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LMN Architects announces progress of its new Buxton Center for Bainbridge Performing Arts expansion and remodel

2023-04-11T11:36:00-04:00

LMN Architects is celebrating the near completion of its expansion and renovation of The Buxton Center for Bainbridge Performing Arts in Washington.

Located on Bainbridge Island, the new Buxton Center will create a stronger connection to the island by "reorienting its entry sequence to the axial plan of the island’s town square." The Center will have a wood and glass curtain wall that encloses a two-story lobby space. The lobby will serve as a way to immerse visitors within the surrounding woodland landscape. Adjacent to the center is a studio that will operate as a separate performance venue and will be the primary home of the Bainbridge Performing Arts Theatre School program.

“The original theater was a civic treasure for the island and a vital gathering space to celebrate the arts in the local community,” said LMN Architects Associate Erik Perka. “Throughout the design of the new building, our main goal was to preserve the intimacy of the theater while strengthening the connectio...

Goettsch Partners' tiered office tower 'is the healthiest in Chicago'

2022-12-02T09:14:00-05:00

Goettsch Partners (GP) has completed an office tower that it claims is the healthiest in Chicago. Called 320 South Canal, the 51-story structure is the latest in a series by the same team that focuses on tenant health and wellness.

Image © Nick Ulivieri Photography

The 1,740,000-square-foot tower features a conference center, fitness center, restaurant, to-go market, bank, a cocktail lounge in an adjacent structure, as well as parking for cars and bicycles. It also includes a privately owned public park called The Green. The development team of Riverside Investment & Development, Convexity Properties, and Clark Construction also delivered Chicago’s Bank of America Tower in 2020 and the 150 North Riverside office building in 2017. All three projects are certified or precertified LEED Gold, WELL Platinum and WiredScore Platinum.

Image © Nick Ulivieri Photography

320 South Canal hosts a range of design strategies that aim to improve occupant wellbeing, including advanced air monitoring ...

Foster + Partners' 50 Hudson Yards officially opens in New York City

2022-10-25T21:05:00-04:00

Foster + Partners’ 50 Hudson Yards, a 78-story, mixed-use office tower in New York City has officially opened.

The nearly three million-square-foot and LEED Gold-designed structure occupies an entire block and features flexible office space, retail facilities, and public spaces. It also offers restaurants, bike parking, and transport connections, which is in the form of an underground connection to the adjacent subway station. Work on the latest addition to Hudson Yards began in 2016.

“Our project is a response to the site within Hudson Yards, but its geometry also respects the wider context of the New York street grid,” said Foster + Partners founder Norman Foster. “ The innovative elevator strategy and unique space planning provide prime users of the tower with their own lobbies, exclusive access, and separate identities. Column-free floor plates and generous ceiling heights provide high-quality workspaces with maximum flexibility for change in the future. A purpose-built tunnel c...

Storm King Art Center announces $45 million revitalization

2022-08-05T18:43:00-04:00

Storm King Art Center has announced a $45 million capital project that will see the creation of a new welcome area, the construction of a conservation, fabrication, and maintenance building, and the advancement of the Center’s endeavors in landscape stewardship and environmental sustainability.

The undertaking aims to creatively improve and preserve Storm King’s 500-acre site in New Windsor, New York. The museum is working with a global team of consultants, including project partners heneghan peng architects, WXY architecture + urban design, and landscape architecture firms Gustafson Porter + Bowman and Reed Hilderbrand.

The initiative responds to the need to support continued growth in visitation and programming at the Center. According to a project announcement, the overall design and vision are guided by three core values: "A Gracious Arrival, Support for Artistic Vision, and A Sustainable Future." The development hopes to refocus on staff, artists, and visitors.

The new "Welco...

Safdie Architects completes Albert Einstein Education and Research Center in São Paulo

2022-07-25T17:13:00-04:00

Safdie Architects has completed a new verdant medical school and research building with a distinctive domed glass roof in São Paulo.

Conceived as an urban oasis, the Albert Einstein Education and Research Center (AEERC) is the latest initiative of Brazilian healthcare institute Sociedade Beneficente Israelita Albert Einstein. It is slated to be one of Latin America’s most advanced institutions for medical research and study.

Photo by Timothy Hursley. Courtesy of Safdie Architects

The Center is located in São Paulo’s Morumbi district, adjacent to the Hospital Israelita Albert Einstein. The AEERC is the first medical school established by a private hospital in Brazil. Safdie Architects also worked in collaboration with Perkins&Will, who led the programming and interior planning of the classrooms and labs.

Photo by Timothy Hursley. Courtesy of Safdie Architects

The integration of nature throughout the spaces of the facility is at the core of the project’s design. The centerpiece of the...

