Last June, the city of Houston announcedHood Design Studio had been tapped to renovate MacGregor Park, a historic Third Ward public space. This week, the Houston Parks Board and City of Houstons Parks and Recreation Department (HPARD) rolled out the firms final conceptual design, with support from Kinder Foundation. Hood Design Studios vision for the revamped park was informed by lengthy community outreach, the city shared in a press statement. More than 2,500 interactions with local community members through 18 public engagement sessions, which included surveys and interactive workshops, were conducted. As previously announced, other firms working with Hood Design Studio on the project include, Talley Landscape Architects, Moody Nolan, and Walter. P. MooreMacGregor Park holds generations of memoriesa place where culture, history, and community converge. We sought to preserve its legacy through the layering of preservation and cultural programming while creating spaces that invite new stories to unfold, Walter Hood said. In doing so, we also will bring forth the recognition that MacGregor sits on the banks of Brays Bayou.The upgraded park will be connected to a series of trails. (Courtesy Hood Design Studio)MacGregor Park is 65 acres. There, Hood Design Studio seeks to integrate nature into the park more effectively, the city shared. The final design acknowledges the native landscapes, which includes prairies and post oak savannah, there before the park was built.The final conceptual design has a central promenade meant to unify the parks various components, offering a central focus point for all activities and park users. A new natural amphitheater will be connected to the central promenade, stocked with open seating for performances and civic gatherings. A plethora of new shade trees will be added to protect visitors from the sweltering Texas heat, making the park comfortable for users year round, an ideal space for quiet reflection. There will also be an expanded walking trail around the park perimeter that connects to the existing Brays Bayou Greenway, a 38-mile uninterrupted trail.The existing tennis center will be renovated. (Courtesy Hood Design Studio)Another important component will be the refurbishment of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Plaza. Hood Design Studio was able to keep the monument in its original location near the MLK Tree of Life. Surrounding the monument will be new seating and shading, thanks to a stretch of new grove trees.By introducing new ecologies to the park, the cultural and athletic heritage of the park will become enmeshed with an ecological story, Hood added. The renovated park will act as a bridge between past and future, honoring those who came before while welcoming the next generation to shape its evolving story, all amongst a native ecology.Among the recreation facilities are new pickleball courts (Courtesy Hood Design Studio)A new natural amphitheater is part grass, part stone construction. (Courtesy Hood Design Studio)Hood Design Studio affirmed that the park will have a new, all-inclusive, ADA-accessible playground for all ages and abilities to enjoy. The existing Homer Ford Tennis Center will also be renovated, as per the communitys request.The parks renovation is part of a longterm effort by the city of Houston to address gaps in park equity.Construction will begin in 2026 and wrap up in 2028.

This week, Woods Bagot and ERA-co announce a new integrated network of brands. United under a holding company named 7C, the 7C network, focusing on Total Place Design, is a curation of best-in-class capabilities across placemaking (ERA-co), sustainability (Impact Futures), architecture and interior design (Woods Bagot), and ultra-luxury concepts (Customs Bureau), this innovative new network offers holistic and integrated solutions for an increasingly complex built environment. The 7C network provides clients with access to a unique combination of the worlds best talent, drives interdisciplinary knowledge throughout the network and delivers shared services that contribute stronger, more integrated solutions for evolving client needs. At the helm of the newly announced 7C network is Sarah Kay. Appointed as Woods Bagot Global CEO in 2024, Kays role now expands to Global CEO, 7C, leading the network of brands operating from 18 global cities.Since 2020, we have been growing and adding complementary services towards the launch of our 7C network. The 7C network is fundamentally about solving our clients most complex challenges and delivering their most ambitious projects. Our ambition is to be the most trusted and influential voice shaping the future of the built world.As a networked set of brands, 7C can engage with more phases of our cities lifecycle, beyond architecture from initial visioning, design, and sustainable development to implementation and long-term impact assessment. ERA-co, our second 7C business, has driven 42 percent compound revenue growth in its first five years. Alongside Customs Bureau, who have been working on significant projects since 2023, and our newly established Impact Futures sustainability consultancy, the 7C network also demonstrates significant growth potential in time these new brands will make up to 20 percent of overall revenue, said Kay. We are proudly fueling this growth through retained earningsnot external capital, Kay added. By reinvesting up to 10 percent of our profits annually, we ensure controlled, strategic expansion while maintaining the highest standards of quality, ownership, and direction. Our commitment is to growth that strengthensnot compromisesthe integrity of our design and advisory expertise.The 7C network is strategically aligned with key industry shifts, including the rapid expansion of sustainability consulting and compliance, the evolution of urban planning towards regenerative and climate-responsive models, and the rise of hyper-luxury and experience-driven design. By embedding specialised capabilities that anticipate these trends, the 7C network is poised to lead in a rapidly changing market.This alignment allows us to bring value to our clients by connecting specialist knowledge from across our network to deliver strategic outcomes and long-term impact. Its what we call a Total Place Design mindset teams who think more holistically and whats best for our clients, not individual silos. Something thats only possible given the depth and breadth of expertise sitting within each of our brands, Kay continued. Each company within the network represents a stand-alone entity with the ability to work directly with clients, or part of an integrated solution. Together, the 7C network intends to deliver a collective ambition to be the most trusted and influential voice for the built world.With recent wins showcasing two or more entities within the new network, including Londons mixed-use office tower 85 Gracechurch Street (Woods Bagot and ERA-co) and mixed-used adaptive reuse development Bondi Road (Impact Futures and Woods Bagot) in Sydney, the strategy is already demonstrating its value and is designed to propel the 7C group of companies into their next phase of growth.

David Childs, the lauded SOM architect perhaps best known for realizing One World Trade Center, died on March 26 in Pelham, New York, surrounded by family. News of his passing was confirmed by his wife, Annie, and later reported by The New York Times. Childs was 83 years old. SOM shared a remembrance for Childs, saying that he was instrumental in some of SOMs most impactful projects, among these a masterplan for the National Mall, the expansion of Dulles International Airport, and both One World Trade Center and 7 World Trade Center in New York City.Davids contribution to the firm was extensive and profound, SOM continued, and we will always be grateful to David for his leadership, his impact, and his friendship. We will miss him dearly and extend our condolences and deepest sympathies to his family.One World Trade Center, the Freedom Tower, at dusk (James Ewing)Childs was born in 1941 in Princeton, New Jersey, and spent his childhood in Mount Kisco, New York. His father was a classics professor at Princeton University and his mother was executive director of the Childrens Books Council, a nonprofit trade association of childrens books publishers. Childs earned his masters of architecture at Yale University in 1967; he moved to Washington, D.C. shortly after to help transform Pennsylvania Avenue into a ceremonial boulevard, as part of a presidential commission. It was in Washington, D.C. where Childs, then in his early thirties, met politician Daniel Patrick Moynihan and Nathaniel A. Owings, founding partner of SOM. In 1971, after getting acquainted, Owings personally invited Childs to start SOMs Washington, D.C. office, where the late architect spent his fledgling career.In 1976, Childs debuted a masterplan for the Washington Mall and Constitution Gardens. Later, he designed the headquarters building for National Geographic; the U.S. News and World Report building; the Four Seasons, Regent, and Park Hyatt hotels, and more, including the expansion of Dulles Airports main terminal.Washington Mall masterplan (Courtesy SOM)Childs stayed in Washington, D.C. until 1984, when he became a senior design partner at SOMs New York City office. There, he completed Worldwide Plaza, the New York Mercantile Exchange, the JFK International Arrivals Building, Bear Stearns (now J. P. Morgan) Headquarters, the Riverside South masterplan, and Time Warner Headquarters at Columbus Circle (now Deutsche Bank Center). He also helped renovate and preserve Lever House.After 9/11, Childs partnered with Larry Silverstein to help rebuild Lower Manhattan. His clashes with Daniel Libeskind often made headline news. Childs was sued in 2004 by Thomas Shine, who claimed Childs had copied his graduate student work at Yale for SOMs One World Trade Center design. Childs denied the accusation, and the suit was settled in 2006. Childs went on to oversee projects all over the world. His work on the Moynihan Train Hall marked a full circle, as Senator Daniel Moynihan, the halls namesake, was a mentor.JFK International Airport, Terminal 4 (Jeff Goldberg/ESTO)In New York and overseas, Childs held important titles. He was chairman of the National Planning Commission, on the American Academy in Rome board of trustees, Municipal Art Society of New York board of directors, MoMAs Architecture & Design Committee, The Architectural League of New York board of directors, and the New York City Partnership Economic Development & Housing Committees.Today, Childs is remembered for his self-effacing charm: I know a lot of what Ive designed is not A work, he once said, but my role was different. I wanted to raise the level of everyday development as much as I could.

