Magazine

London's National Gallery has announced its "NG200" plans, which include reconfiguring parts of The Sainsbury Wing, designed by Robert Venturi and Denise Scott Brown in 1991, leading up to the museum's 2024 bicentennial. John Hill

For decades, St. Thomas’ Parish in Washington, DC, sat as a remnant of its former self, after a fire in 1970 destroyed much of the late-19th-century church. The church gave the community a small park where the sanctuary once stood, but now it has a new home: a contemporary building designed by... Hickok Cole

Share of the 264 stores on London's world-famous Oxford Street that have permanently shuttered since the coronavirus... René Ammann

Anime Architecture, the new book from curator Stefan Riekeles, presents hundreds of backgrounds from eight classics of Japanese animation. The stunning book immerses readers into the "imagined worlds and endless megacities" of Akira, Ghost in the Shell, Metropolis,... John Hill

The UOP Fragrances Factory, designed by Richard Rogers and Renzo Piano before the duo won the competition for the Centre Pompidou in 1973, has been demolished. John Hill

The Hudson River Park Trust has unveiled plans for Gansevoort Peninsula, a 5.5-acre project that will include Manhattan's first public beach. Designed by James Corner Field Operations, it is located one block from the southern tip of the High Line. John Hill

Francis Kéré's design of the new national assembly building to be located in Porto-Novo, the capital of Benin, was inspired by the palaver tree, "the age-old West African tradition of meeting under a tree to make consensual decisions in the interest of a community." John Hill

In December the United Nations Environment Program (UNEP) named seven regional winners of the 2020 Young Champions of the Earth prize. Engineer Nzambi Matee, of Nairobi's Gjenge Makers, won for Africa, for a machine that turns discarded plastic into paving stones. John Hill

Obra Architects' Perpetual Spring Pavilion occupied the courtyard in front of the Museum Of Modern and Contemporary Art (MMCA) in Seoul from from September 2019 to April 2020.  Obra Architects

In Japan: Nation Building Nature, Joachim Nijs searches for an “alternative interpretation of Japanese architectural history” through a matrix of four ecological phenomena. Ulf Meyer — a fellow European as enthralled with Japan as Nijs is — read the recently published book and sent us... Ulf Meyer

In summer 2019, debartolo architects moved into a 1930s warehouse located "on one of the grittiest streets east of downtown Phoenix." Their conversion of the building responds to the context with dark steel walls facing the street, while inside it maintains the openness of the space capped by... debartolo architects

Reduction of the price of 300 homes in the federal state of Maharashtra, India, resulting from the... René Ammann

As announced by the Obama Foundation on February 3rd, the years-long federal review process of plans to build the Obama Presidential Center in Jackson Park on Chicago's South Side is complete, meaning the project will break ground later this year. John Hill

The Vilcek Foundation, which "raises awareness of immigrant contributions in the United States and fosters appreciation of the arts and sciences," has partnered with artist Hiroki Otsuka on a series of manga devoted to Vilcek Prize recipients. The first is about architect Denise Scott Brown,... John Hill

The new Manufacturing, Technology and Engineering Center (MTEC) at Daley College sets the framework for a wider master plan. The project unifies the existing complex by creating a campus environment with engaging pathways and collaborative spaces throughout. JGMA

Adelaide’s Aboriginal Art and Cultures Centre (AACC) has released updated renderings of its proposed 11,500 square meter building designed by New York's Diller Scofidio + Renfro and Australia's Woods Bagot. John Hill

Blending into the trees of Tokyo’s only major public park, Kengo Kuma and Associates' new museum for the Meiji Jingu is a testimony to Japan’s current architectural soul searching. Ulf Meyer

Three years after Amazon opened The Spheres at its downtown Seattle headquarters, the tech company has unveiled The Helix, part of its new HQ2 in Arlington, Virginia. NBBJ is the architect for both biophilic designs. John Hill

Aeon Video has posted "A Little Piece of Earth," a short film by director Ryan Malloy that profiles Charles Bello, an 86-year-old architect who lives an off-the-grid life on 400 acres in Northern California. John Hill

A list of 449 works nominated for the 2022 European Union Prize for Contemporary Architecture – Mies van der Rohe Award has been released. A second list of nominees will follow in the fall in response to the coronavirus pandemic and a lengthening of the biennial award's timeline accordingly. John Hill

For the second year in a row, a building on Chicago's South Side has received the most votes in our Building of the Year poll on American-Architects.com. In 2019 it was an academic building at Illinois Tech. For 2020 it's the dynamic orange building that Juan Moreno's firm, JGMA, designed for... John Hill

The renovated Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial Library in Washington, DC, originally designed by Mies van der Rohe, had a virtual opening ceremony in September 2020. Open since with limited services, the library, rejuvenated by Mecanoo and OTJ Architects, is sure to get lots of fanfare once the... Mecanoo

Area of a three-level home on Greece's Serifos Island that was carved into a rocky slope to protect its residents from strong northerly winds:... René Ammann

The World Around's annual summit was held on Saturday, January 30, at the Guggenheim Museum, where the organization is in residence this year. Recorded presentations and live discussions were broadcast to the strictly online audience. John Hill

The Deutsches Architekturmuseum (DAM) has announced that the DAM Preis for Architecture in Germany 2021 has been awarded to MVRDV and N-V-O Nuyken von Oefele Architekten for WERK12, a five-story mixed-use building near Munich's Ost station. John Hill

"It is the least we could do: minimalism in an environment of expressionism." — BUA Partner Steve Whitford BAU (Brearley Architects + Urbanists)

In which we take a look inside Formgiving, the new monograph on BIG – Bjarke Ingels Group, in the context of the three monographs the firm has produced with Taschen over the last twelve years. John Hill

A new half-hour documentary from the Louisiana Museum of Modern Art profiles architects Søren Johansen and Sebastian Skovsted, whose Copenhagen studio is "a rising star of the architecture scene in Northern Europe." John Hill

Atelier Zhang Lei (AZL Architects) in Nanjing recently completed a new hotel project, just 300 meters north of the Eduard Kögel

The iconic high-tech building designed by Renzo Piano and Richard Rogers will close from late 2023 until 2027, the same year the Parisian institution will celebrate its 50th anniversary. John Hill

The ICA Watershed opened in a formerly condemned industrial space in East Boston, a short ferry ride from ICA Boston's main building across the harbor. Like other museums, the Watershed temporarily closed during the pandemic, but it tapped into its industrial roots by transitioning to a food... Anmahian Winton Architects

Approximate number of staff Gensler, the world’s largest architecture firm, currently employing 2,506 architects, shed... René Ammann

The deadline for voting for the US Building of the Year is January 31. The winner that you decide will be announced on the first day of February online and in our World Newsletter. John Hill

Scottish architect Kate Macintosh and Ghanaian-Scottish architect, academic, and novelist Lesley Lokko are this year’s recipients of the Jane Drew Prize and Ada Louise Huxtable Prize, respectively, part of the W Awards given out by The Architectural Review and Architects’... John Hill

The coronavirus pandemic may have kept New Yorkers from traveling to London last year, but it didn't stop the transatlantic collaboration that resulted in a timber pavilion recently built on a residential rooftop. Made from dozens of interlocking curved timber tiles, the canopy designed by New... John Hill

Architect Petr Hájek recently completed a pet crematorium inserted into an old military bunker about a one-hour drive from Prague. Named Věčná loviště (Hunting Grounds), the crematorium is hidden behind a new wall of mirrors that reflects nature and adds, in the architect's words, "a... John Hill