Construction begins on Studio Gang's Parcel F tower, the final piece of San Francisco's Mission Rock development

2022-06-15T16:03:00-04:00

Construction of Studio Gang’s planned Parcel F contribution to the Mission Rock development is officially underway in San Francisco, filling in the final puzzle piece of a 28-acre mixed-use scheme led by Tishman Speyer and the local Major League Baseball affiliate San Francisco Giants.

The $2.5 billion plan’s latest building contributes 97 new below-market apartments to the project’s 1,200 unit total. At 23 stories, it is the same height as Mission Rock’s other MVRDV-designed residential tower, The Canyon. It will be the last of four completed structures at the site behind WORKac’s new 8-story biotech office, the 13-story Visa global Headquarters from Henning Larsen.

Image render © Studio Gang

It comes with a series of outdoor public terraces and other mesa-like open spaces cut into its base and stepped facade. The Studio included a “Sky Garden” feature on the roof of the 315,000-square-foot structure as the bookend to a network of local plant varieties meant to support biodiversity...

OMA unveils design for tiered residential tower in Miami Beach

2022-05-13T13:56:00-04:00

The Office for Metropolitan Architecture (OMA) has unveiled the design for a 17-story, 408,000-square-foot residential tower in Miami’s Mid Beach neighborhood.

The Perigon, located at 5333 Collins Avenue, will sit at the center of a rare section of Miami Beach that spans from the small village of Indian Creek to the Atlantic Ocean. Its unique position allows for dual-waterfront living. The project is being led by OMA Partner Jason Long.

Image Copyright OMA and Binyan Studios

The structure has been designed as a series of “towers” rotated to orient views away from neighbors and towards the Atlantic Ocean and Biscayne Bay. The towers are merged and lifted 45 feet above the flood line into a singular volume. This allows for panoramic views across each floor and opens up space on the ground level.

“Miami Beach combines natural beauty with urban density—Collins Avenue is at times a walled fortress blocking off the city from its best asset. We tried to make our building touch the ground...

Montreal's cultural district expands with a distinct mixed-use tower by Provencher_Roy

2022-04-07T15:44:00-04:00

Canadian firm Provencher_Roy has produced a stunning addition to the Montreal skyline with Îlot Balmoral, a 13-story, mixed-use office building slotted in the city’s downtown.

Commissioned by Société d’Habitation de Montréal (SHDM), the structure is the final major development in Montreal’s cultural district Quartier des Spectacles. It sits adjacent to Place des Festivals and is the new home of the National Film Board of Canada (NFB) and UQAC’s École des arts numériques, de l'animation et du design (NAD School).

“We proposed four visions of what an office building specifically designed for a cultural economy could look like, and Îlot Balmoral was selected to echo the very vibrant, dynamic nature of the district,” explains architect Claude Provencher, founding partner at Provencher_Roy. “The Quartier des Spectacles is a cultural center of activity that is now almost complete in its revitalization and transformation of the urban fabric surrounding Place des Arts.”

The distinct buildin...

Ontario's first mass timber higher education building is taking shape at Centennial College in Toronto

2022-01-10T14:04:00-05:00

The first mass timber academic building in Ontario is taking shape at Toronto’s Centennial College. Located at the college’s Progress Campus in Scarborough, the A-Block Expansion Building will have the potential to be the province's first net-zero carbon, mass timber, LEED Gold higher education facility when completed in 2023.

Image: Dialog

First unveiled in February 2020, the $82 million building was designed by Canadian architecture firm Dialog, in collaboration with Smoke Architecture, and EllisDon as contractor. The design for the expansion was based on the Indigenous concept of “two-eyed seeing,” in which people view the world through an Indigenous lens with one eye or perspective, while the other eye sees through a Western lens. The new campus building aims to embody the college’s commitment to truth and reconciliation, Indigenous education, and sustainable design.

Image: Dialog

“The two perspectives amplified each other,” said Craig Applegath, Principal-in-Charge at DIALOG. “F...

Studio Gang reveals new twisting tower design for San Francisco

2018-08-25T11:03:00-04:00

Studio Gang reveals a new, 400-foot tall residential tower called "MIRA" for San Francisco's Transbay neighborhood. The building features classic bay windows staggered in a twisting design around the structure.

"MIRA" high rise rendering by Studio Gang, located in San Francisco. Image: Studio Gang.

The design provides each unit with ample lighting and views of the bay, while also creating a high-performance facade reducing energy consumption.

"MIRA" high rise rendering by Studio Gang, located in San Francisco. Image: Binyan.

40% of the building's units have been designated to be priced below market rate.

