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The New York City Planning Department and New York City Economic Development Corporation (NYCEDC) have unveiled a proposed comprehensive zoning plan for Coney Island that could require developer Thor Equities to scale back its plans for building a massive hotel and entertainment complex in the Brooklyn neighborhood. The new framework also might spare the Astroland amusement park, which faced possible demolition, and provide for the construction of affordable housing. The proposed zoning covers three areas—dubbed Coney East, West, and North—encompassing approximately 19 blocks running from the New York Aquarium to West 24th Street, and from Mermaid Avenue to the famed

With Airbus unveiling its A380 jumbo jet last fall, and Boeing at work on its own new jumbo called the Dreamliner, due out in December 2008, airport architects find themselves accommodating a trio of recent phenomena: a new generation of large aircraft, the burgeoning of low-cost carriers, and post-9/11 security measures. Although the North Terminal of the Detroit Metropolitan Wayne County Airport, which will open in September 2008, does not have to accommodate A380s or Dreamliners, Gensler engaged thoroughly with air travel’s changing playing field. Due to budget limitations—the project’s $315 million price tag was set in 2000—the 800,000-square-foot, three-story

The Swiss duo of Herzog & de Meuron is working on a new, 40-story tower to serve as the headquarters for the pharmaceutical company Roche, to be located along the banks of the Rhine River in the architects’ hometown of Basel, Switzerland. At 542-feet-tall, it will be Switzerland’s tallest building. Images ' F. Hoffmann-La Roche Herzog & de Meuron is designing a 40-story tower to serve as the headquarters for Roche, in Basel, Switzerland. At 542-feet-tall, it will be Switzerland’s tallest building. Herzog & de Meuron’s steel-and-glass tower takes the shape of a spiral of stepped cubic blocks that form

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 Foster + Partners is designing a skyscraper in Moscow that will contain more floor space than any other building in the world, according to a December 23 article in the UK’s Times newspaper. Dubbed the “Crystal Island,” the 1,500-foot-tall tower will encompass some 29 million square feet in a structure that “spirals downwards from a sharp peak with a glass facade that resembles

  Wayne R. Williams, FAIA Photo courtesy Communi-k Inc. Wayne R. Williams, FAIA, an award-winning Southern California Modernist architect, died on November 27. He was 88 years old and had been in poor health for many months. Williams is best known for designing private residences, schools, community buildings, and recreational facilities with his business partner Whitney R. Smith. The two began working together in 1946 and, three years later, formed a partnership that lasted nearly three decades. A native of Los Angeles, Williams studied architecture at the University of Southern California before serving in World War II, during which he

Cities across North America are struggling to undo the mistakes of 20th-century public housing. Some are finding that a clean slate also presents opportunities. In Canada, the Toronto Community Housing Corporation (TCHC) is pushing the agenda on design and sustainability with a $1 billion effort to rebuild an inner city housing project. Images courtesy Diamond and Schmitt A team of architects including architectsAlliance and Diamond and Schmitt has prepared plans to redevelop Regent Park, a 1950s-era public housing complex in Toronto. Breaking apart superblocks, it will replace 2,000 townhouse and mid-rise apartments with more than 5,000 housing units in townhouses

The thicket of condo towers and abundant public spaces in Vancouver, British Columbia, make this Canadian city an urban planner’s dream. Over the past two decades, the downtown population has doubled to 80,000 residents. But as the city prepares for the 2010 Winter Olympics, the spotlight is turning to Vancouver’s Downtown Eastside, which is located in Canada’s poorest zip code and suffers from chronic homelessness, drug abuse, and prostitution. Revitalization has the support of mayor Sam Sullivan, who wants cleaning up the area to be an Olympic legacy, but affordable housing advocates fear a new wave of displacement in a

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 Columbia University’s proposal for rezoning portions of Manhattanville received a green light from the New York City Council this week, allowing the school to move forward with developing a controversial campus expansion designed by Renzo Piano and Skidmore, Owings & Merrill. As RECORD has reported, the council’s approval seemed likely in November after the city’s planning department recommended a modified plan that gives

Until his death on November 23 at the age of 81, Robert Gutman, Hon. AIA, did more than any other individual to build a discourse between the disciplines of architecture and sociology, particularly with regard to housing, architectural education, and architectural practice. He avoided advocating the direct application of social fact to architectural form; rather, he initiated a conversation about the occupants of buildings and the forms, policies, plans, and theories that architects might shape. For the architects who met him, Gutman’s erudition was balanced by a contagious curiosity, which went a long way to assuage the pointed criticism he