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Christopher Hawthorne: Design for Obama library and museum off to surprisingly somber start: ...an architectural first draft can be surprisingly talkative. So what does this one have to say? ...landed just on the wrong side of the line dividing a sober design from a somber one...a bit sepulchral...A little zeal in the next version of the proposal - some clearer signs of energy and life - would go a long way. -- Tod Williams Billie Tsien; Dina Griffin- Los Angeles Times

David Brussat: Philly’s new revo museum: ...Museum of the American Revolution...I know the design is excellent because it irks Inga Saffron...Robert A.M. Stern Architects has approached the museum’s design as a revolutionary...tried to seek a balance between traditional classicism and the context in which the museum sits...a mixture of both classical and modernist buildings.- Architecture Here and There

Richard Buday: It’s a book. It’s a building. It’s a behavioral intervention!: "The Hunchback of Notre Dame"...central character isn’t a person; it’s a building, which Victor Hugo considered sentient...The lesson for the design community is clear: a building without an engaging oral, prose or graphic narrative is meaningless and eventually forgotten. Architecture is more than an empty shell to be filled - it’s a story to be told.- Common Edge

Duo Dickinson: Building Madness: How the Boom and Bust Mentality Distorts Architecture: Architects are economically bipolar...psychologically validated by booms and crushed by busts...If architects valued helping people to build what made sense, they would create a microeconomy of value that is less subject to boom and bust...regardless of economic climate or cost...architects keep following the money, instead of the value found in our expertise.- Common Edge

Apple offers first peek at plans to convert D.C.’s Carnegie Library into new store: Apple’s vision? A place for art exhibitions, workshops and coding classes for children. Oh, and iPhone sales: ...there are bound to be questions about handing one of the city’s more cherished buildings to a corporation. [images]- Washington Post

Kriston Capps: D.C.: Don't Give the Carnegie Library to Apple: The company plans to turn a Beaux Arts gem into a lavish gadget store. But there should be a better public use of such a cherished site: Giving the [library] to Apple, under the flimsy premise that [it] is somehow a cultural organization, ignores the enormous appetite for authentic art experiences in the District.- CityLab (formerly The Atlantic Cities)

Brooks + Scarpa completes affordable housing for disabled veterans in Los Angeles: "The Six" breaks the prescriptive mold of traditional affordable housing by its approach to distinguishing the public and private zones...focus on community spirit... -- LandStudio360 LandscapeArchitecture [images]- designboom

Cacti Urbanism: $1.2 billion eco-friendly district will rise in Reno, Nevada: ...the world’s first high desert biome eco-district...The nearly 30-building West 2nd District will provide needed market-rate and workforce housing as well, with 20% available as affordable housing... -- Don J Clark Group; Office of Cheryl Barton [images]- The Architect's Newspaper

7 megaprojects that will transform Chinese cities by 2050: ...a look at some of China's largest real estate developments... -- gmp Architects von Gerkan, Marg and Partners; Broadway Malyan; Adrian Smith + Gordon Gill Architecture; Sasaki Associates [images]- Business Insider

Rory Stott: The Kookiest Chinese Copies, from PompiDON'T Centre to Chapel at WRONGchamp: Some are baffling, some are in a way impressive, some are even (dare we say it?) even kind of cute. In short, all of them are in some way entertaining. Here are 6 of the strangest. -- No-man Foster-Designed Gherkin; Zaha Hadidn't; Sydney Nopera House; Not-a Botta [images]- ArchDaily

Why Was Only Le Corbusier Appointed to Design Chandigarh? The City Beautiful boasts of being a stalwart in urban planning and quality living...The concept of a Contemporary City and a Radiant City was the magnificent creation of Le Corbusier only...It is all about abandoning class-based system of housing... [images]- ChandigarhX (India)

Richard Florida: Mapping the Diversity of the Creative Class: Racial and ethnic diversity spurs economic progress; sameness spells economic segregation: ...metros with larger concentrations of key creative class minority groups have higher levels of overall creative class diversity. -- Creative Class Diversity Index- CityLab (formerly The Atlantic Cities)

New U.S. initiative aims to spotlight architecture firms that treat workers fairly: An alliance of architecture pressure groups...has launched JustDesign.US, a database of studios that treat their staff well and provide equal opportunities for women...initiative hopes to draw attention to, and eradicate, equality issues surrounding the workplace. -- The Architecture Lobby; Yale School of Architecture Equality in Design; Harvard Graduate School of Design Women in Design- Dezeen

Directory of female creatives aims to tackle the "stone-aged" under-representation of women in design: Australian studio Double Days has created a publicly editable directory...that can be used by conference organisers to source female speakers..."A Reparative List For Your Male-Dominated Design Conference"..organised by country and range from graduates to vice presidents.- Dezeen

The Architectural League of New York 2017 President’s Medal: ... recognizing His Highness the Aga Khan on the occasion of the 40h anniversary of the Aga Khan Award in Architecture...to identify architectural projects that successfully address the needs and aspirations of communities in which Muslims have a significant presence.- Architectural League of New York

Land Of Illusion: T+E+A+M tapped to design this year’s Ragdale Ring outdoor theater: ...in Chicago’s North Shore...competition, and the accompanying Adrian Smith Prize, have proven to be architecturally adventurous, and often playfully eccentric..."LIVING PICTURE" superimposes images of the original 1912 Ragdale Ring onto a set of lightweight objects... -- Thom Moran, Ellie Abrons, Adam Fure, Meredith Miller [images]- The Architect's Newspaper

These are the winners of the Malaysian architecture Oscars: A collective sigh of relief probably accompanied the announcements ... -- Pertubuhan Akitek Malaysia (PAM) Awards/Malaysian Institute of Architects; C.Y. Chan Archigtect; Veritas Architects; Arkitek JFN; Atsa Architects; Architect T.Y. Au; Alma Architects & Planners [images]- The Star / Star2.com (Malaysia)

The winner of the What’s That Thing? Award for bad public art is...: "Origin" by Solas Creative, a clumsy, aggressive, cheap-looking new sculpture overlooking Belfast: Haven’t the people of Northern Ireland suffered enough? [images]- The Spectator (UK)

ANN feature: Charles F. Bloszies: Left Coast Reflections #1: The Sustainable Spoon: The idea that humans are able to create sustainable artifacts is here to stay. But as designers of the largest artifacts on the planet, we architects need to be especially vigilant.- ArchNewsNow.com

"Hiroshi Sambuichi: Moving Materials": ...an example of how the poetic concept of taking water, air and light, and turning that into architecture, can go beyond just being a romantic idea. [He] demonstrates the value of data and empirical evidence to inform his spatial forms. Danish Architecture Centre, Copenhagen, thru June 25 -- Sambuichi Architects [images]