The two-year-old, Richard Meier-designed Ara Pacis museum in Rome may face the wrecking ball if the city’s new leader has his druthers. Gianni Alemanno, who this week became Rome’s first right-wing mayor since Mussolini, says the building is “to be scrapped,” although he didn’t indicate when, according to Reuters. The glass, marble and steel building—completed in 2006 in the historic city center—houses the 2,000-year-old Ara Pacis altar, which commemorates the pacification of France and Spain. The museum’s design has incited critics; a former culture minister declared the building “an indecent cesspit by a useless architect,” according to an article in

Columbia University, New York University, and other schools are planting ever larger footprints throughout Manhattan. But the Big Apple has plenty of company in managing tensions between academic institutions and their urban neighbors. Boston, the quintessential college town, is in for major changes as its schools accelerate their building programs. Although local officials generally welcome such projects, some plans are testing town-gown relationships. Photo courtesy Massachusetts Turnpike Authority Boston is in for major changes as Harvard University, Boston College, and Boston University all accelerate their building programs. The expansion of Harvard University’s campus in Allston, on the Boston side of

Many high school students aspiring to be architects are heading into this year’s summer vacation with a fundamentally new learning experience under their belts, one that recognizes that the profession is as much about landscaping and room circulation as drawing lines. This holistic approach comes courtesy of the Architecture Handbook, from the Chicago Architecture Foundation, a 462-page primer that debuted last August and has quickly caught fire in schools across the country. By April, 71 schools in 34 states, plus 10 community colleges, were using it, says Lynn Osmond, foundation president, with the list expected to grow in the fall.

On May 4, 2007, a tornado tore through Greensburg, Kansas, wreaking almost complete destruction of this 1,574-person town located two hours west of Wichita. Measuring EF-5 in intensity, indicating wind speeds of more than 200 miles per hour, the twister swept up Greensburg’s main commercial street, leaving nothing standing in its wake but for one corner bank. Reports tallied nine deaths from the storm, as well as property damage in excess of $150 million. The site of Greensburg’s former hospital, photographed by Greensburg native Larry Schwarm the day after the tornado hit. Photo © Larry Schwarm As early as the

Following the resignation of architect Patricia Lancaster as New York City’s Department of Buildings commissioner, Mayor Michael Bloomberg is mulling whether or not to drop the requirement that the commissioner be a registered architect or engineer, The New York Times reported on April 23. Lancaster stepped down this week in the wake of several recent construction accidents, including a deadly crane collapse in March at a high-rise whose construction Lancaster later admitted should never have been approved. Until this string of disasters, which has left 13 people dead this year (already more than all of 2007), Lancaster had been viewed

The Turks and Caicos Islands, a British commonwealth of roughly 30 islands in the Caribbean, occupy a small piece of paradise. The isle of Dellis Cay, for instance, is a sanctuary for local sea birds that live there year-round and an important stopover for migratory birds that fly across its miles of sandy beaches. But the flamingos and herons are getting some human neighbors in a development dubbed The O Property Collection: pricey residences by a flock of big-name architects including Shigeru Ban, Kengo Kuma, and Zaha Hadid. For many observers, the project raises troubling questions about sustainability. Image courtesy

Developers and officials in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) are enlisting renowned museums, including the Louvre and the Guggenheim, as well as top architects such as Frank Gehry and Jean Nouvel, to build cultural facilities in Abu Dhabi and Dubai. But citing what it describes as the UAE’s poor record on preventing abusive labor conditions, the international advocacy group Human Rights Watch (HRW) has made several appeals for these cultural institutions to assure fair worker treatment. So far, it hasn’t received any pledges. “We’ve had some vague responses, but they’ve been noncommittal and don’t address the basic issues of labor