Good morning, architects. Your 44th President is Barack Obama, who handily won re-election last night against challenger Gov. Mitt Romney. What does that mean for architects, planners, engineers, and designers? The nation won't be enacting Gov. Romney's vision for cities, a plan that meant different outcomes depending on whether you asked Mitt the governor or Mitt the candidate—or so Ben Adler wrote for Next American City. But no matter. President Obama's re-election means that the Affordable Care Act, the signature achievement of his first administration, will endure as policy governing the nation's healthcare system. And it is legislation that has a profound impact on architects, most of whom work for or own small businesses.
Last night, as votes were tabulated around the country, a scene in New York City seemed to symbolize the moment. The Empire State Building (pictured) was lit up in red, white, and blue, even as much of Manhattan still stands in darkness. Your politics will dictate how you read that symbolism, but surely on the day after the election and the conclusion of a divisive campaign, all Americans can hope that it is a symbol of the light out of the darkness.
For less symbolic imagery, The New York Timeshas prepared an amazing series of infographics explaining where Obama's mandate comes from, in terms of voter shifts between 2008 and 2012. (Time for us to prepare a similar graphic on the changing nature of the architecture industry.)
ANOTHER NOMINATION. Curbed nominates the most dramatic architectural promotional video ever, made for Eastern Design Office's Tower of Ring in China. I'd see this feature film.
CELEBRITY GOSSIP. One out of every two design stories in the popular press is about how Brad Pitt is now designing furniture. Here is one example of today's onslaught.
...AND REMAINDERS. Dallas gets an architecture film series... Tanzania represents at the London Festival of Architecture... Japanese old-school architecture persists in Tokyo Station... Time Out Beijingdiscovers the Galaxy Soho... Another Iwan Baan explainer.
