Archinect - News

Take a look at Reiser+Umemoto's completed Kaohsiung Port Terminal

2024-06-01T10:00:00-04:00

Reiser+Umemoto, RUR Architecture DPC has shared new photos of their recently completed Kaohsiung Port Terminal project in Taiwan’s busiest commercial port.

The nearly eight-year construction exemplifies the firm’s conception of “3D Urbanism,” breaking apart the design vertically across three separate datums that carry different functions for passengers and pedestrians as oriented to the existing city grid.

Image courtesy Fei & Cheng Associates

The firm explains: “RUR’s work with 3D Urbanism comes from a long-standing set of explorations challenging the monofunctionally of infrastructure projects which are traditionally conceived and designed to do a single task well, much in the vein of civil engineering. RUR takes an architect’s approach to infrastructure, which eschews monofunctionally in favor of polyfunctional spaces which productively transform the terminal typology from an inert piece of urban hardware into a dynamic space of civic, cultural and commercial interchange.”

Image...

10 doors and entrances we liked this week

2024-06-01T08:00:00-04:00

In case you haven't checked out Archinect's Pinterest boards in a while, we have compiled ten recently pinned images from outstanding projects on various Archinect Firm and People profiles.

Today's top images (in no particular order) are from the board Doors & Gates.

Tip: Use the handy FOLLOW feature to easily keep up-to-date with all your favorite Archinect profiles.

↑ Liminal House in West Vancouver, Canada, by Mcleod Bovell Modern Houses; Photo: Hufton + Crow

↑ The Grand Mulberry in New York, NY, by MA | Morris Adjmi Architects

↑ Stony Hill in Amagansett, NY, by Bates Masi + Architects; Photo: Bates Masi + Architects

↑ Fargo House in Louisville, CO, by DAJ Design

↑ St. Patrick’s Cathedral Renovation in New York, NY, by MBB Architects; Photo © Chris LaPutt © Raymond Pepi © Whitney Cox © John Baer

↑ Wallingford in Seattle, WA, by Prentiss + Balance + Wickline Architects; Photo: Andrew Pogue Photography

↑ Van Been Tap House in São Paulo, Brazil, by Vertentes Arquitetura; Photo: Leon...

Pelli Clarke & Partners completes 57-story Salesforce Tower in Chicago

2024-05-30T17:53:00-04:00

Pelli Clarke & Partners has completed work on their new Salesforce Tower project at Chicago's Wolf Point mixed-use development. The 852-foot tower is the final piece of the 15-year puzzle that transforms a four-acre portion of waterfront between the Riverwalk and Merchandise Mart and boasts a total of 1.2 million square feet of offices for the technology giant and leading national law firm Kirkland & Ellis.

Photo by Jason O'Rear

"It has been a privilege to shape the transformation of Wolf Point and contribute to the design of Chicago’s iconic skyline for nearly 15 years," Partner Darin Cook said of their second commercial project for the Windy City. "We have long been inspired by Chicago’s rich architectural tradition and history of innovation. In creating Salesforce Tower, we designed a tower that reaches boldly skyward, is imbued with lightness, and takes a sculptural form."

Photo by Jason O'Rear

Featuring an internal floor plate configuration that enables a max...

Pratt SoA Dean Quilian Riano outlines plan to address space challenges with proposed new building

2024-05-30T14:43:00-04:00

In a new letter to faculty members at the Pratt School of Architecture, second-year Dean Quilian Riano has outlined the need for some $71 million worth of deferred maintenance and other upgrades to the 155-year-old Higgins Hall in keeping with the new Local Law 97 mandate for net zero operating capacity by 2050. This includes $57 million for maintenance and upgrades, plus an additional $14 million to increase the electrical capacity.

Local Law 97 requires new energy efficiency and greenhouse gas emissions limits, with a goal of a 40% reduction by 2030 and achieving net zero by 2050. Additionally, Higgins Hall has maxed out its Floor Area Ratio (FAR) and electrical capacity.

As a result, Riano said, the school must expand into a new building to accommodate its growing student body. A Request for Expressions of Interest (RFEI) will now be issued to developers. This process will explore leveraging Pratt Institute’s air rights to build housing, including affordable housing, and deliver ...

