Archinect - News

LAX Midfield Satellite Concourse South project has topped out in Los Angeles

2024-04-22T17:46:00-04:00

LAX's new Midfield Satellite Concourse South (or MSC South) recently topped out as the project's construction progresses in nine segments toward its 2025 completion date. The offsite construction will eventually yield eight new gates and a total of 150,000 square feet of space following a first-of-its-kind integrated design for manufacturing and assembly (DFMA).

Buro Happold, structural engineer, sustainability consultant, lighting and acoustical designer on the project, in partnership with architects Woods Bagot and RAW International, says: "Each segment was designed with an independent lateral system consisting of buckling restrained braced frames in the east-west direction and Simspon Yield Link moment frames in the north-south direction to allow for access to gates along the terminal length. Additional analysis was then undertaken to determine the lifting points of each segment ...

New York releases city’s first study on environmental justice

2024-04-09T11:41:00-04:00

The New York City Mayor’s Office of Climate and Environmental Justice has released the city’s first report into environmental justice issues.

Titled 'EJNYC: A Study of Environmental Justice Issues in New York City,' the study analyzes environmental hazards ranging from toxin exposure and summer heat vulnerability to flood risks and transit access.

Image courtesy: Buro Happold

Developed by a team led by Buro Happold and urban design nonprofit Hester Street, the report feeds into a wider project known as the Environmental Justice NYC (EJNYC) initiative, which will develop a city-wide environmental justice strategy. The report is also accompanied by a mapping tool that allows users to visualize environmental issues in their neighborhood.

Image courtesy: Buro Happold

The report found that disadvantaged areas in the city are subject to more stationary sources of pollution, including power plants, waste processing facilities, and waste generators, and contain more observed health dispariti...

Buro Happold and Dialog unveil new urban thermal comfort study for Toronto

2024-01-22T18:45:00-05:00

The City of Toronto recently completed a groundbreaking study of its ‘thermal comfort’ done by Buro Happold and Dialog. The work will provide valuable lessons to urban planners, developers, and other stakeholders as the country’s largest metropolitan area prepares a strategy to suitably mitigate the growing number of extreme heat days it faces in a given year.

The study will go a long way in informing Toronto’s response to heat and climate, leading eventually to the creation and implementation of new comfort guidelines included as part of a broader Heat Relief Strategy that was debuted two years ago. Toronto's City Planning Division contracted Buro Happold and Dialog to lead the study based on the former’s extensive experience with similar plans for large metro areas such as New York, Los Angeles, and Minneapolis.

“These are significant new kinds of guidance that city leaders everywhere need to help protect their citizens and support public health in an era of rapid climate change,...

World's longest elevated pedestrian loop at the Minnesota Zoo officially opens

2023-07-31T16:05:00-04:00

The Minnesota Zoo Treetop Trail, the world’s longest elevated pedestrian loop, is officially open to the public. The project, which saw 1.25 miles of a former monorail structure repurposed into a walkway, will take guests 32 feet above the ground and provide new views of and experiences with the zoo’s diverse wildlife, hardwood forest, and wetlands.

The scheme’s design was led by Minneapolis-based Snow Kreilich Architects, alongside engineering firm Buro Happold (known for its work on the High Line in New York City) and landscape architecture and urban design practice TEN x TEN. The construction leader was PCL. Together, the team was committed to minimizing disruptions to the zoo’s animals and guests before, during, and after construction.

“The Treetop Trail marks a new chapter for the Minnesota Zoo,” said John Frawley, the institution's director and foundation president. “As we look ahead to the Zoo’s next 45 years, the Treetop Trail is a major step in furthering connections to nat...

Woods Bagot's LAX Midfield Satellite Concourse South expansion has broken ground

2023-07-13T16:42:00-04:00

A groundbreaking ceremony held in late June marks the official start of work on the LAX Midfield Satellite Concourse South project, an expansion of the recently-opened West Gates at Tom Bradley International Terminal.

The Woods Bagot-designed $400 million MSC South project will add 150,000 square feet, spread across eight gates and two stories, to LAX. It forms part of Los Angeles World Airport’s (LAWA), the airport authority that owns and operates the airport, $14.5 billion capital investment improvement project, which includes terminal renovations, the construction of new ground transportation hubs, and an automated people mover system.

