Rag Flats / Onion Flats
We were first introduced to Onion Flats by you, our readers. After posting our Architecture City Guide to Philadelphia we received numerous comments suggesting that Onion Flats’s work should be among the cannot miss list if you visit Philadelphia. We certainly agree. We chose to showcase their project Rag Flats first, but we will bring you more of their work in the coming days. Rag Flats is an experiment in and a critique of sustainable forms of urban dwelling. The former industrial rag factory has been re-conceptualized as a residential garden community created by prototypical forms of dwellings commonly found in Philadelphia: the row house, the trinity, the loft, and the pavilion. Rag Flats intentionally explores the necessary relationships between density, intimacy, and privacy in any urban community. Rag Flats was a collaborative design/build project.
More on this project after the break!
Architect: Onion Flats
Location: 1338-52 E. Berks St., Fishtown, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA
Developer/Builder: Onion Flats
Project Year: 2006
Photographs: Courtesy of Onion Flats
Cherry Hill Mall Renovation and Expansion / JPRA Architects
The complete renaissance of Cherry Hill Mall has repositioned the center as an elegant, contemporary classic shopping/dining experience. Prior to the renovation, the Owner, Pennsylvania Real Estate Investment Trust (PREIT) recognized that while strong customer demographics existed, many were driving by the center to shop at competing developments. With the potential addition of a Nordstrom department store, the need for a major repositioning of the center was appropriate. As a result, the comprehensive renovation of the development included the addition of a 138,000 sqf Nordstrom, an additional 62,000 sqf of two-level mall GLA, a new multi-level parking structure, and the complete renewal of the interior mall, all while the center remained in full operation.
More after the break.
Architect: JPRA Architects
Location: 200 South Broad Street, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA
Contractor: Torcon Inc.
Structural Engineer: Shenberger & Associates
Mechanical and Plumbing Engineer: E&S Construction Engineers, Inc.
Electrical Engineer: Stern & Associates, Inc.
Lighting Design: Grenald Waldron Associates
Landscape Architect: Mesa Design Group
Code & Life Safety Consultants: Code Consultants, Inc
Parking Deck Consultant: Walker Parking Consultants
Civil Engineer: CMX
Project Area: 200,000 sqf
Photographs: Matt Wargo Photography, Jay Rosenblatt Photography & Visual Communications, Inc.
Pennsylvania Convention Center / tvsdesign
This project by tvsdesign is an addition to and rehabilitation of Philadelphia’s historic 1893 Reading Train Shed. As the centerpiece of the Pennsylvania Convention Center, the terminal building, Grand Hall, meeting rooms, ballroom and farmer’s market will be joined by a new modern convention center that weaves the style, scale and rhythm of the historic Philadelphia architecture with the new addition.
More on this project after the break.
University of Pennsylvania School of Design 2011 Spring Lecture Series
University of Pennsylvania School of Design boasts one of the Top 10 Graduate Architecture Schools in the United States. This month their Spring Lecture Series, More and More, is hosting Qingyun Ma (M.Arch), dean of the USC School of Architecture. This event is free and open to the public and PennDesign is a registered provider of continuing education programming for the American Institute of Architects.
Qingyun Ma has been called one of “the 27 most influential designers making an impact on business today.” Ma is considered to be among the most exciting contemporary Chinese architects, first receiving international attention as coordinator of Rem Koolhaas’ first Harvard Project on Cities and subsequent book, The Great Leap Forward.
His work has been exhibited around the world, earning him honors including a Design Vanguard award from Architectural Record, Phaidon’s Emerging Design Talents designation and a New Trends of Architecture designation by the Euro-Asia Foundation.
Wednesday, March 16
Qingyun Ma
MORE AND MORE – 2011 Spring Lecture Series
6:00pm – 7:30pm, Meyerson Hall, B3
Other events this month for the Architecture Department:
Tuesday, March 22
Urbanism II
6pm, Meyerson Lower Gallery
Thursday, March 24
Armand Grüntuch & Almut Ernst, Grüntuch Ernst
6:30pm, Meyerson B3
Monday, March 28
Karim Rashid
IPD, sponsored by the IPD Lecture Fund and Lisa Roberts and David Seltzer
6pm, Meyerson B1
Camp JRF Eco-Village / Metcalfe Architecture & Design
The Camp JRF Eco-Village is situated in the Pocono Mountains just up a hill from the existing Jewish Reconstructionist summer camp. The new village will be for older adolescent firl and boy campers and be composed of yurt cabins and sheltered by colorful canopies. The yurts will sit upon platforms, adjacent to a program building for gatherings, bathhouses, and an earthen berm for stargazing. Metcalfe Architecture & Design has been working closely with Camp JRF to provide a design that is focused on creating social spaces for campers and staff to meet and enjoy their lives together at summer camp. The Camp JRF Eco-Village anticipates to break ground this coming summer.
