AUSTRALIAN GOLD FOR RICHARD JOHNSON Over the course of his 38-year career, Richard Johnson, designer of many major cultural buildings in Sydney, has worked on scales ranging from exhibit design to urban design. His projects have included world expo pavilions, museums, embassies, schools, office buildings, hotels, master plans, and landscape design, many with his current firm, Johnson Pilton Walker of Sydney. The Australian architect has been awarded the 2008 Gold Medal for Architecture by the Royal Australian Institute of Architects (RAIA). — Published 2008.0423
	LES ARCHIVES DÉPARTEMENTALES There is something inherently abstract about the government archive. Storage of old records can too easily be seen as a utility function free of aesthetic aspiration. Compared to a classic library program, an archive might be seen as exaggerating the stacks while minimizing the interacting human element. In some archives this tendency leads to the place where the technical function of storage obliterates the impulse for architecture. — Published 2008.0319
	ASSEMBLY BY ROGERS Despite the breathtaking views over Cardiff Bay toward Penarth Marina, visitors to the new National Assembly for Wales, standing on the grand, slate-clad terraces, will find it is impossible to stop looking inland. Designed by Richard Rogers, known for his iconic buildings such as Lloyds of London, Centre Pompidou, and the Madrid Airport, the National Assembly building opened in March 2006 after years of political wrangling. — Published 2006.0802
	SCOTTISH PARLIAMENT On October 15, 2005, the winner of the United Kingdom's prestigious Stirling Prize was announced. This year the honor went to the new Scottish Parliament, which has been hailed as one of the most innovative designs in Britain today. It is a vastly ambitious and complex building, and to visit it is a hugely rewarding experience: there is so much to take in, so many architectural and metaphorical references, so many technical challenges surmounted. — Published 2005.1019
	INNOVATION AT IRVINE For residents of Los Angeles, California, the county line to the south is often referred to as "the orange curtain." Stereotypes of Orange County depict a different world politically and architecturally: "red" versus "blue," suburban versus urban, predictable versus vivacious. The orange groves after which the county is named have all but disappeared, replaced by office parks and subdivisions of million-dollar houses. — Published 2005.0518
	TALKING SHEDS Architecture's communicative function was disregarded throughout the first half of the twentieth century. During the 1950s, Robert Venturi and I independently developed a strong interest in it. In the mid 1960s, we looked for a site where we could study architectural communication somewhat separately from architecture's other functions and away from complex urban patterns that would make the communication systems less clear. We found it in the Nevada desert on the Las Vegas strip. — Published 2005.0406
	CHANDIGARH: VISION AND REALITY The golden jubilee celebrations of 1999 and 2000 marked fifty years since the conception of Chandigarh, India, one of the few built examples of modernist town planning. Now, planners and architects the world over are showing renewed interest in this unusual modernist city. In 1951, the French architect Le Corbusier conceived a master plan for the city — in only four days! Yet the image he created has become synonymous with urbanism of fifties. — Published 2001.0822

Government Buildings