Zaha Hadid Architects designs superyacht marina and casino development in the Bahamas

2024-05-30T13:49:00-04:00

Details for a new luxury superyacht marina and residential community designed by Zaha Hadid Architects, the largest in North America, have been announced, along with an anticipated 2027 completion date. Slated for the Bahamian South Abaco island, the project will also feature a casino and nightclub from ZHA as part of the development’s "social epicenter," according to a press release from client Habacoa. It will be anchored by the 25,000-square-foot yacht club space, which the firm says is designed to evoke waves and tidal currents.

Image: Zaha Hadid Architects, rendering courtesy of Flyingarchitecture

In terms of sustainability, Habacoa says: "The site’s existing deep-water minimizes disruption to the shoreline and marine habitats, while sustainable construction methods on land will create a majority of the development. Working with marine biologists and local environmental bodies, any corals impacted by construct...

New photos of Populous' modular Cricket World Cup stadium ahead of June games

2024-05-30T12:29:00-04:00

Archinect has received photos of the new Populous-designed Nassau County International Cricket Stadium in Long Island, New York, as it prepares to host games of the ICC Men's T20 World Cup cricket tournament next month.

Photo: ICC

The modular, 34,000-seat stadium was built with reused portions of the grandstands made for the Formula 1 Las Vegas Grand Prix last November, adding its Australian dropped-in pitch after being cultivated in Florida to complete the design along with media suites and 80,000 square feet of hospitality areas. Work began in January.

Photo: The LandTek Group

The stadium will now play host to nine events over the next two weeks, beginning with the Sri Lanka vs South Africa matchup on June 3rd.

BIG’s new LA office tops out science center at Claremont McKenna College

2024-05-30T11:45:00-04:00

A topping-out ceremony was held recently for the new BIG-designed 135,000-square-foot Robert Day Sciences Center at Claremont McKenna College in California. The new campus gateway — one of the first projects of BIG's new Los Angeles office — seeks to enhance the college's research aims into neurology, genealogical studies, and climate change in preparation for an institutional turn towards its "next chapter."

Classrooms, lab spaces, and an open, column-free auditorium space are contained in each rotated rectangular block volume, complemented on the outside by rooftop terraces and public plaza areas "The Mall," "Art Square," and "Sciences Garden." BIG expects their design to be completed in 2025. It offers a worthy comparison to their previous Business Innovation Hub design at UMass Amherst and is on track for a LEED Gold certification.

View this post on Instagram A post shared by BIG - Bjarke Ingels Group (@big_builds)

An investigation into an early design of the Barcelona Pavilion

2024-05-29T20:24:00-04:00

Really, the differences between the plan and the final construction are not great. Then again, I make this tentative conclusion, that our salvation depends on attention to small things, to what lies obvious before us, once seen clearly, felt within, once absorbed. Mies said similar.

Gary Garvin, a name familiar to many Archinectors, delves into the lesser-known early design phase (Plan I) of Mies van der Rohe’s Barcelona Pavilion. This study highlights the architectural and conceptual distinctions between the initial plan and the final structure. Garvin’s detailed analysis provides insights into Mies’s design philosophy and the modernist principles that influenced the Pavilion’s evolution.

Garvin begins by outlining the key differences between Plan I and the completed Pavilion. He notes how the initial design featured more pronounced structural elements, which were later refined to create the iconic open and fluid spaces of the final version. Garvin emphasizes Mies’s intent to balance form and function, highlighting how these early designs reflect the architect’s experimentation with spatial concepts.

The investigation delves into the philosophical underpinnings of Mies’s work, discussing his commitment to the principles of modernism, such as minimalism, the us...

New Chicago O’Hare satellite concourse design by SOM-led team unveiled

2024-05-29T17:30:00-04:00

Skidmore, Owings, and Merrill has announced plans for a new satellite concourse at Chicago O’Hare International Airport along with Ross Barney Architects, Juan Gabriel Moreno Architects, and Arup.

