The long-awaited completion of MAD’s 300,000-square-foot museum is one of the year’s most consequential U.S. cultural openings. New photography documents the technically complex envelope and Studio-MLA’s transformation of an asphalt lot into a 13-acre public landscape.
Location
Lucas Museum of Narrative Art, One Lucas Plaza, Exposition Park, Los Angeles, California, United States
Organizations
Lucas Museum of Narrative Art — Client and operator; MAD Architects — Design architect; Stantec — Collaborating architect; Studio-MLA — Landscape architect; Rockwell Group — Skywalker Grill interior design; Rhubarb Hospitality Collection — Restaurant operator
This Miami River project is an immediately relevant local test of public-space design for sea-level rise, high tides and stormwater. The city intends the WEDG-verified scheme to establish a template for future municipal waterfront projects.
Location
José Martí Park, 362 SW 4th Street, Miami, Florida, United States
Organizations
City of Miami Office of Capital Improvements — Project delivery and public client; City of Miami Department of Parks and Recreation — Park stakeholder; Miami Forever Bond — Project funding; Florida Inland Navigation District — Grant funding; U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development — Grant funding; Waterfront Alliance — WEDG verification organization
A 150,000-square-foot headquarters commitment gives Related’s speculative Midtown tower a major anchor and materially advances one of the Plaza District’s few ground-up office developments. The story offers a useful test of demand for premium post-pandemic workplaces.
Location
625 Madison Avenue, Midtown Manhattan, New York, New York, United States
Organizations
Related Companies — Developer; Foster + Partners — Architect; Gensler — Architect; General Atlantic — Anchor tenant
The transaction combines one of the largest U.S. architecture firms with a respected design practice known for corporate, higher-education and research work. It signals further consolidation in the profession while giving Corgan an immediate Durham and Research Triangle presence.
Location
Durham, North Carolina, United States
Organizations
Corgan — Acquiring architecture and design firm; Duda|Paine Architects — Acquired architecture practice; Morrissey Goodale — Transaction advisor to Corgan
A major South Florida design reveal and MVRDV’s first project with Ecuadorian developer Uribe Schwarzkopf in Miami. Its mid-market residential mix, public plaza, creative live-work units and unusually porous massing merit immediate local review beyond conventional luxury-development coverage.
Location
NW 5th Avenue and NW 32nd Street, Wynwood Norte, Miami, Florida, United States
Organizations
MVRDV — Design architect; Uribe Schwarzkopf — Developer, client and interior architect; KKAD (Kobi Karp) — Co-architect and architect of record; Kimley-Horn — Landscape architect; JALRW — MEP engineer; Rosita Hurtado — Property owner and future commercial tenant
A South Florida architecture school is among seven international teams selected for a live, water-focused design charrette at WAF’s Fort Lauderdale edition, creating a strong local interview opportunity ahead of the November festival.
Location
Broward County Convention Center, Fort Lauderdale, Florida, United States
Organizations
World Architecture Festival — Organizer; MIU City University Miami — South Florida finalist institution; Columbia University — Finalist institution; Pratt Institute — Finalist institution; University of Toronto — Finalist institution; IUAV University of Venice — Finalist institution; Kingston University — Finalist institution; Institute of Architecture and Planning, NIRMA University — Finalist institution
The world’s largest live-judged architecture awards program is returning to Greater Miami and relocating to Fort Lauderdale. Its South Florida setting, water-focused conference theme, live project critiques and September 4 early-booking deadline make advance accreditation and attendance planning editorially urgent.
Location
Broward County Convention Center, Fort Lauderdale, Florida, United States
Organizations
World Architecture Festival — Organizer; EMAP Publishing Limited — Festival publisher and operator; Broward County Convention Center — Venue
A decisive local preservation development for one of South Florida’s most significant modernist structures. Voter approval gives the long-stalled restoration a credible path toward financing, design and final City Commission review, while leaving important questions about conservation standards, programming and commercial management unresolved.
