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The Van Alen Institute plans to announce today that its executive director, Adi Shamir, is stepping down. Shamir cites an interest in focusing on her family and finishing several book projects as the reason for her resignation. She came to the organization in the summer of 2006, following the departure of Ray Gastil, who was there for nearly ten years. Joan Ockman, a VAI trustee and associate professor at Columbia’s Graduate School of Architecture, Planning and Preservation, will serve as interim director during an international search for Shamir’s replacement, which begins immediately. While the New York-based organization has a 100-year

In 2008, the National Trust for Historic Preservation listed New Orleans’ Charity Hospital and the neighborhood surrounding it, the Mid-City Historic District, on its list of America’s most endangered historic places. Now, the Trust is taking its protective efforts a step further. Photo © Walter Gallas/courtesy National Trust for Historic Preservation The Mid-City Historic District is rich in iconic New Orleans architectural styles, such as Creole cottages and shotgun houses. Related Links: What Will Happen to Charity Hospital? Trust Announces 11 Most Endangered Sites Mid-Century Architecture at Risk in New Orleans On May 1, the Trust filed a lawsuit against

Prepare your portfolios—entries are now being accepted for a competition to identify the best new buildings around the globe. Organizers of the World Architecture Festival, held for the first time last fall, have announced that this year’s event will take place in Barcelona, from November 4 to 6. The main component of the festival is an international awards program judged by notable architects, writers, and editors. Among the big-name jurors this year are Kengo Kuma, Peter Cook, Will Alsop, Rafael Viñoly, and Lee Polisano. Photo ' Jens Lindhe/courtesy World Architecture Festival The 2008 winner in the housing category was Mountain

Correction appended May 27, 2009 To preserve the prehistoric bones at Waco Mammoth Site, Cotera+Reed Architects has strived to intertwine the firm’s creative vision with the immutable realities of sunlight, Central Texas heat, and the rigors of scientific preservation. The Austin-based firm has designed an 8,400-square-foot shelter for the dig site that will be open to the public. It will be one of fewer than a dozen buildings in the United States that enclose prehistoric remains in situ—that is, located where they were first discovered. Portions of at least 25 Columbian mammoth skeletons, dating back some 68,000 years, have been

On Saturday, May 23, students, teachers, and admirers of Riverview High School in Sarasota, Florida, plan to spend the day meandering among its rooms and hallways, paying their final respects to the Paul Rudolph–designed building. The gathering was prompted by a May 5 decision by the Sarasota County School Board to approve funds to demolish the structure, which will take place some time during summer break. Photo © Ezra Stoller/Esto On May 5, the Sarasota County School Board approved the funds to demolish Riverview High School. The decision and pending teardown culminates a years-long debate over the merits of the

Correction appended July 13, 2009 Construction of a new, $107-million U.S. District Courthouse on a long-dormant block in rapidly redeveloping downtown Austin will soon get under way thanks to federal stimulus funds. Funding from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act also allowed the project’s original construction timetable to be moved up. Image courtesy White Construction Company The building was designed by Atlanta-based Mack Scogin Merrill Elam Architects, with Paige Southerland Paige serving as a local consultant. Related Links: Mack Scogin Merrill Elam Designs Courthouse Austin's Tallest Building Halfway There How Architects Can Land a Government Contract The Final Stimulus Bill,

Architects from eight firms, ranging from a young New Orleans collective to world-renowned Gehry Partners, currently are racing to finish schematic designs for Make It Right. In mid-March the organization, founded by actor Brad Pitt to rebuild 150 houses in New Orleans’ Lower Ninth Ward after Hurricane Katrina, tapped the firms to contribute additional designs to the effort. Their visions will be released June 20. In addition to Gehry Partners, the firms include William McDonough + Partners, Atelier Hitoshi Abe, Los Angeles–based Kappe Architects/Planners, the Chilean studio Elemental, and three New Orleans firms—Bild Design, buildingstudio, and Waggoner & Ball Architects.

What could become the nation’s first standard for high-performance buildings moved a step closer to adoption earlier this month with the release of a third draft for public comment. The latest version of Proposed Standard 189.1 has stricter energy conservation provisions and reflects input from a broader cross-section of experts, according to its developers. National laboratories currently are using energy modeling to determine how much more savings could be generated with the latest version of the standard compared to previous drafts. “I would anticipate [savings to go] up at least another 5 percent,” says Kent Peterson, chair of the development

In an example of a firm doing more with less, in April RMJM announced the launch of a sports design studio. The studio is based in the company’s Hong Kong office and is overseen by new hire John Pauline. Pauline had lead all of PTW Architects’ projects for the Beijing 2008 Olympic Games, including the Watercube, and served as a competition venue planning specialist to that host city’s organizing committee. RMJM is no stranger to sports venues—the firm designed the 2.9-million-square-foot Beijing Olympic Green Convention Centre, and it is vying to design facilities for the Glasgow 2014 Commonwealth Games. Pauline