California-based artist Kelly Akashi has created a glass chimney to recount her personal experience of loss after the devastating wildfires in Los Angeles for the 2026 Whitney Biennial exhibition.

Titled Monument (Altadena), and made from 821 handcast glass bricks, the recreated chimney piece evokes chimneys that remained visible on the charred landscape in the aftermath of the devastating wildfire in Pacific Palisades and Altadena in January 2025, which destroyed tens of thousands of structures.

It was placed on a terrace of the Whitney Museum in New York City's Meatpacking District for the institution's biennial survey.

Akashi, who lost her 1926 home and studio in the fire, has been a part of a local artistic cohort working to recover materials following the January 2025 fires.

The 6,550-pound (2,971-kilogram) piece was fabricated and assembled in her Hudson Valley studio to work in unison with a 538-piece replica of the home's former walkway.

She told Dezeen that each of the bricks installed can be viewed as pieces of a metaphorical puzzle that bring her closer to salvaging hope from the ruins of her lost home.

"The work is not a literal reconstruction, so using clay bricks didn't feel appropriate. Solid glass bricks allowed me to rebuild the chimney through a different material language, where weight and fragility coexist." Akashi said.

"In rebuilding each element, I was thinking about how memory is constructed through care and persistence. The form remains, but is transformed. Light passes through it, and the solidity we associate with a chimney is unsettled."

Akashi's work has long interrogated notions of time and memory, leveraging her knowledge of casting and glass blowing to produce art that comments on social and urban issues.

This time, she has applied her practice to the personal experience of losing her own home, and towards recovery.

In Los Angeles, the rebuilding process has been fraught and varied, an element Akashi emphasised in Monument (Altadena).

"The tension between its recognizable form and unusual materiality felt akin to the act of rebuilding in my neighborhood. While we will rebuild, it can never be the same," she added.

"The act of rebuilding is not simply about material endurance; it is a deliberate labor of care, an engagement with history, and an act of reclamation. Each brick carries the record of labor and material transformation; together, they compose a new body that holds the traces of its past," Akashi said.

Her sculpture at the Whitney Biennial is accompanied by a work called Inheritance (Distressed), a relief replica of her grandmother's Corten steel dolly, a family artefact also lost to the Eaton Fire.

Akashi is also a slated participant in the upcoming 61st Venice Biennale.

Earlier this year, Dezeen covered the delivery of prefabricated homes to the afflicted communities in Los Angeles.

Architect Shigeru Ban recently joined the recovery effort through his contribution of a community centre made from shipping containers after other architects raised concerns over the disjointed nature of the recovery.

The photography is by Timothy Schenck.

The 2026 Whitney Biennial is on view from 8 March to 13 August in New York City. For more exhibitions in architecture and design visit Dezeen Events Guide.

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The Western Pennsylvania Conservancy has announced the completion of a three-year Fallingwater conservancy plan led by New York-based Architectural Preservation Studio.

The house American architect Frank Lloyd Wright designed in the mid-1930s for Pittsburgh-area retail magnate Edgar J Kaufmann was beset by water damage and other problems.

Despite several previous conservation campaigns, a carefully executed programme of works targeting its roofing, glazing systems, and masonry envelope was necessary.

Located in Mill Run, Pennsylvania, Fallingwater's well-known flaws included recurring leaks, material degradation, failures in the building envelope, and moisture-sensitive original interior finishes.

"One of the biggest challenges was Wright's decision not to install through-wall flashing," Architectural Preservation Studio president Pamela Jerome told Dezeen.

"Another issue was Wright's use of river pebbles instead of broken stone for concrete aggregate."

"This choice caused debonding," continued Jerome, referring to the lessening of bonding cement to round aggregate, "and led to alkali-silica reaction (or ASR)."

Now a popular tourist attraction, Fallingwater was added to the list of UNESCO World Heritage Sites in 2019, joining the Guggenheim Museum in a selection of eight total Wright designs completed before his death in April 1959.

The Western Pennsylvania Conservancy has maintained Fallingwater since it was donated to the charity by the Kauffman family in 1963. But upkeep has remained an issue.

"Leaks were mostly coming through the stone walls, as there is no through-wall flashing wherever a stone wall meets a roof or terrace," Jerome said.

"Some of the original structural engineering design was also problematic and required remedial intervention. The roofs and terraces were also re-waterproofed during this campaign."

