Since the site was acquired in 2016, New York-based architects CetraRuddy, known for the iconic Manhattan tower One Madison, have been working on what is likely to be an icon of its own, 64 Prince Arthur. The point where The Annex and Yorkville neighborhoods meet in Toronto marks Adi Development Group and Forgestone Capital’s newest project, as well as Adi's first in Toronto. The initial renderings of the project show the commitment by the development team and CetraRuddy to making a statement on the skyline, “an iconic legacy project."

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In 2011, Julien, a young entrepreneur, started to build his own house. During the preparation phase, then the construction phase, he realized the difficulties encountered by his general contractor to communicate effectively with the different stakeholders of the project. He told Morgan, his associate, about this problem; in the meantime, Apple unveiled its new iPad 2 with a camera. It wouldn't be long before the idea of a tablet tool grew in their minds: Archireport App.

They decided to meet with different architects and general contractors in order to understand the difficulties that they encountered in their everyday work. A recurring issue comes back in their speeches: the time spent writing site reports.

Clarification Update 10/4/17: Populous and Egis were selected in 2016 to collaborate on the Paris 2024 bid; this news piece reflects the bid’s approval by the International Olympic Committee. However, the team to lead the next planning phase for Paris 2024 has yet to be decided. Stay tuned for further information.

The Paris 2024 Olympic bid, featuring planning for 38 Olympics and Paralympic venues across the city by the team of Populous and engineering consultants Egis, has received approval as part of the International Olympic Committee’s naming of the 2024 host city.

Six months after preparatory site work was halted by legal action, plans for the Heatherwick Studio-designed Pier 55 park along the Hudson River in New York City have been abandoned.

Primary backer Barry Diller, chairman of IAC/InterActive Corporation, announced the decision yesterday, citing ballooning costs and gear-halting legal worries. Initially estimated in 2011 to cost $35 million, the project had reached a $250 million price tag due to the complexity of the design and unforeseen environmental and legal concerns.

Today SO-IL, in collaboration with Ana Prvački, debuted L’air pour air on the occasion of the press preview of the second edition of the Chicago Architecture Biennial. The performance explores the art of performing behind a filter in an age where many cities suffer from the environmental impact of human habitation. Described as "part installation and part musical performance," the creators have drawn inspiration from abundant plant life and the interconnectedness of people and nature.

The Westminster Council has approved plans for the Foster + Partners-led transformation of the Snowdon Aviary at ZSL London Zoo. Designed by English architect and theorist Cedric Price in collaboration with Frank Newby and Lord Snowdon, the Grade II-listed structure became the first aviary in the UK to allow visitors to walk through a natural bird habitat when it opened to the public in 1962.

The revamp will preserve many of the original design qualities from the original structure, while updating safety and viewing strategies for its new inhabitants: a family of colobus monkeys and parrots. To make the monkeys feel at home, the design features a series of platforms and vertical elements, allowing visitors to learn about the animals as they swing, jump and explore their surroundings.

The innovative Cornell Tech campus has officially opened on New York City’s Roosevelt Island. Master planned by SOM and featuring buildings and landscapes by Morphosis, Weiss/Manfredi, Handel Architects, and James Corner Field Operations, the campus represents a new vision of a campus for the digital age. Two years after breaking ground in 2015, the campus now houses some of the most environmentally-friendly and energy-efficient buildings in the world.

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The curatorial team for the U.S. Pavilion at the 2018 Venice Architecture Biennale have announced the seven designers who will create the pavilion’s main exhibitions. Consisting of architects, landscape architects, artists and designers, the group will produce responses to the theme of Dimensions of Citizenship, exploring “the meaning of citizenship as a cluster of rights and responsibilities at the intersection of legal, political, economic, and societal affiliations.”

The seven exhibitors include:

This article was originally published on Brandon Hubbard's blog, The Architect's Guide.

In a previous article, Should You Become An Architect?, I touched on the issue of long working hours within the profession. Since this is such a common talking point for architects, I decided to expand on the topic.

First, let's define what is a "better architect." Is it being more productive? Regularly promoted? Highly paid? Someone who produces excellent design solutions?

Usually, all of these characteristics tend to flow together. If you are a skilled designer you are likely to be compensated and promoted accordingly. So if being good at your job leads to fame and fortune, is productivity the key to excellence?

On a day of big reveals for Apple – including a demonstration of the architect-friendly ARKit augmented reality technology – perhaps none was presented so glamorously as the debut of the spectacular venue in which the event was held: the brand new Steve Jobs Theater.

Apple started off their keynote address with a flythrough tour of the new space, designed by Foster + Partners (as is the main ring-shaped building), offering the first views into the below-ground spaces and the meticulous details of the ceiling, glass walls and carved handrails.

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The team of OMA and FABRICations in collaboration with LOLA landscape architects has been selected as the winners of a competition to transform a former prison complex in Amsterdam into a 135,000-square-meter mixed-use development. Located in southeastern Amsterdam, Bijlmerbajes has been seen as a distant landmark for the city since its construction in the 1970s. But with recent expansions, the once peripheral site has moved to the center of new urban development, making the property prime location for redevelopment.

