David Sokol

The Shape of Green by Lance Hosey. Island Press, 2012, 216 pages, $30. Did you know that a clean neighborhood experiences one-fifth less crime than an untidy one, that profit margins for businesses near Rem Koolhaas's Seattle Public Library have risen 50 percent since it opened in 2004, that birdsong stimulates carbon sequestration by trees? Lance Hosey is on a mission to prove that society places value on beautiful environments, which makes them more enduring. His new book, The Shape of Green, leaves no case unturned for recognizing beauty as a valid consideration in green building. The Shape of Green

The three-year-old crowdfunding website Kickstarter could very well be called a design incubator.

The noted urban planner is heading up the new Bond Design Center at the City College of New York. Photo courtesy CCNY Griffin is heading up the recently launched J. Max Bond Center on Design for the Just City.  Architect and urban planner Toni L. Griffin has introduced progressive ideas to mainstream planning over her 25-year career. Her test beds have included Detroit, where she has dealt with depopulation strategies, and Newark, where she worked to spur job growth. Earlier, she held positions with the District of Columbia and Upper Manhattan Empowerment Zone Development Corporation, in addition to Skidmore, Owings

This year marks the 25th anniversary for the organization's list, which draws attention to historic buildings, landscapes, and communities that are under threat. Photo courtesy Clara Daly/ward9.com/NTHP Ellis Island Hospital Complex. Click to view more images. Related Links: 2011 List of Most Endangered Sites 2010 List of Most Endangered Sites 2009 List of Most Endangered Sites 2008 List of Most Endangered Sites 2007 List of Most Endangered Sites 2006 List of Most Endangered Sites 2005 List of Most Endangered Sites 2004 List of Most Endangered Sites Today the National Trust for Historic Preservation released its 2012 list of America’s 11

Artist Doug Aitken first visited the Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden in 2009, on the invitation of its director Richard Koshalek to conceive an entirely mirrored reading room in the lower lobby.

Today, the Miami City Commission is expected to give a nonprofit group the green light to rehabilitate Miami Marine Stadium, an abandoned Modernist landmark designed in 1963 by then 27-year-old Cuban-American architect Hilario Candela.

Image courtesy Renzo Piano Building Workshop Click on button to view more images. Related Links Piano Designs New Home for Greek National Library and Opera As Greece grapples with its ongoing debt crisis, a major cultural project there is moving forward. Today, Renzo Piano presented his final designs for the Stavros Niarchos Cultural Center (SNFCC), a privately funded project slated to rise on the Saronikos Kolpos waterfront in southern Athens. Construction of the $803 million, 85,000-square-meter building will start later this year and conclude in 2015, at which point the Stavros Niarchos Foundation will transfer ownership of the facility to

Photo © Randolph Langenbach A recent reports says that only 5 percent of Haiti's gingerbread houses fully or partially collapsed during the January 2010 earthquake. Click on the slide show button to view images. Related Links: Special Coverage: Rebuilding Haiti Of the approximately 300,000 buildings in Haiti that were damaged during the January 2010 earthquake, the country’s historic gingerbread houses endured the disaster relatively well. In fact, researchers estimate than only 5 percent of these beloved buildings partially or fully collapsed.   As the country slowly rebuilds, lessons could be learned from these charismatic dwellings built more than a century

Photo © Stephen J. Kelley/World Monuments The Trashigang Dzong fortress in Bhutan, South Asia, is one of the sites that will be protected. Two preservation groups have teamed up to launch a $1 million global initiative to protect historic sites damaged by natural or manmade disasters. Photo © Stephen J. Kelley/World Monuments Fund The Trashigang Dzong fortress in Bhutan. Related Links: Dutch Firms Wins Preservation Prize WMF Announces 2010 Watch List The World Monuments Fund, a New York-based nonprofit, and the Prince Claus Fund, an Amsterdam-based entity supported by the Dutch government, have each promised to contribute $500,000 to their