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Frank Lloyd Wright pushed the limitations of technology with his buildings, sometimes pushing past them and bequeathing problems to future stewards. Fallingwater, the Edgar J. Kaufmann Sr. residence completed in 1939, required a major restoration in 2002. The house’s dramatic cantilevers had deflected dangerously with the main cantilever sagging an alarming seven inches. The restoration team, including structural engineer Robert Silman Associates (RSA) and architect WASA/Studio A were able to halt, but not correct, the deflection with post-tensioning cables—a solution as innovative as Wright’s design. Photo by Robert Johnson, Architectural Business Development, Quantapoint ' The Solomon R. Guggenheim Foundation (top);

Gazprom City, the planned 1,050-foot-tall headquarters in St. Petersburg for the energy giant Gazprom, has been rechristened the “Okhta Center,” which refers to the traditional name for the neighborhood where it could be built. The skyscraper’s name may have softened, but not its potentially harsh visual impact on the historical skyline. Image Courtesy RMJM / © www.glocg.com Gazprom City, the RMJM-designed 1,050-foot-tall headquarters in St. Petersburg for the energy giant Gazprom, has been rechristened the “Okhta Center. UNESCO cautioned in August that if the tower, designed by Edinburgh-based RMJM, is built as planned, St. Petersburg risks losing “world heritage” status,

It looks as though a library designed by Marcel Breuer in Grosse Pointe Farms, Michigan, will be spared the wrecking ball. The local community library board met last night to evaluate an expansion plan designed by Boston-based designLAB architects. The scheme retains the original, 1953-vintage building and doubles its space with a sympathetic, Breuer-inspired addition. Although the board is not scheduled to vote on the scheme until October 22, momentum has decisively shifted away from an earlier push to demolish Breuer’s only Detroit-area building. Photo © John Gallagher Opened in 1953, the Grosse Point Public Library is the only Detroit-area

Summertime turmoil in credit markets finally caught up with billings at architecture firms. The American Institute of Architects’ Architectural Billings Index (ABI) fell 6.1 points from its near-record high in July for a score of 53.9 in August; the volume of inquiries also tumbled by a similar amount for a score of 60.5. Although these numbers marked the biggest drop since September 2006, when the ABI lost 7.3 points, billings remain healthy since any score over 50 points represents growth. Kermit Baker, the AIA’s chief economist, explained in a press release that while the ABI is compiled using data mainly

A pledge by Harvard University to cap carbon emissions from a new cluster of science buildings, heralded last week, coincided with a bit of green news from the second-oldest Ivy. Yale University announced that Foster + Partners is designing a LEED-certified building to triple the size of its business school.  Harvard’s news comes as part of its six-year-old Green Campus Initiative, which has guided Cooper, Robertson & Partners’ plans for a 341-acre expansion campus into Allston, near its historic home in Cambridge, Massachusetts. The university is pledged last week that its new Allston Science Complex will emit no more than

Editor’s note: You may read the news digest below or listen to it, plus other news headlines from ArchitecturalRecord.com, as a podcast by clicking this link. Click the play button to begin | Click here to download Daniel Libeskind is designing an addition to New York City’s One Madison Avenue, also known as the old Met Life Building, that, at 900 feet, would make it the city’s tallest residential structure, according to a September 20 article in the Israeli publication Globes. The existing complex includes a 700-foot tower designed by Napoleon LeBrun & Sons; completed in 1909, t is modeled

Transbay won’t rise as high as his Petronas Towers in Malaysia, but Cesar Pelli and his firm have won the rights to design what could become the tallest tower in San Francisco. Pelli Clarke Pelli Architects, teamed with developer Hines, were awarded exclusive negotiating rights yesterday to a choice site in downtown San Francisco owned by the Transbay Joint Powers Authority (TJPA), which seeks to rebuild the aging Transbay Terminal facility next door. Image: Courtesy Transbay Joint Powers Authority, Pelli Clarke Pelli Architects, WRNS Studio, Hines Pelli Clarke Pelli and developer Hines’ scheme for the new Transbay Terminal and skyscraper

Manhattan’s Storefront for Art and Architecture celebrates its 25th birthday this month and the gallery is breaking out hula hoops to celebrate. Over the coming weeks, the non-profit gallery will host a series of public events in “Ring Dome,” a temporary pavilion, designed by Korean architect Minsuk Cho of Seoul-based Mass Studies, made of 1,000 off-the-shelf plastic hoops stuffed with electroluminescent wire. Image: Courtesy Storefront for Art and Architecture The Storefront for Art and Architecture celebrates its 25th birthday this month with “Ring Dome,” a temporary pavilion designed by Korean architect Minsuk Cho of Seoul-based Mass Studies. The sculpture is