To say that 2024 was bumpy would be an understatement. This year, we saw a mercurial U.S. presidential election conclude that many say could have disastrous consequences for the environment, as climate deniers and CEOs are likely to fill important cabinet positions. (Elon Musk, it seems, is now the countrys top Iran adviser?) We also saw heart-wrenching, unspeakable scenes of death and displacement unfold in Palestine, Sudan, Haiti, and Ukraine. We learned too about a mind-boggling number of worker deaths in Saudi Arabia. A number of more bureaucratic controversies played out in the U.S. as well. The AIA Board of Directors issued an alert not long ago that a coup may have been unfolding against its current leadership. (There were also embittered disputes between NAAB, AIA, ACSA, NCARB, and AIAS over many issues.) But the mess didnt stop there. What follows are some of the biggest controversies AN covered in 2024.Tom Pritzker of the Pritzker Architecture Prize named in Epstein-Maxwell court documentsThe year started off with a bang when highly anticipated courtroom evidence was declassified and shared with the public just a few days into the new year. The Epstein-Maxwell court document was a cumbersome 943-page tome that contained all of Jeffrey Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwells dastardly deeds. To no surprise, many of the worlds rich and powerful were implicated, including Les Wexner, who bankrolled a famous building from 1989 designed by Peter Eisenman at Ohio State University. Tom Pritzker, the hotel scion who annually awards the Pritzker Architecture Prize, was also named in the Epstein-Maxwell docket. Today, Pritzker stands accused of sexual allegations by Virginia RobertsGiuffre, a victim of Epstein and Maxwells sex trafficking syndicate. A spokesperson for Pritzker subsequently denied Giuffres claims, and the case is ongoing. Wexner has also been accused of sexual allegations by Giuffre.Neri Oxman accused of plagiarism amid Claudine Gay falloutIn January, the U.S. watched Ivy League university presidents get grilled in congressional hearings, resulting in numerous resignations. Perhaps the most intense exchange was between former Harvard president Claudine Gay and ultra-conservative house representative Elise Stefanik.Gay was accused by Stefanik of anti-Semitism, and not doing enough to stymie student protests for Palestine in Cambridge.At the movements vanguard to depose Gay was billionaire Bill Ackman, the husband of architect Neri Oxman.Ackman and comrades teamed up and tried bullying Gay into resigning, Harvards first Black woman president; they also accused her of plagiarizing her PhD. In the days after Gay resigned, Oxman was accused of plagiarizing her own PhD. The allegations against Oxman were ironic, given the tirades her husband launched against Gay for the same reasons. Oxman later issued a lengthy response to the allegations made against her on social media.On May 21, students from the Cooper Unions Irwin S. Chanin School of Architecture protested the administrations decision to close the annual End of Year Show to the public by moving models outside, draping work in black veils, and ultimately moving the thesis showcase off-campus to the Clemente Soto Vlez Cultural & Educational Center in the East Village. (Elisa Iturbe)Architecture students and faculty join campus protests in solidarity with PalestineWhile the drama was playing out between Stefanik, Gay, and Ackman, thousands of students and faculty members at schools around the U.S. built encampments in solidarity with Palestine. Many of these participants were architecture students and faculty.Students at Yale built a pop-up library (that was swiftly taken down) stocked with anti-colonial literature outside the Beinecke Library. Later, Cooper Union students moved their end of year show off campus to the Clemente Center to protest a decision made by the schools president, and Harvard GSDs student government passed a resolution calling upon the institution to divest from Israeli companies. Columbia GSAPP and Cooper Union students also teamed up for an exhibition at a83, calling out school administrators for crushing freedom of speech. This all played out as pro-Palestine academics faced looming threats to their job security and personal safety, as described in an op-ed for AN by Cruz Garcia.Former Washington University professor Michael Allen was suspended by that schools