The white veil has been removed, exposing the $6.6 million renovation to the Fifth Avenue Retail Store. Apple started the renovation back in June with plans to improve drainage and pavers, remove the bollards on the plaza, and update the cube.

DawnTown Miami invites you to its very first exhibition, titled ‘The First Four Years of Ideas’ which will open on November 9th, 2011 at the University of Miami School of Architecture. The opening and reception begins at 6:30pm at the Irvin Korach Gallery, and marks the first retrospective ever produced by DawnTown.

The First Four Years of Ideas takes a look back at the very best works produced from their unique competitions. On display will be the winning entries from all four years, as well as curated works, selected by DawnTown’s directors. A video display will be also being present, streaming every entry ever submitted. More information on the exhibition after the break.

The Organizing Committee of the Shenzhen & Hong Kong Bi-City Biennale Of Urbanism\Architecture announced the program for the fourth edition of the Biennale, which takes place December 8 to February 18 and is organized by the Chief Curator of the 2011 Biennale Terence Riley.

Selected from an international call for proposals, Mr. Riley is the first non-Chinese curator for the Shenzhen & Hong Kong Bi-City Biennale Of Urbanism\Architecture. Riley is an architect and partner in the architectural firm K/R, and the former director of Miami Art Museum. As the Philip Johnson Chief Curator of Architecture and Design at the Museum of Modern Art New York, he played a key role in overseeing MoMA’s 2004 expansion project. More information on the event after the break.

At the Second Exhibition Forum on Architecture, Landscape Architecture and Garden Art last week in Moscow, the project Green River Project Brateevo has been awarded with the Russian National Award on Landscape Architecture. The project, designed by OKRA landscape architects, is a joint cooperation between Russia and the Netherlands. Supported by the Dutch Government, the Department for Natural Resource Management and Environmental Protection of Moscow and the Dutch Government Service for Land and Water management (DLG), are working together with the Dutch consultancy OKRA landscape architects, the Russian consultancy Ampir landscape architects and the Research and Design Institute for the Master Plan of Moscow on the development and exchange of ideas for a sustainable cityscape. Objective is to develop a toolkit for sustainable green development as an integral part of urban redevelopment. More images and project description after the break.

If Architects designed highways, they would be straight, scenic, and would take you somewhat close to your destination. I mean, you’d arrive where you probably should be, even though it might not be where you thought you wanted to go. Ah, but the view….

If Architects designed cruise ships they would be sleek, and dynamic, and inspire awe as they drifted aimlessly ashore into the rocks.

If Architects taught kindergarten kids, Kindergarten kids would be more sullen.

If Architects ran the National Parks, geysers would be more predictable, and bears would probably die.

More after the break.

The High Line stakeholders have publicly committed to develop the third and final section of the High Line at the West Side Rail Yard, between West 30th and West 34th Streets. The private rail company and owner of the High Line, CSX Transportation, Inc, have agreed to donate the last remaining section to the City of New York.

Since it’s opening on September 16th, the Jean Nouvel acrylic encasement and historic Jane’s Carousel has become a landmark in the heart of Brooklyn Bridge Park for New York families. The welcoming public pavilion offers spectacular views of the East River, the Manhattan and Brooklyn Bridges, and the Manhattan skyline.

Continue reading for more detailed information and images.

The Executive Committee of top international design and architecture firm Perkins Eastman is pleased to announce that the firm is expanding its presence on the West Coast by opening an office in downtown San Francisco, which is rapidly becoming a thriving city for architecture making it an ideal location for an additional office. Located at 23 Geary Street in the One Kearny building, the 8,100 sf office will accommodate a growing staff of 45. Managing Principal Leslie Moldow FAIA is joined by Principals Dan Akol AIA and Rick Drake AIA and Associate Principal John Amanat AIA in leading the office. The office is expected to be complete and ready to occupy on November 1, 2011. More information on the firm’s expansion after the break.

