Urban Complex: The Latest Architecture and News

Detroit-based Bedrock development group has announced the completion of the first phase of its Hudson's Detroit mixed-use project in the city center. The project was first unveiled in 2017, when the company presented plans for a 1.2-million-square-foot development designed by SHoP Architects to be built on one of downtown Detroit's long-abandoned sites, formerly occupied by the J.L. Hudson's Department Store. Once the tallest department store in the world and a central gathering place for the city throughout much of the 20th century, the site has now been reimagined as a contemporary urban destination. After nearly a decade of planning and construction, Hudson's Detroit aims to bring new activity and public space to a location emblematic of the city's commercial and cultural past.

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In December 2016, BIG unveiled the first images of a concrete superstructure for Los Angeles' Arts District. The project, a mixed-use complex called 670 Mesquit, was originally projected to cover 2.6 million square feet (242,000 square meters) and include office space, residential units, and two hotels, marking BIG's first project in Los Angeles. In July 2025, nearly nine years after the original proposal, the Los Angeles City Council approved the project to be eventually built in multiple phases.

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The New Jersey Performing Arts Center (NJPAC) has announced a three-year redevelopment of its 2-acre downtown Newark campus. The project, designed by architectural firms Skidmore, Owings & Merrill (SOM), and Weiss/Manfredi, has recently broken ground and is scheduled for completion in the fall of 2027. It integrates 350 mixed-income residential units, retail spaces, and a dynamic education and community center, in addition to rehearsal spaces, a new headquarters for jazz public radio station WBGO, and various outdoor gathering areas.

With the 2024 Olympic Games opening ceremony fast approaching, Paris has captured global attention. In addition to the venues being prepared for the Olympics, the city offers a wide range of architectural projects that showcase its efforts to improve the urban environment and promote a greener and more inclusive city. Among these, the new Clichy Batignolles Eco-District in the 17th arrondissement of Paris is a 54-hectare development that set out to transform the former SNCF rail yard into a new neighborhood. The initiative features contributions from internationally recognized architects including MAD Architects, Architect Périphériques, and RPBW, among others. Read on to discover the urban development through the lens of architecture photographer Paul Clemence.

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Construction has begun at the last remaining empty sites in Chengdu’s Jiaozi Park Financial and Business District, where MVRDV has designed a complex comprised of three mixed-use office towers and a conference center united by a ring-shaped plinth. The building shape and functional structure are informed by its surrounding context, with a retail village that references the traditional structures that were once located on the site.

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Henning Larsen has been selected as the winner of an international competition for the design of Kurfürstendamm 231, a new mixed-use urban development in western Berlin, Germany. Other finalists in the competition included Cobe, David Chipperfield, and Mäckler Architekten. The winning concept centers the neighborhood around an urban courtyard which acts as a large-scale meeting place for the local community. Nine buildings define the courtyard, including the existing Agrippina House, which is set to be rehabilitated through the project.

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Spanish architect and engineer Santiago Calatrava has unveiled the design of the Calatrava Boulevard, a complex offering upmarket restaurants, retail, and office spaces in Düsseldorf, Germany. Located on a highly visible site between Königsallee boulevard, Königstrasse, and Steinstrasse, the new complex features a curved and vaulted 135-foot-tall roof and a flowing interior street, creating the appearance of a sculptural light-filled canyon. The project, done in collaboration with Uwe Reppegather, Founder and Managing Director of the CENTRUM Group, is set to be completed by 2028.

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Urban Agency, in partnership with COBE, won in 2019 a competition to transform a former steel factory into an 850,000 square meters car-free mixed-use district. The industrial site is planned to become a mixed-use district, with housing for over 8,000 new residents, office spaces, schools, workshop spaces, and 268,000 square meters of landscape, including a reactivated river area. The master plan strategies focus on urban nature, renaturalization, preservation and reuse, car-free streets, and an adapted dense mix of buildings and functions.

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MAD Architects led by Ma Yansong, unveiled renderings of the MoLo, short for Mobility and Logistic hub, a new gateway situated along the western boundary of the Milano Innovation District (MIND). In collaboration with Architect Andrea Nonni, Open Project, and Progeca, the 28.5 meters high complex brings together several facilities across 68,700sqm of surfaces. Designed as an integration of nature and architecture, the MoLo “performs as a welcoming entrance and education space for issues related to mobility in which visitors can drop off their cars to explore the district on foot and see innovative transportation technology in person”.

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