What will become the first new building in the airport’s largest expansion in 68 years features improved passenger experiences to compete with other modern airport designs. The firm won the commission for two new terminal structures at O’Hare, the country’s fourth-busiest airport, in 2019 and is expected to follow with the 1.3 million-square-foot total addition’s second half by 2030.

Image: courtesy of SOM and Norviska

"We designed the new satellite concourse to create a frictionless experience for travelers, on par with the best airports in the world," said SOM Design Partner Scott Duncan. "The gate lounges feature column-free expanses for easy wayfinding, high ceilings to improve views and air circulation, and a daylighting strategy to help align the body's natural rhythms — all to make ...

Zaha Hadid Architects' XRL Topside Development construction reaches roof level in Hong Kong

2024-05-28T18:25:00-04:00

Zaha Hadid Architects has posted a new construction update on its forthcoming XRL Topside Development at the Hong Kong High-Speed Rail West Kowloon Terminus.

The project, which adds 3.2 million square feet of civic, office, and retail spaces above the existing train station, includes two pairs of towers connecting with a large landscaped central plaza area and a sculptural pavilion, each designed to resemble flower pedals and located at either end of the site.

Rendering: Superview, image courtesy Zaha Hadid Architects

Rendering: Atchain, image courtesy Zaha Hadid Architects

Construction has now progressed to the roof level of the new structures. The firm says they are targeting a LEED Platinum certification as well as other industry credentials for sustainability on the development, which also yields a total of 100,000 square feet of garden terraces.

Rendering: Atchain, image courtesy Zaha Hadid Architects

Rendering: Hayes Davidson, image courtesy Zaha Hadid Architects

UBS is said to...

MAD updates construction progress on Hainan Science Museum before 2025 debut

2024-05-28T16:56:00-04:00

Ma Yansong/MAD Architects has posted a construction update for the Hainan Science Museum in China ahead of its anticipated 2025 opening. The vertically spiraling design works to combat the phenomenon of museum fatigue, appearing as though an emerging cloud bank while distributing spaces efficiently across five floors and a total of 46,530 square meters (500,800 square feet).

This will form a key part of the site's cultural component, contrasting the many sports stadium designs that surround it in coastal Haikou National Wetland Park. It mirrors MAD's previous efforts on the Wormhole Library located nearby on Haikou Bay. Another eye-catching design, the firm's ripped-facade One River North development in Denver (MAD's second completed residential project in the U.S.), also passed a major milestone recently as it nears its realization.

View this post on Instagram A post shared by MAD Architects (@madarchitects)

SO – IL shares facade details of forthcoming Nine Chapel residences in Brooklyn

2024-05-28T15:37:00-04:00

SO – IL’s next NYC residential project is wrapping up for client Tankhouse. Their design for the 14-story, 53,820-square-foot Nine Chapel residences features a perforated metallic facade system that reflects both seasons and the sun’s position while creating a permeable veil for the loggias and front porch entrances for each home on Chapel Street in Downtown Brooklyn.

Image credit: Jonathan Hokklo

“The drama of the building’s exterior is apparent even from far away. The opportunity here was less about how we fit into an existing fabric, and more about how we define this little spot in the city,” Tankhouse’s co-founder Sam Alison-Mayne says of the design.

Image credit: Valeria Flores

“The undulated metal facade is designed, configured, and textured to allow for different experiences, depending on from which angle it’s viewed, and the time of day. When walking behind it, you can feel the air coming through. If you see it from the street, it reflects in various ways — all thanks to the q...

Four industrial-style interiors by Beinfield Architecture: Your Next Employer?

2024-05-28T11:31:00-04:00

Following our previous visit to Oregon-based Waechter Architecture, we are moving our Meet Your Next Employer series to Connecticut this week to explore the work of Beinfield Architecture.

Founded in 1983 by Bruce Beinfield, with an office located in South Norwalk, CT, the firm has built a portfolio inspired by place, culture, and history. “We are dedicated to solving architectural problems innovatively with environmentally sustainable solutions that are simple and direct, expressive of structure and program, and supportive of the varied patterns of human life,” the firm says about its ethos. “We are committed to a vision of architecture and design that is at once responsive and imaginative, modern, yet respectful of tradition and context.”

