Happy Birthday
June 8, 1867 – April 9, 1957
A video tour of Fallingwater (7:21)
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gSRXHl9RbbU]
Intrigued as I was? Click on photo for full article via Daily Icon
Compiled by STEVEN McELROY
Published: June 7, 2009
Via NYTimes Online
The Municipal Art Society of New York has announced the recipients of the eighth annual MASterwork Awards, which recognize excellence in architecture and urban design. The Standard Hotel, the boutique hotel that straddles the High Line in the meatpacking district in Chelsea, and the new TKTS Booth, where discount theater tickets are sold near Times Square, are among the winners of the 2009 awards, which honor projects completed in 2008. The Standard, top, designed by Polshek Partnership Architects, has been named best new building. The TKTS Booth, above, by Perkins Eastman Architects, is best neighborhood catalyst. “Using both sustainable features and cutting-edge glass technology, the TKTS Booth is an urban sculpture that is also perfectly utilitarian,” said a description on the society’s Web site, mas.org. “Its dramatic ruby-red staircase, made up of 27 structural glass steps, provides a magical place to sit and enjoy the razzle-dazzle of Times Square.” The other two winning building projects are the Sheila C. Johnson Design Center at Parsons the New School for Design (for renovation/adaptive reuse) and the Lion House at the Bronx Zoo (for restoration).
by James Carpenter
Seven World Trade Center was the third building to collapse on September 11, 2001, and it is the first to be rebuilt. Designed by David Childs of Skidmore, Owings & Merrill (SOM), the new building is composed of 42 floors of office space set above eight floors of Con Edison transformers (located in large concrete vaults at street level).
James Carpenter Design Associates (JCDA) was invited to join the design team in late 2002, after the building’s prismatic form — derived from significant site planning — was already established. We were asked to collaborate on the curtain wall, the base of the building containing the transformers, and the lobby.
Concept
The site’s new master plan radically altered the building’s context. Before its destruction, the original 7 World Trade Center was accessible only from the podium of the complex, four stories above street level, where the blank granite box was dominated by Con Edison’s industrial louvers. With the loss of the World Trade Center’s raised podium, by necessity, the new design had to still accommodate the transformers, and also respond to a new public and urban presence at street level.
Complete article and credits via ArchiectureWeek
June 3, 2009
I have to admit: I run hot and cold with the Civil Justice Centre in Manchester by Denton Corker Marshall (2007) – but my constant walkabouts around Manchester remind me of its dynamic ability to make its presence felt in the cityscape. New buildings make fresh vistas. I will leave you with some words from John Jeffay Picture Editor of the Manchester Evening News on this pic:
“Some sort of mistake? No, the architect did it because he/she could. The result is compelling, in an odd kind of gravity-defying way, although I’m not sure I’d like to work in the overhang bit. This image, of Manchester’s new Civil Justice Centre, is borrowed from flickr.com. Architectural photography a curious thing. Does the architect deserve the credit, or the photographer? Dunno.
Anyway, what I like about this picture is the way the photographer has highlighted the absurd sticky-out bit and chosen an angle that gives it a good clear outline. There’s enough of the rest of the building to give it context, but it still works on an abstract level. Perspective is everything”
The rest of the article via Manchester News
Andy Marshall is an architectural photographer and commentator – more from FOTOFACADE here
Onondaga County / City of Syracuse Courthouse, Syracuse, NY
Architecture firm RicciGreene Associates is collaborating on a jail complex in Denver that’s attractive enough to sit in the city’s downtown core—right next to the U.S. Mint building.
With its sleek design, and its absence of eyesores such as razor wire and barred windows, the Denver Detention Center won’t look like a jail at all, says Frank Greene, a principal at RicciGreene: “It will look like an art museum.”
Designing jails and courthouses that look and function better than traditional facilities has made 20-year-old RicciGreene a leader in the movement to design judicial buildings that emphasize conferences over confrontations and rehabilitation over punishment. The 35-person firm’s expertise puts it in position to continue its steady growth even as the economy falters.