Aerial view of site. Image courtesy of Woods Bagot.

MSC South’s construction will utilize what the architects describe as a first-of-its-kind technique, where its building components will be built offsite and then delivered to the location for assembly.

The new concourse will have an L-shaped layout with an exterior brise soleil that will reduce glare and solar radiation while maximizing outdoor views. The design also draws inspiration from LA’s modernist homes. The project is grounded in sustainable practices as it aims for LEED Silver certification. Completion...

New York City selects team to design a report and public portal for tracking environmental injustices

2022-07-18T16:32:00-04:00

Buro Happold and urban design nonprofit Hester Street have announced a partnership with the New York City Mayor’s Office of Climate and Environmental Justice to establish an environmental justice report and online data portal that will identify the locations across the city where policies, infrastructure, and investments contribute to inequities in vulnerability and risk from environmental hazards.

The report, coined the Environmental Justice for All Report, and web portal will be accessible to the public and inform the creation of a comprehensive environmental justice plan. The initiative will outline areas of focus for promoting environmental justice in New York City and analyze existing policies, programs, and procedures across the city.

The creation of the report and portal is the result of Local Laws 60 and 64, environmental justice legislation passed by the City Council and signed by former Mayor Bill de Blasio in 2017. Local Law 60 requires that a citywide study of environme...

SPF:a's new Obama Sports Complex is inaugurated in Los Angeles

2022-06-29T17:24:00-04:00

It’s opening day for SPF:architects’ new Michelle and Barack Obama Sports Complex in Los Angeles’ Baldwin Hills neighborhood. The new development replaces the old 29-acre Rancho Cienega Sports Complex and was developed in conjunction with Buro Happold and Hood Design Studio.

The scheme critically includes what is being labeled as one of the city’s first Net Zero Energy (NZE) buildings — the all-new basketball wing of the larger, 40,000-square-foot facility — and is landscaped in a grid to evince five distinct ecologies: high desert, canyon, coastal, chaparral, and medicinal.

Image © Mike Kelley

Hood’s drought-tolerant landscape design is also said to be inspired by the early-20th-century abstract painters like George Braque and Fernand Leger. The upgraded facility it surrounds is an amalgam of pre-engineered metal buildings (PEMB) deliberately selected to reduce costs and the environmental impacts of materials used in the project, which came together at the start of 2015 thanks to s...

OMA and Buro Happold reveal new video of modular hospital prototype

2022-04-12T09:00:00-04:00

One of the most promising recent healthcare infrastructure concepts has engendered an offshoot project that looks to expand on its original framework design.

As a product of the research done for their collaboration on the Al Daayan Health District Master Plan in Doha, OMA and Buro Happold have created a prototype for a low-rise hospital structure commissioned by the Hamad Medical Corporation.

Previously on Archinect: OMA and Buro Happold reveal designs for the Al Daayan Health District in Doha

Image © HMC

The prototype appears to consist of similar two-story-high modular units that can be adapted and reconfigured to allow for maximal variation and minimal costs. Scalable, self-sufficient, and built using a considerable amount of 3D printing technology, the design is a sustainable refresh to the important typology and hopes to see further use in other climates once the Qatari concept catches on.

Image © HMC

“Medical technology is advancing exponentially, leaving hospitals to...

MVRDV and IBI Group among designers to turn former Marine Corps base into an expansive cultural hub in Southern California

2022-01-28T15:33:00-05:00

A diverse consortium of architects has been announced for a massive new development called Cultural Terrace on the site of the former Marine Corps Air Station El Toro in Irvine, California led by IBI Group and MVRDV.

The firms will be joined by landscape architects Agency Artifact and the local women-run studio MAAM, with engineers from Buro Happold and Ryder Levett Bucknall serving in a consulting role.

Interior view of one of the existing military buildings. Image © IBI Group.

The 4,682-acre base was once home to Major League Baseball great Ted Williams, who was a Marine Corps aviator from 1943 until the end of the Korean War. The government deactivated El Toro in 1999, and it has since been converted into a popular TV and film location, as well as a fledgling public park, which the new development hopes to reinvigorate.

Exact uses for the Cultural Terrace are still being determined, but the 110-acre parcel of the Great Park may evolve in time to play host to a museum, library and...

