The roster of skaters originally featured in Tony Hawk’s™ Pro Skater™ 3 and Tony Hawk’s™ Pro Skater™ 4 helped to further catapult skateboarding culture into the mainstream as big names like Bob Burnquist, Steve Caballero, Elissa Steamer, and Chad Muska joined Tony Hawk in a stacked roster of award-winning pro skaters capable of shredding in and out of the game. In this feature, following the Demo announcement and the full soundtrack reveal, we’re proud to share the full roster of returning skaters in the upcoming Tony Hawk’s™ Pro Skater™ 3 + 4arriving on PlayStation 4 and 5, Xbox Series X|S, Xbox One, Nintendo Switch, Nintendo Switch 2, and PC (Battle.net, Steam, Microsoft PC Store). Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater 3 + 4 launches on July 11. THPS 3 + 4: Returning Skaters From gold medalists to progenitors of some of today’s most iconic skateboarding tricks, these classic skaters were instrumental in bringing skateboarding culture to a wider audience. Mixing courage, creativity, and an iron will, they’re more than ready to tackle any obstacle put before them. “Being in the original games was epic!” shares Elissa Steamer, who was the first playable female skater in the original Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater game. “It was semi-life changing. I can’t say enough about how stoked I was – and am now! – to be in the games.” “From the moment Tony asked, it was an honor, yet I had no idea of what it would come to mean,” says Rodney Mullen, originator of the kickflip and largely considered one of the most influential skaters in the sport. “The first time I showed up on tour after the release of the game, I recall ‘em shop owners having to put me on top of the tour van roof to manage so that I could sign things in all the madness. The crowd was rocking the van back and forth! [It] blew my mind, the impact it had.” “The game attracted such a broader group of skaters, which has elevated our community in layered ways: from tricks to societal acceptance to the respect we get from people who often thought otherwise, like parents discouraging their kids who were simply outsiders looking for a place to belong,” Mullen continues. “Skating is integrated with a culture, a way of being, more than pretty much any other sport I can think of. The way Tony’s game shows that via the music, art, and vibe batted this home. It’s cool to be understood.”  When Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater 3 + 4 launches this July, here are the returning skaters ready to hit the pavement once again, including skaters featured in the original Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater 3 and Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater 4 games plus other titles in the series. Tony Hawk San Diego, California Style: Vert / Stance: Goofy Tony Hawk made history by landing the first ever 900 at the 1999 X Games, skyrocketing the sport into the mainstream. Today he remains the sport’s most iconic figure. Bob Burnquist Rio de Janeiro, Brazil Style: Vert / Stance: Regular Bob Burnquist shocked the skateboarding world when he landed the first Fakie 900. His iconic “Dreamland” skatepark is home to a permanent Mega Ramp. Bucky Lasek Baltimore, Maryland Style: Vert / Stance: Regular Known for his vert skills, Bucky has won 10 gold medals at the X Games and is one of only two vert skateboarders to have won three gold medals consecutively. Steve Caballero San Jose, California Style: Vert / Stance: Goofy An iconic skateboarder responsible for inventing various vert tricks. He holds the record for the highest air ever achieved on a halfpipe. Kareem Campbell Harlem, New York Style: Street / Stance: Regular Called the godfather of smooth street style, Kareem left his mark by popularizing the skateboard trick, “The Ghetto Bird,” and founded City Stars Skateboards. Geoff Rowley Liverpool, England Style: Street / Stance: Regular Geoff Joseph Rowley Jr. is an English skateboarder and owner of Civilware Service Corporation. In 2000 he was crowned “Skater of the Year” by Thrasher Magazine. Andrew Reynolds North Hollywood, California Style: Street / Stance: Regular Co-founder and owner of Baker Skateboards, Andrew Reynolds turned pro in 1995 and won Thrasher Magazine’s “Skater of the Year” award just three years later. Elissa Steamer San Francisco, California Style: Street / Stance: Regular Elissa is a four-time X Games gold medalist, the first female skateboarder to go pro, and the first woman ever inducted into the Skateboarding Hall of Fame. Chad Muska Los Angeles, California Style: Street / Stance: Regular Artist, musician, and entrepreneur. Described by the Transworld Skateboarding editor-in-chief as “one of the most marketable pros skateboarding has ever seen.” Eric Koston Los Angeles, California Style: Street / Stance: Goofy Co-founder of Fourstar Clothing and the skate brand The Berrics, Eric is a master of street skateboarding and a two-time X Games gold medalist. Rodney Mullen Gainesville, Florida Style: Freestyle / Stance: Regular One of the most influential skateboarders of all time, Rodney Mullen is the progenitor of the Flatground Ollie, Kickflip, Heelflip, and dozens of other iconic tricks. Jamie Thomas Dothan, Alabama Style: Street / Stance: Regular Nicknamed “The Chief,” Jamie is the owner and founder of Zero Skateboards. He helped film 1996’s “Welcome to Hell,” one of the most iconic skate videos ever made. Rune Glifberg Copenhagen, Denmark Style: Vert / Stance: Regular Nicknamed “The Danish Destroyer,” Rune Glifberg is one of three skaters to have competed at every X Games, amassing over 12 medals at the competition. Aori Nishimura Tokyo, Japan Style: Street / Stance: Regular Born in Edogawa, Tokyo in Japan, Aori Nishimura started skateboarding at the age of 7 and went on to become the first athlete from Japan to win gold at the X Games. Leo Baker Brooklyn, New York Style: Street / Stance: Goofy Leo is the first non-binary and transgender professional skateboarder in the Pro Skater™ series and has won three gold medals, placing in over 32 competitions.  Leticia Bufoni São Paulo, Brazil Style: Street / Stance: Goofy Multiple world record holder and six-time gold medalist. Named the #1 women’s street skateboarder by World Cup of Skateboarding four years in a row. Lizzie Armanto Santa Monica, California Style: Park / Stance: Regular A member of the Birdhouse skate team, Lizzie has amassed over 30 skateboarding awards and was the first female skater to complete “The Loop,” a 360-degree ramp. Nyjah Huston Laguna Beach, California Style: Street / Stance: Goofy One of skateboarding’s biggest stars, Nyjah has earned over 12 X Games gold medals, 6 Championship titles, and a bronze medal at the 2024 Summer of Olympics. Riley Hawk San Diego, California Style: Street / Stance: Goofy Riley Hawk decided to turn pro on his 21st birthday and became Skateboarder Magazine’s 2013 Amateur of the Year later that same day. Shane O’Neill Melbourne, Australia Style: Street / Stance: Goofy Australian skateboarder who is one of only a few skateboarders to win gold in all four major skateboarding contests, including the X Games and SLS. Tyshawn Jones Bronx, New York Style: Street / Stance: Regular A New York City native and two-time Thrasher Magazine “Skate of the Year” winner, Tyshawn Jones is the youngest skateboarder to ever achieve that accolade. The above skaters are far from the only icons you’ll encounter in the game’s large roster. Keep your eyes on the Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater blog found here for more info on Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater 3 + 4 as we approach its July 11 release date, including the full reveal of new skaters joining in on the fun.  Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater 3 + 4 rebuilds the original games from the ground up with classic and new skaters, parks, tricks, tracks, and more. Skate through a robust Career mode taking on challenges across two tours, chase high scores in Single Sessions and Speedruns, or go at your own pace in Free Skate. Get original with enhanced creation tools, go big in New Game+, and skate with your friends in cross-platform online multiplayer* supporting up to eight skaters at a time. New to the series? Hit up the in-game tutorial led by Tony Hawk himself to kick off your skating journey with tips on Ollies, kick flips, vert tricks, reverts, manuals, special tricks, and more. Don’t miss the Foundry Demo, available now, featuring playable skaters, two parks, and a selection of songs from the soundtrack. Pre-order Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater 3 + 4 on select platforms* for access to the demo and find more info here. Purchase the Digital Deluxe Edition and gain Early Access*** to play Tony Hawk’s™ Pro Skater™ 3 + 4 three days before the official July 11 launch date. Shred the parks and spread fear as the Doom Slayer and Revenant skaters plus get extra music, skate decks, and Create-A-Skater gear: Doom Slayer: Play as Doom Slayer, featuring a Standard and Retro outfit plus two unique special tricks and the Unmaykr Hoverboard. Revenant: Get evil with the Revenant, including two unique special tricks. Additional Music: Headbang to a selection of classic and modern music tracks added to the in-game soundtrack. Skate Decks: Access additional skate decks including Doom Slayer and Revenant themed designs. Create-A-Skater Items: Kit out your skater with additional apparel items. Pre-orders are now available for Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater 3 + 4 on PlayStation 4 and 5, Xbox Series X|S, Xbox One, Nintendo Switch, and PC. For more information, visit tonyhawkthegame.com. * Activision account and internet required for online multiplayer and other features. Platform gaming subscription may be required for multiplayer and other features (sold separately). **Foundry demo available on PlayStation 4 and 5, Xbox Series X|S, Xbox One, and PC. Not available on Nintendo Switch. Foundry Demo availability and launch date(s) subject to change. Internet connection required. *** Actual play time subject to possible outages and applicable time zone differences.

The transformation of Hangzhou’s old steelworks into a park is a tribute to China’s industrial past in a city of the future The congressional hearing about Chinese AI engine DeepSeek held in the US this April has propelled Hangzhou, the heart of China’s new digital economy, to the headlines. With companies such as DeepSeek, Unitree and Alibaba – whose payment app allowed me to get on the metro without needing to buy a ticket – headquartered in Hangzhou, China’s future in AI, robotics and automation is emanating from this city. Getting off the metro in the suburban area of Gongshu, the sun was shining on an old steelworks, overgrown with vines and flowers now that it is being transformed by Jiakun Architects and TLS Landscape Architecture into the Grand Canal Steelworks Park. The unfolding trade war might help to accelerate China’s journey into an automated future, leaving the world of factories behind, yet this new public space shows an impulse to commemorate the country’s economic history, and the forces that have shaped its contemporary built environment. Starting in Hangzhou and travelling more than 1,700km to Beijing, the Grand Canal is an engineering project built 2,500 years ago to connect the different regions of eastern China. The country’s geography means rivers flow from west to east: from higher elevations, culminating in the Himalayas, to the basin that is the country’s eastern seaboard. Historically, it was difficult to transport goods from mercantile centres in the south, including Hangzhou and Suzhou, to the political centre in Beijing up north. As a civil engineering project, the Grand Canal rivals the Great Wall, but if the Great Wall aims to protect China from the outside, the Grand Canal articulates Chinese commerce from the inside. The historic waterway has been an important conduit of economic and cultural exchange, enabling the movement of people and goods such as grain, silk, wine, salt and gravel across the country. It became a UNESCO World Heritage site in 2014. The state‑owned enterprise collective was founded, and the physical facility of Hangzhou steelworks built, in the 1950s during the Great Leap Forward, when China strove for self‑sufficiency, and wended its way through the country’s economic trajectory: first the economic chaos of the 1960s, then the reforms and opening up in the 1980s. Steel remains an important industry today in China, home to more than half of the world’s production, but the listing of the Grand Canal enabled city leaders to move production to a new site and decommission the Hangzhou steelworks. External mandates, including entry into the World Trade Organization, the Beijing Olympics and UNESCO listings, have been instrumentalised in the country to pursue a range of internal interests, particularly economical and real estate ones.  In 2016, the factory was shut down in 150 days, in what the company describes as a ‘heroic’ effort, and the site attracted tourists of industrial ruins. In the competition brief, Hangzhou planners asked for ‘as much of the existing blast furnaces and buildings’ as possible to be preserved. When I arrived in China in 2008, Chinese cities were notorious for heritage demolition, but today urban planners and architects increasingly work to preserve historical buildings. Just like several industrial sites in Beijing and Shanghai have been transformed into major public and cultural spaces in the past decade, in the Yangtze River Delta – of which Hangzhou is a major hub – several industrial sites along the Grand Canal’s course are being given a new lease of life. Today, the three blast furnaces of Hangzhou steelworks remain, with the silhouettes of their smokestacks easily recognisable from a distance. The project preserves as much as possible of the aesthetics of a steel mill with none of the danger or dust, ready to welcome instead new community facilities and cultural programmes in a vast and restored piece of landscape. Situated in a former working‑class district that has been gentrifying and welcoming young families, the new park is becoming a popular venue for music festivals, flower viewing in springtime and year‑round picnics – when I visited, parents were teaching their children to ride a bicycle, and students from Zhejiang University, about a kilometre from the park, were having lunch on the grass. New programmes accommodated in the old coke oven and steel mills will include a series of exhibition halls and spaces welcoming a wide range of cultural and artistic workshops as well as events – the project’s first phase has just completed but tenant organisations have not yet moved in, and works are ongoing to the north of the park. On the day of my visit, a student art exhibition was on display near one of the furnaces, with works made from detritus from the site, including old packing containers. The rehabilitated buildings also provide a range of commercial units, where cafés, restaurants, shops, a bookshop, ice cream shop and a gym have already opened their doors to visitors.  