Foster + Partners: The Latest Architecture and News

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The Norton Museum of Art in West Palm Beach, Florida has announced plans for the first-ever public garden designed by Foster + Partners as part of their $100 million expansion project. To feature a variety of native sub-tropical plantings and gathering spaces, the garden is envisioned as “a new social space for the community.”

“From the beginning, we have conceived of the Norton expansion as an opportunity to create a New Norton—one that embraces its original design, while also creating a more welcoming and inviting campus,” said Lord Norman Foster.

“In our masterplan, it was important for us to define the Norton’s sense of place—in this case Florida’s lush subtropics. To do so, we conceptualized a museum within a garden. We are creating verdant spaces for art and programming that extends the museum beyond its walls.”

The first in a new generation of Apple stores has opened in the heart of Chicago. Designed by Foster + Partners, Apple Michigan Avenue employs the tech giant’s “Town Square” concept, which subverts the typical retail experience in favor of a community-inclusive approach.

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Bloomberg’s new European HQ, which is located in the heart of the City of London, has been rated the world’s most sustainable office building. Designed by Foster + Partners, the office complex has been awarded an Outstanding BREEAM rating, attaining a 98.5% score – the highest design-stage score ever achieved by any major office development.

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Canada’s future tallest building, The One, has broken ground in downtown Toronto. Designed by Foster + Partners, the 85-story building will become the country’s first supertall skyscraper (commonly defined as taller than 300 meters/980 feet), rising to a peak of 306 meters (1,004 feet). The tower will also take over the title of Canada’s second tallest manmade structure, behind only the CN Tower.

Located at the corner of Bloor Street and Yonge Street on the border between downtown and Yorkville, the residential tower will respond to its unique context, embodying the neighborhood character of Yorkville, the bustling commercial life of Bloor Street and the local heritage of Yonge Street.

Foster + Partners have revealed designs for the sustainability-minded new headquarters of Hungarian oil and gas company MOL Group in southern Budapest. Known as MOL Campus, the plan will center on an environmentally-progressive structure located within in a park-like setting. When completed, it will become this city’s tallest building.

“This is a landmark project for several reasons, not only for MOL but also for Budapest,” said Nigel Dancey, Head of Studio, Foster + Partners. “It presents a unique challenge – to ensure that the building meets the functional needs of the organisation, follows the highest standards of sustainability, and is respectful of its historic surroundings.”

The Westminster Council has approved plans for the Foster + Partners-led transformation of the Snowdon Aviary at ZSL London Zoo. Designed by English architect and theorist Cedric Price in collaboration with Frank Newby and Lord Snowdon, the Grade II-listed structure became the first aviary in the UK to allow visitors to walk through a natural bird habitat when it opened to the public in 1962.

The revamp will preserve many of the original design qualities from the original structure, while updating safety and viewing strategies for its new inhabitants: a family of colobus monkeys and parrots. To make the monkeys feel at home, the design features a series of platforms and vertical elements, allowing visitors to learn about the animals as they swing, jump and explore their surroundings.

On a day of big reveals for Apple – including a demonstration of the architect-friendly ARKit augmented reality technology – perhaps none was presented so glamorously as the debut of the spectacular venue in which the event was held: the brand new Steve Jobs Theater.

Apple started off their keynote address with a flythrough tour of the new space, designed by Foster + Partners (as is the main ring-shaped building), offering the first views into the below-ground spaces and the meticulous details of the ceiling, glass walls and carved handrails.

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With construction well underway on the redevelopment of Stockholm’s Slussen interchange, one of the city’s busiest transportation hubs, the final building of the masterplan has been launched by the City of Stockholm and Foster + Partners.

Located at the focal point of the overall masterplan envisioned by Foster + Partners with Berg Arkitektkontor, landscape designer White Arkitekter and lighting designer ÅF, Mälarterrassen (named after Lake Mälaren, the large freshwater lake upon which much of Stockholm is located) will provide three levels of mixed-use space to re-invite locals and tourists alike to an area of the city previously dominated by automobiles.

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For the animal lovers among our audience, this week we have put together a special roundup of images of architecture alongside some marvelous critters. While not exactly a mainstay of architectural photography, proponents of the form like BoysPlayNice, Jesus Granada and Rafael Gamo have dared to include animal inhabitants in their architectural compositions. Read on to see a selection of 20 creative images where you will find horses, sheep, cows, goats, dogs, cats, and even elephants.

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Ahead of the official launch of the Steve Jobs Theater, a 1000-capacity auditorium at the heart of the new Apple Campus in Cupertino, California, new details about its design and construction have been revealed. According to Bloomberg, the entrance to the venue stands beneath “a silver disc,” whose supporting—and structural—glazed panels lend it the appearance of floating 20 feet above ground.

The team of Foster + Partners and Branch Technology have been awarded first prize in the latest stage of NASA’s 3D-Printed Habitat Challenge, a $2.5 million multi-phase competition designed to generate ideas and advance technology for the construction of sustainable housing solutions “for Earth and beyond.”

After printing three cylinder and three beams the first two levels of Phase 2, Stage 3 asked teams to design and print a 1.5-meter dome using indigenous Martian soil and recyclable materials, envisioning how future habitats could be constructed on the Red Planet. Teams were required to develop the 3-D printing technology itself as well as the structural design for each dome. The competition also dictated each structure be built within a 22-hour time frame, using the specific materials, geometric tolerances and autonomous performance that would be demanded by the Martian landscape.

"It's quite evident that you're prepared to abandon traditional ways of sitting," Bernard Keeffe exclaims as he collapses into a bright yellow beanbag in Norman Foster's home. "For years," he continues, "people have thought that if they sat down they would have to sit on a chair, but now you have demonstrated that this is not necessary!" In this lengthy 1971 interview with Lord Foster, drawn from the archives of Thames TV, Keeffe questions the practice's early hi-tech approach to architecture in the context of a landscape in which buildings were becoming "ever more complicated."

Six internationally-acclaimed teams have been selected as finalists in a competition to design a new home for London Symphony Orchestra and Guildhall School of Music & Drama to be known as the Centre for Music London.

Planned to contain a world-class concert hall, education, training and digital spaces, top-grade facilities for audiences and performers, and a number of supporting commercial areas, the Centre for Music building will become a new landmark within the heart of London, aimed at becoming “a place of welcome, participation, discovery and learning fit for the digital age.”

Plans for Apple’s next flagship store, to be located within the historic Carnegie Library at Mount Vernon Square in Washington, D.C, have been approved by the District’s Historic Preservation Review Board (HPRB).

The project comprises both an interior/exterior restoration and renovation of the 63,000-square-foot Beaux Arts library, which was constructed in 1903 and added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1969. The plan will allow the library to be shared by Apple and the building’s existing tenant, The Historical Society of Washington. The 2-story Apple store will be located on the first floor and basement levels of the building, and will be designed by Foster + Partners, continuing their collaboration with the tech giant.