ICYMI

We corralled the top architecture and design stories buzzing about the internet.

Safdie Architects reveals a major Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art expansion Work on Snøhetta’s first-in-theworld tunnel for ships will soon begin in Norway

The Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art in northwestern Arkansas has revealed that the core team behind the design of the landmark museum—Safdie Architects and Buro Happold—will return for a major expansion that will add nearly 100,000 square feet of new space to the 200,000-square-foot arts and culture hub.

Atelier Van Lieshout is designing a neighborhood for artists in Rotterdam

The world’s first tunnel for large ships has been approved and will soon begin looking for contractors. Construction on the Snøhetta-designed tunnel, which will punch a mile-long hole through Norway’s Stad peninsula, is expected to begin in 2022. The 120-foot-tall, 87-foot-wide portal will allow ships to avoid a particularly exposed area along the coast.

Demolition of Paul Rudolph’s Delray Beach home takes city officials by surprise

Dutch artist and designer Joep van Lieshout of Atelier Van Lieshout is known for his provocative sculptures and anticapitalist views, which frequently show up in his work. Now Lieshout has partnered with developer RED Company to design a Brutalist-inspired neighborhood in Rotterdam. A 1955 Paul Rudolph–designed home in Delray Beach, Florida, was listed on the city’s register of historic places in 2005. Then, on March 12, news broke that the current residents had demolished the home last summer (ostensibly to rebuild it to Rudolph’s specifications), which came as a shock to the Paul Rudolph Heritage Foundation and the city.

RIOS to lead $1.25 billion revamp of L.A.’s landmark Television City Centuries-old oaks are coming down for the Notre Dame restoration New York City’s congestion pricing plan moves forward

THE NORWEGIAN COASTAL ADMINISTRATION/SNØHETTA

James Corner Field Operations to lead master plan update for the Philadelphia Navy Yard

Hackman Capital Partners, the owner of the CBS Television City studio complex in the Fairfax District, has announced that the 25-acre campus—a city-designated Historic-Cultural Monument since 2018—will be the object of a major expansion and modernization project headed by the L.A.-based multidisciplinary design practice RIOS.

Brooklyn’s cove-side towers are still moving forward, get a redesign

The rebuilding of Paris’s Notre-Dame Cathedral is continuing, but new conservation concerns are being raised over the ancient oak trees, as many as 1,500 of them, needed to build a replica of Eugène Viollet-le-Duc’s 300-foot-tall spire and the cathedral’s roof. The plan to charge drivers entering Manhattan’s central business district was hailed as a major step in repairing New York City’s beleaguered transit system. Although the U.S. Department of Transportation has now allowed the program to progress to a review process, drivers into the city won’t need to pull out their wallets just yet. James Corner Field Operations has been selected to lead an update and expansion of the Philadelphia Navy Yard master plan. The initial plan for the 1,200-acre, mixed-use campus, located at a centuries-old naval shipyard in South Philadelphia, was developed in 2004 by Robert A.M. Stern Architects.

Selldorf Architects among six shortlisted firms for National Gallery revamp in London

Two Trees Management is moving ahead with its plans for a pair of Bjarke Ingels Group and James Corner Field Operations–designed towers at the edge of Williamsburg, Brooklyn. Two Trees is attempting to get permission to break ground before the end of Mayor Bill de Blasio’s final term in office later this year.

Lucas Museum opening delayed to 2023 due to COVID-19 slowdowns

Selldorf Architects is the sole North American firm in the running to lead the upgrade of the Sainsbury Wing at London’s National Gallery. Completed in 1991, the Venturi, Scott Brown and Associates–designed wing is a main entrance to the museum and will be subject to an expansive revamp.

Biden administration mulls resuming border wall construction

MAD Architects and Stantec’s swooping Lucas Museum of Narrative Art was supposed to be a 2022 triumph. After relocating from Chicago to Los Angeles in 2016 because of on-theground pushback, the museum was on track to hit major construction milestones later this year. Now the opening has been postponed to 2023 owing to pandemic-related delays. Despite slashing all new federal funding for former president Donald Trump’s high-priced and ecologically harmful wall at the United States–Mexico border, the Biden administration is considering resuming construction to fill in “gaps” left behind when the project was essentially abandoned.