Several structures were deemed structurally unsafe and required demolition, such as the old iron casting building. The architects proposed to partially reconstruct it on its original footprint; the much more open structure, built with reclaimed bricks, now houses a semi‑outdoor garden. Material choices evoke the site’s industrial past: weathered steel, exposed concrete and large expanses of glazing dominate the landscape. The widespread use of red, including in an elevated walkway that traverses the park – at times vaguely reminiscent of a Japanese torii gate in the space below – gives a warm and reassuring earthiness to the otherwise industrial colour palette. Elements selected by the designers underwent sanitisation and detoxification before being reused. The landscaping includes old machinery parts and boulders; recuperated steel panels are for instance inlaid into the paving while pipes for pouring molten steel have been turned into a fountain. The train tracks that once transported material continue to run through the site, providing paths in between the new patches of vegetation, planted with local grasses as well as Japanese maples, camphors and persimmon trees. As Jiawen Chen from TLS describes it, the aesthetic feels ‘wild, but not weedy or abandoned’. The landscape architects’ inspiration came from the site itself after the steelworks’ closure, she explains, once vegetation had begun to reclaim it. Contaminated soil was replaced with clean local soil – at a depth between 0.5 and 1.5 metres, in line with Chinese regulations. The removed soil was sent to specialised facilities for purification, while severely contaminated layers were sealed with concrete. TLS proposed phytoremediation (using plants to detoxify soil) in selected areas of the site ‘as a symbolic and educational gesture’, Chen explains, but ‘the client preferred to be cautious’. From the eastern end of the park, hiking trails lead to the mountain and its Buddhist temples. The old steel mill’s grounds fade seamlessly into the hills. Standing in what it is still a construction site, a sign suggests there will soon be a rowing centre here.  While Jiakun Architects and TLS have prioritised making the site palatable as a public space, the project also brings to life a history that many are likely to have forgotten. Throughout, the park incorporates different elements of China’s economic history, including the life of the Grand Canal and the industrial era. There is, for example, a Maoist steelworker painted on the mural of one of the cafés, as well as historical photographs and drawings of the steelworks peppering the site, framed and hung on the walls. The ambition might be in part to pay homage to steelworkers, but it is hard to imagine them visiting. Gongshu, like the other suburbs of Hangzhou, has seen rapid increases in its property prices.  The steelworks were built during the Maoist era, a time of ‘battling with earth, battling with heaven, battling with humanity’, to borrow Mao’s own words. Ordinary people melted down pots and pans to surpass the UK in steel production, and industry was seen as a sharp break from a traditional Chinese way of life, in which humans aspire to live in harmony with their environment. The priorities of the government today are more conservative, seeking to create a garden city to attract engineers and their families. Hangzhou has long represented the balmy and sophisticated life of China’s south, a land of rice and fish. To the west of the city, not far from the old steelworks, are the ecologically protected Xixi wetlands, and Hangzhou’s urban planning exemplifies the Chinese principle of 天人合一, or nature and humankind as one.  Today, Hangzhou is only 45 minutes from Shanghai by high‑speed train. The two cities feel like extensions of one another, an urban region of 100 million people. The creation of the Grand Canal Steelworks Park reflects the move away from heavy industry that Chinese cities such as Hangzhou are currently making, shifting towards a supposedly cleaner knowledge‑driven economy. Yet the preservation of the steelworks epitomises the sentimental attitude towards the site’s history and acts as a reminder that today’s middle classes are the children of yesterday’s steelworkers, drinking coffee and playing with their own children in grassy lawns next to shuttered blast furnaces.  The park’s second phase is already nearing completion, and the competition for the nearby Grand Canal Museum was won by Herzog & de Meuron in 2020 – the building is under construction, and should open at the end of this year. It is a district rich in history, but the city is resolutely turned towards the future.  2025-06-02 Reuben J Brown Share AR May 2025CircularityBuy Now

On Designing National Pavilions: Power and Identity at Universal ExhibitionsSave this picture!Czech Pavilion Expo 2025 Osaka / Apropos Architects Image © boysplayniceWhat can a pavilion’s architecture reveal about its country? At major World Expos, national pavilions are designed to answer this question, transforming into spaces laden with symbolism. Though temporary, these structures are rich in meaning, functioning as architectural expressions of political identity. Their forms and materials encapsulate national ambitions. Expo Osaka 2025, the latest chapter in this ongoing narrative, showcases how nations increasingly use built space to construct global images of themselves—sustainable, technological, culturally distinct, and geopolitically relevant. Save this picture!Over the decades, these pavilions have evolved into meticulously curated narratives where architecture, politics, and culture intersect to shape national identity. At Osaka 2025, this symbolic and diplomatic function becomes even more pronounced. Pavilions communicate not only who a nation is, but who it aspires to be. The environmental agenda, for example, has become a compelling vector of soft power. Japan’s pavilion exemplifies this shift, employing local wood, parametric design, and natural ventilation not just for function, but as metaphors of circularity and harmony with nature.Save this picture!Meanwhile, countries like Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates are embracing immersive technologies—augmented reality, responsive facades, and AI—to reframe their narratives. No longer defined solely by oil economies, they seek to position themselves as innovation-driven futurescapes. In this context, national identity is staged like a multisensory installation. Materials, sounds, aromas, lighting, and spatial choreography become tools for storytelling—none of them neutral, all of them charged with intent. Related Article Are World's Fairs a Thing of the Past? The Role that Architecture Played on One of History's Biggest Stages Architecture as a Political StatementPavilions transcend cultural or technological display to become instruments of political messaging. Architectural choices convey nuanced—or at times overt—signals about values, ambitions, and worldviews. Denmark’s Expo 2020 Dubai pavilion, with open ramps and fluid circulation, subtly suggests democratic transparency and inclusion, while Russia’s monumental spiral structure evokes nationalism and technological command. Here, architecture becomes a codified discourse: every curve, void, and surface reads like a political sign.Save this picture!This language continues at Osaka 2025. Israel’s pavilion, inspired by the ecological resilience of deserts, presents a narrative of innovation and perseverance amid adversity—an architectural response to both climate challenges and regional geopolitics. Bahrain’s contribution, by Lina Ghotmeh Architecture, focuses on the adaptability of maritime cultures. South Korea’s high-tech, futuristic pavilion reinforces its position as a rising digital powerhouse.In some instances, however, absence speaks just as loudly. In previous editions, countries like North Korea and Syria have boycotted the Expo as a form of political protest. These silent gestures are part of the same strategic vocabulary, where presence, form, and even withdrawal shape the geopolitical stage set by architecture.Save this picture!Sustainability on DisplayAmid the global climate crisis, national pavilions have also become key arenas for environmental diplomacy. Sustainability—once a peripheral concern—is now central to the architectural narrative of Expos. It’s no longer only about meeting green standards, but about crafting a spatial language that embodies ecological responsibility. This shift also challenges the very notion of ephemerality: where temporariness once defined these structures, reuse, intelligent disassembly, and material reintegration now drive their conception.This ecological turn is particularly evident at Expo Osaka 2025. With the theme “Designing Future Society for Our Lives,” the event encourages models of regenerative, cooperative, and resilient living. Sweden’s and Germany’s pavilions are designed for a second life, to be repurposed as schools or community centers. The U.S. pavilion, designed by Trahan Architects, incorporates steel, fabric, and HVAC components