Courtesy of Yale School of Architecture

Massimo Scolari: The Representation of Architecture, 1967–2012 is the first U.S. retrospective since 1986 of the eminent Italian architect, artist, and designer. The exhibition, presented by the Yale School of Architecture from February 6 – May 4th, explores the arc of Scolari’s career from 1967 to 2012, with some 160 paintings, watercolors, and drawings, most with architectural and urban subjects; a scaled-down iteration of a monumental sculpture created for the 1991 Venice Biennale; and ten architectural models. Together, these illuminate the complex, ongoing interaction in Scolari’s work between architecture and its methods and mediums of representation. More information on the exhibition after the break. read more »

Presented by the Yale School of Architecture February 9-11, the “Is Drawing Dead?” symposium will explore the historic role of architectural drawing and illuminate challenges to it in the digital era. Since the early Renaissance, drawing has been the architect’s primary instrument of investigation and expression. However, the sophisticated methodologies offered by digital technology over the past decade have challenged the practice, leading to the question Is drawing dead? More information on the event after the break. read more »

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. read more »

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. read more »

Ezra Stiles College under construction, 1961. Copyright Balthazar Korab Ltd.

NEW HAVEN, CONNECTICUT–Yale’s Ezra Stiles College, designed by Eero Saarinen and completed in 1961, reopened to students last month after a one-year, $55 million dollar renovation. The project was the last in a complete overhaul of all the residential colleges at Yale, which started in 1998 and has cost over $500 million (adjusted for inflation).

Students are happy with the work, praising the new brick pizza oven in the dining hall, shift from single to suite-style rooms, and improved furniture and lighting. Jon Rubin ’12 told the Yale Daily News (YDN) the renovated Stiles is “definitely a step up” from the college he lived in two years ago.
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Photo by Liz Waytkus - http://www.flickr.com/photos/rippinkittin8/

Built in 1958, the David S Ingalls Skating Rink is characterized by a sweeping domed roof, was designed by Yale graduate Eero Saarinen and is lovingly known as the Yale whale. This hockey rink contains a span 200 feet long by 85 feet wide and does so with a natural sense of flow and polish. read more »

© 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. read more »

Photo by joevare

Across the street from Louis Kahn’s first significant piece of architecture stands his last. The Yale Center for British Art was completed in 1974, the year of Kahn’s death and 23 years after its neighbor, The Yale University Art Gallery was finished. A style and theoretical change throughout a career is visible in one scene. read more »

© Stanley Tigerman, 'The Titanic', 1979

The career of eminent architect and educator Stanley Tigerman is the subject of a retrospective exhibition that opened at the Yale School of Architecture Gallery, in historic Paul Rudolph Hall, on August 22, 2011. Ceci n’est pas une rêverie*: The Architecture of Stanley Tigerman, which remains on view through November 5, 2011. The exhibition celebrates Tigerman’s distinguished career with a diversity of original artworks, models, photographs, and archival documents, among other items. It is curated by Yale School of Architecture Associate Professor Emmanuel Petit. In January 2012, the exhibition will travel to the Graham Foundation’s Madlener House, in Chicago, and then onto the School of Architecture at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign. More information on the exhibition after the break. read more »

© Esto Photographics / Peter Aaron

At The Hotchkiss School, an independent boarding high school in Connecticut, the music program was far more important to the School than its aging, subterranean facilities implied. The quality of student performances was consistently excellent, but except for the occasional above ground concert in the chapel, the musicians were out of sight to visitors and students alike. So plans were undertaken to renovate an existing drama theater into a venue for musical performances and expand it to provide practice rooms and a rehearsal hall.

Architect: Centerbrook Architects and Planners
Location: Lakeville, Connecticut, USA
Photographs: Esto Photographics: Peter Aaron and Albert Vecerka

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© David Sundberg / Esto Photographics Inc.

This project is conceived as a series of concrete retaining walls and escarpments that traverse and cascade down a steeply sloped site approximately 700 feet deep and 300 feet wide. In response to the steep + diagonal slope of the existing topography, the site / building strategy is to deploy a series of straight walls that act as “jetties” into the landscape and respond as a counter-force. As these walls begin to interact with the landscape they modulate and redistribute the sloping terrain into a series of terraces and gardens that spill and slide past one another.

