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 British Museum has tapped Rogers Stirk Harbour and Partners, the practice that was until this spring known as the Richard Rogers Partnership, to design a new $200 million building, The Guardian reported on July 5. The venerable institution apparently has Tutankhamun envy—its lack of sufficient space prompted the organizers of a blockbuster Egyptology and mummy exhibition, expected to be “the most popular

Arcadis, the Dutch-based environmental and infrastructure engineering giant, announced July 6 that it has acquired RTKL Associates, the architect-engineer. Based in Baltimore, RTKL ranks 61st on Engineering News-Record’s list of Top 500 Design Firms, with more than $203 million in 2006 revenue. Arcadis will not integrate RTKL, which has 1,050 employees, into its operations but will operate RTKL as a wholly owned subsidiary. Terms of the transaction were not disclosed. RTKL’s 100 or so shareholders consisted of senior management, vice presidents and principals of the company, and all of them voted in favor of the sale, says Arcadis CEO Harrie

Photo: Courtesy CN Tower Last week, 1,330 newly installed LED fixtures were lit for the first time--making the CN Tower the world's tallest illuminated structure. Photo: Courtesy CN Tower The 1,815-foot-tall CN Tower in Toronto, at night, as it appeared for most of its 31-year history. The CN Tower has dominated Toronto’s skyline during daylight hours since it opened 31 years ago; at 1,815 feet, this communications spire is the world’s tallest freestanding structure. But at night, the dimly lit giant faded nearly to black. Not anymore. Last week, 1,330 LED fixtures created by Color Kinetics were illuminated for the

While officials in Boston push ahead with plans for a new city hall, advocates are stepping up efforts to save the existing structure. The Boston Landmarks Commission agreed this spring to review a petition seeking protections for the building’s exterior and main lobby. Supporters view the case as a local and national bellwether for preserving Modernist architecture, which increasingly finds itself in developers’ crosshairs. Photo: © Chris Mottalini Boston City Hall, designed by Kallmann McKinnell and Knowles, could be sold if the city’s mayor has his way. Kallmann McKinnell and Knowles’s Boston City Hall has been controversial since its completion

If the fate of its mid-century bank buildings is any indication, Phoenix is withdrawing valuable architectural assets from its skyline to make way for growth in the nation’s sixth-largest city. Photo: Courtesy DWL Designed by Weaver & Drover, now called DWL, in the 1960s, this Chase Bank in Phoenix's upscale Arcadia neighborhood, pays homage to Frank Lloyd Wright's architecture. Photo: Courtesy City of Phoenix. Frank M. Henry, the lead designer, hand-selected rocks for the bank’s walls. Photo: Courtesy Roger Brevoort. The bank’s 5-acre site also contains a public greenway, but developer Opus West is eyeing the site for a mixed-use

Time’s almost up for submitting comment on Standard 189P—it will be accepted until July 9 at www.ashrae.org/publicreviews. Officially called the “Standard for the Design of High-Performance Green Buildings Except Low-Rise Residential Buildings,” it will provide a baseline for sustainable design, construction, and operations—and ultimately could be incorporated into building codes. Addressing both new commercial buildings and major renovations, it encompasses energy and water efficiency, greenhouse gas emissions, sustainable site selection, and materials. The American Society of Heating Refrigerating and Air-Conditioning Engineers, the Illuminating Engineering Society of North America, and the U.S. Green Building Council developed it. Standard 189P is expected

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 Jorn Utzon’s 1973 masterpiece, the Sydney Opera House, is among the sites that UNESCO the added to its World Heritage List on Thursday. Also added was the Red Fort Complex, a 17th century garrison in New Delhi, whose accreted architecture recalls Indian history from the Mughal period to independence, Bloomberg reported on June 29. Appearing on the United Nations Educational Scientific and Cultural

A delay in the start of construction on Foster & Partners’ Rossiya skyscraper in Moscow this month seems to have barely dented the firm’s far-reaching plans in the rest of Russia. Construction on another major project began moving forward and it has just signed on to design a skyscraper in the Siberian oil boomtown of Khanty Mansiysk. Foster + Partner’s 919-foot-tall Yugra tower will be the tallest thing in the surrounding city of Khanty Mansiysk, located in Russia’s Siberia region. Images Courtesy Foster + Partners The proposed skyscraper will contain a mix of retail, office, residential, and hotel space. STT

More than 350 board members and invited guests from industry organizations convened in Denver last week for the 88th annual meeting of the National Council of Architectural Registration Boards (NCARB). Representatives from nearly all 54 jurisdictions, except for Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands, attended the multi-day event. During his keynote address, Chris Luebkeman, director of Global Foresight and Innovation for Arup in London, urged attendees to make decisions that will “survive and thrive” well into the future. Trained as a geologist, structural engineer, and architect, Luebkeman described himself as a generalist “in the spaces between professions.” Using a classic