Liberty Medical Center / Front Studio Architects
Designed by Front Studio Architects, the Liberty Medical Center, a 20,000 sqf, 4-story medical office building on Liberty Avenue, brings a strong presence to the street that engages both users and observers of the architecture. The architects carefully considered how this new construction could become a link between the existing varying scales within the neighborhood. Follow the break for more photographs of this design.
Architects: Front Studio Architects
Location: Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, USA
Client: Albanese Properties
Contractor: MM Marra Construction
Project Area: 20,000 sqf
Completed: 2009
Photographs: Ed Massery
Glass Lofts / Front Studio Architects
Commissioned by the Friendship Development Associates (FDA) as a central player in its community revitalization program, the Glass Lofts are a new mixed-use construction consisting of 39,000 sqf artist’s work spaces, 18 loft condominiums, retail and restaurant space, FDA offices and a flexible-use community space. Located at the center of the Penn Avenue Arts District, the Glass Lofts is the result of a community-driven planning process actively involving neighborhood residents, artists and business owners in the development of the project.
Follow the break for more photographs and drawings of the Glass Lofts by Front Studio Architects.
Architects: Front Studio Architects
Location: Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, USA
Client: Friendship Development Associates
Contractor: Sota Construction Services, Inc
Project Area: 39,000 sqf
Project Year: 2010
Photographs: Ed Massery
Urban Biophillic Pavilion / studio d’ARC
The urban biophillic pavilion, designed by studio d’ARC, is located atop a nineteenth century row house in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. The pavilion is a reconstruction of a rooftop greenhouse originally built in 1978. The new pavilion serves as both a garden and common room with indoor and outdoor areas including deck platforms with spectacular views. More photographs and drawings following the break.
Architects: studio d’ARC architects, P.C.
Location: 1618 Roland Street, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, USA
Principal & Designer: Gerard Damiani, AIA
Engineering: Churches Consulting Engineers
HVAC: Tudi Mechanical Systems, Inc.
Roofing: Kenyon Roofing and Aluminum Co.
Structural Elements/Systems: Zottola Fab
Contractor: Sota Construction Services, Inc.
Client: Jan Hamilton-Sota and Ernie Sota
Project Area: 576 sqf
Photographs: Massery Photography, Inc.
Morris Arboretum Tree Adventure / Metcalfe Architecture & Design
Morris Arboretum’s Tree Adventure exhibit Out on a Limb, designed by Metcalfe Architecture & Design, was the 2010 AIA Philadelphia Design Excellence Gold Medal Winner, 2010 AIA Pennsylvania Architectural Excellence Award, 2010 “Best of Philly” Award, and the 2010 American Association of Museums Excellence in Exhibition Design Award. Suspended 50 feet above the forest floor this network of walkways (450-feet in length) provides a bird’s eye view of the forest, complete with a giant Bird’s Nest, Squirrel Scramble rope, and many vista platforms.
Follow the break for photographs, drawings, and renderings of Out on a Limb.
Architects: Metcalfe Architecture & Design
Location: Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA
Consultant: Forever Young Treehouse, Inc
Structural Engineers: CVM Engineering
Construction Managers: CVM Construction
Civil Engineers: Hunt Engineering Company
Lighting Designers: Grenald Waldron Associates
Exhibit Designers: Sparks Exhibits and Environments
Photographs: Paul Warchol
Urban Outfitters Corporate Campus / Meyer, Scherer & Rockcastle
Urban Outfitters Corporate Campus, designed by Meyer Scherer & Rockcastle transformed four dilapidated historic buildings in Philadelphia’s Navy Yard, into an award winning adaptive reuse headquarters. The Anthropologie, Free People, and Urban Outfitters retail brands’ design studios and offices are housed within each building. A campus commons and services’ offices are efficiently shared among the different divisions of the company. This project received a 2010 AIA Honor Award for Architecture.
Follow the break for a video discussing the site and design featuring Urban Outfitters, Inc company founder Dick Hayne. More photographs, drawings, and project description after the break as well.
