Courtesy of KPF

The new Midfield Terminal Complex at Abu Dhabi International Airport was just approved by the Executive Council of Abu Dhabi. Within master plan, designed by Kohn Pedersen Fox Associates (KPF), the terminal is conceived as a gateway to the city. The design creates large, unimpeded internal zones that will enhance the passenger experience, and can accommodate long‐term adaptability to industry demands. More images and architects’ description after the break. read more »

The 2011 MIPIM Asia Awards recently announced that Kohn Pedersen Fox Associates (KPF) garnered five awards out of the 29 awarded, the largest number of awards won by a single architectural firm. Recognized for the Inernational Commerce Centre in HongKong, Wheelock Square in Shanghai, the Abu Dhabi International Midfield Complex, the Xintiandi Hotels, and Singapore’s Marina Bay Financial Centre, KPF will receive their prizes at the prestigious Awards Gala Dinner on November 16.

KPF was one of the first US architecture firms to start working in China, and has had a strong presence there for over 20 years, including growing offices in Shanghai and Hong Kong. These five awards serve as an affirmation of KPF’s unmatched experience and leadership in the region.

ArchDaily sat down with Eugen Kohn and Bill Pedersen back in February.  The AD interview with KPF can be viewed here.

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This week, with the help of our readers, our Architecture City Guide is headed to Shanghai. Shanghai is noted for having more Art Deco buildings than any other city, including László Hudec’s Park Hotel, which is not on our list but will be added in a future guide. Like many cities in China, Shanghai’s rapid growth has meant a boon in contemporary architecture styles. We put together a list of 12 modern/contemporary buildings that we feel provides a good starting point. It is far from complete. There are dozens of other great buildings that are not our list, and we are looking to add to the list in the near future. Please add your favorites in the comment section below so we can add them on the second go around. Again thank you to all our readers who sent in their suggestions and photographs. The city guides would not be possible without your help.

To check out other cities visit our world map or our Architecture City Guide page.
The Architecture City Guide: Shanghai list and corresponding map after the break.

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Photo by WSTAY - http://www.flickr.com/photos/wstay/

After many years of political turmoil, South Korea has now gained enough economic stability to begin working on its goals of becoming the world’s next major international business hub. This stability has allowed large Korean companies to travel to foreign countries, constructing some of the tallest buildings in the world. Now, however, these companies are taking their designs to their own soil by strategically focusing on areas that will allow for the greatest opportunities for future development. One such area is the city of Songdo. More on this city’s development after the break. read more »

Courtesy of Flickr CC License / Sarmu

This week, with the help of our readers, our Architecture City Guide is headed to Beijing. Beijing has a range of architectural styles, but the three most prevalent are the traditional imperial style (the Forbidden City), the “Sino-Sov” style (boxy structures built between the 1950s and 70s), and lastly the explosion of a modern corporate style that is punctuated with Starchitect buildings like OMA’s CCTV TV Station HQ. We put together a list of 12 modern/contemporary buildings that we feel provides a good starting point. It is far from complete. There are dozens of other great buildings that are not our list, and we are looking to add to the list in the near future. Please add your favorites in the comment section below so we can add them on the second go around. Again thank you to all our readers who sent in their suggestions and photographs. The city guides would not be possible without your help.

To check out other cities visit our world map or our Architecture City Guide page.
The Architecture City Guide: Beijing list and corresponding map after the break.

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Photo by slavecky - http://www.flickr.com/photos/slavecky/

With China’s high level of exports and booming real estate market, it is predicted that the country is on its way to becoming the world leader in economic performance. As a result, the Chinese government has been taking steps to show the world its growing economy and the newfound modernity that has come with it. China’s largest cities have already spent hundreds of billions of dollars on new development and infrastructure projects, ranging all the way from from roads, bridges and buildings to new financial districts. In fact, the country is expected to lay down a total of 4.7 billion square feet of construction in this year alone. More information after the break.

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© Courtesy of Kohn Pedersen Fox Associates

Architects: Kohn Pedersen Fox Associates (KPF)
Location: Paris, France
Project Year: 2011
Photographs: Hufton+Crow

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This week our Architecture City Guide is headed to Portland, Oregon. As one of the greenest cities in the world, it is a leader in sustainable architecture. Even though Portland is only the 29th most populous city in the U.S., it has the second highest number of LEED-accredited buildings. Only Chicago, a city more than four times the size of Portland, has more green buildings. Beyond its contemporary and green architecture it has a good variety of historic buildings that are worth visiting. We have put together a list of 12 contempory buildings to visit, but since we limited it to 12, it is far from complete. We would like you, our readers, to suggest other “must not miss” in the comment section after the break.

