Archinect - News

60-Story Twin Towers by SOM Break Ground in Manhattan

2013-01-16T12:51:00-05:00

“With today’s groundbreaking, we’re taking a major step forward in the transformation and rebirth of the Far West Side of Manhattan,” Mayor Michael Bloomberg said from the podium at the corner of 33rd Street and Ninth Avenue.

Hudson Yards is not the only megadevelopnment underway on Manhattan's Far West Side. Brookfield Properties (owners of the World Financial Center, Canary Wharf and Zuccotti Park), broke ground on Manhattan West, a 5.4-million-square foot development on a 5 acre site over a set of Penn Station rail road tracks. The centerpiece is two 60-story towers designed by SOM.

Skidmore, Owings & Merrill to Design Federal Courthouse

2012-12-12T15:21:00-05:00

Federal officials this morning announced that Skidmore, Owings & Merrill Architects has won the contract to build a $400 million Downtown courthouse. “Today, the new federal courthouse is that much closer to becoming a reality for downtown Los Angeles,” said Congresswoman Lucille Roybal-Allard in a prepared statement. The selection, she said, “means we are moving toward the groundbreaking of a critically needed facility that will resolve long-standing security and space issues.”

Editor's Picks #287

2012-10-22T00:13:00-04:00

The latest Archinect ShowCase featured Cassia Co-op Training Centre by TYIN tegnestue Architects. The project is located in Sungai Penuh, Sumatra, Indonesia.

News
The New York Observer reported on Cornell’s plans (unveiled this week) for a brand new 12.5-acre tech campus on Roosevelt Island this week. The master plan is by SOM and Field Operations, the first academic building is by Thom Mayne. snail commented "So they would have us believe that a great center of future technological innovation will look like a standard tower-in-the-park development with a few curves thrown in, and an atrium borrowed from John Portman?"

For his part toasteroven thought “cornell is trying to recreate MIT's medialab in NYC - on an island - by making a fancy new campus - BEFORE they've even established the program?...The city is making such a huge deal about this - but it seems like it's primarily being used as a marketing ploy to sell NYC as a new tech hub or something...it seems like there's a...

SOM Proposes Hovering Pedestrian Donut for Future Grand Central Terminal

2012-10-19T12:28:00-04:00

Perhaps to palliate our worst Kafka-esque architectural nightmares, the city invited three renowned architecture firms, WXY Architecture + Urban Design, Skidmore Owings & Merrill (SOM), and Foster + Partners, to imagine “the next 100 years” of Grand Central Station (which is fast approaching its 100th birthday) and the surrounding Midtown cityscape.

Cornell Unveils New NYC Tech Campus by SOM and Morphosis

2012-10-15T11:55:00-04:00

“Google didn’t exist 25 years ago, Facebook didn’t exist 25 years ago, even AOL didn’t exist 25 years ago,” Cornell's Andrew Winters said recently. “The challenge is how do you create a tech campus today that is still flexible enough to grow and evolve for the next 25 years?”

Cornell unveiled its plans for a brand new 12.5-acre tech campus on Roosevelt Island today. The master plan is by SOM and Field Operations, the first academic building is by Thom Mayne and includes a giant two-acre solar array meant to help the structure achieve net-zero energy consumption.

New Renderings for 1 World Trade Center—But Where's the Spire?

2012-08-08T11:05:00-04:00

After all the wrangling over the updated designs for the Durst Organization-overseen 1 World Trade Center (we’ve heard there was a list of 20 changes the developer wanted from the Port, all eventually granted), new renderings have been released for the project. They show a building that looks a little sharper, perhaps a little less striking, but something still bound to dominate the skyline, as if that were not already abundantly clear from the just-about-topped-out tower.

Toward A Vision — The Great Lakes Century

2012-03-28T14:12:00-04:00

The Great Lakes Century is a pro bono initiative of SOM's City Design Practice. We found dozens of important efforts to clean and protect the Lakes and the St. Lawrence, but no comprehensive vision for their entire ecosystem. So we did what we do: took a comprehensive look at the natural setting, how unenlightened human hands had messed it up, and then created a set of strategic principles – to begin a broad-based, bi-national dialogue (which we had never done before).