In recent years, before the Trump administrations crusade to repeal inclusion initiatives, more women architects had actually feltseen, but that doesnt mean they were beinghearduntil now.Lately when you might expect women architects to be worried about the rebuilding of gender barriers, they already have a solution: all-women teams. Today, you can find entire project teams and construction leadership with no men in sight. That is both a response to the rollback in womens rights in general and a triumphant blow to misogyny in the design industry specifically. Still, career recognition lags behind these efforts. After seven women presidents and two years of all-female leadership at the AIA, the organizations fellows remain decidedly maleapproximately 18 percent of them are women and 81.3 percent are men, according to the groups 2023 Membership Demographics report. It gets worse when considering the Pritzker Prize: Of the 58 laureates recognized with the award, just 6 are women, or about 10 percent of the awardees.Even the most successful women practitioners carry with them a familiar story of being underestimated, undermined, dismissed, micromanaged, harassed and just plain mansplained out of seats at the table.So a growing number are simply done with waiting, and instead are making their own safe, fulfilling spaces where they feel free to focus on actual work.Field Operations led an all-women construction crew in completing the $98 million Presidio Tunnel Tops. (Courtesy Presidio Trust)For Women by WomenTwo years ago in San Francisco, for instance, the firm Field Operations led an all-women construction crew in completing the $98 million Presidio Tunnel Tops, a 14-acre park built over and around that citys traffic tunnels. In Vancouver the same year, an all-women team led by GBL Architects principal Amela Brudar broke ground on a government-funded affordable housing projectfor women residents. Now, the award-winning Mariam Issoufou Architects (formerly atelier masm) is heading up an all-women team who are building the Ellen Johnson Sirleaf Presidential Center for Women and Development (EJS) in Monrovia, Liberia. (Issoufou recently opened a New York office after the coup in Niger prompted a pivot in operations.) Representation on the project team is a priority for the client, because its the first presidential library ever commissioned by a woman head-of-state. Counterspace founder Sumayya Vally and Pan-African Engineering Group principal Karen Richards Barnes round out that crew.Another all-women team led by MASS Design Groupfrom the lead designer to lead landscape architect and lead engineerbuilt the Ellen DeGeneres Dian Fossey Gorilla Fund campus in Kigali, Rwanda, in 2022. In June 2024, the project won a COTE Top Ten Award for excellence in sustainable design.Architect Mariam Issoufou Kamara ( Rolex/Stphane Rodrigez Delavega)Such commissions, which place budgets and design decisions entirely in womens hands, are having a significant industry-shifting impact. Thats especially true when the projects legacy is female, as is the case for the Ellen Johnson Sirleaf Presidential Center and for Fossey, MASS Design director Emily Goldenberg told AN.I was there for four years leading the design and construction supervision of that project. Our construction arm, MASS.Build, was actually founded out of that projectout of a desire to have a larger impact. We set impact goals at the very beginning related to equity, Goldenberg explained. Goldenbergs team for the Fossey campus not only reflected the projects namesake female primatologist, female funders, and executive director, but also expanded local recruitment of women construction workers to an unprecedented degree. A significant 24 percent of that projects skilled laborers were women, which is an exceptionally high rate of participation, doubling Rwandas average and eclipsing that of women on American projects, Goldenberg said.In 2021, women were only 3.9 percent of all those who work with tools in U.S. construction, according to the Institute for Womens Policy Research. The upside however is that even that modest percentage represents a jump in womens overall employment in construction and extraction to a record high of 11 percent that year from 9.1 percent in 2016. Typically, the only women in sight [on my projects] are the ones from my office. The construction or engineering teams have none, Issoufou said her of jobsites.An astonishing 24 percent of skilled laborers for the construction of the campus for the Dian Fossey Gorilla Funds were women. (Iwan Baan)A Cultural MovementSo with a construction site full of women now seeming like a possibility and architectures gender politics unlikely to disappear (not to mention recent corporate backlash against equity initiatives), these projects suddenly take on the feel of a movement. In fact, Carla Guerrera, developer of the Vancouver project, told the Vancouver Sun she intended to demonstrate the leadership of women in development, design and construction. She added that having previously been the only woman at the table, she felt an all-women team engendered a different culture in how we work together and make decisions.MASSs Goldenberg also spoke of the transformative power of such teams when theyre viewed collectively as an intentional act of resistance. Like most, she has been literally the only female at site visits or in design meetings and has felt isolated and intimidatedeven by contractors who were supposed to report to her. I didnotfeel that way on the Fossey site, she clarified. I was surrounded by brilliant females who led with empathy, and that uplifting feeling is a unique attribute of working in groups of women, she said. Office PoliticsPresumably that feeling is easier to sustain in women-led studios. So it is meaningful that Issoufou,whose accolades span two Global LaFarge Holcim awards for sustainable architecture, a Prince Claus award, distinction as the 2021 Aga Khan Visiting Critic at Harvard GSD, and recognition as one of TheNew York Timess 15 Creative Women of Our Time, also maintains a studio that is 60 percent women. With women, you can skip the pissing contests and just focus on the work, she said.The difficulty that women architects have endured to secure the mental freedom to focus purely on work can be seen in the disciplines own #metoo stories, like the allegations of sexual harassment made against starchitect Richard Meier in 2018 and David Adjaye in 2023, among other fallout from items like the Shitty Architecture Men list.Womens (Home) WorkGiven the fraught history, pros and clients say all-women teams also just feel safer. Thats apparent in residential projects where single women homeowners have outnumbered menfor the past 20 years and yet still complain of trouble with mostly male contractors. The female-to-male homeownership ratio was 58 percent to 42 percent in 2022, according to the U.S. Census Bureau, butthat purchasing power hasnt saved women clients or tradeswomen from routine harassment, mansplaining, and other bad behavior from male architects and tradesmen.Lacey Soslow and Gabriela Ainslie, cofounders of Matriarchy Build. (Courtesy Matriarchy Build)That problem is so pervasive that two-year-old online home-services platform Matriarchy Build (MB) was designed to address it. Like other directories, MB maintains a database of plumbers, electricians, and general contractors. But unlike its competitors, MBs directory is exclusively women and nonbinary professionals who are vetted for the value they can bring to women-friendly project teams. The fundamental desire [among our users] is connecting with folks who make them feel safe, said MB cofounder Lacey Soslow. Thats why the companys services require clients and pros to opt into the same code of ethics, added MB cofounder Gabriela Ainslie.Even having completed around ten gut renovations herself and knowing a bit more than the average consumer, Soslow said she still faced condescending attitudes from male contractors. I still get told you cant do that. And its like I actuallyknowyou can. If Im feeling bulldozed, I can imagine how the average person feels, she shared.Conversely, the communication on women-dominated teams like Issoufous can be, as she puts it, quite effortlessand with no biases to overcome in the process.MBs directory is exclusively women and nonbinary professionals who are vetted for the value they can bring to women-friendly project teams. (Courtesy Matriarchy Build)Thats the kind of safe and satisfying renovation experience activist builder Shelley Halstead intended to provide black women homeowners when she founded Black Women Build-Baltimore (BWBB) in 2017. The initiative trains women in trades-related skills by having them restore vacant and deteriorated houses.In the current political climate, with government and private businesses reversing their equity and inclusion efforts, its easy to see why women are seeking the camaraderie of women-led project teams. Less clear is why the industry and the media continues to exalt the narrative of a heroic male architect. Architectural designer Melissa Daniel, who hosts the Architecture is Political podcast, has a theory about why. (Along with three other women, Daniel created Riding the Vortex group, which hosts a speaker series that spreads awareness about Black women architects and was recognized with a Whitney M. Young Jr. Award from the AIA in 2022.) I think many men believe that if they acknowledge systemic gender bias, then they also have to acknowledge their own disproportionate and sometimes undeserved advantages, she said.In the meantime, it seems women will just keep building their own winning teams.Kelly Beamon is a freelance journalist specializing in architecture and design and sustainable building materials. She has held senior editorial roles at Metropolis, Architectural Record, and This Old House, but has slipped the bonds of the corporate office. She now writes from her home in Central New Jersey.

Brought to you by:Architect: KTGYLocation: Morgan HillCompletion Date: 2025Mass timber construction has arrived in Morgan Hill, California, a small city located south of San Jose. A new structure known as the Edes Building has risen near the center of town, housing a contemporary art gallery and a wine bar that draws from the regions plentiful vineyards. Eager to showcase the buildings use of wood, design architect KTGY exposed glulam columns and beams on the interior, pairing this with Douglas fir exterior siding treated according to Shou Sugi Ban, a Japanese wood burning technique that creates a black charred appearance. The Edes Building occupies a previously vacant corner lot along Monterey Road, one of the citys main commercial thoroughfares. To acclimate the structure to the local context, the massing of the building is deferential to surrounding structures as well as the hillsides that loom in the background of Morgan Hill. On one end of Monterey Road, the buildings height reaches upward to match the cornice line of a historic building located across the street from the site, while sloping downward on the other to avoid imposing on the adjacent single story commercial properties to the southeast. Mirroring the grade of Morgan Hills picturesque hillsides, the Edes Buildings longitudinal elevation, which runs along 2nd Street, slopes upward in height from each end, reaching a gentle peak at its midpoint.Additionally, small cutouts were subtracted from the mass to create entrances to the wine bar and gallery, as well as a small balcony on the second floor.At night, the contrast between the buildings charred exterior and its illuminated timber interior intensifies. (Mike Schwartz)KTGY served as the projects design architect and interior designer, while also supplying branding for the developments two tenants: Cura Contemporary and Vra Wine Bar. The interior of both spaces are defined by the presence of exposed timber. The mission of the galleryrepresenting local and regional artistssuggested to us that the gallery should be as specific as the artnot a white box gallery, Mark Oberholzer, principal at KTGY, told AN. We decided that a straightforward approach would be to expose the construction and movement thought the building, and that exposed mass timber would create a warmly inviting gallery that would encourage rather than intimidate visitors.The interior palette of the building is defined by exposed timber. (Mike Schwartz)In contrast to the buildings blonde timber interiors, charred Douglas fir siding was applied to the buildings facade. KTGY utilized the ancient Japanese method of timber preservation, Shou Sugi Ban, where controlled burns across the surface of the wood planks improves resistance to damage from water, rot, and insects. This method was selected not only for its durable results, but also to create a more modest exterior expression for the building, which already differs significantly from Morgan Hills existing architecture. To heighten the juxtaposition between interior and exterior, KTGY applied clear-finished Douglas fir panels to the soffits and subtractive spaces at the buildings openings. At night, these spaces are illuminated, causing them to pop against dark backdrop of the facade. Another dramatic opening occurs along 2nd Street, where an oblique window follows the ascent of the gallerys main staircase. The cutout also highlights a series of origami pendant lamps that hang above the staircase, projecting their glow to the street.With the buildings 2nd Street elevation facing the western sun, KTGY implemented a series of vertical fins across the facade. While these elements were originally intended to be wood, an aluminum product with a wood-like texture was ultimately chosen to avoid warping, which might have occurred as the wood settled.Contrast, color, and lighting design are all at play in the design of the Edes Building. (Mike Schwartz)Though this is Morgan Hills first mass timber building, KTGY reported that they did not encounter major issues introducing the material to local trades. Mass timber was new to the contractor; however, weve found that most good contractors are both intrigued and interested in getting experience in what may be an increasing share of construction, said Oberholzer. The components, manufactured off-site with very good tolerance, are so refined that the process is primarily installation, rather than rough construction.In a press release, the firm mentions that the construction of the building, particularly the installation of its 40-foot-long CLT beams, was a spectacle in-and-of-itself to local residents. In the coming years, this sight will hopefully become more common.Project SpecificationsArchitect: KTGYLandscape Architect: RANAStructural Engineer: John A. Martin & AssociatesElectrical Engineer: GiacaloneCivil Engineer: KPFFLighting Design: ChromaticMechanical & Plumbing: K2D Consulting EngineersSignage and Wayfinding: KTGYGeneral Contractor: Kent ConstructionGlazing Contractor: Glass Concepts by ClineFacade Installation: FramecomCurtain Wall / Storefront Glazing: ArcadiaAluminum Sun Shade Battens: KnotwoodShou Sugi Ban Siding: Pioneer MillworksVertical Grain Douglas fir: Pioneer MillworksGlass: VitroSkylights: Royalite

