The Garage Center for Contemporary Culture – a non-profit international arts space based in Moscow founded by Daria Zhukova – has unveiled plans for a new building in Gorky Park. Designed by OMA, Garage Gorky Park will renovate the famous 1960s Vremena Goda (Seasons of the Year) restaurant, a prefabricated concrete structure that has been derelict for more than two decades. Garage is expected to complete and occupy this 5,400-square-meter building sometime next year, with plans to later expand to the nearby Hexagon pavilion (or Machine Pavilion).

Rem Koolhaas: “We were able, with our client and her team, to explore the qualities of generosity, dimension, openness, and transparency of the Soviet wreckage and find new uses and interpretations for them; it also enabled us to avoid the exaggeration of standards and scale that is becoming an aspect of contemporary art spaces.”

Continue after the break for more.

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Metro officials have released six conceptual visions that suggest how the historic Los Angeles Union Station could be transformed by 2050. Preliminary “Vision Boards” were released in a public forum at Union Station last week, and although they are not part of the formal evaluation process, they have ignited an immense amount of public interest in the competition.

In an article posted on The Source, Los Angeles Mayor and Metro Board Chair Antonio Villaraigosa described that this competition is “about preparing for the future.” As plans for the California High-Speed Rail System evolve, it is imperative that Union Station is redeveloped to meet the standards of a 21st century transportation hub.

Continue after the break to view each Vision Board provided by the six well-known practices shortlisted for the competition.

Aerial photographer Jason Hawkes captures London’s hazy skyline in both day and night. Although still under construction, The Shard appears to already dwarf most to the city. The building is designed by Renzo Piano and is slated to become the tallest in Europe. In addition, Norman Foster’s infamous Gherkin, formally known as the Swiss Re Building, is instantly recognizable in nearly every frame as it is a landmark within the dense metropolis.

With the installation of a girder on the 100th floor, the One World Trade Center has become the tallest building in New York. Currently standing at 1,271 feet (387m) tall, the “Freedom Tower” has surpassed the 1,250 foot Empire State Building. Designed by Skidmore, Owings & Merrill, the One World Trade Center will become the tallest building in the US and the third tallest in the world upon completion.

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SADAR + VUGA, in collaboration with LENS°ASS Architecten, has been selected as winner of an invited competition to design three new buildings on the Campus Schoonmeersen of the University College Ghent in Belgium. The campus development master plan will include a new building for the Study of Social Work (SOAG), a Sports Hall Extension and the Renovation of Building B that includes the adjoining Student Plaza. This highly anticipated project is expected to commence in late May. Continue after the break to learn more about each new facility.

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Filmed back in 2009, this TED Talk by Daniel Libeskind has yet to diminish in popularity. Once a free-verse poet, an opera set designer and a virtuoso musician, Libeskind has evolved into an internationally-renowned architect with an illustrious style that has been praised and criticized by many. In just seventeen words, Libeskind describes what inspires his unique approach to architecture. Believing that optimism is what drives architecture forward, he begins by stating, “Architecture is not based on concrete and steel and the elements of the soil. It’s based on wonder.”

Enjoy the talk and continue after the break to review Libeskind’s seventeen words of architectural inspiration.

Just two years after its opening, the Maxxi Museum in Rome is threatened with closure. The country’s current economic crisis has resulted in major cuts in cultural funding, causing a great deal of stress on the arts. As BD reports, earlier this month the museum was told that the government’s contribution to its €11 million budget would fall to less than €2 million for 2012. Now, as the museum officials failed to set a budget for 2013, the government has reportedly begun proceedings to put the high-profile museum under special administration.

Designed by Zaha Hadid Architects, the 2010 Stirling Prize winning national art and architecture museum has attracted more than 450,000 visitors per year. Hadid has described the museum’s success as “remarkable”, as it quickly built a prestigious, international reputation within the world of contemporary art.

In 2011, the Russian Federation Council confirmed that the city of Moscow will annex 150,000 hectares to the southwest in order to overcome its chronic space problems, making Moscow 2.4 times larger than its current size. The expansion is designed to relieve pressure on the over-populated, historic city center by redistributing the working places to the annexed part of the Moscow Oblast, thus addressing transport, ecological and social issues that result from high levels of commuting.

Before Moscow’s new administrative borders come into force this July, the Council invited 10 teams to develop the concept of the Moscow Agglomeration. OMA has been announced as winner of the competition’s first round that focused on a plan for the Moscow Agglomeration as a whole.

Continue reading for more on OMA’s Moscow City Agglomeration Development Concept.

