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."
In New York and Chicago, most civic work is done by local firms. In LA, it's 50-50 public-private. In San Francisco, upwards of 70 percent of city-run projects are designed by the Bureau of Architecture, a city agency within the Department of Public Works. In these particularly tough times, local firms are clamoring for any work they can get, and architects on both sides of the issue are coming to blows. The Architect's Newspaper
For the first time in 18 months, the majority of landscape architecture firm
leaders reported normal or above levels of work compared to the previous
quarter, according to the latest American Society of Landscape Architects (ASLA)
Business Quarterly survey. Reuters+ full entry...
Mickey Jacob, Managing Principal of Urban Studio Architects in Tampa, FL, represented his firm and the AIA by testifying for the House Committee on Small Business about the AIA’s Rebuild and Renew Plan.
Soaring towers could mean that recession is on the way. Guardian
In 1999 the research director at investment bank Dresdner Kleinwort Wasserstein invented something called the "Skyscraper index", arguing that the construction of super-tall buildings is often a sign that an economic downturn is on the way.
Exhibiting a welcome rebound following a 5-point dip the month prior, the Architecture Billings Index (ABI) was up almost 6 points in July. + full entry...
Billings (blue) and inquiries (red) for the past 13 months, according to the AIA Architecture Billings Index. After a brutal winter, payments could be headed down again.
Last week, the AIA released it's monthly billings index, and it showed payments to architects are falling again. After a respite this spring that gave lots of firms hope, it looks like the worst may not yet be over. The Architect's Newspaper
The financial crisis has pummelled architecture. But could it push young designers to new creative heights? We talk salaries and skylines with architecture studentsGuardian
Economic slump shakes foundation of prefab housing - LA Times
It's always a little risky to see in one headline about the architecture business, or in the fate of a single firm, a parable for the profession as a whole. But news that prefab specialist Michelle Kaufmann suddenly has closed her Oakland office and laid off all 17 of her employees does seem to have Larger Symbolism written all over it.
The death and transformation of the american architect - Examiner
Earlier this year, when a wave of layoffs and closings first hit cities, there were predictions of civil unrest and trouble in the cities during the hot summer. This hasn't come to pass in the New Economy.
The latest AIA Architecture Billings Index suggests this could be a long, slow, painful recession. Payments to firms may not be declining as fast as they were, but they are still in decline. As stimulus funding peters out, with nothing yet to replace it, those declines could continue for some time. The Architect's Newspaper
Tired of CTRL-Z as your modus operandi in life? Changes in the economy have had the surprising effect of making the manual trades more attractive as careers. NYT
