Since it’s opening on September 16th, the Jean Nouvel acrylic encasement and historic Jane’s Carousel has become a landmark in the heart of Brooklyn Bridge Park for New York families. The welcoming public pavilion offers spectacular views of the East River, the Manhattan and Brooklyn Bridges, and the Manhattan skyline.
Continue reading for more detailed information and images.
The Executive Committee of top international design and architecture firm Perkins Eastman is pleased to announce that the firm is expanding its presence on the West Coast by opening an office in downtown San Francisco, which is rapidly becoming a thriving city for architecture making it an ideal location for an additional office. Located at 23 Geary Street in the One Kearny building, the 8,100 sf office will accommodate a growing staff of 45. Managing Principal Leslie Moldow FAIA is joined by Principals Dan Akol AIA and Rick Drake AIA and Associate Principal John Amanat AIA in leading the office. The office is expected to be complete and ready to occupy on November 1, 2011. More information on the firm’s expansion after the break.
Norman Foster has launched proposals for the Thames Hub as “An Integrated Vision for Britain”. The self-funded collaboration between Foster + Partners, Halcrow and Volterra has produced a detailed, holistic vision for Britain’s future development of infrastructure.
The rapidly population growth and evolving global economy has put pressure on UK’s aged infrastructure. The study describes the Spine, which will combine rail, energy, communications and data throughout the entire length of the UK. The Spine is supported by the proposed Thames Hub, introducing a new river barrier and crossing, an international airport, and a shipping and rail complex.
The Thames Hub plans to maximize Britain trade links with the rest of world, stimulate job creation, and boost the economies of the Midlands and the North by providing direct connections to the cities and markets of Europe.
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Earlier this week, we had the pleasure of touring the Metropolitan Museum of Art ‘New Galleries for the Art of the Arab Lands, Turkey, Iran, Central Asia, and Later South Asia’ with Achva Stein on its opening day. Stein, a principal of an ASLA award-winning landscape architecture and design firm Benzinberg Stein Associates and the founding Director of the Graduate program in Landscape Architecture at the Spitzer School of Architecture at the City College of New York, was asked to join the MET’s endeavors after her noted publication, Morocco: Courtyards and Gardens, showcased her passion for and understanding of the country’s varied garden types found in regions such as Marrakech and Fez. For the new wing, Stein has created a fantastic 14th century Maghrebi-Andalusian-style courtyard that goes beyond a mere representation, and truly infuses the spirit and essence of a Moroccan court into a small interior space of the MET.
More about our trip to the MET after the break.
Yesterday Richard Meier & Partners announced the design of a new Italian residence, Villa Gardone. The home is part of a complex in Gardone Riviera that is to be designed by a number of illustrious architecture firms from Europe and the U.S and completed by 2014.
Continue reading from more information on the Villa Gardone.
Nicolas Dorval-Bory & Raphaël Bétillon have recently been awarded second prize for their design of a hotel in Jurmala, Latvia. The duo may sound familiar, as last year, we featured their artificial landscape of clouds which created an experiential journey along the banks of the Garonne in Toulouse. For their latest project, Dorval-Bory and Bétillon have studied the relationship between the city and music and sound, to experiment with a gradation from the most structured musical composition to nature’s acoustic chaos by way of an architectural point of view.
More about the hotel design after the break.
In the summer of 2009, we shared Foster + Partners and URS Corporation spaceport project in New Mexico. The structure, which is the first spaceport in history, will host commercial operations by private space travel companies, such as Virgin Galactic. Today, we are sharing an update of the project as the Spaceport enjoyed its dedication ceremony a few days ago. Designed to meet LEED certification, The 110,000-plus square foot facility will feature energy-efficient techniques such as earth-tubes that will pre-condition the air to reduce HVAC costs by 50-70%. The architects explained, “The sinuous shape of the building in the landscape and its interior spaces seek to capture the drama and mystery of space flight itself, articulating the thrill of space travel for the first space tourists.”
More images after the break.
Star architect, Frank Gehry, attempts to survive the decline of U.S. growth by turning to Asia. The Architecture Billings Index illustrates the decreased demand for design serves in America by plunging from 51.4 in August to 46.9 in September. According to the American Institute of Architects, a score less than 50 indicates a decline in billings.
