New Yorkers can’t get enough of James Corner Field Operations with Diller Scofidio + Renfro‘s High Line as millions meandered along the refurbished rail tracks enjoying spectacular views of the skyline. And yet, the opening of the High Line in 2009 offered a mere preview of the project’s total grandeur as parts two and three of the 1.45 mile project were still to come. Today, the second phase of the High Line has opened to the public – a section which stretches from West 20th up to West 28th Street. This segment includes a hovering frame that will display people’s silhouettes against the evening sky, an elevated pathway which brings visitors to the level of the trees’ canopy, and a Great Lawn which will be perfect for sun-bathing and a summer time picnic.
After the break you can find a great set of photos from Iwan Baan, via the High Line Facebook Page, and some more information about the project.
Intended as a catalyst and model for the ongoing redevelopment of Cairo, Egypt,ZELLNERPLUS, OLIN, PACER, MR+E, and Nelson Nygaard proposed a scheme that seeks to bridge the gap between the medieval, or Islamic, and the axial, or European Cairene cities. They would do so through the evacuation of the competition zone of its current disconnected fabrics. In their place, they proposed a green urban archipelago made up of a new connective tissue that will weld together the competition site’s disparate functions, flows and neighboring fabrics. More images and architects’ description after the break.
Chilean architects, dRN Architects has submitted to ArchDaily their recent submission for the Beton Hala Waterfront project in central Belgrade, Serbia. Additional images of the proposal as well as a lengthy description of the work can be found after the break.
Architects Aleksandar Kekovic, Marjan Petrovic, Bojan Stojanovic, Milan Stevanovic, and Srdjan Sakan, shared with us their proposal for the Beton Hala Waterfront Center Competition in Belgrade, Serbia. More images and architect’s description after the break.
The idea behind the first prize design of the Metromover Station by Office-247 is that of a folded landscape that, through its form, generates a series of connections at different levels, transforming the urban condition of downtown Miami. Their proposal aimed to shift the position of the station and place it laterally, in between the two new museums in Dawntown Miami.
The proposal is meant to create a third urban parameter that, enclosing the plaza towards the highway, opens up the space southwards Bicentennial Park. Performing such an urban action, the station becomes a new space within the city, where a new kind of civic condition can be expressed. More images and architects’ description after the break.
The central Veneto area, lying approximately between Padua, Treviso, Castelfranco and Mestre, has one of the most unusual settlement systems of northern Italy. This project, by LOKOMOTIV.archs office starts from the view that the phenomena of urban sprawl should be stemmed, as the sprawl gives rise to a great number of problems, among which we might mention the excessive proliferation of infrastructures, with costs for the government that are unsustainable in the long run and break the delicate environmental balance of the system created by roman agriculture colonization. More images and architects’ description after the break.
Currently under development, OKRA’s Xiang’he Garden City, consisting of a masterplan for the Park of the Floating Gardens, defines challenging ambitions, turning the former clay pits into a water park. A new garden city of approximately 700 hectares will arise close to the future 7th ring of Beijing, China. The ambitions for the park are high and should create the perfect setting for the first housing development. The park should be a place for recreation, for running, for barbequing, for celebrations and more. It should also contribute to a sustainable environment, combining green design and water. More images and architects’ description after the break.
Gustafson Guthrie Nichol (GGN) announced the beginning of construction of the CityCenterDC development by Hines|Archstone in downtown Washington, DC. A new mixed-use development located on the 10-acre site of the former convention center, CityCenterDC is one of the largest downtown development projects currently underway in any U.S. city. Gustafson Guthrie Nichol participated in developing the master plan for the site with lead architect Foster + Partners, and acted as lead landscape architect, working with DC-based Lee and Associates. Additional members of the design team include DC-based Shalom Baranes Associates, serving as associate master plan architect, project Architect of Record, and lead designer of the residential rental buildings.
Construction commenced on March 23, 2011, and is expected to reach completion by the fourth quarter of 2013. The project includes the development of Northwest Park, a lively addition to downtown DC, the creation of a Central Plaza, as well as dramatic terraces with green roofs and gardens incorporated into all the buildings. More images and description after the break.
ZIP & BDX Studio shared with us their proposal for Tianjin Port East Area in China. Their design objective was to underline and continuously take advantage of the duality between nature and architecture, fixed and changing, curve and angle. This is reflected in their chosen geometry as a clearly geometric, mad-made slab floats over the ground, hardly connecting with it. More images and architects’ description after the break.
Department of Unusual Certainties [DoUC] recently completed a submission to the Network Reset, Rethinking the Chicago Emerald Necklace, competition hosted by Mas Studio and the Chicago Architectural Club. Participants were asked to look at the urban scale and propose a framework for the entire boulevard system as well as provide answers and visualize the interventions at a smaller scale that can directly impact its potential users. Through images, diagrams and drawings the work should express what are the soft or hard, big or small, temporary or permanent interventions that can reactivate and reset the Boulevard System of Chicago. DoUC’s proposal focused on filling Chicago’s Emerald Necklace with a framework of posts, beams, ropes and counterweights - to produce a pick-and-choose- method of program management. Images of their entry and a description can be seen after the jump.
The Greek architectural firm StudioDue has shared with us their entry for the city of Campina urban remodeling competition. Additional images and a brief description after the break.
March 8 marked the beginning of voting for the best student architectural project that will revive the Fužine neighborhood in Slovenia’s capital, Ljubljana. Until March 23, visitors to the competition website can vote for the 30 short-listed projects, selected from among all 363 submitted projects by the international ten-member expert jury. The winning solution will be released on location this summer and announced on March 28. More images and competition description after the break.
Norwegian design team, Eriksen Skajaa Architects has shared with us their urban study for the redevelopment of a former industrial site in Strusshamn, a Norwegian coastal settlement. Follow after the jump for additional images and a brief description by the architects.
Kate Orff shares her vision of ‘oyster-tecture’ utilizing oysters as an agent for urban change. Focusing on the New York Harbor, Orff, architect and founding principal of Manhattan based studio SCAPE, demonstrates how we can rethink our landscapes, both the green and blue spaces, linking nature and humanity for mutual benefit.
London based architects, mossessian & partners, have shared with us their recent work, Al Barahat Square in the Musheireb development in Doha, Qatar. Additional images and a press release for this new civic space after the jump.
