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
	HOUSING AWARDS FROM HUD AND THE AIA Residents of Congo Street in Dallas, Texas, loved their tight-knit community of homeowners and long-term tenants. By 2008, however, the neighborhood's modest, century-old houses had fallen into disrepair. The local firm buildingcommunityWorkshop worked with five homeowners to develop a unique plan for renovating their homes without displacing anyone from the neighborhood during the process — and while also reaching for LEED Platinum. — Published 2010.1208
	10 WEYMOUTH STREET, LONDON In central London, a renovation by Make Architects gives a radical new aesthetic and improved energy efficiency to an unremarkable 1960s apartment building. The basic project outline for 10 Weymouth Street might not seem glamorous — upgrading a concrete-framed postwar housing block, with an addition overlooking the mews — but in the hands of Make, the results are golden. — Published 2010.0707
	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
	ENERGY STAR FOR MULTIFAMILY HIGH-RISES The EPA's pilot program for the Energy Star for Multifamily High-Rises (MFHR) applies primarily to new construction. It was launched in 2006 with projects in New York and Oregon, and was later expanded to Colorado, Georgia, New Jersey, Texas, and Nevada in order to gather data from different climates. — Published 2010.0505
	CONFESSIONS OF AN ARCHITECTURAL JOURNALIST Hiroshi Nakamura is an affable, easygoing guy — so much so that he even lay down on the carpet to help me and a colleague to get the right picture for a previous article. Also, I think it's fair to say that he's going places as an architect. He certainly has the right background: five years with Kengo Kuma & Associates, a number of awards, and still only 35 years old. Plus, his architectural oeuvre seems to be cannily in step with the present-day ecological zeitgeist. — Published 2010.0317
	HOUSING ON RUE DES VIGNOLES Eden Bio can be difficult to find. One might think it would be hard to conceal almost 100 new public housing units in this part of Paris's 20th arrondissement, but local architect Édouard François has managed to do so, inserting rows of low-rise apartments, duplexes, and small houses into the middle of a city block while presenting a minimal, modest face to the street on three sides. — Published 2010.0317
	PUGH + SCARPA AIA FIRM AWARD 2010 It's not easy to pigeonhole Pugh + Scarpa Architects. And that's the way partners Gwynne Pugh, Larry Scarpa, and Angela Brooks like it. The buildings they create are dynamic, many with colorful, angular, patterned facades that exude a sense of whimsical energy. Even at its most eye-catching, the work is also decisively rooted in function and energy efficiency. The firm has also established a substantial portfolio of affordable housing projects. — Published 2010.0127
	HOLL'S LINKED HYBRID China's recent willinginess to be an architectural testing ground has left it with a fair share of question marks dotting urban horizons, but in Linked Hybrid the gamble may have paid off. The bold, high-end residential complex in Beijing, by Steven Holl Architects, offers a more pervasive and open sense of neighborhood than most other modern high-rise housing in the city. — Published 2010.0120
	PUGH + SCARPA STEP UP Walking or driving past the new Step Up on Fifth project in downtown Santa Monica, California, one could mistake the colorful building — with its front facade of yellow, white, and purple metal panels — for a contemporary art center or a fashionable condominium. The mixed-use residential building in the heart of this affluent, picturesque city was actually built to serve people suffering from mental illness and homelessness. — Published 2009.1202

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