In May, the Architectural Billings Index hit 47.2, its lowest point since June 2010. Yet in the midst of bleak national appraisals of the industry, Perkins+Will, headquartered in Chicago, seems to be going strong in the Pacific Northwest. This month, its Seattle office announced the acquisition of local firm Hinthorne Mott Architects, founded under the name Ruffcorn Mott Hinthorne Stine in 2004. Photo © Benjamin Benschneider Perkins+Will designed the Lake Union, Phase II Research Complex (2008) at the University of Washington School of Medicine. Related Links Top 250 Firms: Titans Maintain Lead P+W Sells Connecticut Office P+W Expands Again Merger

Image courtesy Renzo Piano Building Workshop Click on button to view more images. Related Links Piano Designs New Home for Greek National Library and Opera As Greece grapples with its ongoing debt crisis, a major cultural project there is moving forward. Today, Renzo Piano presented his final designs for the Stavros Niarchos Cultural Center (SNFCC), a privately funded project slated to rise on the Saronikos Kolpos waterfront in southern Athens. Construction of the $803 million, 85,000-square-meter building will start later this year and conclude in 2015, at which point the Stavros Niarchos Foundation will transfer ownership of the facility to

Photo © Kevin Mingora/The Morning Call The four-story ArtsQuest Center and an adjacent structure housing a television studio face hulking blast furnaces on the former Bethlehem Steel campus. Bethlehem Steel’s five blast furnaces, with their 285-foot-tall smokestacks wrapped in tangles of metal pipes, embodied the very idea of industry for generations. Beginning in the late 1850s, the company fabricated structural material for a long list of monumental projects, including the Golden Gate Bridge and the Chrysler Building. But by the time I was growing up near Bethlehem in the 1980s, the furnaces stood as emblems — for eastern Pennsylvanians and,

Teams of budding and seasoned architects faced off last week for the second annual Iron Designer Challenge, where they constructed freestanding “Portals”—structures that mediate two spaces—in less than three hours. Photos © Laura Mirviss The Gensler team after winning the 2011 Iron Designer Challenge. The Turner team members assemble their Portal, which is primarily made out of bamboo. Related Links: Architects, Students Compete in Iron Designer Challenge The Gensler team won the 2010 contest, in which participants built emergency shelters, and once again, it took home the grand prize. Inspired by a metamorphosis theme, the team wrapped a cocoon structure

The organization will open the doors to its renovated facility this fall, marking the end of a long, troubled saga. Image courtesy of Platt Byard Dovell White Architects Click on the slide show button to view more images of New-York Historical Society Renovation. Related Links: NY Historical Society Henry Luce III Center for the Study of American Culture Completed in 1908 by York and Sawyer, the New-York Historical Society’s classical, Roman Eclectic style building, on Central Park West, has long been known as a “bunker”—its elegant yet severe granite façade fails to extend a warm welcome to visitors and passersby.

A devotee of innovation and a champion of good design, Steve Jobs profoundly influenced the way we live and work. His death yesterday prompts many of us to contemplate the impact of his vision.

Photo © Iwan Baan Click on the slide show button to view images from today's press preview. Related Links: High Line by Field Operations and DS+R The highly anticipated second section of the High Line, designed by James Corner Field Operations with Diller Scofidio + Renfro, opened today for a press preview and ceremonial ribbon cutting. In attendance were New York City Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg, members of New York City Council, the co-founders of Friends of the High Line, and supporters and benefactors, including Diane von Furstenburg and Barry Diller. The second phase, which stretches from 22nd Street to

Image courtesy Waggonner & Ball An international team led by Waggonner & Ball is designing a water-management plan for New Orleans. Related Links: Working With Water Record Reveals: New Orleans Since Hurricane Katrina devastated New Orleans in 2005, local architect David Waggonner has been working to improve the way his city deals with water. In 2008, he initiated the Dutch Dialogues, a series of workshops that aimed to facilitate conversations about water issues between New Orleans and the Netherlands. His firm Waggonner & Ball also has projects that draw from the Dutch concept of “living with water,” such as Lafitte