A plan for redeveloping large sections of the riverfront in New Orleans took a step closer to reality when it received a green light from the city on January 9. The New Orleans Building Corporation (NOBC), whose board includes mayor Ray Nagin and three members of the City Council, endorsed conceptual plans and authorized work to begin on the project’s first phase, perhaps within months. New details about project financing were also released. Image courtesy New Orleans Building Corporation The redevelopment of New Orleans’ riverfront encompasses several areas within a 4.5-mile along the east bank of the Mississippi River. Work

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 The owners of Liverpool’s soccer team are “in no rush” to make a decision about replacing HKS as the architect of their new stadium, according to a January 10 article in the U.K.’s Daily Telegraph. The team’s owners, American businessmen Tom Hicks and George Gillett Jr., originally selected HKS last year, as RECORD reported, but the Dallas-based architect overshot the budget for a

The New York City Department of Buildings (DOB) is expected to send inspectors to the recently completed New York Times headquarters building today to determine what caused seven windows in the Renzo Piano and FXFowle-designed tower to crack on Wednesday afternoon. The windows were located on the building’s 22nd, 10th, and sixth floors of the building, according to the DOB. Two of the 52-story tower’s signature ceramic rods on the exterior of the 40th and 38th floors were also damaged. “Our engineers believe (Wednesday’s) high winds were a contributing factor (to the damage),” says DOB spokesperson Kate Lindquist. “But they

Santiago Calatrava’s 2,000-foot-tall Chicago Spire is a lofty experiment in bird-safe design. The residential skyscraper is rising in the midst of a large year-round bird population and in the path of a major migratory flyway on the shores of Lake Michigan, but its glass is designed to be visible to birds, which should help prevent fatal collisions. Images courtesy Studio Gang Architects Studio Gang Architects included several bird-friendly elements in its design of the Ford Calumet Environmental Center in Chicago, a 28,000-square-foot environmental education center due to open in 2009 (top) To reduce the possibility of bird strikes on the

Battling Rust Belt decline with a startlingly modern design, a New York City-based developer and architect have unveiled plans this week for Cadillac Centre, a $150-million residential, retail, and entertainment complex in the heart of downtown Detroit. Images courtesy Northern Group Inc. Cadillac Centre, designed by Anthony Caradonna, will feature two 24-story sculpted glass-and-steel apartment towers with 84 rental units, atop a 12-story base containing retail, cinemas, a health club and spa, restaurants, and 800 parking spaces. Cadillac Center will complete a circle of buildings around Campus Martius, Detroit's historic central square, where two other newer towers rise nearby. Named

The Dallas Museum of Nature & Science was formed in 2006 to inspire and educate the scientists of the future. Now its leaders have selected Thom Mayne, of Los Angeles-based Morphosis, as the architect for a new flagship building because they believe that he can help fulfill the institution’s mission. “Mayne is an teacher himself,” said Frank-Paul King, chairman of the museum’s board, speaking shortly before the museum’s press conference yesterday. King added that this background gives Mayne a unique understanding of how to create educational environments. The architect was one of four finalists along with New York-based Polshek Partners,

The New York City Planning Department and New York City Economic Development Corporation (NYCEDC) have unveiled a proposed comprehensive zoning plan for Coney Island that could require developer Thor Equities to scale back its plans for building a massive hotel and entertainment complex in the Brooklyn neighborhood. The new framework also might spare the Astroland amusement park, which faced possible demolition, and provide for the construction of affordable housing. The proposed zoning covers three areas—dubbed Coney East, West, and North—encompassing approximately 19 blocks running from the New York Aquarium to West 24th Street, and from Mermaid Avenue to the famed

With Airbus unveiling its A380 jumbo jet last fall, and Boeing at work on its own new jumbo called the Dreamliner, due out in December 2008, airport architects find themselves accommodating a trio of recent phenomena: a new generation of large aircraft, the burgeoning of low-cost carriers, and post-9/11 security measures. Although the North Terminal of the Detroit Metropolitan Wayne County Airport, which will open in September 2008, does not have to accommodate A380s or Dreamliners, Gensler engaged thoroughly with air travel’s changing playing field. Due to budget limitations—the project’s $315 million price tag was set in 2000—the 800,000-square-foot, three-story

The Swiss duo of Herzog & de Meuron is working on a new, 40-story tower to serve as the headquarters for the pharmaceutical company Roche, to be located along the banks of the Rhine River in the architects’ hometown of Basel, Switzerland. At 542-feet-tall, it will be Switzerland’s tallest building. Images ' F. Hoffmann-La Roche Herzog & de Meuron is designing a 40-story tower to serve as the headquarters for Roche, in Basel, Switzerland. At 542-feet-tall, it will be Switzerland’s tallest building. Herzog & de Meuron’s steel-and-glass tower takes the shape of a spiral of stepped cubic blocks that form

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 Foster + Partners is designing a skyscraper in Moscow that will contain more floor space than any other building in the world, according to a December 23 article in the UK’s Times newspaper. Dubbed the “Crystal Island,” the 1,500-foot-tall tower will encompass some 29 million square feet in a structure that “spirals downwards from a sharp peak with a glass facade that resembles