Mixed-Used: The Latest Architecture and News

Detroit-based Bedrock development group has announced the completion of the first phase of its Hudson's Detroit mixed-use project in the city center. The project was first unveiled in 2017, when the company presented plans for a 1.2-million-square-foot development designed by SHoP Architects to be built on one of downtown Detroit's long-abandoned sites, formerly occupied by the J.L. Hudson's Department Store. Once the tallest department store in the world and a central gathering place for the city throughout much of the 20th century, the site has now been reimagined as a contemporary urban destination. After nearly a decade of planning and construction, Hudson's Detroit aims to bring new activity and public space to a location emblematic of the city's commercial and cultural past.

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Located along Manhattan’s East River waterfront, the Freedom Plaza sets out to create a new civic and cultural hub, introducing a new open and green space in the crowded area, with plans to add an in-park Museum of Freedom and Democracy. Additionally, the scheme designed by BIG-Bjarke Ingels Group includes affordable housing units, two hotels, retail, and restaurants. Developed by Soloviev Group and Mohegan, the Freedom Plaza development reimagines one of the largest undeveloped plots in Manhattan, measuring 6.7 acres located south of the United Nations headquarters in the Midtown East neighborhood.

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Architecture firm Goettsch Partners have recently won the design competition for a new eight-building complex in the Pudong area of Shanghai. The 244,500 square meter site is one of the last underdeveloped parcels in the area. The Shanghai Lujiazui Roncheng Changyi Project features two office towers, five residential towers, and a cultural/office building. The development also includes retail spaces and various amenities. Construction is scheduled to start in December 2022 and completion is anticipated in December 2025.

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UNStudio revealed a mixed-use high-rise building design in Dusseldorf integrated within the new Belsenpark masterplan. The tower, designed in collaboration with OKRA Landscape Architects, results from an international architecture competition held by private developer Pandion and features a diverse ground floor programme tied together by a pocket park. The project integrates prefabrication and modular design, thus reducing the building's environmental impact.

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Douglas and King Architects master plan to reinvigorate Shoreditch takes on a complex dual challenge. Broadly, there is the challenge at the core of any masterplanning project: creating a set of elements that flow together seamlessly with one another and their overall context. But more specifically, the project grapples with a tight triangular site and an already-lively urban context.

Preliminary Research Office has revealed their entry to a competition to design the new civic center for the city of Ryde, Australia. The project uses a series of boxes at different scales to inform the organization of both the building and the public spaces. Following a competition of 175 entries from 49 countries, the project did not make the shortlist. However, its approach addresses the fundamental needs of a civic center to be dynamic, flexible and human-scale.

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