• While the healthcare may be one of the few fairly prosperous A/E sectors, an architect explains why the growing trend in hybrid operating rooms requires a new design approach for architects.
• After Liverpool gets the news it's in danger of losing its world heritage site status, UNESCO inspectors check out developments around the Tower of London and the Palace of Westminster with concerns about the skyscrapers (like the Shard) rising around them.
• Russell sees promise in Salt Lake City's pilot efforts in the Sustainable Communities program: "With proximity to a new light-rail line, suburbs can build to traditional urban densities."
• Meanwhile, New York State gets with the Complete Streets initiative; now it's the law.
• Some of Toronto's satellite cities are waging a big boxitus battle by "banking on culture to fight big-box sprawl" to revitalize their downtowns.
• Chaban cheers much of what Kimmelman and Garvin had to say in the NYT (see yesterday's news), but takes issue with a few points.
• Berg reports on the growing dark sky movement "to transform cities and communities into better places to observe the night sky" (we're for that!).
• Kamin has high hopes for Chicago's Navy Pier shortlist: "the real story here is pier officials' fundamentally sound emphasis on constellations of talent, not starchitects; and on the urban landscape, not a 'look at me' aesthetic object."
• In Florida, the stellar shortlist of three in the St. Petersburg's Pier competition offer a wave, a lens, and an eye: "Wow seemed to be the word of the day" (with an eyeful of the proposals).
• Diamond + Schmitt tapped to give the "inelegant rear end" of Canada's otherwise "wonderfully evocative" National Arts Centre a "posterior for posterity."
• The U.N. teams up with Cucinella to build 20 green schools in Gaza that will "fuse Islamic architecture and sustainable design" (and make education "less vulnerable to the politics du jour").
• Doig x 2: if urban bicyclists want to change cities (and not to be considered "elite snobs"), they need a new attitude.
• He offers a thoughtful (yet amusing) take on why almost all city rankings are "bogus" - but at least "they can get people talking about issues."
• Meanwhile, the Mercer most livable city survey puts Vienna, Zurich, Auckland, and Munich at the top.
• Lamster and Lange's 2nd Annual Year-End Awards with some very amusing categories (and another most amusing read!).
• United States Artists names six architects and designers USA Fellows (with a nice purse to match).
• Hertzberger to receive the RIBA 2012 Royal Gold Medal for Architecture.
• Our heartiest welcome to ArchitectureBoston's new editor Renée Loth (formerly of the Boston Globe), and our heartiest good wishes to founding editor Elizabeth Padjen in her next grand adventure.
• Two we couldn't resist: Rüger's stunning photos of a former Soviet military HQ in East Germany that capture its haunting, "silent charm" + We wonder what architects might do with a new material based on the nanostructure of a butterfly's wing that traps both air and light.
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