Courtesy of Influx_Studio

Paris-based Influx_Studio shared with us a project they are currently developing: a new concept of artificial urban tree which absorbs Co², called TREEPOD. More images and architect’s description on this project after the break. read more »

Courtesy of Wikimedia Commons, © Daniel Schwen

As part of an international competition to design Boston’s City Hall in 1962, three Columbia University professors, Kallmann, McKinnell & Knowles, diverted from the typical sleek, glass and steel structures that were being requested by popular demand.  Rather than basing their design on the material aesthetics, their goal was to accentuate the governmental buildings connection to the public realm.

Completed in 1968, the Brutalist style city hall bridges the public and private sectors of government through a gradient of reveal and exposure that allows the public to become integrated, either physically or visually, into the daily affairs of the governmental process.

More on the Boston City Hall after the break. read more »

The role of the editor, the index of a more and more multidimensional society, the democratization of media, the use of media to create design and collaborative practices.

Next Tuesday (March 8th) at 12:30PM we will be participating at the Borderless: Design and digital platforms panel at the Harvard Graduate School of Design, with the MIT Social Media Group.

Looking forward to see you there!

More info at the GSD website.

Courtesy of Influx_Studio

Paris-based Influx_Studio shared with us their project Boston Hydromall, a submission for SHIFTBoston’s first competition. See more images and architect’s description after the break. read more »

Nominations are invited for the 2011 Harleston Parker Medal, which is presented to “such architects as shall have, in the opinion of the Boston Society of Architects…completed the erection for any private citizen, association, corporation or public authority, the most beautiful piece of architecture, building, monument or structure within the limits of the City of Boston or of the Metropolitan Parks District”.

To be eligible, a project:
• May be of any scale, program or level of public visibility.
• May be a rehabilitated building or structure.
• Must have been completed between December 31, 2000, and December 31, 2010.

You may nominate your own or any other that work you believe merits consideration. Projects that have been honored in past years and work by jurors or by their firms are ineligible.

For more information, click here. Seen at Bustler.

Courtesy Höweler + Yoon Architecture

The Boston Society of Architects plans to move from its current location on 52 Broad Street to a new space at Atlantic Wharf, as part of a major transformation of the 1867 institution. As part of an open design competition, the BSA selected Höweler + Yoon Architecture’s proposal entitled: Slipstream Public Exchange. Images of the proposal, a fly through video and an architects description after the break.
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Image by Christopher Shusta, last year's winner

The Rotch Travelling Scholarship is an annual two-stage design competition that results in one person, deemed the Rotch Scholar, traveling the world for eight months studying architecture. In the first stage of the selection process, a weekend-long preliminary design competition is held. Finalists from this competition go on to compete in the second stage, a 10-day competition culminating in a design presentation to a distinguished jury in Boston.

More information about requirements and schedule in the competition’s official website.

© Nigel Young, Foster + Partners

The Museum of Fine Arts, Boston (MFA) recently unveiled their new Art of Americas Wing designed by Foster + Partners in collaboration with CBT/Childs Bertman Tseckares of Boston.  The carefully designed wing, contributed to the restored and augmented visitors experience, that reinstates the original formal axis of the Musuem and its relationship to the linear Back Bay Fens park designed by Frederick Law Olmsted in 1877.  The new wing hosts 53 new galleries including the Art of the Americas collections, and consolidates the Museum’s five great collections into a more cohesive and understandable whole.

Norman Foster  commented that, “The MFA is more than a great cultural institution – it is the catalyst for the rejuvenation of an entire neighbourhood in Boston. Over time the Museum had lost its connection to the Back Bay Fens and the beautiful landscape of Frederick Law Olmsted’s ‘Emerald Necklace’. In restoring Lowell’s original plan and in opening up and reasserting the grand Fenway entrance, we have rediscovered this link. At the same time, we have drawn the landscape deep into the heart of the building and along Huntington Avenue. The result is a more legible museum that will create new connections between the park, the Museum and the local community.”

More details about the new Art of Americas Wing after the break.

