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Owen Hatherley: Socialism and Nationalism on the Danube: Vienna and Budapest can be viewed as battlefields in an unfolding European crisis of identity and confidence: Key moments in [their] architectural history...illuminate the complex issues...Can we read these crises at the level of architecture? Today the "European" city...is also the nationalist city, the fearful, guarded, and resentful city. -- Adolf Loos; Josef Frank; Margarete Schütte-Lihotzky; Karl Ehn; Harry Glück; Viktor Hugnagl; Franziska Ullmann; Lieselotte Peretti; Gisela Podreka; Elsa Prochazka; Ödön Lechner; Imre Makovecz; Friedensreich Hundertwasser; Mária Siklós [images]- Places Journal

Joe Morris/Duggan Morris Architects: Architects exporting the uniqueness of place: Brexit does not have to mean pulling up the drawbridge. He draws inspiration from international localists Lina Bo Bardi, Gaudi and Gehry: Londonon...through its direct engagement with a number of host cities, will express the optimistic entrepreneurial spirit this city reinforces in each of us. A spirit which we believe can be exported.- BD/Building Design (UK)

Blair Kamin: Tower at Obama center (don't call it a library) needs tweaking: ...a victim of the digital age...relegated to the status of a one-story structure covered by a rooftop park...an architecture of disappearance - an anti-monument...it's unclear what this building will contain...How do you design a monument in the digital age? ...the architects and the former president still have work to do before they get it right. -- Frederick Law Olmsted; Calvert Vaux; Tod Williams Billie Tsien Architects; Ralph Appelbaum Associates- Chicago Tribune

Justin Davidson: Fancy Prisons for Billionaires Are Reshaping the Manhattan Skyline: To be sure, the inmates of levitating dungeons like 432 Park and 56 Leonard believe they are being pampered...Each is a vertical Alcatraz...I toured two high-security facilities... -- Herzog & de Meuron; Rafael Viñoly- New York Magazine

Alyssa Morris/Texas Architect magazine: The Alamo is forgettable. A controversial new plan could change that: ...aims to restore, at least in gesture, conditions of the mission before it was destroyed...A group of prominent San Antonio architects...have signed an open letter, calling for the planners to rethink their design. -- George C. Skarmeas/Preservation Design Partnership [images]- Houston Chronicle

Mark Middleton/Grimshaw: Pavilions: There’s no excuse for leaving rigour at the park gate: He excoriates architects and their clients who fail to take a commission for a bit of summer fun seriously: ...most practices seem to grasp the publicity part firmly while retaining a kitten-like grip on the architecture...What [they] fail to understand...is that even though it’s temporary, it’s still architecture.- BD/Building Design (UK)

Mumbai-based architecture school spearheads an experimental pavilion program: Samir Raut of...studio eight twenty-three, designed the inaugural pavilion for The School of Environment and Architecture..."Make a House"...an ode to craftsmanship and detail: "SEA Pavilion" looks to invite architects to build an experimental structure on the school’s grounds every year. [images]- Architectural Digest India

Adele Peters: These Cities Are Replacing The Worst Kind Of Infrastructure With The Best: R.I.P. parking lots: ...cities begin to realize that a slab of asphalt for storing cars isn’t the best use of valuable urban space...Some cities...are already building parking garages...designed to be converted to other uses when car ownership drops. -- Adrian Benepe/Trust for Public Land; SWA [images]- Fast Company / Co.Design

Diana Budds: Inside N.Y.C.’s Plan To Fight Climate Change Through Architecture: New York City wants architects to start designing for bigger, badder weather...doesn’t have the luxury of pitting politics against science..mayor’s Office of Recovery & Resiliency released...Climate Resiliency Design Guidelines...might be the first step toward a more systematized approach in cities...where the effects of climate change are already being felt.- Fast Company / Co.Design

Jared Green: D.C. Becoming More Sustainable, But Not Everyone Benefits: It has been four years since Washington, D.C. released its ambitious sustainability plan...has accomplished 72% of the things it set out to do...need more thoughtful inclusiveness efforts...Sustainability and equality must be considered two sides of the same coin.- The Dirt/American Society of Landscape Architects (ASLA)

Dutch artist creates 23-ft. tower that sucks in smog: ...designer and architect Daan Roosegaarde has created a “Smog Free Tower"...tested in Rotterdam...[he] will be placing 25 such towers in Beijing’s public parks and plans to introduce the technology in India and Mexico. -- Studio Roosegaarde [image]- Blouin News

Thomas Rogers: The Complicated Architecture of Albert Speer, Jr.: Controversy surrounding one of his projects [2022 World Cup, in Qatar] has invited what he has worked his entire career to avoid: comparisons to his father, Hitler’s favorite architect: He has risen to the top of the German planning world over the past 50 years, thanks to his reputation for sustainability and “human scale” architecture... -- Speer and Partners- New Yorker

J. Michael Welton: Three architectural projects promise a new look for Raleigh: The skyline is a key definer of Raleigh’s brand, so how it’s shaped in coming years is no small matter...[the city] is taking the lead and acting as a potential catalyst for excellence in architecture. -- Skidmore, Owings & Merrill (SOM); Clearscapes; Duda Paine Architects; Sasaki; Michael Van Valkenburgh- News & Observer (North Carolina)

Enormous and 'ethereal' Hyatt Regency hotel takes shape in Seattle: ...the largest hotel in the Pacific Northwest...inspired by a diverse mix of urban influences, particularly the city’s skyline. -- LMN Architects; Zena Design Group [images]- CLAD (Community of Leisure Architects & Designers)

Eleanor Jolliffe: Mental health issues: ...a new campaign launched by RIBA and the Architects Benevolent Society to help: It takes courage to tackle these issues, I sincerely hope our profession can collectively display that type of courage.- BD/Building Design (UK)

ANN feature: Shane O'Toole: Preface to "One Hundred & One Hosannas for Architecture": It is a truism to say that journalism is the first draft of history. Historians always place great weight on contemporary accounts...a work of architecture is not complete until it has been written about.- ArchNewsNow.com

ARM Architecture (Ashton Raggatt McDougall): Geelong Library and Heritage Centre, Geelong, Australia: ...an early Australian picturesque of the beautiful ruin...recalls the great civic gestures of the 19th century, a sign when the dome was symbolic of democracy, enlightenment and civil society. -- Taylor Cullity Lethlean [images]