"MIRA" high rise rendering by Studio Gang, located in San Francisco. Image: Studio Gang.

The high rise also includes sustainable features such as a VRF cooling system, a graywater harvesting system, green roofs, and high-efficiency fixtures and is targeted for LEED Gold certification.

Europe's new tallest building, The Lakhta Center by RMJM, nearly completed in St. Petersburg

2018-07-31T13:30:00-04:00

For a brief period from 2011 until 2012 Renzo Piano’s 309.7m London skyscraper, The Shard, was the tallest in Europe. However, it has since been dwarfed by three new buildings in Moscow, and, this summer, the title has shifted to Moscow’s second city, St Petersburg, as one of Russia’s largest companies plans its relocation.

The Lakhta Center, designed by British firm RMJM, is set to be Europe's new tallest skyscraper. The nearly completed supertall, located on St. Petersburg's coast, will reach approximately 1,515 feet, which is about 50% taller than The Shard in London. The building will serve as the new headquarters for Russian energy company Gazprom, currently based in Moscow.

Lakhta Center rendering by RMJM, located in St. Petersburg, RU. Image: Lakhta Center.

With piles driven 270 feet into the ground, the 87-story skyscraper also boasts LEED Gold certification. The design features an energy saving ice storage facility, which can accumulate up to 1000 tonnes of ice during the night used to air condition the building during the day.

3 World Trade Center by Rogers Stirk Harbour + Partners officially opens

2018-06-12T16:59:00-04:00

NYC's fifth tallest tower, 3 World Trade Center was officially opened yesterday by real estate firm Silverstein Properties. Designed by Rogers Stirk Harbour + Partners, 3 WTC will accommodate over 6,000 new employees from tenants GroupM, McKinsey and IEX. The 80-story, 2.5 million-square-foot office building is the second-to-last tower within the 16-acre World Trade Center site.

3 World Trade Center by Rogers Stirk Harbour + Partners. Image: DBOX.

Featuring a reinforced concrete core encased by a steel structure, the LEED-certified Gold office tower is defined by its load-sharing system of K-shaped bracing. The building incorporates floor-to-ceiling glass and column-free floor plates, creating unobstructed 360-degree panoramic views of New York City.

Steven Holl's Institute for Contemporary Art at VCU to open April 21

2018-04-17T15:14:00-04:00

Steven Holl Architects' new Institute for Contemporary Art (ICA) at Virginia Commonwealth University (VCU) will open to the public on April 21, 2018. The ICA's new building named the Markel Center will debut with its inaugural exhibition Declaration, an exploration of contemporary art’s power to respond to pressing social issues. This will be Virginia's first art institution dedicated exclusively to exhibiting contemporary art.

Institute for Contemporary Art at VCU Markel Center at night. Image: Iwan Baan.

Aerial view of the Institute for Contemporary Art at VCU. Image: Iwan Baan.

The building features dual entrances opening to the city’s arts district on one side and VCU’s Monroe Park campus on the other, providing a connection between the two.

View of the Royall Forum at the Institute for Contemporary Art at VCU. Image: Iwan Baan.

Steven Holl Architects activated the 41,000 square feet of space with an open design to create flexibility. With an inviting 33-foot-high central forum, ...

Saucier + Perrotte Architects design for the Complexe Sportif Saint-Laurent wins the American Architecture Prize for Recreational Architecture

2017-10-10T17:24:00-04:00

The Complexe Sportif Saint-Laurent in Montreal, designed by Saucier + Perrotte Architects, opened earlier this year and has recently been announced the winner of the American Architecture Prize for Recreational Architecture.

Picture Olivier Blouin courtesy of Saucier + Perrotte Architectes

Situated in the Marcel Laurin Park in the Saint Laurent borough, north of the Montreal Island, the building stands between a high school and an arena and hosts various sport and leisure facilities.

Picture Olivier Blouin courtesy of Saucier + Perrotte Architectes

Elevation, courtesy of Saucier + Perrotte Architectes

Longitudinal section, courtesy of Saucier + Perrotte Architectes

The sculptural and dynamic aspect of the dark grey and the see-through white parallelograms make Saucier + Perrotte’s design stand out among the horizontal adjacent building.

Picture Olivier Blouin courtesy of Saucier + Perrotte Architectes

The luminous white portion of the building hosts the pool and the palestra and is ...

Vincent Callebaut's luxe, green Agora Garden Tower twists up the Taipei skyline

2016-12-06T14:32:00-05:00

After his firm Vincent Callebaut Architectures was awarded the bid to create the building in 2010, Callebaut decided to erect a structure that was "like an inhabited tree," that could create a green urban landmark for the city with a minimal carbon footprint. Slated for a completion in September 2017, the tower will stand 20 stories tall with a 90 degree twist that is achieved with a 4.5 degree turn per floor as the building ascends.

