Editor’s note: New this week, with the unveiling of the redesigned ArchRecord.com, you may read the news digest below—or listen to it, plus other news headlines from ArchRecord.com, as a podcast. Click the play button to begin | Click here to download Is Frank Gehry’s Manhattan debut a “minor mood piece” or a “milky hulk”? Take your pick of these less-than-flattering phrases to describe his IAC office building in Chelsea, which Newsday critic Justin Davidson reviewed on April 15. “Instead of being a marvelous mirage, it’s only an office building wrapped in a gimmick,” he wrote of the white-glass-clad structure.

Bint Jbail is a small town in southern Lebanon. Labeled a Hezbollah stronghold, it was especially hard hit by Israeli air strikes during last summer’s war—more than 2,500 houses were damaged and 800 completely destroyed. But when Howayda Al-Harithy, an associate professor of architecture at the American University of Beirut and a member of its postwar reconstruction unit, arrived shortly after the August 14 cease-fire, she found reason for hope. Photo: © Gabriela Bulisova Photo: © Jessica Dheere As a preservation expert, Al-Harithy saw that much of Bint Jbail’s historic fabric had survived. On returning to Beirut, she asked her

In the absence of concerted federal leadership, cities and states have been taking the lead in addressing the issue of climate change. But now, with the help of the American Institute of Architects (AIA), the federal government is stepping up to the plate. The day after his State of the Union speech in January, President Bush signed Executive Order 13423, which mandates green building targets for all executive branch agencies. Topping a long list of goals, it calls for a 3 percent annual reduction in energy intensity, defined as energy consumption per square foot of building space, and increased use

Ask David Childs, of Skidmore Owings & Merrill, what he thinks the most important project in New York City is right now and his reply might surprise you—not the Freedom Tower, as you might expect, but the relocation of Penn Station from its current site under Madison Square Garden into a McKim Mead & White post office across the street. Click above to watch a video of some of New York's most influential architects discussing the city's future. “It’s the centerpiece of New York, it’s the front door,” Childs says. “It’s the piece that ties us together along to the

With the ambitious goal of reducing its greenhouses gas emissions 30 percent by the year 2030, the City of New York recently completed an inventory of its carbon output from buildings and transportation—and the results weren’t pretty when it comes to buildings, which contribute a whopping 79 percent of the total emissions. The audit is the most comprehensive ever undertaken by a city. Its findings came as a surprise to some observers, given that New Yorkers, with their tiny apartments and extensive mass transit network, produce about one-third the carbon per capita compared to the national average. Given the city’s

Message to Brad Pitt: if you’re reading this, Dion Neutra, AIA, has a business proposition for you. Neutra, son of the late California modernist Richard Neutra, is looking for someone to buy his firm’s former office, in Silver Lake, California. Completed in 1950, it is now his father’s only surviving commercial structure. The asking price is $3.5 million, but there’s a catch. In addition to paying all-cash, a buyer must agree to leave the landmarked property untouched—or risk losing the deed. Photo: Courtesy Dion Neutra Neutra created this innovative conservation easement because he’s frustrated with seeing his father’s iconic buildings,

CityCenter Scores Greenbacks for Going Green Project CityCenter, MGM Mirage’s starchitect-studded $7 billion complex on the Las Vegas Strip, is the nation’s largest privately funded development. It also aims to be the greenest for a project of its size, seeking a LEED Silver rating. Image courtesy Gensler Situated on 76 acres between the Monte Carlo and Bellagio resorts, CityCenter includes 18 million square feet of hotels, casinos, retail shops, and residential space. Among the architects tapped to design it are Rafael Viñoly, who did a 50-story, 1,543-unit condo-hotel; Norman Foster, who produced a hotel and condominium tower called “The Harmon”;

Gehry's First Vegas Building Breaks Ground Frank Gehry’s a hit in Vegas. Construction on his design for the 67,000-square-foot Lou Ruvo Brain Institute began in February. It is the 78-year-old architect’s first building in Sin City. Images courtesy Gehry Partners When it opens in late 2008, the new five-story institute will contain clinical, research, and outpatient exam rooms for brain-disease patients, plus offices and a 400-seat banquet hall. Additional elements include a Wolfgang Puck cafè as well as a two-story, 5,000-square-foot “Museum of the Mind” featuring interactive educational displays. The 1.9-acre complex, located at Bonneville Avenue and Grand Central Parkway,