Entertainment mogul David Geffen has donated US$100m (€89m, £69.5m) to New York’s Museum of Modern Art (MoMA), the largest donation yet to MoMA’s funding campaign for its large-scale expansion. MoMA unveiled revised US$445m (€407.3m, £310.6m) plans to redevelop and expand the facility in January, with the design by Diller Scofidio + Renfro streamlining the museum experience to work better for both visitors and curators. Geffen – who has a net

Architecture practice Tsao & McKown are designing a 189,000sq m (2m sq ft) luxury wellness retreat along Yangcheng Lake outside of Suzhou, China, due to open in Q3 2016. The project is being built through Octave – a development company owned by studio co-founder Calvin Tsao that is dedicated to creating wellness communities. The retreat, called Sangha, will be comprised of residences, hotels and learning spaces. A 69-guestroom hotel offers

Hollywood star Leonardo DiCaprio has championed the importance of sustainable cities in the global battle against climate change. Today (22 April) 130 countries will sign the landmark agreement reached in Paris last December to tackle global warming. Reflecting on this breakthrough in the Guardian newspaper, DiCaprio cautioned that it is “just the beginning” in the drive to avoid “the catastrophic impacts” of rising temperatures. The Oscar winning actor outlined five

Spanish football giant FC Barcelona has revealed more details about its plans to revamp its iconic Camp Nou stadium, with a design by Japanese architecture studio Nikken Sekkei. The new design takes the famous open bowl designed by Francesc Mitjans in 1957 and reinterprets and inverts it, adding a new roof to the stadium but creating an open space around the ground, which will integrate with the club’s huge planned

Construction is nearing completion on a pair of “dancing” copper towers in New York, which will be connected by a skybridge with a swimming pool 300ft above the ground. New York studio SHoP Architects have designed the towers, called the American Copper Buildings, by the city’s East River. The upper halves of both structures lean outward, creating a dynamic, musically-inspired interaction between the two which is emphasised by the bridge

Vietnamese architect Vo Trong Nghia has created another of his trademark sculptural bamboo buildings, this time for a rural restaurant in north Vietnam. Located 30km from the capital Hanoi, the curving Roc Von restaurant is formed of 12 huge bamboo columns which spread upwards, creating a canopy that covers a 6,560sq m semi-outdoor dining area. Roc Von, which is owned by development company La Vong Group, is designed as a

Set on 70 oceanfront acres atop Bald Head Cliff on the southern coast of Maine, US, Cliff House Resort is undergoing a landmark transformation, and adding in a new 9,000sq ft (836sq m) spa concept, set to open this July. Created by Blu Spas, the seven-treatment-room spa will have an emphasis on the “wild and free” elements of coastal Maine, channeling the transformative interplay of water, stone, sky and sand.

A shortlist of eight celebrated and emerging architecture practices has today (21 April) been announced for the final stage of an international architecture competition to design a waterfront arts district in Doha, Qatar. The studios of Pritzker winners Alejandro Aravena and Renzo Piano are in the running for project, called Art Mill, alongside other big names including EAA Emre Arolat Architecture and Atelier Bow-Wow. The site of the new district

An open international architecture competition has been launched to design a future Science City in Egypt. The Bibliotheca Alexandrina, a major library and cultural centre, has organised the single phase, open contest to receive conceptual designs and masterplans for a 125,000sq m (1.35m sq ft) scientific complex designed to promote scientific knowledge to the public. The city will house interactive science exhibitions, a museum, a planetarium, an observation tower, research

The project architect responsible for Zaha Hadid’s Messner Mountain Museum Corones in Italy has told CLAD that cultural buildings have an important role to play in the reinvigoration of ski resorts. Peter Irmsche, who is interviewed in the latest issue of CLADmag, explained how Hadid’s museum – one of her final completed projects before her untimely death on 31 March this year – has increased the popularity of Italy’s Kronplatz

Bjarke Ingels has insisted that his unorthodox buildings "are not just for fun", and demonstrate how architects can respond to new development restrictions in unique and interesting ways. Speaking in an interview with the Council on Tall Buildings and Urban Habitat, the founder of architecture studio BIG – who have unveiled a spate of high-profile new leisure projects in recent months – said that for every new project he identifies

Bill Hellmuth has officially taken over as the new CEO of global architecture practice HOK as part of a planned succession process which also sees his predecessor Patrick MacLeamy become the company’s chair. Hellmuth’s promotion, which completes a reshuffle first announced in January this year, marks the first time since 1990 that the firm has been led by a design principal. In a statement, the studio said the promotion “signals

Atlanta United FC – the football franchise joining Major League Soccer (MLS) in 2017 – has revealed plans for a new US$60m (£41.7m, €52.8m) training facility which emphasises youth development. Designed by local architects TVS Design, the centre will be home to the club’s youth academy, first team players and staff. The 33-acre site will include a 30,000sq ft (2,787sq m) headquarters and six playing fields. Darren Eales, president of

Hotel and resort giant Starwood has agreed a deal to open a 125-room hotel and 220 St. Regis-branded residences in Serbia’s tallest mixed-use tower. The Kula Belgrade – a 550ft tall and twisting glass skyscraper designed by the Chicago office of architecture firm Skidmore, Owings & Merrill Global – is scheduled to open in 2019, when it will form the centerpiece of a major new waterfront development in the capital

