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

Architects: LAR / Fernando Romero y Mauricio Ceballos Location: Mexico City, Mexico Project Team: Ana Medina, Herminio Gonzalez, Omar Gerala Félix, Sergio Rebelo, Ana Paula Herrera, Mario Mora, Juan Pedro López, Guillermo Mena, Libia Castilla, Raúl García, Manuel Díaz, Alan Aurioles, Ana Gabriela Alcocer, Luis Ricardo García, Ivan Ortiz, Tiago Pinto, Laura Dominguez, Juan Andres Lopez, Olga Gomez, Hugo Fernandez, Jason Sidelko, Eddy Slim, Nicola, Davolio, Lee Warren, Alexander Pena, Jacqueline Hernan- dez, Kosuke Osawa, Francisco Javier de la Vega, David Hernandez, Jorge Hernandez, Joaquín Collado, Mariana Tafoya, Eduardo Benítez, Pe- dro Lechuga, Thorsten Englert, Luís Fuentes, Luís Flores, Rodolfo Rueda, Víctor Chávez, Max Betancourt, Wonne Icks, Dolores Robles-Martínez, Sappho Van Laer, Ophelie Chassin, Elena Haller, Abril Tobar, Diego Eumir Jasso, Albert Beele, Homero Yánez, Cynthia Meléndez, Hugo Vela, Susana Hernández, Gerardo Galicia, Alberto Duran, Camilo Mendoza, Dafne Zvi Zaldívar, Cecilia Jiménez, Ángel Ortiz, Raúl Antonio Hernández, Alma Delfina Rosas, Wendy Guillen, Raúl Flores, Daniel Alejandro Farías, Jesús Monroy, Saúl Miguel Kelly, Iván Javier Avilés, Cesar Pérez Client: Grupo Carso / Museo Soumaya Façade: Gehry Technologies Engineer concept: ARUP Los Angeles Project Regency: Inpros Civil Constructor: PC Constructores Project Area: 17,000 sqm Project Year: 2010

Like many large scale projects around the country, REX’s Museum Plaza, in the city of Louisville, Kentucky, had just broken ground and had given light to many dreams for the downtown community when the nation’s financial crisis hit the city. Needless to say, financing came to a standstill and funding for the towers the city had been hoping for was no longer an option. Their current construction loan of $140.5 million, city contributions, bonds and funds already put forth by the team was not enough to proceed in their construction efforts until positive news came their way at the turn of the month. More images and description after the break.

Currently under construction, the Film Theatre of Catalonia is a new building for the Cinematheque of Catalunya in the Raval, Barcelona. Mateo Arquitectura won first prize in 2004 for their design proposal and they were kind enough to share their construction photographs with us. Follow the break for more photographs and an extract of the meeting between Josep Lluís Mateo and José Luis Guerín about the Raval district in Barcelona.

Architects: Mateo Arquitectura Location: Raval, Barcelona Client: Generalitat de Catalunya Project Area: 7,515 sqm Photographs: Adrià Goula

Architects: Josep Lluís Mateo / Mateo Arquitectura Location: Zeist, Utrecht, The Netherlands Project Leaders: Markus Lauber, Till von Mackensen Project Area: 25,000 sqm offices, 25,000 sqm car park Project Year: 2010 Photographs: Adrià Goula

Architect: Jesus Davila arquitectos Location: Aguascalientes, Mexico Client: Karla Judith Medina Design Year: 2009 Construction Year: 2010-2011 Project Area: 125 sqm (25 sqm each floor) Photographs: Ignacio Herrera

Renzo Piano’s Shard is quickly climbing up London’s skyline. The 1,016 ft high skyscraper will provide the mixed use density the city needs, as it incorporates apartments, office space, a spa, hotel and restaurants within its sleek pyramidal form. Inspired by perhaps a ship’s mast from the Pool of London, or a modern take on the church spire, the Shard will become a prominent fixture in the skyline as it nears it completion. Check out these images illustrating the Shard’s progress – the crisp aesthetic commonly found in Piano’s projects is becoming evident as the low-iron glazing is applied to the structure.