Steven Holl Architects have just unveiled Virginia Commonwealth University’s new Institute for Contemporary Art. With an inviting sense of openness, the building will form a gateway into the University, linking the city of Richmond to the campus. A dynamic architectural promenade will connect the building’s most important spaces, engaging visitors in a variety of changing perspectives. Flexible spaces throughout the building will be capable of accommodating a vast assortment of exhibitions and performances.

Continue after the break for more images and the architect’s project description.

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Construction is underway for the new Datong Art Museum in China, designed by Foster + Partners. Referred to as China’s ‘Museum of the 21st Century’, the 32,000-square-meter venue will be one of four major new buildings within Datong New City’s cultural plaza. The museum will open in 2013 and represent China in the ‘Beyond the Building’ Basel Art international tour.

Luke Fox, a senior partner at Foster + Partners stated, “We are delighted to reveal designs for the new museum and look forward to working with the city to take the project to the next stage. When complete, Datong’s new quarter will be the center of the city’s cultural life, with the new museum as its ‘urban room’ – a dynamic space, open to everyone to meet and enjoy its different displays and activities.”

Continue after the break for more on the Datong Art Museum.

Soon to be the tallest building in China, the 632-meter Shanghai Tower is beginning to take shape. Located in the center of the Pudong district, the tower will become the centerpiece of the city’s international financial district. The transparent, mixed-use building will work as a “self-contained city”, housing 550,000 square-meters of world-class office, hotel, entertainment, retail and cultural venues. It is designed to achieve both LEED Gold certification and a China Green Building Three Star rating.

Global powerhouse Gensler won the Shanghai Tower commission in an invited multi-stage competition among many other leading international architects. Upon completion, the Shanghai Tower will be the second tallest building in the world, behind the 828-meter Burj Khalifa in Dubai.

Continue after the break for more information and the latest construction images.

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Rotterdam-based practice WEST 8, together with the local architects of IROJE, have been announced winner of the International Competition for Master Plan of Yongsan Park, Korea. The Ministry of Land, Transport and Maritime Affairs of the Republic of Korea organized the competition with the intention to create a “national park in which nature, culture, history and the future come in harmony.” Located in a large area in the center of Seoul, the circa 243 ha site has been in use as a military base for an extensive period both during the Japanese occupation and under post-war American protection.

Continue reading for more information on the Yongsan Park competition.

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Boxy replicas of high-end offices dominate New York’s Park Avenue skyline, with only two modernist exceptions breaking the mold – Mies van der Rohe’s Seagram Building and Skidmore, Owings & Merrill’s Lever House. As the static skyline has remained largely untouched for nearly four decades, New York City developer L&L Holding Co. has announced plans to replace the aging tower of 425 Park Avenue with a new state-of-the-art, LEED-certified skyscraper. Norman Foster, Jean Nouvel, Zaha Hadid and Richard Meier are just a few of the eleven distinguished architects that L&L has invited to join in a competition for the redevelopment of the 65 year-old tower.

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Located to the north-east of Crowley, a small town in Louisiana known to be the “Rice Capital of America”, the Acadia Parish Conference Center by Trahan Architects will mediate the threshold between the urban development to the west and the agricultural fields to the east. Envisioned as an extension of the landscape, the center creates a harmonic balance between the two environments, expressing the importance of local agricultural.

Continue after the break for more on the Acadia Parish Conference Center.

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The American Institute of Architects (AIA) and its Committee on the Environment (COTE) have selected the top ten examples of sustainable architecture and green design solutions. Now in its 16th year, the COTE Top Ten Green Projects program is one of the profession’s best known recognition program for sustainable design excellence.

The highlighted projects are the result of a thoroughly integrated approach to architecture, natural systems and technology. They have made a positive contribution to their communities, improved comfort for building occupants and reduced environmental impacts through strategies such as reuse of existing structures, connection to transit systems, low-impact and regenerative site development, energy and water conservation, use of sustainable or renewable construction materials, and design that improves indoor air quality.

All the projects will be honored at the AIA 2012 National Convention and Design Exposition, next month in Washington, D.C. Continue after the break to review the top ten green projects.

As we have shared with you earlier, CNN’s The Next List has profiled the young, Danish architect Bjarke Ingels. Originally aspired to be a cartoonist or graphic novelist, Ingels quickly became fascinated with architecture when a Fall storm rolled through his hometown in North Copenhagen, knocking over trees and leaving him a surplus of lumber. It was then that he was inspired to design his first project, the ultimate childhood “fantasy fort” with a moat, drawbridge and all. In Ingels first experience with value engineering, he quickly learned that “unless you really begin with the perimeters of reality you’ll end up sort of amputating your ambitions quite quickly.” Enjoy the video and be sure to check out CNN’s recent video focusing on the bold ideas behind BIG.