A few weeks ago, I wrote about architect David Adjaye and his designs for two new libraries in the District, plus his plans for the Smithsonian’s Museum of African American History and Culture. The story included discussion of the controversy Adjaye faces with his proposal for the Washington Highlands library. Local residents felt it doesn’t fit into their neighborhood, that it would be discordant with the brick homes and residential scale, and that it includes spaces for teens and children that would be hard to monitor and patrol. The Library has just announced that Adjaye has revised his plans for that branch, and they’ve sent out an image that gives a sense of what Adjaye is now thinking.
Image Courtesy DC Public Library
News flash: The Chicago and Shanghai offices of the architecture giant Skidmore, Owings and Merrill, have been chosen to design a major expansion of the business district in Beijing. And it comes with all the environmental trimmings. Plans call for pedestrian and bicycle friendly streets, a street car system to link the nodal points of the expanded district, and buildings that are “high performance,” meaning they will be more earth friendly in their design and systems. All good news. Except now SOM has to actually make all of this happen, which 