administration for his alleged involvement in a campus protest. Samia Henni even received a death threat at ETH Zurich for her politics.AI-generated renderings show skyscrapers, solar fields, water desalination plants, a new high speed rail corridor, and oil rigs off of Gazas shoreline. (Courtesy Israel PMO)Dystopian master plan posits new rail connection between Gaza and NEOMIn May, journalists got their hands on a short pdf. document containing plans from Israel Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahus administration for Gaza. On May 3, Netanyahu unveiledGaza 2035: A three-stepmaster plan to build what he called the Gaza-Arish-Sderot Free Trade Zone. The plan was first reported by The Jerusalem Postand later byAl Jazeera.Gaza 2035 was a regional plan to build a new high-tech city stocked with flashy skyscrapers atop the rubble of Gaza. It posited oil tankers off of the shoreline, prompting environmental journalist Yessenia Funes to say This genocide is about oil. Plan drawings also showed a new rail connection between Gaza and the city underway in northwest Saudi Arabia, NEOM, getting built about 130 miles south of Rafah.The regional plan was swiftly met with opposition. On May 16, UAE Foreign Minister Sheikh Abdullah bin Zayed Al Nahyan condemned the planin a public statement. Lara Elborno, a Palestinian-American human rights lawyer,said on social media: Israels plan to steal our gas and subject us to this dystopian future must be unequivocally opposed with urgency. Gaza is not nothing.ANs coverage of Gaza 2035 went viral, after someone on Instagram made a template for users to easily share the story. The article was viewed over 50,000 times. A documentary exposed 21,000 work-related deaths in Saudi ArabiaSaudi Vision 2030 is a multi-trillion dollar umbrella program that is transforming its host country. NEOM, the speculative city being designed by a long list of famous architects, is part of Saudi Vision 2030.A new documentary,Kingdom Uncovered: Inside Saudi Arabia, by ITV revealed that more than 21,000 Indian, Bangladeshi, and Nepalese workers died in Saudi Arabiasince 2017 working on various aspects of Saudi Vision 2030. And according toThe Hindustan Times, reports show that more than 100,000 people havedisappearedduring NEOMs construction.While some architecture offices have backed away from the project, many have not. According toreporting fromDezeenandThe Architects Journal, BIG, Zaha Hadid Architects, and OMA are still on the project. And so are UNStudio, Pei Cobb Freed & Partners, Gensler, Mark Foster Gage, HOK, Studio Fuksas, Oyler Wu Collaborative, Tom Wiscombe Architecture, and others. Protests mounted against a new stadium in Philadelphias ChinatownIn Philly, an ongoing saga over a proposed basketball stadium in the citys Chinatown continued into 2024, with tenacity. In February, an economic study concluded that if 76 Place, designed by Gensler, gets built, it could cost the region $1 billion. This report contradicted statements by the development team, who argued 76 Place would boost the local economy.Later, in September, tensions simmered, and many anti-stadium activists took to the streets. Afterward, Philadelphia 76ers officials said they were scouting alternative locations for a new basketball stadium, which many wrote off as a scare tactic. Philadelphia City Council is voting on the project this week.Tensions boiled in Connecticut over plans for Philip Johnson-designed home additionA lingering conversation about how to negotiate Philip Johnsons legacy touched down in Madison, Connecticut, this year. 6 Opening Hill Road is the former home of Emily Hall Tremaine, an art scion with Nazi ties. As an advisor at MoMA, Tremaine crossed paths with Johnson, and the two became friends. Later, Johnson designed an addition to Tremaines house, which a nonprofit now hopes to convert into a mixed-use cultural, educational, and residency center.The Tremaine Foundation, past members of The Glass House Museum, and Docomomo teamed up to garner support for the conversion. Meanwhile, Princeton professor V. Mitch McEwen and art writer Robert Preece raised grave concerns about the conversion, and its implications. In the letter, McEwen said the Tremaine Foundations proposal is not innocent and, if the application gets approved, the Tremaine estate could become a nationally recognized memorial to antiblack and antisemitic brutality, albeit a glamorous