James S. Russell, FAIA Emeritus

James S. Russell, FAIA Emeritus, a journalist who often focuses on sustainability and resilience, is the author of The Agile City: Building Well Being and Wealth in an Era of Climate Change (Island Press, 2011).

Gentrificaiton's Effect on Urban Communities

Gentrification's Effect on Urban Communities

James S. Russell, FAIA Emeritus

October 1, 2018

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Can gentrification improve urban communities without pushing out longtime residents?

Architects Bring Solar to Hurricane-Battered Puerto Rico

James S. Russell, FAIA Emeritus

October 27, 2017

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A new group called Resilient Power Puerto Rico is installing permanent photovoltaic solar arrays around the island.

The New Urban Crisis: How Our Cities Are Increasing Inequality, Deepening Segregation, and Failing the Middle Class—and What We Can Do About It

By Richard Florida

James S. Russell, FAIA Emeritus

June 1, 2017

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In his latest book, The Rise of the Creative Class–author Richard Florida argues that the stratospheric housing prices, costly entrepreneur-stifling zoning regulations, and homogenizing tidiness of "superstar cities" threaten to kill the creative ethos.

Plans for Google’s Mountain View Campus

James S. Russell, FAIA Emeritus

August 16, 2015

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Google's radical proposal for flexible offices includes stackable modular components.

Water and Resilience

Continuing Education: Ten Years After Katrina

New Orleans Goes with the Flow: Ten years after Katrina, the city learns to live with water.

James S. Russell, FAIA Emeritus

July 16, 2015

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The rebuilding of New Orleans 10 years after Hurricane Katrina is as patchwork and kaleidoscopic as the city itself.

Patience and Fortitude: Power, Real Estate, and the Fight to Save a Public Library

James S. Russell, FAIA Emeritus

July 16, 2015

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By Scott Sherman. Melville House, June 2015, 224 pages, $26. A historic-preservation battle over Carr're and Hastings's 1911 marble palace for the New York Public Library is the subject of Scott Sherman's Patience and Fortitude: Power, Real Estate, and the Fight to Save a Public Library. The title's grandiosity is somewhat misleading: at no time was the landmark's exterior or its public spaces endangered by a controversial consolidation plan. Yet the battle over the main branch of the New York Public Library, which rises majestically along two city blocks behind a pair of stone lions (the Patience and Fortitude of

Architecture & Money

Continuing Education: Is Bigger Better?

Architects worry that design takes a back seat when firms merge and expand.

James S. Russell, FAIA Emeritus

May 16, 2015

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Last year, Los Angeles'based AECOM merged with engineering giant URS and became a firm with $19 billion in revenues and 100,000 employees.

Mega Patron

Philanthropist Eli Broad gives big but expects control.

James S. Russell, FAIA Emeritus

May 16, 2015

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Eli Broad has his name on several buildings by high-profile architects, including The Broad in Los Angeles by Diller Scofidio + Renfro, opening this fall.

Ando Adds to his 2001 Pulitzer Arts Foundation

James S. Russell, FAIA Emeritus

May 6, 2015

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Tadao Ando has just added 3,700 square feet of new gallery space to his Pulitzer Arts Foundation in St. Louis, which first opened in 2001. The exterior of the introverted reinforced-concrete structure remains unchanged. The Pulitzer Arts Foundation unveiled 3,700 square feet of new gallery space May 1, tucked within the serenely introverted structure designed by Tokyo-based Tadao Ando. In 2001, the Pulitzer opened in the Grand Center arts district of St. Louis with two long wings enclosed in honed concrete embracing a shallow reflecting pool and sculpture terrace. The main gallery, which remains unaltered, captures the movement of sun

Innovations in Glass

Continuing Education: Curved Glass

Straight Story on Curves: Fabrication advances allow architects to make glass buildings that are not only transparent or translucent but sculptural.

James S. Russell, FAIA Emeritus

March 1, 2015

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Fabrication advances allow architects to make glass buildings that are not only transparent or translucent but sculptural. Photo © Thies Raetzke The Elbphilarmonie, a mixed-use complex designed by Herzog & de Meuron, is nearing completion on a riverfront site in Hamburg, Germany. To earn one AIA learning unit (LU), including one hour of health, safety, and welfare (HSW) credit, read each of the articles below and complete the test online. Upon passing, you will receive a certificate of completion and your credit will automatically be reported to the AIA. Find additional information regarding credit-reporting and continuing-education requirements at ce.construction.com, under

Credits: 1 AIA LU/Elective; 1 AIBD P-CE; 0.1 ICC CEU; 0.1 IACET CEU

Join Steve Burns, FAIA, Founder of The Well-Designed Firm, for an essential webinar on the best practices for succession planning and leadership transition.

Credits: 1 AIA LU/HSW; 1 AIBD P-CE; 0.1 ICC CEU; 0.1 IACET CEU

This course examines the causes of noise problems, offers acoustical performance requirements, and recommends practical building techniques to reduce noise in multifamily settings.