Lisa Wronski

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AD Classics: Heilig Geist Kirche / Alvar Aalto

Aalvar Aalto is arguably one of the most important architects of the 20th century. He is known for his all-around care for the design of buildings, and often not only designs the exterior but individual interior features as well. He designed a total of six buildings in Germany, one of them being Heilig Geist Kirche, an Evangelistic Luthern church in Wolfsburg, Germany.  Aalto was asked to design this church on November 5, 1958, and it was completed four years later in 1962.

AD Classics: Stephanuskirche / Alvar Aalto

Stephanuskirche, translated to the Evangelical Lutheran Church of St. Stephen, was designed by Alvar Aalto and completed in 1968. It is located in Wolfsburg, Germany, the same town that Aalto’s Wolfsburg Cultural Center was built. Stephanuskirche is among the prominent architectural testimonies of International Modernism in Germany.

Out of Site in Plain View: A History of Exhibiting Architecture since 1750

Barry Bergdoll, Philip Johnson Chief Curator of Architecture and Design at New York's Museum of Modern Art and professor of modern architectural history at Columbia University, will present the 62nd A.W. Mellon Lectures in the Fine Arts Series. The Mellons are among the most prestigious art history lecture series in the world and have been delivered annually since 1952 at the National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C. For this year's series, Bergdoll will present "Out of Site in Plain View: A History of Exhibiting Architecture since 1750."

More about the lecture series after the break...

AD Classics: Maison Louis Carré / Alvar Aalto

In the commune of Bazoches-sur-Guyonnes, about 40 kilometers southwest of Paris, sits one of the most important private houses designed by Alvar Aalto: Maison Louis Carré. The client, Louis Carré, was a prominent French art dealer who was also very interested in architecture. He desired a house that would be able to accommodate many guests for art viewings, but also incorporated a private component. He commissioned Aalto to design his house in 1956, and Louis Carré and his wife, Olga, were able to move into their new home three years later.

AD Classics: Maison Louis Carré  / Alvar Aalto - Houses, Courtyard, Facade, DoorAD Classics: Maison Louis Carré  / Alvar Aalto - Houses, Garden, Stairs, FacadeAD Classics: Maison Louis Carré  / Alvar Aalto - Houses, Courtyard, Facade, Handrail, StairsAD Classics: Maison Louis Carré  / Alvar Aalto - Houses, Bedroom, Beam, Table, Chair, BedAD Classics: Maison Louis Carré  / Alvar Aalto - More Images+ 11

Seen From Above: Jeffrey Milstein Captures the Art of Airport Design

Seen From Above: Jeffrey Milstein Captures the Art of Airport Design - Featured Image
Newark Liberty International Airport © Jeffrey Milstein


Inspired by a childhood spent filming planes at LAX with an 8-millimeter videocamera, New York photographer and former Berkeley architecture student Jeffrey Milstein has turned his fascination for aviation into a career. Typically known for photographing the underbellies of aircrafts, Milstein's latest series captures the artistic composition and elaborate array of patterns formed by airports and only seen from above. He describes this series as revealing "the patterns, layering and complexity of cities, and the circulation patterns for travel, such as waterways, roads, and airports that grow organically over time much like a living organism."

2013 Sally Walsh Lecture: Moving House / Jeanne Gang

On March 26th, architect Jeanne Gang of Studio Gang Architects will discuss how housing can evolve in multiple ways to address contemporary challenges in "Moving House," delivered as the Rice Design Alliance's 2013 Sally Walsh Lecture at the The Museum of Fine Arts in Houston. Dedicated to "honoring Walsh’s groundbreaking foray into modern design by bringing cutting edge designers to Houston," the lecture is sponsored in collaboration with the Rice School of Architecture, the AIA Houston Chapter, and the Architecture Center Houston Foundation.

Melbourne Set to Build Tallest Skyscraper in Southern Hemisphere

Melbourne Set to Build Tallest Skyscraper in Southern Hemisphere - Restaurants & Bars, Facade, Cityscape
© Fender Katsalidis Architects, John Gollings

Melbourne, Australia is about to reach new heights with Australia 108, a hotel and apartment tower designed by Fender Katsalidis. Last week the government of Victoria gave Australia 108 the green light to be built in the Southbank area. Upon completion, the tower will rise up 108 levels and 388 meters tall, which would make it the tallest building in the Southern Hemisphere.

More about Australia 108’s design after the break...

Wyckoff House Museum / nARCHITECTS

nARCHITECTS is designing a cultural education complex for the Wyckoff House Museum in Brooklyn on the site of New York's oldest house. The Wyckoff House has an immense history as it was the first landmark designated by the Landmarks Preservation Commission in 1968. nARCHITECTS’s educational complex will act as a portal between its present day environment and historical site. Due to its exceptional spatial and temporal intervention, the design was recently awarded an AIA New York Design Merit Award.

Neues Museum Weimar Honors Henry van de Velde’s Contribution to European Modernism

The Klassik Stiftung Weimar will present the exhibition “Passion, Function and Beauty. Henry van de Velde and his Contribution to European Modernism” on March 24, 2013 at 11:00am. The press conference will be held at the Neues Museum Weimar in commemoration of the 150th anniversary of the Belgian architect and designer Henry van de Velde.