Architecture City Guide: Portland list and corresponding map after the break!

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This week we are taking our Architecture City Guide to South Beach. Miami’s architectural styles range from austere corporate architecture, as it has the largest concentration of international banks in the United States, to colorful and playful architecture that reflects its beach and Latin American culture. Architecture lovers can’t miss Miami Beach’s Art Deco District or its old Spanish heritage. We have put together a list of 12 contemporary buildings that range from a small park pavilion to the Adrienne Arsht Center for the Performing Arts. There is plenty more to see in Miami so please add your “must not miss” in the comment section below.

Architecture City Guide: Miami list and corresponding map after the break!

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This week our Architecture City Guide is headed to Philadelphia. The list of influential architects that have either worked, studied, or taught in Philadelphia is perhaps the only list that challenges the numbers of Founding Fathers that descended on this city of “Brotherly Love.” A brief list includes Sullivan, Kahn, Wright, Pei, Rudolf, Corbusier, Latrobe, Gropius, Mumford, and Furness. That being said, our list of 12 barely scratches the surface of buildings worth seeing in this great city. We would like to hear about your must not miss buildings in the comment section below.

The Architecture City Guide: Philadelphia list and corresponding map after the break!

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Courtesy of KPF

Songdo International Business District (IBD) occupies over 1,500 acres of reclaimed land on the West Coast of Incheon, Korea. This waterfront master plan includes a diverse array of programmatic elements and is designed to be a pedestrian friendly city with walkable streets and an urban density that allows for an active street life. Signature features include, the New Songdo City First World Towers, Northeast Asia Trade Tower, the 100-arce Songdo Central Park, and the Songdo City International School.

Architect: Kohn Pedersen Fox
Location: Incheon, Korea
Photographs: H.G. Esch, KPF, Jaesung

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© Zhang Guang Yuan

Located at a major crossroads along the Second Ring Road in Beijing’s eastern Dongcheng district, the CNOOC headquarters building acts as an urban counter-point to the massive Ministry of Foreign Affairs Building situated on the opposing corner.

Project description, images, and drawings after the break.

Architect: Kohn Pedersen Fox Associates
Location: Chaoyangmen North Street, Dongcheng, Beijing, China
Associate Architect: China Architecture Design & Research Group
Project Area: 940,000 sqf
Photographs: Zhang Guang Yuan and H.G. Esch

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© H.G. Esch

The INCS Zero Factory and showroom is a building focused on merging landscape with architecture and art with technology. Designed by KPF, it is located within the Japanese Alps in Nagano. The new factory also needed to include offices and a demonstration facility, as well as provide areas of focused experimentation for research and development.

Architects: Kohn Pedersen Fox Associates
Location: Nagano, Japan
Client: INCS
Project Area: 86,000 sqf
Photographs: H.G. Esch, Iijima

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© H.G. Esch

The Florida International University Alvah H. Chapman Jr. Graduate School of Business serves as an academic mixed-use facility accommodating faculty and administrative offices, conference rooms, auditorium, as well as two open public courtyards. Architects KPF developed a two phase design creating two distinct communities of students and faculty, the courtyards being the linking element between them.

Photographs and drawings of the academic building following the break.

Architects: Kohn Pedersen Fox Associates
Location: FIU Campus, Miami, Florida, USA
Associate Architect: BEA International
Client: Florida International University
Project Area: 92,000 sqf (phase 1)
Photographs: H.G. Esch and Claudia Uribe

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Founded by Eugene Kohn, William Pedersen, and Sheldon Fox, on July 4th 1976, Kohn Pedersen Fox (KPF) has a reputation as one of the world’s preeminent architecture practices. Focusing on design excellence coupled with collaboration and dialogue, KPF encourages an open exchange of ideas throughout the creative process both within the firm and between clients.

The firm’s diverse portfolio of scale, type, and location (projects are located in 35 countries), is a direct reflection of their 500+ staff that are from 43 different countries, and speak more than 30 languages. They have also been amongst the leaders in promoting high-performance design, obtaining environmentally responsible affordable solutions.

Gene Kohn serves as Chairman of KPF and also teaches at the Harvard Business School, since 2006. Teaching one of their most popular courses, Real Estate Development, Design and Construction, where he concentrates on communicating to students the value of design in business, specifically its relationship to real estate. Most recently Mr. Kohn received the Soane Foundation Honors and the 2010 Alumni Award of Merit by the University of Pennsylvania, the highest University wide award presented to Alumni of Penn.

Bill Pedersen serves as the Principal Design Partner of KPF. His design philosophy embraces the relationship between internal and external elements, focusing on the connection of the building and its surrounding community. KPF’s work evokes response by drawing together the past and the present, striving to embody both memory and invention.