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Videos

Apple’s fall 2017 Keynote, which at the time of publication is already underway, is the first ever event held at the new Steve Jobs Theater right at the center of the Apple Headquarters in Cupertino. Every year at its fall keynotes, the company makes it major product announcements—last year, they announced the iPhone 7, Apple Watch series 2, and Airpods. This year, most of the hype surrounded the expected announcement of the iPhone 8 (and iPhone X!).

However, we have also been eagerly awaiting the announcement of updates to iOS 11 and its release to the public. First introduced on June 5, 2017 at the Worldwide Developers Conference, the discussion of the new Apple operating system will feature user updates but also developer updates—and it's here where we find the true star of the show: ARKit, the back-end tools which developers can use to create next-generation augmented reality (AR) apps for users of iOS 11 devices.

Spanish architect Rafael Moneo has been selected as the winner of the 2017 Praemium Imperiale International Arts Award for Architecture by the Japan Art Association (JAA). Known for his timeless, stately designs, the 1996 Pritzker Prize laureate was lauded by the JAA jury for his design approach which “[ensures] that his buildings blend effortlessly into the city landscape while at the same time respecting the environment and establishing a clear identity and a connection to his creative vision.”

Chinese architect Zhang Ke, the founder of the firm standardarchitecture, has been awarded the 2017 Alvar Aalto Medal. Presented by the Museum of Finnish Architecture, the Finnish Association of Architects SAFA, the Architectural Society, the Alvar Aalto Foundation and the City of Helsinki, the medal recognizes an architect who, in the words of the Museum of Finnish Architecture, is "exceptionally accomplished in the field of creative architecture and has carried on Aalto’s legacy of sustainable, humane design."

Videos

SPACE10's latest project displayed last week at Copenhagen's CHART art fair hosts the secret to combating malnutrition, greenhouse gases and ending deforestation - a pretty steep demand for a structure only four meters tall. The hero of this story is a microalgae that runs through the three hundred and twenty meters of tubing entwined around the pavilion.

IKEA's future living lab worked with bioengineer, Keenan Pinto and three architects, Aleksander Wadas, Rafal Wroblewski and Anna Stempniewicz to build a photobioreactor that facilitates the high production of microalgae that can be grown almost anywhere on the planet. During the three days of the fair, 450 liters of algae was grown as visitors got to experience the full extent of the neon green process.

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Videos

The first phase of what will become the world’s largest bicycle parking garage has opened to the public in Utretch, The Netherlands. Currently with a capacity of 6,000 parking spaces, by late 2018 it will have enough space to house 12,500 bicycles – outpacing the current record holder Tokyo’s 9,400-capacity Kasai underground station in Tokyo. When completed, the garage and its surrounding area will contain space as many as 22,000 bikes.

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Videos

With construction well underway on the redevelopment of Stockholm’s Slussen interchange, one of the city’s busiest transportation hubs, the final building of the masterplan has been launched by the City of Stockholm and Foster + Partners.

Located at the focal point of the overall masterplan envisioned by Foster + Partners with Berg Arkitektkontor, landscape designer White Arkitekter and lighting designer ÅF, Mälarterrassen (named after Lake Mälaren, the large freshwater lake upon which much of Stockholm is located) will provide three levels of mixed-use space to re-invite locals and tourists alike to an area of the city previously dominated by automobiles.

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Sixteen years after the tragic events of 9/11, the final major element of the Flight 93 National Memorial has been revealed.

Located in rural in Shanksville, Pennsylvania, the memorial commemorates the 40 passengers who sacrificed their own lives to wrest control away from the hijackers of United Flight 93, preventing the plane from hitting its intended target of the United States Capitol Building.

In 2009, Paul Murdoch Architects, in collaboration with Nelson Byrd Woltz Landscape Architects and Arup Engineering, was selected to design the national memorial at the crash site. Employing a reverent masterplan that traced the airplane’s final movements, the architects designed a series of reflective elements as a solemn reminder of the day’s events. All of these elements have since been completed, with the exception of the plan’s most sensory landmark, the 93-foot-tall “Tower of Voices.”

Videos

Following After Belonging, the sixth edition of the Oslo Architecture Triennale held in 2016, the Norwegian organization have today announced an open call for a Chief Curator, theme, and concept for its seventh edition, to be held in Fall of 2019. In the words of the sixth curatorial team:

The Triennale is an opportunity and space to rehearse research strategies and test working protocols which offer new forms of engagement for architects. We considered "After Belonging" and the Oslo Architecture Triennale not only as a 10-week event, but rather as a long-term collective research project that resulted in new forms of thought and action.

Architect Diébedo Francis Kéré was named Prince Claus Laureate for 2017, highlighting the cultural value and importance of beautiful, sustainable and empowering architecture.

Kéré received the award for his “design and construction of buildings of great beauty that meet people’s needs; …for honoring people’s pride in their cultural traditions and techniques, …for inventively combining relevant factors from two different knowledge systems to achieve practical solutions of global relevance and creating an exchange of ideas between Africa and Europe; …and for his ethical commitment to creating inspiring architecture that improves living conditions and uplifts communities...”

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In this episode of GSAPP Conversations, ahead of the opening of the 2017 Chicago Architecture Biennial, co-curator Mark Lee (of Johnston Marklee) and Dean Amale Andraos discuss the theme of the show—"Make New History"—and it's relevance to the field today.