In response to these conditions, Jerome's team filled gaps in the stone walls, repaired and sealed vulnerable joints, fixed and replaced windows and doors, and upgraded the roofs and terraces to finally remove leaks as an existential threat to the architectural treasure.

"Some of the leaks were being caused by waterproofing membranes having reached the end of their service life, having been compromised by leaks from the stone walls," said Jerome.

"Since through-wall flashing could not be remedially inserted, the stone walls were instead grouted wherever known leaks were occurring, as well as repointed. At the top of the stone walls, coping stones were lifted and through-wall flashing inserted below."

The $7 million conservation program was considered vital to its continuance, as the remote attraction routinely draws nearly 150,000 visitors a year, according to its stewards.

"The team was already familiar with the history of the house and its interventions," said Jerome, citing a previous effort from the office that was completed in 2004.

"Not only was there the institutional knowledge from previous projects, but also the ability to evaluate what worked and what didn't from earlier work and refine the interventions accordingly."

Final touches on Fallingwater's main facility will be completed next month in unison with its 90th anniversary, as the scaffolding continues to be removed. Documentation of the completed work is forthcoming.

A renovation and the introduction of ancillary structures at Fallingwater were carried out by the American studio Bohlin Cywinski Jackson in 2017 and 2019.

The Frank Lloyd Wright Building Conservancy recently updated its visual identity to symbolically reflect the loss of heritage.

Elsewhere, the architect was named as one of the 15 most influential design minds in America's 250-year lifespan by the Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum.

The photography is courtesy of Western Pennsylvania Conservancy 

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The office of New York City mayor Zohran Mamdani has announced the launch of a WXY-designed platform to streamline the building of accessory dwelling units across New York City.

Designed to promote accessory dwelling units (ADU), small infill structures on city lots, the ADU for You site is a resource organised through the Department of Housing Preservation and Development (HPD) for the grant-funded Plus One ADU Program.

"One of the solutions to the housing crisis can be found in our backyards, our attics, or our basements – in an Ancillary Dwelling Unit," said Mamdani.

"By making it easier for New Yorkers to turn their homes into an extra place for a loved one or a little more income, we're allowing our city to grow while keeping the character of the neighborhoods we love."

It is a resumption of a plan to incorporate ADUs into expanded housing options under former mayor Eric Adams's City of Yes initiative.

American studio WXY Architecture + Urban Design (WXY) led the branding, design, content, and web product development for the digital platform, including the development of the guidebook and Pre-Approved Plan Library, a catalogue featuring a total of ten designs from eight different architects.

These studios include Situ, VL Architects, EEREE, and more, with prices ranging from $185,000 to $450,000.

Each of the designs was sourced through a national open call that concluded in September.

"We designed the platform to make that process as clear as possible, and to support what we think of as an architecture of care," WXY principal Adam Lubinsky told Dezeen.

He echoed Mamdani's comments on urbanism, saying ADUs are a "gentler form of growth that respects the character of existing neighbourhoods".

This comes as New York City is facing a layered affordability crisis brought on by exploding rental prices.

The Mayor's Office hopes to see its housing stock increase dramatically by 500,000 units over the next ten years.

The platform includes a metric for establishing cost estimates, plus advice for navigating the building permits process and tailoring the units to the existing lot size.

ADUs, called ancillary dwelling units by the city, were legalised in New York City in 2024.

In total, 25,000 such units are called for under the City of Yes housing agenda, and 37 permits have been approved so far through the programme.

For years, WXY has been active in helping city officials achieve their various objectives concerning infrastructure and the built environment.

This includes work on the standardisation of outdoor dining shed designs for New York and a Queens visitor centre meant to demonstrate the benefits of sustainable architecture as part of the planned 1,650-residence Arverne East community.

"The throughline of our practice is that people are at the heart of everything we do. Whether we're working on housing, infrastructure, or public space, the goal," said Lubinsky.

"That human-centered approach is a big reason this kind of civic collaboration has remained such an important focus for the firm."

WXY was also recently behind a new welcoming centre reinterpretation for a visitor centre at the Storm King Art Center in the Hudson Valley.

Last month, Dezeen covered the completion of an all-season weathering ADU prototype designed by Francois Abbott for a private client in Toronto.

Earlier in the year, Dezeen talked to architects about the January inauguration of Mamdani as mayor of New York, with many expressing "enthusiasm" for his housing agenda and environmental commitments.

