The American Institute of Architects’ Architectural Billings Index for February indicates that the return of colder, more seasonable weather impacted billing activity at many of the 300, mainly commercial, firms surveyed. The index posted gains in January due to warmer temperatures nationwide that month.

Zaha Hadid receives the Thomas Jefferson Foundation Medal in Architecture at a ceremony held today at the University of Virginia. The honor is only the latest for the British architect, born in Iraq, who in 2004 became the first women to win architecture’s top prize, the Priztker. In winning the Jefferson, Hadid joins a distinguished group of architects, writers, and planners including Mies van der Rohe, Lewis Mumford, Ada Louise Huxtable, James Stirling, Frank O. Gehry, and Jane Jacobs. The Jefferson Foundation and the University of Virginia have jointly awarded the medal for architecture since 1966. Former Federal Reserve chairman

Italian officials have selected Tadao Ando’s design for a new art museum in Venice, to be operated by the French billionaire and art collector Francois Pinault, The New York Times wrote on April 7. They chose this scheme instead of the Solomon R. Guggenheim Foundation’s plans for a new facility; the Guggenheim and Pinault were competing for the right to convert the 17th century Punta della Dogana building. Construction of Ando’s design, estimated to cost $26 million, will be finished in time for the 2009 biennale. Heavy snowfalls this winter, which continued even into this week, kept visitors away from

While camera-toting tourists are able to access much of the Grand Canyon, the West Rim, mostly occupied by the Hualapai Indian Reservation, remains desolate. Dirt roads are the primary transportation route here, and only a few structures dot the landscape. Images courtesy Destination Grand Canyon West The Hualapai, along with Las Vegas developer David Jin and architect Mark Johnson, are hoping to change this—and improve the tribe’s struggling economy—with the Grand Canyon Skywalk. This 70-foot-long, glass-bottomed walkway cantilevers over the ravine’s edge, giving visitors a clear view 4,000 feet down to the canyon floor. “It’s like nothing you could even

At the annual invitation-only Technology Entertainment Design Conference last month, Architecture for Humanity founder Cameron Sinclair took center stage to launch the Open Architecture Prize.

Now that snow has finally melted in the Mile High City, construction crews are preparing to start permanent repairs on the roof of the new Frederic C. Hamilton wing at the Denver Art Museum. The roof began leaking as a result of record-breaking snowfalls this winter. After unveiling the long-awaited 146,000-sqaure-foot addition last fall, trustees, staff, and patrons thought they’d seen the last of construction crews for a while. But only weeks after the Hamilton wing’s grand opening on October 7, a massive storm dumped nearly two feet of snow and gave the new structure its first real test of

Los Angeles International Airport (LAX) is getting a facelift and going green with its renovation of the Tom Bradley International Terminal. Boasting a price tag of $723.5 million, it is one of the largest individual building projects in Los Angeles’ history. Leo A. Daly is overseeing plans to rehab the 1-million-square-foot terminal, which has not been renovated since it opened in 1984. In addition to an extensive makeover of public spaces, the work includes installing an in-line, checked-baggage security system and constructing a second boarding gate for new large aircraft, which will add 45,000 square feet of new space. Daly’s

As work on the Freedom Tower’s foundations progresses, with an eye to vertical construction beginning next year, observers are expressing doubts over the project’s total price tag, which seems poised to rise at a faster rate than the building itself. Earlier this year, the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey officially authorized construction of the Skidmore Owings & Merrill-designed building, which forms the symbolic cornerstone of the rebuilt World Trade Center complex. The agency also approved the awarding of contracts worth nearly $500 million for continuing construction on the Freedom Tower’s foundations, which began last spring. A press

  Image Courtesy Horton Lees Brogden Jules Horton, a member of an exclusive circle of designers who established architectural lighting as a profession, died at his home in New York this winter at the age of 87. A series of small strokes had confined him to a wheelchair since 2001. Although he passed away on February 23, his death was made public last week. After earning degrees in structural engineering from Warsaw Polytechnic Institute and Columbia University, Horton opened Jules G. Horton Lighting Design in 1968, applying an auto-didactic nature to an embryonic field. For the Dallas/Fort Worth International Airport,

Julie Iovine, an architecture writer and former The New York Times reporter, is joining The Architect’s Newspaper, the organization announced today. She will serve as executive editor, a newly created position in the wake of several headcount changes at the semimonthly architecture news source. Cathy Lang Ho, who had co-edited the paper, resigned in late March. William Menking, who co-edited with Ho, was named founding editor—and Anne Guiney, who was previously the paper’s associate editor, was promoted to New York editor. Headquartered in New York City, The Architect’s Newspaper began publishing in late 2003. It launched a California edition, edited