Magazine

Ahead of construction set to start soon, Google has released renderings of the renovation of the James R. Thompson Center in Chicago, the postmodern “spaceship” that was designed by Helmut Jahn in the 1980s and recently John Hill

The Chicago Athenaeum: Museum of Architecture and Design and The European Centre for Architecture Art Design and Urban studies have announced that Miami's Chad Oppenheim is winner of “the highest honor for architecture in the United States.” John Hill

Amy Hau, who began her career as artist Isamu Noguchi's assistant in 1986 and for the last eight years has been a principal at New York's WXY Architecture and Urban Design, has been appointed director of The Isamu Noguchi Foundation and Garden Museum. John Hill

Brett Steele, who moved from the Architectural Association in London to the UCLA School of the Arts and Architecture in 2017, has been named the new dean of the USC School of Architecture, a post he'll assume in February 2024. John Hill

Japanese architect Toyo Ito is donating a portion of his archive, documenting projects spanning the years 1971 and 1995, to the Canadian Centre for Architecture (CCA) in Montreal.  John Hill

The World Architecture Festival (WAF) returned to Singapore last week, crowning the Huizhen High School in Ningbo, China, designed by Approach Design Studio and the Zhejiang University of Technology Engineering Design Group, as World Building of the Year 2023. John Hill

Lacaton & Vassal, the French architecture practice of Anne Lacaton and Jean-Philippe Vassal, has been named the recipient of the 2023 Soane Medal, given out by Sir John Soane's Museum in London. John Hill

On Monday, November 20, a topping-out ceremony was held for the 1,388-foot (423m) tower designed by Foster + Parters for JPMorgan Chase, the replacement for the bank's Midtown Manhattan office tower that was torn down in 2021. John Hill

Space Caviar and the Practice Lab at re:arc institute have launched “non-extractive architecture(s),” an online directory that aims to assist in the "creation and amplification of more equitable paradigms in architecture.” John Hill

Construction of the tower designed by David Chipperfield Architects for a site near Hamburg's Elbe bridges was interrupted at the end of October. An investor's financial difficulties are the cause — a solution has yet to be determined. Manuel Pestalozzi

During a special event held at the Royal Academy of Arts on the evening of November 2, Mexican architect Gabriela Carrillo was awarded the RA Dorfman Award, which “champions architecture from around the world that looks forward to the future of architecture and architectural practice.” John Hill

Neoplus Sixten Inc., the curators of the Japan-Architects platform, have posted photographs from their visit to Tenjincho Place, an apartment building in Tokyo's Bunkyō ward designed by Hiroyuki Ito Architects with a stunning teardrop-shaped courtyard in its center. John Hill

Eight months after Britain's Supreme Court ruled in favor of the residents of Neo Bankside, whose apartments sit next to a 10th-floor observation deck at Tate Modern, it's been determined the Tate will restrict access on that level, putting “an end to the nuisance.” John Hill

The Royal Institute of British Architects has announced the winner of the 27th RIBA Stirling Prize: Mæ's John Morden Centre, which provides social and medical facilities for residents of Morgan College, a 300-year-old residential and nursing facility in Blackheath, London. John Hill

Chinese landscape architect Kongjian Yu is the winner of the 2023 Cornelia Hahn Oberlander International Landscape Architecture Prize, the biennial $100,000 award organized by The Cultural Landscape Foundation (TCLF). John Hill

The 2023 OBEL Award Teaching Fellowships are being given to four new university-level courses that "will amplify and enhance debate and learning around well-being and cities," in line with themes from previous OBEL Awards. John Hill

Twenty years after the opening of the Walt Disney Concert Hall, and six years after the Getty acquired the archive of its architect, Frank Gehry, the Getty is putting on a two-part exhibition devoted to the design of the building. John Hill

Skin of Glass, a film by Denise Zmekhol that follows her journey to a modernist skyscraper in São Paulo that was designed by her later father and subsequently occupied by hundreds of homeless families, won Best Documentary Feature Film at the BARQ Festival. John Hill

The latest edition of Shaping the City is taking place over two days in early October in New Orleans, Louisiana. Organized by the European Cultural Centre (ECC) and NANO, Shaping the City New Orleans focuses on “designing for climate emergency.” John Hill

Zvi Hecker, the “Bad Boy of Israeli Architecture” (according to Haaretz, at least) who was born in Poland, immigrated to Israel in 1950, and moved to Germany in 1991, died at his home in Berlin on September 24, 2023, at the age of 92.  John Hill

Subtitled “Architecture of Optimism, 1919-1939,” Modernist Kaunas is one of 42 newly inscribed properties on the UNESCO World Heritage List, as approved by the UNESCO World Heritage Committee during its annual meeting in Riyadh last week. John Hill

Construction of Kingdom Tower, designed by Adrian Smith + Gordon Gill Architecture for Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, is set to resume, as reports indicate contractors have been invited to bid for completing the 1,000-meter-tall tower. John Hill

The recipient of the fifth Obel Award, created in 2019 to honor “outstanding architectural contributions to human development” around the world, is “a visionary green infrastructure project” off the shore of New York's Staten Island. John Hill

The Créateurs Design Association has announced that the Mexican architect will be awarded Le Prix Charlotte Perriand during the Créateurs Design Awards ceremony to be held in Paris on January 20, 2024. Antonio La Gioia

Gando-born, Berlin-based architect Diébédo Francis Kéré has been named a recipient of Japan Art Association’s 2023 Praemium Imperiale, one of the world's most prestigious awards for architects and other artists. John Hill

Landscape architect Alan Ward, a partner at the Boston interdisciplinary firm Sasaki, has donated approximately 2,500 photographs of landscapes he shot in thirteen countries to The Cultural Landscape Foundation (TCLF). John Hill

Tom Lee Park, a 31-acre green space along the Mississippi River in Memphis, Tennessee, opened to the public on September 2, 2023, following a major overhaul by Studio Gang and SCAPE. John Hill

A team of Danish architects and landscape architects has completed the European Spallation Source in Lund, Sweden, a campus that aims to “advance material research for science and innovation.” Ulf Meyer

Powerhouse Sydney has announced that Powerhouse Parramatta, billed as “the largest cultural development in Australia to be created since the Sydney Opera House,” will open in early 2025. Ulf Meyer

The Dallas Museum of Art has selected Spain's Nieto Sobejano Arquitectos to radically transform and sustainably preserve the institution's nearly 40-year-old Edward Larrabee Barnes building. John Hill

The European office of Oppenheim Architecture, based in Basel, has won the competition to turn the Toptani Residence in Tirna, the capital of Albania, into the Besa Museum. John Hill

Concept designs by the six shortlisted firms in the “Reimagining the Dallas Museum of Art International Design Competition” have been revealed, with a winner to be announced in August. John Hill

The Royal Academy of Arts in London has announced that Irish architect Shane de Blacam is the recipient of the 2023 Royal Academy Architecture Prize, which recognizes architects who have made "a significant impact on society." John Hill

Two decades in the making, the International African American Museum (IAAM) opened to the public on June 24, 2023, in Charleston, South Carolina, on “hallowed ground” — waterfront land that centuries ago served as a port of arrival for enslaved Africans. John Hill

The Moynihan Connector, a new L-shaped pedestrian bridge designed by Skidmore, Owings & Merrill and James Corner Field Operations, opened to the public on June 22, 2023. It connects the High Line to Manhattan West and Moynihan Train Hall. John Hill

Even though the National Portrait Gallery in St. Martin’s Place boasts the world’s largest collection of portraits, it was sometimes overlooked relative to the other great art museums in London. A new transformation hopes to change that. Ulf Meyer