repurposed from Tokyo 2020 Olympics structures—materials slated for further reuse across Japan. In this framework, the Expo becomes a laboratory of environmental geopolitics, where sustainability itself is a form of soft power.Save this picture!Technological Spectacle as a National StrategyIn contemporary Universal Exhibitions, technology is no longer displayed as an end in itself but has become a narrative and experiential medium. Immersive installations, sensory interfaces, and AI-driven storytelling transform pavilions into interactive ecosystems, where visitors are both spectators and agents. This shift signals a significant change: it is no longer just about showcasing innovation, but about embedding technology into the dramaturgy of space. Architecture, in this context, ceases to be a static backdrop and merges with experience design, dissolving the boundaries between the built and the digital. Moreover, the way each country orchestrates these elements reveals its ability to envision desirable futures—and to position itself as a protagonist in the global technological transformation.Save this picture!At Expo Osaka 2025, this race for technological affirmation takes clear shape in pavilions such as that of the United Arab Emirates, which offers an interactive journey through environments responsive to human presence, narrative artificial intelligence, and real-time sensors that react to visitors’ actions—demonstrating a sophisticated technical mastery with implications across multiple spheres. In a similar vein, the Uzbekistan Pavilion stands out with an exhibition focused on empowerment, highlighting the country’s openness to innovation and its commitment to preparing for the future.Yet this immersion presents a growing tension: how to balance technological spectacle with architectural integrity. In some cases, architecture risks being overshadowed by its digital overlay, losing spatial coherence. The most compelling pavilions are those that fuse form, function, and innovation into a seamless whole, where technology becomes not an add-on, but an intrinsic architectural language.Save this picture!Intercultural Collaborations: The True LegacyWhile Universal Exhibitions are organized around national representation, they have also emerged as vital platforms for cultural exchange. Increasingly, national pavilions are designed by multicultural teams, resulting in more nuanced, inclusive, and inventive expressions of identity, not as a fixed essence, but as something fluid and co-constructed.Save this picture!At Osaka 2025, this collaborative ethos is exemplified by pavilions such as Switzerland’s, designed by an international team, and Indonesia’s, which brings together local architects and foreign consultants. These collaborations offer more than design efficiency—they signal gestures of quiet diplomacy. In a climate of resurgent nationalism, such exchanges underscore that innovation thrives through openness and dialogue. Each pavilion becomes a space of mutual learning, expanding the very meaning of global belonging.Save this picture!Ultimately, the lasting value of Expos may not lie in reinforcing national brands, but in fostering encounters—shared spaces where ideas, technologies, and cultures converge to respond to urgent global challenges. As architect Manuel Herz, designer of the Swiss Pavilion, puts it: “In a moment of global tension, every possibility for us to physically meet in a shared space and celebrate something that can still be described as a cosmopolitan spirit needs to be valued and utilized.” Amid so many crises, pavilions remind us that architecture is more than shelter or style—it is a vessel for connection, a space for learning, and a rehearsal for futures we must build together.We invite you to check out ArchDaily's comprehensive coverage of the Expo Osaka 2025. Image gallerySee allShow less About this authorCamilla GhisleniAuthor••• Cite: Ghisleni, Camilla. "On Designing National Pavilions: Power and Identity at Universal Exhibitions" [Projetando Pavilhões Nacionais: Poder e Identidade nas Exposições Universais] 30 May 2025. ArchDaily. (Trans. Simões, Diogo) Accessed . <https://www.archdaily.com/1030539/on-designing-national-pavilions-power-and-identity-at-universal-exhibitions&gt ISSN 0719-8884Save世界上最受欢迎的建筑网站现已推出你的母语版本!想浏览ArchDaily中国吗?是否 You've started following your first account!Did you know?You'll now receive updates based on what you follow! Personalize your stream and start following your favorite authors, offices and users.Go to my stream

At the entrance to Victoria and Albert Museum’s (V&A) historic home in South Kensington, wide stone steps rise toward an ornate facade of carved Portland stone, with heavy wooden doors set beneath an archway that declares culture as cathedral. It’s built to inspire, yes, but also to intimidate—to display the spoils of a national collection shaped by colonial reach. On the other side of London, the same institution has opened its doors to V&A East Storehouse, with access to over 250,000 objects. The facility designed by Diller Scofidio + Renfro (DS+R) transforms the obscure world of museum storage into a public experience of collecting, conserving, and storytelling. Like the South Kensington museum, Storehouse also leaves its imprint, inspiring wonder at a moment when public trust in cultural space feels so thin. As Tim Reeve, deputy director of the V&A, put it: “Creative industries are one of the very few success stories of the UK economy.” That creativity is being unpacked. V&A East Storehouse is located inside the London 2012 Olympics Media Centre. (© Hufton+Crow) The 262-by-262-foot (80-by-80-meter) cultural warehouse—once the London 2012 Olympics Media Centre—now welcomes visitors through a plain, functional entrance. Its galvanized steel doors are a modest update on the flexible shell designed by Hawkins\Brown. A plain, functional lobby hosts a new outpost of e5 Bakehouse, softened by new plywood interiors by Thomas Randall-Page. Upstairs, into a brief airlock, and onto a narrow walkway lined with classical busts in crates and on palettes, as if not fully unpacked, you glimpse the ladders, forklifts and shelving below, before you are shot into the dramatic central atrium—a towering scaffold of steel walkways and shelving. The Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park is a place still learning what it wants to be. A surplus of sports venues and a scatter of freshly minted towers jostle for identity, and somehow, the V&A opening up its innards fits right in. Storehouse isn’t a museum—there are no labels, no curation, no interpretation. It’s a working storage facility, a peek behind the curtain. Instruments hang beside rows of chairs, statues stand among ceramics, building fragments, archival boxes, and garments—some visible, others swaddled after reaching their “light quota.” It’s a new idea for museum storage, one that began in Rotterdam in 2021 with MVRDV’s Depot and is put on steroids here, but DS+R are not new to shifting paradigms. “It’s an idea whose time has come,” said architect Liz Diller. She notes that the firm’s work on the High Line has been used—perhaps overused—as a reference point ever since it opened: “It becomes a kind of model for others. I think people will interpret the idea in their own ways,” she added. The central atrium is a towering scaffold of steel walkways and shelving. (© Hufton+Crow) “The Storehouse defies the logics of conventional taxonomies,” said Diller. “Where else would you encounter suits of armor, stage cloth, biscuit tins, building fragments, puppets, thimbles, chandeliers, motorcycles in one place next to each other?” These objects were previously hidden away in Blythe House, Olympia, alongside collections from the British Museum and the Science Museum—until the government announced plans to sell the Edwardian bank. This prompted a conversation about what its storage can and could be. The space spans approximately 172,000 square feet (16,000 square meters)—a fraction of the V&A’s over 850,000 square feet (80,000 square meters) at South Kensington—but it’s dense with meaning. It