Three Schools checking into L.A.'s Ambassador Hotel site

Pasadena-based Gonzalez Goodale Architects is designing three new schools for Los Angeles Unified School District's Central Wilshire District. The $400 million campus, located on the site of the former Ambassador Hotel, will house a K-5 elementary school, a middle school, a high school, a shared recreation facility (including soccer field, 25-meter swimming pool, two gymnasiums), and a new public park. All three schools are under construction and, when complete, will serve 4,400 students. In some instances, parts of the famous Ambassador Hotel were incorporated into the new buildings, including the Coconut Grove nightclub, which is becoming a 574-seat auditorium, and the ceiling of the Embassy Ballroom (site of Robert F. Kennedy's 1968 assassination), which is being reconstructed for the middle school's library.

Earlier this month, my colleague and I presented a session to a group of civil engineers and transportation agencies about the tech trends in the AEC space. Along with advice on how to prepare your plan for controlled collaboration, we also talked through some practical use cases. One such use case was especially interesting, as it outlined a challenge not unfamiliar to government agencies who are contemplating the leap from paper to digital processes: how to securely migrate workflows.

For an 1893 academic building in the Collegiate Gothic style at Bryn Mawr (Pa.)

| Apr 16, 2014

Upgrading windows: repair, refurbish, or retrofit [AIA course]

Building Teams must focus on a number of key decisions in order to arrive at the optimal solution: repair the windows in place, remove and refurbish them, or opt for full replacement.

Eli and Edythe Broad Art Museum, East Lansing, Mich. Photo credit: Justin Macono

| Apr 15, 2014

12 award-winning structural steel buildings

Zaha Hadid's Broad Art Museum and One World Trade Center are among the projects honored by the American Institute of Steel Construction for excellence in structural steel design.

| Apr 15, 2014

First look: Zaha Hadid reveals designs for dreamy sculptural hotel - CORRECTED

Hadid's design, which will become the fifth hotel tower in the City of Dreams entertainment hub, features a latticed exoskeleton enveloping the building's exterior. The 40-floor, 150,000-square-foot space is envisioned as a monolith with voids carved throughout.

David Chipperfield Architects has won the Nobel Center architectural competition

| Apr 15, 2014

Chipperfield's sparkling brass-clad scheme selected to be new home of Nobel Prize

The distinctive building, with its shimmering vertical brass elements and glass façade design, beat out two other finalists in the Nobel Center architectural competition.