one. Things got heated at the AIAIn Washington, D.C. at AIA HQ, 2024 had its highs and lows. On April 4, twenty-three formerAIApresidents signed a letter recently addressed to AIA Board of Directors expressing their concerns related to finances and management, as well as potential misspending, nepotism, cronyism, and the pursuit of personal gain within AIA leadership.A local law firm was subsequently hired to look into the claims, which ultimately vindicated AIA CEO/Lakisha Woods of any wrongdoing. Then, inSeptember, AIA Board of Directors issued a statement to AIA members about how a concerted effort was underway to publicly discredit Woodss leadership, albeit without going into specifics.All of this was playing out while Terrence Ona, former general counsel to the AIA, was suing his former employer for damages. This December, Woods announced she will leave her role as AIA CEO/EVP in February 2025.Protesters projected words onto the wall of a building in Chelsea, Manhattan, expressing discontents with the Fulton Elliott-Chelsea demolition plan. (Avery J. Savage)Public housing residents in New York fight to save their homesA highly controversial demolition and privatization plan for public housing in Manhattans Chelsea neighborhood continues to entice debate and turmoil. AN first reported on the Fulton and Elliott-Chelsea (FEC) Houses Plan in August 2023, and its been a story weve watched closely ever since.In March, AN reported that the architects behind the project were PAU, COOKFOX, and ILA. This took us to a massive protest on the steps of New York City Hall last October, when NYCHA residents called for a screeching stop to the FEC Plan. Things got dicy when NYCHA residents claimed that they were being barred from community meetings about the FEC Plan.One of the most creative stunts to date was whenMore Art invited the Yes Men, a famous culture jamming activist group, and the Good Liars to infiltrate a gala dressed up as Related executives. This December, NYCHA residents, More Art, Save Section 9, and The Illuminator teamed up and cast anti-demolition messages on the side of a building to raise awareness about the project.Meanwhile, other NYCHA developments have been selected for PACT/RAD, including multiple buildings in the Lower East Side. NYCHA residents in Coney Island this year, however, voted against privatization. NAAB budgetary and governance restructuring proposal gets stiff pushback from AIA, AIAS, ACSA, and NCARBNAAB caught a lot of flak this year, for a number of reasons. Things first got dicy in 2022 when NAAB asked for a 47 percent funding increase from its collateral organizations. AIA, AIAS, ACSA, and NCARB rejected the plan, so NAAB went on the offensive and proposed charging schools directly for another income source.Under NAABs proposal, the 176 NAAB-accredited programs offered by 140higher learning institutionsin the U.S. and abroad would have to cover about one-third of NAABs annual operating budget for accreditation.Later, in December, NAAB got more criticism from prominent organizations that represent minority architects and architecture students for a proposed revision to the 2020 Conditions for Accreditation. The main concern shared by AIANY, NYCOBA-NOMA, and ACSA is the potential removal of Section 5.5 from the NAAB 2020 Conditions for Accreditation. Section 5.5 pertains to Supportive Environment/Social Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion. For AIANY, NYCOBA-NOMA, and ACSA, Section 5.5s removal is an affront to their shared Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) initiatives.Berlin politicians propose new housing atop Tempelhofer FeldA newinternational architecture competition that asked designers to ideate housing atop Tempelhofer Feld sparked outrage in Berlin in November. The 940-acre green space about the size of Central Park is frequented by 200,000 people every week. A referendumwas passed in 2014 that was supposed to stymie new buildings on the former airfield, butGermanys ruling coalition made up of center-right (CDU) and center-left (SPD) parties is intent on developing the park to allegedly help quench thecapitals housing crisis.Today, opposition groups likeArchitects4THFhave teamed up with 100% Tempelhofer Feld Initiative to stop development from happening. The need for more housing in Berlin is real, opposition leaders say, but commodifying a beloved public utility isnt the right way to go about it.