In retrospect, the anointing of Renzo Piano to design an addition to the Kimbell Art Museum seems almost preordained. He worked in Louis I. Kahn’s Philadelphia office during the 1960s and already had three critically acclaimed art museums in Texas: the Nasher, Menil Collection, and Cy Twombly Gallery. Photo: Courtesy the Kimbell Art Museum The existing Kimbell Art Museum, in Fort Worth, designed by Louis I. Kahn, dates to 1972. The museum has hired Renzo Piano, who worked for Kahn, to design a new building across the street. Piano called the commission, which was announced in April, “an awesome challenge,

The Frank Lloyd Wright School of Architecture, also known as Taliesin, regained full accreditation last month from the Higher Learning Commission (HLC). Its future had been in doubt since the HLC placed it on notice in 2005, following falling enrollment and turmoil within the Frank Lloyd Wright Foundation, which runs the school. Maintaining HLC accreditation is a prerequisite for National Architectural Accrediting Board accreditation, which the school currently has for its master's program. Photo: Courtesy the Frank Lloyd Wright Foundation Taliesin West, in Scottsdale, Arizona, is one of two campuses for the Frank Lloyd Wright School of Architecture. “The stakes

Although Rome is no longer the head of an empire, plenty of roads still lead to it. Many of its streets are now getting swept up in a radical redesign of the city’s urban fabric. As cars and scooters are slowly exorcised from the city’s center, tire-friendly asphalt is replacing the historic sanpietrini, or cobblestones, on major traffic arteries. The old sanpietrini will be used to resurface streets and piazzas that will be handed over to pedestrians at the project’s end. One of Rome's new pedestrian-only zones. Mayor Walter Veltroni outlined the “restyling” plan at a press event earlier this

It doesn’t take much to envision what Louis I. Kahn’s memorial to Franklin D. Roosevelt will look like if it is eventually finished. It occupies a triangular, 2.8-acre site at the southern tip of Roosevelt Island in New York City’s East River. Construction crews have already shaped the earth into the exact dimensions and contours that Kahn specified in 1973: a raised lawn, to be flanked by two groves of trees and granite steps, that gently slopes down and culminates in an open-air, granite-walled room overlooking the United Nations. These walls will bear quotes from the president’s powerful Four Freedoms

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