Not even architectural gems like Richard Neutra’s Kaufmann House (1946) in Palm Springs, California, are immune to today’s recessionary climate. Photo ' Scott Mayoral/courtesy Crosby Doe Richard Neutra's Kaufmann House was re-listed for sale after its $19 million purchase earlier this year fell through. After five weeks on the market, there are still no takers. The house was re-listed for sale on September 29 after its purchase earlier this year fell through. The sleek, iconic home sold for a cool $19 million in May during Christie’s Postwar and Contemporary Art auction held in New York, but the deal unraveled for
Democrats rejoiced at Sen. Barack Obama’s resounding win on Nov. 4 in the presidential race and the party’s strong gains in the House and Senate. But as the cheers from the victory celebration start to fade, Obama’s focus will shift to assembling a Cabinet and setting legislative and regulatory priorities. As that transition begins, it is clear that the troubled national economy and growing federal deficit will loom over new initiatives that the new administration and new Congress hope to launch. Voters showed support for infrastructure. The Bond Buyer, a municipal finance publication, reports that 85% of ballot initiatives passed,
Today, the software provider Bentley Systems released a long-awaited, new version of its entire suite of infrastructure analysis and design products, now dubbed V8i. The release is the culmination of 15 years of acquisitions, integration and development, according to Greg Bentley, CEO. Code-named “Athens” through the many years of planning, the company says V8i represents a $1 billion, internally-financed investment that positions it to take advantage of an anticipated surge of public and public/private infrastructure work. Infrastructure development and rehabilitation is about the only bright spot on the economic horizon, so Bentley feels this is an opportune time to launch.
Colliding tectonic plates, deep canyons, craggy overhangs, and other heroic topographic features are often evoked in the architecture of Morphosis, the Los Angeles-based firm. But the architects’ first project in China, Giant Group Pharmaceutical Campus, has allowed them to push that exploration even further, says Morphosis principal Thom Mayne. “In China, you can do things formally you just can’t do in the U.S.—aggressive, uncompromised, out-there ideas.” Image courtesy Morphosis The architects wanted to create a “lifted landscape” where the enormous building connects seamlessly with the 3.2-hectare site. Sited on 3.2 hectares in Shanghai’s western outskirts, Giant’s new corporate headquarters, slated
Historically a manufacturing town, Milan has transformed itself in recent years into a global city defined by the three Fs: finance, fashion, and furniture. Porta Nuova, now a giant construction looming over the high street Corso Como, will reflect the new Milan. Image courtesy Porta Nuova The Porta Nuova development in Milan includes two Stefano Boeri-designed towers that will be covered in plants. The 71-acre, mixed-used project is rising around the Garibaldi train station, at the foot of Milan’s arts district, Brera. When Porta Nouva, or “new gate,” is completed in 2012, a highlight will be Città della Moda e
Rafael Viñoly Architects, founded in New York in 1983, has completed its first project in the UK: Curve, a 140,000-square-foot theater in Leicester, England.
With a history tied to nomadic civilizations and a New York City-sized population spread over more than two million square miles of territory, Kazakhstan may not seem like the most probable site for ambitious urban architecture. British comedian Sacha Baron Cohen went so far as to depict the country as a backward nation of ramshackle hovels in his 2006 film Borat. But the reality of contemporary Kazakhstan may be more accurately embodied by the Palace of Peace and Reconciliation, a glass pyramid rising above Astana, the Central Asian state’s capital.
When the Wall Street bailout plan initially failed to pass in the House of Representatives in late September, Senate leaders Harry Reid and Mitch McConnell quickly amended it with sweeteners to attract more congressional votes. Among the sweeteners were several energy-related tax incentives that had previously stalled, primarily because the House and Senate couldn’t agree on how to fund them. The revised bailout bill, H.R. 1424, officially known as the “Emergency Economic Stabilization Act of 2008,” did pass and includes several items of interest to architects and their clients. One is a five-year extension, to 2013, of the portion of
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