Architects: Foster + Partners
Location: Boston, Massachusetts, USA
Foster + Partners Project Team: Norman Foster, Spencer de Grey, Michael Jones, Kate Murphy, John Small, William Castagna, Benedicte Artault, Robin Blanchard, Jan Coghlan, Chris Connell, Aaron Davis, Gennaro di Dato, James Edwards, Dagmar Eisenach, Morgan Fleming, Kristin Fox, Herbert Gsottbauer, Anthony Guma, Sean Hanna, Rie Haslov, Judith Kernt, Ismael Juan Khan, Kohelika Kohli, Abel Maciel, Peter Matcham, Pablo Menendez Paz, Aidan Monaghan, Yat Lun Ng, Mathis Osterhage, Silvia Paredes, Carol Patterson, Michael Pelken, Michael Richter, Katherine Ridley, Il Hoon Roh, Ingrid Sölken, Kinna Stallard, Matthew Stokes, Diego Suarez, Jane Tiley, Alexis Williams, Oliver Wong, Richard Yates
Architect of Record: CBT/Childs Bertman Tseckares Inc
Design Structural Engineers: Buro Happold
Structural Engineers of Record: Weidlinger Associates
Design MEP Engineers: Buro Happold
MEP Engineers of Record: WSP Flack + Kurtz
Landscape Architect: Gustafson Guthrie Nichol Ltd.
Civil Engineers: Nitsch Engineering Inc
Construction Management: George B.H. Macomber Company (Pre-Construction Services), Skanska USA Building Inc (Enabling Contractor), John Moriarty & Associates (General Contractor)
Client: Museum of Fine Arts, Boston
Project Area: 193,325 sqf (new construction)
Project Year: 2010
Photographs: Nigel Young, Foster + Parners

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Courtesy of Bay Arch

The ambitious and successful award-winning architect, MAA Christian Bay-Jorgensen, from the architectural firm, Bay Arch, shared with us this unique and sustainable building at the harbour in Boston, Massachusetts. With affiliates in Ringkobing and Copenhagen and with creativity and energy in the blood, Boston Fusion will contain apartments and offices to create a new, green design in every sense with the help of eco-friendly materials from Icopal. This project also forms part of the plans for a new, green quarter called South Boston. More images and architect’s description after the break. read more »

Courtesy of Alan Lu

At a time when the economic state of the United States is at a point where it is impacting the way students and current architects are going about designing certain building types, Alan Lu, who is currently the Presidential Fellow at MIT is deeply engrained within the realm of form, fabrication and the endless pursuit of luxury through space. His studies and research is demonstrated in his Lechmere Public Library design in Boston, Massachusetts where his hybrid form of institutional and private space combines to exist as a single entity. More images and description after the break. read more »

© Peter Vanderwarker

The Boston Society of Architects shared with us their publication where members were given honorable recognition for receiving the Preservation Achievement Award by the Boston Preservation Alliance. While, undoubtedly, these iconic  buildings have been highlights to the city of Boston, they are now being acclaimed for being buildings of historic preservation while creating a resounding impact for society and beyond. Flip through the Boston Society of Architects’ images to view stunning work by architects after the break.

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Courtesy of Sun-Young Park

Sun-Young Park, an architecture PhD student at Harvard shared with us a review on the Typology Redux Conference at Northeastern University in Boston. Read the complete review after the break. read more »

Organized by Northeastern University and Tim Love, Associate Professor and Principal of Utile, the Typology Redux conference will consider the market-driven building typologies. When architects design office buildings, apartment buildings, and other market-driven building types, an unwritten set of rules establishes the framework for design exploration.

The efficiencies of the double-loaded corridor apartment building and the center-core office building have resulted in a sixty-year legacy around which entire design approaches and building systems industries have been organized. Everything from systems office furniture to the metrics of the real estate market both anticipate and leverage the endurance of these types. From Battery Park City in Manhattan to new commercial districts arising in Shanghai and Abu Dhabi, the grain and scale of the urban realm is defined by the irrefutable (and unquestioned) logics of conventional types.

The conference will take place October 16 at 20 West Village F, Northeastern Unviersity. For more information click here.

Imagine napping in a big hammock on the Greenway during your lunch hour. Designed and led by Hansy Better Barraza AIA, a team has woven The Big Hammock, the world’s largest portable relaxation/napping/hangout device, at the Fort Point Channel Parks. Take a turn in the hammock and enjoy activities from noon to 8:00 pm daily through September 4.

