What’s Happening: A decade-long effort to replace a deteriorating viaduct across the Los Angeles River has culminated in a dramatically undulating new bridge designed by local firm Michael Maltzan Architecture. It’s both the largest bridge in the city’s history and an unmistakable landmark within the city’s low-slung skyline.

The Download: This past weekend, Michael Maltzan revealed his architecture firm’s most visible project yet—and one hoping to transform how Angelenos view and approach infrastructure. The city pulled up the curtain on the 3,500-foot-long Sixth Street Viaduct, designed with infrastructure engineers HNTB. Also called the “Ribbon of Light” for its colorful nighttime LEDS, the structure’s gently undulating concrete arches swoop across rail lines, the 101 Freeway, and the Los Angeles River to connect the Arts District with Boyle Heights near downtown. Its pattern is both poetic and playful—not unlike that left by a pebble skipping across water.

The Sixth Street Viaduct is the culmination of a decade-long effort to replace an irreparably deteriorating concrete bridge—a vintage overpass shaped by the City Beautiful movement that opened in time for L.A.’s first Olympic Games in 1932. Its notable side-by-side arches became a symbol of L.A., backdropping the action in films like Grease and Terminator. Over time, the bridge slowly succumbed to sand penetrating the concrete and producing a degenerative alkali-silica reaction—described as a “cancer”—that caused severe cracking and compromised its structural integrity. That doesn’t fly in earthquake-prone L.A., so the city’s Bureau of Engineering demolished the bridge in 2016.

Preservationists vied for a faithful reconstruction, but Maltzan and HNTB’s dynamic concept nods to the original while elevating both its architectural gestures and accessibility. Adorning its tilting concrete arches are glowing LEDs visible from miles away, making the bridge a luminous civic beacon. They light up the newly created pedestrian sidewalks and bicycle paths, which are accessible by five stairways and a giant ADA-compliant helical ramp. A park by landscape architects Hargreaves Jones is taking shape underneath.

The bridge can also transform into a public gathering place, and was designed to bear a load of 90 pounds per square foot—or 23 million pounds total—for events. (Proof of concept: the grand opening ceremony this past weekend, which featured two days of live music and scores of food trucks, attracted 15,000 enthusiastic Angelenos.) Most importantly, it can withstand a 9.0 earthquake, which scientists predict happens once per millennium.

Some are already touting the Sixth Street Viaduct’s massive concrete arches as an irrefutable L.A. landmark, on par with the Hollywood sign or Chris Burden’s Urban Light at LACMA. While its longevity in the city’s collective consciousness beyond opening-day excitement remains to be seen, those early comparisons are stoking concerns that a flashy new amenity may galvanize further gentrification in Boyle Heights, a working-class Latino neighborhood fighting to retain its character. Directly across the river is the Arts District, which is undergoing a rapid transformation as luxury residential, hotel, and office projects by Herzog & de Meuron and Bjarke Ingels Group are taking shape.

In Their Own Words: “Part of the brief was to replace one icon with another,” Maltzan tells Architectural Record, “but this was also a chance to create a true civic space, not just a means of getting from point A to point B.”

Surface Says: The Ribbon of Light is an example of a major infrastructure project done right, elevating its surroundings while serving a broader purpose of bringing people together.

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Carved into a cliffside in Crete’s Mononaftis Bay, Acro Suites is a stunning new getaway that blends in with its natural surroundings. A labor of love for hotelier sisters Danae and Konstantina Orfanake, the resort is an ode to Greek craft. Designed with the Athens-based Utopia Hotel Design and Manos Kipritidis, the 49 earthy-toned suites and villas are outfitted with marble furniture crafted by local artisans, stone excavated on-site, and private saltwater pools overlooking the Aegean Sea. The wellness program is a standout thanks to a Byzantine hammam and Finnish sauna at the spa, and a sprawling yoga studio with an arching bamboo roof.

When: Until July 30

Where: Roberts Projects, Los Angeles

What: Geerk’s evocative canvases are defined by a selective use of color and psychologically charged themes. His current show features his Beach Couples series, along with works that explore desire and attachment against a backdrop of moody coastal ambience.

Brooklyn-based designer David Weeks has established his name as a creator of sculptural light fixtures with a modern point of view. Weeks also collaborates with leading cultural institutions and fellow designers who share his appreciation of lighting as a study of form. In the designer’s latest collaboration with U.K. studio Tala, the Echo Chandelier stands out. The Echo collection, which also includes floor and table lamps, proved to be “an exercise in balancing irregularity,” Weeks says.

Part of the designer’s larger Echo collection for Tala, the chandelier is the brand’s first single suspension ceiling light and is defined by its distinct geometry. Intersecting steel cylinders are powder-coated in a muted white finish and rounded out by Tala’s Sphere IV LED bulbs that resemble a bouquet of cheery balloons. The piece highlights Weeks’s talent for creating balance in the asymmetrical silhouettes he so favors. “Asymmetry is achieved by working backward, starting at the end. The result is off-kilter but wholly balanced,” Weeks says of his approach.

Quayside may have been doomed from the outset. A high-tech neighborhood that was slated to rise along Toronto’s waterfront, Quayside was the brainchild of Sidewalk Labs, the urban innovation arm of Google parent company Alphabet. Projected to create 44,000 jobs and $14.2 billion annually in GDP for Canada, the interconnected smart city would’ve housed residents in 12 timber high-rises designed by Snøhetta and Heatherwick Studio and with amenities such as robo-taxis, heated sidewalks, and autonomous garbage collection.

But locals quickly raised concerns about the project’s privacy implications and painted a grim picture of a company galvanizing economic development for the benefit of Silicon Valley rather than Canada. How much data would Sidewalk Labs mine, and how would it be used?

Years of heated public debate cast shadows over Quayside’s feasibility until, in May 2020, Sidewalk Labs CEO Daniel Doctoroff penned a letter on Medium announcing the project would no longer go forward. The pandemic had made it “too difficult to make the 12-acre project financially viable without sacrificing core parts of the plan … to build a truly inclusive, sustainable community,” he wrote. The Canadian Civil Liberties Association called the project’s demise “a victory for privacy and democracy.”

Founded by David Rockwell, FAIA, Rockwell Group is a cross-disciplinary architecture and design firm that emphasizes innovation and thought leadership in every project. Based in New York with a satellite office in Madrid, projects include Union Square Cafe, The Shed (Diller Scofidio + Renfro in collaboration with Rockwell Group), NeueHouse, and the TED Theater.

Surface Says: Rockwell Group deeply understands theatre as much as it does architecture, and the firm’s immersive environments capture the imagination. Whether designing a Broadway set, a restaurant, or a hotel, David Rockwell and his team combine technological know-how with design thinking, creating spectacular spaces and places.

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