Over on Archinect Jobs, the firm is currently hiring for an Intermediate Architect to join its South Norwalk office. For candidates interested in applying for the position, or anybody interested in learning more about the firm’s output, we have r...

Why is technological progress still lagging in the building trade?

2024-05-27T11:00:00-04:00

Overall, across Europe and the US, stuff is still built in a pretty manual fashion - not very different to the way it would have been built 100 years ago [...] Construction is a bit of a digital laggard compared with many other industries. It's been slow to adopt digital in the widest sense

Consultant Sam O’Gorman and other experts speak to the BBC about the confounding gap between digital technology and the analog process for delivering residential architecture. Interesting projects mentioned are the University of Maine Advanced Structures and Composites Center’s attempts to develop the world’s largest 3D printer and the UK firm Automated Architecture (or AUAR)’s plan to create a network of ‘micro-factories’ capable of producing pre-assembled six-story timber design for just £250,000 ($320,000 USD) using robots.

10 green rooftop spaces we enjoyed this week

2024-05-25T08:00:00-04:00

In case you haven't checked out Archinect's Pinterest boards in a while, we have compiled ten recently pinned images from outstanding projects on various Archinect Firm and People profiles.

Today's top images (in no particular order) are from the board Rooftop Spaces.

Tip: use the handy FOLLOW feature to easily keep up-to-date with all your favorite Archinect profiles.

↑ 10K Hill South in Washington, D.C., by MA | Morris Adjmi Architects

↑ Tolbiac housing project in Paris, France, by Atelier Architecture Vincent Parreira - AAVP; Photo: Luc Boegly

↑ Greenwich Village School Green Roof—PS41 in New York, NY, by MBB Architects; Photo: Charles de Vaivre

↑ T(EA) House in Greenwich, CT, by Joeb Moore & Partners; Photo: David Sundberg/Esto

↑ 26 West in Brooklyn, NY, by Durukan Design Inc.

↑ Elevated Camp in New England by Murdough Design; Photo: Chuck Choi

↑ 175 Delancey in New York, NY, by Dattner Architects

↑ Arismeer in Driehuizen, The Netherlands, by LCDQ

↑ 3033 Wilshire Tower in Los An...

Studio Libeskind's refreshing social housing development debuts at the Sumner Houses in Brooklyn

2024-05-24T18:25:00-04:00

Studio Libeskind has inaugurated its new social housing development in Bed-Stuy, Brooklyn, called The Atrium at Sumner, after a three-year, $132 million construction. The 11-story, 132,418-square-foot development yields 190 total units, with an 8,309-square-foot community space located on the ground floor along Marcus Garvey Boulevard.

Image: Hufton+Crow

The building’s design features a dramatic interplay of opening and solids in a folding form finished in distinct optic white EIFS facade cladding that distinguishes it from the brick buildings on the 66-year-old NYCHA campus. A year-round interior garden gives name to the development, which features a host of amenities included to support aging-in-place alternatives for senior residents of the studio and one-bedroom apartments, 25 of which come fully adapted for those living with disabilities or who are visually or hearing-impaired.

Image: Hufton+Crow

The project came together through a consortium of stakeholders that includes the New...

Congress appoints engineer Thomas Austin as the next Architect of the Capitol

2024-05-24T14:22:00-04:00

The appointment of military engineer Thomas Austin as the next Architect of the Capitol has been announced by a 12-member bipartisan commission of lawmakers in Washington, D.C.

Austin, a retired Army veteran and the former Director of Engineering at Arlington National Cemetery, will assume the office beginning on June 24th and serve a ten-year term, which soon could be subject to direct congressional oversight after the controversy surrounding predecessor Brett Blanton’s abuse of office.

“The Architect of the Capitol plays a vital role in welcoming millions of visitors to our Capitol and ensuring it is a functional workplace. Thomas Austin has managed construction projects and facilities of all sizes, maintained one of our nation’s most hallowed landmarks, and served our country in the military. We are confident that with his extensive experience, Thomas Austin will be an adept and capable Architect of the Capitol,” the committee’s public statement reads.

Previously on Archinect: ...

