A Cesar Pelli-designed office tower and art museum planned for downtown Austin, Texas, is the latest casualty of the economic downturn. Houston-based developer Hines Interests LP has shelved plans for a 30-story, 434,000-square-foot glass high-rise and accompanying museum. Construction was scheduled to start in the first quarter of this year, with completion expected in early 2011. Image courtesy Hines Houston-based developer Hines Interests LP has shelved plans for a 30-story, 434,000-square-foot glass high-rise and accompanying museum. The high-rise, dubbed Museum Tower, would be located at 455 West 4th Street on land owned by the Austin Museum of Art (AMOA). The

Los Angeles–based practice Gehry Partners is expanding into larger headquarters at a time when most companies are scaling back. The 160-person firm, which declined to comment on rumored layoffs, is vacating its five-year-old, 44,000-square-foot home at 12541 Beatrice Street for new digs in El Segundo. Gehry has signed a 10-year lease to occupy an existing 70,000-square-foot industrial complex between Utah and Alaska avenues, near Aviation Boulevard. Image courtesy Gehry Partners Los Angeles'based Gehry Partners is expanding into larger headquarters. The 160-person firm is vacating its five-year-old home for new digs in El Segundo. The 3.53-acre campus consists of two 1950s

Correction appended January 8, 2008 Jean Nouvel’s Los Angeles debut has been delayed. Construction of 10000 Santa Monica Boulevard, a 45-story condominium tower designed by the French architect and 2008 Pritzker Prize winner, has been put on hold due to financing problems. Images courtesy SunCal Country Construction of the Jean Nouvel-designed 10000 Santa Monica Boulevard (pictured at left in top photo) has been put on hold due to financing problems. Lehman Brothers, which declared bankruptcy in September, was underwriting the $400 million project. The project’s developer, SunCal Century City LLC, has since filed for bankruptcy itself.  “No work is taking

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.

Not even architectural gems like Richard Neutra’s Kaufmann House (1946) in Palm Springs, California, are immune to today’s recessionary climate. Photo ' Scott Mayoral/courtesy Crosby Doe Richard Neutra's Kaufmann House was re-listed for sale after its $19 million purchase earlier this year fell through. After five weeks on the market, there are still no takers. The house was re-listed for sale on September 29 after its purchase earlier this year fell through. The sleek, iconic home sold for a cool $19 million in May during Christie’s Postwar and Contemporary Art auction held in New York, but the deal unraveled for

Image courtesy Art Institute of Chicago Wellington “Duke” Reiter, FAIA, has been named the new president of the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. Wellington “Duke” Reiter, FAIA, a respected architect, urban designer, and educator, has been named the new president of the venerable School of the Art Institute of Chicago (SAIC). Reiter succeeds Tony Jones, who held the position for 18 years. Jones will become school chancellor for a year and then retire. Reiter takes the helm on Aug. 25. He most recently was dean of the College of Design at Arizona State University. During his five-year tenure,

Ceramic Frit Does Double Duty The downtown of Mesa del Sol, a 25-square-mile development in Albuquerque, will feature a cultural, office, and retail core whose design is unlike most others at the heart of similar master-planned communities. Designed by Antoine Predock, FAIA, with locally based Jon Anderson, AIA, as executive architect, the Town Center building will be clad in a glass curtain wall whose ceramic frit—that doubles as a film screen—was inspired by the cellular structure of bone. Images courtesy Forest City Covington NM LLC The Town Center building will be the office, cultural, and retail core of Mesa Del

Nader Khalili, an Earth Architect and teacher known for his innovative work with adobe, died on March 5 of congestive heart failure.

A proposal to drill for oil in Utah’s Great Salt Lake could threaten artist Robert Smithson’s monumental 1970 earthwork “Spiral Jetty.” The Canadian firm Pearl Montana Exploration and Production holds three leases, dating to 2003, to drill exploratory boreholes near the iconic sculpture. A public comment period ends tomorrow as state officials evaluate the company’s permit requests. Photo © Gianfranco Gorgoni/Collection Dia Art Foundation Robert Smithson's 1970 Spiral Jetty, a long-term installation in Rozel Point, Box Elder County, Utah. Pearl submitted a state application on January 11 to drill two wells from floating barges anchored to the lakebed. The move