To find out more about The Big Hammock, click here. See more images after the break. read more »

Check out Chris Lovett’s video we spotted about the Boston Redevelopment Authority’s proposed guidelines for development around the Rose Kennedy Greenway.  The Greenway has the potential to become a highly activated public realm fusing commercial entities with cultural institutes, both on and off the Greenway.   The interview features Mike Davis’, the Commissioner of Public Policy for the Boston Society of Architects and VP and principal with Bergmeyer, thoughts on guidelines, such as height restrictions but more importantly, Davis stresses the importance of connectivity and form.  Although several proposed ideas have met challenges and will not be realized, the BSA is trying to push the planning for the Greenway forward.  By developing these empty parcels, the Greenway will transform to become a completely viable component to the Boston area.

The annual BSA honor awards program invites submissions of projects of any type anywhere in the world designed by Massachusetts architects and also invites architects throughout the world to submit projects built in Massachusetts. Deadline is June 24. Click here for more information. Seen at Bustler.

The Common Boston Common Build (CBCB) is a design competition that challenges participants to design and implement a project in response to real community needs. Held over 3 days during the Common Boston Community and Architecture Festival, the CBCB is open to teams and individuals from ALL disciplines and experience levels. Common Boston and LostInBoston have partnered to host this year’s event, focused to raise awareness of the built environment, improve wayfinding and inspire connections across Boston’s urban fabric.

Competitors will be asked to work with preselected sites as well as vocal neighborhood members to develop design solutions that address the specific physical and social needs of that community. The CBCB aims to prove that even when created in less than 3 days and with a capped budget, an innovative and influential response to a real problem can alter the way we interact with and understand the built environment of a community while seeking tangible benefits for its inhabitants.

For more information, go to the competition’s official website.

© Anmahian Winton Architects

Architects: Anmahian Winton Architects
Location: Boston, MA, USA
Principal in Charge: Alex Anmahian
Project Managers: Nick Winton, Todd Thiel
Project Architect: Sydney Schremser
Project Team: Joel Lamere, Makoto Abe, Aaron Stavert, AIA, Mazen Sakr, Garth Goldstein, Andrew Plumb, AIA, Julia Davis, AIA, LEED AP
Civil Engineering: Stantec
Marine Structural Engineering: Childs Engineering Corp.
Structural Engineering: Richmond So Engineering
MEP/FP Engineering: RW Sullivan Inc.
Landscape Architects: Stantec
Lighting: LAM Partners
Project Area: 30,000 sq ft
Budget: $11.45 M
Project Year: 2008
Photographs: Mike Champion, Peter Vanderwarker, Jane Messinger/Anmahian Winton Architects, Sydney Schremser/Anmahian Winton Architects

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Harvard University Graduate School of Design hosts some great lectures featuring some of the world’s most important architects. Here are some of their May events:

May 3 / Ecological Urbanism Book Launch Reception
May 6 / Jaime Moreno lecture
May 6 / Michael Rock of 2×4, “A Brief History of Screens”
May 7 / Bob Peck, Commissioner, Public Buildings Service, General Services Administration, Loeb Fellow ’78, “From the Federal Government and here to help”
May 8 / Palladio Oggi: Palladio and the Present Symposium (*in New York City)

You can find more on each event on the GSD official website, which is constantly adding new events. Every event is free and open to the public.

Its clear in 2010 perhaps more than ever that significant shifts in economies and culture can occur extremely rapidly; climatic crisis can devastate enormous populations in seconds. Our architectural response is critical. The architectural recourse of one crisis needs to be more than a temporary fix as it is often the only opportunity to implement further preventative measures for a future occurrence.

This workshop exposes digitally-driven technologies aiding the architectural realm in developing design intentions in accordance with environmental, material & production parameters. Workshop explores how to implement TODAY the utilization of advancing technologies whether a student or design professional. Parametric approaches are not limited to the software one uses but more importantly a shift in thinking of multi-phase aspects of an architectural project. Join LaN in forwarding the relevance of these practices to very real-world scenarios.

The three day workshop will take place at the Microsoft New England Research & Development Center between April 12-14. For more information, click here.