The Diana Center, a 98,000 square-foot multipurpose arts building at Barnard College designed by WEISS/MANFREDI Architecture/Landscape/Urbanism, is the winner of a 2011 Chicago Athenaeum American Architecture Award. The project will be exhibited in Buenos Aires at the 13th International Architecture Biennial in October, and will be on display throughout Europe in the next year.

In the international design idea competition to find the best design solution for a music themed upscale hotel in Jurmala, Latvia, the proposal by Nobutaka Ashihara Architect (NAA), which won the third prize, transforms the existing, implements a new linear sinuous curve circulation spine to which the public elements are attached, and reinforces the predominant east-west circulation of Pumpuri. More images and architects’ description after the break.

As we all know, natural disasters continue to kill hundreds of thousands each year, and the vast growth of cities with unsafe and unreliable buildings and other infrastructure will only increase the cost of human life and negatively impact local economies. To address this, The Campaign for Safe Buildings, along with The Rubin Foundation and the Yale School of Architecture, is hosting a symposium November 4th and 5th to look closely at safe building initiatives around the world and many of the challenges that stand in the way of keeping natural disasters from turning into man-made catastrophes. More information on the event after the break.

The ArchDaily archives this week provided a number of buildings utilizing a variety of different materials. From a bamboo enveloped house to a mixed-use building with a facade system of aluminium carbonated drink cans these projects, also including a 350 meter free-spanning steel rib structured mall, are all worth a second look. Follow the break for these buildings and many more.

Similar to a mainstream school setting, Celebrate the Children, a school for children with autism, lines its hallways with colorful banners, photographs, and student artwork. Parents concerned with some of their children’s hypersensitivities often ask Monica Osgood, the school’s director, if there is too much stimulation. Monica responds that her students need to learn in ‘real’ world settings if they will ever have a chance to use their acquired skills outside of the classroom. This logic for replicating ‘neuro-typical’ environments, argues directly against the sensory sensitive approach, and, with reasons worth exploring. Individuals with autism often have very poor generalization skills. Therefore proponents of ‘neuro-typical’ simulated environments claim that sensory sensitive environments actually cause less, not more, universal access and integration into the larger population. Whether or not there is any truth to this claim is unknown. There are strong arguments for and against the ‘neuro-typical’ approach, but there are no definitive studies comparing the sensory sensitive approach to the ‘neuro-typical’ approach.

Norman Foster has launched proposals for the Thames Hub as “An Integrated Vision for Britain”. The self-funded collaboration between Foster + Partners, Halcrow and Volterra has produced a detailed, holistic vision for Britain’s future development of infrastructure.

The rapidly population growth and evolving global economy has put pressure on UK’s aged infrastructure. The study describes the Spine, which will combine rail, energy, communications and data throughout the entire length of the UK. The Spine is supported by the proposed Thames Hub, introducing a new river barrier and crossing, an international airport, and a shipping and rail complex.

The Thames Hub plans to maximize Britain trade links with the rest of world, stimulate job creation, and boost the economies of the Midlands and the North by providing direct connections to the cities and markets of Europe.

Continue reading for more detailed information and images.

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‘James Frazer Stirling: Notes from the Archive’ provides a rare glimpse into the works of James Stirling, renowned British architect, Pritzker Prize laureate (1981), and Yale School of Architecture professor, the Canadian Centre for Architecture (CCA), Montréal and the Yale Center for British Art, New Haven have co-organized this impressive exhibit on display at Stirling’s own Neue Staatsgalerie in Stuttgart until January 15th.

We recently had the opportunity to interview gmp architekten founding partner, Meinhard von Gerkan. Born in 1935 in Riga/Latvia, Gerkan completed his architectural studies in 1964 at the Carolo Wilhelmina Technical University in Braunschweig. In 1965 he co-founded with Volkwin Marg, von Gerkan, Marg and partners. They have completed together over 260 buildings, among them the Berlin-Tegel Airport (competition, 1st place 1965, built in 1970-75), the Berlin Central Station, Villa Guna, Christ Pavilion, and the Lingang New City, been recognized nationally and internationally for their designs and competition proposals.

