Free Republic

The office building, located at 51 West 52nd Street at the corner of Sixth Avenue, has served as CBS’ headquarters since it was completed in 1964. ViacomCBS will look to divest Black Rock, the New York headquarters of CBS. ViacomCBS CEO Bob Bakish made the announcement at the UBS Global TMT Summit in New York Monday. “Black Rock is not an asset we need to own and we believe that money would be put to better use elsewhere," he said. The Eero Saarinen-designed office building, located at 51 West 52nd Street at the corner of Sixth Avenue, has served as...

While promoting his book “Southern Exposure” about architectural design on the South Side, former Sun-Times architecture critic Lee Bey questioned both the design of the Obama Presidential Center and its proposed placement in Jackson Park. “The design of the library, I do not like. I think that that tower is foolishness. I think the design is foolishness,” Bey said. “It’s clad in limestone or granite; it’s shoved in this park. If it’s going to be in a park, I think I say in the book, it needs to be a more organic and alive building.” He further questioned the necessity...

Concrete is the second-most used material on earth. It is also the second-largest emitter of CO2, with cement manufacturing accounting for 5 to 7 percent of annual emissions. The continued popularity of concrete as a material of choice in the design and construction industry, coupled with increasing unease of the environmental consequences, has put concrete firmly in the spotlight of innovation and experimentation. As a result, designers, architects, and researchers around the world are generating multiple visions for what the future of concrete in architecture could look like. Concrete has been a material of choice for architects and builders for...

I. M. Pei, who began his long career designing buildings for a New York real estate developer and ended it as one of the most revered architects in the world, died early Thursday at his home in Manhattan. He was 102. His death was confirmed by his son Li Chung Pei, who is also an architect and known as Sandi. He said his father had recently celebrated his birthday with a family dinner.

French architects have revealed a stunning set of plans to redesign the Notre Dame Cathedral's fire-ravaged roof as a greenhouse. The proposal was shared after French Prime Minister Edouard Philippe proposed 'an international architecture competition' to rebuild the iconic cathedral's spire which was completely destroyed in the fast-spreading blaze on April 15. Prime Minister Philippe shared his wish that the cathedral should be 'adapted to issues of our time' and architects Studio NAB have come with the concept of turning the damaged roof into a giant greenhouse as a homage to the importance of nature. The French studio showed off...

President Macron’s speech to the French nation about the fire that destroyed so much of Notre Dame contained a terrible threat: he said that the cathedral would be rebuilt, to be even more beautiful than before. This might seem an innocuous, even laudable aim, but the announcement of Prime Minister Édouard Philippe that a competition would be held to design “a spire suited to the techniques and challenges of our time” should send a chill down the spine of anyone familiar with the efforts of modern architects in Paris, the effects of which can be seen all around the city....

"The reconstruction of the cathedral was a symbol of the resurrection of Russia, a sign of hope for better times for the people who had turned away from God, but are now returning to Him." On December 5, 1931, the Cathedral of Christ the Savior in Moscow was destroyed by the Bolsheviks. It was built more than half a century after Russia's 1812 victory over the French, and was in use for about the same length of time. Under the Soviets, this cathedral, Russia's largest, was destroyed in just one day. In its place, they planned to build a Palace...

A property owner who illegally demolished a 1936 Twin Peaks house designed by a renowned modernist must rebuild an exact replica of the home rather than the much larger structure the property owner had proposed replacing it with, the City Planning Commission ruled this week. In a unanimous 5-0 vote late Thursday night, the commission also ordered that the property owner — Ross Johnston, through his 49 Hopkins LLC — include a sidewalk plaque telling the story of the original house designed by architect Richard Neutra, the demolition and the replica. The commission directive, unprecedented in San Francisco, comes more...

President Andrew Jackson took a keen interest in the construction of the federal mint in Philadelphia, a grand, columned edifice, inspired by the temples of ancient Greece, that opened in 1833. Jackson was not a man known for his appreciation of cultural and artistic pursuits. A populist who famously railed against the elites, he had initially wanted to construct a simple building for minting money quickly, because there was a severe shortage of specie—coins—in the country at the time. Gradually, though, he came around to the idea of a grander mint, and became personally involved in many aspects of the...

SYRACUSE, N.Y. -- If a "community grid" is chosen to replace Interstate 81 in downtown Syracuse, what will happen to the land that's now under the aging viaduct's shadow? Whether it will be turned into green space or developed commercially is still an open question, according to city and state officials. A group of local architects is hoping to force the issue. The local chapter of the American Institute of Architects estimated in a recent paper that 18.6 acres of land will be made available if the 1.4-mile elevated highway is taken down. Taking the viaduct down and beefing up...

