6 must reads for the AEC industry today: September 16, 2020

1. REI sells new, unused HQ to Facebook (BD+C)
"The facility, which focused on blending inside space with outdoors space, featured courtyards, bridges, open park space, large operable windows and garage doors, and reclaimed wood all meant to promote a healthy lifestyle for employees."

2. Adjaye Associates will design The Africa Institute in Sharjah, United Arab Emirates (BD+C)
"The design will create an enclosed 343,175-sf campus with five wings between four and seven stories each, connected by a series of open-air interior courtyards that span the entire ground floor and feature fountains and landscaping with native plants."

3. Taller timber buildings approved in National Fire Protection Association code (BD+C)
"The new code is the result of a three-year process to review mass timber. Several NFPA Technical Committees with responsibility for building construction provisions developed new tall mass timber provisions."

4. Campus libraries are leaping into the future (GBBN)
"Inexperienced users think they know what academic libraries can offer. Chances are, newly arriving (and even existing) students at your institution are unaware of the vast amount of information and resources available to them through the campus library."

5. Facebook Campus Hotel a Bet on Bright Future for Business Travel (Bloomberg via National Real Estate Investor)
"A Dutch lodging brand backed by Singapore’s sovereign wealth fund plans to open tech-forward boutique hotels across the United States."

6. Most expensive stadium ever built debuts in LA without fans (Bisnow)
"The NFL's largest stadium was unveiled this week without much fanfare to match its scale and sky-high price tag. Inglewood Mayor James T. Butts, Los Angeles Chargers owner Dean Spanos and Los Angeles Rams owner and billionaire developer Stan Kroenke held a virtual ribbon-cutting ceremony Tuesday celebrating the opening of SoFi Stadium and Hollywood Park, a 298-acre sports and entertainment development in Los Angeles County privately funded by Rams ownership. The project is estimated to have a $5B price tag and is believed to be the most expensive such venture in history."

The Architectural Billings Index measures the general sentiment of U.S. architecture firms about the health of the construction market by measuring 1) design billings and 2) design contracts. Any score above 50 means that, among the architecture firms surveyed, more firms than not reported seeing increases in design work vs. the previous month.