Grenfell fire inquiry won't produce criminal charges until at least 2026, investigators say

2024-05-24T12:30:00-04:00

No criminal charges will be filed against defendants in the ongoing Grenfell Tower fire investigation until at least late 2026, according to the latest from the BBC and other UK outlets. London's Metropolitan Police and Crown Prosecution Service, which is responsible for administering criminal punishments, cited the "scale and complexity" of the investigation as the reason for the delay. A number of subcontractors and contractors, including the cladding manufacturer Arconic, are the subjects of the criminal inquiry.

Kingspan, the insulation makers for the tower, have settled out of court for £150 million ($191 million USD). The BBC says: "The delay announced today means it is likely no defendants will appear in court until 2027, if there are prosecutions. The public inquiry into the fire is expected to publish its final report in the summer or autumn of this year."

On the comparative difficulty of family-sized apartment dwellings in North America

2024-05-24T12:04:00-04:00

One major consequence of this difference in design is that the North American double-loaded corridor buildings are much worse at providing family-sized units. To illustrate the point, we’ll go through the different sized apartments one by one, and compare the floor area and design. You’ll notice that the American plans have significantly more floor area for the same number of bedrooms, and have much more lightless interior space up against the common corridor to fill.

Stephen Smith is a former journalist and the Executive Director of the Brooklyn-based Center for Building in North America. His analysis of spatial challenges created by multifamily apartments and zoning conditions was featured recently in Bloomberg's Odd Lots podcast. This is an adroit relaying of an issue affecting both developers and architects in pertaining markets and compliments an earlier 2021 report on post-pandemic trends in multifamily residential design from the website Propmodo.

Smith writes: "The merits of North American building and zoning codes can be debated, but the effect is clearly that apartments, in order to provide the same number of bedrooms and give everyone a window, must necessarily consume far more floor area than point access block designs possible in other countries. So if you’re looking for a family-sized apartment in the U.S. or Canada and finding that new buildings don’t have what you’re looking for, it’s not you, it’s not the architect, and it’s not ...

Houston's Rothko Chapel breaks ground on 2026 expansion

2024-05-24T11:50:00-04:00

Houston’s iconic Rothko Chapel is expanding for 2026 and recently broke ground on Phase 2 of its $42 million campus plan. The initiative will yield two new buildings designed by Brooklyn-based Architectural Research Office (ARO) and an outdoor garden from Nelson Byrd Woltz Landscape Architects. The new buildings will stand at 6,600 and 3,800 square feet, respectively, and the entire project will be targeting LEED v4.0 certification.

Rendering courtesy of ARO

“On the heels of our recent 50th anniversary, the work also gives us a welcome opportunity to lift up and celebrate those who have contributed to the design, building, and stewardship of the Rothko Chapel, including the de Menils, Philip Johnson, Howard Barnstone, Gene Aubrey, Barnett Newman, and so many others. All of them shared a vision that brought together modern art and sacred space to promote human unity, solidarity, and justice. This vision is still as relevant today as it was 50 years ago, and I believe it will remain so...

Editor's Picks #559

2024-05-23T20:53:00-04:00

Niall Patrick Walsh wrote the final (of 26 features) chapter of Archinect In-Depth: Artificial Intelligence.

Therein “New contributions on the topic from Autodesk's Mike Haley and Superusers author Randy Deutsch are joined by earlier reflections from throughout the series by Richard Saul Wurman, Carlo Ratti, Bjarke Ingels, and Molly Wright Steenson." One key takeaway: “AI will not replace architects, but architects who use AI will replace those who do not."

For those who’d missed any of the series, Will Galloway felt it a "Great summary" and wondered "If we do go all in to the AI future our role as creatives may be simply to feed the new infrastructure of information…How does the economics of that world even work? Will we be the tool users or the material that tools are made from?"

News

After seeing their new carbon analysis tool reallynotmyname opined "I don't know why Autodesk is obsessed with automating pre-design and conceptual tasks. This particular tool seems to emanate from a...

