Good morning and welcome back to another roundup of top-of-the-day news. As the weather warms and vaccination rates rise, why not take a prospective tour of what’s coming to U.S. museums this spring?

The American Institute of Architecture Students publishes a digital resource guide

Good news for architecture students looking to navigate the thorny world of higher education while sequestered off-campus. The American Institute of Architecture Students (AIAS) has released a 65-page “Digital Resources” guide (get it here) to help students apply to competitions, find online tutorials, download free texture packs, and more. That also includes software suggestions for everything from modeling to collaborative working (read, Zoom), and the AIAS thoughtfully included the cost of everything to help students get the most bang for their buck.

H/t to Archinect

The North American crane count points to recovery

Supplementing the good news about the state of the Architecture Billings Index this morning, a new count of construction cranes across North America seems to be pointing towards a building boom. The latest report from Rider Levett Bucknall’s Crane Index saw the crane count across the United States and Canada rise by 24 percent from 2020 (the index doesn’t apparently track Mexico). Residential construction accounted for 49 percent of all cranes counted, and commercial project growth accounted for most of the count’s growth even though it only made up 12 percent of the crane count.

H/t to Construction Dive

A dual-pronged tower project will rise next to the Javits Center

Manhattan’s Far West Side is getting a serious addition (and no, not at Hudson Yards). New renderings have emerged for 495 Eleventh Avenue, a pair of residential towers on a base designed by FXCollaborative and Gwathmey Siegal Kaufman Architects slated to rise right next to the new Javits Center annex between West 39th and 40th Streets.

The original tower proposed for the site was unveiled in 2017 as a 100-percent-affordable, Davis Brody Bond-designed building that would have stretched to 49 stories. The new building, however, will hit 680 feet tall and 653 feet tall and contain 275 residential units and 75 “supportive” housing units.

H/t to New York YIMBY

Midtown Manhattan’s Textile Building will get a $350 million overhaul

The Textile Building, a 101-year-old mainstay of Manhattan’s Garment District at 295 Fifth Ave, will get a $350 million overhaul courtesy of Studios Architecture. The neoclassical, full-block office building will get a renovation to bring it in line with modern energy efficiency standards, new elevators, and outdoor workspaces. The (currently) 16-story building will also gain a 2-story penthouse topper that will span 34,000-square-feet; the addition will be clad in copper-colored metal panels to help it blend in with the brick below.

The L.A.-based Studio MAI will also overhaul the lobby, adding a cafe and library as well as access to a rear courtyard garden for outdoor working. Developers Tribeca Investment Group, PGIM Real Estate, and Meadow Partners are jointly funding the overhaul and repositioning of the 700,000-square-foot building. They expect the building to reopen for occupancy in the third quarter of 2022.

Check out the ethereal landscapes of this year’s best picture Oscar nominees

Last year was one of painful transition and loss, characterized by a pandemic, death, and protests for racial justice driven by unjust murder. Is it any wonder, then, that the best films of 2020 were transitive and meditative? The LATimes has broken down the architecture of best picture noms Minari, Nomadland, and more to explain how the set design of each helped them resonate so powerfully.

H/t to the Los Angeles Times

L.A.’s net-zero Michelle and Barack Obama Sports Center is nearly complete

The first net-zero building in Los Angeles is reportedly on track for completion this summer. The Michelle and Barack Obama Sports Center, designed by the locally-based SPF:architects, has been under construction since 2018 and will expand what was formerly the Rancho Cienega Sports Complex. Pre-engineered metal panels were employed for the facade to keep construction costs and delays down, though the project was completed in phases to avoid disrupting the park that the center sits within.

Hood Design Studio partnered on the project to help design a drought-resistant landscape partially inspired by the grid-like paintings of Piet Mondrian.

H/t to Archdaily