Six Stellar Firms Tapped for Cornell's NYC Tech Campus

2012-02-28T18:12:00-05:00

The innovation offered by a new tech campus on Roosevelt Island is not limited to New York’s technology sector but the design one, as well. Almost every bid had soaring renderings and flashy flythroughs, most notably the winning entry from Cornell. Now the upstate university has announced six of the world’s top firms, including a few local favorites, are in the running to design the new tech campus.

Making the shortlist are SOM, OMA, Morphosis, Diller Scofidio + Renfro, Steven Holl and the dark horse Bohlin Cywinski Jackson, which maybe makes sense if they're looking to mind Apple engineers.

SOM Wins Master Plan Competition for Beijing Bohai Innovation City

2012-02-22T14:17:00-05:00

In an international design competiton for the rapid development of satellite cities along Chinese high speed rail corridors, Skidmore, Owings & Merrill's Beijing Bohai Innovation City master plan has just been named the winning submission.

SOM to Design the Greenland Group Suzhou Center in Wujiang, China

2012-01-18T13:46:00-05:00

The Chicago office of Skidmore, Owings & Merrill (SOM) has won an international competition to design Greenland Group Suzhou Center, a 358-meter supertall landmark tower, in Wujiang, China. This is SOM Chicago’s sixth project with the Greenland Group.

1 World Trade Center Will Not Be 1,776 Feet After All

2011-09-09T12:50:00-04:00

It turns out the tower will be even taller, and we have Mother Nature to thank for that.

Thanks to some lightning rods, 1 World Trade Center will be free from some of the silly symbolic weight given to it by Danny Libeskind. Though it could well wind up at 1,787 feet, an even better year. (Can you history buffs remember why?)

AS+GG Designs Kingdom Tower, to Be the World’s Tallest Building

2011-08-02T20:26:00-04:00

News broke that Chicago firm Adrian Smith + Gordon Gill Architecture is designing Kingdom Tower, to be the world’s tallest building, in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, near the Red Sea. [...] It has been reported that the tower’s height will be at least 173 meters (568 feet) taller than the world’s current tallest building, Dubai’s 828-meter-tall Burj Khalifa, which was designed by Adrian Smith while at Skidmore, Owings & Merrill.

We just received a few more images of the proposed tower from Adrian Smith + Gordon Gill Architecture:

Goodbye MHT

2011-06-22T00:37:59-04:00

The Manufacturers Hanover Trust glass cube on Fifth Avenue is finance made transparent. Designed in 1954 by S.O.M. it was landmarked in 1997 implying that New York would forever have this jewel box to admire. And when a building is a glass box, achieving an unimaginable degree of transparency, the inside is as important to protect as the exterior.

SOM Designs Eco-Urban Community in Danang, Vietnam

2011-06-01T14:17:00-04:00

Skidmore, Owings & Merrill has recently been awarded the Master Plan commission for Golden Hills, an Eco-Urban Community in Danang, Vietnam. SOM’s preliminary plan for a sustainable residential community at the edge of the city looks to set a new benchmark for ecologically-sensitive development in Vietnam. SOM is now working closely with the city planning authorities to finalize the project’s design and ensure its delivery.

Skidmore, Owings & Merrill’s Baietan Master Plan Awarded

2011-05-25T17:49:00-04:00

The AIA San Francisco chapter has recently honored SOM's Baietan Master Plan with a 2011 Merit Award for Urban Design. The Baietan Master Plan addresses a 35-square kilometer portion of the Southern Chinese Pearl River Delta that stretches between the city of Guangzhou, with its 10.3 million inhabitants, and city of Foshan, a smaller city of 5.4 million people. Growth in the Delta region has allowed the two cities to begin to merge into one mega region.