now houses 250,000 objects and has been designed with five years of growth in mind, with plenty of empty shelving still in view. Patrons can request up to five objects from the collection and make an appointment to view them. (© Hufton+Crow) The object collocations feel accidental but profound. What is a Frankfurt Kitchen, with its strict Bauhaus order, doing just down the walkway from the ornate, gilded Torrijos ceiling from Toledo? Why does a safety curtain control panel share a shelf with a bamboo wind instrument? Everyday objects aren’t elevated so much as exposed—invited to speak on new terms, next to things they were never meant to meet. There are smaller, curated exhibits too—some behind glass—assembled using a modular “kit of parts” display system designed by IDK. There are opportunities for the public to view conservators at work. (© Hufton+Crow) Anyone can request up to five objects from the collection and make an appointment to view them. If the objects are small enough, they’ll be brought to you at a table. If they’re big, you go to them in the darker parts of the museum. As Diller put it, the Storehouse is designed with “an inside-out logic,” where the center is public, the middle semi-private, and the outer edge reserved for conservation, research, and protected storage. There are moments where private and public parts interact, for instance in the “conservation overlooks,” where you can watch the conservators at work from public galleries. It quietly teaches that the arts are an industry too; there are opportunities besides being an artist. Instruments hang beside rows of chairs, statues stand among ceramics, building fragments, archival boxes, and garments. (© Hufton+Crow) Some of what Storehouse allows you to see is uncomfortable. The colonial overtones are hard to miss. These are objects taken from across the world—beautiful, rare, complex—and now stored in a warehouse in East London. The Agra Colonnade, from a 17th-century Mughal building, is on the ground floor where visitors can walk on the glass floor above it, breathtaking and fraught. This is a first step—a way of airing our institutional laundry in public, and inviting interrogation, reinterpretation, and hopefully reckoning. The Agra Colonnade, from a 17th-century Mughal building, is among the objects on view. (© Hufton+Crow) Hanging inside is the 1924 Le Train bleu stage cloth for the Ballets Russes in 1922. (© Hufton+Crow) Mostly, there is a sense of happy chaos, but there are moments that stop you. Down a quiet corridor sits a towering black-box space, spanning two floors. Hanging inside is the 1924 Le Train bleu stage cloth for the Ballets Russes in 1922—a reproduction of Picasso’s Two Women Running Along the Beach. “This is the largest space,” said project architect David Allin. “It lets you see oversized objects from two levels and even watch the conservators at work.” This cloth will later be replaced by the one that the tall space was designed around: the larger Firebird—Natalia Goncharova’s 10-by-16-metre stage backdrop. Here is where you can feel the V&A talking to itself across the city: South Kensington in its lofty register of imperially reaching cast courts, and the Storehouse answers with its mirror image. I catch my breath in front of Le Train bleu, first at its vastness, but then at the hulking crate parked behind it. The Storehouse is rewriting the story and showing us its workings. Ellen Peirson is a London-based writer, editor, and designer.

As construction nears completion, the Olympic Village for the Milano Cortina 2026 Winter Games has offered an insight into how the village is being used as part of a broader regeneration of the Scalo di Porta Romana rail yard. Designed by Skidmore, Owings & Merrill (SOM), the scheme is the first phase of a long-term transformation of the disused industrial site into a mixed-use urban district. Image courtesy of Fondo di Porta Romana, photograph by ThreeditionsImage courtesy of Fondo di Porta Romana, photograph by ThreeditionsOriginally planned to accommodate approximately 1,700 athletes during the Winter Olympics, the Olympic Village has also been designed for life after the event. After the Winter Olympics conclude, the development will transition into student housing for the 2026/2027 academic year, addressing a growing demand for accommodation in Milan’s university sector. Image courtesy of Fondo di Porta Romana, photograph by ThreeditionsImage courtesy of Fondo di Porta Romana, ...

Got a project that’s too wild for this world? Submit your conceptual works, images and ideas for global recognition and print publication in the 2025 Vision Awards, June 6th marks the end of the Main Entry period — click here to submit your work. What does the future of architecture hold? How will tomorrow’s buildings look, feel, and interact with the existing human-made environment? Which innovations are primed to help us reduce the footprint of construction, improve liveability, and redefine our idea of and relationship to space? These are the questions Architizer’s Vision Awards look to answer (or, at least offer some suggestions in lieu of concrete answers). Dedicated to the planned and unbuilt, which may or may not ever be, nominations represent one of our most unique human traits — the ability to imagine possibilities and impossibilities, to dream big and think well into unchartered territory. Unbuilt architecture, whether it is planned for construction or destined to remain on “paper,” should be more present in a newscycle of press releases for recently constructed or newly opened buildings. Indeed, many of the ideas presented in such projects directly respond to emerging crises exacerbated by our continued reliance on 20th-century practice’s approaches and materiality. Meanwhile, the evolution of architectural visualization allows architects to develop their wildest ideas and to communicate their boldest visions with more clarity and urgency than ever before. Kyathos I Mass Timber Arena by KAAF I Kitriniaris Associates Architecture Firm, Βεΐκου, Galatsi, Greece Many studios are looking to re-write the script with high tech innovations that simply would not have been possible in the recent past, or emphasize the urgent need to get back to traditional building styles that utilize natural resources and passive principles in a bid to bring down carbon emissions and other outputs with negative environmental impact. The Kyathos Mass Timber Basketball Arena proposal does both. It’s fitting that we should look at this concept in spring 2025. The Osaka Expo recently opened in Japan and features the largest free-standing wooden structure ever built. The Grand Ring encases the event site and a section of its coastal waters with a circumference of 61,035 square meters (656,975 square feet). To us, it reflects what is possible when modern engineering meets one of the world’s most sustainable materials. Likewise, realizing a size previously unthinkable with wood, Alexander Kitriniaris’ KAAF I Kitriniaris Associates Architecture Firm‘s plans for this Greek sports stadium offer a new vision for the athletic facility typology.  