The firm has received seven AIA National Honor Awards: 333 Wacker Drive in Chicago, Illinois (1984); the Procter & Gamble World Headquarters in Cincinnati (1987); Westendstrasse 1/DG Bank Headquarters in Frankfurt, Germany (1994); the World Bank in Washington D.C. (1998); the New Academic Complex, City University of New York/Baruch College (2003); the Gannett/USA Today Headquarters in Virginia (2005), and One Jackson Square in New York (2011), which they will receive at the National Convention in New Orleans this May.

KPF projects recently featured at ArchDaily:

• One Jackson Square in New York
• Once Central Macau
• City Center Las Vegas
• Lotte Super Tower

© Michael Moran Studio

KPF transformed an existing surface parking lot into a mixed use development within Greenwich Village of Manhattan that received an AIA Honor Award. Considering the neighborhood fabric the design for One Jackson Square literally reflects its surroundings through its glazed facade and incorporates sustainable practices including green roofs and rainwater harvesting. This project has received numerous awards for its integrated design including: SARA/NY Urban Contextual Award (2010), NY Construction Award of Merit (2010); Chicago Athenaeum/Europe American Architecture Award (2010); AIA NY State Award of Merit (2010), and the MIPIM AR Future Project Awards Commendation (2007).

Architects: Kohn Pedersen Fox Associates
Location: New York City, New York, USA
Design Principal: William Pedersen, FAIA
Design Principal: Trent Tesch, AIA
Project Manager: Dominic Dunn, AIA
Project Team: Albert Lin, Michael Kokora, Lauren Schmidt
Contractor: Hunter Roberts Construction Group
Associate Architect: Schuman Lichtenstein Claman Efron
Structural: Gilsanz Murray Steficek
MEP: WSP Flack & Kurtz
Vertical Transportation: Jenkins & Huntington
Geotechnical/Civil: RA Consultants
Historic Preservation: Higgins & Quasebarth
Acoustical: Cerami Associates
Sustainability: Steven Winter Associates
Project Area: 65,000 sqf
Photographs: Michael Moran Studio, Paul Riveria, Raimund Koch, Trent Tesch

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International architecture firm Kohn Pedersen Fox (KPF) unveiled today their design for One Central Macau. This luxury 400,000 square foot retail facility as part of a grand scale mixed-use development designed by KPF, and completes yet another key milestone in the city’s continued growth.

More images and description after the break. read more »

CityCenter Crystals Veer Aria and Harmon

With over 16,797,000 square feet (1,560,500 m2), the recently opened City Center Las Vegas has become one of the largest LEED certified projects in the world. The project included some of the world’s largest firms: Pelli Clarke Pelli, Kohn Pedersen Fox, Helmut Jahn, RV Architecture LLC led by Rafael Viñoly, Foster + Partners, Studio Daniel Libeskind, David Rockwell and Rockwell Group, and Gensler.

City Center

Inside the complex we find several towers, with hotels, casino and residences, from which the Mandarin Oriental, ARIA Resort’s hotel tower, ARIA’s convention center and theater, Vdara Hotel & Spa, Crystals and Veer towers have received LEED Gold certification.

More photos and information about each building after the break.

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Kohn Pedersen Fox Associates, the international architecture firm headquartered in New York,  announced it has completed the conceptual design for Lotte Super Tower 123 in Seoul, South Korea. The 555-meter (1,821 feet), 123-story tower, when completed in 2014, will be the tallest building in Asia and the world’s second tallest after the Burj Dubai.

Kohn Pedersen Fox (KPF) was selected earlier this year after an international design competition by owner/developer Lotte Group, one of South Korea’s largest conglomerates. This long anticipated project has now earned all major zoning approvals, and excavation is nearly complete. The building will serve as Lotte’s new corporate headquarters and will be built by Lotte Construction, a subsidiary of the group. Architect’s description after the break. read more »

The Burj Dubai by SOM hasn´t been finished yet, but it´s currently the world´s tallest structure. Meanwhile, the Shanghai World Financial Centre by KPF has been opened a few weeks ago, which is (as for now) the tallest building in the world when it comes to roof height with 492m (1,614.2ft). The Taipei 101 in Taiwan is 509.2m (1,670.60ft) if you count the antenna, but its roof is only at 449.2 m (1,473.75 ft).

The building took almost 11 years to be completed, delayed by the Asian Financial Crisis of 97-98 and change on design, but it was finally opened to public on August 30, 2008. You can see an interesting tour of the building on the video posted above.

The observatory on the 100th floor is amazing, with a transparent floor.

Also, I found an interesting documentary by National Geographic on the construction of the World Financial Center, posted it below. Enjoy!

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