Philip Johnson's first completed project, a modest house not far from Harvard Square where the architect was studying in the '40s, caused a stir when it was built more for what went on behind its 9-foot walls than the building itself. But it continues to rankle today, as the school looks to turn the demure building into a salon for students while Cambridgians cry out. Read...

As we hear reports of Alameda County sheriffs entering the Berkeley campus with tear gas today... Read...

cityLAB Design Competition WPA 2.0 Rides Perfect Storm in DC
WPA 2.0: Working Public Architecture, the design competition organized by UCLA’s cityLAB, culminated with the announcement of “Carbon T.A.P.// Tunnel Algae Park” as the winning proposal of the professional competition and “R_Ignite” and “Aquaculture Canal_New Orleans” as the winning proposals of the student competition – WPA 2.0 (SE)...

Rietveldprijs 2009 Goes to Business Park in Utrecht Papendorp
The design for Papendorp Business Park in Utrecht, The Netherlands, West 8 designed together with Wissing Stedebouw en Ruimtelijke Vormgeving, has won the Rietveld Award 2009...

Kenyan Slum Youth Group Wins 2009 ONE Africa Award
A community organization founded by young people in Nairobi’s slums has won the ONE Africa Award, an annual prize given by the global anti-poverty group to honor ground-breaking work by African non-governmental organizations...

Architect’s Eye Announces Winners of Architectural Photography Contest
The winners of Architect’s Eye, a competition which judges architects’ photography skills, are John Barr, an independent architect practicing in Glasgow, and Philippe Brysse, an Associate at Foster and Partners... Read...

The City Journal's Theodore Dalrymple says "Le Corbusier was to architecture what Pol Pot was to social reform." Read...

As we reported earlier this week, the Pontiac Silverdome was recently purchased by a Canadian buyer for only $583K. According to an article in Crain's today, however, "An Oakland County judge has ordered an injunction to stop the sale of the Pontiac Silverdome after a complaint was filed by attorney H. Wallace Parker, who planned to develop the building as a horse-themed development." Read...

Regents Raise College Tuition in California by 32 Percent Read...

A new kind of battery that is expected to last 25 years (called a betavoltaic battery) is currently being developed by Widetronix. The battery harvests energy from the nuclear decay of isotopes. Read...

Get offline! And do something fun in Miami Beach, Los Angeles, New York, Seattle, Munich, London, Cambridge, Santa Monica, Singapore or Boulder. Read...

Zaha Hadid is meeting the Pope this week - apparently he wants to revitalise religious art and architecture - and it will be one of the stranger celebrity encounters. Read...

Steep tuition hikes, fee increases for professional programs, lay-offs, furloughs, program cuts, and a lackadaisical administration have driven thousands to mobilize. Read...

via the NYTimes... Read...

Ever pass by a standout building and wonder -- who the hell lives there? TVE did... Read...

In the mid 1970s, before becoming a full-time writer, Nobel Prize-winner Orhan Pamuk studied architecture. In this autobiographical piece he describes his feelings about architecture and the trade he never took up. Read...

The full line-up of the icon minds talks, by the likes of Ronan Bouroullec, Farshid Moussavi, Bruce Sterling and Dunne & Raby, can now be viewed online. Read...

Fortune magazine has put together a list of mistakes-to-avoid while looking for a new job. These are general, but definitely apply to out-of-work architects. A good read after studying our recently published Archinect's Official Portfolio Guide Part II: The Search for Employment. Read
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Mr. Stern said the building, which is scheduled to have its groundbreaking next year, was not designed to reflect on Mr. Bush personally. “It’s not a portrait or a defense of his policies,” Mr. Stern told The Morning News. “It is about the presidency, the dignity of the office.” Read...

Germany's idealistic designers have much to teach the modern world
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A shortage of funds has prompted UC Berkeley to abandon its plan to construct a new Berkeley Art Museum and Pacific Film Archive downtown. Read...

Mimi Zeiger has penned a piece for Metropolis on Thom Faulder's design for a private backyard installation entitled "Deform Courtyard". According to Jeff Dauber, the client (an exec at Apple), "I wanted someone to barf when they look at it". Read...

Emissions of carbon dioxide from burning fossil fuels soared by 41 percent from 1990 to 2008 and have jumped 29 percent since 2000. Read...

NYtimes reports on Smithson's Spiral Jetty and the preservation efforts being pursued by Dia and the Getty. Read...

Richard M. Sommer, an Architect and Urbanist and a member of Harvard GSD’s faculty since 1998, has been appointed Dean of the John H. Daniels Faculty of Architecture, Landscape and Design at the University of Toronto, succeeding George Baird. Read...

for less than many-a-McMansion read Read...

A collection of 322 silk screened posters from the 60s to the 80s. Read...

The New Yorker's Paul Goldberger discusses Jean Nouvel's façade designs. Read...

Apparently architects with children on the Autism spectrum have been reporting to Google that the software is a hit with their kids. Read...

More than a dozen New York designers have teamed up to offer pro bono help to local non-profits. Applications are due at the end of the month, and hopefully DesigNYC will expand into a full-time network of designers doing good. Read...

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in the RIBA Journal, a small ground layout exposition by Pearman, and slideshow. Read...