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
	BEST OF BUILD BOSTON Build Boston, the largest regional conference and trade show for the design and construction industry in the United States, recently demonstrated again why it has earned such preeminence. More than 14,000 architects, designers, construction and facility managers, and owners attended the 27th Build Boston conference, hosted by the Boston Society of Architects in November 2011. The trade show floor boasted some 300 vendors — up 6% over last year — who plied their products with the usual vigor. — Published 2012.0111
	UP ON THE ROOF More than half of all the single-family homes in the United States were built in the last three decades of the 20th century, and it is estimated that half again of the current total number of dwellings — about 80 million — will need to be built in the next three decades of the 21st century. — Published 2011.0727
	MAKI'S HILLSIDE TERRACE The Hillside Terrace project, a medium-density mixed-use development of apartments, shops, restaurants, and cultural facilities, took exactly 25 years from the first plans I drew in 1967 to the completion of its sixth phase in 1992. Although I have designed buildings and complexes far greater in physical scale over the past several decades, no other project has occupied my thoughts so continuously over time as Hillside Terrace has. — Published 2011.0406
	AIA HOUSING AWARDS: MULTIFAMILY The condominium building at 1111 East Pike Street in Seattle offers a lively contribution to an urban environment. Located in a dense, walkable, transit-served neighborhood that was formerly Seattle's "auto row," the six-story building features panelized siding in four colors inspired by classic cars of the 1950s. With condo owners given a choice of color for the unit exteriors, those four colors combine to form a variegated patchwork. — Published 2011.0330
	RIPPLE EFFECT Your first reaction to seeing Aqua Tower as it commands the Chicago skyline might be, "What happened to that skyscraper?" It looks as if some of its concrete floor fins might have been worn away over years of exposure. Or perhaps some kind of pervasive organism has taken over a sleek glass tower, crawling all over its facade — the Blob meets Howard Roark's Enright Building. — Published 2011.0105
	PORTLAND AIA AWARDS When the University of Oregon made plans with longtime athletics benefactor Phil Knight, chairman of Nike, to build a new study center for student athletes on the Eugene campus, the stated goal was to create a building of striking beauty that celebrates the landscape. The resulting John E. Jaqua Academic Center for Student Athletes is a gleaming glass cuboid set against a reflecting pool, impressing passersby with its pristine presence while providing abundant outdoor views to the select athletes within. — Published 2010.1110
	ON 'TRAVEL AND THE BUILT ENVIRONMENT' News flash: The distance between a residential development location and the metropolitan center is one of the strongest factors influencing how much residents will drive. The density of a neighborhood, in and of itself, turns out to be the weakest of the commonly considered "D" variables, key dimensions of the built environment that influence how — and how much — people move around. — Published 2010.0818
	AIA HOUSING AWARDS 2010 The Safari Drive multifamily residential complex in downtown Scottsdale, Arizona, exemplifies a higher-density, pedestrian-scaled alternative to the exploding sprawl of greater Phoenix. Designed by The Miller Hull Partnership, it succeeds as design in the broadest sense: place-making that intertwines architecture, planning, and landscape. — Published 2010.0512
	2010 BREEAM AWARDS When leaders in Milton Keynes, England, sought a new recreation center in the Central Bletchley district, they had many goals: an iconic presence on the outside, countless fitness and sports facilities on the inside, and a building that could catalyze an overall regeneration of the town. But the overriding goal — one that tied together all these disparate parts — was to make the new Bletchley Leisure Center a state-of-the-art sustainable building. — Published 2010.0414

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