In January, the world watched in horror as wildfires tore through Southern California neighborhoods, destroying more than 11,000 structures and killing at least 29 people. Many outside observers wondered whether anyone would want to return and rebuild in and around the affected Los Angeles areas; the early response is a resounding yes. Still, residents and architects must contend with the ongoing housing crisisand the housing insurance crisisin addition to the questions of how to adapt the built environment and landscape to withstand future wildfires and other potential catastrophes. AN surveyed nine top Los Angeles architecture firms to gain insight into how they are thinking about the current moment and how they plan to move forward. Their responses, edited for clarity and conciseness, are below.What are the immediate effects the fires have had on you and your practice?We have lost seven projects, one in construction, to the fires. Our immediate response was touching base with current and former clients in the affected areas. Within a couple days of the fires eruption, potential clients started reaching out to us. We were at a bit of a loss about what our response should be. The urgency that they felt was palpable, and our measured response turned at least one of them away.Alice Fung, principal, Fung + Blatt ArchitectsThe immediate effect for me and my practice has been that so many friends, extended family members, and employees have been directly affected by the traumatic losses of their homes and belongings. There is an aspect of this which feels very much like bombings during wartime.Barbara Bestor, principal, Bestor Architecture In the past, most of our architectural commissions have been underscored by excitement, extensively planned and entered into by choice. Now, for the first time in our careers, we are sitting down with families to navigate the aftermath of what has been for many of them the most tragic experience of their lives. This new prompt requires a deeply human sensitivity and an abundance of empathy.Peter Harper, founder + principal, Breland HarperA completed project by Fung + Blatt Architects before it burned in the Eaton Fire. (Courtesy Fung + Blatt Architects)A completed project by Fung + Blatt Architects after it burned in the Eaton Fire. (Courtesy Fung + Blatt Architects)We are engaged in ongoing conversations with academics (specifically at SCI-Arc), architects, and our clients regarding the more existential question of moving forward in creating gardens, which are, by nature, flammable. Through these conversations, research, and testing procedures, we are approaching fire not as a problem to be solved, but as a natural event that needs to be understood, analyzed, and treated with respect.David Godshall, TERREMOTOThe fires have highlighted a critical need to integrate environmental risk management into every facet of our work. Our practice has had to rapidly adapt to challenges such as hazardous waste removaldealing with an extended timeline due to contaminated debris and ensuring that cleanup processes meet stringent environmental standards. At the same time, were grappling with an unpredictable real estate market where property values are shifting rapidly due to perceived risks.Amanda Gunawan and Joel Wong, OWIU DesignView this post on InstagramA post shared by Practice (@practice.la_)The effects of the wildfires on my architectural practice have been profound. They have underscored the critical need for architects to take a proactive role in climate resilience, disaster recovery, and policy advocacy, reinforcing my commitment toward designing a more fire-adaptive future. My family lost our home, and half of our community, in the 2018 Woolsey fire. The events of January brought those same feelings back, along with a renewed focus and effort toward building a more equitable and resilient L.A.Greg Kochanowski, design principal, PracticeWill the fires and the destruction they caused change the way you approach projects or the way you design?There is a growing emphasisboth among architects and clientson fire-resistant materials and sustainable design. As an L.A.-based firm, we have generally prioritized sustainably sourced materials suited to coastal environments. However, its encouraging to see fire resilience becoming a more widespread priority. This shift will help ensure that future structures are not only environmentally conscious but also better equipped to withstand natural disasters.Aaron Leshtz and Harper Halprin, AAHA StudioThe scale of devastation has reinforced the urgent need for fire-adaptive, resilient, and sustainable architecture and has underscored the necessity of a paradigm shift in architectural practice. Fire resilience can no longer be an afterthoughtit must be embedded in every stage of design and planning. My commitment to safer, more adaptive, and climate-conscious solutions has never been stronger. A few specific points were focusing on are prioritizing fire-resistant and resilient design; strengthening building codes and advocacy for policy change; designing for climate adaptation and self-sufficiency; emphasizing community-oriented solutions; and enhancing education and research in resilient architecture.Greg KochanowskiView this post on InstagramA post shared by AAHA Studio (@aaha_studio)This rebuilding is an opportunity for devastated communities to reform themselves in a manner consistent with contemporary fire code, which was virtually nonexistent 20 or 30 years ago and was reflected in woefully unprepared structures. We find the greatest frontier to be the cultivation of fire-resistant gardens that are not the easy two-dimensional gravel and cacti variety, but rather the complex gardens that we associate with the beauty and romance of California domestic gardens. Trees are not in themselves a fire threat, and we look forward to continuing to prove that in our landscape work.Peter HarperThis is an evolving discussion within our firm. Fire resistive construction and best practices are standard for our design approach. Homeowners affected by the recent fires, particularly in the Palisades, have been actively asking us for additional measures such as roof and building sprinklers or concrete construction. Many of these measures are not well understood by homeowners and there has been a significant effort to educate homeowners about the options available within their prospective budgets.Jonathan Schnure, Studio Director, Marmol RadzinerIn Altadena, an ADU by Fung + Blatt Architects is the first application taken in by the County for the Eaton Fire Rebuild. (Courtesy Fung + Blatt )Were humbled by how much there is to learn about how to build differently. Thinking of fuel management in buildings and nontoxic materials and how to build simpler. The architecture community is feeling a collective calling to administer to a need, and that feels galvanizing. But the power that we wield as a collective feels small. We are only one part of the building equation. Our first response was to go on autopilot, to be helpful and productive with what we know to dowhich is advising, designing. Were also dealing with individuals whose lives have been upended. There is a lot of emotion, uncertainty, vulnerability. And depending on where one is in lifefamily structure, means, and resourcesone faces this catastrophic event differently. We have a direct role to play in the recovery, not just of places but of lives. How do we make the architecture process a healing one? That is an ever-present thought.Alice Fung With regard to my practice, it reinforces our commitment to do work of consequence. It is essential to help those who lost their homes to rebuild and to rebuild well. Thats both a personal and a professional viewpoint. Weve always prioritized the history and context of any site. After the Woolsey fires in 2018, my firm LOHA completed its first rebuild implementing wildfire resistant strategies, as thats become the unfortunate new norm of the region. We do already have significant experience navigating rebuilding after disaster, and we expect to see some changes to the process along the way, but were prepared to work with the county to rebuild quickly, effectively, and efficiently. Lorcan OHerlihy, Lorcan OHerlihy ArchitectsFire is a natural phenomenon that has always occurred and will continue to occur in Southern California. We disagree with the present discourse that mostly vilifies Coastal Sage Chaparral as an enemy to humans that now needs to be suppressed. Fire is a natural phenomenon whose frequency and intensity are increasing due to poor development standards, the proliferation of invasive species, and climate change. Generating a formidable and proper solution to wildfire will require solutions that address the totality of the contributing problems. That said, we believe that striking a balance between the needs and safety of the single family or multi-family dwelling and the greater ecological health of a neighborhood and region remains to be found, as the two ultimately depend on each other. We hope to seek this balance as we move forward designing within a climate changeimpacted future.David GodshallHow do you see rebuilding happening in the areas that were affected?The reality of rebuilding and rethinking our urban spaces in the wake of these fires is very much going to be a tale of two cities. The City of Los Angeles has a relatively progressive building department, plus some experience in managing and streamlining opportunities for rebuilding and code requirements that are more explicitly fire prevention oriented. Altadena, within the unincorporated county of Los Angeles, is in a somewhat politicized planning environment with very conservative building codes, huge parking requirements, and no current opportunities for medium density rebuilding or changing of the small-scale, single-family residences. We are finding that for properties in Altadena, the insurance and opportunities for funding are less ample and [we] are quite concerned that many more people will permanently lose their homes because of the fires in that area. Whereas in the Palisades, we see a lot of clients and others already jumping into new permits and rebuilding with gusto.Barbara BestorIt appears that many people want to stay and want to rebuild, which is crucial for the community. I believe it will take a combination of approaches and expertise. Wildfire-resistant concrete structures can be expensive, but there are other alternatives that are less costly. Well certainly see an increase in smart, fire-resistant landscaping design, which is one key way to limit the spread of fire and by limiting vulnerability to embers carried by wind. Infrastructure for fireproofing beyond the home will be critical. Theres certainly potential for a firewall between brush and neighborhoods, but it wont be enough on its own with the increase in wind speeds due to climate change.Lorcan OHerlihyPost-fire, landscapes also need to be regrown. (Grigory Heaton/Wikimedia Commons/CC BY-SA 4.0)Our discussions with affected residents and fellow architects have revealed a shared commitment to preserving the architectural and cultural identity of these communities. Rather than opting for uniform, mass-produced rebuilds, there is a concerted effort to restore neighborhoods in a way that respects and honors their original character. The goal is not just to rebuild but to thoughtfully reinstate spaces that reflect the history and spirit of the people who call them home. Aaron Leshtz and Harper HalprinThe pace of rebuilding is going to be understandably fast, [but] is not always in agreement with the time that natural materials, such as soil and vegetation, need to heal themselves. For example, we disagree with the presently occurring carte-blanche removal of burned trees in the immediate aftermath of a fire as the ubiquitous solution to mitigate future risk. Certain native trees such as Quercus agrifolia have evolved to be fire resilient and, with time, to recover from burning. The unnecessary loss of urban tree canopy can lead to heat island effects that exacerbate future fire risk, contribute to habitat loss affecting endangered and at-risk species in the wildland urban interface, and reduce quality of life for individuals living in postburn areas.David GodshallWhat is your longer-term vision for how the L.A. region ought to move forward?We want to see these communities rebuilt. There has to be a robust collaboration between architects, private citizens, and the public sector addressing and designing for climate change. What we as architects are dealing with is larger and more profound than ever before. [We] can work closely with the city to mitigate these profoundly challenging times with regards to fire. There is a solution, and architects should take the position of being a strategist to work holistically.Lorcan OHerlihyView this post on InstagramA post shared by Barbara Bestor (@barbarabestor)The bigger issue of natural disastersif we look back at John McPhee, Mike Davis, and othersthere is certainly plenty of warning that these large national and state parks adjacent to residential areas are full of many kinds of dangers whether its mudslides, fires, or earthquakes. There is a bargain in living on the edges of the city. I hope increasing public transportation and city infrastructure will allow us to grow in population without forcing people with less money out further and further into less accessible places to live.Barbara BestorThe 2025 wildfires have exposed more than just the fragility of our built environmentthey have laid bare the deeper inequities embedded in our urban fabric. Rebuilding cannot be a return to what was, but a reimagining of what could be: a city that is not only fire-resilient but fundamentally more just. If we can get this right, Los Angeles can become more than just a city that survived its latest disasterit can become a global model for how fire-prone regions can adapt with intelligence, humility, and justice.Greg KochanowskiAs the effects of global warming unfold, the state and local jurisdictions need to change the entitlement and permitting process to help build more resilient buildings and infrastructure. The current process incentivizes property owners to retain existing structures over replacing them. Moreover, agencies need to develop clear strategies for how permitting recovery efforts will work to address future catastrophic event scenarios like wildfires and earthquakes.Andy Thompson, Senior Project Manager, Marmol Radziner From a landscape perspective, we believe that our short-term solutions as to how to begin to think about new landscape strategies for rebuild zones must include soil testing and remediation; a deep analysis of how and why the fires spread in the manner they did; and whether the landscape (both designed and non) was a primary contributing factor to the conflagration. Our long-term solutions should think deeply about plant layout in relationship to structures, the species we employ in our gardens, and how to enact detailed maintenance strategies for these newly emergent fire-safe landscaping approaches. We believe that we will have to contend with future fires of increasing scale and force in the wildland urban interface and proximate urban areas. We thus intend to support long-term solutions which leave space for emotional, spiritual, and psychological care within an environmentally indeterminate future.As such, a meaningful response to wildfires in the future will consider human resilience as in alignment with soil, vegetal, and structural resiliencies.David GodshallNew does not need to mean soullessdevoid of depth or complexity. Rebuilding in a manner that incorporates aspects of what was is not a form of denialdenial of the fires, denial of the passage of time. Sometimes it is an acknowledgement of value, of importance, and simply of love. This process is by no means meant to expunge variation or stifle unique perspectives, but rather to help define the basis on which personal art, variation, may populate itself. Within an outline, within a structure, beauty and complexity can flourish. Peter HarperView this post on InstagramA post shared by @rebuildlaarchitectureAdditionally, we asked Leshtz of AAHA Studio about the Slack workspace group, Rebuild LA Architecture, he started in January after his friend and fellow architect, Rachel Shillander, set up a Zoom call that attracted hundreds of industry professionals wanting to discuss the implications of the Eaton and Palisades fires. Here is Leshtzs response:The Slack group has been highly active and is nearly at 650 people. The ability to share information between professionals in an immediate and direct way has been invaluable to the rebuild processespecially as there is a lot of information, and misinformationthat is being distributed through other channels. Our studio, among others, recently completed a crowd-sourced rebuild handbook for homeowners, Rebuild LA Architecture, that originated out of a conversation in one of the Slack channels. Additionally, through the initiative of some of the members, a Q&A session with officials in LA County was also organized. While it can be a full-time task to keep up with the communication within the group, it has become a reliable resource for information for building professionals in the city.

