Joyful Friday! Below you’ll discover a handful of newsworthy odds-and-ends curated by the AN edit team to your end-of-week perusal.
And two necessary reminders as we wrap up the workweek: First, don’t forget to set back your clocks (hello again darkness) come 2 a.m. Sunday. And second, if early in-person voting is offered in your neck of the woods and also you haven’t already, please take the time this weekend to get your ballot in.
NYC Department of Buildings commissioner resigns as involvement in gambling probe involves light
Shortly after reports surfaced that he was questioned in an illegal gambling probe, Eric Ulrich, a former City Council member from Queens who serves as the present Recent York City Department of Buildings (DOB) commissioner, has stepped down from his post. He had been appointed to the role by Mayor Eric Adams this past May.
Along with being questioned, news reports published earlier this week revealed that Ulrich’s cellphone had also been confiscated as a part of the continued investigation led by the Manhattan District Attorney’s Office into his possible ties to organized crime and illegal gambling related to Aldo’s, a pizzeria within the Ozone Park section of Queens. (For what’s value, the pies look pretty decent based on Yelp reviews.)
“This morning, Eric Ulrich tendered his resignation as DOB commissioner in an effort to, in his words, avoid ‘unnecessary distraction for the Adams administration,’” said City Hall spokesman Fabien Levy said in a press release shared by Gothamist. “We’ve got accepted his resignation, appreciate him taking this step, and need him well. We’ve got no further knowledge of any investigation and, out of respect for his and his family’s privacy, don’t have anything further so as to add.”
Ulrich’s exact role within the probe will not be known although sources talking to the Recent York Times said that it pertains to activities that took place before he joined the Adams administration. As detailed by Gothamist, Ulrich, a Republican, has made local headlines previously regarding gambling.
The DOB’s First Deputy Commissioner Kazimir Vilenchik, also a recent Adams appointee, will function acting commissioner following the resignation of Ulrich. City Hall has said that the DA investigation and Ulrich’s resignation is not going to impact day-to-day business of the DOB, a large city agency employing greater than 2,000 employees that enforces constructing and zoning code regulations, issues constructing permits, responds to structural emergencies, and way more.
H/t to Gothamist, Recent York Times
RIBA names Valerie Vaughan-Dick as recent chief executive following exit of Alan Vallance
The Royal Institute of British Architects (RIBA) has announced that Valerie Vaughn-Dick, who currently serves as chief operating officer on the Royal College of General Practitioners, will step into the role of chief executive starting in the brand new yr. Vaughn-Dick replaces Allan Vallance, who announced he can be stepping down in April to hitch the Chartered Insurance Institute. Vallance had served as chief executive of since 2016 and guided RIBA through what proved to be a turbulent period—one complete with financial woes, presidential scandals, geopolitical upheavals, and, after all, the pandemic—for the 188-year-old skilled organization, whose members elected a recent president, Muyiwa Oki, in August.
Said Vaughan-Dick:
“I’m delighted to be joining RIBA at such an exciting time in its development and to being a part of the transition to a good simpler business, where sustainability is top of the agenda. On this post-pandemic and financially difficult era, the industry needs an agile and dynamic membership body to supply leadership and support on the problems that matter most to the career and the general public. I look ahead to working with the Board, Council and the expert staff team to assist deliver RIBA’s ambitious plans and be certain that RIBA members are appropriately represented, and their contributions widely recognised.”
Adrian Dobson and Pamela Harding have served as interim CEOs following Vallance’s surprise departure and can hand over the reins to Vaughan-Dick on January 9. Along with naming its recent chief executive this week, RIBA also named Robbie Turner as its recent director of diversity and inclusion. Turner replaces Marsha Ramroop, who resigned in March and was the primary person to serve in that role at RIBA.
The Los Angeles Times to bid adieu to downtown printing plant
The Olympic Boulevard printing plant in Downtown Los Angeles that has served as home (in recent times the leased home) to the Los Angeles Times’ manufacturing operations for the reason that late Nineteen Eighties shall be shuttered at the tip of next yr with plans to rework the 26-acre site into—not an enormous surprise here—a soundstage complex for film and tv production. The lease held by the Times on the sprawling property expires at the tip 2023. In a year-and-a-half, the paper will begin printing at a recent facility in partnership with the Southern California News Group. Per the Times, 170 employees currently work on the Olympic printing plant; newsroom operations and the paper’s print schedule will reportedly not be impacted by the forthcoming production shift.
“We’ve got had a long-term lease in place, but multiple aspects prevent us from continuing to print at [Olympic], including a dramatically modified real estate market, declining volume of printing and the owner’s intention to redevelop the property,” explained Chris Argentieri, president and chief operating officer of the L.A. Times. “The pandemic accelerated these trends.”
The Olympic facility was purchased in 2019 for $240 million by Recent York–based Atlas Capital Group. Last yr, the developer revealed its plans to convert the property right into a film and tv production hub, complete with 17 soundstages. That development is anticipated to finish in 2016.
Currently based in town of El Segundo, the LA Times is owned by billionaire biotech investor Patrick Soon-Shiong, who acquired the esteemed, 141-year-old publication in 2018 from Tribune Publishing Company (formerly TRONC, Inc.)
Massive tunnel beneath Niagara falls now open for tours
For the primary time in history, a virtually 2,200-foot-long tunnel buried deep beneath Niagara Falls (on the Canadian side) can now be explored by the general public as part a tour launched this past summer that offers visitors an inside glimpse of the decommissioned Niagara Parks Power Station. Per CNN, the facility station was in operation from 1905 until 2006 and stays the world’s only fully intact hydroelectric plant of its era.
Considering that the tunnel is buried 180 feet underground, Niagara Parks recommends bundling up appropriately and donning comfortable footwear. While the large, century-plus-old tunnel itself serves because the foremost attraction, at the tip of the cavernous space a recent viewing platform has also been constructed, offering guests “unprecedented access to a recent perspective of the lower Niagara River with unparalleled views of each the Horseshoe and American Falls.” Visitors will descend to the tunnel its spray-tastic recent platform via a glass-walled elevator, which can also be sure to be a well-liked draw inside itself.
More info on the tour and tunnel will be found here.
H/t to CNN
Cornell AAP launches recent, Recent York City-based degree program in Advanced Urban Design
Cornell University’s College of Architecture, Art, and Planning (AAP) has introduced a Master of Science, Advanced Urban Design program (M.S. AUD) on the Gensler Family AAP NYC Center in Manhattan. Described as offering a “specialized course of study on the intersection of urban systems, ecologies, technologies, and data with a purpose to ask big questions, to handle contemporary wicked problems, and to invigorate public realms,” the intensive design research program is directed by Jesse LeCavalier and supported by Cornell AAP faculty energetic in NYC and on the Gensler Center.
The M.S. AUD is designated as a STEM program in Architectural and Constructing Sciences/Technology, and is open to those holding knowledgeable Bachelor of Architecture degree, knowledgeable Master of Architecture degree, or knowledgeable degree in adjoining design fields. Students with skilled or terminal degrees in related design fields may also be considered. As noted on this system page, the M.S. AUD “supports citizen-urbanists all in favour of making a difference through design in pursuit of latest types of engaged spatial practice” and graduates “shall be agents of urban change, equipped with advanced skills and with expanded knowledge to use those skills in meaningful ways.”
More info will be found here.