A Bright Future for Chicago? Chicago mayor Rahm Emanuel announced his plan to increase tourism by showcasing his city’s architecture. After Emanuel recently launched the Infrastructure Trust with a $13 million plan to make Chicago’s government buildings more energy efficient, he wants to create a year-long light show. Hoping to drive up numbers to 55 million annual visitors by 2020, the city will host an international design competition for architects, artists, and planners to create the light spectacle. Of course, this is coming from the man who tipped the Prentice Hospital debate in favor of demolition with his controversial op-ed piece. [The Chicago Tribune]
Pending Lawsuit: Environmental activist Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. has joined forces with the Natural Resources Defense Council and a New Jersey Conservation Foundation to challenge the plans for the new LG Electronics Headquarters. The company plans to build their new tower in Englewood, N.J., on the Palisades cliffs north of the George Washington Bridge, which the opponents see as a blight to the Hudson River landscape. [The New York Times]
Other news:
Someone redesigned the D.C. Metro map to look like Super Mario Brothers. [Curbed DC]
The Phoenix City Council is selling the historic Barrister Place building under the condition that the facade will remain intact. The building opened in 1915 as the tallest building in Arizona and later served a backdrop for Alfred Hitchcock’s 1960 horror film Psycho. [AZ Central]
The National 9/11 Memorial Museum will charge $24 per ticket when it opens in mid-May. [Wall Street Journal]
Forbes interviews Douglas Smith, president of Fort Lauderdale, Fla.–based landscape architecture firm EDSA,about his sustainable design philosophy. [Forbes]
British planner Peter Hall discusses his new book, Good Cities, Better Lives: How Europe Lost the Art of Urbanism. [The Guardian]
On the group house life at Sundance. [The New York Times]
Another example of small-space living. [Wired]
The ping pong revenge at Cooper Union. [Free Cooper Union]
Architect's Newspaper writer Kenneth Caldwell reviews Donald Olsen: Architect of Habitable Abstractions. [The Architects' Newspaper]
Members of the Oxford City Council want to create “ghost buildings,” or the frames of buildings outlined with metal poles, to help the public envision potential development. [The Guardian]
An argument backing the design of open offices as “the smartest solution.” [The Huffington Post]
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