AD Classics: Willis Tower (Sears Tower) / Skidmore, Owings, & Merrill
Towering over the windy city of Chicago, the Willis Tower (formerly known as Sears Tower) was once the tallest building in the world upon its completion in 1973. Sears, Roebuck, & Company commissioned Skidmore, Owings, & Merrill to design an office building that would house their headquarters and the many offices they had scattered around Chicago in one building. The design also had to incorporate extra office space for the anticipated future growth of the company.
More on the Willis Tower after the break.
AD Classics: Lever House / Skidmore, Owings & Merrill
The Lever House by Skidmore, Owings & Merrill was one of the first glass International style office buildings in the United States. Located in midtown Manhattan, it was originally the American corporate headquarters of the soap company Lever Brothers. Built between 1951-1952, the Lever House extends 24 stories in height right across from Mies van der Rohe’s Seagram Building, and stands as its own perfect glass box.
More on the Lever House after the break.
University Center / SOM
Located in Greenwich Village, The New School is an artistic academic institution where thousands of students continue their education in varying facets of design, whether it be music, drama, jazz, liberal arts etc. Within the past few days, the school has unveiled their newest proposal for a University Center designed by New York based SOM. Adding over 365,00 sqf for academic and public programs, a new library and a 600+ student dormitory, the project will create a major campus hub at 65th Fifth Avenue between 13th and 14th Streets when it opens for the Fall 2013 semester.
More about the addition after the break.
SOM wins 2010 “Good Design is Good Business” China Award
The San Francisco office of Skidmore, Owings & Merrill LLP (SOM) has received a 2010 “Good Design is Good Business” China Award for the new U.S. Embassy Complex in Beijing, China. Architectural Record and McGraw-Hill Construction recognized 17 projects with their third bi-annual program. The awards celebrate projects that demonstrate the power of design in the advancement of business and civic objectives.
The U.S. Embassy in Beijing, which opened for the 2008 Beijing Olympics, received its award in the Best Public Project category. Working with the U.S. Department of State, SOM responded to the building’s diplomatic role by creating a space that is welcoming, secure, and respectful of local traditions. As a sovereign U.S. presence on Chinese soil, the Embassy reflects American cultural, social and political values while paying respect to the host country’s ancient and extraordinarily vibrant culture.
More images and information after the break.
Burj Khalifa (formerly Burj Dubai) opens: the tallest building in the world
With its final height kept as a secret until the last minute, we witnessed the incredible opening of the tallest building in the world.
The Burj Dubai, an engineering masterpiece designed by Skidmore Owings & Merrill (SOM), was finally renamed Burj Khalifa in honor to Khalifa bin Zayed Al Nahyan, the ruling sheik of Abu Dhabi who helped Dubai during the financial crisis with over US $25 billion.
The 828m tall structure established quite a distance from the Taipei 101, which used to hold the title for the tallest building in the world with 509m, that’s almost an extra 320m… almost like putting another skyscraper on top of the Taipei 101. This will secure its title for at least a few years.
For more on how the tallest building in the world is structured, you can read this interview with Bill Baker, engineer at SOM.
Koch Center for Science, Math & Technology at Deerfield Academy / Skidmore, Owings & Merrill
Architects: Skidmore, Owings, & Merrill, LLP
Location: Deerfield, Massachusetts, USA
Client: Deerfield Academy
Project Team: Roger Duffy, FAIA / Design Partner, David Childs, FAIA / Design Partner, Anthony Vacchione, AIA / Managing Partner, Christopher McCready, AIA / Project Manager, Ursula Schneider / Senior Designer, Scott Kirkham / Senior Designer, Reiner Bagnato / Technical Coordinator
Collaborators: Frank Ruggerio, Alexandra Cuber, Vivian Lee, Thomas Behr, Terry Hudak
Construction Manger: Gilbane Building Company
Structural Engineer: Le Messurier Consultants
MEP Engineer: Ove Arup & Partners
Civil Engineer: Tighe & Bond, Inc.
Lighting: Ove Arup & Partners
Landscape Architect: Brown Sardinia, Inc.
Planetarium Consultant: Spitz, Inc.
Communications Consultant: Valley Communications Systems, Inc.
Structural Consulting Engineers: John Born Associates
Surveyor: Sherman & Woods
Commissioning: BVH Integrated Services, Inc.
Collaborating Artist: James Turrell
Astronomer: Richard Walker
Geologist: Richard Little
Building Size: 7,400 sqm
Design Year: 2001–2003
Construction Year: 2004–2007
Photographs: Courtesy of SOM
Digital Media City / SOM
SOM recently unveiled the design for the Digital Media City Landmark Tower in Seoul, Korea. The 2,100 foot (640m) tall tower will be the tallest tower in East Asia when completed in 2014.
