigal) called for amending the General Project Plan (GPP) to replace the ten Vornado Realty commercial towers proposed in former governor Andrew Cuomos initial GPP with a mixed-use complex comprising one-third housing and two-thirds offices.Simones proposal would rely on a new GPP that would still override local zoning to facilitate construction but reject two controversial aspects: the option of seizing private property through eminent domain; and the demolition of Block 780, bordered by 30th and 31st Streets between Seventh and Eighth Avenues, to replace residences, businesses, and St. John the Baptist Catholic Church with a proposed southern expansion of the station. Simones GPP proposal calls for about 5,000 housing units (up from the existing GPPs 1,800) plus a public park on the Seventh Avenue site of the newly demolished Hotel Pennsylvania.The existing GPP, predicated on financing a new Penn Station with tax revenue from the towers, has been decoupled from the station renovations since Governor Kathy Hochuls announcement in June 2023, as the weak commercial real estate market made that revenue stream unlikely. For community activists, preservationists, and proponents of alternative plans, the GPP remains a punching bag, yet the Governor has not withdrawn it outright. Her stated openness to proposals by any architect, any design firm, any engineer has not taken the form of an RFP. Work on the redesign has been the province of a selected 55-member Station Working Advisory Group (SWAG) since September 2024.Washburns plan is one of several that would restore McKim, Mead, and Whites original Beaux Arts entrance arcade and colonnades, features that were destroyed when the original station was demolished in 1963. (Courtesy Grand Penn Community Alliance)The Pitch from the Grand Penn Community AllianceA few days after Simones announcement, another proposal seized the spotlight. At a March 11 press conference at The New York Historical Society, Grand Penn Community Alliance (GPCA) executive director Alexandros Washburn presented details, from financial charts to virtual-reality simulations, and announced that the GPCA would soon submit documents to the U.S. Department of Transportation.The GPCAs plan is not a new vision but instead the latest iteration of a verdant neoBeaux-Arts design that Washburn presented at Cooper Union in January 2023. Today it benefits from support from Thomas D. Klingenstein, the Claremont Institute chairman and financier of right-wing causes who donated $10 million to Republican campaigns during the 2024 election. The scheme by Washburn differs from the two leading proposalsthe Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA)s plan and the public-private partnership (P3) of ASTM-Halmar, HOK, and PAUby requiring that Madison Square Garden (MSG) find a new site. Where the Garden now stands, Grand Penn proposes a park roughly the size of Bryant Park. The ASTM-Halmar/HOK/PAU P3s plan can accommodate a future Garden move but does not require it. The MTAs design leaves MSG in place.A fourth scheme by Richard Camerons Beaux-Arts Atelier, supported by ReThinkNYC and known as the McKim Variations, offers three versions contingent on the Garden moving, both the Garden and 2PENN (Two Penn Plaza) moving, or both remaining in place, with the Garden redesigned to harmonize with his station that evokes the original structure, designed by McKim, Mead and White.A single train concourse is central to the the Grand Penn plan, which would allow for the implementation of through-running trains and greater programmatic flexibility. (Courtesy Grand Penn Community Alliance)Washburn was previously the chief urban designer for the City and public works advisor to Senator Daniel Patrick Moynihan. He recently told AN that part of the method of Grand Penn is to give big wins to all the stakeholders. Recalling his contention, writing in Metropolis in 2007 (while serving in the Bloomberg administration), that nature is the new civic ideal, he noted that Grand Penn provides ample green space for the West Side, which is undersupplied with parks. Further community benefits include sparing certain landmarks that we would love to carry forward into our future, the Church of St. John in particular, though the plan sacrifices part of Block 780 for a southern station expansion.For the railroads, Grand Penn offers doubled capacity with the creation of a 604,000-square-foot train concourse: The most important aspect of rail operations to be supported by the station is flexibility. We give flexibility through that enormous, open single train concourse to reprogram trains as through-running or as commuter or as intercity or as regional rail.As for MSG, GPCA proposes a new arena across Seventh Avenue. Washburn is unfazed by MSG Entertainment president James Dolans well-known opposition to relocating the Garden. It has to be a business deal that appeals to them, he said. Mr. Dolan is a very good businessman; hes actually even a visionary, when you look at the Sphere and other projects hes done. At the vacant Hotel Pennsylvania site and adjoining property extending to the intersection of 34th Street and Seventh Avenue, a new Garden would retain essential transit access. The savings from building a new station without the Garden above are substantial, considering gains in speed, safety, and simplified logistics. The cost of the new MSG, including land, is estimated at $3.5 billion and is included in the overall $7.5 billion estimate, a figure that matches the MTA plans figures. As for Vornado, they would gain both from the land purchase for the arena and the rising value of their other local properties.Weve developed a set of measured drawings, cost-estimated them, and they are now a reasonable alternative set, Washburn explained. We are submitting those to US DOT, and they perform to certain standards. For instance, we have 3.1 times the number of entries that the current station does. We have 1.99 times the amount of square footage on the platform. Critically, particularly for observers concerned with the ventilation, circulation, and safety problems raised in the June 2023 MSG-Penn Station Compatibility Report, GPCAs plan has 10 times the emergency ventilation.Washburn contends that the GPCAs plan reframes the Penn conundrum to reduce stakeholder conflicts and give the city an infrastructural asset that can last at least a century. Were the only plan that states the problem correctly, which is how to get the best train station, Washburn said. The answer, he thinks, requires a new arena and an opening to above.Some opponents argue that the Grand Penn plan prioritizes architectural aesthetics over much-needed improvements to transit infrastructure. (Courtesy Grand Penn Community Alliance)Reanimating Public DebateWhen approached for comment on the Simone and Grand Penn plans, the MTA press office referred AN to MTA CEO Janno Liebers remarks at a March 11 press conference, emphasizing what actually has been done to make Penn Station better (e.g., the upgraded 33rd Street concourse) rather than longer-range plans. We are, as a transportation agency, focused [on] what we can do now. Our focus is doing things that can deliver for customers now, without tearing up Penn Station and making it unlivable for another generation.Critiquing the MTAs current plan on multiple grounds, from its reliance on a flawed 2021 technical review to its cost estimates (recently adjusted to account for miscalculated HVAC expenses), Sam Turvey, chairperson of ReThinkNYC, said, Governor Hochul should sponsor the design competition for Penn Station which she promised in June of 2023 once the transit options are fairly evaluated and a track plan determined. He links the current logjam to interagency turf battles and calls for Amtrak management to make everybody in New Jersey Transit, the MTA, and Amtrak check their egos at the door and specifically for MTA management to understand that New York deserves better. Transportation engineer Robert Paaswell, director emeritus of CUNYs University Transportation Research Center, also prefers placing the transit horse before the architectural cart, questioning whether a GPP (commercial or mixed), Grand Penn, or any development plan can avoid worsening congestion if it proceeds without first bringing the MTA up to a state of good repair and operations. For a station in the epicenter of what should be a rebirth of American rail, including a future for high-speed rail, he said, unless you put what the future of rail is in there its hard to do any planning.Paaswell contrasted his work on the Port Authority redesign jury with the current Penn arrangement: SWAG isnt a working group. Its a bunch of people sitting in a room nodding at presentations that are made. The eight or ten people that we had on the Port Authority were a real working group, because we were given the plans, and we each had to go around the table and hammer them out, hour after hour, rather than just listening and then saying, Oh, this is good. Well vote on alternative A or alternative B. His recommendations for Penn include an independent competition; vetting of city, state, and Regional Plan Association numbers by population experts and economic forecasters; an openness to outside investors (whether in P3 form or not); and everybody sacrificing a little bit of their own authority to get a much higher buy-in.The Grand Penn proposal is one of several that has advocated for relocating Madison Square Garden. (Courtesy Grand Penn Community Alliance)Horse, Meet Cartand Watch for the ElephantPAUs Vishaan Chakrabarti supports Simones amendments for more housing and more sensitivity to historic fabric while favoring a basic reordering of priorities. The GPP puts the cart before the horse, he said, in the sense that, whether its office or residential, its still primarily talking about transit-oriented density without talking about how to fix the transit. Youve got to start with the infrastructure and then figure out what is the right form of development around it. Noting that operational questions about through-running service, as seen in Londons Elizabeth Line and other systems, are separate from architectural questions, he pointed out that our plan can work with the existing train shed, and it can work with a reconfigured track layout that provides through-running.As for Grand Penn, he is skeptical. Moving the Garden, an idea he has advocated in past proposals, strikes him as no longer achievable. We have not had a governor since Eliot Spitzer who was interested in moving the Garden, he said, recalling the history of efforts to find an alternate double-block site near transit, including his own past proposal for the two blocks south of Macys. It would be lovely to move Madison Square Garden, but the government doesnt want to pay to do it, and the Garden has no interest in doing it.Contrasting the visuals prepared by other teams with the ASTM-Halmar/HOK/PAU P3s extensive structural and mechanical drawings and actual financial backing, he views the MTA plan and his own teams as the only serious contenders. I dont understand why replacing an underground station with an arena on top of it with an underground station with a park on top of it is better, he said. He also offered some stylistic feedback: The neoclassical design seems like a naked appeal to the President. Like, come on, go full-on Albert Speer. If youre going to do it, do it.Backed by right-wing financier Thomas D. Klingenstein, the GPCA plan aligns with the Trump administrations promotion of classical architecture. (Courtesy Grand Penn Community Alliance)Here, Chakrabarti has identified the living-room elephant that some Penn observers, and even active participants, are reluctant to name. The various proposals reflect a widely shared belief that Penn Station is long overdue for an overhaul, yet any suggestion that the current political regime could be appropriate agents for its replacement is certain to be divisive. GPCA has support from the National Civic Art Society (NCAS), whose board includes Klingenstein. The NCAS is one of the few arts organizations to support the White Houses 2020 and 2025 executive orders mandating classical architecture in federal buildings, opposed vigorously by the AIA and recently likened to 20th-century dictators anti-modernist paranoia by Steven Holl in Dezeen. Chakrabarti pointed out that the newer order is much shorter and less stylistically prescriptive, as it requires federal buildings to respect regional, traditional, and classical architectural heritage. Still, even a transient convergence of interests between urban design advocates and the Trump administration is a salient case of politics creating strange bedfellows.Public Review or Back-Room Deal?On March 19, Governor Hochul spoke of revising Penn plans to avoid destroying a neighborhood, encouraging preservationists by specifically stating opposition to Amtraks intentions for a southern expansion that would demolish Block 780. To date, however, she has not announced a public design competition that would follow through on her 2023 comments, while calls for an independent review of transit fundamentals await official answers. Hochuls ongoing conversations with the President have given rise to the suggestion that improving Penn Station may be one area where their interests could convergeand, with the Department of Transportations deadline for ending congestion pricing now postponed by a month, wide-ranging speculation about the potential tradeoffs, far removed from Penn Station, that could be involved.Bill Millard is a regular contributor to AN.

