News Roundup, October 12 to October 16, 2015

For the latest news, check out our daily real-time News Roundup.

New Design for V-A-C   The V-A-C Foundation in Moscow has unveiled plans to develop a new site for contemporary arts and culture. The main building to be revived and redesigned is the GES2 power station, situated in the popular Red October district of the city. Renzo Piano Building Workshop (RPBW) have been commissioned to design the new GES2 and surrounding area. [ARCHITECT] 

China's Mini Eiffel Tower   Entertainers perform a lion dance at the topping-out ceremony of the half-sized replica of the Eiffel Tower on the construction site of The Parisian Macao resort in Macau, China. The project, estimated to cost $2.7 billion, is set to open in late 2016. It will feature more than 3,000 hotel rooms and suites, 490,000 square feet (45,990 square meters) of retail space including dining and beverage options, as well as meeting and convention facilities. [Yahoo Finance]

Appearances Can Be Deceiving   That's one of the last lines and one of the final conclusions in Wonkblog reporter Matt O'Brien's long part-anecdotal, part-analytic examination of the Chinese economy through the lens of the city of Lanzhou, in the northwest part of the country. (It's actually geographically located dead center, but since the western part of China is so barren and uninhabited, practically everywhere that's not on the coast is considered west.) On a family trip to that struggling but growing city to visit his wife's family, he takes the time to go into some depth about how China has grown so quickly and the problems it is facing now, breaking his thesis down into four major parts. Buried in there is an anecdotal argument for what many economists consider a major problem for China's economy to overcome in its quest to turn from a producer-based economy into a consumer-based one (which it desperately needs to do to sustain growth). "Lanzhou’s people are either too scarred, too strapped or too stretched to spend," O'Brien writes. "Retirees, the oldest of whom have lived through the Japanese invasion, the civil war, the Great Leap Forward and the Cultural Revolution, will always squirrel away as much as possible. Half a lifetime of expecting the worst and still being disappointed has taught them that you can never have too much of a personal safety net, even if, like my wife’s grandparents, that means trudging across town to save a few yuan on groceries." Definitely worth your time to check out the full story. [The Washington Post]

Ups and Downs   HDR has hired John Knickmeyer, AIA, as a higher education principal in their Washington, D.C., office. [HDR]

All Clear Ahead   Designs for Krause Gateway Center by Renzo Piano Building Workshop have been circulating for a while, but pretty soon it should turn from drawing to reality. The building's groundbreaking is scheduled to happen this fall. Demolition of the existing buildings on the site has already begun. Follow the link to see more renderings and drawings. [ARCHITECT]

Check Out Our Interactive Energy Use Map   To reduce energy consumption, states, counties, and municipalities are increasingly requiring owners of public facilities, commercial buildings, and even private residences to conduct energy audits. The collected data can then be used to benchmark or monitor performance and compare it to that of similar structures. [ARCHITECT]

Songs for the Deaf  Gallaudet University in Washington, D.C., a bilingual school geared towards deaf students, announced four shortlisted firms for its International Design Competition: Belfast, Ireland–based Hall McKnight Architects, Roxbury, Mass.–based Kennedy & Violich Architecture, New York–based Marvel Architects, and Boston-based MASS Design Group. Each finalist was awarded $50,000 to produce concept designs, one of which will be chosen in January 2016. [ARCHITECT]

New York, New York   As Archtober rolls through cities across the U.S., Matthew Postal of the New York City Landmarks Preservation Commission share some of his favorite spaces and buildings in the Big Apple. [ARCHITECT]