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Rising on a 358-acre monastery on the Hawaiian island of Kauai is an architectural feat rare in today’s world: a 3.2-million-pound stone structure built entirely by hand. Arguably the most elaborate Hindu temple in the United States, the $8 million white granite San Marga Iraivan Temple, designed by V. Ganapati Sthapati for the Saiva Siddhanta Church, is intended to last 1,000 years. Construction began in 2001 and is scheduled to be finished in 2012. Photos courtesy Hinduism Today Magazine The San Marga Iraivan Temple is being built on a 358-acre monastery on the Hawaiian island of Kauai. Hundreds of temples

Art Museum to Serve as Dynamic Gateway for Belgian Town In November 2007, the Université Catholique de Louvain, in Belgium, launched a design competition for a new museum to replace the current, cramped home of its Renaissance paintings, contemporary art, and African sculpture. The winner was announced this past June: Chicago-based Perkins+Will, Brussels architect Emile Verhaegen, and sustainability consultant MATRIciel. The team beat out Charles Vandenhove, Massimiliano Fuksas, and the British firm Tectonics. Images courtesy Perkins+Will A new art museum for Louvain-la-Neuve, in Belgium, is being designed by Perkins+Will, architect Emile Verhaegen, and sustainability consultant MATRIciel. The future venue, which

A Modern Addition Planned for a Picturesque Museum in Zurich In December the Swiss federal parliament, as well as the state and municipal governments of Zurich, approved funding for an extension to the Swiss National Museum. Groundbreaking on the 111 million CFH ($93.5 million) addition, designed by the Basel, Switzerland–based Christ & Gantenbein Architects, will take place in 2010 with completion scheduled for 2013. Images courtesy Christ & Gantenbein Architects Switzerland'based Christ & Gantenbein Architects has designed a new wing for the Swiss National Museum in Zurich. The extension will add approximately 79,000 square feet to the original museum, which

For a Utah Museum, Polshek Takes Its Cue from the Land Polshek Partnership has designed a new, 161,000-square-foot facility for the Utah Museum of Natural History in Salt Lake City. The $98 million project will enable the 45-year-old institution to better showcase its collection of fossils, rocks, minerals, and other artifacts. Presently, only 1 percent of the museum’s 1.2-million-piece collection is on display in its current location, the George Thomas Building on the University of Utah campus. Images courtesy Polshek Partnership Polshek Partnership has designed a new, 161,000-square-foot facility for the Utah Museum of Natural History in Salt Lake City.

Although the current financial crisis may make the good times of 2007 feel like ancient history, the AIA has confirmed that architectural compensation enjoyed a stratospheric rise from 2005 to the beginning of 2008. Not only did the 2008 AIA Compensation Survey find that salaries for architecture positions increased more than 5.7 percent annually during that period—the strongest performance since the AIA began collecting compensation data in 1990—but also that they outpaced the rest of the economy. Graphs courtesy AIA Since 2002, the salaries of architects and unlicensed staff have risen an impressive 29.2 percent while the salaries of all

A year ago, actor Brad Pitt presented lot owners in the devastated Lower 9th Ward of New Orleans with a portfolio of designs by 13 well-regarded architects, saying, in essence, choose a design and your house will be built. Photo ' Virginia Miller/courtesy Make It Right Foundation A house designed by Graft, a Los Angeles firm, is one of six recently completed in the Lower 9th Ward of New Orleans. The first six homes built by Pitt’s Make It Right Foundation are now finished. They represent not only fresh starts for homeowners, but also blueprints for affordable, storm-resistant, and sustainable

The American Institute of Architects today announced that Clyde Porter, FAIA, will receive its 2009 Whitney M. Young Jr. Award. Barbara Nadel, FAIA, will be honored with the 2009 Edward C. Kemper Award for Service to the Profession. The association’s Twenty-Five Year Award for 2009 will go to Faneuil Hall in Boston by Benjamin Thompson & Associates. The Whitney M. Young Jr. Award is given each year to an architect or organization “exemplifying the profession’s responsibility toward current social issues.” Both in his present position as the vice chancellor of facilities for the Dallas County Community College District and as

As summer ebbed, many U.S. architecture firms were touting how their expansion into foreign markets, which had ramped up in earnest over the last few years, could hedge them against any domestic economic downturn. The reasons? Strong currencies. Non-reliance on foreign trade. Under-housed populations. Robust oil revenue. Image courtesy HKS The HKS-designed Royal Children's Hospital, in Melbourne, is under construction. Despite the global financial crisis, HKS says there's still a demand for healthcare facilities in Australia. Related Links: Brazil: Firms Still Moving Forward China: Stimulus Package Offers Hope Germany: Looking Farther Afield for Jobs India: Bowing to New Realities Japan:

The London-based Arts Alliance Productions (AAP) has been putting on “ID: Identity of the Soul” since 1994. This theatrical work, based on Henrik Ibsen’s epic poem “Terje Vigen” and Mahmoud Darwish’s poem “A Soldier Dreams of White Lilies,” features dancers navigating around five screens displaying graphically manipulated landscapes. The set designs have been equally nimble. The show debuted in southern Norway with AAP improvising a lighthouse as a projection surface; for a staging in Japan in 2006, the group fashioned sails into screens by draping them over shipping containers in Yokohama harbor. Image courtesy Various Architects Measuring 40,900 square feet,