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BR: How has your training as an architect informed your career in policy? SD: What I appreciated so much about my training is the interdisciplinary way that architects approach problems. The process of being trained in design ideally is about being able to integrate, to bring together different kinds of constituencies. One of the reasons I became so fascinated with affordable housing, and more broadly community development, is because they connect to so many other things. When a family chooses a home, they're choosing much more than that. They're choosing access to jobs; they're choosing public safety. Our work at

Shaun Donovan, the U.S. Secretary of Housing and Urban Development and a Harvard-trained architect, recently attended the ground-breaking ceremony for Via Verde, a mixed-income apartment community in the South Bronx that he says exemplifies the Obama administration’s “fundamentally different” approach to housing—a move away from the Corbusian, tabula rasa model to one that supports local visions of site design. RECORD’s Bryant Rousseau spoke with Donovan, 44, about the stimulus package, his focus on planning, and the opportunity for architects to play a larger role in transforming communities. Photo © Kristine Larsen U.S. HUD Secretary Shaun Donovan Related Links: Affordable Housing

Home to an expanding light-rail system, a thriving bike culture, a citywide recycling program, and a large number of LEED-certified buildings, Portland, Oregon, has long been known for its green sensibility. So it seems fitting that a government building there may soon be sheathed in a 200-foot-high living wall that would be visible from miles away. Rendering courtesy of Scott Baumberger, Baumberger Studio Related Links: Healthcare Awards: Portland Prevails Providence Portland Medical Center Portland Aerial Tram Portland Art Museum Portland International Airport The vegetated facade is part of a roughly $135 million overhaul planned for the Edith Green-Wendell Wyatt Federal

Images courtesy Reiser + Umemoto Construction is expected to begin in 2012 on Taipei Pop Music Center, a $110-million entertainment complex. If all goes as planned, Taiwanese pop will get an expansive home where musical culture meets high design. Construction is expected to begin in 2012 on Taipei Pop Music Center, a $110-million entertainment complex envisioned by Reiser + Umemoto RUR Architecture, with engineers from Arup Associates. The team’s competition-winning design for a difficult 823,000-square-foot site in Taipei places three main structures on two separate pieces of land, which will be connected by a broad new walkway built over an

In an attempt to decorate the thousands of temporary protective structures that surround construction sites across the city, the New York City Department of Buildings is launching a design competition that invites artists and designers to use these structures as a way to display their art. Photo © Tom Sawyer/ENR There are more than 6,000 sidewalk sheds in New York City. Related Links: An 'Urban Umbrella' for Construction Sites NYC Launches UrbanShed Competition Supported by a grant from the Rockefeller Foundation to the Mayor’s Fund, Urbancanvas asks participants to create designs for fences, sheds, and other support and safety structures

Photo courtesy Ennead Architects The Frank Sinatra School of the Arts, in New York City, is one of the firm's recent projects. NAME CHANGES The firm has been renamed several times since its founding in 1963. James Stewart Polshek Architect (1963-70) James Stewart Polshek and Associates (1970-80) James Stewart Polshek and Partners (1980-94) Polshek and Partners (1994-98) Polshek Partnership (1998-2010) Related Links: New York Hall of Science Holland Performing Arts Center Univ. of Michigan Research Facility NYC Museum Undergoes $97 Million Makeover Polshek's News Museum Opens in D.C. Polshek Fuses Media and Architecture Polshek Partnership, which has been named for

Five months after a severe earthquake devastated parts of Haiti, a Senate report, released June 22, says there are troubling indications that the process of reconstructing the country has "stalled." The report, by the Senate Foreign Relations Committee's Democratic staff, gives a blunt analysis of the situation, saying that "Haiti is at a significant crossroads." It lists "critical issues" to be addressed in 10 key areas, including developing "a feasible, comprehensive rebuilding strategy" and getting the Interim Haiti Recovery Commission fully operational. The committee staff analysis also calls on Haitian President Rene Preval to "take a more visible and active

As Haiti rebuilds after its cataclysmic earthquake, the government there has launched a first-of-its-kind design competition to help replace the country’s decimated housing stock. Photo © Google Maps Click on the slide show icon to see additional photos. Related Links: Special Report: Rebuilding Haiti Design Experts Convene for Symposium Rural Haiti Project On June 17, the Republic of Haiti unveiled “Building Back Better Communities,” which invites architects and non-architects alike from around the globe to create homes for a 12-acre former sugar plantation on the outskirts of Port-au-Prince. Because the site was not affected by the quake and is city