Alaska’s Anchorage Museum has announced plans for a US$17.5m (€15.7m, £11.2m), 25,000sq ft (2,300sq m) expansion to create new spaces for its permanent art collection. Designed by Anchorage-based McCool Carlson Green, the Rasmuson Wing is being privately financed by Ed Rasmuson, members of the Rasmuson family and the Rasmuson Foundation who own the Rasmuson Centre which the museum is a part of. The development will add a storey on to

Singapore-based real estate and investment company Rowsley – controlled by billionaire Peter Lim – has acquired a 75 per cent stake in Hotel Football in Manchester, the hotel project driven by a quintet of Manchester United legends. In a statement, Rowsley said it will pay £29.1m (US$64.1m, €39.7m) to acquire a 75 per cent shareholding in each of the Hotel Football-related businesses – the 133-bedroom hotel; Cafe Football, a 120-seat

Landscape architects James Corner Field Operations have designed a new park for downtown Miami to be constructed beneath an elevated rail line. Working with non-profit group Friends of The Underline, James Corner Field Operations have developed the vision and masterplan for a 10-mile-long (16km) park and urban trail. The scheme makes use of an under-used area of land below a portion of Miami's MetroRail – a rapid-transit system that opened

Brazilian architect and designer Guto Requena has completed a new interactive light facade around the Hotel WZ Jardins in São Paulo. Award-winning architect Guto Requena, creative director of Estudio Guto Requena, recently completed the new facade for the Hotel WZ Jardins as a research project exploring the ‘Hacked City’. The concept explores how we can bring positive changes to cities, their public spaces and architecture by plugging in poetic and

London's Walkie Talkie, also known as 20 Fenchurch Street, has suffered a barrage of criticism since its inception – and now it takes a place on the shortlist for the Carbuncle Cup, the award for the UK’s ugliest building. The shortlist for the ignominious award – which is run by the publication Building Design – was announced today (28 August) and includes five others. The winner will be announced on

Fitness First Group has debuted its exclusive new health club concept, Gravity. The first Gravity club launched in Singapore earlier this month – designed by Fitness First and HBA – while Fitness First is understood to have ambitions of bringing a marquee site to London at a later date. The US$7.3m (€6.5m, £4.7m) gym sits proudly at the top of the new CapitaGreen Tower in the Singapore Central Business District,

Fernando Romero and two other Mexican architects have unveiled plans to transform Mexico City's Avenida Chapultepec into a public park, linking it back to its pre-Hispanic origins. Romero's studio FR-EE is working with FRENTE and RVDG on the transformation of a busy ten-lane road that runs west to east between Chapultepec Park and the city centre. Featuring café plazas, a raised promenade, trees and water features, the aim is to

Transport for London (TFL) has issued a public tender for a designer and supplier to create the next generation of ‘Boris Bikes’ and inspire more Londoners to get active. Although the contract to supply bikes for London’s public cycle network doesn’t expire until 2017, TFL is already on the hunt for a new party to take on the job of designing, building, testing and supplying the next generation of bikes

SO-IL has revealed its design for an art gallery in Brooklyn, New York, which explores the relationship between both exterior and interior, and light and dark. The four-storey Artes Amant – expected to complete by 2017 – is a haven for modern art, where artists can create, display and store their work. The designs for the 1,320sqm (14,250sq ft) Artes Amant began with the inside, looking first at the functionality

Global design, architecture, engineering and planning firm HOK has redesigned 42 suites at the Mandarin Oriental New York hotel to offer guests a unique experience of the city. The HOK-designed one and two-bedroom suites feature panoramic views of Central Park, the Hudson River and the Manhattan skyline and aim to invoke New York City life through the course of a day with their distinct theming. To achieve this, the project

Currently undergoing a US$125m (€112m, £80m) redevelopment to celebrate its 20th anniversary, the Peterson Automotive Museum in Los Angeles has said it will open on budget and in line with its original schedule. Set to reopen on 5 December, having closed in October 2014, the museum is being clad with a new exterior by Kohn Pedersen Fox Associates. The exterior will comprise a stainless steel shell following multiple contours in

Once ranked as the third dirtiest hotel in the US by Forbes, the Desert Inn Resort on Daytona Beach in Florida is set to experience a complete US$20m (€17.4m, £13m) renovation before reopening in Q4 2016. The previously independent resort will then be rebranded as the Westin Daytona Beach Resort & Spa. Owned by Humphrey Realty, a privately held real estate development and ownership firm specialising in hospitality and commercial

Zaha Hadid Architects have responded to Japan’s decision to drop their Tokyo Olympic stadium design by releasing a film detailing the design process for the proposal. Only last month, London-based Zaha Hadid Architects (ZHA) appeared to have final government approval for their Tokyo Olympic Stadium design, only to be dropped days later by Japanese prime minister Shinzo Abe. The 20-minute video is a response to that decision and forms a

More than 100,000 visitors have visited an unusual seaside-inspired installation at the National Building Museum in Washington, DC, causing online ticket sales to be ceased to ensure current ticket holders can be accommodated. The temporary exhibit, entitled BEACH, has been installed in the museum’s famous Great Hall and is the work of architecture practice Snarkitecture. The Brooklyn-based firm’s 10,000sq ft (929sq m) interactive architectural exhibit – made from a mishmash

