In a shift, dozens of new and refurbished libraries, firehouses, police precincts and museums have been designed by gifted architects.

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New York’s Public Architecture Gets a Face-Lift

For the Swiss architects Jacques Herzog and Pierre de Meuron, the restoration of the Park Avenue Armory is a delicate process of excavation.

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Park Avenue Armory to Get Swiss Makeover

The reflective towers of New York City, which is on the Atlantic migratory flyway, can be deadly for birds. An estimated 90,000 birds are killed by flying into buildings in the city each year.

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Making New York’s Glass Buildings Safer for Birds

THE CONSTITUTIONALITY of the new health-care law — specifically, the constitutionality of the requirement that every individual obtain health insurance or pay a fine — is now squarely teed up for the Supreme Court. One federal appeals court, the Cleveland-based U.S. Court of Appeals for the 6th Circuit, has upheld the individual mandate by a 2 to 1 majority. On Friday, another, the 11th Circuit based in Atlanta, found the mandate unconstitutional , again splitting 2 to 1. The issue is also before the 4th Circuit in Richmond and the federal appeals court in the District. The mandate does not take effect until 2014. But given the central importance of the individual mandate to the architecture of the health-care law, the sooner the Supreme Court finally decides the matter, the better. Read full article > >

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Health care and the Constitution

The Ledge, a series of glass boxes that extend off the 103rd floor of the Willis Tower in Chicago, gives visitors a unique perspective on the world.

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Hanging 104 Floors Above Chicago, There’s No Time for Vertigo

The Port Authority has struggled to create an elegant and secure skyscraper while also containing costs.

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Feature at Trade Center Is Halted After $10 Million

The Port Authority has struggled to create an elegant and secure skyscraper while also containing costs.

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Feature at Trade Center Is Halted After $10 Million

As clan traditions dwindle, more Chinese are moving out of the tulou, gargantuan buildings with earthen walls.

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Yongding Journal: Monuments to Clan Life Are Losing Their Appeal

Compete to reinvent a shipping container for Brooklyn’s new community market Located in the heart of downtown Brooklyn’s Fulton Street mall, the upcoming Dekalb Market will be home to a food market and incubator farm, restaurants, work-sell shops, a performance venue and more. One of the spaces dreamed up to enclose all these attractions is a re-imagined shipping container, which Dekalb Market developer Urban Spoon is challenging you to design. The ” Not Just A Container ” competition tasks the creative community with coming up with an innovative idea for the structure, with the winner receiving six months free rent and $3,000 for design and construction, as well as one year memberships to 3rd Ward and the Brooklyn Chamber of Commerce . Beginning today, the contest spans one month and I’m looking forward to checking out the designs as one of judges on the panel. Suggestions for use range from art installation to sports venues, but entrants are free to stretch their imagination while keeping to key criteria like design quality, sustainability, community impact and entrepreneurship. Designs must also conform to the size limitations for an ISO steel shipping container (8′ x 20′ x 9.5′). For a full list of rules and regulations, visit the Not Just a Container website.

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Not Just A Container

An exhibition at Yale considers the Modernist work of the architect Kevin Roche.

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Critic’s Notebook: Turning a Rearview Mirror on Kevin Roche

An LGBT retirement community geared toward open living What began as an innovative project for LGBT retirees seeking refuge from cookie-cutter approaches to conventional retirement has evolved into something much more ambitious. More than 100 acres in the Mojave Desert will soon be the site of a $250 million idea, bringing together 10 architectural firms from five countries to succeed where so many fail by reclaiming shared community spaces that invite pedestrians and casual interactivity among neighbors. Located near Palm Springs, California —an area known for perennial sunshine and wide-open spaces— Boom will cater to outdoor living with pedestrian pathways and communal spaces, as well as eateries, wellness centers and shops. Living spaces include private homes, assisted living and a nursing home. Each separate development will differ as the individual architects are being given free reign to realize their ideas of livability, adding diversity to the common goal of functionality and livability. The first phase envisions 300 homes, but that figure could eventually double after full build-out. To get in on the ground floor, you can request an invite from Boom’s website . Another exciting facet to the project is that the Boom community already exists in virtual space. Participants can brainstorm and create a shared vision with the developers and architects in these early stages when the buildings are still rendered lines in an AutoCAD program. Stateside, recruited architectural talent includes Diller Scotidio + Renfro (known for their Blur Building in Switzerland) who have proposed cast waves that oscillate with each dwelling’s highest point, with its lower troughs serving as access points for lush greenery. Reinforcing the sense of community, not all of the effort is reserved for the luxurious homes. Arakawa + Gins , the firm behind Tokyo’s Reversible Destiny Lofts , plan a “Healing Fun House” designed for all ages, a sort of playground for children and adults alike to recreate the body and mind. Ideas from abroad include Berlin-based J Mayer H Architects whose plans call for one- and two-story units with communal gardens. The Israeli duo L2 Tsionov-Vikton of Tel Aviv envision terraced roof gardens in modular dwellings designed to blend in with the desert environs. But the overarching idea is a space where denizens celebrate life with each other rather than retreat into isolation that so many other modern developments ultimately foster—as lead designer Matthias Hollwich from HWKN explained to his fellow architects, “Boom has to be about living, not retiring, about inclusion and not seclusion.” See more images in the gallery below.

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Boom

A new tower at 8 Spruce Street, the architect Frank Gehry’s first skyscraper, is the most significant change to the Lower Manhattan skyline since Sept. 11, 2001.

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Architecture Review: Downtown Skyscraper for the Digital Age

Designed by José Rafael Moneo, Columbia University’s new science building is anticipated as a gateway to a campus planned for West Harlem.

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Architecture Review: A Building Forms a Bridge Between a University’s Past and Future

Steven Holl’s newly adopted design for a new library at Hunters Point in Queens is meant to be a monument to civic engagement as much as a place for quiet contemplation.

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Architecture Review: Civic Engagement Trumps ‘Shhh!’

Michael Tilson Thomas and Frank Gehry joined visions to create a new home for the New World Symphony in Miami Beach.

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Architecture Review: Gehry Design Plays Fanfare for the Common Man