Buro Happold enlisted by USC to devise sustainable design guidelines

2022-01-19T18:52:00-05:00

Buro Happold has been enlisted by the University of Southern California to craft key standards for environmental design and construction performance. The firm was selected through a competitive process to develop new sustainable design guidelines for the university.

Buro Happold will lead the creation of the guidelines “ensuring that the built environment touches the earth lightly while also caring for its occupants,” as stated by Buro Happold architect and associate principal Heidi Creighton. The firm will be supported by consulting partners Perkins&Will, construction engineering company Psomas, along with AHBE | MIG and David Neuman of Neu Campus Planning.

Buro Happold’s work with USC comes at a time when sustainability guidelines and assessment tools have become an essential component of long-term campus planning and institutional strategy. Aside from USC, the firm has established campus-wide standards and overarching sustainability plans for other universities globally, for priv...

Diller Scofidio + Renfro unveil designs for London Centre for Music replacement

2021-12-07T14:18:00-05:00

Scrapped plans for a new concert hall in London are getting a much-needed reset thanks to an updated design by Diller Scofidio + Renfro and Sheppard Robson.

The pair originally was set to design the hall as part of a scheme sponsored by the Barbican and London Symphony Orchestra to redevelop the site of the Museum of London after winning an international competition in 2017.

Image courtesy DS+R/Sheppard Robson

The plan was also backed by the Guildhall School of Music & Drama and included a twisting geometrical glass-and-timber structure which featured a layered program of performance venues and music education spaces at a tune of £288 million ($381 million) before being axed quietly at the beginning of the year by the city.

The new design features an ostensibly simplified form beset with biophilic elements which run up the plaza-facing facade of the structure now dubbed “London Wall West” in reference to the existing structures at 140-150 London Wall that are said to be “at the end o...

MASS Design Group, Minneapolis to be honored by UPenn's Weitzman School

2021-11-18T17:04:00-05:00

MASS Design Group will be honored alongside the city of Minneapolis by the University of Pennsylvania’s Weitzman School of Design in a public celebration held at the Kleinman Center for Energy Policy this evening.

The Boston-based firm will receive the prestigious Kanter Tritsch Medal for its “design excellence and commitment to a climate-positive future.”

Likewise, Minneapolis is being honored with the Witte-Sakamoto Family Medal for its comprehensive 2040 resiliency plan that was developed with the help of Buro Happold.

“MASS and Minneapolis remind us of the central role for design in overcoming seemingly intractable challenges like unequal access to jobs and housing, and mass incarceration,” Weitzman dean Frederick Steiner said in a statement. “Our professions have a lot of work to do to see that entire communities aren’t left out of the design process.”

The non-profit, non-...

OMA and Buro Happold reveal designs for the Al Daayan Health District in Doha

2021-10-18T14:50:00-04:00

Final drafts for the joint OMA and Buro Happold-designed Al Daayan Health District are now available, showcasing a localized model of healthcare infrastructure that OMA Partner Reinier de Graaf hopes will be transplanted from Doha, Qatar to the rest of the world.

Image © OMA

The 1.3-million-square-meter (14-million-square-foot) facility will be completely self-sustaining thanks to onsite prefabrication, 3D printing, an agricultural element, and built-in solar farm.

Image © OMA

“Architects have long aimed to provide the hospital with a final solution. This proposal starts from the opposite end: viewing the hospital as the type of building that is forever under construction, as an organism for which space and time must be considered equally,” de Graaf said in a statement.

Image © OMA

The development is anchored by a two-story building that houses a teaching hospital, women’s and children’s hospitals, ambulatory care, and clinical facilities. The new hospital will have capacity for 1,400...

Buro Happold has been tapped for an ambitious Twin Cities climate resiliency plan

2021-09-09T16:27:00-04:00

An industry leader in sustainability approaches has once again been selected for a project that will define the Minneapolis-St. Paul region in the 21st century.

Buro Happold has been named the winner of the competitive RFP process for the Metropolitan Council’s Climate Action and Resilience Plan that aims to lay a foundation for regional planning policy for years to come.

The firm has done other significant projects in major cities around the country, including Los Angeles, and Cambridge, MA. A 2017 research project for the C40 organization revealed that an estimated 223,000 lives could be saved if the prescribed actions included in Buro Happold’s report were taken.