BIG marks progress on Habitat 67-inspired KING Toronto development

2024-05-23T18:52:00-04:00

BIG Partner Kai-Uwe Bergmann has posted an update to the firm's new contribution to the Toronto skyline, KING Toronto. The scheme is being developed at over 600,000 square feet alongside Diamond Schmitt Architects for clients Westbank Corp and Allied Properties. The project, which began construction in mid-2020, is inspired by Moshe Safdie’s Habitat 67 design and will culminate at 16 stories while adding an “experimental” touch to the nightlife-rich King Street West corridor.

This is the firm’s third project for Westbank, following the new Vancouver House and Telus Sky development in Calgary.

View this post on Instagram A post shared by Kai-Uwe Bergmann (@kaiuwebergmann)

64 building owners express interest in entering NYC's Office Conversion Accelerator program

2024-05-23T14:31:00-04:00

New York City's recently launched Office Conversion Accelerator Program has drawn interest from 64 building owners in Manhattan as planning officials mull changes to help speed up the process intended to deliver 20,000 new units of housing by 2033.

The market for conversion in Lower Manhattan has thus far yielded 2,100 new units in four converted buildings, highlighted by CetraRuddy's forthcoming effort at 25 Water Street, the largest conversion project in the country.

Still, as Gothamist reports: "The office conversion plan aims to produce thousands of new apartments, but none so far will be within reach for low-income New Yorkers who bear the brunt of the city’s housing shortage."

A potential game-changer is the proposal, backed by Mayor Eric Adams, to move the eligibility of conversion permits to include buildings constructed after 1990. Most of the conversions have targeted L...

Architecture critic Mark Lamster on the inaccessible trope 'plaguing new buildings'

2024-05-22T18:43:00-04:00

Over the past decade or so, bleacher stairs have become a ubiquitous marker of contemporary public architecture. It’s time for the trend to stop. Its subsequent proliferation serves as a good example of how avant-garde design, or at least a consumerist version of it, filters down to the mainstream. The broader point is that architects need to be more inventive as they plan new public spaces, and their patrons need to demand that those spaces are accessible for the entire population.

The ubiquitous “bleacher stair” feature can be seen in designs for the Studio Museum of Harlem, Perez Art Museum Miami, and the new Gilder Center at the American Museum of Natural History (just by my count) and can be traced to Rem Koolhaas’ design for Prada’s NYC flagship in 2001, says architecture critic Mark Lamster in a look around Dallas. (He later mentions SOM’s new Schwarzman College of Computing for MIT as a positive adaptation of the trend.)

Interestingly, architect and disability advocate David Gissen tells him, “I think a giant mattress would be a more appropriate element with which to gather people together. Many disabled people have called for cities to re-imagine rest as a public good, and I think it is important that we explore the possibilities.”

Other critics have begun taking note elsewhere. How refreshing it is still to see criticism include a discussion like this that doesn’t expressly encourage “bad building.”

...

Innovative mass timber Wangen Tower opens in southern Germany

2024-05-22T17:16:00-04:00

University of Stuttgart professor Achim Menges has shared details of a new research-led observation tower project called Wangen Tower after its realization earlier this month at the regional garden showcase Landesgartenschau Wangen im Allgäu in southern Germany.

The project is a collaboration between the university's Institute for Computational Design and Construction (ICD) and Institute of Building Structures and Structural Design (ITKE) at the university.

Menges’ eight-member team worked with Prof. Dr. Jan Knippers and Gregor Neubauer to produce the prototype using CNC milling techniques and curved CLT panels. The result is a durable, high-performance structure made from locally sourced renewable materials as well as the first-ever built example of a multi-level building made using self-shaped structural timber components.

The corner office's long era of dominance is over. Make way for the new 'Workplace Power Symbols' says The Atlantic

2024-05-21T17:43:00-04:00

Many modern companies “have as many conference rooms as there are executives,” [Kay] Sargent said, and it’s become a “dirty little secret” that conference rooms are the new corner offices. [...] When a high-ranking executive parks themselves in a big conference room or spreads their stuff across the long table in the office coffee shop, no one is going to tell them to leave.

