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Connecticut: The Latest Architecture and News

Marcel Breuer's Iconic Brutalist Building is being Transformed into an Eco-friendly Boutique Hotel

Marcel Breuer’s Pirelli Tire Building, a beacon of Brutalist architecture in the United States, is being reimagined as a hotel by development company Becker and Becker. After being abandoned for years, the structure was sold to architect and developer Bruce Redman Becker in 2020 with plans to transform it into a sustainable 165-room hotel. The sculptural concrete structure aims to be a model for passive design hotels using its unique architectural features and innovative adaptive reuse techniques.

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Expansion and Renovation Works for Bruce Museum in Connecticut

The first phase of construction on the Bruce Museum in Greenwich, Connecticut has begun. The New Orleans based architecture, interiors and urban planning firm EskewDumezRipple (EDR) was selected to design the new addition and renovation for the community-based Museum.

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Svigals + Partners design Memorial to Gun Violence Victims in Connecticut

Svigals + Partners has designed a Memorial Garden in honor of victims of gun violence in New Haven, Connecticut. Developed in collaboration with a partnership of concerned mothers, the scheme emerged from efforts by New Haven school teacher Marlene Miller Pratt, whose 18-year-old son was killed in 1988.

Working pro bono since April 2018, Svigals + Partners have designed the garden to be flanked by engraved stone pavers and lamppost wind chimes. Before culminating in a serene, protected, circular plaza, the scheme leads visitors past an original sculpture titled “The Lost Generation.” As visitors walk past, the sculpture depicts abstract human figures and are revealed and concealed depending on the visitor standpoint.

AD Classics: Smith House / Richard Meier & Partners

AD Classics: Smith House / Richard Meier & Partners - Residential, Garden, Facade, Door
© Mike Schwartz

Five decades ago, Carole Smith called Richard Meier and told him about a site in Darien, Connecticut that she had bought with her husband. This was a rocky piece of land with dense evergreens and coastal outcrops. A dramatic slope at the back of the plot gave way to the Long Island Sound and a small, sandy cove. Carole wanted to place her weekend home on this particular site and she wanted Richard Meier to do it. At that time, he was just 31.

The Smith House was built between 1965-1967 by Richard Meier & Partners Architects. Richard Meier recalls of the project that would later propel his career as an architect: “I was working out of one room of a two-room apartment shortly after leaving the office of Marcel Breuer. One day I had a call from Carole Smith asking if I would be interested in designing a weekend house for her...She was looking for a young architect who would give full attention to her house.”

In never-before-seen photos and an exclusive interview with the architect himself, we trace the building's history from the first phases of construction to now. 

AD Classics: Smith House / Richard Meier & Partners - Residential, FacadeAD Classics: Smith House / Richard Meier & Partners - Residential, Facade, Door, Beam, Column, Balcony, Chair, TableAD Classics: Smith House / Richard Meier & Partners - Residential, Facade, Handrail, BalconyAD Classics: Smith House / Richard Meier & Partners - Residential, Deck, Facade, Arch, Balcony, CoastAD Classics: Smith House / Richard Meier & Partners - More Images+ 21

Gallery: SANAA's Grace Farms Through the Lens of Songkai Liu

Columbia University student and architectural photographer Songkai Liu has shared images with us from his recent trip to Grace Farms in New Canaan, Connecticut. The 80-acre non-profit farm, landscaped by OLIN, boasts a newly completed multipurpose pavilion designed by SANAA that provides a non-intrusive space for community events, services and worship.

"SANAA’s goal was to make the architecture of the River become part of the landscape without drawing attention to itself, or even feeling like a building, with the hope that those who are on the property will have a greater enjoyment of the beautiful environment and changing seasons through the spaces and experience created by the River," described the architect.

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Gallery: SANAA's Grace Farms aka "The River" Photographed by Paul Clemence

Photographer Paul Clemence of ARCHI-PHOTO has shared with us images of SANAA's latest completed work, Grace Farms in New Canaan, Connecticut. Known as "The River" for the way it flows through the site across a level change of almost 44 feet (13.4 meters), the building was conceived to "become part of the landscape without drawing attention to itself, or even feeling like a building" in order to give visitors a greater appreciation of the surrounding natural space that will be preserved by the Grace Farms Foundation. The building itself, meanwhile, will be made available to Grace Community Church and other nonprofit and community groups for a wide range of community and cultural events. Read on for Paul Clemence's full photoset.

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VIDEO: Yale School of Management / Foster + Partners

Our friends at Arbuckle Industries has shared this short clip that takes you inside Foster + Partners' Yale School of Management. Completed earlier this year, the new school unites Yale’s faculty departments at the Edward P. Evans Hall with world-class teaching facilities and collaborative social spaces. This, as the architects described, brings a new level of transparency to education, abandoning traditionally closed-off courtyard buildings for an open design that embraces the campus community. More stunning images and information on the project can be found here.

