A new documentary attempts to alter how we look at St. Louis's infamous public housing project. The first Pruitt-Igoe building to be demolished was imploded in 1972. Click on the slide show button to view additional images. The Pruitt-Igoe housing project seen before its demolition. Accepted wisdom will have us believe St. Louis' infamous Pruitt-Igoe public housing development was destined for failure. Designed by George Hellmuth and World Trade Center architect Minoru Yamasaki (of Leinweber, Yamasaki & Hellmuth), the 33-building complex opened in 1954, its Modernist towers touted as a remedy to overcrowding in the city’s tenements. Rising crime, neglected
Photo courtesy Brian Snelson/Wikipedia In February, architects from around the globe will meet in Havana to discuss a master plan that aims to preserve the city’s rich cultural heritage. Related Link: New Film Celebrates an Unsung Icon of Modern Cuban Architecture For decades, Havana has charmed foreigners who visited the Caribbean city well-known for its sultry music, world-class cigars, and cacharros, the vintage American automobiles imported to the country prior to the 1959 revolution. The urban landscape is like few others: Located on Cuba’s northern coast, this city of 2.1 million people is endowed with a range of architectural styles,
Modern Dance School. Click on the slide show button to view additional images. Related Links:Havana: Bracing for a Boom If architecture embodies a culture’s history and values, perhaps no project better represents Cuba since the 1960s than the National Art Schools in Havana. After sitting neglected for decades, a symbol of the Cuban Revolution’s lost idealism, the campus is getting the recognition it deserves thanks to Unfinished Spaces, a new feature-length documentary by New York-based filmmakers Alysa Nahmias, Assoc. AIA, and Benjamin Murray. Begun in 1961, Cuba’s National Art Schools comprise five institutions: the Schools of Plastic Arts and Modern
Image courtesy Drexel University Plans call for restoring the stone-clad house and constructing a 4,600-square-foot addition. The building will double as an educational space and dorm. Image courtesy Drexel University The dwelling, built in 1872, has sat vacant since the late 1990s. Situated on a tree-lined street on the Drexel University campus in West Philadelphia, a stone-clad dwelling circa 1872 served as the Pi Lambda Phi fraternity house for three-plus decades. In the late 1990s, however, the university shuttered the residence following an arson incident. It has sat vacant ever since. Now, a student-run organization backed by faculty members is
The architect discusses winning this year's Driehaus Prize, which honors classical architecture and traditional urbanism, and how he plans to spend the $200k award. 2012 Driehaus Prize winner Michael Graves Photo courtesy University of Notre Dame School of Architecture Michael Graves is better known for appropriating traditional forms in his monumental Postmodern compositions than for being a strict classicist, so it may seem surprising that in December he was named the winner of the 2012 Driehaus Prize, which celebrates architects who advance classicism in their work. Graves, the founding principal of the New York- and New Jersey-based firm Michael Graves
While architects report some progress, rebuilding challenges persist. Architecture for Humanity recently completed construction of Ecole la Dignité, a school in Jacmel. Read more about the project in an upcoming issue of Architectural Record. Dozens of housing prototypes are now on display at an expo outside of Port-au-Prince. Click on the slide show button to see images. Read more about the expo: Haiti: A Housing Expo Gone Bad Related Links:Haiti Dispatch: Ongoing Report on the Rebuilding Effort A Housing Expo Gone BadHaiti: Few Major Haiti Reconstruction Projects Have BegunIn Haiti, Emerging Signs of Progress Haiti Experiences Progress, Exasperation Two Years
Cornell University topped the competition to build a new tech campus with an SOM design that aims to generate more energy than it uses. Click on the slide show button to view additional images. When New York City named Cornell University and The Technion-Israel Institute of Technology winners of its highly touted competition for a new “tech campus,” there were cheers in Ithaca and Haifa. Also celebrating were architects in the New York office of Skidmore Owings and Merrill, whose design for the campus, on the south end of Roosevelt Island, were part of Cornell and Technion’s proposal. Among the
The firm's chiseled office building will mark the eastern gate to the city. Click on the slide show button to view additional images. A 606-ft-high chiseled obelisk designed by FXFOWLE, New York City, will delineate the eastern entrance to Istanbul when construction finishes in July 2014. Renaissance Tower, as the office building will be known, is being developed by Ankara-based Renaissance Construction Co., which plans to lease most of the 914,900-sq-ft high-rise. Located on the Asian side of Istanbul, the 44-story tower will be a highly visible landmark in this city of roughly 12 million people. Situated in the developing
U.S. firm Moore Ruble Yudell is master planning a huge development for China's largest agriculture company. Click on the slide show button to view additional images. China's largest agriculture company has hired California-based Moore Ruble Yudell Architects & Planners (MRY) to master plan a 1,215-hectare agricultural and residential development 30 miles southwest of Beijing. The project, called the Agricultural Eco Valley, will be carbon-neutral. With all of the recent tainted food scares in China, the client, COFCO, has a high stake in ensuring its brand is equated with food safety, says James Mary O'Connor, a MRY principal. "[COFCO sees] themselves
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