The team at unusually named studio //3877 has created a boxing gym in Washington, D.C., based on the concept of 'Night Club Meets Fight Club'. In addition to requesting the integration of musically themed elements into the design, the brief outlined that Boombox Boxing Club should be "approachable, motivational and an active asset in forging a focussed community." A large glazed frontage provides views into the gym from outside, contributing

SHoP Architects has designed an urban farm and cultural hub for Washington, DC, that is aimed at providing an economic driver, a community resource and a space for events. The Well at Oxon Run is being created for local food justice organisation DC Greens, which sourced a new location following the closure of another urban farm it was running in 2018. It will see the transformation of an underutilised 50,000sq

The International Spy Museum (SPY) has announced plans to relocate to a new, larger property next year. The 16-year-old attraction, which houses extensive collections of spycraft artefacts and highlights the global history of tradecraft, will move to a 140,000sq ft building on L’Enfant Plaza near the National Mall in Washington, D.C. Designed by architects Rogers, Stirk, Harbour + Partners, the new facility will be twice the size of the current

Kirk Johnson, museum director of the Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History in Washington DC, has announced its David H. Koch Hall of Fossils will reopen on 8 June 2019. Colloquially known as Fossil Hall, the room was closed for a US$129m (€113.2m, £101.4m) renovation in 2014. The project has returned the museum’s wing, which first opened in 1910, to its original architectural majesty. High ceilings, skylights and ornate moulding

Experimental New York design studio Snarkitecture are returning to Washington D.C.’s National Building Museum, three years after their enormous ball pit became a huge attraction for the institution. The museum has announced the New York collective will create a sprawling Fun House in its Great Hall for the 2018 edition of its annual Summer Block Party, from 4 July to 3 September. The freestanding structure will recall and re-imagine the

The National Museum of African American History and Culture has been named the design of 2017 by London’s Design Museum, making it only the second building to receive the accolade. The project, shortlisted after winning the architecture of the year category, was chosen ahead of a stair-climbing wheelchair, an ink manufactured from air pollution and a high-performance hijab by Nike. Designed by Adjaye Associates, The Freelon Group, Davis Brody Bond

Architecture and design studio Rockwell Group have completed a 6,000 capacity music and arts venue in Washington DC, anchoring a new mile-long neighbourhood along a channel of the Potomac River. Designed in collaboration with developers PN Hoffman and Madison Marquette, The Anthem is a 130,000sq ft (39,624sq m) space dedicated to indie and alternative music as well as conventions, art exhibitions, seminars, banquets and fashion shows. Rockwell Group were inspired

Work is almost complete on a major new museum in Washington that will teach visitors about the Holy Bible. The US$500m (£380.52, €423.53) Museum of the Bible in Washington, DC, has been funded by the billionaire president of arts and crafts superstore chain Hobby Lobby, Steve Green. Opening in November, exhibitions will be spread across eight floors, boasting high-tech interactives and topped with a roof garden. Many of the biblical

International spa and wellness consultancy and management company GOCO Hospitality is in the process of creating a GOCO Retreat across 750 acres (304 hectares) in the West Virginia countryside, not far from Washington DC. GOCO Retreat Dawson Lake will focus heavily on the area’s natural mineral springs, and will include both a 70-bedroom wellness hotel and 150 residences – all houses. Each of the 150 houses will be located on

UPDATE: Studio Gang's interactive installation for the National Building Museum’s 2017 Summer Block Series opened to the public yesterday (6 July) in Washington D.C. The intricate structure, called Hive, is formed entirely by 2,700 wound interlocking paper tubes of different sizes – from several inches to 10ft high. They feature a reflective silver exterior and vivid magenta interior, “creating a spectacular visual contrast with the museum’s historic nineteenth-century interior and

Landscape architecture studio James Corner Field Operations have been appointed to “restore, reimagine and revitalise” a one-mile stretch of Washington D.C’s historic Chesapeake and Ohio National Historical Park. The practice will work with local group Georgetown Heritage and the National Park Service to masterplan a section of the park focused around a canal network. The park’s locks, towpath, plazas, stones, landscaped areas and street crossings will be improved to “maximise

After a long and protracted design and planning process, US Major League Soccer (MLS) franchise D.C. United has finally been given the green light to build a new stadium at Buzzard Point in Washington. Team officials have swayed the D.C. Zoning Commission, which voted to approve the plans following design revisions to made by the club to address environmental concerns and offer clarity on its plans for parking, transportation and

Hotel giant MGM Resorts International has opened its latest luxury resort in America; the US$1.4bn (€1.7bn, £1.4bn) MGM National Harbor in Prince George’s County, Maryland. Located on a site overlooking the Potomac River, the 1.7 million sq ft (158,000sq m) mixed-use development took three years to build and is conceived by MGM as “an entertainment destination offering an unrivalled collection of attractions.” Architectural firm HKS Hospitality Group oversaw the project,