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The Tampa Bay Rays professional baseball franchise has released renderings for a proposed stadium and mixed-use district with design by Gensler and Populous for Tampa in Florida, USA.

American architecture studio Populous is listed as a design partner in the design of the new ballpark, which would be realised as the league's smallest with a seating capacity of just 31,000, if it is approved for a proposed 2029 completion.

Gensler is the architect of the master plan, a comprehensive scheme that integrates parts of the local Hillsborough College's campus into a new neighbourhood called the "Champions Quarter".

Details of the plan include a redevelopment of the college's 113-acre Dale Mabry Campus.

Renderings show a stadium with an elliptical arch supported by a gridded ceiling structure and covered in translucent material. The team is hoping to engender a distinctive gameday experience framed by a transparent roof canopy that repeats the diamond shape of the playing surface.

The ceiling structure cantilevers over the facades of the stadium, which will feature a mix of curtain wall and terraced facades that may allow the stadium to blend in with the proposed adjacent structures.

These include several smaller built structures, indoor planting, and fan-oriented "celebration areas."

The renderings depict a comprehensive environment lined by the public retail promenades that are now common to the typology. These provide a pedestrianised edge to the footprint of the stadium, which is serviced by open facades on either side of its vertices.

It emerges 15 months after Tampa Bay's current home in St Petersburg, Tropicana Field, suffered damage to its PTFE membrane roof as a result of high winds during Hurricane Milton.

The proposed location would put the stadium well away from the water, inland from the current coastal location.

The Rays ownership group said it will "continue to evolve based on further study of the site and ballpark design concepts as well as input from local leaders and residents".

Addressing a long-rumoured exit from the city, the new ownership group is confident that having a new "forever home" will ensure the team's permanent presence in Tampa.

"We believe with conviction that we're going to be able to create a world-class work-live-learn-play development here in Tampa Bay," the team's CEO, Ken Babby said in January.

"Our community can be assured, however, that we want the ballpark and district design to reflect the voices of the people who live, work, study, and operate businesses here," Babby added.

The proposed scheme, which has no set price as of today, will reportedly be "100 per cent privately financed.

A similar district-sized proposal made by its then-owners for the Historic Gas Plant District in St Petersburg failed to receive public backing for its $1.3 billion cost before the team was sold last year.

American professional baseball is revamping its Major League facilities ahead of an anticipated expansion over the next decade, led by a BIG and HNTB-designed "armadillo-shaped" home for the Las Vegas franchise.

Populous has been leading much of the stadium construction underway worldwide, with an in-progress stadium for the Buffalo Bills NFL team and with its work on the world's largest football stadium in Morocco.

The images are courtesy of the Tampa Bay Rays.

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The mayor of Jersey City in New Jersey, USA has reportedly confirmed the metro's decision to abandon the anticipated Centre Pompidou x Jersey City expansion after years of starts and stops and negotiations between the two parties.

The scrapped plans were confirmed by mayor James Solomon earlier this week. Rumours of the change in direction had been swirling during Solomon’s electoral campaign in the autumn of 2024.

"It's dead"

"We will not be doing Pompidou, to be clear,” Solomon said at a press conference. "It's dead.”

A spokesperson with the Centre Pompidou later verified the cancellation to the American magazine ARTnews

"On September 15, the newly elected mayor Mr James Solomon decided not to pursue this project," said the spokesperson.

The New York-based arm of Dutch studio OMA had been tasked with leading the scheme, which would have landed as the French institution's first North American outpost.

The project had faced challenges, especially after the pandemic slowdowns.

Original plans to stage the museum in a disused former commercial building in historic Journal Square were previously scrapped, and the project was defunded in 2024. Later that year, it was restarted with a proposal to put the arts hub in a 100,000-square-foot (9290 square metre) space within a proposed skyscraper.

Years of back and forth

In 2024, the New Jersey Economic Development Authority cited economic concerns as a primary cause for the stops and starts in the planning process

Some viewed the plans as a placemaking anchor for the state, while anti-gentrification campaigners criticised the move.

The original Centre Pompidou closed in September in preparation for its Moreau Kusunoki Architectes and Frida Escobedo Studio-led renovation, set to complete in 2030.

Elsewhere, KANAL – Centre Pompidou in Brussels is moving towards an November opening. Another offshoot, the Centre Pompidou Hanwha in Seoul, will open this year as the first Asian satellite, while another museum planned for Brazil was announced last summer.

