Pollinator Garden and Meadow. Image Courtesy of San Antonio Botanical Garden and Reed Hilderbrand
Reed Hilderbrand Landscape Architecture firm has unveiled images of its strategic master plan for Texas' San Antonio Botanical Garden, in the United States. The plan is designed to guide the future of this public landscape, reflecting long-term objectives focused on accessibility, conservation, and horticultural education. The vision includes a new horticultural campus and a public greenhouse for the site, designed by SO-IL, an architectural design firm based in New York whose 450 Warren housing project in Brooklyn was selected by ArchDaily's audience as the Building of the Year 2024 in the Housing category. The master plan aims at a more ecologically sustainable environment while enhancing the visitor experience across the garden's 38-acre landscape.
In recent weeks, a series of notable architectural projects have been announced, reflecting a broad spectrum of design approaches aimed at enhancing urban life, infrastructure, and environmental sustainability. From cultural venues to large-scale masterplans and infrastructural advancements, these developments highlight how architecture continues to shape cities and communities. Among them, Knight Architects' Kruunusillat Bridge in Helsinki marks a milestone as Finland's tallest and longest bridge, designed to support sustainable mobility. Meanwhile, Unibail-Rodamco-Westfield's masterplan for Croydon sets out a vision for a vibrant mixed-use district, integrating historic preservation with contemporary urban renewal. At Kew Gardens, Mizzi Studio's Carbon Garden introduces a new permanent installation that explores carbon cycles through landscape design. This collection of recent announcements underscores the evolving priorities in architecture, from connectivity and urban regeneration to climate-conscious interventions.
For a long time, the construction industry has followed a linear process - extract raw materials, build structures, demolish them, and then dispose of the garbage in landfills. This approach has serious negative effects on the environment and society and is inherently unsustainable. Reconsidering traditional methods and workflows requires support from all stakeholders and a sense of urgency proclaimed by authorities. In the United States, city organizations have begun to implement new policies to keep construction waste out of landfills and support circular practices. Several cities like Seattle and Pittsburgh, have started implementing deconstruction ordinances that require older buildings to be carefully deconstructed rather than demolished. How might their key provisions influence circular practices in the country?
The American Institute of Architects has announced David Lake and Ted Flato, the founders of Texas-based firm Lake|Flato Architects, as the winners of the 2024 AIA Gold Medal. The pair was selected by the jury for their ability to make "sustainability exciting in a way few other architects have accomplished." Founded in San Antonia in 1984, their office set out to make environmentally conscientious design both accessible and exciting, by finding ways to strengthen he bond between humans and nature.
Technology provides new opportunities for architecture and design. The pandemic has shown how flexible workflows are grounded in building connection across workstations and collaborative platforms, as well as newer ideas like implementing VR over Teams. For Dan Stine, Director of Design Technology at Lake|Flato Architects, theses changes are part of a larger drive to reimagine how technology can shape practice.
Sir David Adjaye's Ruby City art center is set to open to the public this October in San Antonio, Texas. Home to the growing Linda Pace Foundation permanent collection, the building is designed by Adjaye Associates in collaboration with Alamo Architects. Brought to life twelve years after the building was first imagined by Linda Pace, the 14,000 square-foot art center is dedicated to providing a space for the city’s creative community works with works by both local and international artists.
“Designed by LMN Architects in partnership with executive architects Marmon Mok Architecture, the $150 million expansion and renovation project embrace the multi-faceted cultural identity of the city with a distinctive tapestry of form, materiality, light, and landscape" stated Mark Reddington, FAIA, lead designer and partner at LMN Architects.
Completed in 2014, the project incorporates a metallic veil that wraps program elements in programmable LED lighting, in order to create a variable play of light on the city’s skyline.
MARC FORNES/THEVERYMANY has unveiled “Spineway”, a permanent public artwork commissioned by the City of San Antonio in Woodlawn Lake Park. Calling to mind the midcentury marvels of Alexander Calder or Mark di Suvero, Spineway has been digitally fabricated with custom computational protocols of structural form-finding and descriptive geometry. As with past projects by MARC FORNES/THEVERYMANY the studio posits, “Spineway is consistent with the studio's approach of exploring structural performance while catalyzing public places through dynamic and unique spatial experiences.”
The Linda Pace Foundation has unveiled plans for a new building designed by Adjaye Associates. Planned to open in San Antonio, Texas in 2018, "Ruby City" will house the Foundation's growing collection of contemporary art. The two-story structure, clad in "crimson-hued panels of precast concrete with glass aggregate," will be distinct with its "dramatic rooftop of sloping angles and skylights that rise to varying heights and echo cut-away spaces at the building’s base."
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