For the last month, all that we at Architizer HQ have been talking about (besides the A+ Award Gala, of course) is the triumphant return of cult TV comedy Arrested Development. You know, that hilarious, brilliant show about a dysfunctional wealthy family that, despite dozens of accolades, was cancelled after its third season only to develop a rabid cult following on Netflix, capturing the attention of Netflix who finally decided to revive the show for a fourth season? (Geez, has any other show had that complex a history?) Yeah, that one.

Anyway, after seven years of waiting, the fourth season of Arrested Development debuts May 26, when Netflix will stream all the episodes. To celebrate, Architizer is devoting an entire week to the best show of all time. Each weekday, get ready for roundups of your favorite Arrested Development-themed buildings, including some model homes!

All you never-nudes, start perfecting your chicken dance, get a frozen banana at a real-life Bluth’s Frozen Banana Stand, call up Mrs. Featherbottom to tidy your living room before your Arrested Development viewing party, and make sure to check Architizer everyday, because Arrested Development Week begins on Monday!

It’s OK Lucille, we are jumping for joy too!

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Frank Gehry’s Monaco Urbanisation En Mer project model, 2007. Photo: Gehry Partners

Story by Zach Edelson

Architect Frank Gehry needs no introduction, though you may not have met his models. Well, luckily, between now and June 29, you can meet these beauties at Leslie Feely Fine Art in New York City. ”Frank Gehry: At Work” offers a unique opportunity to see this master builder’s craftsmanship and approach up close and personal. More after the jump!

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Images courtesy of SPEECH, by Patricia Parinejad.

In its 1970s heyday, interest in architectural drawing revolved around the twin poles of conceptually critical grids and the ruination of Piranesi. While the first category resulted in plenty of buildings—some of the work of the New York Five comes to mind—the impact of the latter was seldom direct. The new Museum for Architectural Drawing in Berlin picks up the slack, both with its form and with its first exhibition, “Piranesi’s Paestum: Master Drawings Uncovered,” drawn from the collection of the Sir John Soane Museum in London.

Situated on the site of a former factory in Prenzlauer Berg, the museum, by SPEECH Tchoban and Kuznetsov, is composed of stacked volumes forming a man-made cliff on the edge of an open space. The architects take this fake ruination further by what appear to be either formwork lines or quarrying marks; a closer look reveals they are drawings carved into the façade.

The Museum will house rotating exhibitions from the Tchoban Foundation’s collection, collaborating with other museums to bring a wider appreciation of architectural drawing to Berlin and beyond. More photos after the jump!

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Having garnered the most Popular Choice votes among all of the Architizer A+ awards entries, SHoP Architects was presented the Building of the Year award by Barclays Center and Brooklyn Nets CEO Bret Yormak at Thursday evening’s Architizer A+ Awards Gala.

Principals Chris Sharples and Jonathan Mallie of SHoP Architects

“It’s impossible to describe the thrill of seeing a building you drew sitting in the heart of Brooklyn and filled with 18,000 screaming fans,” said SHoP Architects’ Chris Sharples & Jonathan L. Mallie. “Brett and Forest City Ratner are special. Clients with vision and a belief in the power of architecture. No good building gets built without that kind of support.” More after the jump!

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It is New York City’s first ever design week, NYCxDesign. Fifty years ago, when Richard Meier established his architecture firm in New York it was a different world. Since opening his doors in 1963 Meier has become one of the most prolific and well-known architects practicing today.

He is simultaneously an architect’s architect—he is one of the celebrated New York Five—and known around the world for building iconic and accessible buildings.

Architizer is proud to announce Richard Meier is its 2013 Lifetime Achievement Award winner. Watch his inspirational acceptance video above!

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Image of A+ Award by Snarkitecture

Last night on the West Side of New York City we celebrated the first annual Architizer A+ Awards. Altogether 55 winners flew in from all over the world to be with us to celebrate architecture.

But this wasn’t your typical architecture award event. We skipped the typical conversations of architects speaking to architects and, instead, had a diverse crew of honorees and presenters get up on stage to fete the world’s finest buildings. We had developers giving awards to architects, we had architects giving awards to presidents… it was an architecture love-fest!

Last night we introduced six special achievement awards designed to remind a world that loves buildings that architecture belongs to everyone. Great architecture takes advocacy to be relevant, and it takes patrons with visions to create spectacular projects. That is why we are proud to announce the 2013 Architizer A+ Awards Relevance Award, Advocacy Award and Patron of the Year Award. We also announced the Do Good Award, Lifetime Achievement Award, and Building of the Year.