Washington DC’s National Gallery of Art has reopened its East Building following a three-year, US$69m (€61.5m, £54.2m) renovation process. The I.M. Pei-designed building gains an additional 12,250 sq ft (1,140sq m) of floor space, split between two new galleries to house the works of Alexander Calder and Mark Rothko, and a new rooftop terrace. Katharina Frithsch’s Hahn/Cock – a giant blue sculpture of a cockrel – sits on the new

US National Basketball Association (NBA) franchise the Washington Wizards is creating a new training facility that will double as a concert venue and events arena. While competing teams in Brooklyn, Chicago and Toronto have previously merged practice venues with residential accommodation, the Washington team claims it is the first in the NBA to actively create a mixed-use leisure facility. According to The Washington Post, the plans outlined by the Wizards

Here are some of the stories that appeared on CLAD this week, from Francis Ford Coppola’s private island retreat to a new energy-producing paving slab. Monday • Renowned street artist Phlegm has created an eight-storey mural in Toronto, bringing art to the city’s busiest intersections. Read here. • Legendary Hollywood director Francis Ford Coppola has opened a private Caribbean island to create a “Robinson Crusoe experience”. Read here. Tuesday •

The long-awaited opening of the National Museum of African American History and Culture in Washington D.C. will take place this Saturday (24 September), with US president Barack Obama in attendance. A three-day festival of music, literature, dance and film will accompany the opening of the museum, which is dedicated to exploring the story of America through the lens of the African American experience. Obama will lead the museum’s dedication ceremony

Danish architect Bjarke Ingels has said that modern-day stadiums lack individuality and called for more design studios to be given the opportunity to design sports facilities. Speaking in an interview with Rolling Stone, the BIG founder said “stadiums are just a total dinosaur”. "It's the same three or four global offices that have designed all the stadiums,” he said. “Then it becomes this self-fulfilling prophecy, where you have to be

Studio Gang have been lined up to produce a temporary installation for the National Building Museum's 2017 Summer Block Party, following in the footsteps of Snarkitecture and Bjarke Ingels. The design concept is being kept under wraps for now, but the studio promised it will “engage the spirit of creative experimentation that has defined the success of the Summer Block Party series.” Previous installations include a complex maze, a huge

Architect David Adjaye has told CLAD that the National Museum of African American History and Culture in Washington is “one of the defining projects” of his career to date. The landmark museum – which has been developed over a decade – is due to be opened by US President Barack Obama on the 24 September 2016. Adjaye’s practice Adjaye Associates worked with architecture studios Freelon Group and David Brody Bond

Here are some of the most popular stories that appeared on CLAD this week Monday Zaha Hadid Architects and Glenn Howells Architects were named as the final two contenders in the competition to design an eco-friendly stadium for Forest Green Rovers FC. Read here. Danish architecture firm Kvorning Design & Communication will design a Secrets of the Sea exhibition at the Norwegian Petroleum Museum, centred around a whirlpool. Read here.

James Corner’s huge ice-themed installation for the National Building Museum in Washington D.C. has opened to the public. The immersive work, called ICEBERGS, occupies an area of 12,540sq ft (1,100sq m) in the museum’s Great Hall. It allows visitors to feel as though they are walking through an underwater world of ice fields. A host of newly-released images reveal the varied elements introduced by Corner and his studio Field Operations.

A 360-room luxury hotel designed by Herzog & de Meuron for Hilton Worldwide in Washington is now under construction. The Conrad Washington D.C.will feature within 10-acre mixed-use development CityCenterDC, which is being created in the heart of the US capital. HKS Architects are collaborating on the hotel project, as are interior design firm Rottet Studio. Turner Construction Company is the project’s general contractor. Few design details have been released, but

The Watergate Hotel – the scene of the burglary which brought down Richard Nixon’s administration – has been given an extensive refit and re-design by Ron Arad Associates. The Washington D.C. hotel – which is listed as a national monument – was originally built by the Italian architect Luigi Moretti in the early 1960s as part of a mixed-use complex featuring offices, apartments and commercial facilities. The hotel made headlines

Work has started on the Rogers Stirk Harbour + Partners-designed International Spy Museum, which is making a a US$162m (€143.2m, £102.1m) move to property developer JBG Companies’ L’Enfant Plaza. The deal was announced on 15 June after 18 months of negotiations, with the 140,000sq ft (13,000sq m) space in Washington D.C. funded through US$65m (€57.4m, £41m) coming from the museum’s owners and the remainder sourced through public fundraising and corporate

New video footage has been released providing the first extensive look inside David Adjaye’s National Museum of African American History and Culture in Washington. Builders are putting the final touches to the museum, which will be opened by US President Barack Obama on 24 September 2016. The video, released by The Washington Post, shows construction workers installing the display cases in readiness for the first exhibits – which will focus

The New York office of international architecture studio OMA has unveiled two masterplan concepts to renew a vast sports and cultural complex in Washington D.C. The 190-acre RFK Stadium-Armory Campus would be located in the Southeast corridor of the District of Columbia, on a site which currently houses the Robert F. Kennedy Memorial Stadium. Events DC, the official convention and sports authority for the District of Columbia, is overseeing the