Architects: Meyer, Scherer & Rockcastle, Ltd.
Location: Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA
Principal-in-Charge: Jeffrey Scherer, FAIA
Project Manager: Josh Stowers, AIA, LEED AP
Interior Designer: Leanne Larson, CID, IIDA, LEED AP
Client: Urban Outfitters, Inc
Total construction cost: $100 million
Project Area: 285,000 sqf
Project Year: 2006
Photographer: Lara Swimmer Photography
Art of Urban Environments Festival Competition Call for Entries
The Art of Urban Environments Festival celebrates how the arts are a positive force in the economic and creative life of communities. Organized by Lafayette College and the City of Easton, located in eastern Pennsylvania, the Art of Urban Environments Festival is an international event recognized by the National Endowment for the Arts with major support.
The international, national, and regional design community including, but not limited to, artists of all disciplines, architects, landscape architects, engineers, film makers are invited to submit unique and engaging proposals such as installations and performances that engage places of nature, art, and culture in transforming the post industrial American City.
For more information, go to the competition’s official website.
Bethlehem Steel Site / Spillman Farmer Architects
Architects: Spillman Farmer Architects
Location: Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, USA
Project area: 42,000 sqm
Photographs: Courtesy of Spillman Farmer Architects
Sigal Museum / Spillman Farmer Architects
Architects: Spillman Farmer Architects
Location: Easton, PA, USA
Project Team: James Whildin, Joseph N. Biondo, Randy Galiotto, Michael Metzger, Wayne Stitt, Joanne Titcomb, Brian Brandis, David Wrigley, Sierra Krause, Deirdre Kwiatek
Project Area: 31,626 sq ft
Project Year: 2010
Photographs: Steve Wolfe
AD Classics: Vanna Venturi House / Robert Venturi
Most critics usually regard consistency in architecture an important aspect of the design. However in the Vanna Venturi House Robert Venturi took the road less travelled and tested complexity and contradiction in architecture, going against the norm. Located in Chestnut Hill, Pennsylvania on a flat site isolated by surrounding trees, Venturi designed and built the house for his mother between 1962 and 1964. In testing his beliefts on complexity and contradition (for which he also wrote the book Complexity and Contradiction in Architecture), Venturi went through six fully worked-out versions of the house which slowly became known as the first example of Postmodern architecture.
More on the Vanna Venturi House after the break.
Fallingwater On-Site Cottages Competition proposal / Wendell Burnette Architects
A couple of days ago we featured Saucier + Perrotte’s proposal for the Fallingwater On-Site Cottages Competition in Mill Run, Pennsylvania, USA. Today, Wendell Burnette Architects | Michael Boucher Landscape Architecture shared with us their proposal, which received second place. More images and architect’s description after the break.
Fallingwater On-Site Cottages Competition proposal / Saucier + Perrotte architectes
Saucier + Perrotte architectes have shared with us their finalist proposal for the Fallingwater On-Site Cottages Competition in Mill Run, Pennsylvania, USA. You can see more images and architect’s description after the break.
AD Classics: Fallingwater House / Frank Lloyd Wright
In Mill Run, Pennsylvania in the Bear Run Nature Reserve where a stream flows at 1298 feet above sea level and suddenly breaks to fall at 30 feet, Frank Lloyd Wright designed an extraordinary house known as Fallingwater that redefined the relationship between man, architecture, and nature. The house was built as a weekend home for owners Mr. Edgar Kaufmann, his wife, and their son, whom he developed a friendship with through their son who was studying at Wright’s school, the Taliesin Fellowship. The waterfall had been the family’s retreat for fifteen years and when they commissioned Wright to design the house they envisioned one across from the waterfall, so that they could have it in their view. Instead, Wright integrated the design of the house with the waterfall itself, placing it right on top of it to make it a part of the Kaufmanns’ lives.
More information, images, and a short video on Fallingwater after the break.
House Equanimity / Joseph N. Biondo, Architect
Architect: Joseph N. Biondo, Architect
Location: Northampton, Pennsylvania, USA
Budget: US $97 / sq ft
Project Year: 2009
Photographs: Steve Wolfe
Flight 93 National Memorial
Paul Murdoch Architects, with Nelson Byrd Woltz Landscape Architects, won the 2-stage competition for a national memorial and park to occur at the site where United Airlines Flight 93 crashed on September 11, 2001, in Somerset County, Pennsylvania. The memorial will honor the passengers and crewmembers of Flight 93.
For more information about the memorial, click here.