The iconic building is located in the north of the Han River, which crosses the city, and will dominate the skyline becoming a important icon for Seoul… which is what you will expect if you commission a tower this tall.
St. Albans School / Skidmore, Owings & Merrill
In 2006, with its centennial approaching, St. Albans School, a private boys’ school founded in 1909, decided to embark upon its first new construction project in nearly 30 years. The institution hired Skidmore, Owings & Merrill (SOM) to complete a 25,000-square-foot expansion and 30,00-square-foot of renovations to provide a student center, new classrooms, faculty offices, library and auditorium. The school, which had developed slowly over the years and did not follow a rational plan, also hoped that the architects could create a cohesive linkage between four of its existing buildings.
A view from the top of Burj Dubai, the tallest building in the world
The ninjas at AMNP just featured this short video shot from the top of the Burj Dubai, designed by SOM, the tallest building in the world.
An interesting aerial view of Dubai, where you can see how long the shadow of this tower can get.
In Progress: John Jay College / SOM
John Jay College of Criminal Justice, an active college in the City University of New York, currently occupies a former Public School building, Haaren Hall, on 10th Avenue between 58th and 59th Streets. With ownership of the entire Manhattan block, the college has ambitions to grow over two phases into the full Zoning capacity of the block. The charge of this project is to occupy the entire site with an integrated campus while providing a base for future growth.
Beijing Central Business District / Skidmore, Owings & Merrill
The Chicago and Shanghai offices of Skidmore, Owings and Merrill (SOM) won the international design competition to expand the Beijing Central Business District (CBD). This project was also awarded an AIA Honor Award.
Basically, their plan proposes the creation of 3 new districts anchored by parks and green boulevards as you can see on the renderings. But the an important aspects of this project is on the small scale, a network of walkable blocks to offer pedestrian (and bike) friendly scale for development. Because sustainable doesn´t have to mean just “green”, but also to offer an environment on which people can actually establish social relations on a neighborhood scale.
The plan also proposes an express commuter rail service between the Beijing Capital International Airport, the CBD, and high speed rail service at Beijing South Station. A new streetcar system is proposed to conveniently link all areas of the CBD.
Sometimes, a good transportation system and focusing on the pedestrian scale sound obvious, but they are the foundations to establish neighborhoods that can bring life to parts of the city 24/7, instead of business districts that die at night with dormitory cities with a lack of services.
More images after the break.
US Census Bureau Headquarters / SOM
Architects: Skidmore, Owings & Merrill LLP
Location: Suitland, Maryland, USA
Project team: David Childs, FAIA / Gary Haney, AIA / Peter Magill, AIA / Elias Moubayed / Anthony Fieldman, AIA / Rod Garrett, AIA / Mark Igou, AIA / Aybars Asci, AIA / Kim Van Holsbeke / Takuya Yamauchi / Magd Fahmy / Noppon Psjutharnon / Devawongs Devakul Na Ayudhya / Joyce Ip / Michael Carline
Interior Design Team: Skidmore, Owings & Merrill LLP: Stephen Apking, AIA / Peter Magill, AIA / Nazila Shabestari Duran, AIA / Nestor Santa-Cruz / Donald Holt / Dale Greenwald / Nicholas Cotton / Mary Broaddus / Catherine Haley / Cynthia Mirbach / Elizabeth Marr, AIA / Amber Giacometti / Ya Ching Hsueh / Celine Jeanne / Jennifer Lee / Ashley O’Neill / Michele Pate / Jeremy Singer
Total Building Area: 2.5 million gross square feet
Project Cost: $331 million (total of two phases)
Project year: 2004-2007
Photographs: Eduard Hueber/Arch Photo, Inc. / Skidmore, Owings & Merrill LLP
The lobby for the Burj Dubai / SOM
Curious about how the lobby for the world´s tallest building will look like? SOM shared with us some renderings of their design.
The building was designed by the Chicago office of Skidmore, Owings & Merrill LLP, who also designed the interiors for all the lobbies, public and common spaces for the tower. The design team is lead by Ms. Nada Andric (Associate Director with SOM) and reinterprets the region’s heritage in a contemporary way.
The materials used include glass, stainless steel, polished dark stones, Silver Travertine flooring, Venetian stucco walls, handmade rugs, and stone flooring. Commissioned local and international fine art pieces will be used to decorate these spaces.
