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October 2012 Reinventing the urban realm for the 21st century. Detroit was the first real city I knew. I grew up less than an hour's drive away, and am old enough to remember when downtown Detroit had beautiful stores and restaurants, and where my parents might take me to shop for school clothes, followed by a fancy lunch. Later in the 1960s, I remember the news of cities burning and the term "white flight" -the race-based exodus that sealed the steady decline of industrial urban America. Photo © Michel Arnaud But for some years now, the country has been turning

Designing great interiors calls on architecture's best. Architectural Record's annual Interiors issue is a favorite among readers both inside the profession and out. Who doesn't enjoy ogling photographs of a room's rich finishes and furnishings, such as those on display in the pages ahead? Yet frankly, even we acknowledge it's a little weird to consider interiors apart from “architecture.” Clients often divide duties between architect and interior designer, but the essential values should be no different: the artful creation of space and deployment of light; the careful designation of materials and details. Eero Saarinen, who designed chairs, master plans, and

Western architects are beginning to design all over the swiftly urbanizing continent. We all know that American architects are finding work in China, Korea, and Qatar—but Angola, Botswana, and Burundi? Africa is booming: The continent is home to seven of the 10 fastest-growing economies in the world, according to the International Monetary Fund. It is also urbanizing at astonishing speed, with rapidly rising education rates and a burgeoning middle class. Yes, in parts of Africa there are tragic clashes of violence, desperate refugees, and entrenched poverty—and growing development may only widen the socioeconomic chasms. But news reports rarely paint the

Justin Shubow, president and chairman of the board at the National Civic Art Society, responds to RECORD editor-in-chief Cathleen McGuigan's July editorial, which criticizes his organization's handling of the Eisenhower Memorial. To the Editor: In the lead editorial in the July 2012 issue of Architectural Record, Cathleen McGuigan writes that the National Civic Art Society opposes Frank Gehry’s ugly deconstructionist design for the national Eisenhower Memorial since we seek to protect “the classical city envisioned by Pierre L’Enfant and our nation’s Founders.” She retorts, “Interpreting our founders’ convictions as extending to 21st-century design is an astonishing exercise in fantasy.” Related Links:

Buildling Types Study - Specific Type Here: Project 1 project 2 project 3 project 4 Finding the delicate balance between tradition and innovation. A friend who recently returned from China remarked that the country reflects the past, present, and future, all at the same time. In smog-choked Beijing, where the 15th-century Temple of Heaven is still a beloved and much-visited oasis, the eye-popping, epic-scale works of contemporary architecture—the CCTV headquarters by OMA, the Bird’s Nest by Herzog & de Meuron—announce that the future is already here. Photo © Michel Arnaud But the latest Pritzker laureate, Chinese architect Wang Shu, has

How the 2012 Olympics became the “alibi” for reclaiming a derelict swath of the city. After the gold medals are carried home and the frenzy of each Summer Olympics dies down, what becomes of the much-televised architecture and urban designs created for the Games? Beijing’s Bird’s Nest from 2008—that spectacular blend of artistry and engineering by Herzog & de Meuron and Ai Weiwei—is mostly visited by tourists these days, who grab a shot of themselves in front of it, but its vast interior is only intermittently filled with shopping stalls or the occasional athletic event or concert. In Sydney, the

The American Enterprise Institute responds to Ben Adler's commentary about a recent forum on memorial designs. Dear Editors: In the recent commentary “Modernism Takes a Beating at Forum on Memorial Design,” Ben Adler casts our panel discussion, “Monumental fights: The Role of Memorials in Civic Life,” co-hosted by the National Civic Art Society, as an attack by conservative “curmudgeons” on architectural Modernism. “The event served as a reminder that certain people will always revile Modernism for both ideological and aesthetic reasons,” Adler writes. Related Links: Modernism Takes a Beating at Forum on Memorial Design Adler is correct that the panel

The American dream crashed with the economy. Can architecture bring it back? In this political season, we’re hearing a lot of talk about reclaiming the American dream. And nothing says “American dream” like the single-family house, though it’s a sore subject for the 4 million families who’ve lost their homes to foreclosure since 2007, or the hundreds of thousands more in limbo, with the roofs over their heads worth less than the mortgages they owe. Photo © Michel Arnaud But now new house construction, which had slowed dramatically, is beginning to rise: Housing starts are up, particularly for multifamily dwellings,

Can public-interest design become a viable alternative to traditional practice? Last month Salon published an article titled “The Architecture Meltdown.” The piece, by Scott Timberg, detailed the high unemployment rates, the shrinking fees, and the tough climate for fresh architecture grads, weighed down by heavy student debt. It’s so bad, said one architect, Guy Horton (a contributor to architectural record), that architecture has become “the new English major.” The article’s author blamed the poor economy, of course, but he also tore into the profession as the designer of its own demise. While the media has lionized the starchitect—the solo creative