In The News: School of Architecture

BBC

From planting trees to painting streets white, US cities are fighting extreme heat. In 2013, Los Angeles became the first large city to pass a law requiring all new homes to have a cool roof. Since then, the city – where the number of days at 35C (95F) is expected to soar by 2050 – has rolled out numerous other keep-cool initiatives, including painting pavements white and expanding its Green Standards Building Code to include cool roofs on non-residential buildings and retrofits.

Science News Explores

“It felt like magic.” Joshua Vermillion was describing the first time he used artificial intelligence, or AI, to make an image. Vermillion is an architect and designer who teaches at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas. He creates artwork of otherworldly spaces. Before he started using AI to do this, Vermillion would make maybe 10 pieces in a year. Last year, though, he made around 150 works. “I can just simply tell the computer what I want in plain English,” he says. “What a time to be alive!”

National Building Museum

Brutalist buildings have been called ‘imposing monsters’ and yet they feature prominently in the architectural landscape of the nation’s capital. The National Building Museum uses this perspective as a launching point for its new exhibition, Capital Brutalism, which opens on Saturday, June 1, 2024. Co-organized with the Southern Utah Museum of Art (SUMA), Capital Brutalism is the largest-ever survey of Brutalist architecture in Washington, D.C. and will be on display at the Museum through Monday, February 17, 2025

Architecture & Design

Have you ever seen a building that looks from another planet? If not, you’re in for a treat. There’s a fascinating collection of 50 out-of-this-world alien-like buildings designed by architects that will leave you in awe. From surreal-looking museums to futuristic skyscrapers, these structures push the boundaries of what we consider to be typical architecture. Each building is unique and showcases the creativity and imagination of its designer. These architects were unafraid to think outside the box when creating these architectural wonders.

Las Vegas Sun

The Comprehensive Digestive Institute of Nevada’s location in the southeast Las Vegas Valley boasts nearly a dozen exam rooms, a collaborative office space for physicians, an open-concept nursing station and a slew of other amenities to benefit patients and providers alike. It’s almost impossible to tell that, in a former life, the building was not equipped for medical use at all. In fact, it was a financial-services firm.

Grist Magazine

Rolling up to a Tesla charging port, Illinois Republican state Senator Dan McConchie grimaced that wheelchair users like him couldn’t use it — or any of the others at the gas station where he filmed his Instagram reel. They’d all been placed on a raised surface that he couldn’t readily reach. McConchie introduced a state bill to improve relevant accessibility standards, including electric car chargers. But it’s a national problem: Electric vehicle charging stations are often inaccessible, despite being designed and built decades after the Americans With Disabilities Act, or ADA, became law.

Bored Panda

Whether you’re walking the streets of a city you know like the palm of your hand or someplace completely unfamiliar, some buildings might make you stop dead in your tracks. It’s because some architectural gems are so astonishing, they never cease to impress the passersby or catch their attention, be it for all the right or wrong reasons.

Mother Jones

Rolling up to a Tesla charging port, Illinois Republican state Sen. Dan McConchie grimaced that wheelchair users like him couldn’t use it—or any of the others at the gas station where he filmed his Instagram reel. They’d all been placed on a raised surface that he couldn’t readily reach. McConchie introduced a state bill to improve relevant accessibility standards, including electric car chargers. But it’s a national problem: Electric vehicle charging stations are often inaccessible, despite being designed and built decades after the Americans with Disabilities Act became law.

Popular Mechanics

The living-dining space at the heart of a tree grove in bucolic Baden-Württemberg, southwest Germany, gives off strong Flinstones-family-kitchen vibes. Thirty-six big and slender London plane trees ensconce a series of large, rough-edged stone tables and an open oven; the transparent roof above whimsically resembles a turtle’s shell, somewhat creating the illusion of a mysterious Stonehenge-like structure. But the devil is in the details—dining surfaces are impeccably flat, with stone slabs securely fixed atop screw-pipe foundations, while the roof is crafted from fiber-reinforced plastic.

Las Vegas Sun

Las Vegas community members will have the opportunity to see their artwork displayed on the Exosphere — the viral outer shell of the Sphere that has gained worldwide attention over the last year for its repertoire of designs, including advertisements for movies, grinning emojis, giant basketballs and more.

Las Vegas Review Journal

Local students will get their chance to see art they create displayed on the Sphere later this year. Sphere Entertainment Co. on Thursday announced the start of the first-of-its-kind Sphere XO Student Design Challenge. More than 100,000 Clark County School District and UNLV students will be invited to submit their work for the contest, which will begin this month. The winners will get their work displayed on the venue’s exosphere, and the company will donate $10,000 to their school’s art program.

YLE

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