From the earliest days of the West Coast landscape architecture firm TERREMOTO, a strange cloud hung over it. It was a cloud not of terror or hopelessness but of profound uncertainty. In 2013, roughly six months into the life of the firm, founding partners David Godshall and Alain Peauroi were meeting at a cafe in the Bay Area when Peauroi had a seizure. Godshall called 911 and followed the ambulance to the hospital. After various tests, doctors told Peauroi he had glioblastoma, an incurable form of brain cancer. The average person with glioblastoma lives just 12 to 18 months, and yet the prognosis barely seemed to faze Peauroi, from Godshalls perspective. He wasnt one to live small or to let it get in the way of what he wanted to do, Godshall shared over Zoom. He did a triathlon, he got married, he had two kids. The cancer and the uncertainty it introduced did, however, add an emotional and, at times, existential dimension to the partnership. There were several times when I thought that I was going to lose [Alain], Godshall said, recalling one of several brain surgeries Peauroi had over the years. So in a weird way, Ive been slowly preparing myself for this to happen. But preparing yourself is a very different thing than having it happen.Alain Peauroi at Sea Ranch (Courtesy TERREMOTO)Peauroi died on January 14, 12 years after the initial diagnosis. He was 46 years old. TERREMOTO shared the news on Instagram, writing: Alain was kind, generous, handsome, funny, and had no patience for bullshit. He was somehow simultaneously both gentle and powerful. He leaves behind two perfect little boys, a loving wife, and an office of twenty-six souls who all miss him dearly. A memorial for Peauroi was held February 8 at Marinship Studios, an artist collective in Sausalito for which TERREMOTO designed the communal spaces. TERREMOTO is also setting up a scholarship in Peaurois name for landscape architecture students at California Polytechnic State University San Luis Obispo. In the years since Peauroi and Godshall founded TERREMOTOalways leading separate offices in San Francisco and Los Angeles, respectivelythe firm has unquietly become one of the most influential and critically acclaimed landscape architecture practices on the West Coast, possibly in the United States. With 26 people currently on staff and 64,000 followers on Instagram, TERREMOTO is the rare landscape architecture firm with fans. (The office even has merch: A branded hat, perched on the head of a Superiority Burger employee, recently appeared in The New Yorker.) The studio has been included on Architectural Digests AD100 list for the past five years and in 2021 was named the Landezine International Landscape Awards Office of the Year. (Every community needs a TERREMOTO, Landezines editors wrote at the time.) Last month, just days after the news of Peaurois death broke, TERREMOTO received the 2025 Cooper Hewitt National Design Award in Landscape Architecture.They created a movement, Bianca Koenig, a landscape architect and founder of BEK Collective in Cayucos, California, told AN. TERREMOTOs preference for shaggy, wild-looking landscapesoften built from salvaged materials and native plantseven in the highest-end settings, such as celebrity gardens, showed her (and seemingly an entire generation of landscape designers) that the two were compatible. More importantly, the firm wasnt afraid to take a stand and have uncomfortable discussions around labor and the environment, Koenig said. To see this young, up-and-coming group do that was super inspiring.TERREMOTO operates offices in offices in San Francisco and Los Angeles. (Courtesy TERREMOTO)Amid the accolades, Peaurois contributions to TERREMOTOs ethos could be hard to discern from the outside. Peaurois reluctance to court the spotlight, coupled with an innate inscrutability, rendered him the less visible, slightly more enigmatic partner. TERREMOTO really is half Alain and half David, but a lot of people dont know that, said Jenny Jones, a partner in the firms Los Angeles office. Davids very outward facing, like, Lets talk, talk, talk, talk, talk. And Alains quieter. Hes more like, Lets get it done.Alain felt like the work speaks for itself, and thats where he would put his energy, recalled Nick Gotthardt, who met Peauroi at Surfacedesign in San Francisco, where Gotthardt is now a principal.As TERREMOTO grew, Peauroi and Godshall operated as a kind of double helix, complementary forces that provided balance but also the means to achieve what neither designer could have on his own. David was always more the face of TERREMOTOthe person taking the pictures, putting the website together, Instagrambut David could not have done all that without Alain. Rebecca Greenwald, a researcher and strategist who worked with TERREMOTO on its Land and Labor initiative, said: It takes a lot of very unsexy stuff to build the infrastructure to scale from 3 people to 30 people, and almost all of that stuff was Alain.Those who worked with Peauroi describe him as unpretentious. The son of two accountants, he had a working-class sensibility that facilitated an easy rapport with the firms construction crews. He had a lifelong respect for craftsmanship. He was a designer who hated CAD but loved value engineering. Who didnt equivocate but always allowed other people to speak. As Michal Kapitulnik, who worked with Peauroi at Surfacedesign, put it, Alain is one of the few people Ive ever met who is truly open-minded. Like, no pretense.Peauroi graduated from Cal Poly SLO with a degree in landscape architecture in 2002. Gary Clay, one of Peaurois professors, remembers Peauroi as a thoughtful and kind young person who was always trying to do things, to become a better person. I remember thinking, This kid is going to be something.TERREMOTO did landscape design work at the historic Sea Ranch Lodge. (Courtesy TERREMOTO)Godshall and Peauroi met in 2010 at Surfacedesign, where Peauroi had been employed since earning a masters degree in industrial design from the Design Academy Eindhoven in the Netherlands in 2007. While there, Peauroi became known for immaculately detailed yet elemental designs, such as Lands End Lookout above San Franciscos famed Sutro Baths. He just knew how to detail things and how to teach you how to detail things, said Surfacedesigns Gotthardt. Part of the mystique behind Alain is that he looks like this surfer bro, but hes a very thoughtful, detail-oriented designer and craftsperson.Throughout his years at TERREMOTO, Peauroi remained a natural mentor and teacher but also a lifelong learner. He would teach us through just going to site and figuring things out, recalled Nadia Alquaddoomi, Peaurois first hire for TERREMOTOs San Francisco office. He led by example, but he also believed that he was learning by example from the builders.Timothy A. Schuler is a journalist and design critic whose work has appeared in Metropolis, Dwell, Bloomberg CityLab, and Places Journal, among other outlets. He is also a contributing editor at Landscape Architecture Magazine. He lives in Manhattan, Kansas.

