Correction appended August 15, 2007 Cleaner than it’s been in decades, the Hudson River is a cynosure for residential developers, who value the profitable potential of its scenic vistas. The shores of Lower Manhattan were first to sprout high-rise condos, followed by Jersey City across the river. Now, 15 miles to the north, the former industrial powerhouse of Yonkers is transforming its disused Hudson waterfront and reclaiming another, much neglected waterway. Images Courtesy Design Development The city of Yonkers, New York, is uncovering sections of the Saw Mill River, which runs through its downtown district. The reborn Saw Mill forms

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 Rem Koolhaas is designing a 984-foot-tall skyscraper that, if built, will be the tallest in Mexico City and Latin America. Although currently it’s “nothing more than an idea on paper,” Reuters reported on July 24, the Torre Bicentenario is timed to open in 2010 on the 200th anniversary of Mexico’s war of independence against Spain. Located in an active seismic zone, the $600

The Government of the Republic of Sakha (Yakutia) and the United Nations Educational Scientific and Cultural Organization announced yesterday that Leeser Architecture won a competition to design a new museum in Siberia. The Brooklyn-based firm bested finalists Antoine Predock, Massimiliano Fuksas, SRL, and YakuProekt. Photos Courtesy Leeser Architecture Interior Escalator Tubes Lichen and Moss Garden. Museum entry Summertime view Wintertime view While the distant location of Siberia might seem surprising, given that it attracted such international talent, the museum’s name explains a lot about its focus: the World Mammoth and Permafrost Museum. Located roughly 280 miles from the Arctic Circle,

It’s become an almost weekly occurrence this summer: a leading architecture practice acquiring a smaller firm to give itself additional capabilities or a presence in a new market. This week’s deal sees Perkins+Will buying Rozeboom Miller Architects. Terms of the transaction, which was announced yesterday, are undisclosed. Based in Atlanta, the 72-year-old Perkins+Will is a leader in sustainable design, educational facilities, and health care buildings. It maintains offices in 16 cities nationwide—many the result of past acquisitions—as well as additional offices in Canada and China. Posting $268.3 million in revenue last year, Perkins+Will ranked No. 5 on RECORD’s annual list

Six finalists for one of Great Britain’s top architecture awards, the Royal Institute of British Architects (RIBA) Stirling Prize, were unveiled today.

The remarkable development boom in Dubai and Abu Dhabi, both located in the United Arab Emirates (U.A.E.), is completely transforming these cities’ skylines and attracting the world’s top architects. But it is also exacting a serious cost. Human Rights Watch (HRW) alleges that the migrant workers vital to constructing these projects are subject to “abusive labor practices”—and architects, it contends, are complicit in the problem. In a report titled “Building Towers, Cheating Workers,” published last November, HRW catalogued a host of abusive practices including nonpayment of wages, squalid or dangerous working and living conditions, and the denial of proper medical

The Burj Dubai realized its “tallest high-rise building in the world” claim on July 21, according to developer Emaar Properties, when the concrete floors were poured and set on the skyscraper’s 141st story. At 1,680 feet tall, the still-incomplete tower surpassed the previous height record of 1671 feet, established by Taiwan’s Taipei 101, and surges toward an undisclosed height rumored to be 2,300 feet, some 160 stories, when the tower is finished in 2008. Photo: Courtesy Emaar Properties The Burj Dubai, in the United Arab Emirates, reached a milestone on Saturday when construction workers poured concrete for the 141st floor--making

How should a city manage residential development in a way that protects its historic manufacturing zones? Not surprisingly, perhaps, Donald Trump has exposed this planning dilemma with an opulent condominium-hotel tower designed by Handel Architects and David Rockwell, slated for a largely industrial block on the fringe of New York City’s trendy SoHo neighborhood. The conundrum is as much architectural as it is economic. Although cities nationwide are welcoming residential development to create a 24/7 environment downtown, these projects often displace small-scale industrial uses that contribute greater tax revenues. Preservationists also complain that these buildings—usually glass-walled towers—are out of character

Several large urban redevelopment projects are getting underway across California. In Los Angeles, the City Council’s Ad Hoc River Committee is seeking funds from federal, state, and local sources for the Los Angeles River Revitalization Master Plan. The document, which was developed over the past two years by a team including the city’s Bureau of Engineering and Tetra Tech, received council approval in May. It calls for lowering, terracing, and greening much of the waterway’s concrete channel barriers as well as redeveloping surrounding areas into parks: a total of 239 projects along 31 miles of the 51-mile-long river. Image: courtesy

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 “Confrontational and controversial” architecture is what Gehry Partners’ Edwin Chan hoped to find among the five designs unveiled this week for the new Eli and Edythe Broad Art Museum at Michigan State University, in East Lansing, Michigan, according to a July 18 article in City Pulse. With an avant-garde roster of finalists, it’s likely that Chan, one of the university’s eight jurors, got