Protesters gather outside the statehouse in St. Paul, MN for a demonstration against the Enbridge Line 3 oil pipeline in 2018. Photo courtesy Wikimedia Commons user Fibonacci Blue (CC BY 2.0).

“The plan aims to support ongoing mitigation and resilience efforts in the region, including for its most vulnerable communities...

New national study reveals post-Covid campus facility trends

2021-08-03T17:52:00-04:00

In a new national study conducted by the Society for College and University Planning (SCUP) and Buro Happold’s higher education consulting group, brightspot, a series of notable findings reveal the major impact the Covid-19 pandemic has had on how universities and colleges are planning for new facilities.

Called the Campus Facilities Inventory (CFI), the survey is used to provide facilities benchmarking data to colleges and universities in order to better inform their planning efforts. It asks institutions to provide space data as categorized by the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES) and Facilities Inventory and Classification Manual (FICM). It was last undertaken in 2007. In the 2021 edition, a group survey of 88 higher-education institutions across the U.S. was conducted, gathering data on their buildings, as well as recent and planned changes to their facilities. The research also details changes over the last year and plans for the next three years.

Map of institu...

Academy Museum of Motion Pictures: opening delayed again due to Covid-19 fears

2020-12-23T15:11:00-05:00

The much-heralded opening of the opening of the Academy Museum of Motion Pictures in Los Angeles has been rescheduled from 30 April until 30 September of next year [...] Los Angeles is in the grip of restrictions imposed by the state as coronavirus cases soar, making it difficult to envision greeting visitors as museums currently are closed due to pandemic concerns.

"We are putting the final touches on our stunning exhibitions and public spaces, and while we were ready and eager to welcome visitors in the spring, with the current surge of COVID-19, it would be irresponsible to maintain an April opening," said Bill Kramer, Director and President of the Academy Museum of Motion Pictures. "We know a new day is coming for us all, and when it does, the Academy Museum will be ready to offer our visitors the remarkable experience we have all been wanting."

The Renzo Piano-designed 300,000 square-foot museum campus on LA's Wilshire Boulevard was originally scheduled to open in 2017.

Renzo Piano's Academy Museum of Motion Pictures receives LEED Gold Certification

2020-11-04T16:14:00-05:00

Slowly, slowly, LA's new Academy Museum of Motion Pictures is inching towards its anticipated completion.

The LACMA-adjacent, Renzo Piano-designed 300,000 square-foot museum campus on Wilshire Boulevard was forced to push back several official opening dates — most recently, the December 14 opening was rescheduled to now April 30, 2021 — but there appears to be continued progress at the site: the project was recently awarded LEED Gold Certification for its environmental concept.

Contributing to the rating were high-performance indoor environmental systems, solar power systems, waste reduction programs, easy public transportation access, a rideshare pickup and drop-off point, bike racks, a storm water reuse system that feeds irrigation for the museum’s landscaping, and Green Building Education content that will be accessible onsite and online after the museum’s opening.

Firms invo...

Kengo Kuma unveils design for Ibsen Library in Skien, Norway

2020-10-28T19:09:00-04:00

The Ibsen Library, designed by Kengo Kuma & Associates in collaboration with Mad Arkitekter and BuroHappold, was commissioned in celebration of the renowned playwright Henrik Ibsen, who was born in Skien, Norway, the location of the new library.

Selected as the winning entry of a design competition, the Ibsen Library introduces a new cultural hub to the city of Skien that houses a robust program to engage the surrounding community.

The footprint of the library covers the entire site boundary, giving it a generous floor area at the ground and underground levels. Both levels have open plans with no fixes walls and low bookshelves that act as soft dividers. The ground floor is seamlessly connected to the park on the outside, encouraging a connectedness between the indoor and outdoor environments.

The underground level offers adult and children-focused program with an outdoor amphitheater the raises up toward the exter...

Buro Happold unveils sustainability plan for Battery Park City

2020-09-08T17:02:00-04:00

Buro Happold and the Battery Park City Authority have published a 10-year sustainability plan that aims to achieve carbon neutrality for the 36-acre district situated on the southern tip of Manhattan by 2050.

The district, which sits just beside the World Trade Center site, contains over 22 million square feet of built area, according to Buro Happold's report, and its new plan is considered among the largest such district visions in the country.

