Photographer: Jeff Goldberg/ESTO | ArchDaily

"I Would Rather Be Known as an Architect of Elegant Restraint": Interview with Belmont (Monty) Freeman

Vladimir Belogolovsky — Tue, 05 Oct 2021 03:30:00 +0000

Belmont (Monty) Freeman (b. 1951) founded his New York-based, currently eight-person practice, Belmont Freeman Architects in 1986. Its active projects are half institutional and half residential, with a special focus on adaptive reuse, predominantly in New York and nearby states. Among the firm’s most exemplary projects are the LGBT Carriage House on the University of Pennsylvania campus, a series of restorations at the Four Seasons restaurant in the Seagram Building, renovations at the Yale Club in Manhattan, and the renovation of the Ezra and Cecile Zilkha Gallery at Wesleyan University in Connecticut, designed by Kevin Roche. Current projects include an expansive but minimalist residential compound on Martha’s Vineyard, branch library renovations in New York City, and redevelopment of a former meatpacking building into a new Innovation Hub for Columbia University’s Business School.

Yale Science Building / Pelli Clarke Pelli Architects + Stantec

Valeria Silva — Fri, 11 Dec 2020 17:00:00 +0000

Yale Science Building, its plaza, and connective underground concourse are transformative achievements in campus planning, building design, and scientific programming. The design—which addresses connectivity, placemaking, and architectural context—establishes as an active, unifying hub for academic life on Yale University’s Science Hill campus.

1400 Crystal Drive Office Building / FOX Architects

Andreas Luco — Tue, 31 Dec 2019 19:00:00 +0000

Years before Amazon selected metropolitan Washington DC’s Crystal City neighborhood (now known as National Landing) for their HQ2, FOX Architects saw the potential for revitalizing this outdated and underutilized neighborhood. Comprised of partially vacant buildings constructed in the 1960s-1980s, developers and community members had long debated how to revitalize the neighborhood. FOX Architects envisioned a sustainable path to urban renewal through the practice of building recycling, exemplified in 1400 Crystal Drive: a 1968 structure transformed into a 310,000 SF, LEED Gold Certified, state-of-the-art office building. The existing building had many issues that needed to be addressed in order to update it for modern workplace needs and integrate it into a next-generation community setting. The goals were to transform the dated office building by weaving together old and new building systems through the original post-tension structure and to make the plazas and lobby more pedestrian and community oriented. By increasing daylight in the interior, adding square footage and amenities, and improving interior planning, the vision was to sustainably create a new, usable building instead of razing the old structure.

Tucson Audubon’s Paton Center for Hummingbird’s Wildlife Pavilion / DUST

Pilar Caballero — Fri, 26 Jul 2019 16:00:00 +0000

The Paton Center for the Hummingbirds, now under the care of the Tucson Audubon Society, has its roots in the deeply personal; the 1.4-acre property was originally a private residence, home to a couple, Wally and Marion Paton, who welcomed into their garden the migratory hummingbirds that sweep through the region and, eventually, the public as well.

Sidra Medical and Research Center / Pelli Clarke & Partners

Andreas Luco — Thu, 02 May 2019 18:00:00 +0000

Sidra Medicine is a world-class hospital and ambulatory care center offering state-of-the-art clinical services and biomedical research. This academic medical center is part of the Qatar Foundation’s Education City campus, which hosts branches of American universities.

The Theatre School, DePaul University / Pelli Clarke & Partners

Andreas Luco — Fri, 15 Mar 2019 18:00:00 +0000

The Theatre School is a gateway to DePaul University’s Lincoln Park campus. Used for both instruction and performance, the building welcomes students, faculty and staff during the day and theatergoers at night. Emphasizing openness and transparency, the building puts the excitement of a theater education on view for the neighborhood. The five-story building is a composition of rectangular forms clad in limestone, translucent glass and transparent glass. Projecting from the building at the corner is the Sondra & Denis Healy Theatre, serving as a sign for the university. The north façade softly glows at night, a beacon for the Theatre School. Similar to a scrim, the translucent glass wall can reveal the 100-seat flexible theater behind it.

