London Goes Big While NYC Goes Small: Your Midweek Must-Reads

L: 22 Bishopsgate within the new London skyline, via theGuardian; R: Cardiff Interchange byFoster + Partners.

Glass Goliath: A new tower at 22 Bishopsgate is set to dwarf London’s eclectic array of existing skyscrapers, the Guardian reports. Oliver Wainwright writes that the broad-footed high-rise “will be inescapable from every angle, an urban cliff face that will change the capital’s profile forever.” Despite the disquiet, the vertical evolution of London’s corporate skyline continues unabated …

Cardiff Calling: On the other side of the UK, one of London’s most well-known firms has released images of its vision for the Welsh capital. Foster + Partners’ Cardiff Interchange will see a unification of the city’s transport infrastructure, along with offices, residential units, shops, cafes, and restaurants — all situated alongside the city’s iconic Millennium Stadium on the River Taff.

L: My Micro NY by nARCHITECTS, via Field Condition; R: The Orange County Government Center in Goshen, N.Y. Photo by Fred R. Conrad for the New York Times.

In Brief

Mini-Metropolis: New York City’s first modular micro-units have now been fully stacked at East 27th Street and 1st Avenue, and Field Condition has photographic proof. nARCHITECTS’ design incorporates 55 studio apartments, which should be ready for occupation later this year.

Oh My Goshen: The Timesreports that the State Supreme Court has cleared the way for the much-debated renovation of Paul Rudolph’s Orange County Government Center. Although the work on the brutalist icon is set to begin as early as today, its defenders have filed an appeal …

L: Kacper Chmielewski’s Architecture for Atheists, via Dezeen; R: Chand Boari Stepwell, via BLDGBLOG.

Seeing a Pattern Here …

Higher Academics: Hold on to your hats — the end-of-year show at the Bartlett School of Architecture in London is now open, with some typically subversive theories and extraordinary displays of graphic craft on display. This year’s highlights include Kacper Chmielewski’s “Architecture for Atheists,” which envisions an intricate urban fabric of nonreligious structures.

Indian Summer: Perhaps Chmielewksi was inspired by the captivating visual rhythms of India’s Chand Boari stepwell, which Geoff Manaugh of BLDGBLOG recently documented. The vast well is described as an epic “landslide of masonry, a sinkhole stabilized by stairs” — check out the fantastic photo collection here.

Non Sequitur

Cage Match: Meanwhile, back in Manhattan, Bloomberg investigates a lesser-known side of luxury: basement storage units that cost anywhere from $65,000 to nearly five times as much — more dollars per square foot than the actual apartment!