The influence that Google exerted over office design in the 2000s has been credited with starting the movement toward a post-COVID reality in which the private spaces within offices now occupy only 45% of the total footprint. (H/t CoStar.com from January)

Still, The Atlantic’s Michael Waters writes: “We may one day return to an older layout of explicit hierarchy: [Lenny] Beaudoin, the CBRE designer, told me that he recently worked with a bank that decided to reinstall corner offices for a group of senior leaders, hoping it would bring them back to the office. But even if recent changes prove lasting, with space designed to be up for grabs, there won’t be any illusions about who has the power to grab it.”

UK Housing Secretary issues final go-ahead for Museum of London and Bastion House demolition

2024-05-21T16:05:00-04:00

The UK's Housing and Communities Secretary Michael Gove has approved the planned demolition of the Museum of London building and Bastion House near the Barbican. The go-ahead makes way for the revised Sheppard Robson and Diller Scofidio + Renfro-led scheme that would deliver a new office block to the site following the culmination of demolition work in 2033.

The decision marks the end of a tumultuous back-and-forth between preservationists and the planning authority. Many have criticized the demolition's carbon footprint, despite the design team's promise to reuse 90% of the materials on-site in the construction of the new building, prompting Gove to issue an Article 31 order last month before casting his final approval on May 17th.

Previously on Archinect: Diller Scofidio + Renfro/Sheppard Robson's London Centre for Music replacement inches closer after planners grant local approval

Barbican Quarter Action (or BQA), the main group leading its opposition, has said to Londonist that t...

NYC announces $7 billion design and construction contracts for two borough-based jails

2024-05-21T15:54:00-04:00

The New York City Department of Design and Construction has issued two new contracts for what will become the first two facilities in the city's progressive borough-based jails system. The bids from Leon D. DeMatteis Construction Corp. for the $3.9 billion new Queens jail and Transformative Reform Group for the $2.9 billion Bronx project were announced along with an intention to use a design-build approach to "speed up" construction along an accelerated track.

The completion of the jails is expected in 2031. In the Bronx, the jail is scheduled for delivery at 745 E. 141st St. in Mott Haven. In Queens, where activists have led a local fight that mirrors the effort to halt the new 'superjail' in Chinatown/Lower Manhattan, the new facility will take shape at 26-02 82nd Avenue in Kew Gardens, requiring a preliminary demolition. The total cost of replacing Rikers Island, which has turned into a human rights eyesore, is estimated at under $15.5 billion. Its mandated shutdown still looms f...

Jenny Holzer restages 1989 projection piece at the Guggenheim in New York City

2024-05-21T12:42:00-04:00

This month at New York's Guggenheim Museum, artist Jenny Holzer is having her landmark 1989 light projection restaged in the iconic Frank Lloyd Wright-designed building’s rotunda. The installation celebrates her innovative text-based art alongside pieces from the early 70s to today that were included in the museum's new Light Line exhibition.

Installation view, Jenny Holzer: Light Line, May 17 – September 29, 2024, Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York. © 2024 Jenny Holzer, Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York. Photo: Ariel Ione Williams © Solomon R. Guggenheim Foundation, New York

"Developed in close collaboration with the artist and her studio, the new sign was the subject of an ambitious research project. Guggenheim conservators reverse-engineered the 1989 LED hardware and computer program, which helped inform the new manifestation. This investigation documents future variability and technology upgrades, and contributes to scholarship and methodologies for the preservation of ...

Lizard tails are effective at producing building collapse prevention strategies, Spanish scientists find

2024-05-20T19:30:00-04:00

A group of researchers from the Polytechnic University of Valencia say they have discovered a means for protecting buildings from structural collapse. In a new set of building science experiments conducted in June 2023, they carefully studied animal neurobiology.

El País tells us: “The team of scientists and engineers has devised a hierarchy-based collapse isolation system, the key to which lies in the implementation of structural fuses, which allow the building to be segmented in the event of a failure. According to Adam, this design philosophy is similar to fuse-based protection of electrical networks. His technique has been validated by a test on a real building — 15 by 12 meters in plan, with two 2.6-meter-high floors — using prefabricated reinforced concrete. It is the first solution of its kind to be tested and verified at full scale.”

The Endure project recently made the cover of the journal Nature. Engineering professor Antoni Cladera (who did not participate in the study) t...