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Check out this trailer for what promises to be an awesome documentary on the Eames. This painter and architect duo carved their niche into the history of design, beginning with their famed lounge chair and ottoman, continuing with graphic design, photography, architecture, and visionary ideas for companies such as Westinghouse, Boeing and Polaroid. Directed by Jason Cohn and Bill Jersey, the documentary will run in New York at the IFC Center on November 18, and will have its broadcast premiere December 19 as part of the PBS American Masters series. Narrated by James Franco, Eames: The Architect and the Painter is the first film dedicated to these creative geniuses and their work. As the clip explains, ”They were introducing people to look at the world differently.” Enjoy!
The World Monuments Fund calls for international awareness to the 2012 list of endangered monuments. The watch encompasses 67 threatened cultural-heritage sites worldwide. These influential landmarks include the iconic Manufacturers Trust Company Building in New York City designed by Gordon Bunshaft of Skidmore, Owings & Merrill and Paul Rudolph’s Orange County Government Center in Goshen, New York.
Continue reading after the break.
Production and design firm, The Department of the 4th Dimension (The D4D), created the world’s first pop-up scent museum for Sephora & Firmenich. The Sensorium: Lucid Dreams from the Sensory World is an interactive exhibition exploring the emotions and instincts behind scent.
For more information, continue reading after the break.
Guo Jinlong, the Mayor of Beijing, China and Thomas J. Pritzker, Chairman of the Hyatt, revealed the location of the 34th Pritzker Prize Ceremony. The prestigious event will be held in Beijing, China on May 25th, 2012.
On October 20, The Museo de Arte Contemporáneo de Monterrey (MARCO) and Richard Meier & Partners Architects launched Latin America’s first retrospective exhibition celebrating the forty-eight years of Richard Meier’s career. The show reveals an in-depth overview of many significant projects, showcasing a large collection of models, original sketches, photographs, renderings and an exclusive gallery dedicated to Meier’s product design.
Australia-based Andrew Maynard has shared a new type of governmental building with us with a project that is as much a statement about pushing the realm of architecture forward, as it is a reaction to political happenings and the need for change. This adaptable architecture builds upon the irony of a democracy where elected representatives supposedly represent the voice of the people, yet, the occupied governmental spaces are “fortified and spatially manipulated to the benefit of the representative rather than those represented.” By allowing the represented to interact with the spatial qualities of the representatives, Maynard’s mobile and adaptable structure becomes a ” democratic architecture.”
More images and more about the project after the break.
We’ve been taking you through the two week installations at the BOFFO Building Fashion event, and this week marks the third installation by Patrik Ervell + Graham Hudson. It is quite remarkable to see the transformation that takes place at 57 Walker Street every few days (remember how last time, the fashion and architecture pair Irene Neuwirth + Marc Fornes / TheVeryMany resulted in a crazy atmosphere of organic metallic forms dancing across the room?). Now, visitors will experience a space with crumbling walls, rubble, scaffold and re-bar designed by Hudson in response to the Ervell’s design brand of innovative materials and unconventional application throughout his collections. “Overall, the environment that has been created where destruction —the decay and the beautiful—are transformed into art and design, both literally and figuratively,” explained BOFFO.
More about the designers and the installation after the break.
An increasing trend towards sustainable construction within the building industry has resulted in a steady stream of “green” products into the marketplace. It is not uncommon to see products labeled with numerous claims that are certified by previously unheard of governing bodies. Industry leaders recently gathered in Toronto at Greenbuild to focus on avenues to increase the transparency of such claims made in the marketplace, and develop an integrated information source to reduce confusion and increase reliability.
Slowly, but surely, Hamburg’s beautiful Elbe Philharmonic Hall is nearing completion (according to the Philharmonic’s construction website, the roof construction that seals the large concert hall has just been completed!). We shared some photos of the concert hall’s innovative and iconic skin system when we visited Hamburg earlier this year, and recently, Jose Campos shared his latest set with us.
Check out Campos’ photos and learn more about the completed ceiling construction after the break.
Modern urban living, commerce and tourism are a part of the new multi-district redevelopment plans for Nanjing’s Yangtze Redevelopment. Selected by Beijing based MCC Real Estate Company, SOM has imagined a scheme that will create a new area of neighborhoods, shopping districts and corporate skyscrapers embodying a new identity for Nanjing and a mixed-use cityscape for its people.
SOM Director Douglas Voigt said, “The core concept of the SOM plan for Nanjing Xiaguan is making connections. Connecting the city to the river. Connecting the best of urban living to nature. Connecting under–utilized land to value creation that will increase growth, tourism and prosperity. Connecting Nanjing’s rich heritage with China’s rising economy.”
