NBWW BLOG…

The tech crowd’s current obsession could have a massive impact on the design industry—if it can evolve from novelty to innovation   Text by Michael Slenske While hundreds of tech firms are broadening their virtual (and augmented) reality footprints—think Google’s omnipotent Street View and Facebook’s recent unveiling of an Oculus Half Dome headset prototype—the truth is that the VR landscape is still quite virtual in practice, especially within interior design and architecture. However, that may soon change, depending on how quickly the technology can become friendlier for users. Take The Future Perfect’s brief foray into VR last May. At the time, the Brooklyn-based design gallery was exhibiting glass works from Seattle artist John Wogan at its Casa Perfect pop-up inside a...

Architects must consider the social and economic repercussions of building in places at risk from climate change, urges Jesse M Keenan. by Jesse M Keenan Architects must consider not just the environmental, but the social and economic repercussions of building in places at risk from climate change, urges Jesse M Keenan, co-author of a recent study into Climate Gentrification. Every designer knows what a sh%t show is. It is that project that takes on a life of its own. You aren’t sure who is really driving the process. Ambiguity and complexity work in unison to thwart the design and to cloud the project’s original intent. Sh%tshows sometimes result in a beautiful building that defies logic. However, more often than not, the final result is representative of its procedural...

The rulebook is expected to serve as a starting point for U.S. licensing boards to navigate the complex world of workplace culture in 2018. By Sydney Franklin It’s no secret that architecture has long-been thought of as a profession in which suffering is integral to the work itself. From unreasonable work hours to gender bias and poor pay, these deep-seated issues in the industry have gained more traction as of late with the fresh light shone on sexual harassment in the workplace. This is not a new issue in architecture, but it has recently caused one group to think strategically about how to regulate behavior with legislative policy. In an annual meeting last week in Detroit, the National Council of Architectural Registration Boards (NCARB) approved an updated version of their “Model...

We love to see our work featured as one of the best hotels in Miami…. Thank you Travel + Leisure and congrats to the W South Beach! – NBWW Looking for the best hotels in Miami? We’ve got your list #TLWorldsBest Luxe, amenity-packed resorts that you can call home in Florida’s nightlife capital, as voted by T+L readers. by Jacqueline Gifford Travelers to Miami Beach have some tough decisions to make. Do they want their hotel to come with an impressive art collection — including a massive Damien Hirst sculpture of a woolly mammoth? Check in to the Faena Hotel, which placed 10th this year in our list of readers’ favorite hotels. Or how about a buzzy Italian restaurant where the kitchen makes its own pasta and flies in the burrata fresh from Italy? Stop by the new Four...

The 2018 Architectural League Prize winners are now on view at the Sheila C. Johnson Design Center at the Parsons School of Design, running through August 4. By Alex Wong “How might we determine the facts and values that motivate the production of architecture in a post-truth era?” That was the question that entrants were asked to respond to for this year’s Prize for Young Architects + Designers from The Architectural League of New York. The winners presented an array of proposals across a variety of media that obliquely took on the theme. The 2018 competition, titled Objective, was won by Anya Sirota of Akoaki, Bryony Roberts of Bryony Roberts Studio, Gabriel Cuéllar and Athar Mufreh of Cadaster, Coryn Kempster of Julia Jamrozik and Coryn Kempster, Alison Von Glinow and Lap Chi Kwong...

By Brian Bandell Florida East Coast Industries has revealed plans for an office and retail tower near its Brightline passenger rail station in Fort Lauderdale. Amid ongoing development around the Brightline stations in Miami and West Palm Beach, there’s been speculation for years about what FECI would build in Fort Lauderdale, the middle of its passenger line. There’s already been a development boom by third-party builders around the site in Fort Lauderdale’s Progresso Village, with many apartments, shops and some hotels. The choice of office space for Fort Lauderdale makes sense, given that FECI was largely successful in leasing its two new office buildings at MiamiCentral. FECI hired CBRE’s Christopher Gallagher and Jeffrey Kelly to prelease 101 Fort Lauderdale along Northwest...