The largest aquarium in South America, AquaRio, will open its doors to the public in March 2016, offering the chance of seriously close encounters with the site's inhabitants. Designed by marine biologist Marcelo Szpilman, the 22,000sq m (237,000sq ft) development in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, is spread over six storeys (including a basement level) and will be home to 8,000 animals across 350 species of shark, sea turtle, sting ray

Canada-based Calgary Sports and Entertainment (CSE) has revealed plans for a CA$890m (US$676m, €585m, £428m) multi-purpose sports complex which would house all of the group’s professional sports franchises. The planned CalgaryNEXT venue, located on the banks of the Bow River in Calgary, Alberta, is set to feature a 19,000-capacity indoor arena and a 30,000-50,000-seat stadium – serving as the new home for the Calgary Flames and Calgary Hitmen ice hockey

Starwood Hotels & Resorts’ first Dutch property, W Amsterdam, is due to unveil a series of gastronomic experiences and some accommodation before the full hotel’s debut in December, designed by Office WINHOV and BK Architects. The historic former KAS Bank building and neighbouring Exchange building – a former telephone exchange – are both part of the W Amsterdam. Parts of the KAS Bank building are already open to guests, including

Steiner Leisure has signed a definitive merger agreement under which an affiliate of private equity firm Catterton will acquire all of the outstanding shares of Steiner for US$65 (€56, £41) per share in cash. The total transaction value, including assumed net debt, is approximately US$925m (€799m, £599m). Steiner Leisure’s board of directors unanimously approved the merger on the recommendation of a special committee, comprised entirely of independent directors. The committee

Complex, “multi-track” talks are taking place following the approval of a deal which could result in a new US$500m (€443m, £319m) arena being built in Milwaukee for NBA basketball franchise Bucks. Governor of Wisconsin, Scott Walker, recently approved and signed legislation paving way for US$250m (€221m, £159m) of public money being invested in the project, which would secure the long-term future of Bucks in the city of Milwaukee. The Bucks

International design firm PKMN Architectures was selected to lead this year’s edition of a workshop known as Taller del Desierto – which aimed to build a small urban spa at Parque Urueta in the Mexican city of Chihuahua – with the help of local architecture firm Memela and designers Juan Castillo, Miguel Heredia and Miguel García. Based on the consensus of local residents and the council, the project involved the

Rosewood Hotels & Resorts will open a new 116-villa resort on Hainan Island, China in 2018. Rosewood Clearwater Bay Hainan will feature the brand’s signature Sense spa with six treatment rooms and balconies overlooking private gardens. Designed by Bangkok-based architectural firm Blink Design Group, Rosewood Clearwater Bay will also have exclusive access to a 1.6km (5,250ft) beach, and the design will incorporate water features, indigenous timber and stone, and unobstructed

Thompson Hotels has opened its first property in Mexico's Cabo San Lucas, blending an urban aesthetic with a retro, 1960s Southern California-meets-Baja vibe. Located on the southernmost tip of the Baja California Sur Peninsula, The Cape offers unobstructed views of The Arch, the area’s famous landmark, from virtually any vantage point on the property. Perched on Monuments Beach, both the 161-bedroom property and the spa were designed by Javier Sanchez

Henry Chebaane has said he drew inspiration from Azerbaijan’s mineral wealth to design JW Marriott Absheron’s new dining establishment OroNero – choosing oil, gold and jewels as a central theme. Chebaane, the French-born London artist and designer who founded Blue Sky Hospitality, was brought in to design the OroNero (meaning black gold in Italian) restaurant, having created four other concepts for various parts of the hotel in Baku. Styled like

Rumours that urban artist Banksy is behind a pop-up visitor attraction in Weston-super-Mare, England, were given further credence today (20 August) as Dismaland’s website went live, revealing a cavalcade of counter-culture contributors. Dismaland, a twisted version of a Disney theme park, has been installed at the town’s Tropicana lido, which has been derelict since 2000. According to the website, hosted at dismaland.co.uk, “Dismal Land is a festival of art, amusements

Gucci has become the latest fashion powerhouse to bring its brand into the restaurant business, opening 1921 Gucci in Shanghai, China. The chic new eatery, which can only be accessed via an elevator inside the Gucci Shanghai boutique, follows in the footsteps of Armani's Fifth Avenue restaurant in New York City and Ralph Lauren's Polo Bar, as fashion giants seek to harness their brand power in new markets. Although Gucci

Developer Ballymore today announced a world’s first - a glass sky pool spanning two apartment blocks in its Nine Elms development next to Battersea Power Station, London. The 25m pool will be 5m wide and will enable residents to swim between the buildings with only eight inches of glass between them and a ten storey drop. The apartment building will also feature a rooftop bar, a spa and an orangery.

26 high-profile names have been selected from a field of nearly 500 as the architectural elite battle it out for the chance to convert a flour mill in Qatar into an art gallery. The three-stage Doha Art Mill development had 489 entries total from 56 different countries across five continents, with Renzo Piano, David Chipperfield and Atelier among the 26 names on the long-list. Selected on the basis of two