And our Special Award Winners are …

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A note from Marc Kushner, CoFounder of Architizer

Hot off our A+ Awards Gala last night in NYC, I am proud to announce a new partnership with Kinja, the Gawker Media platform that is revolutionizing commenting and interaction online: Architizer on Kinja.

Maybe you have noticed the banners at the top of the page on Architizer. We are relaunching Architizer this summer. You can expect bigger pictures, better search, and more integrated product and firm information. It is a brand new platform, built from the ground up to be the perfect tool for architects to browse and find inspiration.

But we know that architects aren’t our only readers. Part of what makes Architizer so powerful is that our readers span a spectrum from casual fans to working professionals. Partnering with Kinja means that we will continue to serve all of our readers. More after the jump!

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A note from Marc Kushner, CoFounder of Architizer and a practicing architect.

Last night we threw a party for architecture. Architecture needed a good party.

At a venue on the West Side of New York City we had entrepreneurs, developers, fashion designers, the CEO of a major sports team and the President of a nation. All of them at an architecture event.

Bjarke Ingels at the Architizer A+ Awards Gala

We had our partners from the Wall Street Journal, Huffington Post, and Coolhunting there, along with our sponsors, Emirates Airline, Audemars Piguet, Audi and Perrier Jouet. All there to celebrate architecture.

Of course we also had architects: 55 of the 87 Architizer A+ Award winners flew in from all corners of the world to be with us at the the first ever Architizer A+ Awards gala. This party was for them, to celebrate the inaugural year of the Architizer A+ Awards.

12 months ago we launched the Architizer A+ Awards to change the game, to break architecture out of its echo chamber and to change how architects are rewarded for their hard work. 1,500 entries from 100 countries, 200 jurors, and 50 categories later we succeeded.

Last night two people said things to me that made me realize we are on the right path:

First it was Thom Browne, the fashion designer, who said to me that he was so happy to attend an architecture event because all of his fashion is inspired by architecture. He never goes to architecture events because he had never been invited before!

Shame on us architects! We have fans out there that want to love us. Last night we broke architecture out of its shell and invited everyone to come and celebrate architecture with us.

Fashion designer Thom Browne at the Architizer A+ Awards Gala

The second person was President Mikheil Saakashvili of Georgia who said to the 400 guests that taking risks is the only way to build good architecture. He told the room proudly that he had been criticized for commissioning progressive architecture. He advised every architect that if you aren’t being criticized then you aren’t real.

President of Georgia Mikheil Saakashvili with Architizer Co-founder Marc Kushner

Last night we took a risk. We put architecture on a stage that it was unaccustomed to. We put it in a global spotlight.

Last night we broke out of the echo chamber where architects speak exclusively to architects, and we reminded the public how important our profession is.

Last night we held our heads up proudly and said to the world: We are architects! We design every space you live in, work in and play in. We are the people that design the backdrop to everyday life.

Last night we told the world that architecture is ready to be recognized for its contribution.

Congratulations to all of our winners. Congratulations to every architect in the world. This is just the beginning.

Stay tuned for more coverage and make sure to sign up to be a beta tester for the New Architizer, launching this summer

Photo credits: Matteo Prandoni/BFAnyc.com 

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All images courtesy of Danny Cheng Interiors

Hong Kong architect Danny Cheng’s new project for Discovery Bay rises from an enveloping reflecting pool like a mirage. The White Chapel deserves its name, because in order to give a reading of unity and purity, the designers made every single surface of the chapel’s interior a brilliant white.

With an overall form reminiscent of the US Air Force Academy Cadet Chapel, the Hong Kong project juts up in a series of A-frames, a pyramid of white before a back drop of mountain, sea, and sky.

Of course, it’s easy to be elegant when you’re sticking with one color, but the use of form and views prevents this project from being boring. Far from it, it’s one of the most dynamic uses of white since the heady days of the New York Five. More photos after the jump!

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Believe it or not, some of modern architecture’s most storied white boxes were never meant to remain so white. While Adolf Loos was skirmishing with Vienna’s Secessionist architects and descrying the whipping, stylized vines of their nature-inspired ornament, his 1930 Villa Müller in Brno was designed to be partially concealed in actual, living vines. Like Loos, Mies van der Rohe intended for some of his plastered white facades to be covered in vegetation. Few have paused to contemplate how this affects modernism’s clean, hard-edged historiographies, but with all this in mind, Act Romegialli Architects’ renovation of a disused garage on the slopes of the Raethian Alps — which uses raw nature as its primary form of exterior ornament — can be considered quite modern. More after the jump.

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