Kyathos I Mass Timber Arena by KAAF I Kitriniaris Associates Architecture Firm, Βεΐκου, Galatsi, Greece Employing a composite timber load bearing system, the project — commissioned by Galatsi Municipality — comprises a main court, spectator stands, internal mezzanine and gallery running the perimeter, changing rooms for athletes and referees, toilets, offices, and auxiliary spaces. Its total surface area is 4,000 square meters (43, 055 square feet), all of which complement the location. Designed for the site of an older, smaller wooden gymnasium, which fails to meet modern standards and is scheduled for demolition, the aesthetics reflect the surrounding Mediterranean flora grove. The name Kyathos refers to a type of painted pottery cup popularized in ancient Greece. The design of this was based on the petals of a milkweed belonging to the Euphorbia genus of plants. The countryside in this region is home to around forty such species, making the entire building an ode to indigenous nature and culture that has been here for millennia. When realized, it will stand in sharp contrast to the stereotype of arenas and stadiums most fans across the world have grown accustomed to, which often seem to have landed in situ, from another district if not planet. Kyathos I Mass Timber Arena by KAAF I Kitriniaris Associates Architecture Firm, Βεΐκου, Galatsi, Greece Above the main court level, the building’s structure is composed entirely of engineered wood, including glue-laminated timber, cross-laminated timber, and plywood. A timber support frame wraps the indoor gymnasium in a precise 45-by-30-meter (148-by-98 foot) rectangular grid. The roof is formed by ten identical isostatic frames. Symmetrical in design, these triple-arched assemblies combine beams and posts, reinforced where necessary by discreet metal connectors and stiffeners. Overhead, a lightweight polymer roof — waterproof, UV-resistant, recyclable, and printable — ensures durable protection while minimizing weight. In the renderings, an elegant lattice-like pattern, calls attention to these delicate considerations. At the heart of the design, the firm’s plans and visualizations emphasize, lies a bioclimatic structural shell (pictured below), conceived to provide constant shade while optimizing natural ventilation, daylighting, and passive cooling. Meanwhile, rainwater collected from the roof and shaped surfaces is reused for on-site irrigation, supporting the lush Mediterranean flora of the existing grove. Kyathos I Mass Timber Arena by KAAF I Kitriniaris Associates Architecture Firm, Βεΐκου, Galatsi, Greece This year, Saudi Arabia has begun working towards the World Cup 2034. Set to be held in November that year due to the incompatibility of regional climate and international football — or football at any level — the environmental price tag for this edition of the planet’s biggest soccer tournament is likely to be huge. While recent years have seen major strides taken to improve the impact of competitive sports, with last year’s Paris Olympics achieving more than 50% carbon reduction compared with the previous two Games, there are clear differences in what’s needed to host matches in cities like Jeddah and Riyadh. Not to mention the ultra-futurist urban experiment, NEOM — a metropolis that doesn’t exist yet.   Even during winter months, average temperatures across the desert state sit at a very hot 29°C. Humidity is high in coastal areas, while frost and snow are not uncommon overnight on higher ground. While it’s too early to tell the footprint of the vast mega-stadiums we’ve been promised for the competition, heating and cooling requirements are almost certainly going to be immense. We are, after all, experiencing a surge in global temperatures year-on-year and an increase in weather extremes of all kinds, and this will have significantly worsened in another ten years. More so, whether we’re powered with renewables or dinosaur fossils, high energy consumption of all types is not sustainable in the real sense.  Kyathos I Mass Timber Arena by KAAF I Kitriniaris Associates Architecture Firm, Βεΐκου, Galatsi, Greece Analyzing the legitimacy, authenticity and suitability of Saudi Arabia as a World Cup host nation is a conversation for another time. Perhaps another publication. But the fundamental point is we urgently need to rethink and reprioritize non-essential undertakings for the sake of the climate and our planet. When seen through this lens, the plans for Kyathos in Greece act as a symbol of progress and sets benchmarks for a future in which we acknowledge the need for our passions to be in balance with the Earth, rather imposing upon it. The fact this is achieved through an homage to a history in which we were more aligned to nature, and associated materials, but also utilizes modern engineering techniques and manufacturing methods of those materials, only accentuates the masterful vision behind this design.  Given the number of projects that will be designed between now and the stadium’s project 2028 construction date, and the ever-increasing concentration of carbon in our atmosphere, its urgent that we begin celebrating such plans now — while they’re still plans — rather than waiting for the design to become a physical building. After all, architecture starts before you put two bricks together (or, in this case, two pieces of timber). Learn More About Vision Awards Got a project that’s too wild for this world? Submit your conceptual works, images and ideas for global recognition and print publication in the 2025 Vision Awards, June 6th marks the end of the Main Entry period — click here to submit your work. The post Hoop Dreams: Greece Tips Off a New Vision for Arena Architecture appeared first on Journal.

Close your eyes and think of the word “summer.” What comes to mind?Is it long days at the beach, a drink in one hand and a book in the other, letting the sun fall on your face and the waves tickle your toes? Two weeks of vacation in some remote destination, piling up memories to keep yourself warm through the rest of the year? The endless freedom you remember in those July and August weeks of childhood, set loose from the confines of the classroom? Hot dogs and ice cream and roller coasters and ballgames? John Travolta’s falsetto at the end of “Summer Love”?Well, I have bad news for you, my friend. You are yet another victim of the summer industrial complex, that travel industry-concocted collection of lies designed to convince you that June, July, and August are the three best months of the year. The beach? That sun will literally kill you. Vacation? Just don’t look up how much plane tickets cost, and don’t even think of leaving the country with the way the dollar is dropping. Freedom? Unless you are an actual child, a schoolteacher, or an NBA player, you’re going to spend most of your time in summer working as hard as you do the rest of the year. Hot dogs are honestly the worst way to eat meat. Your ice cream is already ice soup. Roller coasters kill an average of four people per year (you can look it up). If you want to drink beer, you don’t need to sit through a baseball game while doing it. Grease is fine, but its success led to John Travolta one day being allowed to make Battlefield Earth, a film so bad that as of this writing, it has a 3 percent rating on Rotten Tomatoes. Summer is the triumph of hope over experience. Every Memorial Day weekend, we begin our summers full of expectation, sure that this will be the season we create the summer to remember. And every Labor Day weekend, we emerge, sweaty and mosquito-bitten, wondering what precisely happened over the past three months. Then next year we do it all over again, fruitlessly chasing that evanescent summer high — even though deep down inside, you know it’s probably going to be a disappointment, and secretly you’re counting the days until September. If you were able to control those hopes, you might be able to control that disappointment.But don’t you dare air those feelings out loud. When I suggested this essay to my fellow Vox editors, they reacted as though I were about to commit a war crime on paper. Doesn’t everyone love summer? Isn’t summer the best? How dare you look askance at the gift that is the three months when our hemisphere happens to be titled toward the rays of our life-giving sun? What kind of monster are you?As it turns out, I am precisely that kind of monster. So what follows is why this is our most overrated season — and unlike summer itself, which really is getting longer year by year, I’m going to be brief. It’s hotYou will not be surprised to learn that I don’t like the heat. Maybe it’s genes — my ancestors come from Ireland, a small, charming, rainy island where for most of the year, the sun is little more than a rumor. I realize this makes me unusual. The US county that has added the most people in recent years is Maricopa, Arizona, home to Phoenix. Phoenix has a lot of things going for it: relatively inexpensive housing, a fairly robust labor market, and a vibrant population of wild parrots, which is absolutely