Photo courtesy Starwood Hotels

Beijing-based firm MAD Architects has been on a roll—in fact, if you remember correctly, they made our list of the top five firms that kicked ass in 2012. We were particularly impressed with their recently completed Absolute Towers, whose curving silhouettes add a little sex appeal to the Mississauga skyline. (Never heard of Mississauga? It’s a city located just outside of Toronto.)

Well, just as we predicted, MAD’s wining streak continues—and so does their penchant for wild, attention-grabbing architecture. As Curbed.com reports, the firm has just completed the new, $1.5-billion Sheraton Huzhou Hot Springs Resort in Zhejiang Province, China. Described as a glowing horseshoe—or maybe a half-finished Stargate—the building is one of 30 (!!) hotels that the hospitality giant plans to open this year in the Asia-Pacific region. Click through to see more images!

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For those lollygaggers out there who haven’t yet entered the A+ Awards, get on it! There are ample reasons why it’s well worth your time—including getting some serious media exposure. Of course, we’ll be featuring the finalists and winners on our own site, viewed by millions each month. We also have partnerships with the Wall Street Journal, Huffington Post, GOOD, and Cool Hunting.

If that’s not enough, consider this: Your work will be judged by a number of esteemed journalists from international publications! Click through to see the editors, writers, and photographers who are serving on the A+ Awards jury.

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Last August the Dennis Hopper compound in California, which consisted of three Frank Gehry-designed loft spaces, finally sold after spending nearly two years on the market. Last month one of the three condos, nicknamed “the three little pigs”, was listed for rent, and swooped up fast, too! Now, Curbed reports that the other two Gehry structures have turned up on Craigslist. Read more.

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“To the degree that there are problems in architectural practice in America, they are self-inflicted. Architecture is largely irrelevant to the great mass of the world’s population because architects have chosen to be.”

– Designer Bruce Mau, in this month’s issue of Architect magazine. Mau’s essay “You Can Do Better” is, as Curbed LA points out, inflaming the commenters (all, presumably, architects) with its plea to quit whining and get to work.

So what sets Mau “on fire,” exactly? That would be: “The cynicism and navel-gazing that infect the field of architecture at this moment—the whining malaise and never-ending complaints of powerlessness and economic hardship and marginalization and irrelevance and on, and on, and on.”

Them’s fightin’ words! But he may have a point.

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So the story goes: Roman & Williams designed the interiors of the fantastic Standard Hotel in New York City’s Meatpacking district for Andre Balázs, while the building itself was architect-ed by Todd Schliemann/Polshek Partnership (now known as Ennead).

Somewhere along the line, “people,” including Vanity Fair’s Matt Tyrnauer, gave cred to another designer, claiming that Shawn Hausman designed the interiors (though R&W are also credited). Roman & Williams = NOT HAPPY.

Robin Standefer and Stephen Alesh of R&W sent an angry letter to Curbed aiming to give credit where credit is due. A section of the letter reads (along with hilarious Curbed-style photo of a 1920’s style boxer with dukes up the middle of a Standard interior):

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Joey at Curbed just posted this great article about Architizer and other than the comparison to porn fiends, we could not agree more. It is time for Architects to harness the power of the internet to improve the profession and speak to the world.

Architizer: Porn fiends, book lovers and Norwegians all have their own social networking sites, so why not architects? Well, now they’ve got one! It’s Architizer, which not only is a Facebook for architects, but also allows individuals and firms to share info on projects and, you know, find jobs and stuff. Some folks at cool firms have already signed up, but unfortunately you can’t friend Karl Fischer. Yet.

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Marissa Gluck at Curbed LA wrote this nice piece about Architizer:

“Get Poked By Rem Koolhaas“

“Facebook is, like, sooo September 2009. If you’re an architect, there’s a new social network in town: Architizer. According to Metropolis mag, a couple of starchitecture firms have already joined, including Archi-Tectonics, Steven Holl Architects, and OMA, as well as a bunch of lesser known firms. So far the site seems light on the LA architects, but we did notice Tom Kovac Architecture, INABA, and Touraine Richmond Architects representing the Left Coast. [Metropolis]”

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