Freedom Plaza, the proposed megaproject for the long-underutilized site adjacent to the United Nations, seeks to bring housing, a museum dedicated to democracy, and hotels (and maybe even a casino) to a swath of land along the East River. In February 2024, Bjarke Ingels Group (BIG) and Soloviev Group, the landowner, shared visuals of the skyline-transforming mixed-use development that plans to set up between 38th and 41st Streets on 1st Avenue. New visuals and a video were shared this week of the 4.7 acres of park space planned for the project. They show how the riverfront site will be further activated for residential and recreational use. OJB Landscape Architecture has responded to community input to inform its vision for the landscape component of the development, envisioning ample lawn space, a riverside promenade, playground, and water garden in a pocket of Manhattan lacking access to generous green space.A promenade will abut the East River and the planned Museum of Freedom and Democracy, designed by BIG. (OJB Landscape Architecture/Soloviev Group)The design of Freedom Plaza draws on the natural beauty and cultural energy of New York City, creating a space where nature, art, and urban life coexist seamlessly, said Jim Burnett, president of OJB Landscape Architecture. From the East River Overlook to the intimate gardens, every detail has been carefully crafted to inspire and engage visitors. Amid the residential towers and BIG-designed Museum of Freedom and Democracy, a spiraling structure modeled after the concept of a Greek agora, will be a winding 1.2-mile network of pathways dotted with shrubbery, bench seating and picnic tables, and kiosks selling food and beverages. From the street, visitors can opt to take the shallow steps up into the core of the development or instead meander through the pathways.Anchor spaces of the landscape scheme include the 700-foot-long East River Promenade, a wide paved area alongside the river, and a playground for the youngest visitors furnished with climbing structures that seemingly mimic the trees planned for the site. According to a press release, the eight species were selected to promote biodiversity and stormwater absorption, and offer seasonal interest year-round. A 6,000-square-foot water garden appeals to those seeking nature; water drapes over the rocks in the river-like design.Looking ahead, Soloviev Group will finance the upkeep, security, and programming of the park. A new committee will help steer the parks operation, ensuring its public use and access.

A large serpentine-like creature slithers across the floor, contorting its body to fit a 98-square-foot gallery space in Mexico City. The Uncomfortable Giant is long and winding, its body is piled on top of itself and crammed into the small exhibition spaces. The sculpture was designed and built by Peruvian architecture firms Blanco, Estudio Jochamowitz Rivera, and Ghezzi Novak. The Uncomfortable Giant, made of totora reeds harvested from Perus Lake Titicaca, has adapted from the Peruvian lake, to the pseudo-industrial exhibition rooms at the LIGA Space for Architecture in Mexico City. Blanco, Estudio Jochamowitz Rivera, and Ghezzi Novak are all architecture studios based in Lima, Peru. The Uncomfortable Giant was the winning submission in LIGAs third open call for exhibitions. Founded in 2013 by Pamela Remy, Blanco focuses on art direction, editorial design and branding. Estudio Jochamowitz Rivera, run by architects Mariana Jochamowitz and Nicols Rivera, is an architectural practice that examines domesticity. Ghezzi Novak was founded by Arturo Ghezzi Novak and Gustavo Ghezzi Novak with an emphasis on a context-centered design approach.The sculpture is made of totora reeds harvested from Perus Lake Titicaca, used often as building material by the native Uros Chulluni community. (Patricio Ghezzi/ Courtesy LIGA)The oversized animal was built in Peru by Percy Coila, a native member of the Uros Chulluni community of the floating islands that surround Lake Titicaca to invoke the body of an enormous, ancient eel dwelling at the bottom of the lake. Located on the southern border of Peru, Lake Titicaca is inhabited by the Uros people on islands made of totora reeds. The people use the roots as their foundation for living, using it to construct buildings, boats, and other objects. The Uncomfortable Giant, coming from a lake, now rests in Mexico City, a sinking city built on top of Lake Texcoco centuries ago. The Uncomfortable Giant harvested from a lake in Peru, now sits in Mexico City, a sinking city built on top of Lake Texcoco. (Arturo Arrieta/Courtesy LIGA)The creatures tail erupts from the exhibition space, curling and tapering up into an opening within the gallery space. (Arturo Arrieta/Courtesy LIGA)Bulbous eyes emerge from one end of the sculpture, staring at patrons as they enter the exhibition. At the other end, the creatures tail erupts from the exhibition space, curling and tapering to a pronounced point. At 262 feet in length, The Uncomfortable Giant reimagines the benches traditionally crafted from totora reeds by the Uros community, so its only fitting that gallery-goers can mount and sit on the sculpture, harkening back to the materials more conventional use.The exhibit is open at LIGA for free admission until May 30, 2025.

Hot on the heels of last weeks South by SouthwestAustins premier music, film, and media festivalthe city has revealed renderings for a new convention center designed by Seattle-based LMN Architects in collaboration with Page, a Texas firm. The building will replace the existing Austin Convention Center with more substantial facilities, including over 600,000 square feet of rentable event space, 70,000 square feet of public outdoor space, and an underground network of exhibit halls and loading docks. With its $1.6 billion price tag, the project constitutes a massive investment in Austins events infrastructure and signifies the continued growth of the city, which is nearing one million residents. The new building will feature a large public plaza above Waller Creek. (Courtesy LMN Architects)Set between 2nd and 3rd Street, the complex will be subdivided into six component structures integrated with the surrounding streetscape as well as Waller Creek and the larger Waterloo Greenway, a ribbon of park space that runs from the State Capitol to Lady Bird Lake. Renderings of the project depict the use of mass timber roof systems and large spans of glazing, features that also characterize Populouss recently unveiled design for the George R. Brown Convention Center in Houston. A $17.7 million arts program for the campus will draw from the talent of local Austin artists. The vertical convention center will open the city grid, enhance pedestrian connections, and take advantage of Austins indoor-outdoor culture, said Leonardo da Costa, principal at LMN. Located at the crossroads between downtown and the nature around Waller Creek, the project represents a transformative opportunity for revitalizing and re-connecting Austins vibrant downtown core.The building is located close to phase one of Austins light rail project, which is expected to begin construction in 2027. (Courtesy LMN Architects)In a press release, LMN contends that the structure will be the worlds first zero carbon convention center. This goal will be pursued through the use of mass timber, recycled materials, low-carbon concrete and steel, as well as operational features such as a renewably-powered HVAC system. The project is also designed to comply with Austins Climate Equity Planand is targeting a number of high performance certifications.LMN comes to the project with significant experience in the typology, having designed convention centers in Vancouver, Cleveland, and Seattle.According to LMN, the project will be the worlds first zero carbon convention center. (Courtesy LMN Architects)The new convention center is the latest in a slew of construction activity on the east side of Austins downtown. Across the street, construction is underway for KPFs Waterline tower, which is poised to become the tallest building in Texas. In April, the existing building will close its doors, and the city will be without a convention center until 2029, the projects estimated completion date. A GoFundMe campaign has been established to save artist Margo Sawyers Index for Contemplation, a site-specific artwork housed within the current structure.With the new building, the city hopes to attract larger events while continuing to grow South by Southwest, which is typically headquartered within the convention center.

Brought to you by:Architect: Moto DesignshopLocation: PhiladelphiaCompletion Date: 2024In a dense city like Philadelphia, residential architecture maintains a precarious relationship with privacy, which is often difficult to achieve. On a site in Center City, local office Moto Designshop faced this challenge head on, designing a new row house across the street from a busy and unsightly gas station. To conceal the home and obscure the eyesore from the interior, the firm added a screen of angled brick pilasters to the buildings street-facing facade, a feature that led to the projects name: Cadence House. The row house is Moto Designshops latest experimentation with masonry, a material that defines much of its previous residential work. Earlier projects, such as the Filigree House and Urban Oasis, have similarly employed brick screens as a means of providing privacy and shading, while staying true to Philadelphias urban vernacular. However, as the firm notes in a project description, Cadence House avoids the flat brick facades and punched double-hung window openings of a conventional Philly row house, seeking to elaborate on the typology.The building is referential to both a historic bank building and the traditional row houses located to its east. (Todd Mason)The proportions of the facade were drawn from its western neighbor, a historic bank building located on the corner of Broad and Kater Street. Reaching roughly the same height as the bank, Cadence House is composed by five horizontal shelves that roughly correspond to the historic structures cornice and moulding lines. In addition to formal continuity, these shelves, which are actually painted steel plates, provide structural support for the brick screen system. Post-tensioned rods were threaded through each of the brick fins and connected to the plates. While the screen largely adheres to the compositional lines established by the bank, Cadence Houses window openings break the alignment, spanning between the horizontal plates. In this way, the building is referential to both the bank and the traditional row houses located to its east.Cadence House is clad in dark gray masonry. (Todd Mason)Our site became a mediator between two distinct uses and architectural languages, said Adam Montalbano, founding partner of Moto Designshop. The arrangement of the fins and the horizontal steel bands breaks down the punched window facade arrangements of typical Philadelphia buildings, blurring the understanding of window placement and floor line. This moveboth horizontally and verticallycreates a dynamic new facade which references both structures while replicating neither, he added.The buildings brick screen shifts views towards Broad Street, away from the gas station. (Courtesy Moto Designshop)The impact of the brick screen is twofold: It shifts interior sight lines away from the adjacent gas station while also blocking sunlight coming from the south. Light conditions and time of day also impact the appearance of the facade. The color of the brick darkens with the sunset and throughout the day the building is draped in complex shadows owing to the depth of the facade.In total, Cadence House rises 4 stories, including a basement and roof level. The dark color palette established by the brick screen is continued on the interior furnishings. Accordingly, Moto Designshop refers to the project as a moody residence.Project SpecificationsArchitect: Moto DesignshopStructural Engineer: Orndorf & AssociatesCivil Engineering: Maser ConsultingGeneral Contractor: Image General ContractorClient Representative: Jason CutaiarFacade Installation: Image General ContractorWindows: Pella WindowsBrick: WestBricksWaterproofing: BlueSkinInsulation: CertainteedFixtures: Kohler

