The central Fresno house that famed Armenian-American author William Saroyan lived in for the last 17 years of his life is in foreclosure and headed to auction in May. The simple stucco tract home at 2729 W. Griffith Way, just west of Cooper Middle School, has had three different owners since Saroyan's death in 1981 and has fallen into foreclosure twice, according to Fresno County public property records. Neighbor Ernie Baca said the house has been used as a rental for years and attracted squatters. Today, the home, which bears a plaque honoring the Oscar and Pulitzer Prize winning author, is empty with some windows boarded up and foreclosure notices hanging on the screen door. Documents show Saroyan's home was purchased by the current owners in 2006. Baca says since then the place has slowly deteriorated. He says a new tenant moved in every year and now squatters are taking over. For a place on the city of Fresno's historic registry, there was hope better care would be taken. The small, 114 square meters house was built in 1964. It has three bedrooms and one bathroom. When Saroyan owned it and the house just west of it, fruit trees and weeds grew around the property. Saroyan would pay Baca US$ 30 to water the trees and the weeds when he was away, Baca said with a chuckle. The house was rough like Saroyan who was scruffy with a long mustache, he said. The Saroyan house is on the local register of historic resources. The plaque, which lists 10 pieces of Saroyan's work written while living in the house, was installed in 1989. NBS Default Services, LLC, of Long Beach is handling the foreclosure. The house is scheduled to be auctioned off at 10 a.m. May 5 at the Fresno County Courthouse.

As part of the memory of the 100th anniversary of the Armenian Genocide the Armenian Genocide Museum opened its doors. Reconstruction works began in 2011. The total are of museum is 2.5 thousand square meters and now it has 12 display rooms instead of previous 3. For the first in Armenia were employed a new technologies, design approaches and solutions which widely are used in world's museums common practices. Today the permanent collection includes thousands of new exhibits found and purchased in the last 7-8 years. Some are presented in printed form, others by means of projectors and touch screens. There are unique photographs, books. The exhibition consists of 52 main sections and there are more than 90 thousand exhibits there, the largest collection in the world on Armenian Genocide. The Tsitsernakaberd Genocide Memorial, the Museum and the adjoining areas renovation and reconstruction works were funded by Tsitsernakaberd charitable foundation and cost US$ 4,5 million. The chairman of the Board of Trustees is President of RA Serzh Sargsyan.

One of Britain's top entrepreneurs has unveiled a new plan to build London's most expensive block of flats in Mayfair. "Audley Square House" is being billed as Britain's first US$ 3 billion apartment block. The previous records belonged to private projects One Hide Park and 199 Knightsbridge, which construction costs were US$ 2.2 billion. According to British publication Daily Mail John Caudwell, the founder of Phones4U, bought the five-story Audley Street garage in Mayfair, central London for US$ 230 million in order to knock it down and build a high-end housing complex. At first the site has consent for a nearly US$ 450 million scheme by Foster & Partners but John Caudwell has since added an extra building to the plot. After ditching the Foster's scheme he interviewed 30 "leading architects from around the world" before appointing New York-based Stern for its "ability to design high-quality buildings that do not stand apart from their surroundings but rather fit in comfortably amongst their neighbors". The 18,500 square meters scheme, known as "Audley Square House", will be 9 stories above ground, capped by large penthouses and duplexes, plus 5 underground - including 2 levels of car parking, plant and a leisure center. Each townhouse and penthouse will have its own gym and swimming pool, while the penthouses will have dedicated lifts to ensure their owners' privacy. The development's communal facilities will include a 15-meter swimming pool, a business center for holding meetings, a gym, spa and cinema and games room. At the first of April plans for the ambitious complex were submitted to Westminster Council. But as mentioned Becky Fatemi, director of Rokstone estate agents during her interview to Daily Mail, powerful locals might not be happy with the years of building works which would be likely to ensue in the area. The neighbors are powerful and include the Embassy of Qatar, the Dorchester Hotel and very wealthy apartment owners who will expect the site construction to be managed to the highest levels to ensure no noise or construction impact and they will expect constantly clean roads.

How cool would it be to tell people you live inside of a wind turbine? Designed for the port city of Rotterdam, the Dutch "Windwheel" is a concept for a sustainable landmark that would be able to house 72 apartments within a circular steel and glass frame, while also serving as a silent, motionless wind turbine. In addition to harvesting energy from the wind, the structure would be equipped with facilities to capture rainwater, recycle tap water and also produce biogas from the residents' organic waste. The "Windwheel" is composed of two rings built on an underground foundation and surrounded by wetlands so as to give the structure the appearance of floating. The outer ring houses 40 rotating cabins to provide visitors with impressive views of Rotterdam-much as the London Eye does in the UK. The inner ring houses 72 apartments, 160 hotel rooms, and commercial outlets and is topped off with a restaurant. Perhaps the most striking detail of the 174 meter tall "Windwheel", other than its appearance, is the turbine that fills the inner ring of the building. The electrostatic wind energy converter (EWICON) is a technology that was developed at TU Delft and converts wind energy with a framework of steel tubes into electricity without moving mechanical parts. This means no noise and much easier maintenance. Within the interior of the massive ringed structure would be a set of steel tubes ringed with electrodes, sort of like a tennis racket. Sprayers would then emit charged water particles, and electricity would be generated when the wind pushes these particles past the electrodes. According to architect Duzan Doepel of Doepel Strijkers, the firm designing the project, the idea is to create an icon like the London Eye that will both attract tourists and showcase cutting-edge technology. He expects they may be able to finish the structure within five to six years, and estimates suggest it may attract up to 1.5 million visitors a year. The proposed "Windwheel" is also equipped with solar PVs and a climactic facade to make the best use of natural resources. The building's water usage is also carefully managed, with rainwater captured atop the structure, and tap water fed into the wetlands that surround the "Windwheel". Furthermore, biogas is also produced from the residents' waste.

Recently Korean architects presented the new hotel project which will host the Winter Olympic Games 2018. The green terrace-lined design snakes in cascading curves that form an infinity shape. The new hotel will be located in Gangneung in Eastern Korea in a prime position for tourism. The resort itself is within approximately 5 kilometers from Olympic stadiums and facilities in the area, most of which are due for completion in 2016. The building, designed by the Seoul architectural firm "Planning Korea", looks like a three-dimensional infinity sign or volume Mobius strip. Architectures also mentioned that the sweeping figure-eight form of the resort draws inspiration from the ecological structure of the plankton, and references the project's conceptual basis of "a strip of healing or recreation." The twisted loop forms the predominant circulation space of the structure, whilst also providing a substantial space frame upon which a glass facade will be mounted. Offering 946 rooms and sprawling across nearly a 30 thousand square meters site, the hotel will offer a combination of marine and mountain leisure activities. The hotel will also feature a swimming pool suspended in a "belt" linking the building's dual cores. Rooftop sky facilities will adorn the hotel's top level, while LED lights at lower levels create a media facade. Approaching ground level the structure assumes a form evocative of Korean traditional housing, the Hanok. Planning Korea hope to "form a village" using these modernized versions of the traditional typology, interspersing restaurants and retail outlets in their midst. It is envisioned that the resort will allow "activities, recreation and healing within the nature" during the 2018 Winter Olympics, after which point it will be used for conventions and other events.