edESTESdesign Visioneering

By Ed Estes Our cities are under pressure. The gap between housing demand and supply has become one of the defining challenges of our time — and conventional construction alone cannot close it. Increasingly, architects, urban planners, and housing advocates are turning to prefabricated homes not as a compromise, but as a genuinely compelling alternative. Here’s what’s driving that shift, and…

by Ed Estes Walk through a neighborhood that works — one where streets feel safe, where public spaces invite you to linger, where the mix of uses makes daily life feel effortless — and you are experiencing the result of intentional urban design. It rarely announces itself. When it is done well, it simply feels right. But behind that feeling is a disciplined body of thinking about how people move…

by Ed Estes Architecture is never just about buildings. It is about the people who move through them, around them, and because of them. It shapes how neighborhoods breathe, how communities gather, and whether the built environment invites belonging or enforces exclusion. That conviction has guided my work across more than four decades — from a transit-oriented thesis project on a pivotal Atlanta…

by Ed Estes When we stand before a truly iconic building, the experience is immediate. Before we read a plaque, before we learn its history, the building communicates. It commands space. It holds memory. It means something. But what separates a building that simply exists from one that endures in the cultural imagination? The answer lies in a specific convergence of architectural features,…

The Rise of Mixed-Use Developments: Building Communities, Not Just Buildings Today’s most vibrant urban spaces aren’t purely residential, commercial, or recreational—they’re purposefully designed as hybrid ecosystems where living, working, shopping, dining, and cultural engagement coexist within walkable districts. Mixed-use development represents a fundamental shift in how cities are…

HOK’s support of Tuskegee University students continues the practice of empowering aspiring Black architects that began in the late 1800s with Robert R. Taylor. Few architecture programs have as powerful a story as Tuskegee University. Robert R. Taylor, often cited as the first accredited Black architect in the U.S., designed much of the school’s eastern Alabama campus. Taylor also developed…

by Maria Rybachuk Despite wide diversity, city-states in Ancient Greece were united by a common design system that structured their architectural landscape. Cities occupied a special place in ancient culture in Greece since they were relatively independent units not only economically but also militarily and politically. Initially, settlements grew organically without a common design idea.…

by Josh Niland | The Western Pennsylvania Conservancy has announced the completion of a three-year Fallingwater conservancy plan led by New York-based Architectural Preservation Studio. The house American architect Frank Lloyd Wright designed in the mid-1930s for Pittsburgh-area retail magnate Edgar J Kaufmann was beset by water damage and other problems. Despite several previous conservation…

by Betsy Klein President Donald Trump privately advocated for painting an ornate federal office building next to the White House with a “magic paint with silicate,” CNN has learned. But ahead of a key vote on exterior changes to the sprawling Gilded Age structure, a panel of experts is warning the so-called magic paint could be incompatible with the Eisenhower Executive Office Building’s granite…

by Tom Ravenscroft Whether to make sloped sites level, prevent flooding or reduce impact on natural surroundings, houses on stilts are being built around the world. Here are eight of the best contemporary examples. Photography by Leonardo Finotti House in the Delta by MAPA, Argentina Raised on stilts to protect from periodic flooding on its riverside site near Buenos Aires, House in the Delta…

Video narrated and hosted by Fred Mills. India is building its answer to Changi. It’s called Navi Mumbai International Airport (NMIA) and phase one of the project opened to passengers in December last year. Once the final phase of work is complete, NMIA will welcome an astounding 90 million passengers a year, 20 million more than Changi. Comparing any airport to Singapore’s jewel is cause for…

shenzhen’s tech growth translates to design innovation The Róng Museum of Art, designed by Büro Ole Scheeren, is taking shape in Shenzhen’s Nanshan District as a cultural institution embedded within a larger urban campus. With its organic surfaces and glimmering facade, the project signals a shift across the Chinese city where growth in technology is translating into the creation of landmark…

by Philip Kennicott | A loosely circular driveway sweeps through the White House grounds, just below the beloved South Portico of the mansion. Its shape echoes a larger park, known as the Ellipse, which connects the president’s home to the National Mall. It also mirrors the curving pathways of nearby Lafayette Square, on the north side of the complex. The simple symmetry of this modest roadway…

by Amy Frearson | Africa is experiencing a mini-boom in skyscraper construction, with new towers rising in Egypt, Ethiopia, Ivory Coast and more. But are they symbols of progress or just vanity projects? Dezeen editor-at-large Amy Frearson investigates. The Tour F in Abidjan, Ivory Coast, will soon become the continent’s tallest building, expected to reach its full 421-metre height later this…

by Tom Ravenscroft Architecture studio AECOM has unveiled designs for a subterranean visitor screening centre as part of US president Donald Trump‘s revamp of the White House in Washington DC. Recently submitted by the White House to the National Capital Planning Commission, the proposed permanent security screening facility would be built under Sherman Park – a small park to the southwest of…