United States

In honor of Alabama’s 50th Anniversary of the Birmingham Civil Rights Campaign, a national design competition was launched to envision a “Monument to Foot Soldiers.” New York City-based Jaklitsch / Gardner Architects was one of many entrants who responded, hoping to design a monument that would honor the sacrifices made by the unnamed activists who fought for civil rights and celebrate the power of the human spirit.

A fire station typically is organized into two distinct zones - one that reaches outwards to the city and acts as a monumental symbol of protection, and one that contains the hidden inner workings of the station. In a large headquarters, with a diverse set of programs each with their own unique spatial requirements, such a strategy of containment is untenable. 

To represent a "speculative proposal for the radical reuse and re-colonization of the bridge infrastructure," California-based Future Cities Lab has developed the “Hydraspan Bridge Colony installation: a 40-foot long, quarter-scale model that foresees a dense and agriculturally rich community suspended below the San Francisco – Oakland Bay Bridge.

Skidmore, Owings & Merrill LLP (SOM), in partnership with the International Secretariat for Water (ISW) and the Chicago Architecture Foundation (CAF), presents Great Cities, Great Lakes, Great Basin. The new exhibition calls for a 100-year vision to guide planning and development in the binational watershed of the Great Lakes, St. Lawrence River, and Gulf of St. Lawrence – the Great Basin. Great Cities, Great Lakes, Great Basin is on display in CAF’s Atrium Gallery at 224 South Michigan Avenue until February 2014.