More images after the break.

We’ve just received some news from our friends at Steven Holl Architects regarding the progress of their latest private gallery and residence. Situated in the hillside of the Kangbuk section of Seoul, Korea, the project’s geometry is an experimental reaction to a 1967 sketch for a music score by the composer Istvan Anhalt, “Symphony of Modules,” discovered in a book by John Cage titled “Notations”. This strategy, which runs parallel to a research studio on “the architectonics of music,” results in three separate pavilions connected by a sheet of water that establishes the plane of reference from above and below.

More construction photos, renderings and of course, Holl’s infamous watercolors after the break.

We took a few shots of Foster + Partners’ latest addition to the Bowery – a new gallery to house the Sperone Westwater’s growing collection from prominent artists of different nationalities and ages. Sitting a few steps away from SANAA’s musuem, this new gallery’s CNC milled glass facade elegantly responds to its neighboring art museum. According to Foster, the gallery is “both a response to the dynamic urban character of New York’s Bowery and a desire to rethink the way in which the public engages with art in the setting of a gallery.”

Check out some photos after the break.

Architect: SADAR + VUGA Location: Ljubljana, Slovenia Consultant: KSS – London Structural engineers: Atelier One – London, Gradis, Elea iC Mechanical engineers: Lenassi, Jelen & Završnik Electrical services: Elprojekt, Utris, Genera Fire engineers: EKOsystem Traffic & Site engineers: LUZ Building area: 14,100 sqm Total floor area: 35,500 sqm Project Year: 2010 Photographs: Ziga Cebasek, Barbara Jakse Jersic

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Our director, David Assael, took some shots of Gehry’s latest creation – a wavy residential tower clad in undulating metal panels. While still in the construction phase, it is easy to get the overall idea of the structure. In person, the tower demands attention as its presence, due both to scale and materiality, is unmatched within its context. Throughout the day, the light plays upon the curves making the hard metallic color almost glisten. Some of Assael’s photos capture the tower in the early evening – the perfect time of day to see the reds and oranges of the setting sun against the building. What do you think of Gehry’s skyscraper?

More of Assael’s photos after the break.

Special thanks to our reader, Vivian Bratone, for sharing some insight to Steven Holl’s newest museum project with us. Situated in Pearl Spring near Nanjing, China, the museum is only a part of the Chinese International Practical Exhibition of Architecture (CIPEA) complex. The CIPEA project is a complete collaboration of architects from across the world, from Italy to Japan, and Mexico to Croatia. Upon completion, the complex will include more than a dozen buildings that will house exhibits for arts and culture.

A year ago, we featured a set of Tim Harris’ early construction photos of Jean Nouvel’s Doha Office tower previously on AD, and now photographer Nelson Garrido has shared some new shots of the 45 story cylindrical structure. The building’s dia-grid gives much character to the project, as it not only provides structural support but also gives the volume a textured appearance from far away that turns into a more delicate patterning in closer range. The facade is layered with metal brise-soleil based on a traditional Islamic pattern. The fairly standard geometry module becomes a complex visual as it is rotated and flipped to provide maximum shading for the interior of the building. In this way, the arrangement of the panels is both functional and supplies the aesthetic touch that will define the tower.

The curvaceous undulating towers designed by MAD Architects for Mississauga, a suburb of Toronto, Canada, are under construction. Set for completion in 2011, the towers mark the architects’ first international win back in 2006. Located at the intersection of two main streets, the towers serve as a gateway to the city beyond. The textured band-like facade is created by a continuous balcony that wraps the entire building . The building is also shifted off its core by varying degrees to provide views of the surrounding scenery, keeping city dwellers attune to the natural environment. The architects explained, “This building is more than just a functional machine: it responds to the significance of being located at the junction of two main streets, elegantly bearing its landmark status and acting as a gateway to the city beyond. It is something beautiful, sculptural and human.”

More images after the break.

