Construction has begun on the International African American Museum, which has been designed by Pei Cobb Freed & Partners to honour the site at which enslaved Africans were brought into the US. Initially proposed in 2000 and now scheduled for completion in late 2021, the 41,800sq ft (3,900sq m) facility is being constructed on Gadsden’s Wharf in Charleston, South Carolina. It is estimated that up to 80 per cent of

Ieoh Ming Pei, the architect who conceived the Louvre Pyramid, has died. Born in Guangzhou, China in 1917, Pei emigrated to the US in 1940, establishing his own practice, I.M. Pei and Associates in 1955. The firm soon went on to design a number of celebrated projects, the most famous of which was arguably the now iconic Louvre Pyramid, which was commissioned by French president François Mitterrand in 1989. At

Rising 61 storeys above the thriving Back Bay neighbourhood, the all-new Four Seasons Hotel One Dalton Street, Boston is due to open shortly in one of America's most historic cities, complete with a full-floor spa. The soaring glass skyscraper – now the city's third tallest building at 724 feet or 220 metres – was designed by Harry Cobb of Pei Cobb Freed & Partners in collaboration with Gary Johnson of

The developer behind a new Four Seasons hotel and residential unit has called it “the finest and most architecturally-significant skyscraper ever built in Boston, ushering in a new era of modern development and elevating the standard of luxury living” in the US city. Richard L. Friedman, president and CEO of Carpenter & Company, said of Four Seasons Hotel & Private Residences One Dalton Street: “Watching this unprecedented, architectural landmark soar

Lighting design specialists Speirs + Major have unveiled their latest project – the Hide restaurant in Mayfair, London. The brainchild of Michelin star chef Ollie Dabbous, Hide overlooks Mayfair's Green Park and operates with an ethos to act as a haven from the bustle of the British capital. Speirs + Major are an independent, London-based, design practice that uses light and dark to enhance the experience of the built environment.

One of Europe’s largest and most dramatic skateparks has been built in Luxembourg, in the shadow of a UNESCO World Heritage site. The multi-level park has been built beneath the stony Fortifications of Vauban in the Peitruss Valley, which separates Luxembourg's Old and New Towns. French studio Constructo Skatepark Architecture, based in Marseille, worked with members of the local skateboarding community to create a facility suitable for their needs and

Chinese architecture practice Studio Zhu-Pei have completed work on a ‘hovering’ garden installation in a Chinese sculpture park, which allows visitors to wander the grounds over, under and around huge stacks of plants and flowers. New images of the project, called Yi Garden II, reveal how an abandoned two-storey concrete frame has been used as the foundation for a seemingly gravity-defying arrangement of greenery in the grounds of Quanzhou National

The tall tales of Jules Verne, the mysteries of the moon and the Chinese fairytale of the Jade rabbit have inspired a quirky new French restaurant on the roof of I.M. Pei’s Macau Science Center. New York design firm Wilson Associates were commissioned to create the design and concept for Le Lapin, which occupies a circular space at the peak of Pei’s distinctive conical building. As the restaurant is a

A giant aluminium sphere has been unmasked on the streets of Taipei following the removal of the scaffolding at OMA’s Performing Arts Center for the city. The exteriors of two of the centre’s theatres – the Proscenium Playhouse and Multiform Theatre – can now be seen clearly for the first time. Both venues will seat 800 spectators. An elevated transparent central cube will house the 1,500-capacity Grand Theatre, as well

Beijing architects Studio Pei-Zhu have developed a reputation for their sculptural leisure buildings across China, and they have just started work on another: a museum for, and inspired, by pottery. The Jingdezhen Historical Museum of Imperial Kiln will be located in China’s ‘porcelain capital’ in Jiangxi province. The building – surrounded by clusters of china workshops dating back to the Ming and Qing dynasties – is designed in the vault-like

A construction agreement has been reached to revamp the Century Plaza, California's iconic crescent-shaped hotel. According to Commercial Property Executive, real estate firm Next Century Partners has secured $1bn (€902m, £752m) in construction financing to begin overhauling the Los Angeles hotel as part of a wider US$2.5bn (€2.25bn, £1.8bn) mixed-use development of the Century City neighbourhood. When finished, the hotel – which has hosted several US presidents and was particularly

After drawing the ire of the Egyptian government when it created a replica sphinx last year, a Chinese theme park in Shijiazhuang has added to its collection, creating a 1:1 replica version of Paris’ Louvre Pyramid. Not sharing quite the same iconic locale, the replica Louvre Pyramid – the original of which first opened in 1989 – sits in the overgrown field of the unique amusement park/movie set in Shijiazhuang,

Kris Yao | Artech has been selected to design the New Taipei City Museum of Art after winning an architectural contest with its “Contemporary Museum of Art among the Reeds” design. The NT$2.17bn (US$68.9m, €60.6m, £44.4m), 44,000sq m (473,600sq ft) development, located in New Taipei, Taiwan, is being funded by local government. Kris Yao’s winning design will incorporate the site’s historical, cultural and geographical features to form a sustainable vision