The New York Times building uses fritted glass clad with rods, which make its facade more visible to birds. Photograph: Daniel Slim/AFP/Getty Images

Birds fall victim to carelessly designed buildings. Bravo to the New York Times for building a bird-friendly HQ. Also to the Guardian for reporting on their competitor’s leadership, and on the architects leading the way with careful design:

Buildings kill a billion US birds a year. These architects want to save them

Highly transparent glass can lead to devastating collisions. But innovations in design are creating safer skylines – without sacrificing beauty

Chicago’s Aqua Tower was designed with birds in mind. Photograph: Radomir Rezny/Alamy

Chicago’s 82-story Aqua Tower appears to flutter with the wind. Its unusual, undulating facade has made it one of the most unique features of Chicago’s skyline, distinct from the many right-angled glass towers that surround it.

In designing it, the architect Jeanne Gang thought not only about how humans would see it, dancing against the sky, but also how it would look to the birds who fly past. The irregularity of the building’s face allows birds to see it more clearly and avoid fatal collisions. “It’s kind of designed to work for both humans and birds,” she said.

A green roof on the Javits Convention Center serves as a sanctuary for birds. Photograph: David Sundberg/Courtesy of Dan Piselli

As many as 1 billion birds in the US die in building collisions each year. And Chicago, which sits along the Mississippi Flyway, one of the four major north-south migration routes, is among the riskiest places for birds. This year, at least 1,000 birds died in one day from colliding with a single glass-covered building. Continue reading →