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Photo © David Cooper Lynn Richards officially takes over as president of the Congress for the New Urbanism on July 1. On June 4, when the Congress for the New Urbanism (CNU) begins its annual meeting in Buffalo, a new president, Lynn Richards, will greet its members. Richards spent 14 years working for the Environmental Protection Agency in Washington before moving to the Chicago-based nonprofit. (She officially takes over from former Milwaukee mayor John O. Norquist on July 1.) Richards, 47, arrives at the CNU on the heels of a withering critique by author Witold Rybczynski, who wrote on his

Marc Norman has been the director of UPSTATE: A Center for Design, Research, and Real Estate at the Syracuse University School of Architecture since 2012. The program was created by former dean Mark Robbins to, in Norman’s words, “tie faculty and students to real-world projects in the city and the region.” Norman studied political economics at Berkeley and urban planning at UCLA and spent four years as a project manager for Skid Row Housing Trust, a community development corporation in Los Angeles, before moving to New York. There, he worked for Lehman Brothers, financing affordable housing, and for Deutsche Bank,

Michael KennaHomage to BrassaiLondon, Englandnegative 1983/print 1984Toned gelatin silver printGift of the George H. Ebbs Family, 2007.51.52 Architecture has been an irresistible subject for photographers since the birth of the medium, and like buildings themselves, architectural photography can be different things to different people—a malleability explored in the excellent exhibition Architecture + Photography, on view at the Carnegie Museum of Art in Pittsburgh through May 26. Using materials from the museum’s Heinz Architectural Center and Department of Photography, curator Tracy Myers and assistant Alyssum Skjeie built the show around four intersections between photography and architecture over a period of more

Filmmaker Richard Hankin hones in on the super-sized, New York real estate fight that has surrounded the rebuilding of Ground Zero. Film still © 16 Acres Janno Lieber of Silverstein Properties, architect Daniel Libeskind, and Larry Siverstein at a cermony for the 10th anniversary of September 11. Filmmaker Richard Hankin lived in New York at the time of the September 11 terrorist attacks. And like so many others, he watched Ground Zero become the epicenter of one of the most contentious redevelopment projects in American history. “It just seemed like it was endless in-fighting and nothing was getting done,” he

The Rotterdam-based firm West 8 has transformed 30 acres on Governors Island into parkland. Buildings have been leveled and parking spaces have been eliminated on the 172-acre island, leaving plenty of open space. When superstorm Sandy wreaked havoc around New York Harbor, Governors Island was largely spared, in large part because construction of a new park had involved both adding elevation and installing proper drainage. “I’m glad my landscape architect is Dutch,” says Leslie Koch, president of the Trust for Governors Island, referring to Adriaan Geuze, the principal of Rotterdam-based West 8. That firm, chosen in a 2007 competition (as

Product designers descended on New York last weekend for the International Contemporary Furniture Fair, WantedDesign, and various events in galleries, showrooms, and studios throughout the city. RECORD sent out a team of editors to scout for the best new products. Click the image below to view a slide show of what they found. A collection of geometric lighting by Bec Brittain at ICFF.

Photo: © Jeremy Bittermann The Van Alen Institute is offering a notable list of "design experiences" in its current benefit auction, which runs through May 23rd. One item is a motorcycle tour of Oregon wine country led by Brad Cloepfil, whose firm designed a tasting room for the Sokol Blosser winery (above). Benefit auctions for cultural institutions often entice prospective patrons with unique items or events—say, a drawing or a one-on-one exhibition tour. But for its current online auction, the Van Alen institute, a New York City-based nonprofit that promotes public architecture, has assembled an unusually savvy list of 30

Health-care construction starts have been hampered by questions concerning the ramifications of the Affordable Care Act. But the market should soon pick up to meet the growing demands of an aging population. Click the image above to view a full presentation of these stats [PDF].

Photo courtesy Landmarks Illinois The Farnsworth House flooded in September 2008 and remained closed for the rest of the year while repairs were made. Plans to protect Mies van der Rohe's Farnsworth House by placing it on a hydraulic lift that can be deployed in case of flooding are proceeding at a rate that has taken even the plans’ supporters by surprise. The lift will cost as much as $3 million, according to Robert Silman, a structural engineer whose firm has done preliminary design work on the system. But Silman says that the National Trust for Historic Preservation, which owns