How is this possible? The American Institute of Architects, the largest and most influential architecture organization in the country, had never, ever awarded a Gold Medal—its highest honor, which it has been bestowing upon architects since 1907—to a woman. Until now.
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Buying a gift for a designer doesn’t have to involve a $200 book or $2,000 chair. In fact, it’s usually better if it doesn’t. Keeping our near-empty wallets in mind, we tapped our friends and co-workers to choose 14 gifts that are witty and useful without being snobbish.
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The Sydney Opera House, designed by Jørn Utzon, opened October 20th, 1963. It quickly came to be regarded as a modern architectural marvel. Now, 40 years later, this UNESCO World Heritage Site has the epic Lego model it deserves. It’s nearly-3,000 bricks of Lego beauty. And believe me, this thing is HUGE!
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Cutaway or cross-section drawings
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2013 was another good year for books, those dry old lumps of paper and ink, so we’ve rounded up the year’s best in tech, science, design, architecture, urbanism, food, and more. We’ve also tapped our friends at Paleofuture and Edible Geography for their own lists, which appear below—and we hope to hear from all of you, as well.
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Almost 400 firefighters battled a blaze in an unfinished building in Guangzhou, China, until the wee hours of the morning earlier today. The tower has been incomplete since 1998—since then, it’s been used as a warehouse rather than as a luxury residence. [Photo: ChinaFotoPress/Getty Images]
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This otherworldly photo is so amazingly weird and exotic that you may think it comes from a secret colonial base in the Jovian moon of Europa. In reality, it’s the Halley VI Research Station in Antarctica as photographed by Antony Dubber, the chef of the British Antarctic Survey.
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In a week defined by a powerful story about poverty and homelessness in New York, a bit of a bright spot: The City’s Department of Housing Preservation and Development chose a scheme for a truly massive affordable housing development in Queens—all told, the development it’s part of will add a whopping 5,000 units to the neighborhood.
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There’s probably no greater symbol of the global financial collapse than London’s Bishopsgate Tower, aka the Pinnacle. The building has sat unfinished for years, a stump-shaped reminder of 2008’s presumptuous boom and flailing bust. Now, construction is set to resume—but is it a triumph or a warning?
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This is site is run by Sascha Endlicher, M.A., during ungodly late night hours. Wanna know more about him? Connect via Social Media by jumping to about.me/sascha.endlicher.