It seems that after Cornell overcame the danger of having both their accreditation and new architecture school eradicated from the campus, there has been smooth sailing in terms of the physical construction of OMA’S Milstein Hall. The building is right on schedule to be fully completed in the Fall of 2011, as the structural steel, and the exterior structure + roof are being erected.

More images of the steel and more about the current construction phase after the break.

CEBRA has been designing several buildings for young users, (we recently featured their 1st-3rd grade building) and their new Design Kindergarten attempts to break preconceived notions of “what a school should look like” as a way to pique children’s curiosity and creativity. Still in progress, the daycare center’s organization is based around different “themes” that focus of specific activities -in this case art, design and architecture. This is somewhat new to the Danish model of daycare, as the building will turn into more of an educational preschool facility where knowledge is acquired, not though a formal lesson, but rather through play. In addition to the architectural strategy of redefining a daycare center, the client/architect relation is something to be noted. The parents participated in the design process in a very active way, offering ideas and criticism to push the project forward.

More images, videos and lots of diagrams after the break.

Architects: Debbas Architecture Location: Dalian, China Client: YIDA Group Project Year: 2010 Photographs: Debbas Architecture

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Our friends from CEBRA, with the The Danish Foundation For Culture And Sports Facilities, are developing a series of “igloos” for sports and culture in Denmark.

The concept is to create a multi an unheated use dome, for sports and cultural acts as you can see on the sketches below. The dome covers a 1,650sqm area on one single space subdivided by smaller pieces. The main structure that allows this single space consists on large laminated wood beams as you can see on the images. Over this structure, a series of sheets cover the space leaving space for ventilation.

This dome is being built in Hundige (Greve municipality), and it will be replicated in other danish cities.

Stay tuned for a CEBRA surprise later this afternoon.

More images after the break:

The Metropol Parasol in Sevilla, Spain, is the result of a competition in 2004, awarded to Jürgen Mayer Architects.

The sinuous structure is proposed to be a landmark in the middle of the old city fabric, while serving as an observation deck to discover the upper level of the compact urban context, a new view of the city. The project has been criticized by the citizens because of the contrast with the existing constructions, as you can see on the renderings.

Architecture photographer Pedro Pegenaute shared with us some photos of the current status of this impressive structure, from which we can see a preview of what the observation deck will be:

Morphosis Architects is currently completing a massive project in Shanghai: The Headquarters and offices for Giant Group, including residence for the chairman & all Giant Group employees, hotel, training center and clubhouse, with a total of 258,300 sqf (23,996 sqm).

Thom Mayne’s architecture has pushed building techniques in order to take his organics form to reality, and I think that the best way to understand his projects is not through renders or even drawings, but by watching the structure and the construction progress.

After the break drawings and several photos during the construction phase of this almost completed project in China:

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.

Our friends from kadawittfeldarchitektur sent us their latest project, the new Adidas administration building “LACES”, located in the city of Herzogenaurach, Germany. The roofing ceremony was yesterday, and the shell of the new building will be finished in the 2nd quarter of 2011.

“Laces“ forms a bright white counterpart to the horizontal black volume of the adjacent adidas Brand Center. The clearly contoured building fits into the existing “World of Sports” campus, with the campus park floating in the interior space, yielding a tempered atrium. This plaza forms the heart of the new building – a forum and meeting space. The office floors organized around this central space provide views into the surrounding landscape of the Herzo-Base. Catwalks above the plaza link the departments, offering a high degree of interaction. Like laces, they tie the building together, forming a multilayer workspace and conveying an atmosphere of creativity.

More images after the break.

Architects: MAD Location: Erdos, Inner Mongolia Director in Charge: Ma Yansong, Yosuke Hayano, Dang Qun Design team: Shang Li, Andrew C. Bryant, Howard Jiho Kim, Matthias Helmreich , Zheng Tao, Qin Lichao, Yang Lin, Sun Jieming Yin Zhao , Du Zhijian Collaborators: China Institute of Building Standard Design and Research, The Institute of Shanxi Architectural Design and Research Site Area: 27,760 sqm Constructed Area: 41,227 sqm Status: Under Construction Client: Erdos Municipal Government Images: MAD