something I knew before researching this article.Phoenix also has sun — lots and lots of sun. Just look at what they named their NBA team. And with that sun comes unfathomable summer heat. Across the full 2024 calendar year, the city logged a record-breaking 70 days of temperatures over 110 degrees, obliterating the previous record of 55 days set in 2020. It also set a record for the most days straight with temperatures in the triple digits, with an unfathomable 113 days in a row.Yet every year, apparently tens of thousands of Americans take a look at those numbers and think, “Yes, please, I would like to see if they have any available lots left on the surface of the sun.” Look, I get it. The tremendous growth of the Sun Belt in recent decades is one big piece of evidence that, if given the choice, most Americans would rather boil than freeze. Or even be slightly cold. And sure, historically cold temperatures have had a bad habit of killing large numbers of human beings. No one in Game of Thrones was warning that “summer is coming.”But while it’s still true that extreme cold kills significantly more people globally than extreme heat by a large magnitude, heat is catching up. And there’s one thing you can count on with climate change: It will continue to get hotter. Summer — that season you love so much — is where we’re going to feel it. You may have heard the line: “This could be the coolest summer of the rest of your life”? It’s true! Just to take one example: A study found that by 2053, 107 million people in the US — 13 times as many as today — will be living in an extreme heat belt where they could experience heat indexes above 125 degrees. So sure, Americans like the heat just like they like summer, though I can’t help wondering if that has to do with the documented connection between extreme heat and cognitive impairment. (Summer! It makes you dumber!) But I doubt you will like it when your body is no longer able to cool itself through sweating and you begin suffering multiple organ failures. It’s boringLet’s flip through the major events of autumn. You have your Halloween — everyone loves candy. Thanksgiving — by far the best American holiday, even if we have all collectively decided to eat a bird we wouldn’t otherwise touch the rest of the year. Christmas and Hanukkah — presents and several days off.Spring has Easter, a festival of renewal and chocolate. Winter has…okay, to be clear, this is an argument against summer, not a defense of winter. Summer has Memorial Day (cookouts, beaches); Fourth of July (cookouts, beaches, and ooh, a chance to blow off my finger with fireworks); and then two utterly endless months before Labor Day, where we also have cookouts and beaches. And in between, there are just…days.This is the secret problem with summer. After school has let out and Independence Day has passed, we enter a tepid sea of indistinguishable days, with little to no events to break them up. July 12? July 27? August 13? I challenge you to tell the difference. Time becomes a desert that stretches out to every horizon, without even the false hope of a mirage to break it up. The Catholic Church, which I grew up in, calls the entirety of summer “Ordinary Time” in its liturgical calendar, which always seemed fitting to me. Nothing special, nothing to wait for — just all the Ordinary Time you can take.And while the calendar is no help, there’s also what I call the collective action problem of summer. Everything slows down and even shuts down, either because people go off on vacation or because they haven’t but almost everyone else has so what’s the point of doing anything. All the big cultural events — the books, the (actually good) movies, most of the good TV — won’t arrive until the fall. (Except The Bear. The Bear is great.) The sports landscape is as barren as your office, and this summer we don’t even have the Olympics.I’m sure someone will tell me I’m missing the point of summer, when the very formlessness of the days reminds us to slow down and appreciate these moments out of time. Sure, great, whatever. Personally, I can either be hot or I can be bored — not both.It has AugustTechnically this should be a subcategory of the previous section, but even Auxo, the Greek goddess of summer, would get impatient with August. Why does it have 31 days? Who voted for that? August is the worst parts of summer concentrated and then wrung out over the course of more than four sweaty, sticky weeks. I am positive that I have experienced August days where time begins to move backward.Slate had it right back in 2008: Let’s get rid of August. We’ve gone to the moon, we’ve mastered the genome, we’ve somehow made Glen Powell a movie star. If we can do all that, we can remove one measly month from the calendar. Or we could, except that August is the month when all motivation goes to die.It has vacations…in AugustI’ve got a great idea. Let’s have most of the country all go on vacation during the same few weeks. And then let’s ensure that those few weeks are set during one of the hottest, muggiest months of the year. What could go wrong (other than ridiculous travel costs, heat stroke amid the capitals of Europe, and the better-than-average chance of getting hit by a tropical storm)?It has FOMOIt’s probably not true that everyone is having more fun than you this summer, all evidence on social media notwithstanding. But it will feel that way.It’s become a verbLet me give you one last piece of advice. If you encounter someone who uses the term “summering” in a sentence, get far, far away. You are dangerously close to getting into a conversation about the best way to clean linen pants.I realize I’m not going to change a lot of minds here. There’s something deep in our biological clocks that can’t seem to help but welcome the days when the sun stays up past 8 pm and the air temperature reaches equilibrium with our bodies. Add that to the enforced summer love that comes from all the industries that capitalize on this seasonal affliction. We summer haters are few and rarely invited to parties, but at least we see the truth. The truth is that you might actually enjoy your summer more if you lower your expectations. It’s not the summer of your life — it’s just three months in the middle of the year. And please, put on some sunscreen. That big thing in the sky really is trying to kill you. Update, May 26, 9 am ET: This story was originally published on July 8, 2024, and has been updated with new data on heat waves in Phoenix.You’ve read 1 article in the last monthHere at Vox, we're unwavering in our commitment to covering the issues that matter most to you — threats to democracy, immigration, reproductive rights, the environment, and the rising polarization across this country.Our mission is to provide clear, accessible journalism that empowers you to stay informed and engaged in shaping our world. By becoming a Vox Member, you directly strengthen our ability to deliver in-depth, independent reporting that drives meaningful change.We rely on readers like you — join us.Swati SharmaVox Editor-in-ChiefSee More:

