AIA GREEN TOP TEN Located at the edge of Oakland, California's downtown Chinatown neighborhood, a colorful new affordable senior housing project transformed an abandoned site near a busy freeway into a community resource for disadvantaged and formerly homeless senior citizens while also exemplifying good universal and sustainable design. The six-story Merritt Crossing Senior Apartments, designed by Leddy Maytum Stacy Architects, was certified at the Platinum level under a LEED for Homes Mid-Rise pilot program. — Published 2013.0424
	WAREHOUSE LOFT CONVERSION Under the San Francisco South Beach Redevelopment Plan of 1981, the Oriental Warehouse was designated an historic landmark due to its historical value as the early arrival point of Oriental immigrants. The brick warehouse, originally built in 1868, with a total area of 88,000 square feet (8,200 square meters) on two floors had for many years been used as a warehouse and storage space. — Published 2013.0213
	BASICS - THE SKYSCRAPER TODAY When it comes to buildings, size matters — more so today than ever before. Look up in the heart of any of the world's major cities and your eyes will likely alight upon a towering, glass-walled structure — if not literally scraping the sky, then certainly pointing in that direction. — Published 2012.0502
	NEW NORTHWEST ARCHITECTURE The City of Portland and Multnomah County, Oregon, have a vision: to eradicate homelessness within their jurisdictions by 2015 through providing more permanent housing and improving social support. One step toward this ambitious goal is the new Bud Clark Commons in Portland. — Published 2012.0404
	NEW URBANISM NOW David Brower Center, Berkeley, Calfornia — Safeway No. 2912, Georgetown, Washington, D.C. — Cambridge Public Library, Cambridge, Massachusetts — SCAD Museum of Art, Savanna, Georgia — Lafitte Housing, New Orleans, Louisiana — Wyvernwood Mixed-Use, Los Angeles, California — Town Center, Mount Rainier, Maryland — Verkykerskop Farming Town, South Africa — Vision for Berrien Springs, Michigan — And more... — Published 2012.0328
	ST. PANCRAS HOTEL It rises regally from the front of London's St Pancras railway station — Sir Gilbert Scott's confection of a masterpiece, which has not made its way lightly through the years. — Published 2012.0229
	AUSTRALIAN ARCHITECTURE AWARDS 2011 On a tiny site measuring only seven by six meters (23 by 20 feet), a compact new home rises four and a half stories amidst the urban fabric of Surry Hills, an inner-city suburb of Sydney, Australia. Designing for himself and his partner, Sue Bassett, architect Domenic Alvaro achieved an unexpected sense of expansiveness within this small space through the use of large precast concrete panels and plate-glass windows, with minimal additional interior detailing. — Published 2012.0125
	HIGH-RISE SUSTAINABILITY A high-level assessment of the impact of the urban tower on the natural environment would conclude that low land use and possible higher density are the chief advantages, with high energy usage being the chief disadvantage. Concepts of density and of energy usage are relative, and should be examined by comparing high-rise buildings with their low- or mid-rise alternatives. — Published 2012.0104
	ANATOMY OF METABOLISM The exhibit "Metabolism, the City of the Future" at the Mori Art Museum in Tokyo is a major retrospective looking at Japan's most widely known and perhaps least understood modern architecture movement. Subtitled "Dreams and Visions of Reconstruction in Postwar and Present-Day Japan," the exhibit throws up images depicting a sci-fi world of floating cities, metropolises in the sky, and soaring geometric shapes and patterns repeated over and over with little apparent correspondence to the psychological needs of humans. — Published 2011.1214
	AIA'S BEST NEW BUILDINGS FROM CHICAGO A glass dome rises from a lawn on the University of Chicago campus. The ellipsoidal structure by Murphy/Jahn — a counterpoint in form and materials to the eclectic buildings around it — is a refined tip of the iceberg for the Joe and Rika Mansueto Library. — Published 2011.1207

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