The AIA has officially announced its search for a new EVP/CEO, after Lakisha Woods stepped down from the role in February. AIA 2024 President Kimberly Dowdell will chair the search committee and Heidrick & Strugglesa New York Citybased executive search firm with an office in Washington, D.C.will support the effort. Stephen T. Ayers has served as interim AIA EVP/CEO since Woods departed in early February. Tonya Muse, a consultant at Heidrick & Struggless Washington, D.C. office, and member of the firms Social Impact and CEO & Board of Directors practices, will lead the team for Heidrick & Struggles.AIAs next leader will be instrumental in advancing the organizations mission and strategic priorities, Dowdell said in a statement. The search committee is committed to a thorough and inclusive process, ensuring we identify a CEO who will continue to drive forward AIAs goals of economic opportunity, inclusivity in the profession and the communities we serve, climate action, and a strong and innovative future for the profession.Aside from Dowdell and Heidrick & Struggles, the search committee includes past and current AIA board members, but also representatives from AIAs Strategic Council, National Associates Committee (NAC), Council of Architectural Component Executives (CACE), AIA International, and the American Institute of Architecture Students (AIAS). AIA said that Heidrick & Struggles will conduct outreach and gather input from AIAs diverse community, helping to shape the CEO position description to reflect the needs and aspirations of the Institute and its members. AIA likewise affirmed its commitment to its core mission of advancing the value of architects and supporting its members in designing a better world.The announcement comes in the waning months after former AIA presidents raised concerns over Woodss leadership, resulting in AIA hiring an independent consultancy to investigate claims made against her, allegations Woods was later vindicated of. The AIA Board of Directors later claimed there was a coordinated effort to discredit Woods and her leadership.A timeline for when the next AIA EVP/CEO will be announced was not given.

Ghost in the MachineProk Pikryl architekti converts a 1924 grain silo into a cultural space by using its architectural history to create a sci-fi styleByKelly Pau March 27, 2025Architecture, International (Petr Polak)SHAREIn Pardubice, Czech Republic, the Automatic Mills was one of the first buildings designed by Josef Gor, known in the country as an early father of modernism. Construction on the complex completed in 1909, though youd be forgiven for mistaking its facadeclad in geometric brick patterns, a skybridge, and crenelated roofsfor something more civic in nature. The dignity and care Gor leant toward industrial buildings and its laborers has helped preserve the mills a century later. In 1924, a grain silo and a series of multiple buildings were added to the complex. Its since undergone renovations by Zdenk Balk, Jan pka, Petr Veteka, and nowProk Pikryl architektiwho maintains and reuses the site as a multifunctional cultural space with otherworldly results. The architects refer to the site as a true building-machine as it comprises three main parts: the milling technology, the skeleton framework, and the outer shell. The approach serves to highlight the beauty of this work, thus the team restored the outer shell of the original brick facade designed by Gor.Read more about the adaptive reuse project on aninteriormag.com. Adaptive ReuseCzech Republic

A number of universities, nonprofits, philanthropic groups, and professional building organizations have lost substantial amounts of funding, at least for now. The cuts were announced by Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Administrator Lee Zeldin, by directive of Elon Musks Department of Governmental Efficiency (DOGE). In the slashes to government spending, Zeldin has taken aim at a 2023 decision by the Biden Administration which mandated the EPA allocate $2 billion in grants that would, in turn, support sustainability initiatives, DEI, natural disaster relief, and environmental justice work. Cancelled funding was previously allocated for minority communities that experience high levels of pollution and systemic disinvestment. A $1 million grant that got cancelled was supposed to bolster shoreline resiliency and ensure a just transition in the Brooklyn neighborhoods of Red Hook and Sunset Park. Zeldin also pulled funding away from wildfire prevention.Environmental research groups now deprived of federal funding include Vermonts Institute for Sustainable Communities, Louisianas Deep South Center for Environmental Justice, Marylands American Center for Life Cycle Assessment, the International Code Council (ICC), Portland Cement Association, American Wood Council, Hemp Building Institute, and others.Impacted higher education institutions include Cornell University, Rochester Institute of Technology, University of Washington, Oklahoma State University, University of California at Davis, University of Massachusetts at Lowell, West Virginia University, University of Texas at Austin, and others. Follow the LawCumulatively, Zeldin canceled over 400 grants with the assistance of DOGE, the EPA said, allegedly saving U.S. taxpayers $1.7 billion. (A spreadsheet listing the grants targeted for termination can be accessed here.) This came not long after the Trump administration announced plans to shutter the EPAs Office of Environmental Justice and External Civil Rights (OEJ-ECR).Democrats from the U.S. Senate Committee on Environment and Public Works (EPW) addressed a letter to Zeldin, dated March 25, expressing opposition, asking how the agency will combat pollution specifically in marginalized communities. The nine Senators who signed the letter include: Sheldon Whitehouse, Lisa Blunt Rochester, Bernie Sanders, Jeff Merkley, Ed Markey, Mark Kelly, Alex Padilla, Adam Schiff, and Angela Alsobrooks. The Senate Democrat leaders called Zeldins sweeping cuts illegal.EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin at a recent round table (usepagov/Wikimedia Commons/Public Domain)The terminations, Democrats said, violate a number of court orders. The Senators accused Zeldin of delivering for the fossil fuel industry. In a joint statement, the nine Democrat Senators said:According to documents obtained exclusively by Senate Committee on Environment and Public Works Democratic Staff, including a list produced by your office of roughly 400 grants targeted for termination, you pursued these terminations in knowing violation of the Terms and Conditions clauses of EPAs contracts, which stipulate conditions under which a grant can be terminated. We call on you to follow the law, cease and desist implementation of EO 14151, rescind the grant terminations, and provide information on EPAs decision-making process concerning the grant terminations and wider closure of the Office of Environmental Justice and External Civil Rights. []EPAs grant terminations were made knowing that they violate EPAs own contracts. According to information obtained exclusively by EPW Democratic Staff, termination notices sent by EPA to grantees knowingly and deceptively cited contract language that was not actually in many of the contracts in an effort to shift the burden to grantees to challenge your illegal terminations in the courts.In its letter, the EPW has called upon Zeldinto follow the law, cease and desist implementation of EO 14151, rescind the grant terminations, and provide information on EPAs decision-making process concerning the grant terminations and wider closure of the Office of Environmental Justice and External Civil Rights.The Democratic Senators likewise demanded that Zeldin respond to their requests for information and documents no later than March 31.

As corporate culture evolves, theres an increasing incentive to bring people back to the office. For Google, where office perks include fitness centers and free food, the concept of play has long been a part of the on-site benefits. At a Google office in Venice, California, the fun radiates on the outside as well. Since 2011, Googlers have occupied the Binoculars Building by Frank Gehry. (For those looking to relax on the job, a 2020 blog post showcases some of the tech giants recreational provisions, including a tea lounge, a giant rooftop chess board, and a micro-kitchen inside of a freestanding wooden tunnel.)Now, another company has the opportunity to see the building through a new lens, as Googles cubicles and cafe could soon depart the space. According to an offering memo obtained by The Real Deal (TRD), Net Lease Office Propertiesa spin-off of real estate investment trust W.P. Careyhas hired CBRE to sell the building.Designed by Frank Gehry in collaboration with artists Claes Oldenburg and Coosje van Bruggen, the 1991 building was completed as the headquarters for the advertising agency Chiat/Day (now TBWA\Chiat\Day). The three-part complex began as two disparate facades, with copper-clad columns on one side and a curved white screen wall on the other. By happenstance the binoculars, the center component, became the necessary mediator for the two designs. The sculpture was originally conceived as part of an academic project for an island community in Venice, Italy. Oldenburg and van Bruggen created a small model of a theater and library that mimicked the form of a standing pair of binoculars, which found its way to Gehrys desk. As noted in the sculptors artist statement, during a meeting with founder Jay Chiat, Gehry placed the little model in the center of the facade to illustrate the binding concept; it then became the solution.Connected by a central conference room, the lenses of the binoculars house two tall curvilinear rooms with bulbous light fixtures and, fittingly, the eyepieces form skylights. Streetside, the exterior space between the lenses creates an archway, with both a pedestrian entrance and access to the underground parking garage directly behind the sculpture.According to TRD, Googles triple-net-lease at the building is up for renewal in October 2030. While at this time an asking price has not been disclosed, the 78,578-square-foot building situated off the Venice Beach Boardwalk is a fitting option for companies seeking character and looking to turn some eyes.

