Archinect - News

Minneapolis’ Water Works Competition Shortlists West 8, SCAPE, Gustafson Guthrie Nicol

2013-06-13T18:03:00-04:00

The Minneapolis Parks Foundation has announced a shortlist of three award-winning design teams for the schematic design project Water Works: A Next Generation Park on Minneapolis’ Central Riverfront. The teams are Gustafson Guthrie Nicol with VJAA and Interboro (Seattle/Minneapolis/New York); SCAPE with Rogers Marvel (New York); and Team West 8 (Rotterdam/New York).

Crazy Cardboard Towers Bring Ornament Back to Architecture

2012-11-05T13:15:00-05:00

The project, called Night Blooms, is the work of Wil Natzel, an architect with a taste for the eclectically romantic and for unusual materials. “My larger approach to architecture is embedded in the history of architectural ornamentation,” he says, “As an alternative to a city filled with purely performative architecture” — being the boring walls, doors, stairs, pathways, and other bits that define the spaces we use.

HKS is chosen to design new Vikings stadium

2012-09-28T12:08:00-04:00

A nearly two-month search for the firm that will design the new $975 million Vikings stadium ended Friday morning when the team and the public board overseeing construction of the project selected HKS Inc. of Dallas, which recently designed new NFL stadiums for the Dallas Cowboys and Indianapolis Colts.

A Minneapolis Warehouse Reborn as Artist-style Chiropractic Office

2012-05-24T16:04:00-04:00

"Beauty is not an additive act but rather a coherent aesthetic. Anything else would be irrelevant. We have been advocating a total and integral environment for both physical and mental wellbeing, in other words, a healthy environment must work on all levels." - Ali Heshmati, '92 graduate from the School of Architecture at College of Design

Darin Duch, Associate Intern Architect at Laboratory for Environments, Architecture, and Design (LEAD, Inc.), and Ali Heshmati, owner of LEAD Inc., recently completed work on Ambiente Gallerie, a new artist-style chiropractic office located in Northeast Minneapolis. Duch and Heshmati both graduated from the School of Architecture in the College of Design at the University of Minnesota.

The project was designed for Dr. Kari Boudreau, who wanted to integrate art and design into a healing space for her business, formerly Art of Chiropractic. The 1910 warehouse has an open space flanked with exposed brick walls decked with original paintings, floating cloud lighting, and sheer fabric convertible rooms that resemble ultra modern pods. The massage and exam rooms utilize curved, boomerang pivot doors, "Duchamp doors" covered with a translucent skin of fiberglass that offer privacy without feeling confined.

"Beauty is not an additive act but rather a coherent aesthetic. Anything else...

Peavey Plaza has fallen into disrepair

2012-05-17T19:14:00-04:00

the plaza features include "a terraced amphitheaterlike space and a drainable reflecting pool that could be used as a stage in summer and a skating rink in winter. Waterfalls absorbed noise; garden rooms offered intimacy and softened concrete edges."

Kathryn Shattuck writes the battle over the fate of Peavey Plaza, a two-acre outdoor public space in downtown Minneapolis designed by M. Paul Friedberg. The American Society of Landscape Architects recognized the plaza as one of the nation’s most significant examples of landscape architecture back in 1999. However, built in 1975, the space is now in a state of disrepair (including the fact that it meets neither Americans With Disabilities Act accessibility requirements nor sustainable water-use standards, and lacks the electrical supplies necessary for outdoor events) and the City of Minneapolis has commissioned a significant redesign. Preservationists arguing for rehabilitation suggest that there are "reasonable alternatives to the demolition".