I can´t wait to see actual images of this building completed, and see how both the structure and these interiors are materialized. The Burj Dubai is expected to be completed by December, 2009.
You can see some photos during the construction on our previous article.
More images after the break:
AD Interviews: Craig Hartman / SOM
Anyone who has taken an Architecture History class already knows SOM: Skidmore & Owings & Merrill. This practice played a key role during the so-called “International Style”, in a time where the modernism was being consolidated around the world. The practice, which opened in 1936, is behind the centers of the most important cities of the USA and now the rest of the world. One day I was walking by San Francisco´s Downtown with a friend, and he was pointing buildings: “SOM, SOM, SOM, SOM… and that one I think is also by SOM”.
Currently the practice has become one of the largest AEC firms in the world, with over 10,000 projects dealing with architecture, engineering and design. They have offices in Chicago, New York City, San Francisco, Washington, D.C., London, Brussels, Hong Kong, and Shanghai.
But what is interesting is how the firm grew over the years, becoming one of the largest AEC practices in the world with over 10,000 projects. But don´t think about this practice as a building generating machine… what is interesting is how they have managed to keep innovating over the years. A hard task, specially when becoming a large corporate practice with a complex structure. But SOM has been up to the challenge. The Burj Dubai will soon become a case study in terms of structural engineering, the Cathedral of Christ The Light in Oakland has an innovative design, materialized using digital tools to fasten the design/building process, and their award winning detailed model of San Francisco has become a strategic tool to work within the city. And that’s just to name a few.
Recently, Fast Company named SOM among the 50 Most Innovative Companies, and Architect Magazine recently awarded five SOM projects with their R+D Award: The San Francisco Digital Model, the Oasis Generator, the Pine-Fuse Joint system, the Active Phytoremediation Wall System, and the Sustainable Form-Inclusion System. After these projects you can see that SOM is not a typical corporate practice, always researching and pushing architecture forward.
And well, we wanted to know more about the ideas and the process behind a corporate practice always innovating, and we had the chance to sat down with Craig Hartman (FAIA), Design Partner at SOM working at the San Francisco office.
Craig has been behind the award winning Treasure Island Master Plan, the Cathedral of Christ the Light (where the interview was conducted), the SFO International Terminal… and more projects.
I hope you like this interview, specially the young architects that are starting their own firms.
The Park at Lakeshore East / The Office of James Burnett
Architects: The Office of James Burnett
Location: Chicago, Illinois, USA
Master Planning: Skidmore Owings and Merrill
Design Landscape Architect: Tha Office of James Burnett
Landscape Architect of Record: Site Design Group Limited
Engineering Services: Epstein
Client: Magellan Group Limited / Loewenberg and Associates
Project Year: 2002-2003
Construction Year: 2004-2005
Constructed Area: 5.2 Acres
Photographs: james steinkamp, steinkamp photography
SOM included in “The World’s 50 Most Innovative Companies”
Skidmore, Owings & Merrill (SOM) has been included in Fast Company’s annual list of “The World’s 50 Most Innovative Companies”. SOM was ranked #32 (the only AEC company on the ranking), on a list that also features renowned companies such as Google and Apple, with The Obama Team at the top of the list.
Fast Company also rated SOM number one on its list of the 10 most innovative architecture firms:
- Skidmore, Owings & Merrill: The world’s tallest building, the world’s greenest high-rise, and dozens of other superlatives make SOM a massive — and dynamically creative — commercial force.
- Herzog & de Meuron: The Beijing Olympics made this firm’s “Birds’ Nest” stadium an instant icon; its “Hanging Gardens of Babylon” design for the Miami Art Museum shows range.
- Zaha Hadid: A sexy little pop-up pavilion for Chanel. An ice-sculpture-like design for the Nordpark Cable Railway. A trippy design for the Guggenheim Hermitage in Vilnius. Hadid’s work is consistently jaw-dropping.
- Rem Koolhaas’s OMA: You have to love a guy who can design both a giant headquarters building for China’s CCTV and catwalks for Prada.
- Steven Holl: His “Linked Hybrid” complex in Beijing, which opened last fall, shows genius and technological virtuosity. Even Holl’s smaller projects — say, Kansas City’s Nelson Atkins Museum of Art — can be breathtaking in their simple majesty.
- Foster + Partners: A double-decker bus for London, an ethereal bridge in France, and the world’s most advanced airport terminal in Beijing show the range and global fluency of this British stalwart.
- Renzo Piano: The firm’s plan for the California Academy of Sciences, with its undulating roof, is a triumph of green design. Another contribution: The New York Times’ new headquarters, which the paper is hoping to mortgage for a $400 million spring debt payment.
