With key action taken in recent weeks, the world’s first private spaceport is edging closer to a groundbreaking. Designed by Foster + Partners and URS Corp., the $198 million Spaceport America project is slated to be built in Upham, New Mexico. According to prior reports, the facility is designed to accommodate two transport airplanes and five spaceships. Its “superhangar” and terminal will include training facilities, a mission control center, viewing galleries, and passenger lounges. Image: Courtesy URS/Foster + Partners The world's first private spaceport is edging closer to a groundbreaking. Designed by Foster + Partners and URS Corp., the $198

Maki and Associates has completed the first building in the world specifically designed for the Aga Khan and his agencies.

Today, the American Institute of Architects (AIA) announced the eight recipients of the 2009 AIA Young Architects Award.   This prize recognizes individuals who have demonstrated exceptional leadership and made significant contributions to the profession early in their careers. Architects who have been licensed 10 years or fewer, regardless of their age, are eligible. The winners will be recognized at a ceremony in San Francisco during the 2009 AIA national convention, scheduled for April 30 to May 2. AIA Names Winners of 2009 Young Architects Award Matthew Bremer, AIA Nominated by the AIA New York Chapter, Matthew Bremer is a

Israel’s High Court of Justice has allowed construction to proceed on Jerusalem’s Museum of Tolerance, designed by Frank Gehry and backed by the Los Angeles–based Simon Wiesenthal Center.

A Cesar Pelli-designed office tower and art museum planned for downtown Austin, Texas, is the latest casualty of the economic downturn. Houston-based developer Hines Interests LP has shelved plans for a 30-story, 434,000-square-foot glass high-rise and accompanying museum. Construction was scheduled to start in the first quarter of this year, with completion expected in early 2011. Image courtesy Hines Houston-based developer Hines Interests LP has shelved plans for a 30-story, 434,000-square-foot glass high-rise and accompanying museum. The high-rise, dubbed Museum Tower, would be located at 455 West 4th Street on land owned by the Austin Museum of Art (AMOA). The

At 680 feet tall, the Austonian, designed by Houston-based firm Ziegler Cooper Architects, will be the tallest building in Austin when it’s completed in 2010. Currently at the halfway point, the 56-story elliptical steel, aluminum, concrete, glass, and limestone-clad building will serve to add to Austin’s skyline with a somewhat softer (and less controversial) top than the pointy ends of the current highest building, the 515-foot, 33-floor Frost Bank Tower, built in 2003 by Duda/Paine Architects and HKS and sometimes referred to as “giant nose-hair clippers.” Images courtesy Ziegler Cooper Architects The Austonian (top, center) will be 680 feet tall.

The Plaza Hotel—the century-old Manhattan landmark renowned for white-gloved service and the prestigious guests—reopened its doors last March following a $400 million, two-and-a-half-year-long refurbishment. The property’s owner, the El-Ad Group, renovated 130 suites and 152 pied-a-terres and converted the remainder of the Beaux-Arts building into 178 private condominiums. Photos ' James Steinkamp Photography/courtesy Related Midwest At 340 On the Park (above), a Chicago tower designed by Solomon Cordwell Buenz Architects, condo owners are encouraged to follow remodeling guidelines that promote sustainability. Long after the reopening celebrations ended, the sounds of construction could still be heard, as condo owners not content

As the ongoing recession eviscerates college endowments, even at those schools whose investment gains during the boom years were legendary, it is stalling ambitious construction projects. One recent casualty is Yale. The Ivy League school, which is the nation’s second richest university, lost 25 percent of its endowment over six months, from $22.9 billion to $17 billion, and so has shelved multiple plans for new buildings and renovations, many involving brand-name architects. Construction of a new 246,000-square-foot business school designed by Foster + Partners, which was to be completed by fall 2011, has been postponed “until funding is secured or

Newly inaugurated President Barack Obama’s pledge of large-scale investment in U.S. infrastructure and Los Angeles County’s passage last November of Measure R—a tax measure that promises to provide up to $40 billion for transit-related projects over the next 30 years—have prompted an open ideas competition sponsored by the Southern California Institute of Architecture (SCI-Arc) and The Architect’s Newspaper. The competition brief invites architects, engineers, urban planners, and students to propose projects that “rethink the relationship between transit systems, public space, and urban redevelopment.” Entrants are asked to work within the parameters of the L.A. legislation, focusing on “specific rail extension