McNally Jackson Cafe / Front Studio Architects
McNally Jackson Books is one of the largest independent booksellers in downtown Manhattan. The owner wished to re-conceptualize the café as a place evocative of literature as the previous café did not reflect the individual spirit and character of the bookstore and its users. A fluid collaboration between the owner and architects, all avid readers, the newly realized space creates visceral connections to the act of reading in each programmatic function. The majority of the renovation consisted of unique pieces conceived by Front Studio Architects, in collaboration with the bookstore owner. The renovation was a makeover of the 600 sqf café situated within a 7,000 sqf, 2-story bookstore.
More photographs and sketches following the break.
Architects: Front Studio Architects
Location: New York City, New York, USA
Client: McNally Jackson Booksellers
Contractor: Ted Kilcommons Studio
Project Area: 600 sqf
Completed: 2009
Photographs: Maggie Soloday Photography
HARBOR / Katsutoshi Sasaki
The challenge for Katsutoshi Sasaki was to create a place of residence in a neighborhood of Gifu, Japan that was claustrophobic and allowed little access to natural light and privacy. The resulting project, called HARBOR, is a residence that challenges the crowded residential area and secures access of light and air for its residents while also providing access to the nature.
More photographs and information from this project after the break.
CEU Pimentas / Biselli + Katchborian architects
Architects: Biselli + Katchborian architects
Location: Sao Paulo, Brazil
Project area: 16,000 sqm
Project year: 2008 – 2010
Photographs: Nelson Kon
Casa das Histórias Paula Rego / Eduardo Souto de Moura
Architects: Souto Moura Arquitectos
Location: Cascais, Portugal
Project Team: Sérgio Koch, Ricardo Prata, Bernardo Monteiro, Diogo Guimarães, Junko Imamura, Kirstin Schätzel, Manuel Vasconcelos, Maria Luís Barros, Pedro G. Oliveira, Rita Alves, Sofia Torres Pereira, Susana Monteiro
Structural and Mechanical Engineers: AFAconsult
Project Year: 2008
Video & Photographs: Vítor Gabriel
North Beach / Heliotrope Architects
This residence is located on a northwesterly oriented beach fronting the Strait of Georgia. The site includes many second-growth douglas firs, a beech grove and a grassy meadow with good solar exposure. For over a thousand years this site was a summer camp location for the Lummi Indians, and due to its archeological significance, no footing excavation could take place on the site. Further, its location in a federally designated flood plain required that the structure be raised off the ground several feet. The design brief called for a very low-impact, easy to maintain summer home that provides necessary programmatic functions with minimum distractions from the land and the view.
Heliotrope Architects received a Merit Award – 2009 AIA Honor Awards for Washington Architecture for their design of North Beach. Follow the break for more photographs and drawings of this project.
Architects: Heliotrope Architects
Location: Orcas Island, Washington, USA
Structural: Swenson Say Faget
General Contractor: David Shore
Photographs: Sean Airhart
Polski Theatre / WE architecture
Copenhagen-based We architecture shared with us their project Polski Theatre, for the city of Szczecin in Poland. More images and architect’s description after the break.
“Come to Andalsnes” / Kristina Karlsson & Pauliina Koskinen Tonboe
Kristina Karlsson and Pauliina Koskinen Tonboe received a shared first prize in the idea competition for the development of Åndalsnes in Rauma, Norway. Amongst 40 proposals from all over Scandinavia, their “Come to Åndalsnes” proposal stood out with the “best masterplan concept” . The jury highlights the value of the proposal treating ideas and solutions for the entire village even outside the competition area. More images and architects’ description after the break.
Architecture City Guide: Houston
Houston is our focus this week for our Architecture City Guide series. We know Houston is packed with lots of great architecture so we are expecting to hear about your can’t miss buildings in the comment section below. Remember this list is intended to be added to by you, our readers. We will be updating our Architecture City Guides in the future to reflect your suggested buildings to visit.
Follow the break for our Houston list and corresponding map!
2011 AIA Honor Award / Horizontal Skyscraper / Steven Holl Architects
The building has recently been awarded a 2011 AIA Institute Honor Award for its architectural creativity and contextual thoughtfulness. The jury commented, “This project skips along from mound to mound and manipulates the landscape – it builds it up and shapes it into a powerful form above the land with inventive manipulation. The building is shading the landscape and letting it breath – integrated sustainability. A reinvented building type with the building floating over the landscape – dancing on the landscape.”
More information, with more photographs from Iwan Baan, after the break.
Umeå School Of Architecture / Henning Larsen Architects
Architects: Henning Larsen Architects
Location: Umeå, Sweden
Client: Balticgruppen
Project area: 5,000 sqm
Project year: 2007 – 2010
Photographs: Åke E son Lindman
AD Classics: Kunsthal / OMA
Arguably one of the most spatially innovative architects in the world, Rem Koolhaas, and his firm OMA, designed a cultural staple in the city of Rotterdam. Completed in 1992, the Kunsthal, in the Museumpark neighborhood of Rotterdam, is more of a cultural center that it is a museum. Dubbed as a collection-less museum, the Kunsthal is a compilation of several galleries and halls that allow for maximum flexibility and accommodate a multitude of exhibitions and activities that can coexist singularly or collectively.
