Articles by Ronda Kaysen

Image courtesy Adjaye Associates Sugar Hill Housing in Harlem will provide 124 units of affordable housing. It will finish construction in December. An urban farm on the rooftop of a David Adjaye–designed affordable-housing project in Harlem will provide fresh produce and income for the building sometime after construction has been completed in December. An $80 million development in the historic New York City neighborhood, Sugar Hill Housing will offer 124 units of rental housing for low-income adults and families. Adjaye’s stepped-profile design, with a rose-embossed, textured precast-concrete facade, makes it the latest example in a trend to replace bland institutional

The lessons of Sandy provide clues for how to adapt existing buildings. Photo © Victor Blue Sandbags helped to spare the Goldman Sachs building in Manhattan’s Battery Park City from hurricane damage. From tiny New Jersey Shore bungalows to Manhattan high-rises, properties were caught unprepared for the might of Superstorm Sandy. Now architects are grappling with the stark reality that many structures were not designed to withstand a changing climate. As the rebuilding process begins, so do complicated discussions about how to adapt existing buildings. The growing consensus is that they, too, must change with the climate. “There is an

When the Biblioteca José Vasconcelos opened last May, the Alberto Kalach-designed campus was hailed as a cultural gem for Mexico City—and, at 500,000 square feet, it became the largest public library in Latin America. But one year later, the $100 million complex has shut its doors amid water leaks, flooding, and political scandal. Photos: © Jennifer Szymaszek Government officials closed the library in March after its unfinished water filtration system began leaking, causing damage to elevators, marble floors, and walls. Then, just one month later, construction nearby caused a pipe to burst that flooded the library’s bookstore, a separate building