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

Every year, there are scores of festivals, conferences, and exhibitions catering to architects. Add another one to the list: the World Architecture Festival, which was presented for the first time from Oct. 22 to 24 in Barcelona.

Julie Bargmann Stephen Burks Douglas Garofalo, AIA J. Meejin Yoon Andrew Zago, AIA Images courtesy USA (except Bargmann: Photo @ Stephanie Gross) Today, the United States Artists (USA), a nonprofit organization dedicated to funding the arts, announced the 50 recipients of its 2008 fellowships. Five individuals were selected in the architecture and design category; other categories include crafts and traditional arts, dance, literature, music, theater arts, and visual arts. Each winner receives a $50,000 grant with no strings attached. USA has awarded the grants for three years. The Los Angeles-based organization was founded in 2005 with $20 million in seed

Rafael Viñoly Architects, founded in New York in 1983, has completed its first project in the UK: Curve, a 140,000-square-foot theater in Leicester, England.

RMJM’s Global Education Studio (GES) is designing master plans for two separate university campuses in Libya—making it the first American architecture office to work in the North African country since the U.S. lifted sanctions against it in 2004. While RMJM is based in the United Kingdom, its Global Education Studio is headquartered in Princeton, New Jersey. Image courtesy RMJM Global Education Studio RMJM’s Global Education Studio, based in New Jersey, is designing master plans for two university campuses in Libya—making it the first American architecture office to work in the North African country since the U.S. lifted sanctions against it

Foster + Partners has designed a major new waterfront development for Rimini, Italy, a mid-sized city located on the Adriatic Sea. The firm unveiled its proposal, a collaboration with developer Gruppo Gecos, in June after local officials invited ideas to improve the area.

Five teams competing to design a new park for Manhattan’s West Side recently unveiled their proposals.

Yale students have constructed a prototypical residence in New Haven, Connecticut, for a disabled female veteran of the U.S. Armed Forces and her family. Responsible for both design and construction, 64 students took the project from start to finish in just over five months as part of the Yale architecture school's Building Project, a mandatory course for first-year graduate students. This year's project was completed in collaboration with nonprofit developer Common Ground and the Connecticut Veterans Administration at a cost of $200,000'in addition to plenty of free labor and donated materials. Photos ' Susan Surface Yale architecture students have built

The Museum of the City of New York recently celebrated the completion of the first phase of an extensive, $97-million renovation and expansion plan designed by Polshek Partnership Architects. The most notable component of phase one is a new single-story, 3,000-square-foot glass pavilion attached to the rear of the existing building at 1220 Fifth Avenue. Other important features remain largely invisible because they’re located underground: the $28 million project adds two additional levels beneath the pavilion for a much-needed curatorial center, which provides environmental controls and equipment to help preserve the museum’s photographs, prints, textiles, and other artifacts. The museum’s

Photos courtesy MacArthur Foundation John Ochsendorf (top); Jennifer Tipton (above). On Tuesday, the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation announced the recipients of its 2008 MacArthur Fellowships, commonly known as the “genius grants.” Among the 25 winners are engineer and architectural preservationist John Ochsendorf, and stage lighting designer Jennifer Tipton. The annual fellowships provide each recipient $500,000, paid in quarterly installments over five years, to use as they please, with no strings attached. Winners are selected for their “creativity, originality, and potential to make important contributions in the future,” according to the foundation. The fellows typically span a wide