Residents in Guiyang city, south-west China, thought they were imagining things when they saw a massive waterfall cascading out of a high-rise building in the middle of the street. In fact, the 108-metre-tall (350ft) fall is indeed a part of the towering Liebian Building, located at a public plaza in the city's central business district. A large tank is installed at the foot of the 121-meter-tall (397ft) skyscraper, where four 185-kilowatt pumps would lift the water to the top of the fall.

Picture a giant elephant with a waterfall cascading from its trunk right in the heart of Paris. Or an Antoni Gaudi work in New York City, a pyramid in Tokyo, or a mile-high Frank Lloyd Wright skyscraper among the Chicago skyline. These architectural dreams never came to be, but that didn't stop the artists at NeoMan Studios to envision how these projects would have changed these cities. Here's a look at seven of the world’s wildest unbuilt icons and what they would like like today.

Not since the Windsor Castle fire has there been a makeover of one of our national treasures on such a scale. Indeed, the restoration of Chatsworth House has cost only a few million pounds less than the £37 million lavished on the castle. However, the facelift of Chatsworth, in Derbyshire — where Keira Knightley’s heart as Miss Bennet first fluttered over the brooding Mr Darcy in the big-screen version of Pride And Prejudice — was prompted not by adversity but because its owner, the Duke of Devonshire, had no wifi. That became the trigger for the biggest, costliest and longest...

Paris’s Notre Dame Cathedral is in a dismal state of disrepair and needs $70 million for urgent renovations, according to Michel Picaud, head of Friends of Notre Dame de Paris. One possible solution for the famous church and other religious monuments is to ask patrons to pay an entrance fee, but so far the Church has been against that. Taking a tour of the decrepit parts of the cathedral (its construction began in the 1100s), is a long, breathtaking and dispiriting experience. Around the back of the cathedral, Picaud points to a collection of stones – including finely worked pinnacles...

From coast to coast, places of worship span nearly every architectural style, whether it’s a futuristic church in rural Indiana designed by one of Finland’s greatest architects (Eero Saarinen) or the recently restored Frank Lloyd Wright-designed Unity Temple in suburban Chicago. Mormon temples’ spires soar into the skyline and some Jewish temples are shapely in style, whether it’s a modern box or in perfect pitch with Feng Shui’s curvy chi. And no matter how many decades it’s been since their construction, a tiny steeple in the woods will never slip out of vogue.

This tiny house has furniture folded inside its walls, mimicking the functionality of a Swiss Army Knife. The ninety-six-square-foot building, which cost just £35,000 to build, starts out consisting of a single white room with no decor in sight. But as the walls are unfolded its true functionality emerges. It has a bed that folds down and an ingenious kitchen area, complete with a hob, cupboard space and a table and chairs for entertaining guests. A bathroom, complete with a luxurious shower, can even be pulled out through a small gap in the wall.

Earning his fortune during the Internet boom of the 90s and early 2000s, Greenstein's home features 13 themed bedrooms, 11 bathrooms, a 40,000 gallon pool along with a river hundreds of other amazing luxuries. Situated at the end of a dirt road near a cow pasture in rural Florida, visitors are first greeted with a Monopoly Man hanging from the roof and a giant UNO card fixed above a window. Through the front door, a life size chessboard and giant floor piano await new arrivals.

A new aerial video has provided a rare glimpse into a mysterious Chinese village where residents have lived in subterranean 'pit yards' for some four millennia. The series of underground dwellings in central China's Henan Province used to have nearly 10,000 homes. Right now, around 3,000 people still live there while the others have moved to modern homes, according to Chinese media.

This home hides an amazing secret - it has a lazy river running all the way through it. The three buildings at the impressive house are connected by a 90-foot stream. It means the owners can swim from the living room to the dining room and then float to the bedroom come nighttime.

A Hong Kong architect has invented what he believed to be the solution of overcrowded cities by turning concrete water pipes into tiny homes. The OPod Tube Housing system aims to re-purpose concrete tubes measuring just over eight feet in diameter, and turn them into 'micro-homes' with 100 square feet of living space. It is the brainchild of architect James Law of James Law Cybertecture who designed the build as a possible solution to the lack of both space and affordable housing in Hong Kong.