Facades+ is back in the Big Apple on April 3 and 4 for our largest event of the year. To assemble the program, AN worked with Christoph Timm, Gabrielle Brainard, and Kwong Yu of SOMs New York City office. The events first day features a symposium of exciting project case studies and panel sessions as well as an exhibition hall with over 50 building product manufacturers. Attendees should also sign up for the second day, which features intimate workshop sessions led by practitioners from prominent design firms. Click here to find more information and register.A New Approach to Sustainability: Circular Design and ConstructionThe day begins with a civic perspective session led by Zack Aders, senior vice president at the New York City Economic Development Corporation (EDC). Aders will address the public authoritys sustainability commitments, particularly its participation in the citys Circular Construction Program, guidelines which have been implemented in EDC developments across the five boroughs. The program encourages the use of recycled materials and low carbon specifications like mass timber with the goal of 50 percent reduction in embodied carbon emissions by the year 2033.A New Face for the Buffalo AKG Art Museum: Facade, Form, & FunctionThe next panel transports us to Buffalo, where presenters from OMA, Thornton Tomasetti, and Roschmann Group will share the design and execution of the Buffalo AKGs new Jeffrey E. Gundlach building. Focusing on the buildings glass envelope, the team will discuss how interior temperature, humidity, and lighting were controlled to protect the museums collections as well as the implementation of a steel diagrid system on the exterior, which allows the building to remain column free. Other topics include the use of faceted glass, a custom frit, and takeaways related to the buildings unique structural system. Colin Koop will discuss MITs new Schwarzman College of Computing, a building that innovates beyond traditional applications of the glass curtain wall. (Dave Burk)Buttoned Up: Detailing, Materiality, and PerformanceIn the following session, Colin Koop, design principal at SOM, will deliver a solo presentation about the firms buttoned up approach to design and detailing. Covering several of the New York City studios recently completed projectsincluding the Disney New York headquarters, the Schwarzman College of Computing at MIT, and a conceptual design for a mass timber stadium in QueensKoop will connect this work to SOMs past, arguing that attention to detail and craft unites the firms nearly century long trajectory.JKMM Architects included residential units in their design for Tammelan Stadium in Finland. (Tuomas Uusheimo)The Human Form of Architecture: Recipes for Wellbeing and HappinessIn the afternoon, Samuli Miettinen, founding partner of JKMM Architects, will deliver the events keynote address, showcasing the firms commitment to humanistic design principles. Miettinen will specifically highlight the offices cultural output, including an in progress expansion of the National Museum of Finland, a mixed-use soccer stadium, as well as an addition and renovation of the Helsingborg City Library in Sweden. Circularity and the Facade Supply ChainThe symposium will wrap up with a roundtable session on efforts to improve circularity within the facade supply chain. This panel features AEC industry experts including Andrea Zani, innovation manager and sustainability lead at Permasteelisa; Sophie Pennetier, founder at Digne; Stephen Azierski, architectural salesperson at Skyline Windows; and Patrick Elmore, president of business development at Infinite Recycled Technologies. Attendees will hear about recent advancements in design for deconstruction as well as detailing tricks that divert construction materials from the landfill. The panelists will also share challenges that stand in the way of widespread implementation, focusing on solutions for the future.After the main program concludes attendees should stick around for a cocktail party and the announcement and celebration of our inaugural Faces of Our City award program, highlighting achievements in facade design in New York City.The event continues for a second day on April 4, where a full day of workshop sessions will be held at the New York Law School in Tribeca. The workshops will be taught by a number of leading firms including gmp Architekten, transsolar, Studio NYL, Pelli Clarke & Partners, Meier Partners, RAMSA, PEI Architects, Perkins&Will, RDH Building Science, Arup, and others.

Fasad is a new rug collection from Kasthall and its first to use recycled wool, which is woven into tight linear bands. AN chatted with Dirk Gschwind, managing director of DC Design, the studio from David Chipperfield Architects that partnered with Kasthall on the product. The rugs use recycled wool. (Magnus Mrding)AN: What was the design inspiration for Fasad?Dirk Gschwind (DG): The inspiration for Fasad came from the desire to transfer the design aspects of our first rug series with Kasthall, a tufted rug series called Tegel, to a woven rug series. This sounds simpler than it is as the processes for creating tufted or woven rugs are very different. With a tufted rug, you can achieve a design intention relatively directly, like a picture, through the sum of individual points (in this case threads). With woven rugs, however, you have to think much more about their construction, structure, and the materialwhich creates different challenges in itself. The results could be unpredictable at times, so this was a learning experience.In the end I think we managed to reflect the three-dimensionality of the tufted Tegel rugs (the layering through threads of different lengths), the haptic and surface structure, the color range into the Fasad woven rug to create something elegant and strong. Layering was key to creating a balanced woven structure, which we achieved in the end by using a boucl yarn. We reached this approach after many experiments with different material compositions and thread tensions of both boucl and plain yarns. It took a few attempts to produce the desired colors, the designers also experimented with not dying the wool. (Magnus Mrding)AN: What is exciting about the incorporation of recycled wool? How did that change the design?DG: By using recycled wool, it was possible to add a whole new layer to this project both technically and aesthetically. There was little prior experience with recycled wool, posing a challenge in terms of the stability of the yarn which now had to be guaranteed with much shorter fibers. To produce the desired colors also took a few attempts as the recycled fibers reacted very differently to the dyes. In the end, this experimentation prompted us to use the yarn also undyed. In addition, there was an impact on the surface structure, with the shorter recycled fibers creating a much woollier appearance. It was exciting to us to see how responding to the technical challenges opened up new design and aesthetic possibilities. The rug comes in two patterns Uno and Duo. (Magnus Mrding)AN: Can you describe how Fasad looks up close?DG: When you look at Fasad up close, you dive deeper into its materiality. You can see the warm, slightly woolly surface of the recycled yarn very clearly, but also the liveliness of the boucl yarn with the individual shimmering areas of the mixed-in linen. The close-up view reveals a variety of textures and surfaces which are quietly inviting in their tactility.AN: How do you envision Fasad being used in interiors projects?DG: We think that Fasad should generate a wide range of possible uses. The color scheme and the two patterns (Uno and Duo) give the family a strong identity without being a distraction or statement. They serve as a stage, a foundation for other things. The materiality and structure have a simplicity that feels both familiar and modern, and which should adapt well to many different environments.

In Buffalo, New York, the Lipsey Architecture Center Buffalo (LACB) has an important cultural role to play in the city that overlooks Lake Erie. Houses by Frank Lloyd Wright, Olmsted-designed parkspaces, and cultural institutions by other greats including Eliel and Eero Saarinen are among the buildings and landscapes that shape the city. The nonprofitfocused on advancing the citys architectural heritage and legacyoperates from the Richardson Olmsted Campus, a milieu with its own rich history. LACB recently announced plans to expand its footprint within the historic site. LACB will decamp from its post inside a tower of the Richardson Olmsted Campuss central building and instead set up shop in a former kitchen building part of the original campus function as a hospital. A new glass addition from Hweler + Yoon will accompany the restored historic structure.Building 12 was formerly a kitchen when the campus operated as a hospital. (Courtesy Hweler + Yoon)The LACBs new home not only involves saving and reusing another historic structure on the Campus, but, more importantly, represents an investment in the community by expanding the scope of the Centers mission to highlight one of the greatest collections of period architecture in the country, Paris Roselli, executive director of Lipsey Architecture Center Buffalo, shared in a statement. Before it was the Richardson Olmsted Campus, the buildings and accompanying property encompassed the Buffalo State Hospital, a treatment center for individuals with mental illness. The masonry buildings were designed by architect Henry Hobson Richardson with landscaping by Frederick Law Olmsted and Calvert Vaux. The facility opened in 1880 and treated patients for nearly one hundred years before closing. Part of the campus was sold off in 1927 to create the Buffalo State University campus, while the remaining structures, including the historic copper-topped tower building, were left for naught until a reuse plan surfaced at the start of the 21st century. In 2017, TenBerke completed work on the propertys regeneration and the former hospital is now a hotel and conference and event center.Today, Lipsey Architecture Center Buffalo mounts exhibitions on Buffalos architectural past inside the Richardson Hotel, the hospitality venture that opened in the towers building of the former hospital. In 2023 a contract was executed by to restore and stabilize Building 12, so LACB could move its operations and exhibitions to a more permanent location on the campus. The existing structure is a low-lying masonry building with a shingled hipped roof. The nonprofit also has plans for an addition.The glass addition will be faced with 18-foot, scalloped glass panels. (Courtesy Hweler + Yoon)Renderings of the proposed addition from Hweler + Yoon show a new rectangular glass vestibule connecting the historic Building 12 to a round glass pavilion. This primary volume will feature swelled, convex glazing. The structure will be built so as to nearly encircle the masonry building. Eric Hweler said the addition will create a mirage-like effect, a result of the 18-foot tall scalloped glass panels that face it. Inside, there will be gallery space. Under the original campus plan Building 12 was used as a kitchen; it was connected via a curved corridor to the other campus buildings. Similar corridors were implemented across the campus connecting the two wings to a central administration building.Reinforcement work on Building 12 is already underway. A timeline for the groundbreaking and construction of the glass addition will be announced this spring. Hweler + Yoon and LACB will work with Hadley Exhibits, Buffalo Construction Consultants, Cannon Design, Fisher Associates, R.E. Kelly, J.A. Gulick Window Company, and Weaver Metal & Roofing on the project that will surely only cement Buffalos architectural legacy.

