Buildings

Denver’s 96-year-old Esquire Theatre will close this summer as exhibitor Landmark Theatres pulls out of its decades-long operation of the historic movie house. The building’s owners submitted an Adaptive Reuse Plan that was approved by the Denver Landmark Preservation Commission, which will allow them to redevelop the building into “upscale office, restaurant, and retail uses,” according to a Tuesday press statement. The theater is slated to close to the public on July 17. “We have entertained the possibility of leasing…

Credit: Pixabay/CC0 Public Domain A new report from an influential real estate organization calls on Chicago to take a bold step to reduce greenhouse gas emissions from buildings. The city should set limits on emissions from certain buildings, using an approach already in place in New York, according to the report from the Urban Land Institute…

We need to make the exterior parts of buildings that people focus on more interesting, so that people want to protect rather than replace them. But most people aren’t architects or city planners—they can’t change the designs of what’s being made.Indeed, we have a public who feel utterly powerless, and a construction industry that talks to itself but not the public. That needs to change. We have public conversations about whether we should fly on holiday and use the carbon to go to Malaga or wherever, but there’s no…

Google Maps might be working on an important accessibility feature, as per a report. The popular mapping platform is said to be working on a new feature that shows the entrances and exits of large buildings to help users navigate directions and park vehicles in more convenient locations. The feature reportedly showed up in the Google Pixel 7a, so it is likely being tested for Android, however, it could not be confirmed if the same feature was being built for iOS as well.A report by Android…

Keiran Goddard is a poet and novelist whose debut novel, Hourglass, was longlisted for the Desmond Elliott prize in 2022. His second novel, I See Buildings Fall Like Lightning, is a worthy successor. A multivocal narrative focusing on a working-class community in Birmingham, it follows Rian, Patrick, Shiv, Oli and Conor as they grow up and grow apart. Rian has left Birmingham and got rich, more or less by accident, playing the stock market on his laptop; the other four stayed behind. As Goddard observes in a striking…

Just before dawn on January 14, a kilometer-long volcanic fissure opened in the ground just north of the Icelandic town of Grindavík. Instead of roaring from a conical mountain, effusive fountains of crimson lava bled upward from this schism. Soon after, a smaller second fissure opened across the frost-flecked earth. Although intense, the eruption was mercifully brief—but it still destroyed three houses in the northeastern section of the town, which had been preemptively evacuated. Two days later, people displaced from…

This story was originally published by Grist. Sign up for Grist’s weekly newsletter here.Bees Are Fish Now, I Guess?If there hadn’t been construction planned for the bridge that crosses over Leslie Run, one of the creeks that runs through the middle of East Palestine, Ohio, Rick Tsai and Randy DeHaven might not have noticed the worst contamination they’d seen in the creek in weeks.A backhoe had hoisted a chunk of earth from the bank of the creek, leaving a pool about eight feet across and deep enough to come up to the…

Android Auto recently received a significant design refresh, offering more efficient use of a car’s screen with the ability to display multiple apps side by side. This enhancement allowed users to, for example, run YouTube Music alongside Google Maps simultaneously. However, until now, one feature that was missing from Android Auto was the 3D buildings view in Google Maps, which has been a staple in the phone app for more than a decade. This immersive view, known for helping users navigate and find locations more easily,…

January 5, 20243 min readBuying out and razing homes harmed by Hurricane Sandy boosted business development, jobs and property values in nearby neighborhoodsBy Thomas Frank & E&E NewsA beach-front house and a car are damaged in the aftermath of Hurricane Sandy in Belle Harbor section of Queens, in New York, November 1, 2012. CLIMATEWIRE | Local property values and business development increased after a large government program was used to purchase flood-damaged homes in the wake of one of the nation's most…

Google made a big change to its Google Maps design recently, and I can’t say it bothered me as much as it upset some users. The color palette might be different than the colors Google has used for years on Google Maps, and I can understand how adapting to that change might be difficult for some people. It’s not a problem for me, though I agree that the Google Maps UI is becoming increasingly complex. But Google is making another change to Google Maps navigation, and I’m not sure how to feel about this one. Google…