Courtesy Work Architecture CompanyWork Architecture Company (WORKac) has won an international competition to design the Assembly Hall for the 2014 Summit of the African Union.

Audi CEO Rupert Stadler announced that the Boston Firm Höweler + Yoon won the German automaker’s second Urban Future Award at an event in Istanbul last night. The €100,000 prize was the culmination of a competition to design a speculative, transportation-focused vision for a large-scale urban area.

Images courtesy Peter Pran + H ArchitectsA competition jury for the Nanjing Jiangning Civic and Cultural Center in Nanjing, China, has recently selected New York City-based Peter Pran + H Architects' design for a new cultural facility. 

Law students Widener Law School's Environmental Law Center have created an excellent website that clearly highlights President Obama's and Mitt Romney's positions on a range of sustainability issues, as well as those of the major party Pennsylvania Senate candidates.

Image courtesy Renzo Piano Building WorkshopThe Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences released Renzo Piano's and Zoltan Pali's designs yesterday for its Academy Museum of Motion Pictures, which will be located in the May Company Wilshire Building in Los Angeles.

Photo © George HiroseLast night, architect Toyo Ito addressed a packed auditorium at the New York non-profit cultural organization Japan Society. The Japanese-born, Tokyo-based designer was there to address his role in the ongoing rebuilding efforts in Japan's Tohoku region following the country's March 11, 2011 earthquake, tsunami, and nuclear disaster.

Photo © Paul WarcholAccording to the New York Times, two major donors to the Franklin D. Roosevelt Four Freedoms Park (RECORD, October 2012) on Roosevelt Island are suing the park's sponsors in State Supreme Court because they say a promise to engrave their names close to the memorial bust has not been honored.

Tonight the American Architectural Foundation honors David M. Childs as the inaugural recipient of the George M. White Award for Excellence in Public Architecture at the National Building Museum in Washington, D.C.

Image courtesy The Skyscraper MuseumThe Skyscraper Museum is hosting a new lecture series on creative design approaches for tall towers and how these structures can support rapid urbanization and sustainable living. The first of the "What's Up?" talks, on Monday, October 15, will examine various solutions offered by the decorated Singapore-based architecture firm WOHA.

Burj Khalifa by Skidmore, Owings & Merrill. Photo © Iwan BaanAt a whopping 2,717 feet, the SOM-designed Burj Khalifa in Dubai is the tallest building in the world, more than twice the height of the Empire State Building. “We’ve created a new animal,” says William F. Baker, an SOM structural engineer who designed the building. In a decade, a group of architects has introduced a new building type, the “cloud busting” skyscraper, exceeding FAA height regulations for U.S. buildings and raising unprecedented structural and design challenges.