Location
Miami Marine Stadium, Virginia Key, Miami, Florida, United States
Organizations
City of Miami — Owner and public approval authority; Oak View Group / Global Spectrum — Voter-approved prospective venue operator and developer of the management, construction and financing plan; Restore Miami Marine Stadium — Preservation advocacy organization; Richard J. Heisenbottle Architects — Architect responsible for previously completed renovation design and permitting identified by the City of Miami; Hilario Candela — Original architect; Jack Meyer — Original structural engineer
The US design-build festival has a strong editorial premise: structures produced this September are intended to become material and spatial foundations for reuse, alteration, and performance in 2027 and 2028. The live construction process offers distinctive access opportunities.
Location
Bethel Woods Center for the Arts, Bethel, New York, United States
Organizations
Bethel Woods Center for the Arts — Organizer and venue
The imminent occupation of a monumental 1890s warehouse by MIT's architecture and planning community is a major adaptive-reuse milestone, combining historic preservation, new institutional space, public galleries, studios, and interdisciplinary design research.
Location
134 Massachusetts Avenue, Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States
Organizations
Massachusetts Institute of Technology — Client and institution; Diller Scofidio + Renfro — Design architect; Leers Weinzapfel Associates — Associate architect; Reed Hilderbrand — Landscape architect; Silman Associates — Structural engineer; Altieri — MEP engineer; Tillotson Design Associates — Lighting designer; Atelier Ten — Sustainability consultant; Front Inc. — Facade consultant
A newly opened South Florida public-art project uses everyday transit infrastructure as exhibition space, offering a timely local story about design, emotional wellbeing, and the civic potential of advertising surfaces.
Location
Bus shelter advertising spaces, Miami, Florida, United States
Organizations
SaveArtSpace — Organizer and public-art platform; Leah Guzman — Curator; Shannon Scates — Selected artist
This is a timely New York interiors opening in a 1928 building, with a design strategy that treats a 205-room hotel as an elegantly curated townhouse rather than a conventional Midtown property. It offers a focused hospitality story about domesticity, art and material warmth at commercial scale.
Location
70 Park Avenue, New York, New York, United States
Organizations
Kimpton Hotels & Restaurants — Hotel brand and operator; IHG Hotels & Resorts — Parent hospitality company; Busta Studio — Interior designer
Updated imagery and the move from design into development make this a consequential US public-realm story: a deteriorating seven-acre elevated civic platform is being converted into a planted, accessible connector between downtown Louisville and the Ohio River.
Location
The Belvedere, 500 West Main Street, Louisville, Kentucky, United States
Organizations
Louisville Metro Government — Client and public project sponsor; Heatherwick Studio — Lead design studio; KNBA Architects — Local architecture partner; PLC Management — Project management; Whittenberg Construction — Construction and estimating partner
The fresh appointment gives a major North Texas arena and mixed-use district a confirmed design lead just as Plano advances a public vote on venue-related taxes. The transit, financing, suburban-development, and hockey-specific design questions merit an early interview.
Location
The Shops at Willow Bend, Plano, Texas, United States
Organizations
Dallas Stars — Team, prospective arena tenant, and project partner; HNTB — Lead design firm; City of Plano — Public-sector project and prospective arena-ownership partner; Centennial — District development partner; Levin Holdings — District development partner; Cawley Partners — District development partner
A major US sports-architecture commission with regional urban-design consequences: HNTB is being asked to create an arena centered on hockey intimacy while integrating retail, entertainment and public gathering spaces. The project also raises timely questions about suburban venue planning, transportation and public financing.
Location
The Shops at Willow Bend, west of the Dallas North Tollway, Plano, Texas, United States
Organizations
Dallas Stars — Client and prospective arena operator; HNTB — Lead design firm; City of Plano — Prospective public owner and municipal partner; Centennial — Willow Bend redevelopment partner; Levin Holdings — Development partner; Cawley Partners — Development partner
The completed stadium is one of the largest current US sports projects and offers a technically relevant cold-climate design story, including a steep seating bowl, partial canopy, wind mitigation, and extensive snow-management systems.
Location
Orchard Park, Erie County, New York, United States
Organizations
Buffalo Bills — Owner and operator; Populous — Architect; New York State — Public funding and development partner; Erie County — Public funding and development partner
