Editor’s note: You may read the news digest below or listen to it, plus other news headlines from ArchitecturalRecord.com, as a podcast by clicking this link. Click the play button to begin | Click here to download Most of New Orleans will be spared flooding if the Army Corps of Engineers completes $7.6 billion in levee and floodgate improvements by 2011, according to projections and maps released this week. The enhancements are designed to protect the city against the failure of its pumping system during a 100-year storm, equivalent to Hurricane Rita, the Times Picayune reported on August 22. Calling
By itself, the image is not necessarily striking: a battered boxcar being hoisted into place at a construction site. Its power lies in knowing its history. The car, an exhibit at the new Museum of Memory and Tolerance, which opens next year in Mexico City, once transported Jews and other people destined for Nazi death camps in Poland during the Holocaust.
The search for a new dean of Harvard’s Graduate School of Design (GSD) came to an end on August 10 with the announcement that the school had nabbed Mohsen Mostafavi, who is currently the dean of the College of Architecture, Art, and Planning at Cornell University, in Ithaca, New York.
Urban revitalization is emerging in Poland in tandem with world-class design, drawing the likes of architect Robert Krier and filmmaker David Lynch to the scene for movie-related building projects. In Lodz, a town outside of Warsaw where Lynch shot scenes for Inland Empire in 2006, the pair is in development talks for an urban renewal project whose cornerstone will be a film studio and arts center.
Columbia University’s simmering tension with Harlem residents over its plan to build a new, 17-acre campus in Manhattanville came to a boil last week when a rowdy, standing-room-only crowd of roughly 400 people armed with signs and maracas packed into a hearing on the school’s 197-C development plan, developed by the Renzo Piano Building Workshop and Skidmore Owings & Merrill (SOM). This reaction made yesterday’s rejection of the plan by the local Community Board an inevitability. Columbia’s 197-C plan, named for a clause in New York City’s charter that requires potential developers to seek zoning approval through a land-use review,
After hearing hours of testimony on August 14, the Baltimore Commission for Historical and Architectural Preservation (CHAP) recommended landmark designation for John Johansen’s 1967 Morris Mechanic Theater. It also granted the structure “special list” status, which routes any applications for exterior work to CHAP for approval. This status can delay new construction permits by up to six months in order to accommodate obtaining official landmark status from the Baltimore City Council. As RECORD reported earlier this month, the Mechanic’s current owners are seeking to add a 10-story residential tower and retail space onto the vacant building, which will drastically alter
The American Institute of Architects’ Architectural Billings Index (ABI) rose more than four points in June for a total score of 59.3—its highest level since last summer. Institutional projects accounted for much of the gain. ABI data comes from surveys sent to 300 mainly commercial firms. Studies suggest a correlation between the ABI and construction levels nine to 12 months in the future.
The Gulf Opportunity Zone Act boosted a preservation tax credit to 26 percent, up from 20 percent. Although this incentive expires next year, it has spurred the repair of older buildings—and new developments are under way, too.
The Jefferson National Expansion Memorial in St. Louis, better known as the Gateway Arch, made headlines last month when internal trams carrying roughly 200 people became stalled for several hours after a cable snapped and the power failed. No one was hurt in the incident, which was soon eclipsed by far more serious engineering failures, but it reminded people of the memorial’s unique design by architect Eero Saarinen and structural engineer Hannskarl Bandel. Photo Courtesy Jefferson National Expansion Memorial / National Park Service The Gateway Arch in St. Louis “It’s such an impressive structure and makes such a statement you
Editor’s note: You may read the news digest below or listen to it, plus other news headlines from ArchitecturalRecord.com, as a podcast by clicking this link. Click the play button to begin | Click here to download Three proposals for San Francisco’s Landmark Transbay Transit Center and Tower, unveiled last week, are drawing lots of public comments—so many, in fact, that the Transbay Joint Powers Authority’s Web site briefly crashed as a result of all the traffic, the San Francisco Chronicle wrote on August 14. In addition to submitting comments online, some 1,000 people saw an exhibit of the proposals
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