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Many are still regrouping after the devastating news of the Notre Dame Cathedral fire that took place on Monday, April 15th. With cathedral updates made by our Archinect team member Justine Testado, plans for restoring the historic building is underway. Since yesterday France's president Emmanuel... View full entry
The Rothko Chapel in Houston, founded in 1971 by the art patrons John and Dominique de Menil as an ecumenical site for both reflection and activism, will be closing on Monday for the rest of the year for the first phase of a $30 million restoration and campus expansion by Architecture Research Office. — The New York Times
New York-based firm Architecture Research Office (ARO) was selected in 2016 to be in charge of the restoration work. "During the closure, work inside the Chapel will include modifications to the entryway and vestibule, enhanced audio, security and fire systems, replacement of the existing skylight... View full entry
Indiana Landmarks is looking for a private citizen to take over the House of Tomorrow from Chicago's 1933 World's Fair in order to fund its restoration. Working with the National Park Service, who acquired the property in the 1960s, they are offering a 50-year lease to whomever can cover the... View full entry
The World Monuments Fund [...] announced the completion of a conservation project at two historic Mughal gardens along the Yamuna riverfront in Agra, India, that had been threatened by pollution, traffic congestion and other urban ills. The sites, Mehtab Bagh and the Garden of the Tomb of I’timad-ud-Daulah, were newly inaugurated by the fund and the Archaeological Survey of India, its partner in the four-year effort, in a ceremony at I’timad-ud-Daulah. — The Art Newspaper
Image via the World Monuments Fund on Facebook"The project will finish with the completion of a visitor center at I’timad-ud-Daulah, to open in 2019," reports the World Monuments Fund. "Raising awareness and visibility of the gardens that are often overshadowed by their more famous neighbor, the... View full entry
Le Corbusier’s Parisian studio apartment has reopened to the public following a two-year restoration to its storied bones...French architect François Chatillon was tapped for the €1m restoration project, which marks the 50th anniversary of the Fondation Le Corbusier. Chatillon has brought back the original colour palette and textures of the 240 sqm Modernist home as well as replacing degraded materials. — The Spaces
The modernist Parisian apartment, where Le Corbusier and his wife Yvonne Gallis lived from 1934 to 1965, is located on Rue nungesser et coli 24 and is open to the public on Mondays, Tuesdays, and Saturdays. View full entry
After over 20 years of restoration, a legendary Frank Lloyd Wrightresidence in Buffalo, NY has finally opened its doors to public visitors. Sitting inside the Martin House complex, the Barton House's $2-million upgrade is the final architectural piece of the estate to be restored, completing the... View full entry
India has proposed a ban on plastics, polluting factories and construction around its 17th-century monument to love, the Taj Mahal, a government document showed, in a bid to stave off pollution that is turning the structure yellow and green.
In a draft document submitted to the Supreme Court on Tuesday, authorities in Uttar Pradesh said they would ban all plastics, switch to electric and hydrogen vehicles, and boost the green cover within the precincts of the Taj, to fight pollution.
— Reuters
"The document was submitted after the justices, in a fit of anger during a hearing two weeks ago, demanded that authorities either restore the structure or tear it down," Reuters reports. "One of the seven wonders of the world, the Taj Mahal is flanked by a garbage-strewn river and is often... View full entry
The Taj Mahal in Agra could be closed unless the Indian government steps in and saves the neglected landmark, says India’s Supreme Court. “Either we shut down the Taj or demolish it or you restore it,” the two-judge committee told state officials last week. [...]
The Supreme Court says that it will monitor the situation on a day-to-day basis from 31 July.
— The Art Newspaper
Frustrated with the slow response from officials in charge of restoring the deteriorating Taj Mahal, India's highest court demanded swift action to stop the ongoing discoloration of the iconic Unesco World Heritage site caused by pollution and millions of tiny insects, saying: "We want you to... View full entry
India’s Supreme Court on Wednesday faulted the country’s archaeological conservation body for failing to protect the Taj Mahal from discoloration, dirty feet and green slime emitted by millions of mosquito-like insects.
Since 2015, the body, the Archaeological Survey of India, has overseen a restoration project at the Taj Mahal, with workers scaling scaffolding to remove grime from the 17th-century tomb [...].
— The New York Times
After decades of slowly turning dull and yellowish from smog and pollution, the Taj Mahal's formerly white facade has now taken on an unattractive green discoloration. Archaeological experts suspect swarms of tiny bugs to be the perpetrators, but India's highest court isn't pleased with the slow... View full entry
Wilbert R. Hasbrouck, a pioneering Chicago preservation architect who breathed new life into buildings designed by some of the city’s renowned architects and co-owned a beloved architectural bookstore, died Saturday at a care facility in suburban Norridge.
A longtime Chicago resident, Hasbrouck was 86. The cause of death was complications from Parkinson’s disease, said his son Charles, a director at the Chicago architectural firm of bKL.
— chicagotribune.com
Over a 40 year career, Hasbrouck renovated buildings such as Frank Lloyd Wright’s Dana-Thomas House in Springfield, William Le Baron Jenney's Manhattan Building skyscraper, and Louis Sullivan's Peoples Savings Bank in Cedar Rapids, along with several of Chicago’s important 19th-century... View full entry
The Italian firm Ciclostile Architettura has converted a 1960s barn in the Bologna countryside into a workplace for the artist Francesca Pasquali. Inspired by the view, all main services—i.e. main rooms and rest rooms—have been concentrated on the ground floor, allowing the first floor to... View full entry
Once the renovation is complete, the four-storey building will be used as a venue for art exhibitions, installations and seminars that will be open to the public, as well as a philanthropic institution to help vulnerable people including refugees...any old material removed from the building will have to be taken away in barges along Venice’s canals, while new material will have to be brought in the same way. — The Telegraph
David Chipperfield will lead the painstaking renovation of the monumental Procuratie Vecchie in Venice's St. Mark's Square. When the project is complete in 2020, the building will be accessible to the public for the first time in some 500 years. View full entry
Today, the Glasgow School of Art unveiled a full-size prototype of a section of the Mackintosh Library bay that is based on the original 1910 design, marking another step forward for the building's restoration after the devastating 2014 fire. Following two years of meticulous research and six... View full entry
The restoration aims not only to clean and maintain the structure, but also to offer an insight into what the cathedral would have looked like in the 13th century. Its interior was designed to be a radiant vision, as close to heaven on earth as a pilgrim might come, although many modern visitors have responded more with shock than with awe. The architecture critic Martin Filler has described the project as a “scandalous desecration of a cultural holy place.” — The New York Times
The decade-long restoration of Chartres' grand cathedral (rebuilt in its current Gothic style between 1194 and 1220) isn't going over without controversy: is the dirt that's currently being scrubbed off its walls, ceilings, and even Madonna statues, part of the building's history or merely... View full entry
Church officials, who have created what they are calling a “stone cemetery” from fallen masonry, say the cathedral remains safe to visit.
Entry is free and the French state, which owns the building, devotes €2m (£1.9m) a year to repairs. But that is not enough to embark on major restoration works, the last of which were carried out during the 1800s, officials at the cathedral and charity said.
— The Guardian
The archbishop of Paris launched a €100m fundraising campaign for Notre Dame's extensive restoration works. The 12th century cathedral on the Seine river—one of Paris' biggest landmarks, is visited by up to 14 million people visit per year. “Gargoyles are what people want to see when they... View full entry