New York Times: The Latest Architecture and News

The New York Times has detailed accusations of sexual harassment made by five women against architect Richard Meier. The allegations have been made by four women who have worked with Mr. Meier, including two women describing incidents which have occurred over the last ten years. A fifth woman, who did not work at the firm, details an incident with Mr. Meier in the 1980s.

In response to the allegations put to Mr. Meier by the New York Times, the 83-year-old architect has said he will take a six-month leave of absence from his firm, and issued the following statement:"I am deeply troubled and embarrassed by the accounts of several women who were offended by my words and actions. While our recollections may differ, I sincerely apologize to anyone who was offended by my behavior."

The idea for the vessel came from feeling that we shouldn’t just make a sculpture or a monument – it felt to us that rather than building a sculpture, it would be great if something was creating more public space.

In the latest video in their Daily 360 series, The New York Times takes us inside Heatherwick Studio’s “Vessel” at Hudson Yards. After topping out last week, the full 154 flights of stairs that make up the unique public structure are now in place, offering some pretty extraordinary views of the Hudson River and west Manhattan.

In the latest in their Daily360 series, the New York Times takes us inside BIG's recently completed TIRPITZ museum, located within a former Nazi bunker on the west coast of Denmark. The video gives a panoramic tour of the museum's light-filled subterranean spaces, along with commentary from museum curator Anne Sofie Vemmelund Christensen, who notes the most transformative changes from the spectacular renovation.

During the year of the 150th anniversary of his birth, Frank Lloyd Wright is having another glorious moment in the public consciousness. While many of Wright’s structures, including Fallingwater, the Guggenheim and Taliesin, are staples of the architectural canon, this renewed interest has given some of Wright’s other 380 remaining buildings the chance to step out into the sun.

Many of these other still-standing buildings are houses, and while some have been converted into museums, many remain on the market for prospective homebuyers with a knack for preservation – but not necessarily exorbitant wealth (according to the New York Times, the 1917 Prairie-style Meier House sold in 2013 for just $125,000). In total, 45 Wright properties have been sold in the last five years alone.

The New York Times has published an in-depth article entitled ‘How China Built iPhone City With Billions in Perks for Apple’s Partners’, revealing a treasure chest of public benefits for the world’s biggest iPhone factory in Zhengzhou, China. In a city of six million inhabitants in an impoverished region of China, the local government has contributed $1.5 billion to Foxconn, Apple’s supplier of iPhones. The money is used, in part, to improve local infrastructure, reduce Foxconn's export costs, and build housing for the factory’s 350,000-strong workforce (five times the number of people employed directly by Apple in the United States).

Videos

Chilean architect Alejandro has been selected as one of "28 creative geniuses who defined culture in 2016" by the New York Times, in a list that includes personalities such as First Lady of the United States Michelle Obama, singer Lady Gaga, photographer William Eggleston and designer Junya Watanabe.

Aravena achieved spectacular success this year, being awarded the Pritzker Prize in January and acting as director of the 15th Venice Architecture Biennale which opened in May. Through his work, he directed a discussion about the role of architects and their impact on society.

When one thinks of the stereotypical "American" life, images of Suburbia, of small homes with white picket fences, immediately come to mind. But beyond the stereotype is the lived experience of millions of Americans, who have grown up in cities across the country, and indeed, the world.