Milpitas, California, a city with a population of 77,000 people just north of San Jose, is connected via public transit to San Francisco. There, David Baker Architects, a local office, has completed a 102-unit affordable housing complex. The residential building located at 355 Sango Court is within walking distance to Milpitas Transit Center, a BART station. It consists of two, all-electric residential buildings set back from the property line, creating dynamic view corridors into a series of open spaces designed by Form/Work, a San Diego landscape architecture office.The building is clad in white and dark gray panels, and the windows are framed with perforated fins for shading purposes. The balustrades which line the exposed, open-air walkways are made of the same material as the fins for visual consistency, creating a dynamic statement in a burgeoning transit-oriented district.The projects defining features are the perforated sunshades that take cues from the contexts historic farmland. (Bruce Damonte)The $86 million permanently supportive housing complex rises up five stories and contains studios, one-, two-, and three-bedroom units. Other spaces within Sango Court, include laundry facilities, parking, a playground area, outdoor seating, and a community room stocked with a kitchen. It also houses important wraparound services like therapist offices for residents in need.Sango Court offers studios, one-, two-, and three-bedroom units. (Bruce Damonte)A number of residents of Sango Court were previously facing severe housing insecurity, including Angelique Chisolm. It was rough, real rough. I didnt think Id be able to get a place on my own again, Chisolm told local Santa Clara County officials. I feel blessed. I love 355 Sango Court. Sango Court has a number of shared facilities. (Bruce Damonte)The complex is centered around a courtyard. (Bruce Damonte)Sango Court marks the first 100-percent affordable housing complex in Milpitas, a city where average rent for a one-bedroom apartment exceeds $2,500. David Baker Architects leveraged modular construction to reduce costs and timelines. The projects defining features are the perforated sunshades, balcony fences, and stairs from BK Modern that take cues from the contexts historic farmland. The firm has previously worked with the decorative and functional panels on its other residential work, including at Blue Oak Landing where the product was applied in a sawtooth formation and at Tahanan Supportive Housing complex.At Sango Court, these screens add cooling and visual interest. Weathered steel and concrete were deployed at street level, coupled with a welcoming garden entry, open-air lobby, and community-oriented ground floor.Open-air corridors connect residents to the units. (Bruce Damonte)Many of Sango Courts residents are people who previously experienced homelessness, including several veterans. The project was funded by the city of Milpitas, which made a $6.5 million investment, and a $16 million housing bond issued by Santa Clara County, the County Measure A Affordable Housing Bond.Moving forward, Santa Clara County is on track to add a total of 5,000 affordable units spread across ten cities.

What a difference two months can make. In rapid time, the Trump administration, which has empowered Elon Musks Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) operation to hunt through the executive branch of the federal government supposedly in search of inefficiency, has taken a chainsaw to so much statecraft. This turbulence has major significance for those who work on the built environment: Tariffs increase the cost of building materials, mass deportations constrict the construction workforce, layoffs hinder HUDs abilities, and anti-trans policies impact architects, architecture professors, and students. Further, the exit from the Paris Agreement and the deprioritization of mass transit over road construction, among other issues, slow collective responses to climate crisis. With impressive speed, Trumps administration has sought to curtail even the most minor of energy-saving efforts. An executive order from January 20 took direct aim at building products: Unleashing American Energy claims that burdensome and ideologically motivated regulations have impeded the development of these resources, and so we must unleash Americas affordable and reliable energy and natural resources to restore American prosperity. The executive order encourages energy exploration and production on Federal lands and waters, eliminates the electric vehicle (EV) mandate (which is not a real thing), and safeguards the American peoples freedom to choose from a variety of goods and appliances, including but not limited to lightbulbs, dishwashers, washing machines, gas stoves, water heaters, toilets, and showerheads, and to promote market competition and innovation within the manufacturing and appliance industries.On February 11, Trump took to social media to discuss the topic: I am hereby instructing Secretary Lee Zeldin to immediately go back to my Environmental Orders, which were terminated by Crooked Joe Biden, on Water Standards and Flow pertaining to SINKS, SHOWERS, TOILETS, WASHING MACHINES, DISHWASHERS, etc., and to likewise go back to the common sense standards on LIGHTBULBS, that were put in place by the Trump Administration, but terminated by Crooked Joe. I look forward to signing these Orders. THANK YOU!!! (As noted by Politico, Zeldin is the administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency. The Energy Departmentnot EPAis responsible for establishing efficiency standards for consumer products and appliances.) Under President Biden, the Department of Energy tightened restrictions for washing machines and dishwashers and in 2023 began enforcing electricity usage regulations that incandescent bulbs cannot achieve, effectively prohibiting their retail sale, according to Politico. Apparently even LED light bulbs are woke? Ad Hoc Order by Ccile B. Evans (Rosemary Warren/Courtesy Ccile B. Evans and Chteau Shatto, Los Angeles)The upheaval reminds me of an artwork I stumbled across at Art Basel Miami last December: Ccile B. Evanss Ad Hoc Order is a six-part sculpture that photorealistically reproduces a scale model of the United Nations General Assembly Hall, according to their gallery, Chteau Shatto. Beneath, a darkened, subterranean mass is actually a kit-bashed trash heap imagined as a storage space for the plundered ruins of New York City. Within the rubble, there are detectable bits of the metropolis, like the torch from the Statue of Liberty, a corner of the Flatiron building, signage from Citi Field, highway signs, a subway tile mural from Times Square, and more. The model, which depicts an imagined institution titled the Global Archive of Memory, comes apart in pieces to be able to be used as a set for futuristic films made by the artist about Reception, one of the last human translators in this world, and her double, a memory that has abandoned Receptions body. The model and films are on view at the Sharjah Biennial.The worldbuilding (and model-making) speaks to the bifurcated reality of our moment: A new show of administrative strength, surfaced in gold leaf and official-looking seals, above, and a chaotic hot mess of wreckage below. Instead of giving in to the tumult, in this issue, we look to projects that offer a place of gathering and respite. Across three features, read about remarkable structures that support cultural activation, whether through performance (Michan Architecture), civic infrastructure (Colloqate and Bora), or a progressive shift in building culture through the reuse of existing materials (pihlmann architects). Plus, our Focus section delivers a range of hospitality products and projects.Before and after, we sequence stories for your consumption, including a survey of the voices of the L.A. design community in response to the devastation of the recent fires, a remembrance of Alain Peauroi, a review of Karamuk Kuos Cannady Hall at Rice University, and an interview with Elizabeth Diller on the occasion of Diller Scofidio + Renfros widescreen monograph, in addition to an obituary of Ricardo Scofidio. And: See exhibitions and events to watch on our Happenings lineup.Learn more about this years Pritzker Prize winner, Liu Jiakun, who has kept a relatively low profile in Western media so far. But his sensibility is spot on: Architecture should abstract, distill and make visible the inherent qualities of local people, he commented. It has the power to shape human behavior and create atmospheres, offering a sense of serenity and poetry, evoking compassion and mercy, and cultivating a sense of shared community. In architecture as in life, a little grace goes a long way.

An activation from the 1939 Worlds Fair in New York City was the inspiration for an exhibition at ABC Stone in Greenpoint, Brooklyn that challenged five landscape architects with designing a 350-square-foot vignette with a single stone species as the centerpiece. Stone in Landscape Architecture: A Sensory Journey started as a clever marketing ploy from ASLANY and supplier and host ABC Stone, based on the showcase at the Worlds Fair that staged a 5-acre exhibition with 50 landscaped gardens. Stone in Landscape Architecture features vignettes by Design Workshop; LaGuardia Design Group; Oehme, Van Sweden (OvS); RKLA Studio; and Supermass Studio. Leaders from each group joined a panel moderated by Elizabeth Maskalenko of Hazen and Sawyer to discuss the ideas for their firms displays, which range from a terminal stone fountain by LaGuardia Design Group to a series of vertical stone pillars featuring stone sourced from the Danby Quarry in Vermont. Their work, introduced at a launch event last week and is on display at ABC Stones exhibition space (189 Banker Street, Brooklyn), through June 20.Supermass Studio reinterpreted its planter seating area from inside LaGuardia Airport Terminal B, using stone instead of GFRC. (Julie Florio/Courtesy ABC Stone)Supermass Studio chose to reinterpret one of its most well-known projects, a Glass Fiber Reinforced Concrete (GFRC) planter seating area from inside LaGuardia Airport Terminal B. Founding principal Taewook Cha explained the concept behind the display, titled Fluid, which replaced GFRC with stone to showcase its versatility as a material. A display card with Supermasss exhibit reads: While the hollow precast GFRC planter modules of the original project sought to mimic the rough, coarse texture of stone, working with real stone resulted in a smoother, more fluid surface, revealing an unexpected dimension of its materiality.A terminal stone fountain by LaGuardia Design Group is augmented with blocks featuring quotes from architects including Ludwig Mies van der Rohe. (Julie Florio/Courtesy ABC Stone)LaGuardia Design Group lead Carl Carlson discussed the provenance of the Renaissance Gray Limestone it sourced from Germany for its vignette, the terminal stone fountain augmented with blocks featuring quotes from architects including Ludwig Mies van der Rohe and Antoni Gaud. One of the things I like about this stone is that it actually has fossils in it, he said during the presentation. When it gets processed, sometimes you can actually see the fossils. It brings out this other element that reminds you that this is a very old substance. This was created a really, really long time ago. Design Workshop contributed a more sculptural piece, sited at the entrance to ABC Stones exhibition space. Principal Ben Roush explained that the concept, which features two sets of stones seemingly growing from the ground and undulating upward toward a meeting in the middle, was to spotlight the Global Carbon Project, which he described as an international initiative that is focused on greenhouse gas carbon emission. He introduced the concept with a slide that read: Design Workshops installation gives physical form to a profound and urgent storyone that spans two centuries yet unfolds in mere moments of geological time. By transforming a dataset of global fossil fuel emissions into stone, it renders visible the invisible, making tangible the lasting impact of human industry on our planet.Design Workshop contributed a more sculptural piece that transforms a dataset of global fossil fuel emissions into stone. (Julie Florio/Courtesy ABC Stone)Its easy to lose sight of the impact we all have as landscape architects, Roush added.Other vignettes by OvS and RKLA took perhaps more traditional approaches to incorporating stone into landscape design, intermingling trees and plants with stone structures. OvS principal Stacilyn Feldman, known for her planting design and detailing in botanical gardens and residential estates, took inspiration from Henry Moore, incorporating the landscape legends quote, Sculpture is an art of the open air, daylight, sunlight, is necessary to it, and for me its best setting and complement is nature, into the exhibit. OvS was influenced by planting design and detailing in botanical gardens and residential estates and incorporated a quote from Henry Moore. (Julie Florio/Courtesy ABC Stone)RKLA, meanwhile, created a pocket park designed to tell the story of Danby Marble, the Vermont quarry that has supplied stone to New York City for decadesincluding the United Nations Secretariat Building and New York Public Library. Managing partner Gareth Mahon explained that RKLAs vignette celebrates the varied qualities of the stone with vertical pillars placed in the park-like setting, which also features a paving pattern meant to mimic the New York City street grid.RKLA designed vertical pillars in a park-like setting. (Julie Florio/Courtesy ABC Stone)Lyndsey Belle Tyler, the creative director and marketing executive at ABC Stone who created the exhibits concept, took heat from attendees for the rushed timeline for the unusual project, but the landscape architects convivial atmosphere suggested the exhibit inspired them to create memorable vignetteswhich you can now see for yourself.

