Good morning and welcome back to another mid-week roundup of what’s going on today.
Here’s what you need to know:
The Frank Lloyd Wright-designed Westhope home sells in Tulsa
Another Frank Lloyd Wright-designed home has changed hands, this time in Tulsa, Oklahoma. Built in 1929 for Tulsa Tribune publisher Richard Lloyd Jones, the two-story Westhope has been sold to local real estate developer Stuart Price for a cool $2.5 million. The 10,405-square-foot house at 3704 South Birmingham Ave. spans several flat, single-story sections and makes prominent use of glass blocks, both Wright trademarks. It also happens to be the only Textile Block building Wright designed outside of California, and is one of three Wright-designed buildings in Oklahoma (and the only in Tulsa). Price has declined to comment on his plans for the home thus far.
H/t to Tulsa World
Alphabet scales up drone delivery to its largest city yet, Dallas-Fort Worth
If you’re in the Dallas-Fort Worth metropolitan area, watch your head. Alphabet subsidiary Wing has expanded its drone delivery service to its largest market yet and will soon start testing aerial deliveries from a single Walgreens in Frisco and the nearby Little Elm. Although that will only cover a small portion of the Texans demanding deodorant, toothbrushes, and bandages in the region, Wing has plans to build a dedicated drone station at Frisco Station just north of Dallas and gradually expand its operations.
H/t to The Verge
Viennese museums turn to OnlyFans after being censored on social media
Tired of having classic artwork censored by overzealous moderators on Instagram and Facebook, the Vienna Tourist Board has launched an OnlyFans account to showcase the Austrian capital’s art assets unfettered. The account features nude works from four museums across the city: the Albertina; Leopold Museum; Kunsthistorisches Museum, and Naturhistorisches Museum Vienna, all of which have found difficulty advertising their current exhibitions on traditional social media channels. A monthly subscription costs $5, but pledgers will receive their choice of a ticket to one of the four museums or a free Vienna City Card.
H/t to Hyperallergic
WoodWorks launches a mass timber construction manual to fill the knowledge gap
A day after the United States Forest Service and Softwood Lumber Board launched their second blockbuster mass timber design competition, the nonprofit WoodWorks (which is also managing the competition) has put out a technical guide for contractors working with timber. Noting that developers and architects are specifying timber more than ever in their projects, the group put out the U.S. Mass Timber Construction Manual. The manual is intended to help contractors and installers a solid groundwork for planning, procurement, and installation of mass timber projects, and WoodWorks is supplementing it with a series of workshops and hands-on installation sessions.
Gensler unveils a sawtoothed office building for Culver City
Gensler has revealed plans for a 150,000-square-foot new office building slated for downtown Culver City in Los Angeles County. The four-story complex at 3817-3855 Watseka Avenue would largely be wrapped in glass between prominent concrete piers, but the most distinctive feature is the sawtooth roofline that, according to Gensler (and from the renderings), would be built from mass timber. The new office complex is expected to open sometime in 2024.
H/t to Urbanize Los Angeles
Heather Flood is the new interim dean of the Woodbury School of Architecture
Only two days after Ingalill Wahlroos-Ritter’s October 18 announcement that she would be stepping down as dean of Woodbury University’s School of Architecture in San Diego, Woodbury has named Heather Flood as her interim successor. Flood was chosen to replace Wahlroos-Ritter after a faculty and staff election, and will assumedly remain as dean until a permanent dean can be found. Wahlroos-Ritter began her tenure in 2017 and had served as chair and associate dean at the school for a total of 10 years before that.
H/t to Archinect
