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"SOM: Art + Engineering + Architecture" is an exhibition opening at the Antiguo Colegio de San Ildefonso in Mexico City. Presented in collaboration with MEXTRÓPOLI, the global architecture and urbanism festival organized by Arquine magazine, the exhibition offers a comprehensive overview of SOM's structural engineering practice, its integration with architectural design, and the firm's long tradition of collaboration with the visual arts.

SOM is a firm founded in Chicago in 1936 that has completed more than 10,000 projects in 50 countries. Its most iconic buildings include Lever House, Willis Tower, and the world's tallest building: Burj Khalifa (Dubai). The exhibition seeks to capture the close collaboration between engineers, architects, and artists that has produced engineering solutions to address the most complex contemporary design challenges | Exhibition on view until June 9, 2019.

Environmental justice confronts a simple but uncomfortable truth: the benefits and burdens of the environment are not shared equally. Marginalized communities bear a disproportionate share of polluted air, unsafe water, toxic land uses, extreme heat, and the accelerating risks of climate change in cities around the world. These are the consequential products of decades of policy decisions, investment patterns, exclusionary planning practices, and planning choices that have consistently favored certain communities over others.

In cities and landscapes alike, these injustices are written into the physical fabric of places, even revealing extreme differences in environmental conditions between neighborhoods and districts. Dense neighborhoods with little tree canopy, for example, absorb and hold heat, exposing residents to higher rates of heat-related illness. Highways, industrial corridors, ports, and waste facilities cluster near low-income neighborhoods and communities of color, shaping conditions of health, air and soil quality, and long-term safety.

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Videos

How does the construction sector shape the future of cities? What challenges does it face? At the crossroads of demographic, social, energy, and climate pressures, the construction sector is changing fast. Professionals, institutions, and citizens are working together to build environments that improve health and well-being, encourages durable and place-responsive solutions, cut carbon emissions, withstand climate risks, and provide affordable, high-quality housing.

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Studio Gang is an architecture and urban design practice founded in 1997 by Jeanne Gang and based in Chicago, with additional offices in New York, San Francisco, and Paris. Comprised of over 100 professionals, including architects, designers, and planners, the studio is known for its research-driven approach to design. On Friday, July 11, the Aedes Architecture Forum in Berlin will inaugurate an exhibition on Studio Gang's work, organized in collaboration with AW Architektur & Wohnen magazine. Titled Studio Gang: The Art of Architectural Grafting, the exhibition explores the studio's design methodology through six recent projects.

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The Fay Jones School of Architecture and Design at the University of Arkansas, in collaboration with DesignConnects and the Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art, has been chosen by the U.S. Department of State's Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs to represent the United States at the 2025 Venice Architecture Biennale. The selected theme, "PORCH: An Architecture of Generosity," explores the timeless architectural and cultural significance of the American porch, showcasing its continued relevance as a space for connection, inclusivity, and civic engagement.

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Architectural grafting, a concept recently popularized by Jeanne Gang in The Art of Architectural Grafting, presents a transformative approach to urban regeneration and sustainability. Drawing inspiration from botanical and horticultural practices — where new growth is added to existing plants for enhanced resilience — this architectural method integrates new structures with existing ones, allowing them to coexist and adapt. Rather than pursuing demolition, grafting prioritizes adaptation, extending the life of buildings while safeguarding their cultural and historical significance.

While Studio Gang has played a pivotal role in advancing this method, architectural grafting embodies a broader principle that architects have long used to enhance sustainability, conserve resources, and honor heritage. Across scales — from individual buildings to urban landscapes —grafting reshapes the relationship between past and present, adapting existing structures for contemporary needs while addressing environmental demands. By reimagining historic buildings for modern use, this approach fosters a sustainable evolution of cityscapes.

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The newly transformed Tom Lee Park by Studio Gang and SCAPE Architects reopened this weekend to the public. Located alongside the Mississippi River in downtown Memphis, the 31-acre park is a centerpiece of the city’s riverfront. As an essential zone included in Studio Gang’s six-mile masterplan for the riverfront, the design will serve as a model of the restored natural ecology of urban parks.

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Cleveland-based gallery SPACES has been selected to organize the US exhibition at the 2023 Venice Architecture Biennale in collaboration with the U.S. Department of State’s Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs. As curators, Tizziana Baldenebro, the executive director of the gallery, has collaborated with Lauren Leving, a curator at the Museum of Contemporary Art Cleveland, on the proposal. Together they plan to fill the space of the pavilion with works in plastic by architecture professors, designers, and artists. The exhibition, titled “Everlasting Plastics”, aims to examine the role of this material “both literally and as a cultural metaphor”.

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Once again in its eighth edition, the Prix Versailles 2022 awards have honored the best achievements in contemporary architecture. A total of 24 projects from different parts of the world have been highlighted paying tribute to innovation, creativity, the reflection of local heritage, eco-efficiency, and the values of social interaction and participation upheld by the United Nations and aligned with the principles of intelligent sustainability considering the ecological, social and cultural impacts that surround the projects.

The 24 shortlisted international projects for airports, university campuses, stations, and sports facilities competing for the Prix Versailles 2022 Awards have been announced. The global finalists in the Shops, Shopping Centres, Hotels, and Restaurants category will also be announced shortly.

Architecture is human. So when I entered Cornell’s College of Architecture, Art, and Planning in 1973 and the entire faculty were as white and male as I was, it made no sense to me but reflected the end times of the full-on male dominance in my chosen profession. In that world, a few professors would often comment on how female students looked at juries, and some sexually victimized some students (none of whom were male).

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Jeanne Gang, Studio Gang's founder, has been named the 2023 recipient of the Charlotte Perriand Award by The Créateurs Design Awards. From skyscrapers to museums, including the Aqua Tower - the tallest woman-designed building in the world at the time of its completion- and the recently opened Arkansas Museum of Fine Arts, Gang has demonstrated her dedication to creating and implementing better practices in sustainable reuse, ecological biodiversity, and social equity. Jeanne Gang, the first woman architect to get the Charlotte Perriand prize, joins the CDA AWARDS laureates list along with Sir David Adjaye and Tadao Ando.

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