The original Centre Pompidou in Paris was designed by architects Renzo Piano and Richard Rogers in 1977

Rendering via Jersey City government. 

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American architecture studio HNTB has announced a strategic partnership with retired NFL quarterback Drew Brees aimed at improving the design of domestic sports stadiums and infrastructure.

Timed to coincide with the architecture studio's 50th anniversary, the partnership was established to leverage insights taken from Brees' 20-year career to deliver a better quality stadium experience for fans and athletes alike.

Brees, who is American professional football's second all-time leading passer, has earned a reputation outside of sports as a philanthropist and business leader. He lauded HNTB and said its values aligned with his own.

Desiging the future of stadiums

"HNTB is a company that designs more than facilities — it creates experiences, opportunities and communities," Brees said. "I'm excited to partner with a firm whose values reflect my own and whose mission aligns with my passion for innovation, leadership and excellence in performance."

In announcing the initiative, HNTB's president for corporate development Doug Mann said Brees character will help the studio innovate in design.

"Drew's integrity and drive reflect the same principles we hold ourselves to at HNTB – collaboration, vision and unwavering commitment to excellence," said Mann. "We're thrilled to welcome him as a strategic partner who can help us lead the next era of innovation in sports and civic design for our clients."

According to the studio, Brees' experience on the field throughout a variety of stadium configurations and levels will help to inform the studio's programmes.

In a promotional video titled Designing the Future of Stadiums , Brees also noted the importance of sustainability in his vision of design.

The studio said that these principles reinforce its own.

Staying ahead of trends

"Drew strengthens our position because he reinforces what we're already built for – proven design leadership and technical excellence," HNTB chief design officer Ryan Gedney told Dezeen.

"The partnership also helps us stay ahead of trends because Drew has a strong instinct for how fan behavior is changing, how premium experiences are evolving, and how venues need to perform year-round."

Brees has used his platform throughout his career to promote community development initiatives such as the construction of healthcare facilities, cancer research, and youth empowerment through the Brees Dream Foundation, which was established in 2006 to aid New Orleans in its recovery from Hurricane Katrina.

"Drew Brees represents excellence — not just on the field, but in every endeavor he pursues," said Robert Slimp, chairman and CEO at HNTB. "His ability to connect with decision-makers, inspire collaboration and drive impact is instrumental as we continue to expand our footprint in sports architecture and infrastructure."

The stadium design sector has proven to be a very lucrative bet for many American firms of late. It expects to reach a total market size of $38 billion globally in the next seven years, according to Deloitte.

First established as a civil engineering concern in 1914, HNTB is working with BIG to design the forthcoming Las Vegas MLB ballpark for 2028.

Dezeen recently took a close look at HNTB's 2014 design of Levi's Stadium in Santa Clara, host of this year's Super Bowl.

Other recent sport updates from the US include a new Washington Commanders Stadium design from HKS in the American capital's RFK Campus and a soon-to-open $2.2 billion NFL stadium in Buffalo, New York, that features the "world's largest snowmelt system."

The photo is by Trevor Hawkins, courtesy of HNTB.

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The Albina Riverside hotel and arts centre project in Oregon has been designed by US studios AD—WO, MALL, and Wayside Studio around the reuse of a former grain terminal complex along the Willamette River.

Commissioned by the 1803 Fund, the forthcoming Albina Riverside project supports the 1803 Fund's intent to enable "multiple stages for play, exploration, learning, and ritual" at the site used for grain processing by international firm Louis Dreyfus Co in the early 20th century.

Forty-six silos will be reused in the Portland scheme, which weaves together the arts, leisure, and sporting activity into an interconnected space for recreation and entertainment.

It will transform the since-neglected postindustrial waterfront into a "vibrant site for Black pilgrimage, creativity, and ecological restoration," AD—WO cofounder Emanuel Admassu told Dezeen.

The program includes a wood-slat-screened Art Shed in the silo headhouse, topped by a terrace, as well as an open-air Art Cube pavilion, an all-season Basketball Shed, and a 16-storey hotel, all serviced by a bridge-like processional terrace called The Crossing.

The lobby of the hotel will sit on top of a three-storey podium and be connected to a series of flexible exhibition and event spaces that spread across the existing silos.

Its largest component will be the 53,500-square-foot (4,970 square metre) two-level Articulated Dock beset by terraced planters and a wading pool that brings users into direct contact with the river's edge.