Wintrust Arena / Pelli Clarke Pelli Architects

Daniel Tapia — Tue, 24 Apr 2018 13:00:00 +0000

The Wintrust Arena is located on the Near South Side of Chicago. It is the home of DePaul University’s men’s and women’s basketball teams and also a multi-purpose event space that hosts concerts and convention-related events for McCormick Place, the country’s largest convention center. The arena is part of a redevelopment plan to transform the surrounding neighborhood into a vibrant entertainment district with new dining and entertainment venues, hotels, and streetscapes.

Sharon Fieldhouse / design/buildLAB

Cristian Aguilar — Wed, 25 Feb 2015 01:00:00 +0000

Program Description

Interview: Brian MacKay-Lyons on the State of Architectural Education and the Architect's Role

Karissa Rosenfield — Wed, 22 Oct 2014 00:00:00 +0000

Brian MacKay-Lyons is the founding partner of MacKay-Lyons Sweetapple Architects, a professor at Dalhousie University and the founder of Ghost Lab - the now legendary 2-week summer design/build program that took place on his family farm in Nova Scotia from 1994 to 2011. While relentlessly local, Brian's work has been recognized internationally with more than 100 awards, 300 publications and 100 exhibitions. In 2012, the American Institute of Architects recognized the collective work and influence of Ghost with an Institute Honor Award for Architecture.

Video: design/buildLAB's Reality Check

Eric Baldwin — Sat, 21 Dec 2013 00:00:00 +0000

The design/buildLAB at the Virginia Tech School of Architecture + Design has recently released a new documentary by Leon Gerskovic titled Reality Check, a film that chronicles the journey of 16 students as they undergo the design and construction of their Masonic Amphitheatre in Clifton Forge, Virginia. The project was a complete redevelopment of a post-industrial brownfield into a public park and performance space; the video relates how students collaborated with local community and industry experts to bring meaningful architecture to this struggling American rail town.

Smith Creek Pedestrian Bridge / design/buildLAB

Igor Fracalossi — Thu, 05 Sep 2013 00:00:00 +0000

Program Description

VIDEO: design/buildLAB at Virginia Tech

Vanessa Quirk — Sat, 24 Aug 2013 00:00:00 +0000

An inspiring little video from the folks at Virginia Tech that will make you want to get your designer hands dirty - today. The video follows the third-years of 2013 as they build their final project: a bridge. As the co-founder of the lab, Kieth Zawistowski, eloquently says at the video's end, "It doesn't really matter if you ever want to actually build something yourself again, what's important, in this case, is that you've seen the entirety of the process, from conception to realization." If you want to see more from design/buildLAB, check out the project completed by last year's students (which features in the last few minutes of the video): Masonic Ampitheatre.

Masonic Amphitheatre Project / design/buildLAB

Igor Fracalossi — Tue, 10 Jul 2012 00:00:00 +0000

The project consists of the complete redevelopment of a post-industrial brownfield into a public park and performance space. The idea driving the design is that the built elements are sculptural forms emerging out of the landscape of the park. The park is a series of extruded lawns and carved paths that knit the surrounding urban fabric into the site’s circulation. The built elements include a stage with acoustic shell, a backstage with loading dock, green room and wings, a seating area, and a sound and lighting control booth.

Spiral House / Joeb Moore + Partners Architects

Kelly Minner — Tue, 15 Feb 2011 00:00:00 +0000

Situated along the Connecticut shoreline of Long Island Sound, the Spiral House seeks to engage, enhance and reflect the surrounding coastal climate and its atmospherics of light, air, water. Formally and spatially, the house is a direct and pragmatic response to the strict environmental (FEMA and flood elevations) and local zoning restrictions and regulations (height, building setbacks, FAR, footprint) imposed on the building and site (see sectional diagram).