Meow Wolf has brought one of its eccentric immersive art experiences to Houstonor rather, theyve transported Houstonians to a surreal world of sounds and colors.Meow Wolf was founded in 2008 as a small collective of Santa Fe artists who transformed trash into immersive experiences. After its first permanent installation in 2016 in Santa Fe, they expanded their locations to Las Vegas, Denver, Dallas, and as of late last year, Houston. Each location has been a hit. The next installation will be completed in 2026 in Los Angeles, and Meow Wolf made a surprise announcement at South by Southwest in Austin earlier this month that it will be expanding to New York City, opening at Pier 17 in late 2027 or early 2028. Meow Wolf has grown to a staff of more than 1,000. The team repurposes warehouses and other existing spaces into maximalist environments of colors, lights, and sounds, fostering collaboration and experimentation with in-house artists and local artists of the city and region.The narrative of Meow Wolf Houston starts off in ETNL, an unassuming local radio station in a small town in west Texas. (Courtesy Meow Wolf)Inside the Fifth PortalThis fifth portal of Meow Wolf is called Radio Tave. The experience is built in a former sheet metal factory in Houstons historic Fifth Ward. The large open space of the warehouse allowed for the creation of organic structures and forms; the exterior is decorated with vibrant murals.On a recent afternoon, I met the Meow Wolf artist liaison Mario Enrique Figueroa, Jr., the Houston-based graffiti artist GONZO247, at the venue. Radio Tave is a pocket of the Meow Wolf universe where ETNL, an unassuming local radio station in a small town in west Texas, rips a hole in the time continuum, opening up a portal that it falls into. On Halloween 2024, Meow Wolf Houstons Radio Tave debuted as the most sound-inspired of its locations. The exhibition instantly immerses visitors into the radio station with a believable broadcast playing hours and hours of original Meow Wolf content, including music and talk shows. A majority of the sound and music playing throughout the spaces is created by the Meow Wolf team. When you step out of the radio station break room into the Bailiwick, a whimsical forest of otherworldly ruins, you can hear hours of original musicand create your own through soundboards connected to chimes within the trees. Pickle Boy Records, an entity of the Meow Wolf universe plays throughout the spaces. A room dedicated to Pickle Boy features an interactive DJ booth and large spinning records.GONZO247 walked me through the maze of art-filled rooms filled and encouraged me to test the limits of my curiosity. Radio Tave challenges the dont-touch-the-art rule of museums, and brings back the endless curiosity most of us shelved after childhood. In Meow Wolf its okay to open all the doors, press all the buttons, spin all the records, and relinquish all expectations. GONZO247 told me, Ive been here through the very beginning, when this entire shell was just empty, and even now, theres still new things that I find when I look around. The team put intention into every scale of art, even into the smallest details that most people wouldnt notice.Cowboix Hevvven is an ode to the small Texas dive bar where everyone is welcome. (Arturo Olmos/Courtesy Meow Wolf)Behind the BuildAt Meow Wolf locations, the internal planning for the theme and storyline starts two years in advance. Once the sound-driven concept of Radio Tave for Houston was confirmed, the Meow Wolf team designed anchor spaces to guide their narrative along. Its Art Team Task Force (ATTF) mocks up the spaces to scale at the headquarters in Santa Fe, test fits the installations, breaks it all down, and builds it back up at the exhibition location. The ATTF has members specializing in different areas of the artistic process, so each element has had many hands on it. At the Houston location, a primary anchor space is the Theta Theater, a 400-capacity venue with a stage and DJ booth, which uses black light on the painted walls to reveal a nightscape hidden within the daylight. The strategically connected Cowboix Hevvven is an ode to the small Texas dive bar where everyone is welcome, including gender-nonconforming cowboixs, complete with funky divine characters with stories to tell and an interactive jukebox transmitting music from 30 Texas artists. Over half of the 100 artists with installed works are from Texas, including Houston talent. The Meow Wolf team looks to the local community and its creatives at each location and prioritizes collaborating with artists and experiences from underserved and underrepresented communities, including women, people of color, the LGBTQIA+ community, seniors, and people with disabilities. It also aims to lift up emerging artists and seek out artists who recycle or repurpose junk materials.The Freedom to CreateAt Meow Wolf Houston, local artists were given the freedom to follow the theme of music and sound or to pursue their own direction; if they wanted to stray from their usual mediums, they could use this space to experiment. The tangle of rooms features a range of artists, both in terms of discipline and cultural background.At the Houston location, a primary anchor space is the Theta Theater, a 400-capacity venue with a stage and DJ booth. (Arturo Olmos/Courtesy Meow Wolf)Kill Joy, a Filipino-American artist from Houstons Denver Harbor, is an avid participant in art activism. In Laughing River, her hand-painted art and graffiti in a winding hallway tells the story of a jungle that suffers at the hands of colonization.Six rooms house the longest piece by one artist in the exhibition: Obsidiodyssey by Janell Langford, a Santa Febased artist, who walks viewers through the stages of her minds creative process and hopes to create a space in which Black women and femmes can see themselves reflected. The piece starts within an art studio of vibrant colors with a tape full of messages from the artist and an interactive paint board. A hallway designed as a dark alleyway representing the artists fears and doubts leads to a funky disco house party where participants can use a DJ booth to affect the music and visuals in the room. Jasmine Zelaya, a multidisciplinary Honduran-American artist based in Houston, focuses Flower Face Room on the duality of existence being brown in a white America, to assimilate but also retain the identity of ones culture. She paints her and her sisters in Chola fashion with watery eyes, big hair, and flowers for mouths.Nods to Houston are embedded everywhere: Houston rapper Fat Tony created music for the arcade room and collaborated with the Meow Wolf team to create a trippy commercial to be broadcast in Houston. Emily Links Night Shift features a nighttime DJ bat wearing a shirt from Numbers, a classic Houston club. But H-Towns street and music culture is especially felt in the hallway painted by El Franco Lee II: Liquid Analog: Lees Congo Barre recalls a golden era in Houston, when the Rockets won consecutive NBA championships in 1994 and 1995; DJ Screw created a new music style, slowing down and remixing rap songs and other beats; and the artists own family established their legacy in Fifth Ward. The faint sound of a slab driving by bumping music followed as we walked down the hallway.Within Obsidiodyssey there is a funky, interactive DJ Booth. (Courtesy Meow Wolf)What used to be a Houston sheet metal factory now stands as a labyrinth of surreal art and sound. An app accompanies the experience as a personal tour guide with hidden elements about the spaces, information about the artists, and funky games and videos by the Meow Wolf artists and collaborators. There are plans to work with even more local artists in the future, with another mural slated for the warehouses exterior.GONZO247 told AN: A big part of the immersiveness is trying to tap into all your senses. Not only are you seeing visually, youre touching things, youre hearing things, youre putting everything together, and I think that really helps place you in this world.One could spend hours uncovering the many Easter eggs and learning everything about this universeand still not notice everything, like the tiny band playing on the tiny moon in the tiny hole of a tree. The many women of color represented were a highlight for me, expanding on very relevant themes of the immigrant experience, colonization and what it looks like now, and bringing their culture to the city where it rightfully belongs. The theme spoke to Houstons music culture, and I found myself smirking to references only a Houstonian would understand. This psychedelic platform for innovative artists fits right into the creative city.Pooja Desai is a designer and researcher at the Community Design Resource Center at the University of Houston and a writer.

Seamless MixingSTUDIOTAMAT connects Romes Termini Station with DJing for the bold and eclectic House on TrackByPaige Davidson March 20, 2025Interiors, International (Seven H. Zhang)SHARERome is saturated with history. From the Colosseum and Aqueducts to the Pantheon, the city is the epitome of how to preserve architectural relics. Local architecture and design firm,STUDIOTAMAT, wove history with the contemporary in its recent residential project, House on Track. The project draws from both Romes Termini Station, located nearby, and the clients love of DJing. The homeowners are Sergio Marras and his partner, cofounder of STUDIOTAMAT, Matteo Soddu who found it an interesting experience being both the architect and client for this renovation. As the studio described in a project description, The overlap of being both the designer and the client, has allowed a 360 degree design, a perfect combination between the dimension and architecture to be admired.Read more about the renovation on aninteriormag.com. ItalyRome

When buildings are no longer occupied, there are remnants of their past: a faded marquee, the sun-bleached outline of what once was, or the telltale geometry of a bygone establishment. At the Twitterrecently rebranded to XSan Francisco headquarters, the social media outlets signature bird logo fascia sign now stands for what the platform once was. And for a lump sum of cashshipping not includeda 560-pound relic of Twitter lore can be yours.One of two 12-foot fascia signs, originally sold at auction by CEO Elon Musk in 2023, is up for bid again along with other technology memorabilia, including an Apple-1 computer with its original operation manual, a miscellaneous group of 18 Apple computer business cards, and a 1991 edition of Fortune Magazine with Steve Jobs and Bill Gates on the cover. RR Auction is managing the lot, the house specializes in Apple products, but also predictably sells music memorabilia, space artifacts, sports cards, and Hollywood costumes.The blue bird, nicknamed Larry after former NBA basketball player Larry Bird of the Boston Celtics, represented the company from the early 2010s to its acquisition into the hands of Elon Musk in 2022.Its such an iconic logo, and its so symbolic of technology and the change that were going through, Bobby Livingston, executive vice president at RR auction shared in a recent radio interview. When they took it off that building, it still has a lot of value, more value than it did as a logo. X, formerly Twitter, moved into its San Francisco headquarters in the citys Mid-Market neighborhood in 2012. As one of the first tech companies on the block, Twitter became a symbol of the citys growing tech industry. This particular avian-shaped sign was mounted on the southeast side of the art-deco building facing Jessie Street.Soon after the corporation was bought by current CEO Elon Musk, the building made headlines when conference rooms and office space were converted into bedrooms without any consideration for building codes or permits. A year later, Musk shuttered the Market Street doors completely to move the operation to Texas, citing personal concerns about California policy.In 2023, a year after Musk acquired the company, and two months after he placed an X logo on top of the building without yet another permit, a rebranding auction was launched to clear out any trace of the blue bird and old energy from company offices. In case you missed it, the sale included wooden Larry-shaped coffee tables, hashtag symbol props, and a whole lot of chairs. Now, the previous collector who acquired the fascia sign is ready for Larry to spread his wings once more.At the time of writing, the highest bid is at $23,831, though the bids are expected to soar before the auction closes tomorrow, March 20, which is guaranteed to ruffle some feathers.

The corner of Vanderbilt Avenue and Fulton Street in Brooklyns Clinton Hill neighborhood is a lively one. Black-and-white stencils of children by the street artist JR line the facade of Language and Laughter Studio (LLS), a French immersion preschool and language center helmed by Pascale Setbon, a progressive early-childhood education visionary. The school was founded by Setbon in 2006 but moved into its new purpose-built home designed by ONeill McVoy Architects in early 2025. We dont follow one single model, Setbon told AN one January morning at LLS. She was accompanied by her dog, Ima, as kids swaddled in winter clothing came indoors from the cold. Whats most important to us are values, Setbon added. What kind of citizen are they going to be when they grow up? How do you connect to language? How do you connect to objects? To nature? How do you connect to others and yourself?Buildings by Luis Barragn and Le Corbusier were a starting point for the design of the school. (Nicholas Calcott)During COVID-19, before the new location of LLS was built, Setbon and her staff relocated the school to Fort Greene Park, where they built an outdoor classroom reminiscent of forest schools in Switzerland and the Netherlands. The new location can be understood as an extension of the Fort Greene Park Nature School at LLS and its pedagogy, albeit an interiorized version. Beth ONeill and Chris McVoy, founders of ONeill McVoy Architects, took Setbons interest in nature, art, and psychology and ran with it in their design for LLS. A Painterly ApproachLanguage and Laughter Studio has two entrances; it occupies a 3,300-square-foot storefront space on the ground floor of a new multifamily residential building. The primary corner entry leads students and staffers into a well-lit, cozy lobby furnished with beautiful rugs and art books. The imagination is immediately activated thanks to a prominent mural of forestry by Olivia Angelozzi, a New Yorkbased illustrator. The mural occupies a total of six walls within the school; its painterly aesthetic contrasts nicely with the photo collages by JRthe prolific French street artist whom Setbon invited to make bespoke artwork for LLSand the polychromatic interior partitions ideated by ONeill and McVoy.Artwork at the school includes a mural of forestry by Olivia Angelozzi, a New Yorkbased illustrator. (Nicholas Calcott)McVoy was a senior partner at Steven Holl Architects for decades before cofounding his firm, so he knows a thing or two about natural light. He was the project lead for the Art Bloch Building at the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art in Kansas City, which has earned widespread acclaim for its use of skylights and clerestory windows, among other award-winning projects. The curved, interior partition walls that delineate classrooms within LLS are as thoughtful and beautiful as the Art Bloch Building, albeit in a much smaller space. The colors of the partitions change as the day transpires, animated by silhouettes of teachers and giddy childrenunless, of course, its nap time. The partitions, from the Italian manufacturer Bencore, were bent at precise angles. (Nicholas Calcott)The design process started when Setbon handed ONeill and McVoy a mood board of aesthetic aspirationsincluding buildings by Luis Barragn and Le Corbusierbut with a compressed timeline: They had just 11 months to design and finish the space. Setbon, ONeill, and McVoy worked intensively together with Rockhill Construction, the builder, going back and forth between design meetings and charettes. The architects studied the teachings of psychologist Jean Piaget, who researched how children perceive space. Children dont come out understanding orthogonal architecture, McVoy said. Having surfaces continue creates continuity, light versus dark, openness versus enclosure. Color is energy.The walls are made of tiny straws from 100 percent recycled acrylic. (Nicholas Calcott)Where Architecture Meets PedagogySpaces by Le Corbusier and Barragn may have been the starting point, but the architects said they sought something different. If Barragn painted planes, ONeill and McVoy wanted the color to come from within the walls of Language and Laughter Studio. To that end, they opted for luminous panels shaded in violet, yellowish gold, olive green, blue satin, and lilac, a set inspired by Barragns work. They found 100 percent recycled acrylic, which helped them achieve the effect they wanted: Thousands of tiny straws make up the walls, creating an almost granular, stained-glass effect. The partitions, from the Italian manufacturer Bencore, were bent at precise angles specified by the architect and then shipped overseas.Cork floors, made of 100 percent rapidly renewable bark, give the ground plane an earthy feel. (Nicholas Calcott)The circulation areas floor is lacquered in powder blue; the team refers to it as the river. In the classrooms, cork floors, made of 100 percent rapidly renewable bark, give the ground plane an earthy feel. The ceilings are lined with soft, sky-blue acoustic panels; the nebulous materials are meant to emulate clouds. Much of the buildings ductwork and structure were left exposed so children could see how the building they occupy stands up. Convex curves shape the garden in the back, where offices, the staff kitchen, and restrooms are sited. Faculty at LLS take environmental justice and antiracism seriously. The issues have become even more pronounced since COVID-19, now that young children grow up with screens in their hands. Setbon, ONeill, and McVoy paid close attention to sensory materials to help children connect with the real world and look inward at such a formative stage in their lives.Floorplan (Courtesy ONeill McVoy)The LLS was a beautiful commission for an architect, McVoy said. Pascale asked us to create a new kind of school that embodies [its] philosophy and helps enable its goals. There are lots of ideas about what a school should be and about what education should be. All of this is very dependent on the environment. Pascale recognizes the importance of architecture and the environment in education and pedagogy.

