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 Polshek Partnership’s Vietnam Veterans Memorial Center received conditional approval from the U.S. Commission of Fine Arts yesterday. But as The Washington Post reported on October 19, some commissioners expressed concern that the proposed underground visitors and education center on the Mall “might dilute the emotional impact” of Maya Lin’s Vietnam Veteran’s Memorial nearby. Polshek’s design, the paper wrote, “calls for a 34,100-square-foot structure

Construction is underway, albeit with some delays, on one of India’s highest profile and most opulent projects—the Antilia, a 490-foot-tall corporate meeting facility and private residence in Mumbai. Chicago-based Perkins + Will designed the 24-story tower for business tycoon Mukesh Ambani, whose family will occupy roughly 35,000 square feet in its top floors. Images: Courtesy Perkins + Will Perkins + Will designed Antilia, a 24-story corporate meeting facility and private residence, now under construction in Mumbai (top). The tower features several garden levels and a trellis, which supports panels of hydroponically grown plans, that act like a green band weaving

Just as other cities around the country are experimenting with ways to streamline the plan review and permit process, New York City, a trendsetter in this respect, is clamping down on its practice of allowing architects to self-certify building plans. In an effort to save architects time, Oregon is taking Portland’s “e-permit” online submission tool statewide. Los Angeles has unveiled the Guaranteed Express Permit Program, which aims to serve walk-in customers with small projects within 30 minutes and issue a permit within 90 minutes, or the application is free. And in Honolulu, the city’s understaffed Department of Planning and Permitting

For admirers of the Japanese architect Kisho Kurokawa, the 73-year-old’s death on October 12 culminated a year of disappointments. In April, Kurokawa lost an election bid for the governorship of Tokyo; then, in July, he and his wife, actress Ayako Wakao, were both unsuccessful in their campaigns for seats in Japan’s Upper House of parliament. Concurrent with Kurokawa’s candidacies, plans were announced to raze Tokyo’s Nakagin Capsule Tower, completed in 1972, which was an icon of the Metabolism movement; it closely follows last year’s demolition of Kurokawa’s Sony Tower in Osaka. Photo Courtesy Kisho Kurokawa Architect & Associates Kisho Kurokawa

Who’s snickering about Brad Pitt’s interest in architecture now? The movie star jolted attendees at the Clinton Global Initiative’s annual conference in late September by announcing a plan to replace 150 destroyed houses in New Orleans’ Lower Ninth Ward with new, environmentally sustainable ones that cost less than $200,000 each. Seeking justice for city residents who lost their houses in what he termed an “abysmal” rescue effort, Pitt and his partners formed an organization called Make it Right to hire 13 architectural firms for green designs that fit the local vernacular. He promised that each model will match what residents

If there were a prize for the project most often mentioned during the conference “Engineered Transparency: Glass in Architecture and Structural Engineering,”

If there’s been a dominant storyline in the world of architecture practice this year, surely it’s been the rising level of mergers and acquisitions. Marking another chapter in the story, Atlanta-based Perkins + Will announced this week that it acquired the New York City firm Guenther 5 Architects. Terms of the deal were not disclosed. Related Links: Perkins + Will Buys Rozeboom Miller What's Fueling the M&A trend? Growth. Top 150 Architecture Firms Robin Guenther, FAIA, founded the firm that eventually became Guenther 5 in 1991. Over the years it has grown into an 18-person office practice specializing in health

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 U2 sang “take me higher” in its 1991 song “Even Better Than the Real Thing,” and now life is imitating art—a 591-foot-tall skyscraper designed by Foster & Partners was selected for the U2 Tower at Britain Quay in Dublin. The Foster plan beat out a proposal by Zaha Hadid, but both schemes were sought as alternatives to an original tower, designed by Burdon

Chicago’s Wrigley Field, which for a century has brushed up against apartments, used to be the exception among major-league ballparks, which tend to sit enveloped by asphalt on a city’s fringe. Not anymore. As stadiums move downtown, developers are constructing high-rise residences that offer box-seat-worthy views of games. Image Courtesy St. Louis Cardinals Condos will overlook Busch Stadium. In 2004, Antoine Predock Architects’ PetCo Park debuted in San Diego’s East Village, a district once dominated by car-repair shops. Guided by San Diego’s economic development group, Centre City Development Corporation, the neighborhood has since welcomed 3,040 condominium units and apartments, with

The McMansion phenomenon is likely to survive both the residential property slump and the popularity of green design, but communities are increasingly opting to regulate house size. Even Los Angeles, often blamed for spawning the culture of sprawl, is evaluating a measure that would limit the size of single-family infill housing—some 300,000 properties. Although there is no single set of nationwide data on such ordinances, the National Trust for Historic Preservation tracks the issue through its anti-teardown initiative. In a May 2006 study it found that more than 300 communities in 33 states have taken steps to combat teardowns and