Architect: Joeb Moore + Partners Architects
Location: Connecticut, USA
Structural Engineer: Ed Stanley and Associates
General Contractor: Prutting & Co. Custom Builders
Landscape Architect: Reed Dillon & Associates
Interior Designer: Sally Markham Interior Design
Project Year: 2008
Photographs: David Sundberg / Esto Photographics Inc.

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© Warren Jagger Photography Inc.

This tower studio is the latest addition to a musician’s residence that includes her home and a detached music studio. A master violinist and music teacher who performs around the world, the client wanted to expand her house by adding a tower studio that would regale her with treetop views as she practiced, alone, with students, or fellow musicians.

Architect: Centerbrook Architects and Planners, LLP
Location: Guilford, Connecticut, USA
Project Team: James C. Childress (FAIA), Alex Daivs Booth, Kyle Kirkwood (Associate AIA)
Structural Engineer: Michael Horton & Associates
Contractor: Triangle Builders
Photographs: Warren Jagger Photography Inc.

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© BRIO54

Architects: BRIO54
Location: Hillside Ave, Milford, USA
Project year: 2010
Photographs: Courtesy of BRIO54

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© Jeff Goldberg/ESTO

Situated along the Connecticut shoreline of Long Island Sound, the Spiral House seeks to engage, enhance and reflect the surrounding coastal climate and its atmospherics of light, air, water. Formally and spatially, the house is a direct and pragmatic response to the strict environmental (FEMA and flood elevations) and local zoning restrictions and regulations (height, building setbacks, FAR, footprint) imposed on the building and site (see sectional diagram).

Architects: Joeb Moore + Partners Architects
Location: Lower Fairfield County Coast, Connecticut, USA
Structural Engineer: Robert Sillman Associates
Mechanical Engineer: Tucker and Associates, Inc.
General Contractor: Frank Talcott, Inc.
Landscape Architects: Joeb Moore + Partners Architect and Owner
Consultants: Concrete Architectural Works, Inc., David Roggero, Custom Architectural Concrete Shower, Tub and Vanity
Project Area: 3,900 sqf
Project Year: 2009
Photographs: Jeff Goldberg/ESTO, Todd Mason Halkin Photography LLC, Joeb Moore + Partners Architects

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© David Sundberg / Esto

The Bridge House is located in Kent, Connecticut along a 300’ ridge that parallels the Housatonic River not far from Kent Falls State Park.  The state park boasts a beautiful series of cascading falls and a historic covered bridge.  Joeb Moore + Partners Architects took these impressions and observations of the surrounding environment as inspiration and the jumping off point for the conceptual design of the Bridge House.

Architects: Joeb Moore + Partners Architects, LLC
Location: Kent, Connecticut, USA
Structural Engineer: Ed Stanley and Associates
Mechanical Engineer: ENCON Inc.
General Contractor: Corporate Construction, Inc.
Landscape Architect: Donald Walsh
Project Area: 5,000 sqf
Project Year: 2010
Photographs: Frank Oudeman, Michael Biondo, David Sundberg/Esto

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©Wikimedia Commons

The firm Roche-Dinkeloo and Associates is known for producing some of the most significant and influential civic and corporate architecture of contemporary times. The two architects were very successful in recognizing new social conditions within their postindustrial society, paying specific attention to the individual and their changing relationship with public space.

The Knights of Columbus Building in New Haven, Connecticut, is the second tallest building in the skyline although it is only 23 stories. Its modern construction and design were revolutionary at the time, and continue to be appreciated today.

More on the Knights of Columbus Building by Roche-Dinkeloo and Associates after the break.

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© Morley von Sternberg

Kroon Hall School of Forestry & Environmental Studies is Yale University‘s Greenest Building. Chosen as a 2010 AIA/COTE Top Ten Green Project the ambitious goals for Kroon Hall encompassed taking a brownfield site crowded by looming and gloomy brownstone edifices – an area replete with dumpsters, pavement, and an aging power plant – and establish a building that would bring light, openness, and a connection to the natural world.