Building on its commitment to collaborative design innovation, the architecture and urban design firm Cooper Robertson has announced the opening of its new offices near South Street Seaport in Lower Manhattan. Intended to foster closer collaboration with clients and colleagues, the firms move to this dynamic workplace comes at a significant moment as Cooper Robertson embarks on major new commissions and prepares for the 2025 opening of several high-profile museums and other projects. For architects and urban designers, a progressive workplace for cutting-edge planning and design is critical in strengthening relationships with clients and enabling our team members to do their best work, said John Kirk, a partner at Cooper Robertson and leader of the planning and design effort behind the new offices. Face-to-face mentorship that supports the next generation of practitioners is essential, continued Kirk.As we continue our growth trajectory and look to the future, creating an inspiring and effective working environment for our team is a top priority, added Cooper Robertson partner Erin Flynn.The real estate group CBRE, which manages the modern, 29-story building at 40 Fulton Street, and the brokers Newmark, who represented Cooper Robertson in securing its lease, adds that the new workspace also reflects the firms 45-plus year commitment to New York Citys Lower Manhattan neighborhood, underscoring the Financial Districts continued status as a hub for creative industries, including architecture, engineering, and allied fields. Known globally for work that supports strong and resilient communities, Cooper Robertson is a leading architect and planner of museums and cultural facilities, an expert in urban mixed-use districts and campus planning, and an award-winning designer of educational buildings, waterfront spaces, and public realm projects of all types. The firm is led by a group of acclaimed partners including Mike Aziz, Bruce Davis, Erin Flynn, and John Kirk, alongside director Elizabeth Stoel.Among the upcoming milestones for Cooper Robertson in 2025 are highly anticipated openings for a new building for the Studio Museum in Harlem; a new Princeton University Art Museum in New Jersey; and a major expansion at New York Citys New Museum, designed in collaboration with OMA. Cooper Robertson has also taken on new commissions for large-scale master planning, campus planning, and architecture projects in the cities of Bellevue, Washington; Sacramento, California; and Chesapeake, Virginia.New Museum (OMA/bloomimages.de)Adding to the firms latest commissions are projects for the University of Maryland and other leading institutions of higher education; for prestigious member-driven organizations including the River Bend Golf & Country Club; for private residences in the Hamptons and beyond; and for innovative new arts- and agriculture-focused master-planned mixed-use communities in the Hudson River Valley and upstate New York.Cooper Robertsons new offices will form a base for the firms skilled group of professionals as they take on these and other exciting and transformative works. Occupying the 21st floor of 40 Fulton Street, the workplace offers abundant daylight and panoramic views of the East River. With varied work and meeting zones, the space is designed to foster collaboration while prioritizing user wellbeing and enabling flexibility to host events and open houses. The firms approach to designing and fitting out the space evolved from a comprehensive employee survey and a series of design charrettes, in which groups of Cooper Robertson team members envisioned a range of different layout and programming opportunities.Cooper Robertsons reputation and trajectory reflect our longstanding focus on client relationships and a commitment to the highest standards of professional excellence, said Cooper Robertson partner and management committee leader Mike Aziz. This new workplace creates exciting opportunities for further improving the way we operate internally and our ability to support our clients and the communities we serve. As our organization continues to grow, were confident that this space will inspire our talented team to do their best work.

While the Architecture Billings Index (ABI), the monthly indicator of economic conditions put out by the AIA, was already dropping prior to the new Trump administration, the continued calls for tariffs and other changes to the labor market have left the economy and many business owners quavering and wondering whats to come. For February the ABI again reported a decline in billings, coming in with a score of 45.5 for the month (any number below 50 indicates a decline in billings). This is an ever-so-slight dip from Januarys 45.6 score, and confirmed that a majority of architecture firms are continuing to see less on the billings front. For the last month, the stock market has been up and down as President Donald Trump announces and redacts his call for tariffs on imported goods, moves that would undoubtedly affect the cost of building materials, including wood. In a statement AIA chief economist Kermit Baker held somewhat steady in his optimism, suggesting that an increase in the Consumer Price Index and easing interest rates indicate positive economic growth, albeit masked by the uncertainty of the new administrations policies.Conditions in the broader economy were generally positive in February, with the Consumer Price Index (CPI) increasing by only a modest amount, long-term interest rates easing from January levels, and healthy job growth, Baker said. However, uncertainty surrounding the impact of recently announced tariffs may lead to a rise in building material prices in the coming months while immigration policy may put even more pressure on an already undersupplied construction labor market. In a dramatic turn from previous months, in February, architecture firms nationwide reported a decrease in inquiries into new projects, indicating that new opportunities for architects may be lessening. The index for new project inquiries was 47.8, down from 51.4 in January, and now the lowest it has been since peak pandemic in 2020.In addition to reporting a national index, the AIA shares data on how individual regions are faring. Again firms in the Northeast reported the steepest decline in billings, 41.7, while firms in the West, where business conditions had been stronger, reported declines too.

ICON, a pioneer in large-scale 3D printing, recently partnered with Michael Hsu Office of Architecture and Catellus to bring a dozen homes to the Mueller community in Austin. Located three miles north of downtown, Mueller is a mixed-income, mixed-use community in the heart of the Texas capital with a mission to blend urban living with green spaces and sustainability through environmental design. The 2-story residences combine construction methods, with 3D printing on the first floor and traditional construction methodologies applied to the second level, capped by a standing seam roof. The modern design blends the striated appearance of the 3D-printed material with a smooth upper facade.Mueller is urban infill redevelopment of Robert Mueller Municipal Airport, created as a joint project between the City of Austin Financial Services Department and Catellus Development. Muellers redevelopment has been managed by Arterra on behalf of Catellus Development Corporation in partnership with the City of Austin since 2024. The 700-acre site hosts a mix of housing, parks and recreational areas, shops, restaurants and amenities. The ICON homes will be some of the last newly constructed homes in the community.The ICON homes range in size from one- to three-bedrooms layouts. (Courtesy ICON)The ICON homes range from 650 to 2,400 square feet across one to three bedrooms layouts. Though the three home options differ in size, plans for each include a largely open concept living space, with bedrooms set aside for privacy. The two and three bedroom options maximize their compact footprint with an attached two-car garage that expands the upper levels. Additionally, each home is equipped with a covered patio. ICON builds using robotic technology and proprietary cementitious-based material, CarbonX. The 3D-printed wall systems of an ICON home alleviate the intensity of temperature fluctuations through higher insulation levels. The walls are also water, mold, termite, and fire-resistant. When ICON built the worlds largest community of 3D-printed homes in Georgetown, Texas, with Lennar, a construction company specializing in homes, it utilized Vulcana robotic construction system. The large, transportable printer also built a trio of U.S. Army barracks at Fort Bliss.The two- and three-bedroom homes feature floor-to-ceiling windows that flood the interior with natural light. (Courtesy ICON)Back in the Mueller community, each home option includes two packages for finishes. The design aesthetic creates a textural balance between the interiors curvilinear concrete forms and its appliances. Residents can choose which wood finish they prefer for cabinetry, among other customizable components. In addition, large windows invite in an abundance of natural light, with glazing framing garden views.The homes are located along the Southwest Greenway at Mueller, a restored Texas blackland prairie incorporating native plants in partnership with the Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center. Located near Muellers first neighborhood along Tom Miller Street, the homes offer unobstructed and protected views of the golf course and walking trails.The 3D-printed material on the ground floor is the baseline for the interiors programmatic and aesthetic design. (Courtesy ICON)Although there is more commercial construction to be completed over the next few years, were nearing the end of newly constructed homes in Mueller, and we wanted to celebrate Muellers two decades of residential innovation with yet another advancement, said Sergio Negrete, principal and senior vice president of Arterra Development. These 3D-printed homes also help reflect the overall goals of the community, including affordability, diversity and sustainability.The project will break ground in 2025.