14-story building will have 175,000 sf of office space and 15,000 sf of retail By Keith Larsen Florida East Coast Industries is planning to build a Fort Lauderdale Brightline office and retail tower, amid demand for new office development. FECI aims to build 101 Fort Lauderdale, a 14-story building at 101 Northwest Third Street Street in downtown Fort Lauderdale. It will feature 175,000 square feet of office space across 7 floors and 15,000 square feet of ground-floor retail and amenities. The property will also have 2.5 parking spaces per 1,000 square feet leased, according to a CBRE press release. FECI is the parent company of Brightline, a high-speed rail service connecting passengers from West Palm Beach to Fort Lauderdale and Miami. The 60,000-square-foot Brightline Fort...

A handful of exhibitions and performances during the month-long design festival radically interrogate gender and space. George Kafka After a dizzying month of activities, the London Festival of Architecture (LFA) came to a close June 30. This, the 10th edition of the festival, followed the example of its predecessors by hosting a broader set of events than ever before. London was thus bursting with an array of lectures, panels, pavilions, open studios, exhibitions, and a bake-off, all supposedly centered around the theme of “Identity.” Unlike biennials such as Venice or Chicago, LFA isn’t so much curated as directed and the huge range of events means identifying consistent threads is a fruitless task. What’s more, any vaguely architectural events taking place in June were shoehorned...

The importance of the section in architectural representation and practice fromPlug In City, ArchigramArchigram, Ângelo Bucci, Instituto Moreira Salles, and Clorindo Testa. by Julia Brant Architectural comprehension as a field deals with representation as a synthesis of varied efforts – constructive, compositional, spatial, and technical qualities – which are then articulated in the constructed building. For this purpose, it is essential to think about the graphic representation that presupposes all these efforts, since it is both a procedure and a product of architectural design. In this sense, it can be understood that architectural debate throughout history, at different periods of time, was translated into drawings. The drawing exercise refers directly to the discourse...

This marks a nearly 15 percent year-over-year increase from last June, when the U.S. economy added 154,000 positions. By Hanley Wood Data Studio, Ayda Ayoubi The U.S. economy added 177,000 private, non-farm jobs in June according to the monthly employment report released today by payroll-management firm ADP and its partner Moody’s Analytics. The seasonally adjusted result is 6.35 percent lower than May’s revised addition of 189,000 jobs, but it marks a 14.94 percent increase from last June, when 154,000 jobs were created. “The labor market continues to march towards full employment,” said ADP Research Institute vice president and co-head Ahu Yildirmaz in a press release. “Healthcare led job growth once again and trade rebounded nicely.” “Business’ [sic] number one problem...

In its new Sessions series, the Van Alen Institute shows the effects of climate change through a variety of lenses Text by Hadley Keller “The results are visible,” says landscape architect Jennifer Bolstad of the effects of climate change on Miami. “Even if people say they don’t believe in climate change, they believe in an octopus in the middle of their street.” This is one of the cheekier lines uttered in a new video series about the effects of rising sea levels on the South Florida city—it’s also the one that perhaps most effectively captures the complex relationship between Miami, its people, and the direct effects of climate change on the city. Turning the Tide in Miami, a multipart video series produced by the nonprofit Van Alen Institute in...

During the annual AIA convention, the Architecture Lobby debated how to better protect workers from harassment and discrimination—and how to fight back By Diana Budds It’s been a rocky year for architects. Multiple women accused Richard Meier—one of its most recognized stars—of sexual harassment. The Shitty Architecture Men list revealed accusations of harassment, anecdotes about discrimination, and malaise and anger from the industry’s workers and students. Despite persistent calls to improve racial diversity and achieve gender equity, not much has changed; most architects are white men. At the AIA Conference on Architecture—the profession’s annual convention held this year in New York from June 22 to 23—both the establishment and progressive professional groups called for radical...