Women have been an important part of the armed services since the beginning, with icons like Harriet Tubman participating in the Civil War. While being female in a traditionally male-dominated space hasn't always been easy, these women have still served their countries.In 2023, the US Department of Defense reported that the percentage of women serving in active and reserve capacities was growing. In 2022, 17.5% of active-duty roles and 21.6% of the National Guard and reserves were women, up slightly from the year before, it reported, citing the 2022 Demographics Profile of the Military Community.On Memorial Day this year, here are 12 famous women who have served in the military around the world, including Bea Arthur, Queen Elizabeth, and more. Harriet Tubman was a military leader and Union spy during the Civil War. Harriet Tubman. MPI/Getty Images Most know Harriet Tubman for her groundbreaking work with the Underground Railroad and, later, as an abolitionist, but as National Geographic reported, Tubman was also an integral part of the Civil War.In 1863, Tubman and Colonel James Montgomery led a group of soldiers in freeing slaves from plantations in South Carolina, making Tubman the first woman in US history to lead a military expedition, according to National Geographic.Her work continued as a spy and recruiter for the Union Army. This operation was so covert that only President Lincoln knew about it.Tubman received compensation for her military contributions decades later, in 1899. Thomas B. Allen, the author of "Harriet Tubman, Secret Agent," called Tubman "one of the great heroines of the Civil War." Queen Elizabeth was a military truck driver during World War II. Queen Elizabeth outside a first aid truck during World War II. Keystone/Getty Images Queen Elizabeth was only 18 years old when she begged her father, King George VI, to take part in helping out during World War II. She joined the Women's Auxiliary Territorial Service in England that same year and was known as "Second Subaltern Elizabeth Windsor," according to the National Archives.While serving, the young queen drove military trucks and trained as a mechanic, making her, to this day, the only female member of the Royal Family to enter the armed forces.  NASA's Eileen Collins was one of the first female pilots in the Air Force and in space. Eileen Collins. NASA Eileen Collins broke several barriers during her career: Not only was she NASA's first female shuttle commander, but at 23, she became the Air Force's first female flight instructor, according to the agency.She joined the Air Force in 1978, becoming one of the first four women to go through pilot training at Vance Air Force Base in Enid, Oklahoma. She wrote in Time, "The Air Force was testing whether women could succeed as military pilots. We obviously were living in a fishbowl — everyone knew who we were, our personal business, our test scores and our flight performance. My philosophy was to be the best pilot I could be."Her military training directly led her to test-pilot school, where she "knew" she would go on to be the first female space shuttle pilot — and succeeded in doing so.   "Golden Girl" Bea Arthur was one of the first members of the Marine Corps Women's Reserve. Bea Arthur. Lennox McLendon/AP Photo Before she was Dorothy Zbornak on "The Golden Girls," Emmy Award-winning actor Bea Arthur was a Marine.As reported by The Daily Beast, Arthur enlisted in the Women's Reserve when she was 21 years old. She first served as a typist and truck driver. She worked her way up to staff sergeant and was honorably discharged in 1945. Official documents show that Arthur's supervisors thought she was "argumentative," which is not a far cry from the feisty persona she became known for on both "The Golden Girls" and "Maude." "Stranger Things" actor Jennifer Marshall served in the US Navy for five years. Jennifer Marshall as Susan Hargrove on "Stranger Things." Netflix Before Jennifer Marshall scored the role of Susan Hargrove on Netflix's hit show "Stranger Things," she served in the United States Navy from ages 17 to 22. According to Marshall's website, during her service, she was a forklift operator, aircraft handler, and logistics specialist. She also worked for the USS Theodore Roosevelt's Sexual Assault Victim Intervention (SAVI) program. Marshall was awarded many honors and medals for her time in the Navy. Now, in addition to acting, she works with Pin-Ups For Vets, a nonprofit organization that aids hospitalized veterans and deployed troops. Food Network star Sunny Anderson was in the Air Force. Sunny Anderson. Jim Spellman/Getty Images Anderson, who hosts "The Kitchen," "Cooking for Real," and "Home Made in America," grew up around the military because of her parents. As an adult, she enlisted in the US Air Force as a radio broadcaster and journalist, working in Seoul, South Korea, and in San Antonio. "I knew that there were radio stations, television stations, newspapers, and magazines, for the military, by the military, and I wanted to be a part of that," Anderson told ABC News in 2013.She also wanted to train in something that would be useful when she left the military."My transition from the Air Force started before I even got in the Air Force," she said. Radio talk show host Robin Quivers was a captain in the Air Force. Robin Quivers. Walter McBride/WireImage via Getty Images Robin Quivers has co-hosted "The Howard Stern Show" for over 30 years, but before that, she served as a captain in the US Air Force.Quivers got her degree in nursing from the University of Maryland and put it to use by joining the military as a second lieutenant after college. She quickly climbed the ranks, and when she was discharged in 1978, her official title was captain, according to Biography.com.She served as a reserve in the Air Force until 1990, per military records, after which she fully pivoted to her career in radio. But Howard Stern hired her for his show in 1981, which means that Quivers — though she was "inactive" — was still technically serving while she was on the air. Actor Zulay Henao served in the US Army for three years. Zulay Henao. JB Lacroix/ Getty Images Colombian-American actor Zulay Henao has appeared on the show "Army Wives," but few know that she herself served in the US Army before becoming an actor.Henao enlisted after completing high school and, after three years of serving, went on to enroll at the New York Conservatory for Dramatic Arts.She previously spoke to the paparazzi about her time in the military, saying: "I wouldn't be doing what I'm doing, and I wouldn't have the perspective I have of the world, if it weren't for the Army." Olympic medalist Shauna Rohbock was in the National Guard. Shauna Rohbock. Harry How/Getty Images Shauna Rohbock is an Olympic bobsledder and won the silver medal at the 2006 Winter Olympics in Torino, Italy. But before that, according to Team USA, Rohbock joined the Utah Army National Guard and was part of the National Guard Outstanding Athlete Program. Olympian Amber English competed while still in the military. She won gold in women's skeet shooting at the 2020 Olympics in Tokyo. Amber English at the 2020 Olympics. Kevin C. Cox/Getty Images At her first Olympics, First Lt. Amber English took gold with an Olympic record score of 56, NBC reported. Technically not yet a veteran, she's a logistics officer and member of the Army Marksmanship Unit, according to Military.com.After English's win, Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin congratulated her on Twitter, now known as X."Your country is extremely proud of you today, and I'm so glad you're representing us," he wrote.She joins an illustrious list of medal winners, both male and female, with military backgrounds. "Wonder Woman" Gal Gadot served in the Israel Defense Forces for two years. Gal Gadot. Dia Dipasupil/Getty Images After Gal Gadot was crowned Miss Israel in 2004 and before she became Wonder Woman in 2017, she served her mandatory two years in the IDF. During her assignment, she worked as a "physical fitness specialist," teaching gymnastics and calisthenics to the soldiers, PopSugar reported.Pro-Palestine groups have criticized her service, as well as her support of the Israeli military and cause in social media posts."I think much of it comes from ignorance and people not understanding what most people do in the army in Israel or what I did in the army during my service in the military," she told The Jakarta Post in May 2021. She added, "Being an Israeli and going to the army is an integral thing. It's something you have to do. It's mandatory." Ruth Westheimer, better known as the sex therapist Dr. Ruth, trained as a sniper in the IDF. Dr. Ruth. Donna Svennevik/Walt Disney Television/Getty Images Dr. Ruth was a Holocaust survivor, and after World War II ended, she moved as a teenager to what would become Israel. During her time there, she trained as a sniper due to her small size.She told The New Yorker in 2013, "I have no idea what the experience would be if I had to show it. But I was a very good sniper."Melina Glusac contributed to an earlier version of this story.