At the National September 11 Memorial & Museum at the World Trade Center site, beneath the fountains conceived by Michael Arad and an entry pavilion by Snøhetta, Manhattan architects Davis Brody Bond created a series of inspiring spaces, set between the slurry wall of the original World Trade Center and equally powerful elements of their own devising.

Photo © Gina Sabatella Jerde's Universal CityWalk in Los Angeles. Jon Jerde often said “the communal experience is a designable event,” and he proved it over and over during a 50-year-career. The architect, who died this week at 75, created ersatz downtowns, really elaborate malls with vast garages. His most famous project was Universal CityWalk, a hilltop shopping-and-entertainment center in Los Angeles, completed in 1993. Herbert Muschamp, the longtime architecture critic of The New York Times, admired CityWalk’s showbiz vitality. Jerde, he famously wrote, was more likely to be nominated for an Oscar than a Pritzker. Photo © Gina Sabatella Jon A.

The Van Alen's new storefront space in Manhattan's Flatiron district joins a large event space to a series of alcoves that can be hidden behind accordion doors during public programs. The Van Alen Institute in Manhattan, an advocate of “smart public design” for more than 100 years, is taking to the street. Last year David van der Leer, the institute’s new director, arranged to swap its longtime quarters on the sixth floor of a Flatiron district building for a storefront space in the same building, where, van der Leer says, “our ability to connect with audiences is much greater.” But

Thierry Jeannot's Green Transmutation Chandelier (2010) made from reclaimed materials, green dye, aluminum, and light bulbs. Don’t envy Lowery Stokes Sims, the curator of the Museum of Arts and Design in Manhattan, her many recent trips to Latin America. As the force behind New Territories, the museum’s survey of recent design in 14 countries (through April 6), Sims maintained a punishing schedule of studio visits; her itineraries and notes are viewable on iPads in the museum’s ingenious “Curator Lab.” Sims discovered many more worthwhile items, most of them by young designers, than the museum had room for. Her other challenge

The Immersion Room on the museum’s second floor features more than 200 examples of the Cooper Hewitt’s collection of wallcoverings, and allows visitors to select their favorites or draw their own designs, and then project them onto the gallery walls. There are “super-high-definition smart tables”—glass touchscreens mounted on aluminum pedestals—throughout the newly renovated Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum in Manhattan. By running their fingers across the tables, visitors make shapes that are then displayed as hats, lamps, tables, vases, chairs, or buildings. During the museum’s opening week earlier this month, the system attracted the attention of everyone from a 4-year-old

Gene Kaufman's plan to turn Paul Rudolph's Orange County Government Center into artist studios is the best thing to happen to the building since county officials began threatening to tear it down in 2004. Image courtesy Gwathmey Siegel Kaufman & Associates Architects Gene Kaufman's proposal for Rudolph's Orange County Government Center includes live/work studios (green), work studios (pink), and gallery spaces (purple). With almost 50 cheesy hotel buildings to his name (sometimes two or more to a block), Gene Kaufman has done immeasurable damage to Manhattan. But Kaufman has a chance to redeem himself. His plan to save the Orange

“I don’t like his uniform,” said a world-renowned architect, dressed in khakis and a polo shirt, during a poolside conversation in Miami. “But I’m sure he doesn’t like mine either.” Related links Design Miami Dispatch: Highlights From the Fair Design Miami Dispatch: The Design District The he is Peter Marino, a prolific architect who is best known, these days, for showing up in public in full leather drag, with tattoos on his exposed arms and a Mohawk underneath his leather biker cap. Famous for designing houses for socialites, as well as stores for Chanel, Louis Vuitton, Dior, and other luxury

Olson Kundig Architects stacked and staggered glu-lam beams into a handsome, comfortable lounge for Design Miami. The chandelier is by Lilienthal | Zamora. Design Miami, now in its 10th year, has thrived since it moved from the Design District to a tent in the parking lot of the Miami Beach Convention Center. Outside the tent, a colorful pavilion by Jonathan Muecke offered relief from the expanses of white vinyl. Inside, Alan Maskin of Seattle’s Olson Kundig Architects also diverged from the tent aesthetic, stacking and staggering massive glu-lam beams into a handsome, comfortable enclosure, the fair’s Collectors Lounge. (The room