United Soccer League (USL) franchise Sacramento Republic FC has lifted the lid on designs for its proposed new stadium, which it is aiming to make the “most intense and intimidating” in the league. The released renderings revealed artistic impressions of the stadium’s supporter section which will be built to try and foster a “sense of community and exclusivity” for fan groups including the Tower Bridge Battalion. Steep stands will be

The Association for the Promotion and Exhibition of the Arts in Lebanon (APEAL) has revealed the shortlist for an architectural design competition to build a new “modern and contemporary” art museum in the heart of Beirut, Lebanon. The contest was open to architects of Lebanese origin from around the globe, and 66 submissions from 16 countries were received. These were whittled down to a final shortlist of 13, who are

The city council of St. Petersburg in Florida, US, has officially approved both the funding and design for a US$20m pier designed as the centrepiece of a new 34 acre waterfront leisure district. The St. Petersburg Pier – designed by ASD/SKY, Rogers Partners Architects + Urban Designers and Ken Smith Workshop – will extend into Tampa Bay, providing multi-level observation platforms, cycling routes, restaurants, a 4,000-capacity events space, a cafe

Conrad Hotels has made its debut in India with the opening of Conrad Pune, which features a 5,000sq ft (465sq m) Conrad Spa. Owned by Palm Grove Beach Hotels, a subsidiary of K. Raheja Construction Group, and managed by Hilton Worldwide, the 310-bedroom Conrad Pune features interior design by Hong Kong-based AB Concept. Expansive public spaces feature 40ft (12m) high ceilings, cascading water features, a collection of hand-picked artwork, bold

Destination Hotels is opening a 25,000sq ft (2,323sq m) indoor/outdoor spa sanctuary in June 2016 at its La Cantera Hill Country Resort, located on 550 acres just outside of San Antonio, Texas. Part of a multi-million-dollar transformation of the 498-guestroom resort, Loma de Vida Spa & Wellness will offer holistic, meditative and restorative treatments that blend indigenous Texas elements with European influences. Loma de Vida – or ‘Hill of Life’

The structural engineers behind a forthcoming transparent sky pool which will span two London apartment blocks have outlined the huge technical challenges of the project. Eckersley O’Callaghan are building the pool for development firm Ballymore Group in the Nine Elms development close to Battersea Power Station. The 25m (82ft) pool – designed in collaboration with Arup Associates and aquarium designer Reynolds – will be 5m (16ft) wide and will enable

Zaha Hadid Architects have declared they will continue their work “with curiosity, integrity, passion and determination” following the death of the studio’s pioneering founder, Zaha Hadid. In a statement released today (18 April), the London-based firm said: “Zaha is in the DNA of Zaha Hadid Architects. She continues to drive and inspire us every day, and we work on as Zaha taught us.” The practice added: “Zaha Hadid Architects and

Detroit Zoo has debuted its new US$30m (€26.5m, £21.1m) penguin habitat, with the state-of-the-art enclosure offering a face-to-face encounter with the antarctic birds. Home to 69 penguins – gentoos, macaronis, king and rockhoppers – the Polk Penguin Conservation Center, designed by the architectural team of Albert Kahn Associates and Jones & Jones Architects, features an underwater gallery and two acrylic tunnels for visitors to see the birds fly through the

British architecture studio FaulknerBrowns have unveiled the second phase of their major riverside regeneration project in Durham, northern England, which aims to create a new “regional and national destination” in the historic city. A planning application has today (18 April) been submitted for the redevelopment of Milburngate House, a passport office, into a 2 hectare mixed-use development with extensive public realm along the River Wear. The £150m (US$199m, €176m) project

Acclaimed artist Cornelia Parker has taken inspiration from the paintings of Edward Hopper and the ominous Bates mansion from Alfred Hitchcock’s film Psycho to create a large-scale roof garden commission for the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York. For the fourth year running, the Met has organised a site-specific rooftop exhibit mixing architecture, art and design. The Roof Garden Commission: Cornelia Parker, Transitional Object (PsychoBarn), which opens to the

A former Six Flags theme park abandoned in 2005 after severe flooding stemming from Hurricane Katrina could be given a new lease of life after two groups of developers laid out proposals to revive the theme park. The abandoned site in New Orleans, Louisiana, nowadays frequented by vandals and trespassers, could get a revival as an amusement park, resort hotel, outlet mall or sports complex, according to the developers. A

Six Senses Zil Pasyon, located on the 652-acre Felicite Island in the Seychelles, is set to open in Q3 2016, and will incorporate into its design the small island’s dramatic granite boulders that fringe the shoreline. With 30 villas and 17 private residences, Six Senses Zil Pasyon will occupy just one-third of the picturesque island, with the rest of the island left in its natural state. The 7,000sq ft (650sq

Global planning and design firm PGAV Destinations have appointed four architectural designers to support the practice with its growing list of major leisure developments. Marchelle Gant, Jinyang Liu, Ian Min and Joe Windler join a team of more than 120 full-time architects, designers, artists, business strategists, interpreters and planners. The studio told CLAD they have the greatest number of senior project design team leaders in the industry, a strategy which