In the complex ecosystem of architectural development, where innovative concepts meet market realities, a distinct role exists to bridge diverse professional interests and realize impactful spaces. Elisa Orlanski Ours exemplifies this function. This is the domain of Elisa Orlanski Ours, a designer, educator, and industry leader. As Chief Planning & Design Officer at Corcoran Sunshine Marketing Group, Elisa founded her department two decades ago. Now, her extensive portfolio spans condominium skyscraper master plans and individual branded villas across continents, including significant New York City developments like Hudson Yards and 220 Central Park South, as well as international developments in collaboration with prominent architectural firms like SHoP Architects, BIG, Herzog & de Meuron, Adjaye Associates, and SO-IL. Her strategic perspective on bringing projects from schematic phase to final sale provides valuable insights into the industry's intricate workings. ArchDaily's Managing Editor, Maria-Cristina Florian, had the opportunity to discuss these critical topics with Elisa in the following interview.
Friends of + POOL has announced the next steps in the realization of New York City's first water-filtering floating swimming pool, to be installed at Pier 35, north of the Manhattan and Brooklyn Bridges. The project seeks to provide safe public access to swimming in the city's rivers by integrating a custom-designed filtration system into a floating pool structure. Installation at Pier 35 is scheduled for May 2026, when the pool will enter its final phase of evaluation. Public access will be contingent on the successful completion of large-scale filtration testing and the full build-out of the facility for safe public use.
Juneteenth, observed annually on June 19th, commemorates the emancipation of enslaved African Americans in the United States, marking a moment of liberation and reflection on a complex and often overlooked history. Originally celebrated in Texas, Juneteenth has grown to symbolize broader themes of freedom, resilience, and cultural identity, fostering conversations about justice and representation. This day also presents an opportunity to highlight the ways in which architecture can serve as a medium for preserving and presenting African American history and cultural values.
Architecture, beyond its functional and aesthetic qualities, can reflect and collect narratives, values, and hidden histories, giving a tangible and visual presence to communities often underrepresented in cityscapes. Buildings dedicated to African American history and culture become physical landmarks that anchor these stories within the daily life of cities. They serve as places of learning, reflection, and celebration, creating meaningful spaces that engage the public and foster a sense of communal identity.
The proposed mixed-use tower at 175 Third Street is the fifth building planned across four sites within the Gowanus Wharf development in Brooklyn, New York. With views toward Manhattan and the Statue of Liberty, the 1,080,000 sq ft proposal includes affordable housing, retail and artist spaces, fitness areas, social and entertainment spaces, culminating in a rooftop with lounging zones and an outdoor pool. The project also envisions a 28,000-sq-ft public waterfront esplanade designed by Field Operations, intended to contribute to the ecological rehabilitation of the Gowanus Canal, continuing the broader transformation of this industrial neighborhood. Other project collaborators include dencityworks | architecture, AKRF, bucharest.studio, DeSimone, Ettinger Engineering Associates, Fried Frank, Hatfield Group, Impact Environmental, and Jenkins and Huntington.
In recent weeks, cities around the world have introduced new policies, recovery efforts, and infrastructure projects that reflect growing pressure to adapt to climate realities. From Southern Europe to South America and the United States, these urban updates address both immediate challenges and long-term shifts in how the built environment is governed, designed, and inhabited. Some initiatives focus on regulation, tightening building codes in fire-prone areas or reforming aging safety systems, while others spotlight large-scale investments tied to global events such as COP30 and the Venice Architecture Biennale. This edition of Architecture Now gathers a selection of city-led actions and collaborative efforts that point toward a more resilient, responsive future for architecture and urban life.
Populous, the global architecture firm, recently released images of the design for a new New York Liberty practice facility in Greenpoint, Brooklyn. The $80 million project is a player-led endeavor, developed for and in collaboration with the women's professional basketball team. The new building will span 75,000 square feet and offer views of Manhattan's skyline. In addition to serving as a basketball training center, the facility is also designed to support community engagement and expand the team's impact throughout New York City.
David M. Childs, the architect renowned for his significant contributions to the New York City skyline, passed away on March 26, 2025, in Pelham, N.Y., at the age of 83. His career, primarily spent at Skidmore, Owings & Merrill (SOM), was marked by a commitment to urbanistic values and a dedication to enhancing the civic good through architecture. Childs left an indelible mark on the built environment, balancing aesthetic considerations with the complex demands of large-scale urban projects.
Washington Square Park, New York, NY, 2024. Photo by Barrett Doherty, courtesy The Cultural Landscape Foundation
Protests, civil disobedience, and dissent are not only a defining part of our shared history since the colonial era, they also continue to the present day on campuses, at political conventions, and elsewhere. In this context, some historic marches, sit-ins, and other actions are enshrined in our collective narrative, while others have faded from memory; however, the cultural landscapes that served as stages where these events occurred still exist. These places are the focus of Landslide 2024: Demonstration Grounds and a portal for re-engaging with the stories of little-known or even forgotten events that were pivotal in USA history. The thirteen different sites across the country, represented in the new report and digital exhibition from The Cultural Landscape Foundation (TCLF), touch on events that shaped individuals and sparked movements.