The plan aims to articulate a "holistic vision" for drawing down operating emissions from buildings in the area through a mix of approaches that includes deep energy retrofits, building electrification conversions, low-carbon district energy systems, implementation of renewable energy supply and storage advances, and extensive monitoring of greenhouse gas emissions. Additionally, the plan would implement wastewater treatment and recycling strategies, including for storm water runoff, greater supervision of construction waste streams, and va...

Fire engulfs Foster + Partners-designed High-Speed Rail station in Saudi Arabia

2019-09-30T15:15:00-04:00

Arab News reports that the fire broke out at the Suleimaniyah rail station on Sunday in Jeddah, leaving five injured.

Saudi Arabia’s Haramain High-Speed Railway opened in 2018 and ferried Hajj pilgrims throughout the country for the first time earlier this year. The line’s five stations, including the one at Jeddah that caught fire, are designed by Foster + Partners and Buro Happold.

View of one of the four Foster + Partners-designed stations along the HHR line. Image courtesy of Nigel Young / Foster + Partners, © Nigel Young.

According to various social media posts, the fire burned out of control into Monday morning. Firefighters took roughly 12 hours to fully bring the blaze under control. A cause for the fire has not been discovered or announced.

Construction Week Online reports that the fire damaged the second floor and roof of the station but that the ground and first floors of the complex had been spared. The publication also reported that Saudi Arabia's Minister of Transpo...

Saudi Arabia’s new high-speed rail ferries Hajj pilgrims for the first time

2019-08-12T14:00:00-04:00

High-speed rail service will be available for the first time this year during Hajj, the pilgrimage by Muslims to Saudi Arabia's holy city of Mecca. Some of the millions of pilgrims expected to make the journey will be riding Haramain High Speed Rail, which links Mecca to Medina and passes through three stations: Jeddah, King Abdul Aziz International Airport and King Abdullah Economic City in Rabigh.

The route's four larger-than-life train stations are designed by Foster + Partners and BuroHappold as international gateways for each host city, and are based on traditional and ancient design motifs that prioritize the creation of breezy spaces that are protected from the sun.

Henning Larsen completes crystalline Opera in Hangzhou, China

2019-07-15T14:40:00-04:00

Henning Larsen has completed work on a new 750,000-square-foot opera house and cultural center in Hangzhou, China.

The opera-in-the-park-style complex is wrapped by a fractured metal panel and glass facade designed to reference the cracked ice that forms during the winter months along the surface of a lake adjacent to the complex. The opera is filled with a collection of performance and exhibition spaces, including a 1,400-seat concert hall with raked seating and a 500-seat black-box performance venue.

View of the new opera house at dusk. Image courtesy of Philippe Rualt.

In section, the complex is arranged as a trio of canted volumes organized on either side of a central elevated plaza. The plaza is designed to hold up to 10,000 people and can be used even when the multi-functional cultural center is closed down, according to a project press release. The arrangement is meant to allow the building to "dissolve into the city" while also allowing the complex to act as a large public ...

University of Bristol appoints Schmidt Hammer Lassen Architects, Hawkins\Brown, and BuroHappold for new University Library

2017-12-11T11:49:00-05:00

The University of Bristol, in the South West of England, is set to recieve a new £80 million library development on its Clifton campus by 2021. The team for the project is formed of Hawkins\Brown, Schmidt Hammer Lassen Architects and BuroHappold. The architect-led team has extensive previous experience in the education sector and libraries, including the new Bartlett building, the Sir Duncan Rice Library, and the University of Exeter’s Forum respectively.

Image: University of Bristol

The contemporary design was selected from international competition entries, beating submissions from AHMM, Wilkinson Eyre Architects, Feilden Clegg Bradley Studios and Atkins with Snøhetta. The design was commended for its acknowledgement of context; it takes into account the conservation setting and builds on the university’s high sustainability standards and goals.

The building will form a welcoming gate into the Clifton campus, which will be rejuvenated and redeveloped over the coming 5 years, e...

Infinity Loop Bridge by 10 DESIGN + Buro Happold

2012-06-04T20:06:00-04:00

In the international Zhuhai Shizimen Bridge Competition, the entry 'Infinity Loop Bridge' by 10 DESIGN and Buro Happold has won the first prize. This feature bridge in Zhuhai, China is the gateway entry to south China’s new planned commercial hub and also marks the connection of the Shizimen Canal to the Pearl River Delta.