Kelly Minner
Gehry Technologies to Transform the Building Industry through Technology
Update: The AIA has expressed their support for Gehry Technologies’ strategic alliance (reported last night on ArchDaily). “We applaud this enterprise by Gehry Technologies and the Board who are comprised of many AIA members because it is estimated that as much as 30% to as much as 50% of all time, money, materials and resources that go into a construction project do not add value to the final product,” said AIA President, Clark Manus, FAIA. “The AIA has long been advocating for tools such as Business Information Modeling and methodologies like Integrated Project Delivery that can help reduce the inefficiencies in construction projects. We are anxious to see the progress though this effort that will be beneficial for both the industry and clients.”
Today Frank Gehry, co-founder and chairman of Gehry Technologies (GT), announced plans to further his vision to ‘transform the building industry and the practice of design’. In an effort to redirect the profession back to solving both clients’ and communities’ problems Gehry has gathered together some of the world’s most prominent designers: David Childs, Massimo Colomban, Zaha Hadid, Greg Lynn, Laurie Olin, Wolf D. Prix, David Rockwell, Moshe Safdie, Matthias Schuler, Patrik Schumacher, Ben van Berkel, and Richard Saul Wurman to serve on Gehry Technologies’ board of advisors.
“I am dedicated to giving architects better control of the process so they can deliver the fruits of their imagination, which is what our clients expect. I have gathered a group of my friends together who believe in this mission as much as I do and who can help me find the solutions that will ultimately lead to better buildings throughout the world,” stated Gehry.
Gehry’s Eisenhower Memorial up for Debate
Pritzker Prize architect Frank Gehry’s designs are not shy to controversy, however the monumental significance of this design has raised the Gehry debate to an even higher level. The winning design of the GSA Design Excellence Program competition that began in 2008, Gehry Partners were chosen from forty-four design firms, then narrowed down to four finalists at which time the panel evaluated previous work, conducted interviews, and responses to the memorial’s pre-design program.
Upon selection Gehry Partners provided 3 options for the Eisenhower Memorial Commission to choose from and the final design was unanimously selected in March 2010 and featured here on ArchDaily. However since the initial design was revealed it has been met with debate, including a competition hosted by the National Civic Art Society this past spring inviting classical architects to submit alternative designs for the Eisenhower Memorial.
Update: Eisenhower’s grandson David, a commissioner for the Dwight D. Eisenhower Memorial Commission, has not publicly voiced support for or against the Gehry/Wilson design.
Center for Life Science | Boston / Tsoi/Kobus & Associates
Architect: Tsoi/Kobus & Associates
Location: Boston, Massachusetts, USA
Project Size: 777,600 square feet
Project Year: 2008
Photographers: Jeffrey Totaro, Ed Wonsek
200 Eleventh Avenue / Selldorf Architects
Architect: Selldorf Architects
Location: New York, New York, USA
Project Area: 61,000 gsf
Project Year: 2010
Photographer: David Sundberg | Esto
Steven Holl Architects’ Campbell Sports Center Breaks Ground at Columbia University
Campbell Sports Center designed by Steven Holl Architects began construction over the weekend. Complimenting the existing Baker Athletics Complex, the Campbell Sports Center will create a necessary and inviting new gateway to Columbia University’s complex at its location on the corner of West 218th street and Broadway. The five-story, 48,000 sqf facility will include an auditorium, strength training and conditioning rooms, offices for varsity sports, a hospitality suite, and student-athlete study rooms. Led by Steven Holl and Chris McVoy, the Campbell sports Center is scheduled to open in fall 2012.
Steven Holl shared, “We are honored to collaborate with Dianne Murphy and Columbia Facilities in creating this new state of the art athletics facility. Its inviting architecture indicates the invigorating presence and future of intercollegiate athletics at Columbia University.”
Weightless Pull / CO
Weightless Pull designed by CO was part of Public Summer 2011 at Industry City. The installation temporarily transformed a once narrow and empty passageway into a lively vertical and depending on the wind horizontal sculptural environment.
Constructed of plastic wrap and nylon rope (there were over 600 different knots), CO’s design focused on geometry fields and linear systems, mechanics simple intuitive systems that are natural to the chosen materials and geometry, and materials that are repeatable, reusable, and economically sustainable.
AIA Phoenix Metro Home Tour
If you are in the Phoenix area this weekend be sure to take in the AIA Phoenix Metro Home Tour tomorrow from 10am to 5pm. The tour will feature seven designs within the Phoenix area that vary in scale and range from contemporary to traditional styles, so there is omething for everyone. Included within this year’s tour is colab studio’s Cedar Street Residence which has been featured here on ArchDaily. After the home tour you may be inspired to take a look at some of the other great architecture in the city. Check out our Architecture City Guide Phoenix for ideas.
Tickets can be purchased online ahead of time or at any on the homes on the day of the tour. A portion of each ticket sold will be given to the Southwest Autism Research and Resource Center (SAARC).
SOM’s Design Chosen for Nanjing Waterfront Sustainable Redevelopment
Modern urban living, commerce and tourism are a part of the new multi-district redevelopment plans for Nanjing’s Yangtze Redevelopment. Selected by Beijing based MCC Real Estate Company, SOM has imagined a scheme that will create a new area of neighborhoods, shopping districts and corporate skyscrapers embodying a new identity for Nanjing and a mixed-use cityscape for its people.
SOM Director Douglas Voigt said, “The core concept of the SOM plan for Nanjing Xiaguan is making connections. Connecting the city to the river. Connecting the best of urban living to nature. Connecting under–utilized land to value creation that will increase growth, tourism and prosperity. Connecting Nanjing’s rich heritage with China’s rising economy.”
Woodland Park Zoo New West Entry / Weinstein A|U
Architects: Weinstein A|U
Location: Seattle, Washington, USA
Design Team: Rob Kiker, Ed Weinstein, Kirsten Wild
Project Size: 97,909 sqf
Project Year: 2010
Photographs: Lara Swimmer
Video: Marion Weiss and Michael Manfredi – Evolutionary Infrastructures
Earlier this week Marion Weiss and Michael Manfredi, founding principals of Weiss/Manfredi Architecture/Landscape/Urbanism, lectured at Harvard GSD about Evolutionary Infrastructures. The multidisciplinary firm has distinguished themselves with their holistic design approach, successfully integrating the disciplines of architecture, art, infrastructure, and landscape design.
Their projects have been received internationally attention; the Olympic Sculpture Park for the Seattle Art Museum, which was the winning design of an international competition and has been recognized at Barcelona’s World Architecture Festival (Nature Category Winner), by ID Magazine Environments Design Awards (Best in Category), and was awarded the Veronica Rudge Green Prize in urban Design from harvard University. The Diana Center at Barnard College was chosen as the winning design of a national design competition and received a Progressive Architecture Award and an ArchDaily 2010 Building of the Year winner.
Weiss/Manfredi has received the Academy Award in Architecture and the Gold Medal of Honor by AIA New york City chapter. ArchDaily had the chance to interview Weiss/Manfredi earlier this year. Be sure to check it out.
AD Review: From the Archives
This was a great week to choose from ArchDaily’s archive. Again, the projects are from all over the world and vary greatly in size, anywhere from a small private concrete chapel in Lima to a library in Belgium with an active rooftop leaving way for a green pedestrian space. An iconic concrete oval ribbed stadium in Croatia, remote Montana camp, art museum in North Carolina and Slovenian weekend house are all revisited after the break.
2011 Zerofootprint Re-Skinning Award Winners Revealed at Greenbuild
The 2011 Zerofootprint Re-Skinning Award Winners were highlighted last week during the U.S. Green Building Council’s Greenbuild International Conference and Expo held in Toronto. The annual competition aims to ‘jump-start the discussion on how we might retrofit entire cities to fight climate change’. Recognized as the Best Overall Project 2011, the Palms residence in Venice, California designed by Daly Genik Architects, “is an outstanding example of an architecture project that can transform our cities to fight climate change,” says Ron Dembo founder and CEO of Zerofootprint. “The design is energy and water efficient, replicable, and beautiful. This project demonstrates that retrofitting existing buildings to reduce their environmental impact does not have to mean limiting the quality of materials, the use of smart technologies, or the aesthetics of the final product.”
A complete list of the 2011 Zerofootprint Re-Skinning Awards winners and finalists following the break, including the King and King Headquarters in Syracuse, New York by King and King Architects and the Orange Cube in Lyon, France by Jakob + MacFarlane.
Chicago Ideas Week
It is an exciting week in the Windy City. Chicago Ideas Week (CIW) kicked off yesterday and runs through the 16th, featuring 100 speakers in 7 days. CIW is a combination of the world’s top speakers and Chicago’s best thinkers. The result, a newly created ecosystem of innovation, exploration, and intellectual recreation. Head to CIW’s website to download the schedule and purchase tickets, or to view a webcast.