Follow the break for drawings and photographs of this project.

Architects: Hopkins Architects Design Architects and Centerbrook Architects and Planners, LLP Executive Architect
Location: New Haven, Connecticut, USA
Project Team: (Centerbrook) Mark Simon, FAIA, James A. Coan, AIA, LEED AP, Theodore C. Tolis, AIA, LEED AP, David O’Connor, Nick Caruso, Sheryl Milardo, Sue Pinckney, Barbara Kehew, Sue Savitt, Steve Haines; (Hopkins) Sir Michael Hopkins, Michael Taylor, Sophy Twohig, Henry Kong, Thomas Corrie, Tom Jenkins, Andrew Stanforth, Nate Moore, Edmund Fowles, Laura Wilsdon, Kyle Konis, Rose Evans, Martyn Corner
Structural, Mechanical, Electrical, Plumbing, and Fire Protection Engineers: ARUP
Architectural Lighting and Acoustical Design: ARUP
Sustainable Design: Atelier Ten
Landscape Architect: The Olin Studio
Civil Engineering and Stormwater Management: Nitsch Engineering, Inc.
Geothermal Engineers: Haley and Aldrich
Façade Engineering/ Thermal Performance: Simpson Gumpertz & Heger, Inc.
Materials Handling: SEA Consultants, Inc.
Code Consultant: Philip R. Sherman, Inc.
Specifications Consultant: Kalin Associates
Elevator Consultant: Van Deusen & Associates
Cost Estimator: Faithful + Gould
Construction Manager: Turner Construction Company
Client: Yale University
Project Area: 68,800 sqf
Project Year: 2009
Photographs: Morley von Sternberg

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©Pfeiffer Partners and Levin & Associates Architects

Known for his fusion of the International Style and personal poetic influences in his architecture, Louis Kahn is notably one of the most respected architects of the 20^th century. He often worked alongside engineers and contractors, which enabled his innovative designs to be structurally sound while continually advancing towards a new refinement.

One of his more famous structures and the first significant commission of Louis Kahn, the Yale University Art Gallery in New Haven, Connecticut was designed when he was a visiting critic at the Yale School of Architecture as the first of three art museums to be designed and built. The project was built between 1951 and 1953.

With this Kahn was able to explore the ideas he had about transforming modern architecture which to him lacked the monumental and spiritual quality of ancient buildings. He was successful in his hopes of redefining architecture, as this building marks a significant turning point in the history of American museum architecture.

More on Yale University Art Gallery after the break.

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© Courtesy of Julian King Architect

Architect: Julian King Architect
Location: Greenwich, Connecticut, USA
Project Team: Julian King, Christina Lyons, Sean Barry, Julie Boynton, Marc Levin
Structural Engineer: Alnour Consulting Engineering PC
Mechanical Engineer: AltieriSeborWiebor LLC, (Adam Trojanowski project engineer)
Lighting Consultant: Melanie Freundlich Lighting Design
Project Year: 2010
Photographs: Courtesy of Julian King Architect

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© SOM - Ezra Stoller of Esto Photographics

Yale University’s Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library is the largest building in the world dedicated to the containment and preservation of rare books, manuscripts, and documents. It was designed by Gordon Bunshaft of Skidmore, Owings, & Merrill and is located in New Haven, Connecticut. Prior to the completion of this project, Yale University placed its rare books on special shelving in Dwight Hall, which was the Old Library in the late 19th century. In 1930 these special books were relocated to Rare Book Room collection in the Sterling Memorial Library. The Beinecke library was a gift from the Beinecke family, and since 1963 has accomodated six major collections in its rare and marvelous structure that coincides with the literary gems it stores, including those from the Rare Book Room. The major collections are the General Collection, which are divided into the General Collection of Early Books and Manuscripts and the General Collection of Modern Books and Manuscripts, the Collection of American Literature, the Collection of German Literature, the Collection of Western Americana, and the Osborn Collection of British Literary and Historical Manuscripts.

More information and images of the library after the break. read more »