“We made the choice to be an inch wide and a mile deep,” Mr. Greene says.
Design work for government buildings, schools and hospitals continues to grow. As of May, billings in that sector were up, while those from commercial and residential projects were sliding, according to the American Institute of Architects.
RicciGreene, which has offices on West 27th Street in Manhattan and in Lexington, Ky., has won raves from those who work within the legal system. The Onondaga County Courthouse in Syracuse, for instance, is “all very efficient, economically and security-wise,” according to Fifth District Administrative Judge James Tormey.
Full article via Crain’s New York Business
Related Performa Architects Blog
May 25th, 2009
f you were fortunate enough to spend the Memorial Day holiday out in the Hamptons, one sight you might have missed is the Old Stone Highway House in East Hampton. Completed back in July of 2007 by New York City-based Berg Design Architects, the 2200-square-foot house’s architectural program is a “modern interpretation of the Long Island agricultural vernacular” that simultaneously “incorporates the use of environmentally low-impact building technology.”
Berg’s client sought a design that both suggested a Long Island barn where the client had summered and incorporated green building principles. The result is a simple, yet sophisticated, fusion of traditional and modern architecture that is grounded in sustainable design. The house’s western cedar siding and concrete block exterior emphasizes the building’s angular geometry which is kept in check by finished interior surfaces.
The structure itself is built from structural insulated panels (SIPs) and its HVAC system includes a geothermal heating and cooling system, as well as radiant floors. Low-e, dual-pane, argon-filled glazing is coupled with a site orientation that minimizes the house’s heating and cooling load. The house is topped off with a Kynar -finished (non-heat absorbing) roof; low-VOC paints and sealants were also specified throughout. Appliances are all Energy Star-rated and the house was furnished with a variety of vintage pieces.
Berg Design Architects was founded in 2001 by John Berg and is based on Varick Street in lower Manhattan.
This and more green architecture via greenbuildings NYC Blog
by Emiliano Gandolfi
Willem Jan Neutelings of Neutelings Riedijk Architects spoke with Emiliano Gandolfi, a correspondent for The Plan magazine, about the Dutch firm’s design approach as exemplified in the Shipping and Transport College in Rotterdam, the Netherlands. — Editor
Emiliano Gandolfi: Part of the gradual revitalization of the port of Rotterdam, the Shipping and Transport College is the ultimate “urban icon,” not at all what one would expect of a school building. How did it come about?
Willem Jan Neutelings: We had to bear in mind the particular character of the College, created 15 years before from the merger of several Dutch maritime training establishments. The new school brought many completely different functions under the same roof: mechanical workshops, virtual simulation labs, restaurants, gyms, offices, and classrooms. The result was a highly intricate program.
The College is also of international standing, so it was essential to develop a strong, recognizable image. Another key aspect was the need to maintain a visual reference with the port, its warehouses, silos and containers.
This led us to propose a tower shape in keeping with a port environment. The form brings together all the requirements of the brief and at the same time gave us a highly distinctive building whose cantilevered auditorium offers splendid views over the sea. >>>
This article is excerpted from New Forms: Plans and Details for Contemporary Architects by The Plan, copyright © 2009
This fresh, new, and fascinating approach to sustainability and human population growth is truly awe inspiring.
Belgian architect Vincent Callebaut has redefined the conventional skyscraper. His 132 story complex for the south edge of Roosevelt Island addresses the pressing need for environmental and ecological sustainability. This conceptual design focuses on creating a completely self-sustaining organism that not only utilizes solar, wind, and water energies, but also addresses the pending food shortage problem.
Full article via DK blog
This Dynamic Architecture building by David Fisher will be constantly in motion changing its shape. It will also generate electric energy for itself. If you haven’t seen this vidio lately it’s worth revisiting (90 sec.)
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iY0Uuyf8Xhw]
More via Dynamic Architecture