Altogether, the project encompasses some 3.2 acres and will stand as an exemplar of "Black spatial traditions that reclaim and animate undervalued sites into places of joy and assembly," said the team.

Reused concrete, mass timber, and pre-oxidised copper are among the materials chosen to strike a balance between industrial heritage and ecology.

Repurposed steel recovered from the silos' existing structural frames and conveyor trusses will also be incorporated throughout the site.

At the site, wetlands will be terraced and other landscaped areas will be organised into four zones for more effective water and habitat management. Expanded bicycle and pedestrian pathways will meander through each zone, meeting a northern nexus that keys a connection to the wider riverfront areas beyond.

"The landscape is reframed as a reparative system, working in concert with the hydrological character of the Willamette watershed," AD—WO cofounder Jen Wood told Dezeen.

"The primary gesture is a series of vegetative bands that establish an ecological gradient across the site. Beginning from the railway lines, an upland forest yields to scrublands, then a wet meadow to slough."

"The goal is to create a landscape that transforms in concert with a visitor's approach towards the water's edge," Wood added.

"It was beautiful to participate in a fluid exchange of ideas between three design offices, graphic designers and the owner. ‘Collaboration' is a word floated around a lot right now, yet it is typically a difficult thing to successfully pull off in practice," MALL founder Jennifer Bonner told Dezeen.

Elsewhere in Oregon, ÖÖD has designed a series of mirrored riverside retreat cabins, and SHED has completed its renovation of an early 1960s residential design overlooking Mount Hood.

The images are by The Light We Make.

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The saga concerning late American architect Victor Lundy's personal residence in Houston, Texas, USA, has been resolved following a last-minute bid from local preservationists who successfully purchased the home.

Buyers Dan and Carol Price were able to acquire the Bellaire property for $1.75 million after a hard-fought yearlong advocacy campaign staged by the Texas Historical Foundation, Houston Mod, Docomomo US and Preservation Houston, where the Prices sit on the board.

The home, a low-slung, two-bedroom design defined by a curving glass wall that frames its main living space and a roofline supported by elliptical glue-laminated hemlock wood arches, was completed in 1988 and comes with an attached studio.

Previous owners had planned to work with Habitat for Humanity on repurposing materials taken from its planned demolition following the initial sale of the property for at least $1.43 million that preceded Lundy's death at age 101 in November 2024.

Preservation Houston now says the plan is to "restore the property and explore possibilities for its continued use and preservation".

This reportedly includes use as a residence for visiting artists and scholars from the University of Houston, or a case study for the effect of modern preservation techniques on habitability.

The structure will have to be elevated if future renovation plans exceed 50 per cent of its appraised value due to its placement on the local floodplain.

The resolution highlights how "advocacy, partnership and action can protect the places that shape our shared history and identity," according to Preservation Houston.

"We think it's an interesting challenge and there are very interesting questions about modernism and architecture that this house embodies," Dan Price had said in a statement to the Houston Chronicle after its sale in October.

"Saving the Victor Lundy House shows what's possible when the preservation community moves quickly and speaks with one voice," Preservation Houston Executive Director Jennifer Kapral told Dezeen.

"Once the threat became clear, Preservation Houston and our partners rallied awareness, mobilised supporters, and built a coalition committed to protecting this landmark."

"Thanks to generous and dedicated preservationists Carol and Dan Price, the house is now saved, a powerful reminder that Houston's historic architecture and history can be protected when the community understands what's at stake."

Lundy, a decorated World War II veteran who received the Purple Heart during his service, is considered one of the founders of the Sarasota School of Architecture alongside Paul Rudolph and Ralph Twitchell.

His contributions to the modernist movement include a pair of contrasting Unitarian Universalist church designs in Connecticut and several other religious commissions.

He followed Rudolph in studying under Walter Gropius at the Harvard Graduate School of Design and was an accomplished watercolourist outside of architecture.

The preservation of Lundy's residence has been overshadowed slightly by the debate surrounding Houston's 60-year-old Astrodome, the former "Eighth Wonder of the World" whose future remains in doubt after closing to the public in 2009.

Earlier this month, Dezeen covered the opening of the Farshid Moussavi Architects-designed Ismaili Center.

Other demolition stories to note in 2025 include a controversial plan for the Stirling Prize-winning Centenary Building at the University of Salford and the razing of Bertrand Goldberg's Elgin Mental Health Center design outside of Chicago.

Photography by Benjamin Hill Photography. 

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