10 Projects Advance to Rebuild by Design's Final Round

After three months of in-depth analysis and public outreach, the U.S. Department of Housing & Urban Development (HUD) has shortlisted 10 design “opportunities” for the third and final round of Rebuild by Design. The design competition, focused on making New York’s Sandy-effected regions more resilient, sustainable, and livable, will now have the final project teams collaborate with local and regional stakeholders in developing their projects over the next five months. The goal is to arrive at projects that are implementable and fundable, leveraging the variety of federal recovery investments being made in the region.

OMA, BIG and WXY are just a few practices involved in the final round. Read on to review a glimpse of each shortlisted proposal.

'White Cube, Green Maze: New Art Landscapes' Exhibition

'White Cube, Green Maze: New Art Landscapes' Exhibition - Featured Image
View of Raketenstation Hombroich, with sculptures by Katsuhito Nishikawa and Oliver Kruse (foreground) and the House for Musicians, by Raimund Abraham (left) (Raketenstation Insel Hombroich, near Neuss, Germany); © Iwan Baan

Opening February 14, and on view until May 4, Yale School of Architecture‘s ‘White Cube, Green Maze: New Art Landscapes’ exhibition will examine emerging trends in museum design through six new art sites that share the common thread of moving beyond the traditional “white cube” gallery space, and that juxtapose the experience of culture, art, architecture, and landscape. Featuring newly commissioned photography of these sites by Iwan Baan, each site represents a unique expression of the ambitions and collaborations of patrons, architects, landscape architects, artists, and curators. For more information, please visit here.

'The Sound of Architecture' Symposium

'The Sound of Architecture' Symposium - Featured Image
Courtesy of Yale School of Architecture

In an effort to explore the auditory dimension of architecture, Yale School of Architecture is presenting the J. Irwin Miller Symposium: ‘The Sound of Architecture’ which will take place October 4-6. Free and open to the public, the symposium will draw on experts from a variety of disciplines in its quest for an understanding of architecture as an auditory environment. The three-day event will begin with remarks by Professor Forster, who will present key examples of relevant historical issues as well as of buildings with characteristic sonic properties. This will be followed by a lecture by architect Brigitte Shim (Shim-Sutcliffe Architects, Toronto), who will describe the architectural calibration of a house designed for a mathematician and amateur musician. Friday will encompass four sessions, which will address the phenomenology of listening, and there will be two sessions on Saturday, one on the soundscapes of cities and the politics of urban noise and another examining the affect of sound on the aesthetic and social character of space. To register and for more information, please visit here.

The Campaign for Safe Buildings Symposium

The Campaign for Safe Buildings Symposium - Featured Image
Courtesy of Yale School of Architecture

As we all know, natural disasters continue to kill hundreds of thousands each year, and the vast growth of cities with unsafe and unreliable buildings and other infrastructure will only increase the cost of human life and negatively impact local economies. To address this, The Campaign for Safe Buildings, along with The Rubin Foundation and the Yale School of Architecture, is hosting a symposium November 4th and 5th to look closely at safe building initiatives around the world and many of the challenges that stand in the way of keeping natural disasters from turning into man-made catastrophes. More information on the event after the break.

Gwathmey Siegel: Inspiration and Transformation Exhibition

Gwathmey Siegel: Inspiration and Transformation Exhibition - Featured Image
Gwathmey House and Studio / © Gwathmey Siegel and Associates Architects

Taking place at the Yale School of Architecture gallery from November 14th-January 27th is the Gwathmey Siegel: Inspiration and Transformation Exhibition which is the first museum exhibition devoted to the work of Gwathmey Siegel and Associates Architects, one of the most influential architecture firms of the modern period. The exhibition is free and open to the public. More information on the event after the break.

From the Library of Philip Johnson

From the Library of Philip Johnson - Featured Image
© Birch Books Conservation

A Kickstarter campaign started by Birch Books Conservation owner Birch Cooper will see the library collection of Philip Johnson’s Glass House collated in a new book – The Library of Philip Johnson: Selections from the Glass House. Conceived as a resource for architects, architecture aficionados, and the general public, the book will illuminate many of the philosophies and ideologies that Johnson contributed to American modernism. Featured under the cover will be 100 selections that have been photographed and researched with a brief synopsis by the authors, in addition to the inventory list of all the books contained within the Library Studio of Philip Johnson. With an anticipated publishing date later this fall, it will be Birch Books Conservation’s first publication. Containing over 350 photographic illustrations, the 250 page volume is sure to be an excellent addition to any architecture collection.