At the heart of Brooklyn's Prospect Park, a new public recreation area updates and restores a section of the borough's revered green space.

With her appointment as curator of the second Istanbul Design Biennial, set to take place from October 18 to December 14, 2014, British-born, U.S.-based Zoë Ryan is helping shape one of the most important new design events even as she approaches her third year as chair and curator of architecture and design at the Art Institute of Chicago. Photo © Kyle LaMere Zoë Ryan Launched in 2012 with curators Joseph Grima and Emre Arolat and director Özlem Yalım Özkaraoğlu, Istanbul’s first Design Biennial made a splash, yet left room to unite a broader segment of Turkey’s architecture community and further solidify

Stanford University's Windhover Contemplative Center, by Aidlin Darling Design, broke ground at the end of July. It will house the late artist Nathan Oliveira’s large-scale Windhover series paintings. Stanford University’s proximity to the hotbed of the California technology industry drives its students to succeed; it also may be a reminder of potential failure in a competitive world. The school’s Windhover Contemplative Center, which broke ground at the end of July, aims to offer a refuge from the pressure stemming from either possibility with a building by San Francisco-based Aidlin Darling Design that is as immersive as the academic environment surrounding

Completed in 2010 in Irapuato, a city in the south-central region of Mexico's Guanajuato state, Procter & Gamble's (P&G) Planta Milenio illustrates the potential gains of rethinking the architecture of today's factories. While the design, by architects Davis Brody Bond with engineering designer and project manager Arup, is rooted in the company's industrial process, it balances utilitarian goals with those that have emerged in the global economy—environmental sustainability, worker retention, and productivity. “They wanted as much flexibility as possible,” says Davis Brody Bond partner Christopher K. Grabé. The design team held workshops with P&G employees to understand the manufacturing process.

Designed by Gordon Bunshaft of Skidmore, Owings & Merrill (SOM), the Manufacturers Hanover Trust building's glass curtain wall and luminous interiors communicated a new transparency for financial institutions when completed in 1954. But the building that attracted 15,000 visitors on its opening day made less auspicious headlines in October 2010 when exiting tenants removed its site-specific Harry Bertoia sculptural screen and mobile. The change was just the latest in a long list of modifications that diminished 510 Fifth Avenue's original design. Flanked by two popular retail corridors'the established Flagship Row between 49th and 59th Streets and the Bryant Park area