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After two years of planning and waiting for financing, the North Carolina chapter of the American Institute of Architects, designed by Frank Harmon Architect PA, finally held its official, public groundbreaking ceremony for its new headquarters building and design center on Thursday, December 9, at 11:30 a.m.

The building will be constructed on an oddly shaped, previously unused lot on Peace and Wilmington streets between Peace College and the NC Government Complex.  The new building will also be designed to meet LEED standards at the Platinum level. The AIA NC Center for Architecture & Design will be “a modern building with a green heart,” as Frank Harmon, FAIA, likes to call it, whose firm won a professional competition for the project in 2008. More images and project description after the break.

Welcome to the Architecture City Guide series. Here at ArchDaily we thought this series could especially be put to use during the upcoming holiday season. Many will be traveling to see family, having family visit, or taking a New Year’s vacation to a new city. Here is a small City Guide list, starting with Washington D.C.

We want to hear from you, share with us your City Guide list for buildings in Washington D.C.  More cities to come, so be sure to check back.

Follow the break for our Washington D.C. list and a corresponding map!

ArchDaily would like to wish Oscar Niemeyer a Happy 103rd Birthday today. In 1988, at age 81, Niemeyer was awarded the Pritzker Architecture Prize, together with American architect Gordon Bunshaft. Setting the pace for us all, Niemeyer continues to practice architect from his office in Rio de Janeiro, with ongoing projects in Brazil and Spain. He even recently composed the song Tranquilo com a Vida, download and listen here.

Richard Meier and Oscar Niemeyer met in October and here are some photos that Richard Meier & Partners shared with ArchDaily.  We will soon be featuring an interview with Richard Meier, so be sure to keep a look out.

Follow the break for Richard Meier and Oscar Niemeyer.

For our 6th selection of previously featured libraries, we have four amazing modern project and one Classic. Check them all after the break.

Surry Hills Library and Community Centre / FJMT This project is prominently located in the heart of Surry Hills, an inner-city suburb of Sydney whose community is characterised by a diversity of age, income and cultural backgrounds. The architectural context is also diverse: residential apartments, terrace housing, shops and commercial/industrial premises vary in scale though their architectural style is predominantly Victorian (read more…)

This video shares some insight into the Helsinki Design Lab Studio on Sustainability. The Studio spent a week together sketching ideas for a national strategy for carbon neutrality in the built environment, eventually developing 10 recommendations as a starting point for redesigning the problem comprehensively.

A little more on the HDL Studio concept following the break.

Architect: Antonio Zaninovic Architecture Studio Location: Cape Town, South Africa Project Architect: Antonio Zaninovic Interior Design: Rees Roberts + Partners LLC Landscape Design: Rees Roberts + Partners LLC Project Area: 4,500 sqm Project Year: 2009 Photographs: Antonio Zaninovic, Nikolas Michael

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The Association of Collegiate Schools of Architecture (ACSA) and the American Institute of Steel Construction (AISC) is challenging architecture students in its eleventh annual steel design student competition for the 2010-2011 academic year to explore a variety of design issues related to the use of steel in design and construction. The design competition is carried out in two categories.

Architects: Atelier 11 Location: Tianjin, China Director: Xu Lei Design Team: Xu Lei, Li Han, Meng Haigang Construction Drawing: Li Han, Tang Xiaoxi Project area: 1,732 sqm Project year: 2009 – 2011 Photographs: Courtesy of Atelier 11

We visited Asymptote’s new offices in Brooklyn to interview Hani Rashid.

As the first anniversary of the start of building work at the Library of Birmingham approaches, new design images released today offer a first look inside the building.

With the main service cores of the building now in place and the lower floor structures beginning to take shape, the images, produced by architects Mecanoo, provide members of the public with a preview of what can be expected when the library opens its doors in 2013.

More images and press release after the break.

Back in 2007 Kiss + Cathcart Architects were awarded the New York City Design Commission Award for the River House that is to be situated on the Bronx River on the last stretch just before it empties into the East River and is to be operated by the Bronx River Alliance on behalf of the city. The River House is designed with sustainability as a top priority, developed to be a living element of the park.

More information on the Bronx River Boat House after the break.