Kent Denver Dining Hall / Semple Brown Design
Architects: Semple Brown Design
Location: Englewood, Colorado, USA
Project Team: Bryan Schmidt, AIA, LEED AP, Dru Schwyhart, LEED AP, Sarah Semple Brown, AIA, Tom Gallagher, Architect, LEED AP, Mary Kay Sunset, ASID, LEED AP
Project Area: 20,000 square feet (8,000 square feet existing/renovation 12,000 square feet of new construction)
Project Year: 2011
Photographs: Ron Pollard Photography
3XN Celebrates 25years of Design Excellence
Celebrating 25 years of architecture and design Danish Architects 3XN have built a portfolio of work that ‘focuses on the humanity and environment at the center of its architecture.’ Their recent works include the award winning Middelfart Savings Bank Headquarters and the incredibly popular Museum of Liverpool.
Projects by 3XN that have been featured on ArchDaily include:
Bella Sky Hotel
Middelfart Savings Bank Headquarters
Museum of Liverpool
Swedbank’s New International Headquarters
Horsens Stadium
Horten Headquarters
Muziekgebouw
Saxo Bank
Tivoli Concert Hall
Video: OMA/Progress Exhibition
This video features an exclusive interview with Rem Koolhaas by BD online discussing the launch on October 6th of ‘OMA/Progress Exhibition’ at the Barbican Art Gallery. Curated and designed by Rotor, a Belguim-based collective, member Maarten Gielen and OMA founding partner Rem Koolhaas discuss the importance of this major retrospective, the stories being told, and the discoveries Rotor made after having a unique and unheard of ‘behind the scenes access’ to OMA – asking candid questions and reviewing materials from the archives of OMA offices.
The launch of the exhibit coincides with last weeks opening of Maggie’s Centre in Gartnavel, Glasgow and the Rothschild Bank Headquarters in London later this year. The OMA/Progress Exhibition will run through February 19, 2012.
Richard Meier Retrospective
The Museo de Arte Contemporáneo de Monterrey (MARCO) will host ‘Richard Meier Retrospective’ his first exhibition in Latin America beginning October 20th. The works on display will make it possible to view Meier’s design philosophy as a whole and in depth for the first time, with examples of nearly every type of work.
The retrospective includes a selection of models, original sketches, renderings, photographs, and product design. Some of the iconic projects exhibited on the show include the Smith House, The Getty Center, The Neugebauer Residence and the Jubilee Church. Other projects on view in the retrospective are well-known architectural projects such as the Perry Street Towers, the High Museum of Art, the Ara Pacis Museum, and the recently completed Arp Museum in Germany.
Challenge: Pop-up Retail Store
DesignByMany‘s latest challenge: Pop-up Retail Store sponsored by HP and media partners ArchDaily. For new Fall fashions and back-to-school shopping, ‘pop-up’ retail shops are the hottest trend. These small, temporary shops are bringing fashion and an urban edge to under-utilized and vacant spaces. This challenge is to design a quickly constructed or prefabricated, free-standing shop of no more than 200 square feet.
DesignByMany is a challenge based design technology community where users post challenges to the community along with their design source files. The community can then post responses with their own source files to solve the challenge. They can also comment on the challenge and interact with other designers throughout the process.
DesignByMany Rapidly-Deployable Shade Winner / Arcollab
SHRM‘s Umbra_vela was announced as the winner of DesignByMany‘s latest challenge: “A Rapidly-Deployable Shade Structure”. The challenge asked professionals and students in the AEC community to submit proposals for a rapidly-deployable shade structure that could just as easily be deployed during a day at the beach or park, or in a desert environment. SHRM were chosen by a select group of judges, Andrew Payne, David Benjamin and Kevin Klinger. For winning the HP-supported challenge, SHRM will take home a brand-new HP Designjet T790 24″ PostScript ePrinter.
Update: Museum der Kulturen Basel / Herzog & de Meuron
In early September we reported that the Museum der Kulturen Basel reopened its doors after two years of reconstruction, refurbishment and expansion. Now we are providing you with some more images of this exciting design.
Among the updates was a Herzog & de Meuron design described as a ‘stunning crown for the historical walls: the beautiful rooftop of irregular folds fits harmoniously into the rooftops surrounding the cathedral’.
Video: Interview with Winy Maas
Our friends from Studio Banana TV shared with us their interview with MVRDV‘s Winy Maas. Founded in 1993 by Maas along with Jacob van Rijs and Nathalie de Vries the firm has produced impressive works among them the well known Balancing Barn and WoZoCo. In recent news (featured just this week on ArchDaily) MVRDV along with COBE were chosen as the winners of an international competition for their design scheme to transform a former concrete factory into a multifunctional creative hub.
In the video Maas discusses a number of MVRDV’s projects including their Market Hall project in Rotterdam and The Why Factory (T?F) which was established at Delft University of Technology in 2008 as a thinktank for future cities. Earlier this year Maas was recognized for his design contributions in France by receiving the French Legion of Honor.