AD Classics: Silver Hut / Toyo Ito & Associates

AD Classics: Silver Hut / Toyo Ito & Associates - Facade, Beam, Door, Table, Lighting, Chair
© Tomio Ohashi. Courtesy of Toyo Ito & Associates

Known for his conceptual designs, Japanese architect Toyo Ito is arguably one of the world’s most innovative architects. He began his architectural career with a project for his sister in 1976 called “The U House,” located in the center of Tokyo. The U House contained windows on the inside facing a courtyard instead of the typical outward-facing windows. This was Ito’s first experimentation with the ways that light enters buildings, and he expanded this idea to an even greater extent in his next project: the Silver Hut in Nakano, Tokyo.

Read about the Silver Hut after the break.

AD Classics: Silver Hut / Toyo Ito & Associates - Arch, Beam, Table, Chair, BenchAD Classics: Silver Hut / Toyo Ito & Associates - Facade, CityscapeAD Classics: Silver Hut / Toyo Ito & Associates - Patio, Facade, Arch, Table, Lighting, ChairAD Classics: Silver Hut / Toyo Ito & Associates - Facade, Arch, StairsAD Classics: Silver Hut / Toyo Ito & Associates - More Images+ 1

Kickstarter: BrickItUp!

BrickItUp is a kickstarter project, created by Jose Luis, that allows for simple and intuitive 3D modeling. Block by block, users can easily create 3D spaces and environments without any limitations. BrickItUp caters well to collaboration and allows users to work on a project live with each other. When working in groups, users are able to see what each person is working on in real-time, making distance a negligible factor in collaboration.

More on BrickItUp after the break.

Iceberg / ATOMIC3

Iceberg / ATOMIC3 - Installations & Structures, Stairs, Facade
Courtesy of Martine Doyon, Montreal Quartier des Spectacles Partnership
Montreal , Canada
  • Architects: ATOMIC3
  • Year Completion year of this architecture project Year:  2012

Iceberg / ATOMIC3 - Installations & Structures, FacadeIceberg / ATOMIC3 - Installations & Structures, Lighting, CityscapeIceberg / ATOMIC3 - Installations & Structures, Facade, CityscapeIceberg / ATOMIC3 - Installations & Structures, FacadeIceberg / ATOMIC3 - More Images+ 6

Lecture: Designing an Institute for Performance Art / Marina Abramović and Shohei Shigematsu

Harvard Graduate School of Design (GSD) recently held a lecture featuring performance artist Marina Abromović alongside OMA principle Shohei Shigematsu in the anticipation of the Marina Abromović Institute for the Preservation of Performing Art (MAI) 2014 opening. In the lecture, Shigematsu speaks about the process in which they transformed a former theater in Hudson, New York, into a structure that's capable of assisting the institute's mission to develop new kinds of performance, while functioning as a space for preserving and hosting historic performance pieces. Shigematsu references OMA’s history of designing spaces that combine architecture and art, such as the Quebec National Museum and a recent collaboration with Kanye West.

More on this discussion after the break...

Harvard University's "Putting Public Space in its Place"

Who should design public spaces? Should they even be designed at all? Can public space make a meaningful contribution to solving the world’s environmental problems? How should the success of a public space be measured?

Buckminster Fuller Challenge: 2013 Search for Solutions Launched

Calling all students, architects, designers, artists, engineers, scientists, and entrepreneurs!

The West Coast's Tallest: Wilshire Grand / AC Martin Partners

The West Coast's Tallest: Wilshire Grand / AC Martin Partners  - Skyscrapers, Facade, CityscapeThe West Coast's Tallest: Wilshire Grand / AC Martin Partners  - Skyscrapers, Facade, CityscapeThe West Coast's Tallest: Wilshire Grand / AC Martin Partners  - Skyscrapers, Facade, CityscapeThe West Coast's Tallest: Wilshire Grand / AC Martin Partners  - Skyscrapers, FacadeThe West Coast's Tallest: Wilshire Grand / AC Martin Partners  - More Images+ 3

The Downfalls of Prefab Design

The Downfalls of Prefab Design - Image 5 of 4
Sky City is planned to be the world's tallest skyscraper, constructed entirely through pre-fab.

Prefabricated design has come to be known as a fast, green, and cost-efficient way to create buildings. Although this technique has most prominently been used with small residential structures, it’s now taken a turn towards greater, larger projects. With prefabricated towers and skyscrapers now in the works (and, in some cases, going up in as little as six days), pre-fab begs the question: is it really safe? Does quick production time lead to instability, making prefabricated buildings more likely to collapse?

Read more after the break.

Chicago: The City to See in '63

1960’s Chicago: cars zooming down Lake Shore Drive, crowds heading into the Opera House, people observing artworks in the Art Institute, and Chicagoans laying around Grant Park on a sunny day. These are just a few of the scenes captured by amateur filmmaker Margaret Conneely in her film The City to See in ’63. The people, neighborhoods, and architecture of Chicago are all captured in this well-crafted 12-minute, 16mm color film taped in 1962.

Conneely captures some key architectural sites in Chicago, including the construction of Marina City. In addition, there are clips of a few buildings that no longer exist such as the Chicago Sun-Times building, demolished in 2004; White Sox Park, demolished in 1991; and the first McCormick place, wrecked in 1967.

The film also covers different neighborhoods of Chicago including Lincoln Park, Logan Square, Garfield Park, and old Maxwell Street.

As shown in the film, Chicago has always been known for its spectacular array of architecture. To see more current architectural sites in Chicago, view our Architecture City Guide: Chicago.