A new Womens Leadership Center designed by Studio Gang is coming to Williams Bay, Wisconsin. The project is a collaboration between the Chicago office and Lincoln Road Enterprises, a philanthropic organization led by Ann Drake focused on elevating womens leadership. The 8.6-acre site Studio Gang was tasked with designing overlooks Geneva Lake, a popular tourist spot 90 miles from Chicago. The forthcoming Womens Leadership Center will be 24,000 square feet and provide retreat space.The Center, Studio Gang said in a statement will be comprised of three buildings of varying scales, stitched together by attractive landscape architecture.The design features ample exterior space for social gatherings. (Courtesy Studio Gang)The Lodge, the Womens Leadership Centers largest building, will have space for dining and socializing. The second largest building, the Council, will have meeting and conference rooms, and the third building, the Cabin, will have accommodation for visitors.The architecture itself takes cues from the surrounding wilderness. Renderings show gently curved spaces punctuated by large windows that offer stunning views of Geneva Lake, and a densely-canopied oak forest. There will also be skylights that wash the interiors with sunshine.The Center will have accommodations for visitors. (Courtesy Studio Gang)Natural light will pour into the interiors via skylights installed around the perimeter of a lounge space. (Courtesy Studio Gang)Materials and finishes included white oak harvested on-site, and also natural Wisconsin stone. To reduce operational and embodied carbon, the building is lifted up off the ground to promote passive cooling, and capture prevailing winds from the lake. The buildings will also have cross-ventilation, and be built with mass timber and low-carbon concrete. Our design for the Womens Leadership Center responds to the natural beauty and ecology around it, including views to the surrounding oak savanna and nearby Geneva Lake. The roof design delivers light deep into the interior spaces like the gaps in the tree canopy, Jeanne Gang shared. The different spaces create unique opportunities for gathering, reflection, and experiencing nature.Space will be set aside for conferences and meetings. (Courtesy Studio Gang)Elevated walkways will connect the three buildings which make up the Center. (Courtesy Studio Gang)I like to say, tomorrow starts here because we believe the Center can be the place where conversations happen that change the world, Dake added. Its where women leaders will come to generate new insights, new possibilities, new learnings, and new perspectives on complex issues. By supporting talented women leaders to do that, I believe we will make a better future for everyone.Construction on the Womens Leadership Center began in summer 2024, and is anticipated for completion in 2026.Studio Gang is targeting LEED Gold.

Frankfurt-Short-Bruza Architects & Engineers (FSB), an Oklahoma City office, has filed a lawsuit against a number of partiesincluding clients and former employeesin the U.S. District Court of the Western District of Oklahoma. The case was filed on March 11 and involves two Oklahoma City developments: Boulevard Place, an 8-story mixed use development, and Alleys End, a multifamily housing complex. FSB has brought state and federal charges against: John Bernard Semtner and Isaac Malcolm Hines of Tradesman Architectural Studios, William Tim Strange and Steven Watts of Rose Rock Development Partners, Red River Development, Boulevard Place OKC, Alleys End OKC GP, Belmont Development Company, Johnson & Associates, 360 Engineering Group, and R3P Engineering.In regard to state charges, FSB claims that the defendants engaged in tortious business interference, breach of contract, and civil conspiracy. In regard to federal charges, FSB claims the aforementioned parties violated the Copyright Act, and Digital Millennium Copyright Act.This case involves not only copyright law but also the deliberate misuse of FSBs copyrighted works by a former FSB Principal and engineer and a former FSB architect, the court document stated.Tradesman Architecture Studio stands accused of creating derivative works based on designs by FSB. (Courtesy U.S. District Court of the Western District of Oklahoma)These individuals unlawfully used FSBs designs, interfered with its contracts, and disrupted its business relationships, the court document continued. Former clients, enticed away by the engineer and architect, knowingly continued using FSBs copyrighted works without permission. They then enlisted otherswho were aware of the infringementto assist in constructing a multi-million-dollar project without authorization. Given their direct involvement, these additional individuals and companies are indispensable parties to this case. What Happened?John Bernard Semtner and Isaac Malcolm Hines are both former employees of FSB. On January 28, 2019, Semtner signed a Non-Compete, Non-Solicitation and Non-Disparagement Agreement with FSB, in which Semtner was prohibited from soliciting FSBs clients and employees for three years, a contract he allegedly violated. Semtner was a principal at FSB, but formally started his own competing company on July 27, 2021, Tradesman Architectural Studios, together with Hines. Semtner was ordered to return all proprietary materials to FSB by July 29, 2022. On July 31, 2022, Semtner left FSB.William Tim Strange is chairman of Rose Rock Development Partners, the firm behind both Boulevard Place and Alleys End. Steven Watts is CEO of Rose Rock. Together, Strange and Watts manage four Limited Liability Companies (LLCs) under the Rose Rock Development Partners brand name. Red River Development is another defendant based in Texas.The Boulevard Place project (Courtesy U.S. District Court of the Western District of Oklahoma)FSB was officially contracted by Watts on October 31, 2018, for architecture and engineering work on the Boulevard Place project. The contract was for $2 million. Three years later, FSB issued Rose Rock an invoice for $1,584,826. On May 11, 2022, Watts and Strange urged FSB to remain patient regarding unpaid past sums, indicating the invoice had not been paid.On January 5, 2021, FSB signed a contract with Rose Rock for the Alleys End project. That contract was for $2,023,500, and was negotiated by Semtner and Hines, both still FSB employees at that time. Between April and August of that year, FSB issued invoices to Rose Rock for Alleys End, which has only been partially paid off. On October 27, 2023, after Semtner and Hines had started Tradesman Architecture Studio, Semtner and Strange confirmed Rose Rock had been creating derivative works of the Boulevard Place design and value engineering in order to reduce costs. FSB never granted Tradesman Architecture Studio and Rose Rock permission to do so. Strange and Semtner indicated a desire to license and create derivatives from FSBs work relating to the Alleys End Project during a meeting with FSB partners, the court document said. FSB however rejected that proposition.Semtner proceeded to list Boulevard Place and Alleys End on Tradesman Architecture Studios website, albeit without FSBs permission; he then took the projects down from his website after FSB asked him to do so. Semtner also allegedly solicited Sarah Freeman, an FSB employee, to work for him on the Boulevard Place and Alleys End projects, a violation of the contract he signed in 2019. Moreover, Tradesman, Semtner, and Hines intentionally interfered with FSBs contract on the Alleys End Project having an agreed fee of $2,023,500, the plaintiff argued.The Alleys End project (Courtesy U.S. District Court of the Western District of Oklahoma)On April 9, 2024, Tradesman Architecture Studio presented its design for Alleys End to Oklahoma City Council. An FSB employee then confronted Semtner about the presentation; Semtner allegedly shrugged it off, and then asked the FSB employee: Are you going to sue me?On June 26, 2024, Tradesman Architecture Studio submitted formal drawings of Alleys End to the City of Oklahoma for approval, a drawing set that was signed by Hines. On August 6, 2024, Strange falsely denied using FSBs design: Just to clarify, we are not using your drawings for Alleys End, Strange relayed to FSB over email. The ChargesToday, FSB is owed $1,722,151.03, a number which includes interest, for the Boulevard Place project, it claimed. FSB has since prohibited Rose Rock from using its materials in promotion materials for Boulevard Place, but Rose Rock has not complied; it continues to advertise and display FSBs copyrighted works despite FSBs repeated demands for payment.There are a total of nine counts that FSB has brought against the defendants. FSB claims, due to the defendants actions, it has suffered significant damages, including but not limited to financial losses, harm to business relationships, competitive disadvantage, and reputational injury.Tradesman Architectural Studio allegedly presented renderings derivative of FSBs design in April 2024. (Courtesy U.S. District Court of the Western District of Oklahoma)The damages incurred by FSB as a result of Semtners breach are concrete, quantifiable, and supported by documentary evidence, including materials attached to this complaint and those that will be exchanged in discovery, the court document states.As a result of Semtners contract breach, and the other aforementioned actions, FSB argues it is entitled to a recovery of its damages, plus prejudgement and post judgment interest. FSB also argues it is entitled to an injunction to prevent further misappropriation by Tradesman Architecture Studio and Rose Rock.