Vincent Callebaut, the Belgian architect known for audacious, ecologically-minded design proposals now has a project under construction in Taipei. We previously featured Callebaut's "LILYPAD, A Floating Ecopolis for Ecological Refugees" in 2008.

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BIG's ship/office building docks at the Philadelphia Navy Yard

2016-11-03T12:40:00-04:00

What features an interior periscope, exterior stacked precast concrete panels in a basket-weave shape that mimic the curvature of a ship's hull, and 26,000 square feet of freshly occupied office space? Bjarke Ingels Group's newly completed "Intrepid," a four-story, LEED Gold certified office building for the Philadelphia Navy Yard which just welcomed its first tangible tenant, the Penn Capital Management Company, Inc., on its top floor.

The Intrepid's site context is closely tied to its design concept. As BIG partner Kai-Uwe Bergmann explains: “In many cases, architects design big, boxy buildings that could be placed anywhere and don’t connect directly to the site. You would really be hard-pressed to place 1200 Intrepid anywhere else, due to how it connects with its surroundings. Our commission involved creating a speculative office building, for which no tenants were committed. The key challenge here was to create a reason for tenants to be here with the constraint of a stringent bu...

LAX's New Tom Bradley Terminal Receives LEED Gold Standard

2015-04-09T17:35:00-04:00

Los Angeles International Airport (LAX), the Pacific gateway to the United States, has achieved LEED Gold certification for its new Tom Bradley International Terminal (TBIT), the crown jewel of the Bradley West renovation. This makes the 1.25-million-square-foot facility the largest LEED Gold airport terminal in the United States. Designed by Fentress Architects, TBIT is not only sustainable, it is America’s most technologically-advanced airport to date.

In the press release by the architects who designed the Tom Bradley terminal expansion, they detail some of the projects' most notable aspects:

The interior of the terminal contains "more than 12,000-square-feet of LED tiles and hundreds of LCD screens" to entertain travelers.
The project includes 15-gate terminals and concourse, designed to give room for expansion with LAX now the second-busiest airport in the nation.
Numerous features were designed to make the expansion sustainable, notably the use of low-E glass to minimize heat gain and low-flow water fixtures.

Editor's Picks #332

2013-09-10T11:11:00-04:00

Orhan Ayyüce penned a remembrance to his friend architect Larry Totah, titled Slow Weather of Architecture. Therein he describes "The House"...overlooking Pacific Ocean rather edgewise and build like a long drawing depicting a horizontally composed architecture. The fog, roof and the walls are more of Chumash hiring Hopi to build on their mountains for few exquisite basket full of shellfish to adorn the wedding dresses in Hopi villages like the ones a Don Juan dreamed of, a fair exchange"...

Amelia Taylor-Hochberg interviewed architectural photographer Bilyana Dimitrova, formerly Metropolis Magazine’s photo editor. The two discussed Architecture Photography in the 21st Century ahead of the exhibition 'Beyond the Assignment: Defining Photographs of Architecture and Design' which will be presented by the Julius Shulman Institute at Woodbury University, October 5 - November 1, 2013.

Orhan Ayyüce penned a remembrance to his friend architect Larry Totah, titled Slow Weather of Architecture. Therein he describes "The House" which "continuously frames and de-frames itself in three or four sets of axis minded passages. In the front, overlooking Pacific Ocean rather edgewise and build like a long drawing depicting a horizontally composed architecture. The fog, roof and the walls are more of Chumash hiring Hopi to build on their mountains for few exquisite basket full of shellfish to adorn the wedding dresses in Hopi villages like the ones a Don Juan dreamed of, a fair ...

SFO Terminal 2 is the First U.S. Airport to Achieve LEED Gold Certification

2011-12-08T12:47:00-05:00

With innovative mechanical systems, natural daylighting, clear signage and a variety of behind the scenes sustainability strategies, San Francisco International Airport's Terminal 2 has become a destination unto itself. And the LEED Gold certification? Well, that's just an added bonus.

San Francisco's Terminal 2 just became the first airport in the United States to achieve LEED Gold certification, and Inhabitat hit the scene yesterday to bring you exclusive photos of the airy, energy-efficient building renovated by Gensler.

Empire State Building Achieves LEED Gold Certification

2011-09-14T13:44:58-04:00

It’s official — the Empire State Building has been awarded LEED Gold certification. Thanks to a massive green overhaul that took more than two years, the landmark is now the tallest building in the United States to receive LEED certification.