The stadiums built by the architects von Gerkan, Marg and Partners (gmp) in Cape Town and Port Elizabeth for the 2010 World Cup in South Africa received the IOC/IAKS Award on 26 October 2011. In the context of the international Trade Fair for Amenity Areas, Sports and Pool Facilities (FSB), the International Olympic Committee and the International Association for Sports and Leisure Facilities (IAKS) selected the Cape Town stadium for first prize and the Nelson Mandela Bay stadium in Port Elizabeth for third prize in the “stadiums for competitions and events” category. The awards were received by Hubert Nienhoff, gmp partner in charge of the offices in Berlin, Frankfurt and Rio de Janeiro. More information on the projects after the break.

Earlier this week, we had the pleasure of touring the Metropolitan Museum of Art ‘New Galleries for the Art of the Arab Lands, Turkey, Iran, Central Asia, and Later South Asia’ with Achva Stein on its opening day. Stein, a principal of an ASLA award-winning landscape architecture and design firm Benzinberg Stein Associates and the founding Director of the Graduate program in Landscape Architecture at the Spitzer School of Architecture at the City College of New York, was asked to join the MET’s endeavors after her noted publication, Morocco: Courtyards and Gardens, showcased her passion for and understanding of the country’s varied garden types found in regions such as Marrakech and Fez. For the new wing, Stein has created a fantastic 14th century Maghrebi-Andalusian-style courtyard that goes beyond a mere representation, and truly infuses the spirit and essence of a Moroccan court into a small interior space of the MET.

More about our trip to the MET after the break.

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In the year 2008, the American designer George Nelson (1908-1986) would have celebrated his 100th birthday. To commemorate this occasion, the Vitra Design Museum exhibited the first comprehensive retrospective of his work. Nelson was one of the most influential figures in American design during the second half of the twentieth century. With an architectural degree from Yale, he was not only active in the fields of architecture and design, but was also a widely respected writer and publicist, lecturer, curator, and a passionate photographer. His office produced numerous furnishings and interior designs that became modern classics, including the Coconut Chair (1956), the Marshmallow Sofa (1956), the Ball Clock (1947) and the Bubble Lamps (1952 onwards). This same exhibition will be opened from October 29th, 2011 at the Bellevue Arts Museum in Seattle (until February 12th, 2012. More images and exhibition description after the break.

Award-winning San Francisco-based Stanley Saitowitz/Natoma Architects are known for a practice that combines the principles of early modern architecture with the materials, techniques and sensibilities of the 21st century. Raised in a traditional Jewish family in South Africa, Saitowitz has designed private residences, institutions, public and commercial spaces, and religious architecture across the globe. Among the many commissions he has completed during his 30-year career are a number of significant Jewish spaces, including the Holocaust Memorial in Boston and the critically acclaimed Temple Beth Shalom in San Francisco’s Richmond District.

Now, Saitowitz brings ancient tradition and contemporary design together in Stanley Saitowitz: Judaica, an extraordinary display of modern Jewish ritual objects on view at the Contemporary Jewish Museum November 3, 2011 through October 16, 2012. More information on the exhibition after the break.

Studio Mode/modeLab is pleased to announce the first installment of the modeFab workshop series: Strip Morphologies II. As a continuation of the Strip Morphologies workshop held in June 2010, Strip Morphologies II is a two-day intensive design, prototyping, and fabrication workshop to be held in New York City during the weekend of November 12-13, 2011.

Yesterday Richard Meier & Partners announced the design of a new Italian residence, Villa Gardone. The home is part of a complex in Gardone Riviera that is to be designed by a number of illustrious architecture firms from Europe and the U.S and completed by 2014.

Continue reading from more information on the Villa Gardone.

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David Baker