The Van Alen Institute announced today its next executive director will be Hayley Eber.Eber will take the helm at the urban design nonprofit following a three-year stint as acting dean of the Cooper Unions Irwin S. Chanin School of Architecture. Eber follows the tenure of previous Van Alen executive director Deborah Marton, who announced in July 2024 she would depart from the position after five years on the job. Under Martons leadership the organization tweaked its mission and moved its operations to a former garage in Gowanus, Brooklyn.At Cooper Union, Eber centered accessibility and equity in an educational realm, a mission equally important to the community-focused work of Van Alen.Theres a lot of alignment with the missions and the ethos of the two institutions, Eber told AN. So when my term was coming to an end, this opportunity was super exciting for me to re-pivot and align with an institute that is similarly engaged in the mission.In a statement, R. May Lee, Van Alen Board Chair, said Ebers keen ability to foster a welcoming culture builds on Van Alens history of convening people across disciplines. She brings a depth of design expertise and intellectual rigor that will be invaluable as Van Alen continues its 130-year commitment to design and its impact on the public realm in New York City.Looking back at her time leading the architecture school at Cooper Union, Eber remarked on the partnerships forged between the school and local institutionsnamely the Met, Museum of Modern Art, Storefront Gallery for Art and Architecture, and a83. Under her stead, changes were made to the schools pedagogy and core coursework to promote diversity and inclusion; she also helped secure funding for fellowships, scholarships, and research initiatives. At Van Alen, Eber hopes to deepen the organizations community engagement work and foster more interdisciplinary collaboration. She hopes to relaunch the Van Alens Paris Prize, a competition from the nonprofit that champions bold ideas for civic spaces. Eber first connected with the Van Alen Institute as a practicing architect by participating in the nonprofits public space competitions.My hope is that Van Alen will be acknowledged as a leading Institute for innovative design solutions, as they once were, that addresses key local and global challenges we face today around social justice, technology, and environments, Eber added.Eber will continue working at Cooper Union through the end of the spring semester and assume her new role at Van Alen in June.

Still LifeIn Belgium, Stef Claes Architect makes the case for subtlety in North Sea ResidenceByKelly Pau March 25, 2025Interiors, International (Eric Petschek)SHARETucked between the North Sea and the Netherlands border, Knokke is a town in Belgium visited for its picturesque nature: beaches, salt marshes, dunes, and woodlands. Its fitting then thatStef Claes Architectwould opt for the quiet stillness found in the rural landscape for a residence in the areas Duinenwater. Aptly titled the North Sea Residence, the project is a vacation home for a family from Singapore. The interior architecture and design from Stef Claes marries the homeowners taste and background with a site-specific approach. Rather than making statements and grand gestures, the residences design has a quiet and minimal aesthetic, covering the home in a white base. The open connection to the land carries through in the flowing spatial orientation of the home. The architects prioritized key elements to delineate space in place of doors. In the kitchen for instance, the large block of Ceppo di Gr stone establishes the zone. The floorplan continues into the living and dining room, separated by a fireplace to visually divvy the layout. But perhaps the most careful consideration of the spatial delineation is found at the oversized sliding wood panel doors that reveal and conceal the staircase.Read more on aninteriormag.com. Belgium

Its been nearly 100 years since construction started on Canberra, Australias purpose-built federal capital city. Now, for the first time since then, a new major city is springing up in the nation continent: Bradfield City Centre. The 280-acre metropolis, next to the new Western Sydney International Airport, is a gargantuan undertaking backed by the New South Wales State Government. Construction on the citypoised to support tourism, economic activity and employmentis underway, with its first building, the Advanced Manufacturing Readiness Facility, recently completed.Hassell, a global studio, designed First Building for the Advanced Manufacturing Readiness Facility. It was conceived to be regenerative, adaptable and deeply connected to First Nations culture.The design used modular fabrication and construction which makes the building easily disassembled, expanded, or even relocated. (Mark Syke/Courtesy Hassell)As Bradfield City Centre takes shape, the First Building is a bold statement about whats possible, said Liz Westgarth, Hassell principal in charge. It sets a strong benchmark for how Bradfield will developgreat design, sustainable and honoring Country. Its more than a buildingits a living example of how we can transform our cities and our lives. In addition to a manufacturing hall there are also office spaces and areas for hosting exhibitions or talks. (Mark Syke/Courtesy Hassell)The First Building was inspired by the Cumberland Plain where it sits, and the areas natural waterways more broadly. It used modular fabrication and construction methods which make it easily disassembled, expanded, or even relocated.The architects opted for timber for its low-carbon properties. (Mark Syke/Courtesy Hassell)A kit-of-parts construction that can be reconfigured and reused ensures the buildings longevity and responsiveness to Bradfields future needs, representing the citys commitment to adaptability and circularity, Westgarth continued. The First Building proves that you can innovate, that you can create something extraordinary for a public, government project. Its time to move forward, to embrace new ideas and to show that sustainability and great design belong together. And the First Building is our proof.The design uses a color palette and materials that blur the line between built form and nature.The building is topped with a green roof. (Vinchy Wu/Courtesy Hassell)Rammed earth and recycled tiles, coupled with building systems that minimize waste and extend the structures life cycle of resources, were used with circular economy principles in mind. According to the Bradfield Development Authority, a 30 percent reduction in embodied carbon was achieved in the project by opting to use timber and low-carbon concrete.This project marks the completion of stage one of the Advanced Manufacturing Readiness Facility (AMRF).Stage Two is slated for completion in late 2025. The forthcoming Second Building will also house manufacturing facilities.Future plans seek to bring commercial development to the site and call for parks, hotels, and residences.

Situated on the Cheaha Mountain summit, Cheaha State Park is Alabamas first state park. It opened in 1933 and covers nearly 3,000 acres. Many structures in the park are the work of the Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC), a New Dealera program created by President Franklin D. Roosevelt during the Great Depression that improved the quality of public, natural resources across the country. Cabins and A-frame structures built in the 1930s cemented Cheaha State Parks place as a hospitable nature destination among the Appalachian foothills. A new construction project now underway at the state park sets out to revamp a former hotel lodge, continuing this legacy. Chambless King Architects has joined the Alabama Department of Conservation and Natural Resources (ADCNR) to build the Cheaha State Park Lodge, a renovation of the former hotel and visitor center within Cheaha State Park in Delta, Alabama.With the original facilities of the lodge beginning to deteriorate, the project was set in motion in May 2022 when Alabama voters approved a bond issue that provided $80 million to significantly improve park facilities around the state. The former Cliffside Hotel was built in 1973 and will undergo selective demolition and renovation as the new project progresses.The project involves razing part of the existing hotel structure to build a new one outfitted with a cross-laminated timber (CLT) structure. Parts of the existing structure will house park administration offices. Other long-standing facilities will be renovated and converted: the Vista Event Center (formerly the restaurant) will become the new lobby space. It will house guest check-in services, staff office space, and a transitional bar for a daytime cafe and nighttime cocktail bar anchored with lounge seating against an existing floor-to-ceiling stone fireplace.The three residential towers contain 32 total units, and are connected by breezeways with perforated cladding. (Courtesy Chambless King Architects)The design will create a hotel facility that leverages its extraordinary location atop Mount Cheaha and generates the sense of a vibrant, lived-in mountaintop village, shared Jared Fulton, principal at Chambless King Architects and lead architect for the project. We hope the completed project will enrich the lives of overnight guests and visitors at Cheaha State Park, encouraging them to treasure the mountain for its beauty, ecological impact, and historical importance. Each of the 32 guest units planned for the Cheaha State Park Lodge will be oriented to take advantage of the state parks landscape and topography. The new design adds additional conference, recreational, circulation spaces, and a rooftop deck that will allow guests to be embedded into the surrounding environment without exiting the property.The 32 hotel units each have balcony access and vary in configuration. (Courtesy Chambless King Architects)The units with private balconies feature eight room configurations that include pet-friendly, ADA-accessible, and connecting rooms. Capitalizing on the sites topography, the buildings form features a horizontal stepping scheme. Alongside creative framing this strategy allows each unit to offer a unique vantage point of previously inaccessible views from the top of Mount Cheaha. Perforated aluminum cladding draws visual interest across the faces of the towers compromising the main lodge. The contemporary material contrasts the tried-and-true masonry and wood used elsewhere and inside.The building is a hybrid mass timber structure, featuring CLT floors with concrete topping slabs supported by CLT and wood stud-framed walls atop a concrete foundation. The project will use building materials sustainably sourced in Alabama, including exposed mass timber and stone. Upon completion, the Lodge, according to the architects, will be the largest CLT construction project in the state.A rooftop bar and lounge will offer a sweeping 360-degree viewing range. (Courtesy Chambless King Architects)The new hotel units will be connected to the existing Vista Event Center, which also features a pair of CLT roofs supported by CLT walls and glulam columns. Additionally, the existing pool will be converted into an observation deck and event pavilion that will serve as a trailhead for Pulpit Rock. Home to the states highest point at 2,407 feet, the Creek Nation called it Cheaha, meaning the high place. The new design finds ways to emphasize this vantage point throughout, including the addition of the rooftop bar. The existing large observation deck will remain, framing the vista and further connecting guests to nature. Native and drought-tolerant plants, trees, and wildflowers will further integrate the architecture into the natural habitat.Site preparation began in December 2024. The project is expected to be completed in 2026.

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.