Asymptote Architecture and Artech Architects were awarded a close second place finish for the Kaohsiung Marine Gateway project. The project proposes a 200m long structure situated between two 14 story towers located at the cities newly developed harbor edge. The proposal calls for a new urban intervention at the cities waterfront combining both cultural and commercial aspects with the port terminal functions the building is designed to house. The buildings technological envelope and architecture and is designed to be a striking and elegant addition to the quickly changing city of Kaohsiung and to act as a catalyst for unique and sustained urban development over the coming years and decades.

Further description and renderings of Asymptote Architecture and Artech Architects proposal after the break.

For the winning proposal by Reiser + Umemoto click here.

Architects: Asymptote Architecture and Artech Architects Location: Kaohsiung, Taiwan Project Team: Asymptote Architecture – Hani Rashid & Lise Anne Couture, Artech Architects – Kris Yao Structural Engineering: Knippers Helbig Environmental Engineering: Transsolar Cruise Consultant: Parsons Brinckerhoff Fire, Electrical & Plumbing: Heng Kai Traffic Engineering: Everest Project Area: 40,000 sqm Client: Kaohsiung Harbor Bureau Competition: Kaohsiung Port Terminal 2010 Photographs: Courtesy of Asymptote Architecture

Check out Reiser + Umemoto’s latest win for the Kaohsiung Port and Cruise Service Center in southern Taiwan. Working with Taipei-based Fei and Cheng and Associates, New York-based Ysrael A. Seinuk, PC and Hong-Kong based Arup, the new development exploits its waterfront placement as tumbling organic wave-like volumes cascade out toward the waves.

More about the winning proposal after the break.

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.

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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

Now this is dense. Kowloon Walled City, a Chinese settlement in Hong Kong was at one time thought to be the most dense place on the planet. A Japanese team was able to document the city in section before it was disassembled in 1993.

Additional photographs following the break.

An amazing visitor center from Iceland, a house from Croatia, a pavilion in New York, a housing project in France, and WikiLeaks’ offices from Sweden. All of them part of the best from last week. Check them all after the break.

Snaefellsstofa Visitor Center / ARKÍS architects Snæfellsstofa Visitor Center communicates the dignity of the surrounding nature and is closely connected to its immediate surroundings. It attracts visitors to its unique appearance and simultaneously works as an attractor for indoor and outdoor activities. The building is divided into three parts so that it can be utilized in different ways, depending on the season (read more…)

Hyunjoon Yoo Architects have shared with us their proposal for the new Seoul Yongsan Urban Park. Their design is one of the top six proposals. All six of them will be combined as one scheme for the new park. More images and architect’s description after the break.

Recently, we featured Erick van Egeraat’s Chess-club Building in the Khanti-Mansiysk autonomous region, which officially opened on Dec. 7th. Now, we are highlighting Egeraat’s Vershina Trade & Entertainment Centre which officially opened on the same day. The 37.000 sq. meter, state-of-the-art trade and entertainment centre in Surgut, Russia offers space for retail, extreme sports, dance, restaurants, bars and an underground night club. The eight-story venue provides round-the-clock activities for visitors of all ages. The dialectic play of light and dark, night and day form the basis for the concept. More images and architect’s description after the break.

Designed by Bernard Desmoulin, the Conservatoire Léo Delibes in Clichy-la-Garenne is the last winner of the prestigious French architecture prize Équerre d’Argent. Enjoy the video!

The Victoria and Albert Museum recently announced the seven architectural practices invited to submit proposals for the museum’s Exhibition Road development. You can read more about the competition and the shortlisted design teams after the break.

We recently received this large format monograph on the work of Bohlin Cywinsky Jackson, one of the most renowned US firms. Their works include the Grand Teton Discovery and Visitor Center in Wyoming, several Apple Stores around the world, Pixar Studios, and a long list of award winning public and residential projects.

More info about their monograph after the break.

Thanks to our reader, Norman Li, we came across Daihai Fei’s dwelling place – a bamboo “egg” smallHouse. The tiny enclosure measuring 2 meters tall is outfitted insulation, a waterproof membrane beneath a skin of sacks filled with sawdust and grass seed. In the spring, the seeds will begin to germinate and the hut will be covered in grass. And, the hut is placed on wheels, allowing Fei to transport the small residence whenever and wherever he sees fit.

More images and more about the residence after the break.

On the 7th of December, Dutch architect Erick van Egeraat officially opened his Chess-club Building in the Khanti-Mansiysk autonomous region. The new 5.000 sq. meter building in Khanty-Mansiysk already hosted the 2010 Chess Olympics in September. Now in December it will officially open for the inhabitants. More images and architect’s description after the break.