Voids and Vignettesfws_work turns a small loft in Taipei into a poetic retreat using unexpected openingsByKelly Pau March 19, 2025Interiors, International (Suiyu Studio)SHAREAt 700 square feet, an artists loft in Taipei, Taiwan includes a bedroom, bathroom, living room, dining room, kitchen, and dedicated room for tea. What should feel like a dense, cramped program instead feels spacious and serene due to the thoughtful renovation byfws_work. The architects, who work between Brooklyn and Taiwan, use a dark color palette, layers of texture, and unexpected openings to ensure theres inspiration around every corner but never an overwhelming moment. The loft begins underneath the mezzanine level with a storage room to the left and a bathroom to the right, abutting the stairs. This denser area then opens up to the double-height space of the living room, dining room, and kitchen. In place of walls, shelving and partitions delineate the space to keep a free-flowing floorplan. This is especially true of the woven rattan folding doors that surround the tea room. When the doors are open, the living room seems to expand even more, but even with the doors closed, the material adds warmth to the otherwise dark and neutral space.Read more about the loft on aninteriormag.com. Taiwan

Last summer, the world watched as determined athletes competed for gold in converted arenas throughout Paris and its suburbs. We sat at the edge of our seats as beach volleyball players spiked the ball into the sand in front of the Eiffel Tower. We marveled at horses leaping over obstacles on the sprawling grounds of Versailles. Our eyes were glued to the skateboarders as they performed gravity defying tricks with the 3,000-year-old Luxor Obelisk erupting behind them in Place de la Concorde. The arenas built or retrofitted for the 2024 Summer Olympics used the City of Lights as a backdrop, incorporating an architectural element into the games. As the 2028 Los Angeles Olympic Games (LA28) approach, AECOM will help transform L.A. arenas into competition venues for the worlds best athletes.Last week, the design and infrastructure consulting giant AECOM was named the Official Venue Infrastructure Partner for the LA28 Olympic and Paralympic Games. The projects scope includes architecture, engineering, planning, program management, and construction management. Committed to sustainability, AECOM must plan and execute the retrofitting of existing stadiums, making LA28 the first Games in which no permanent venues will be built.The Los Angeles Olympics will stage around 50 Olympic and Paralympic sports across 800 events with over 15,000 participating Olympic and Paralympic athletes. AECOM has performed architectural, design, and construction services for several stadiums including Citi Field, the Intuit Dome, and the Mercedes-Benz Stadium. Just as athletes push the boundaries of performance in pursuit of excellence, AECOM said, our team brings deep technical expertise and relentless innovation to deliver world-class infrastructure that makes these moments possible.In 2028 the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum will become the first stadium to have hosted the Summer Olympics three times. (CanonStarGal/Wikimedia Commons/CC BY-SA 4.0)Stadiums, arenas, and venues around Los Angeles are being allocated to specific sporting events. SoFi Stadium, home to NFLs Los Angeles Rams and the Los Angeles Chargers, will host the swimming competition. The football field will be turned into a 164-foot pool and the stands will house 38,000 fansdouble the seats of an average Olympic swimming event. Other venues include the University of Southern California Sports Center for badminton matches, the Intuit Dome for basketball games, and the historic L.A. Memorial Coliseum (which in 2028 will become the first stadium to have hosted the Summer Olympics three times) for Track and Field events.More locations are to be announced as Los Angeles and AECOM prepare for the biggest sporting event in the world. In choosing these venues around the city, LA28 chairperson and president Casey Wasserman hopes to provide, the ideal Hollywood stage for the worlds top athletes.

One of the first organizations to be defunded by DOGEs operations in the early days of President Donald Trumps second term was the United States Agency for International Development (USAID). Established in 1961 by President John F. Kennedy, in 2024 the organization had an estimated $35.4 billion in obligations, with most of the funding ($12.3 billion) dedicated to Sub-Saharan Africa. Elon Musk, who is directing the DOGE effort, said he spent the first weekend in February feeding USAID into the wood chipper, and these cuts have decimated the staffing and funding; a recent count indicated 83 percent of international humanitarian and development programs were terminated. By previous internal estimates, U.S. assistance saved 3.3 million lives per year; Atul Gawande, a former USAID official, told The New Yorker that these cuts will result in hundreds of thousands of deaths in the first year, at a minimum. USAIDs defunding will also impact the U.S.s capacity to enact soft power, as other countries like China strengthen its humanitarian outreach. The bludgeoning of PEPFAR [a George W. Bushera AIDS program] and U.S.A.I.D., one of the most eloquent expressions of American values ever created, might be Americas most spectacular act of self-sabotage in generations, the musician Bono told Nicholas Kristof for an opinion piece in The New York Times.The federal definition of construction relates to construction, alteration, or repair (including dredging and excavation) of buildings, structures, or other real property and includes, without limitation, improvements, renovation, alteration and refurbishment. In a 2017 document, USAID estimated that since 2014, the estimated USAID-funded construction underway at any one time has averaged more than $2 billion.At times, USAIDs work included commissions for architects and engineers. The cratering of USAID and DOGEs cuts stand to have rippling effects not only on the populations the organization previously served but also on the American companies it relied upon to design and supervise construction services. AECOM CancellationsTwo significant contracts stand out when reviewing DOGEs Wall of Receipts: An AECOM contract for $57 million was uploaded on February 12, with an estimated $51 million in savings, and a second contract for $43 million, with an estimated $34.5 million in savings, was uploaded that same day. Both contracts, which if accurately accounted would add up to $85.5 million in savings, were for USAID work in the West Bank and Gaza.The two contracts sum to $100 million, which matches the amount of an award dated September 28, 2024, to AECOM for work in the region to provide professional A&E services for the development of infrastructure in the West Bank, Gaza, East Jerusalem, and Israel to support the USAID/WBG Mission in its efforts to empower Palestinians to build thriving communities, promote inclusive development, and advance a two-state solution.AECOM did not respond to ANs requests for comment. The Office of Inspector General declined to comment on ANs inquiry, and USAID did not respond to ANs request for comment. AECOM has been involved in the areas reconstruction efforts since 2014, when it was brought in by Palestinians to come up with yet another plan to restructure Gaza, according to reporting published in Vanity Fair. Around the time of the most recent fall 2024 award, AECOM posted a job for a Design ManagerWest Bank and Gaza (with an advertised salary range of between $140,000 and $200,000) that focused on improved water security projects in West Bank and Gaza. Aaron Cayer, an assistant professor of architecture at California State Polytechnic University, Pomona, wrote about the job posting as his contribution to Field Notes on Repair, a series published last fall by Places Journal. (His book about AECOM, Incorporating Architects: How American Architecture Became a Practice of Empire, will be published in June.) Cayer describes how large firms compete for commissions to both design initial new infrastructures and their postwar replacements. He wrote, This paradoxical economy of destruction and repair was established in the United States during the 20th century as architects began working for both the military and international aid organizations.Earlier this year, on an earnings call, AECOM CEO Troy Rudds message was that Trumps permitting reform outweighs agency cuts, according to Construction Dive. AECOMs stock (ACM) is down about 11 percent so far in 2025.In addition to providing humanitarian and health-related assistance to countries, USAIDs work included commissions for architects and engineers. (Ted Eytan/Flickr/CC BY-SA 2.0)Other DOGE CutsA handful of other DOGE cuts relate to the built environment.A nearly $15 million contract was awarded to Tetra Tech for Architectural and Engineering (A&E) Services for the Secondary Education Expansion for Development in Malawi. This item, uploaded on March 1, yielded no savings. Tetra Tech did not respond to ANs request for comment.A $4 million contract to Green Powered Technology for A&E services related to infrastructure in Liberia was also uploaded on March 1, and no savings was listed. Green Powered Technology did not respond to ANs request for comment. Other USAID StoppagesBeyond DOGEs cancellations, the defunding will impact other projects. MASS Design Group was at work on a USAID-funded project that was suspended in late January. It provided a statement about the stoppage:MASS Design Group stopped work on a project in the Horn of Africa due to USAID funding cuts. The order to suspend the USAID-funded work was received by MASS and their jointly-appointed nonprofit partner on January 28, 2025, stating that the project was paused to assess programmatic efficiencies and consistency with United States foreign policy. The project would have funded the creation of a center to educate and train young men and women, providing them opportunity and hope, in effort to curb radicalization as the only means of upward mobility in society.MASS, whose name is an acronym for Model of Architecture Serving Society, is not naming the nonprofit partner in order to protect the nonprofits identity per their request, fearing retaliation from internal and foreign actors. U.S. military strikes in the region against ISIS targets further complicated the situation. The statement concludes: MASS is deeply committed to continue international built work that provides solutions to help some of the most vulnerable populations around the globe. Stantec also has extensive USAID experience. The company has supported USAID for over 20 years in its mission to drive global development and prosperity, an objective that resonates with Stantecs own commitment to addressing sustainable development around the globe, Loren Labovitch, vice president of Stantecs US International Development team, said in a 2021 press release for a five-year, $800 million contract. This award was in support of several USAID cross-cutting initiatives designed to help developing countries pursue less carbon intensive development, adapt to the impacts of climate change, and advance gender and social inclusion. Stantec will work closely with USAID and its partners to design and implement infrastructure interventions that incorporate appropriate climate risk mitigation measures, optimize the use of clean energy and energy efficient technologies, promote nature-based solutions where feasible, enable equitable access to project benefits, and improve womens economic and workforce development opportunities.A spokesperson for Stantec responded to ANs inquiry but ultimately was not able to provide an expert for comment. Stantecs stock (STN) is up about 5 percent so far this year.USAID Supporting ArchitectsIn select moments, USAID funded the transmission of architectural knowledge. As part of its Diaspora Invest project in Bosnia and Herzegovina, Ajla Aksamija, a professor and Distinguished Chair for Resilient Places at the School of Architecture at the University of Utah, led a four-day workshop on innovations in architecture. Held from December 9 to 13 last year, her lecture brought together students, academics, and professionals from the fields of architecture and construction. Then mentoring workshops were held with three architectural firms from Bosnia and Herzegovina, selected by the USAID.USAID also supported the development of climate-resilient guesthouse concepts in the Maldives, which included a two-day exhibition at the end of 2024.

Houston and architectural elegance may not seem like things that go together, but that is what Steve Radom, founder and managing principal of Radom Capital seeks to change. The local developer prioritizes executing projects that are informed by the nature of place, rigor, and design excellence. The firms portfolio includes the adapted warehouse M-K-T, Montrose Collective, and 3201 Allen Parkway, a sensitive restoration of a 1930 landmark. Today, Radom shares his knowledge on the prowess and potentials of real estate development as a judge for ANs 2025 Best of Practice Awards. Best of Practice is ANs annual awards program that honors what it means to run a business in the architecture and buildings industryand who in particular is moving the needle within this. From educating and working with clients, to advocating for the right projects, and creating a work environment that encourages design excellence, there are many unique challenges to building a good business in the AEC industry. Best of Practice celebrates the efforts that go into this ever-evolving project, honoring architecture firms, landscape companies, developers, contractors, sustainability consultants, engineers, and other studio types.Before submissions close on March 28, 2025, Radom shares his advice on what hes looking for in Best of Practice applications. Read his tipsalong with advice from other jurors Jacob Reidel, Anne Marie Duvall Decker, and Antoine Bryantto get entries in before the upcoming deadline.AN: How did you come to work as a developer?Steve Radom (SR):I once read that you dont choose your passions, your passions choose you. While my educational background is in law and business, my journey into development was driven by a profound curiosity for how built environments shape human experiences. Recognizing that successful development uniquely integrates design, finance, law, and community impact, I pursued a career where I could dedicate my energy into creating spaces that enhance our neighborhoods and cities. AN: What are the rules or philosophies that undergird your own practice, both in terms of company culture and methodology?SR:At Radom Capital, our companys approach to development is guided by: contextual engagement or ensuring each project resonates with its surroundings by preserving historical elements or introducing complementary contemporary designs; community stewardship, focusing on developments that create lasting value architecturally and socially by emphasizing landscape, placemaking, and preservation in our project objectives; and collaborative innovation which means partnering with innovative architects and designers, and challenging them to achieve creative solutions.AN: Part of being a good practice is balancing the business aspect of the firm with the larger goals to champion thoughtful design and architecture. How do you personally find that balance?SR:It begins with recognizing that good design and good business are not opposing forces but interdependent ones. Design excellence should not be an extraneous expense; it is to us an accretive asset. Well-executed architecture enhances leasing velocity, creates brand equity, and ultimately generates long-term value.That said, development is, by nature, an exercise in constraintwhether financial, regulatory, or spatial. The challenge is to harness those constraints as generative forces rather than limitations. We work closely with architects to find efficiencies that do not compromise design integrity, and we maintain financial guardrails to ensure that beauty and functionality align with economic realities. I believe that the most successful projects emerge from this productive tension.AN: What are you working on currently at your firm that youre particularly excited about?SR: We are currently engaged in several exciting projects. Swift is an adaptive reuse project transforming a historic 1920s brick and concrete meatpacking facility into a creative campus in collaboration with Michael Hsu Office of Architecture. Heights Clock Tower Residences is a residential addition integrated into a historic textile factory, designed by Cobalt Office and Farouki Farouki. And we have several retail projects across Texas in partnership with Schaum/Shieh, Clayton Korte, Jess Vassallo, and Magic Architecture.We are fortunate to be busy, and working alongside a multitude of talented designers. AN: What will you be looking for in Best of Practice applications?SR: In evaluating applications, I will focus on: philosophical clarity as in a well-defined ethos that in turn permeates through the firms work; design excellence so projects that demonstrate innovation, contextual sensitivity, and craftsmanship; collaborative spirit or evidence of successful partnerships with other professionals to achieve uncommon results; and impact, a commitment to creating enduring, community-enhancing, and responsible developments.AN: What advice do you have, especially for other developers, in applying for Best of Practice?SR: Applicants should articulate their philosophy, clearly convey the guiding principles behind their work; highlight collaborative achievements by showcasing projects where partnerships led to exceptional outcomes; demonstrate resilience and innovation by illustrating how challenges were met with creative solutions; and emphasize long-term value by focusing on developments that have made lasting positive impacts on communities.Best of Practice is open for submissions until March 28, 2025 by midnight ET. Learn more about the program and register an application here.

AN is proud to announce the inaugural winners of The Faces of Our City, our New York City facades award program! The Faces of Our City was created to inspire future professionals and projects that will continue to define New York Citys architectural landscape. The New York City facades award program honors and celebrates the teams who shape our cities through their work. The awards recognize the ambition, innovation, craftsmanship, and dedication that bring New Yorks skyline to life. The four award categories recognize a product of the year, an emerging professional in the field, a lifetime achievement award, and a standout New York City building as project of the year.The winners of the Product of the Year, Emerging Professional, and Lifetime Achievement are announced below along with the nominees for Project of the Year, all of which AN has covered in print or online.Want to find out which project wins? Join us for our awards celebration in New York on April 3 at the Metropolitan Pavilion in New York, after Facades+ New York.Product of the Year:Hydro CircalEmerging Professional:Kateri Knapp, Arup Lifetime Achievement:Robert Heintges, Heintges Consulting Architects & EngineersNominees for Project of the Year:The facades grid was inspired in part by Le Corbusiers Ministry of Education and Health. (Michael Moran)El Borinquen Residence designed by Alexander Gorlin ArchitectsIn Williamsburg, PAU converted a sugar processing factory into a contemporary workspace. (Max Touhey)The Refinery at Domino designed by PAUThe Gilder Center completes the western side of the museum, along Columbus Avenue with an atrium composed of shotcrete, liquid concrete sprayed onto rebar. (Iwan Baan)The Gilder Center at American Museum of Natural History designed by Studio Gang Kravis Hall (Iwan Baan)Geffen Hall (Iwan Baan)Columbia Business School: The Henry R. Kravis Hall and David Geffen Hall designed by Diller Scofidio + RenfroThe PAC is a cube clad in 4,896 pieces of translucent, intricately veined Portuguese marble suspended above a granite plinth. (Iwan Baan)Perelman Performing Arts Center designed by REXWant to be the first to know who wins this first Project of the Year award? Save your seat at our awards celebration in New York on April 3 at the Metropolitan Pavilion in New York, after Facades+ New York.

The following warps and wefts take their cues from optimism, whether by researching neuroaesthetics, creating exuberant patterns, or recycling fashion textile waste for a brighter future. (Courtesy Kvadrat)AmeKvadrat(Courtesy Designtex)Joy CollectionDesigntex(Courtesy HBF Textiles)MemorableHBF Textiles (Courtesy Vanderhurd)OpitcalityVanderhurd(Courtesy Erica Wakely)Modern FlockErica Wakerly (Courtesy Maharam)Ladder Stripe and Stepped Plaid by Paul SmithMaharam

Its no secret that data centers consume untenable amounts of electricity, often to the detriment of their host areas. Bill Gates and his ilk are now investing in nuclear power as an alternative, a phenomena recently lampooned by Birds Arent Real founder Peter McIndoe and his Enron Egg, the worlds first (fake) at home nuclear reactor. Oklo is a California start-up at the forefront of emergent nuclear technology. The company has since gotten the green light from the U.S. Department of Energy to build its first small modular reactor (SMR) in Idaho, designed by Gensler. Oklos investors include Hydrazine Capital, founded by Sam Altman.The modular buildings can be deployed in a variety of environments. (Courtesy Gensler)Oklos Aurora Powerhouse will be sited at Idaho National Laboratory, but the modular building is designed to fit in a plethora of environments. It can generate enough power for about 15,000 homes, all with zero emissions, Gensler said. Each SMR has a 40-year estimated lifespan, and can run without refueling for up to ten years. Gensler opted for an A-frame structure for its functional and aesthetic benefits. The expansive floor-to-ceiling height allows for tall equipment, and its form makes it able to support an interior crane.Moreover, the look and feel is meant to help residents feel comfortable living near nuclear power plants, which have gotten bad reps since the 1980s. (Think: Chernobyl.)The A-frame structure allows for tall equipment. (Courtesy Gensler)SMRs are smaller, more versatile, and decentralized versions of traditional nuclear reactors. (Courtesy Gensler)In short, SMRs are smaller, more versatile, and decentralized versions of traditional nuclear reactors, like the Three Mile Island Plant in Pennsylvania, which had its own meltdown in 1979. They can generate low-carbon electricity without the same challenges often associated with large nuclear plants. SMRs can produce about one-third the capacity of traditional reactors, or 300 megawatts of electricity per day. Theyre also modular, which allows for them to be assembled in factories and transported on site, cutting construction time and costs.Oklo could soon provide energy for data centers in a range of locations. (Courtesy Gensler)The U.S. Department of Energy is increasingly interested in SMRs. Oklo is already accelerating its power availability efforts for data centers to offset their impacts on the existing energy grid.Gensler sees real potential for SMRs to make immediate impact in places like northern Virginia that have clusters of data centers.Oklos Aurora Powerhouse is expected to be deployed by 2027.

At 6 foot 4 inches with long blonde hair, Job Oort, a bike messenger in Amsterdam, stood out among the typical Dutch bike commuters with his chrome sling bag and his built-for-speed, not-totally-neglected bike. He was clipped in, wearing a white helmet, atop a cyclocross or gravel Cannondale frame, on which he was running tan sidewall 700c by 44 millimeter tires. I learned about Oort and Amsterdam during his workday, as he rode through the city while I followed along on a rented bike. He had started working as a messenger three years ago in The Hague before moving back home to Amsterdam. We pedaled fast through some of the Netherlandss 22,000 miles of bike lanes. We picked up a laptop from a childrens school, went way out west of the city through canal-lined parks with old wooden windmills just like I had imagined the Netherlands would look. We kept entering grade schools, which were much nicer than the ones I had seen in New York. At one of the schools, Oort made note of a small-wheeled electric bike, saying spoiled kids ride them like jerks.Really, I dont think about our bicycle infrastructure much only when I go to other cities, he responded when I asked his thoughts on Amsterdams world-famous, human-centered, cycling-inclusive urban design.Job Oort is a bike messenger in Amsterdam. (Quinn Gregory)A Personal Quest to Understand Urban Bicycling ChallengesAs a college student in New York City working a job as a bike messenger, I was exposed to urbanism in an unorthodox way. I witnessed coworkers suffer horrible collisions because of bad street design. I was eager to learn about the built environment and enrolled in a master of architecture at Pratt Institute. At Pratt, long hours spent outside as a messenger were followed by lamp-lit nights at my desk looking at project sites on Google Maps. I became fascinated reading news about McGuinness Boulevard, a notoriously dangerous street where cyclists have been killed by drivers. Cyclists and advocates formed Make McGuinness Safe, which epitomized the challenges I had seen as a bike messenger: how to reclaim streets designed for cars and turn them into spaces for people. Last spring, I applied to, and won, the Bill Menking Travel Award, with a self-made project that sent me to Europe to study how messengers, planners, academics, and architects have impacted progressive street designs in big cities. I wanted to look at cities that faced opposition in their redesign efforts for safer streets and see if I could learn anything from the similarities between European approaches to solve for the types of problems I encountered on McGuinness Boulevard. Amsterdam, a global cycling capital, was an essential stop and case study. Through my time in Amsterdam, I saw a mix of promise coupled with signs of a more challenging future to come for streets in New York City and beyond.The Route to Amsterdams Bicycling RevolutionTo understand Amsterdams redesign successes, it helps to consider how far the Netherlands has come. According to a 2021 study, the countrys traffic fatality rate decreased 90 percent from a high in 1970, when its rate of 245 traffic fatalities per million people nearly matched that of the U.S. at that time, with 257 deaths per million.A map of Amsterdam indicating the areas Gregory studied as part of his research. (Quinn Gregory)The revolution that launched Amsterdam into a design-forward city made for pedestrians and cyclists was partially in response to the work that American urban planner David Jokinen was doing in The Hague in the 1950s and 1960s. Jokinen had written a book with a central idea of expanding highways through Dutch cities. The 1967 Jokinen Plan would have created six-lane highways cutting through working class neighborhoods, similar to the model used by Jokinens contemporary, Robert Moses, in New York. While the Dutch were fending off massive infrastructural projects that would puncture the citys urban fabric, New Yorkers drove their first trips on the newly erected Brooklyn-Queens Expressway. Jokinen even wanted to fill the picturesque Singel Canal with concrete to create a highway. The Dutch people refused to accept this outside authority carving up their cities and ramped up a long-existing resistance to car-prioritized urban redesign. Even before Jokinen, in 1924, Dutch politician Alexander van Sasse van Ysselt added an amendment to the new Motor and Bicycle Act proposing that drivers of vehicles should be liable for the damage caused to persons injured by collision, removing the idea of burden of proof on the pedestrian. Simultaneously across the Atlantic, the U.S. was developing laws around jaywalking, largely due to campaigns by the automobile industry, shifting blame for accidents from drivers onto pedestrians. The Dutch later pushed even further, saying that regardless of the degree of responsibility, if a collision involves a child 13 years old or younger, the motorist is liable.The protection of children became central to the Dutchs urban design revolution. By the late 1970s, an anti-car organization was well established and winning over public sentiment. The Stop de Kindermoordor Stop Murdering Childrenmovement was working to change the future of childrens lives in Amsterdam, distributing posters and holding die-in protests attended by thousands. The group was organized by journalist Vic Lagenhoff of the national newspaper De Tijd, who lost his 6-year-old son to a speeding driver in 1971. Lagenhoff questioned why 500 children were dying each year in the Netherlands and concluded that no civilized nation could let this be a marginal issue. Lagenhoff and his readers demanded an end to the dangers imposed by cars. By the 1980s, public sentiment had turned; even the Dutch royal family supported the idea that the Netherlands had been remiss in not accounting for children in the modern era of the automobile, condemning what Lagenhoff had referred to as the massacre of children.The Netherlands is a classic textbook example for street design that manages and accommodates biking. (Quinn Gregory)How to Build a Bike-Friendly CityBack on our bike tour, rain came and went, drenching Oort and me as we pedaled along exposed bike lanes. To make matters worse, my camera stopped workinga serious concern because I had four more cities on my itinerary. Oort suggested we stop and share a sandwich hed packed for lunch, in part so I could inspect my camera. Oort kept me distracted as I realized that the camera would require repairs; he shared a note about my project in a group message with Amsterdams local messenger scene.Ken Eby-Gomez has worked as a bike messenger for 12 years.(Quinn Gregory)Soon, I had arranged to meet Ken Eby-Gomez in the hip De Pijp neighborhood. He looked to be about 35 years old and had been working as a messenger for 12 years and now running a small messenger company of his own. He grew up in San Diego and earned a masters in urban affairsgiving him an informed view of Amsterdams bike infrastructure.Amsterdam is prescriptive in how you can ride, Eby-Gomez said. People have to ride in their lanes at the speed-of-travel, and cant really ride any other way.The Dutch goal was to make the streets safe and accessible for everyone ages 8 to 80, and in Eby-Gomezs view, the country has succeeded. He continued: The Dutch approach [to street safety] has been very design oriented. It has three pillars of Vision Zero: Design, Enforcement, and Education or something like that. The idea is if we design for it to be very hard for cars to hit people, we can limit deaths. (Vision Zero is a movement that began in Sweden in 1997, with a goal that no person should die or be seriously injured in a traffic crash. According to Smart City Sweden, Vision Zero has been very successful, halving the number of deaths on Swedish roads since 2000.) Even despite radical success in improving street safety in the Netherlands, reducing the fatality rate on roads to 70 percent that of the U.S., newly available technology has introduced a pressing challenge for Amsterdams planners.Eby-Gomez continued, E-bikes and scooters sort of throw a wrench into the design. While the Dutch had achieved 8-to-80; designed separation for cars, trams, cyclists, and pedestrians; the very recent prevalence in these fat-tired e-bikes really changes the dynamic of the streets and poses new challenges the infrastructure must accommodate.The Challenges of E-Bikes and Motorized ScootersMopeds, e-bikes, and bicycles have been categorized separately in Dutch law since 1976. Through the 1980s and 1990s, speed limits were assigned according to engine size, noted on license plates. This helped determine which roads and bike paths that mopeds could and could not access. Theres a light moped, with a top speed of 18.6 mph, and a heavy moped, with a speed of 31 mph. At first, a light moped could operate both as a bike, in bike lanes, and as a motor vehicle, in traffic. In 2019, light mopeds were officially banned from bike paths, and immediately, collisions involving them plummeted. The streets became safer.But still, despite updated laws and categorizations of the newly ubiquitous technology, complaints among cyclists in Amsterdam about mopeds, light mopeds, and e-bikes have continued. Job Oort had complained about it; Eby-Gomez voiced his concerns too. It reminded me of a similar debate taking place in New York City, where complaints about delivery workers on mopeds weaving around streets and even onto sidewalks had been ongoing for years, with conflict ramping up since the pandemic delivery industry explosion. Then the CitiBike bike-share program increased its supply of pedal-assist e-bikes, creating new quandaries related to street design.E-bikes and scooters complicate street design and can compromise safety. (Quinn Gregory)The debate in New York graduated from observations and small talk to legislation brought before the City Council. Council Member Bob Holden, a conservative democrat from Queens, with the support of 27 members of the City Council, introduced a bill that would require all e-bikes be licensed and registered at the city level with the Department of Transportation (DOT), after a beloved Chinatown teacher, Priscilla Loke, was killed by a rider of an electric CitiBike in September 2023. The law would require the DOT to register and license all e-mobility devices not under regulation by the Department of Motor Vehicles. Queens Assembly Member Jennifer Rajkumar introduced a state bill in support of Priscillas Law in March.The Council bill has lost support from two legislators after a contentious public hearing. While these bills in the City Council may signify a desire to tame the streets, experts, including the DOT, argue that Priscillas Law wouldnt make streets safer. Cyclists (electric and otherwise) are already ticketed by the police for riding on the sidewalk and running red lights, and license plates dont make reckless drivers more accountable. Instead, the DOT argued, the city needed better design.Can Streets Be Shared?Current and future technologies have made design solutions tricky in Amsterdam, New York City, and in many urban environments. While data may not show that there is an inherent danger to e-bikes, the feelings of chaos and disorder will persist. Its worth looking at Amsterdam to see that there may not be a clean design solution, and that accepting a level of uncertainty about the conditions of our streets may be required of us.Perhaps instead of neatly categorizing each vehicle and either designing or enforcing our way out of the situation, we can look at street design from another perspective. Some in the Netherlands have criticized street and bike lane design that tends to let the fastest user get priority.The challenges of traffic and urban design extend further than the categorization of vehicles and technical design solutions. (Quinn Gregory)What if the future of street design wasnt merely answering the question of how we can get from A to B the fastest, but how we could redesign the streets to improve our daily quality of life? What if children could safely roam unsupervised, and street design prioritized the interaction with community?Many urbanists I met with before and during my trip talked about the hopes they had during the pandemicthat measures like work-from-home and outdoor dining would inspire a generation of activists who realized the value of public space.The challenges of traffic and urban design extend further than the categorization of vehicles and technical design solutions.Quinn Gregory is an architectural designer and urban researcher based in New York City, a recipient of Pratt Institutes William Bill Menking Travel Award, focusing on reimagining public spaces and advocating for safer, more equitable streets. He will graduate in May.

Norways Kistefos Museum has named the eight architecture firms shortlisted to design a new building on its campus. The announcement comes less than a year after the Kistefos Museum Foundation invited 28 carefully selected offices to submit qualifications for the competition. The eight shortlisted firms are:Kistefos Museum is known for its expansive sculpture park with streams running through it. The new building will be charged with hosting the art collection of Christen Sveaas, a wealthy Norwegian businessman, who is likewise financing the project at Kistefos. The competition is organized by Malcolm Reading Consultants.Many of the shortlisted firms are behind other recent art museum commissions. In February, Lina Ghotmeh was announced the winner of a competition to renovate the British Museums Western Range Galleries. This came not long after SO IL won the bid to design a new campus in North Boulder, Colorado.More recently, Christ & Gantenbein won a competition to design a new museum of modern art in Antwerp, Belgium. Kengo Kuma & Associates shared its vision last week for the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, after it was shortlisted for that Kansas City commission last November. Malcolm Reading Consultants is behind many of these competitions, including the British Museums and Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art. BIG has previously worked with Kistefos Museum; its Denmark office built The Twista 10,700-square-foot building that hovers above a river with three showrooms that completed in 2019.In a statement about this upcoming project at Kistefos, Malcolm Reading, chairman of Malcolm Reading Consultants, said the The new gallery will provide a state-of-the-art flexible home for Christen Sveaas notable collection and create a dramatic presence in the landscape, while also being an exemplar of sustainable design and practices.Kari Roll-Matthiesen, Kistefos director, said the forthcoming building at Kistefos Museum will not only serve as a gallery but will be a work of art in itself.We have extensive experience in commissioning site-specific artworks for thesculpture park, and in the same way, this new museum building will need to relateto the landscape and history of the site, Roll-Matthiesen added.For next steps, each of the eight offices will receive a detailed project brief, and begin work on concept sketches.A winning proposal will be announced at the end of 2025.

The Walker Art Center announced it will host its first design triennial in fall 2026. The grand affair in Minneapolis will be curated by Joseph Grima, the Milan-based architect and curator. Grima will work closely with Asli Altay, the triennials artistic director. Today, Grima is a multihyphenate professional within the design realm, in addition to running his practice Space Caviar, he is a cofounder of Alcova, an annual exhibition hosted at Milan Design Week and Miami Art Week. He was previously Domuss editor-in-chief, co-curator of the 2014 Chicago Architecture Biennale, and has intermittently contributed to the Venice Architecture Biennale. Altay is currently the Walker Art Centers Head of Design, Communication, and Content.Altay noted Grimas passionate engagement within the field as a designer, thinker, and educator as well as his unwavering dedication to collaboration, enables us to dive deeply into the contexts and evolutions that are shaping the future of design.The announcement signals Minnesotas intent on joining other midwest cities to host architecture and design events, including Chicago; and Columbus, Indiana. In a curatorial statement, Walker Art Center emphasized how designers today are increasingly interested in handmade processes, as opposed to mass produced goods.The inaugural design triennial will illuminate the currents shaping this transformation and feature a compelling range of singular and limited edition works, including furniture, lighting, textiles, and objects that blur the assumed boundaries between functional and fine art, the statement said.In keeping with the Walkers vision to platform both artists from the Twin Cities and around the globe, the triennial will bring together a diverse array of local and international talents, highlighting common threads of interest as well as the many distinct conceptual and technical approaches defining design today, curators added. Together, the objects in the triennial will engage audiences with the depth of artistry within todays contemporary design.Further information about the design triennial, such as dates, themes, and participants will be shared throughout 2025.

Falu My LeadLea Architecture brings Scandinavian living to a Greenpoint townhouse using strategic color blockingByDaniel Jonas Roche March 17, 2025East, Interiors (Angela Hau)SHAREScandinavian sensibilities have taken over a Little Poland townhome. The Greenpoint renovation project was byLea Architecture, a Brooklyn office founded by Jane Lea. The project remixes Scandinavian living with Falu red-inspired color blocking, the designer said. The renovation happened across all three of the townhouses floors; it prioritized making the 4,975-square-foot home more aesthetically pleasing, spacious, and energy efficient.From outside, the Greenpoint Townhouse still looks like its neighbors; the stately brick, white lintels and door frames dont cry out for attention from passersby. The building has a commercial unit on the ground floor and a single-story garage to its side. Lea Architecture and the client opted to keep much of the exterior intact while material exploration happened inside. The team also leveraged the top of the three-car garage for added outdoor space. This deck is connected to the kitchen area, which offers nice space for outdoor dining in the warmer months.Read more about the residence on aninteriormag.com.