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In recent, years, the American Institute of Architects (AIA) has stepped up its advocacy efforts in Washington on behalf of the design profession. With Barack Obama taking office in January, the association is anticipating more legislative victories in the next four years, from an administration that appears to have architects’ best interests at heart, says Andrew Goldberg, the AIA’s chief lobbyist. Photo ' Happyme22/Wikipedia With Barack Obama taking office in January, the AIA is anticipating more legislative victories in the next four years, from an administration that appears to have architects' best interests at heart. Though details are lacking, the

On December 6, President-elect Barack Obama revealed key elements of his sweeping economic-recovery plan, part of which calls for building roads, greening federal offices, and making schools more high-tech, all of which should bode well for those in the design and construction industries. Photo ' Tannen Maury/EPA/Corbis Barack Obama's economic-recovery plan calls for building roads, greening federal offices, and making schools more high-tech, all of which could bode well for architects. “This has to be great news for architects,” says Robert Dunphy, who studies infrastructure issues for the Urban Land Institute, based in Washington, D.C. Advocates have made the case

This fall, Steven Holl Architects won an international competition to design The LM Project, a significant oceanfront development in Copenhagen, Denmark. Envisioned as a gateway for arriving ships, Holl’s scheme consists of two mixed-use towers on opposite sides of an entry to the city’s harbor. The towers are connected by a walkway that soars 213 feet above the water, providing clearance for boat traffic. Images courtesy Steven Holl Architects This fall, Steven Holl Architects won an international competition to design The LM Project in Copenhagen, Denmark. Project architect Noah Yaffe says each glass tower has a “distinct architectural expression.” The

Photo © Elfie Semotan “You can take possession of it by describing it,” says Wolf Prix of Coop Himmelb(l)au’s Central Los Angeles Area High School #9. “If I asked a student, ‘Can you describe your school? Where do you go to school?’ He’d say, ‘The school with the crazy tower and the round windows,’ not, ‘just a building downtown.’” Los Angeles floats its landmarks on a sea of faceless highway, like peanuts in peanut brittle. Downtown, the two-block stretch of Grand Avenue that straddles the 101 is a satisfying bite. In a single chomp, you get Frank Gehry’s Disney concert

Rising on a 358-acre monastery on the Hawaiian island of Kauai is an architectural feat rare in today’s world: a 3.2-million-pound stone structure built entirely by hand. Arguably the most elaborate Hindu temple in the United States, the $8 million white granite San Marga Iraivan Temple, designed by V. Ganapati Sthapati for the Saiva Siddhanta Church, is intended to last 1,000 years. Construction began in 2001 and is scheduled to be finished in 2012. Photos courtesy Hinduism Today Magazine The San Marga Iraivan Temple is being built on a 358-acre monastery on the Hawaiian island of Kauai. Hundreds of temples

Art Museum to Serve as Dynamic Gateway for Belgian Town In November 2007, the Université Catholique de Louvain, in Belgium, launched a design competition for a new museum to replace the current, cramped home of its Renaissance paintings, contemporary art, and African sculpture. The winner was announced this past June: Chicago-based Perkins+Will, Brussels architect Emile Verhaegen, and sustainability consultant MATRIciel. The team beat out Charles Vandenhove, Massimiliano Fuksas, and the British firm Tectonics. Images courtesy Perkins+Will A new art museum for Louvain-la-Neuve, in Belgium, is being designed by Perkins+Will, architect Emile Verhaegen, and sustainability consultant MATRIciel. The future venue, which

A Modern Addition Planned for a Picturesque Museum in Zurich In December the Swiss federal parliament, as well as the state and municipal governments of Zurich, approved funding for an extension to the Swiss National Museum. Groundbreaking on the 111 million CFH ($93.5 million) addition, designed by the Basel, Switzerland–based Christ & Gantenbein Architects, will take place in 2010 with completion scheduled for 2013. Images courtesy Christ & Gantenbein Architects Switzerland'based Christ & Gantenbein Architects has designed a new wing for the Swiss National Museum in Zurich. The extension will add approximately 79,000 square feet to the original museum, which

For a Utah Museum, Polshek Takes Its Cue from the Land Polshek Partnership has designed a new, 161,000-square-foot facility for the Utah Museum of Natural History in Salt Lake City. The $98 million project will enable the 45-year-old institution to better showcase its collection of fossils, rocks, minerals, and other artifacts. Presently, only 1 percent of the museum’s 1.2-million-piece collection is on display in its current location, the George Thomas Building on the University of Utah campus. Images courtesy Polshek Partnership Polshek Partnership has designed a new, 161,000-square-foot facility for the Utah Museum of Natural History in Salt Lake City.

Although the current financial crisis may make the good times of 2007 feel like ancient history, the AIA has confirmed that architectural compensation enjoyed a stratospheric rise from 2005 to the beginning of 2008. Not only did the 2008 AIA Compensation Survey find that salaries for architecture positions increased more than 5.7 percent annually during that period—the strongest performance since the AIA began collecting compensation data in 1990—but also that they outpaced the rest of the economy. Graphs courtesy AIA Since 2002, the salaries of architects and unlicensed staff have risen an impressive 29.2 percent while the salaries of all