Autodesk recently released Revit LT 2013, a cheaper software tailored to small architecture firms. It has been ten years since Autodesk acquired the Revit Technology Corporation. In that time, Revit has become one of the most widely used BIM (Building Information Modeling) products in the AEC industries. However, the software’s learning curve, its processing power requirements, and its cost ($5,775 for a standalone version) scare off many would-be users—particularly smaller firms with projects that don’t demand the collaboration of multiple consultants. To capture this segment of the market, Autodesk released this week its first pared-down version of Revit, Revit LT
A SHoP-designed weathered steel facade—and the involvement of the hip-hop mogul Jay-Z—will influence the controversial arena's success. The Barclays Center in Brooklyn. New York City felt “baited-and-switched,” says Gregg Pasquarelli, the principal of SHoP Architects, explaining how his firm came to design Barclays Center, the 675,000-square-foot arena in Brooklyn, home to the Brooklyn (formerly New Jersey) Nets. The arena officially opens tonight with a Jay-Z (aka Hova) concert. The bait-and-switch occurred when Bruce Ratner, the developer of the arena, dangled a design by Frank Gehry, helping him win city approval for the project, then dropped Gehry after the financial meltdown
Rudy Ricciotti and Mario Bellini’s “flying carpet” is be the largest intervention to the Musée du Louvre since I. M. Pei plunged pyramids into its central courtyard in 1988.
After hitting a historic low in 2010, retail construction is beginning to show tempered improvement. This year, starts are expected to continue to rebound to $14.2 billion. Source: McGraw-Hill Dodge Analytics Click the image above to view a full presentation of these stats [PDF].
Patrick Kennedy, of Berkeley developer Panoramic Interests, is creating twenty-three 300-square-foot units in San Francisco’s SoMa neighborhood. As wealth disparities in the United States have reached Dickensian proportions, housing disparities have followed. Condo developers are creating increasingly lavish apartments for the super-rich, while those with modest budgets find themselves priced out of city centers. That’s an issue not only for housing advocates, who lament the human toll of housing stratification, but also for mayors who believe their cities’ futures depend on attracting “young creatives.” One solution is to encourage the building of micro-units, apartments of about 300 square feet or
We may be in the era of the end of men (as recent headlines and Atlantic writer Hanna Rosin’s zeitgeisty book suggest), but it’s hard to imagine that the field of architecture will ever run out of them. Though roughly 41 percent of U.S. architecture students are women, they account for only about 17 percent of firm principals and partners, according to a membership study by the American Institute of Architects.
Why is a Washington, D.C., rail revamp moving forward while another in New York can’t seem to pull away from the platform? Image courtesy Amtrak A rendering for an improved West End Concourse extending from New York's Penn Station under the Farley Post Office. Riding Amtrak from Washington’s Union Station to New York’s Penn Station is a trip, architecturally speaking, from heaven to hell. So it came as a surprise this summer when Amtrak announced plans to transform one of those stations into “a world class transportation hub,” at an estimated cost of nearly $7 billion. The upgrades will bring