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Jennifer McMaster: Toyo Ito & Associates: Gifu Media Cosmos, Gifu, Japan: ...an inventive and imaginative example of the potentials inherent in timber construction...a community center and library...a surprising interior...a sprawling, latticed timber roof, and a series of 'globes,' which hover over the interior space...[They] play off each other beautifully..., with the hard, woven lines of the timber ceiling contrasting the soft, ethereal globes. [images]

Michael Kimmelman: Frank Lloyd Wright Hated New York, Thought About Making the Guggenheim Pink, and Still Dreamed of Mile-High Skyscrapers: “Frank Lloyd Wright at 150: Unpacking the Archive,” a fine exhibition...at the Museum of Modern Art...Barry Bergdoll...enlisted scholars, mostly not the usual Wright suspects, to mine the trove. Their assignment: choose one thing ripe for fresh exploration. [images, videos]- New York Times

The Architect vs. the FBI: Frank Lloyd Wright at 150: Wright was both a Utopian and a narcissist. He could jive talk his way through almost any crisis and there were many of them...[He] was especially adept at snowing corporate titans...Hoover’s snoops were only a minor irritant compared to the real damage that was done by the Federal Housing Authority...- CounterPunch

Jonathan Glancey: Frank Lloyd Wright: What his 5 best buildings tell us about his life and work: A rhyme in a café...said "Frank Lloyd Wright built a house over falling water/which he really shouldn't have oughta." Most of us are glad he did. [images]- CNN Style

Fernanda Santos: Frank Lloyd Wright House, a Demolition Target, Is Now an Architecture School’s Lifeline: The owner of a house designed by Wright for one of his sons gave it to a small, struggling [School of Architecture at Taliesin] in Phoenix...David and Gladys Wright House is by far the largest gift the school has received...The house stands as an ode to bygone times. -- Zach Rawling; Aaron Betsky; Victor Sidy- New York Times

Christopher Hawthorne: Frank Lloyd Wright at 150: Why his Los Angeles houses deserve a closer look: What was Wright trying to do, or say, with the textile-block houses? He was trying to shape an indigenous regional architecture for Southern California. And he was attempting to put a definitive end to...a deeply troubled decade in his personal and professional lives. [images]- Los Angeles Times

Christopher Hawthorne: Why 'unpacking' is a perfect - and perfectly overused - metaphor for our cultural moment: For those of us who...wish “unpack” would pack up and go - who think overuse has left it nearly meaningless - this spring has not been a happy season...“Unpacking: The Marciano Collection"...“Frank Lloyd Wright at 150: Unpacking the Archive"...That’s a lot to unpack...killing this particular cliché may be tougher than it sounds.- Los Angeles Times

After London, Architect Weighs In On How Cities Can Prevent Similar Attacks: ...cities around the world have been redesigning to protect against such attacks. Here & Now's Robin Young learns more from AIA President Thomas Vonier, who works with cities to improve urban security. [audio]- WBUR Boston Public Radio/NPR

Lance Hosey: Is Washington its Own Worst Enemy for Sustainable Design? The city’s own form undermines its ability to develop high-performance buildings: ...the “quiet capital of sustainable design"...despite a significant barrier - namely, its own urban plan...the city’s basic form can deter smarter building. What can be done to alleviate this?- Huffington Post

Christopher Hume: How pedestrians and cyclists are changing the face of Toronto: The historic dominance of the car is being challenged and that’s having a profound effect: ...our city's streets have become a battleground where a generational struggle for mobility is playing out...The truth is that street-building is a lost art in Toronto...[it] remains on the wrong side of history. [images, video]- Toronto Star

Alex Bozikovic: Riverside Rethink: A million-square-foot development in Toronto's Don River Valley reinvents the condominium typology, with refreshing results: ...four buildings with sloped sides and protruding extrusions, none of them a glass box and each of them interesting within and without...replete with intelligent urban design moves. -- Saucier + Perrotte Architectes; ZAS Architects; The Planning Partnership [images]- Canadian Architect

Tallest Mass-Timber Building in U.S. Receives Approval for Construction: ...mixed-use building [in Portland, Oregon] will contain office space, street level retail, and 60 units of affordable housing...12-story tower was one of two projects that split the $3 million U.S. Tall Wood Building Prize...Constructed with cross-laminated [CLT] and glu-laminated timber, Framework also contains so-called “rocking wall”... -- LEVER Architecture [images]- Architectural Record

Fred A. Bernstein: This Man Is Responsible for Brooklyn's New Look: Jonathan Marvel's vanguard firm is now the go-to for marquee projects in New York's hippest borough: Though he merits the title “Mr. Brooklyn,” Marvel has work all over the country - he spends almost as much time on airplanes as on the bike he pedals around New York City. [images]- Architectural Digest

Nikos A. Salingaros: What Architectural Education Does To Would-Be Architects: I’ve come to the reluctant conclusion that architectural education does some very specific things to its students: 1) It disconnects them from their bodies. 2) It brainwashes them. 3) It reduces spatial ideas to two dimensions. 4) It privileges image over emotion. 5) It promotes a kind of “architectural sadism.”- Common Edge

2017 Festival des Architectures Vives/FAV Montpellier: "Emotion": 10 installations in historical courtyards of Montpellier, France, June 13-18- Festival des Architectures Vives (FAV)

33 winning projects to share $5 million in 2017 Knight Cities Challenge: The winners embody some special characteristics. They share a willingness to step outside of their comfort zones, to try something new and to take risks. They are tenacious and able to pivot quickly...- Knight Foundation

2017 MAD Travel Fellowship Winners Announced: From over 500 global applicants, 5 overseas students...to visit China, while 5 Chinese students...fund for their overseas traveling. [images]- MAD Architecture

Call for entries: Request For Qualifications/RFQ: PHL Image Maker: Landscape Design Competition (international): create an "Image Maker" landscape at Philadelphia's airport; deadline: July 21- Philadelphia International Airport (PHL) & Pennsylvania Horticultural Society (PHS)

Call for entries (deadline reminder!): 2017 Faith & Form/IFRAA International Religious Art and Architecture Design Awards; deadline: June 30- Faith & Form Magazine / Interfaith Forum on Religion, Art and Architecture (IFRAA)

ANN feature: Taliesin East: "Frank Lloyd Wright in New York: The Plaza Years, 1954-1959" by Jane King Hession and Debra Pickrel (Book Excerpt): A Plaza home and office had much to offer the architect, including prestige, prospect, and refuge - an elegant perch from which to survey the city he loved to hate.- ArchNewsNow.com