Feb. 18-- developed to accommodate a new technology, the gas pump -- there were no design precedents for oil companies and their architects to follow. The form had to be invented from scratch. You can still see plenty of examples of their experiments around Philadelphia, miraculous survivors from a time when filling stations were treated as real architecture. Spanish Colonial stations dominate ... Read More

Feb. 15--Before architecture becomes a tangible thing that shapes how we live, it begins in the realm of the intangible -- as an idea. Oak Park architect Paul Preissner was recognized on Monday for a bright idea: His design for a community center in the city's violence-plagued Greater Grand Crossing area won an honorable mention in the annual Progressive Architecture Awards, which recognize ... Read More

Feb. 14--Demolition crews are laying the groundwork to crunch the Alaskan Way Viaduct into little three-inch chunks, starting no later than Friday. The bulk of the project will be finished by June 1, so that 85-decibel pounding and rubble piles are gone before tourist crowds arrive. The far south decks, alongside diagonal Railroad Avenue South, might remain until July. The city delayed start ... Read More

Feb. 14--James Dayton, principal of the Minneapolis architecture firm James Dayton Design, passed away unexpectedly on Tuesday. He was 53. Dayton was among the Twin Cities’ most sought-after architects and received the American Institute of Architects Young Architect Award in 2006. His firm’s best-known local projects include the MacPhail Center for Music in Minneapolis’ Mill District, the ... Read More

NEW YORK (AP) — Amazon drops New York City as one of its new headquarter locations, will not search for another. Read More

Feb. 14-- Rittenhouse Square, Logan Square, Old City -- manage to incorporate multistory apartment buildings without the Earth spinning off its axis. Why can’t Society Hill? In what has become a standard narrative, the Society Hill Civic Association complains that the two new projects -- 1 Dock Street and the Dilworth House tower -- would threaten its historic integrity. It has hinted at ... Read More

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — Google said today it will invest more than $13 billion in building data centers and offices across the U.S in 2019. The Mountain View, California-based company emphasized its new locations in the Midwest and South in a blog post announcing the investment . Analyst Scott Kessler of CFRA Research said an increased presence in non-coastal parts of the country might help the ... Read More

Feb. 13--Energy companies plan a giant renewable energy project in Morrow County, combining wind and solar power generation with battery storage. Plans for the facility have been in the works for nine years. On Wednesday, Portland General Electric said it wants to build the project with a big Florida company called NextEra Energy, subject to approval by NextEra management and sign-off by the ... Read More

Feb. 12--Months after after the Northern California town of Paradise was destroyed by the Camp Fire, Cal Poly students traveled there to learn what community members value most about their rural town. The trip was part of an on-going project to reimagine how Paradise can rebuild after much of it was lost. Cal Poly architecture students in design studios taught by Cal Poly faculty members ... Read More