More on the Kunsthal after the break.
South Park Library / Johnston Architects
The LEED Equivalent South Park Library is a meeting place and focal point for the rich and diverse South Park neighborhood in Seattle. Johnston Architects incorporated the spirit of the community within their design through material choices, colors, and gathering areas such as the courtyard/front porch space for the neighborhood. Follow the break for a full project description, photographs, and drawings of the library.
Architects: Johnston Architects
Location: Seattle, Washington, USA
Principal Designer: Ray Johnston
Project Architect: Marc Pevoto
Project Team: Alison Walker Brems
Landscape Architect: Lando & Associates
Structural Engineer: Coughlin Porter Lundeen
Mechanical Engineer: Ecotope
Electrical Engineer: A.E.S. Inc.
Civil Engineer: Coughlin Porter Lundeen
Client: King County Library System
Project Area: 5,000 sqf
Project Year: 2006
Photographs: Will Austin Photography
AD Round Up: Green Roof Part VI
Two houses, two schools and one tennis club. All of the with amazing eco-friendly green roofs. Check them all after the break.
Mill Valley Hillside / McGlashan Architecture
The Mill Valley Hillside project is a residence for three generations, in two separate dwellings, under one green roof. It brings the grandparents closer to their children and grandchildren, yet carves out spaces tailored to each generation. Upstairs is formal, quiet and dramatic (read more…)
Offices and Municipal Equipments / Jean-Marc Ibos and Myrto Vitart
French architects Jean-Marc Ibos and Myrto Vitart shared with us their winning project for the Offices and Municipal Equipments in Porte D’Ivry, Paris, France. More images and architect’s description after the break.
Thurston Wine House Addition / Jones Studio
The Thurston Wine House Addition carefully displays a respect for its context through its materiality and its tectonic language while expressing its unconventional program through its formal elements. Embedded into the topography of the site, the project takes advantage of its section by using the slope to decrease the visual impact of structure, allowing access to the northeast valley and McDowell Mountain views beyond. The Wine House also benefits from the thermal storage capacity of the earth itself, greatly reducing the demand of the mechanical systems throughout the year.
Photographs of Jones Studio’s Thurston Wine House Addition following the break.
Architects: Jones Studio Inc
Location: Paradise Valley, Arizona, USA
Designer: Eddie Jones
Contractor/CMAR: GM Hunt Builders
Masonry: Randy Gregory Masonry, Inc.
Structural Engineering: Jack Trummer, PE
Mechanical Engineering: Roy Otterbine
Client: Ray and Amy Thurston
Project Area: 883 sqf
Project Year: 2008
Photographs: Ed Taube
A101 Urban Block Competition Proposal / b4 Architects
With the design challenge of housing 150,000 people for a new city near Moscow, b4 Architects shared with us their proposal for the A101 Urban Block Competition where they have focused on a thoughtful making of spaces while being sensitive to the context conditions of the city. More images and architect’s description after the break.
Hub Offices In Madrid / ch+qs arquitectos
Architects: ch+qs arquitectos
Location: Madrid, Spain
Project year: 2009
Photographs: Daniel Torrello
Suoi Re Village Community House / 1+1>2
Architects: Hoàng Thúc Hào, Nguyễn Duy Thanh
Architects and invester: 1+1>2 Group
Location: Suoi Re village, Luong Son, Hoa Binh province, Vietnam
Project year: 2010
Photographs: Courtesy of Kiến Việt
L.B. Landry High School / Eskew+Dumez+Ripple
This new high school for the Louisiana Department of Education Recovery School District was part of a post-Katrina “quick start” construction program to accelerate the replacement of five damaged schools within an extremely aggressive timeline (6 months for design and 20 months for construction) while a new comprehensive masterplan for the New Orleans school system was underway.
L.B. Landry High School occupies an important place in the city’s history – part of the reason for its accelerated rebuilding. The school was founded in 1938 as the first public high school on the west bank of the city that African-American residents could attend and only the second black high school established in Orleans Parish.
Follow the break for more photographs and drawing of Eskew+Dumez+Ripple’s design for the L.B. Landry High School.
Architects: Eskew+Dumez+Ripple
Location: New Orleans, Louisiana, USA
Contractor: Satterfield & Pontikes Construction Group, LLC
Architect of Record: Eskew+Dumez+Ripple
Associate Architect for Programming: SHW Group
Structural/Civil Engineers: Schrenk & Peterson Consulting Engineers, Inc.
Geotechnical Engineers: Eustis Engineering Company
MEP Engineers: Moses Engineers
Landscape Architects: Daly Sublette Landscape Architects, Inc.
Food Service Consultant: Futch Design Associates
Acoustical/Audio-Visual: Gracenote Consulting
Estimator: Pro-Serv Estimating
Client: Louisiana Recovery School District
Project Area: 236,000 sqf
Project Year: 2010
Photographs: Timothy Hursley
San Vito di Cadore School Complex / ATENASTUDIO
Italian architects ATENASTUDIO shared with us their project for the International Competition for the new Kindergarden and Nursery School in San Vito di Cadore, Italy. More images and architect’s description after the break.