Transit-Oriented Development (TOD) is a comprehensive urban planning strategy aimed at creating dense, walkable, and vibrant neighborhoods centered around public transportation hubs. By seamlessly integrating residential, commercial, and recreational facilities within close proximity to transit nodes, TODs seek to reduce automobile dependency, increase public transit ridership, and stimulate local economic development. Government agencies play a pivotal role in supporting these developments through zoning reforms, easing floor area ratios (FARs), selling air rights, and facilitating public-private partnerships to secure capital for public infrastructure. While TODs have gained global traction, East Asia boasts some of the most successful examples. Conversely, efforts to replicate these models in different contexts—such as New York City—highlight the importance of adapting TOD principles to local conditions, geographical characteristics, and community needs.
Nature Within Vacation Home - Section. Image Courtesy of Unformed Design
The change of the calendar year marked the culmination of several processes in the world of renowned architecture firms. Between December 2024 and February 2025, Gensler unveiled a rendering of a Manhattan redevelopment project, Foster + Partners released renderings of a new hotel and luxury residences in Brazil, and Herzog & de Meuron announced the completion date for the new Memphis Art Museum. International competitions revealed their results, highlighting the winning project of the young firm Unformed Design, as well as the collaboration between the Portuguese Fala Atelier and the Swiss Continentale on an educational architecture project. These projects showcase the broad scope of architectural design, from the detailing of a high-end project's relationship with nature to the urban renewal potential of a programmatic conversion project.
New York City has implemented the first congestion pricing scheme in the US, charging drivers up to $9 per day to enter a designated zone south of Central Park, encompassing areas like Times Square and Wall Street. The initiative aims to alleviate chronic traffic congestion, improve air quality, and generate revenue for public transportation improvements, addressing New York City's ranking as the world's most congested urban area for two consecutive years. The plan went into effect Sunday, January 5th, 2025.
The Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York has unveiled the design for a new wing dedicated to its 20th- and 21st-century art collection. Architect Frida Escobedo, the first woman to design a Met wing, is leading the project. The Oscar L. Tang and H.M. Agnes Hsu-Tang Wing will increase gallery space by almost 50 percent, adding over 70,000 square feet. This expansion will address accessibility issues, improve infrastructure, and enhance the sustainability of the building. The opening of the new wing is anticipated in 2030.
Air rights transactions have become essential in urban development, allowing cities to grow vertically while preserving limited land resources. Typically defined as the right to use or sell the space above a property, air rights enable property owners to transfer unused floor area ratio (FAR) to neighboring parcels, creating increased density and financial gain opportunities. However, the definition can vary based on locality and region, as each country interprets air rights and the ability to build or transfer them differently. As urban centers face mounting pressures from limited land supply and population growth, air rights continue to offer a creative solution that fosters architectural innovation and economic efficiency.
1180 - The Gothic Choir. Image Courtesy of Histovery
Ahead of the official reopening of Notre Dame de Paris, scheduled for December 8, a series of exhibitions are happening worldwide, aiming to use immersive technologies and augmented reality to bring to a wider audience both the restoration efforts and the wider story of the beloved monument. The event aims to present significant chapters of the history of the iconic structure, from its medieval origins to its witnessing of historical events such as the coronation of Napoleon or the marriage of Henri IV, the 19th-century restoration which added the spire designed by French architect Viollet-le-Duc, and the devastating 2019 fire.
Playtime movie (Jaques Tati 1967) . Image via screenshot
Architecture criticism and journalism are often expected to announce "the good, the bad, and the ugly" in architecture and the built environment. Its purposes go however further than that. As Michael Sorkin put it, "seeing beyond the glittering novelty of form, it is criticism's role to assess and promote the positive effects architecture can bring to society and the wider world". In other words, by telling us what they are seeing, critics are also showing us where to look in order to identify and address the issues plaguing our built environment.
The field of architecture journalism has been led by female writers even in times when the pursuit of a career in architecture was discouraged and inaccessible for women. Ada Louise Huxtable established the profession of architecture journalism by holding the first full-time position of architecture critic at a general-interest American newspaper. In 1970, she also received the first-ever Pulitzer Prize for criticism. Esther McCoy started her career as a draughtswoman at an architecture office, yet, because of her gender, she was discouraged from training as a professional architect despite her ambitions to study the field. Through her writings, she managed to bring attention to the overlooked architectural scene of the American West Coast and advocate for the values of regional Modernism.
Carl Pruscha, an Austrian architect who mainly dedicated his professional career to investigating and working closely in the field of regional architecture in the Eastern world, a territory that was being overlooked at a time when the modern movement in architecture and in the rest of the world was booming. Through an overview of his life, we will highlight some of his most relevant works in Nepal and Sri Lanka and understand how Pruscha managed to stamp his unique visions of architecture and cities into his built projects.