- Christian de Portzamparc: Little known in the U.S. outside architecture devotees, de Portzamparc is notable for the LVMH Tower in New York and the breathtaking concert hall for the Luxembourg Philharmonic. His design for the opera house in Rio de Janeiro will be an instant landmark.
- KieranTimberlake: The firm’s “Cellophane House” was the hit of MoMA’s prefab home show last summer.
- Olsen Sundberg Kundig Allen: This Seattle firm boasts a dossier of important public buildings, but what we love most: a skillful hand with -residences framing sub-lime natural vistas.
See the complete list here.
Construction process of the The Cathedral of Christ the Light / SOM
The construction process of the The Cathedral of Christ the Light by SOM (featured earlier on AD), clearly shows the impressive structure that supports the building and its skin.
You can see more at this gallery, courtesy of SOM:
The Cathedral of Christ the Light / SOM
If you haven´t heard about Skidmore, Owings & Merrill, maybe you didn´t take and Architecture History class, as they played an active role on the International Style during the 1930s. They also developed an expertise in high rise towers and structural engineering, shaping the downtown of the most important cities in the United States – and the rest of the world. As of now SOM is one of the largest offices in the world, with on-going projects such as the Burj Dubai, actually the tallest building in the world.
But SOM is not just high rise buildings. They have developed award winning sustainable master plans, interiors, structures, and other types of buildings.
Now we present you The Cathedral of Christ the Light in Oakland, CA, an amazing structure with a wooden/glass skin that creates an interior full of light. One of my favorite buildings of the year, already awarded with an AIA Honor Award for Architecture.
We´d like to thank SOM San Francisco for providing us all the information of this new project.
Architects: Skidmore, Owings & Merrill LLP
Location: Oakland, California, USA
Design Team: Craig Hartman, FAIA, Design Partner / Gene Schnair, FAIA, Managing Partner / Keith Boswell, AIA, Technical Director / Raymond Kuca, AIA, Project Manager / Patrick Daly, AIA, Senior Design Architect / Eric Keune, AIA / Lisa Gayle Finster, AIA / Christopher Kimball / Jane Lee / Christina Kyrillou / Elizabeth Valadez / Denise Hall Montgomery / Mariah Neilson / Peter Jackson / Surjanto / Gary Rohrbacher / Ayumi Sugiyama / Liang Wu / Katie Motchen / Matthew Tierney / Henry Vlanin
Structural Engineering: Mark Sarkisian, PE, SE, Structural Engineering Director / Peter Lee, PE, SE, Senior Structural Engineer / Eric Long, PE, Senior Structural Engineer / Aaron Mazeika, PE, AP / William Bond / Ernest Vayl / Feliciano Racines / Jean-Pierre Michel Chakar / Lindsay Hu / Rupa Garai / Sarah Diegnan
Interior Design: Tamara Dinsmore, Chanda Capelli, Susanne LeBlanc, Carmen Carrasco, David Lou
General Contractor: Webcor Builders
Design start: 2002
Construction Complete: 2008
Site Area: 2.50 acres
Constructed Area: 20,996 sqm
Photographs: César Rubio, Timothy Hursley, John Blaustein
Architect´s description:
Mark Magazine #15
Mark Magazine is by far one of my favourite architecture magazines. Their motto “Another architecture” tells us what we´ll find inside: fresh architecture – the main reason we love this magazine so much.
This bimonthly magazine is structured in 5 sections: Noticeboard (a collage of new projects), Cross Section (short articles on new buildings and architectural subjects), Viewpoint (interviews with architects on the rise), Long Section (in depth articles on buildings) and Service Area (new building materials).
On the August/September issue (October one on the mail, more about that soon) we find an amazing house by spanish studio Ensamble, shown on a collage with embossed textures, something that has become a signature on Mark Magazine covers.
Burj Dubai, tallest building in the world almost finished
Some love this building, and some hate it. I´m impressed.
The Burj Dubai (set to be the tallest tower in the world, while the tallest structure as of now), is almost finished. Located in Dubai, it´s the centerpise of a mixed-use development that will include 30,000 homes, 9 hotels, 3 ha of parks, 19 residential towers, a man and a 12ha artificial lake.
I decided to Google about the Burj Dubai a little, and i found an interesting interview at Wired with SOM´s structural engineer Bill Baker, telling the story behind the design, the structure and construction. The foundations were overengineered just in case the client wanted to rise the height of the building during construction… which he did!. Now the final height won´t be disclosed until the construction is finished.
For now, enjoy this pictures the air on an helicopter by David Hobcote, seen at Gizmodo:
