Archinect - News

Architecture gallery, "Department of Architecture", to open in San Francisco on June 12th

2013-06-07T20:35:00-04:00

Michelle Chang, a GSD grad, and current studio teacher at CCA and Berkeley, has responded to the closing of SFMOMA's A+D department by initiating a new gallery space to promote the work of young professionals.

The first exhibit at Department of Architecture is opening on June 12 at the architecture office and think tank, MKThink, featuring practicing academics Matsys (CCA), MTTR MGMT (CCA, Berkeley, SCI-Arc), and Nervous System (MIT).

Michelle tells us, "starting Department of Architecture (DoA) grew out of a frustration with architecture's lack of presence within the city. Especially with the SFMOMA closing next week (for three years), all architecture events will be embedded within either local architecture schools or small professional circles. Some of the best architecture exhibitions I've been to were in lobbies of architecture schools, but they were mostly attended by faculty and students. The idea behind DoA is to engage the public in two ways: through a series of ha...

Bolts along Bay Bridge bike path fail

2013-05-29T15:37:00-04:00

Crews that built the railing committed what experts called a basic mistake - they welded the bolts in place firmly in their slots rather than leaving a small amount of room to accommodate a natural expansion of the bicycle path that happens in hot weather. As a result, scores of the 1-inch-diameter bolts have been sheared off along the 1.2-mile bike path on the southern side of the span's skyway section.

Winners of the 2013 AIA San Francisco Design Awards

2013-04-30T20:59:00-04:00

The AIA San Francisco chapter has unveiled the results of the 2013 AIA San Francisco Design Awards.

West 8 wins Fort Mason ideas competition

2013-01-25T19:55:00-05:00

The design competition to bring fresh life to San Francisco's Fort Mason Center has been won by a team that proposes such twists as a floating pool and a pedestrian bridge to Marina Green.

SFMOMA posts a video about their upcoming Sn

2013-01-10T20:39:00-05:00

We're building our future, with a new expansion to open in early 2016. Open, engaging, welcoming, and embracing, the expansion represents a transformative vision of the museum, offering new opportunities for diverse audiences to experience modern and contemporary art. Hear about what's in store for SFMOMA and our audiences in 2016 and beyond from Director Neal Benezra, artist Richard Serra, and other members of the SFMOMA community.

SFMOMA: Reimagining the Civic

2012-12-03T11:47:00-05:00

RE-IMAGINING THE CIVIC
A profound breakdown in trust between publics and institutions is one of the defining hallmarks of our time. Cultural organizations can respond to this crisis by acting as mediating agencies and imaginatively bridging and building interfaces across divided constituencies. In making public this graphic analysis of our internal thinking process at Slought, we offer suggestions as to how small and large organizations alike can respond to this challenge.

In our activities at Slought, we continually reflect on and draw insight from the variety of economies employed in our communities, ranging from the formal to the informal. We also foreground conversation and consensus as methodologies of engagement, as well as collaboration and partnership across cultural, intellectual, and advocacy-based communities. These strategies have enabled us and our collaborators to survive and flourish over these past 10 years, despite the socio-political tenor of many of our proje...

The NYT takes us on a tour of Henry Urbach's SF home

2012-11-01T13:50:00-04:00

Mr. Urbach, 49, until recently the curator of architecture and design at the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, and his spouse, Dr. Hartman, 52, a psychoanalyst, have approached the design of their home as if it were a conceptual art exhibit for two. The apartment’s many mirrors aren’t for checking for stray nose hairs. They “complicate spatial relationships,” Mr. Urbach says.

Largest skyscraper on West Coast, designed by Pelli Clarke Pelli, approved for San Francisco Transbay Transit Center

2012-10-19T14:04:00-04:00

A 1,070-foot tower that will become the largest skyscraper on the West Coast received its final approvals from the Planning Commission on Thursday.

Clarke also showed the Planning Commission the actual metal and glass that will be used on the exterior of the building. He explained that the skin of the building has been augmented to add metalwork that will grow deeper and denser at the bottom of the tower. Clarke said adding the metal to the glass exterior will give the building a light texture that will glow in an ambient way.

The metalwork also was used to make the building safer for birds and to help control the flow of water down the structure.

Some people speaking about the project decried the tower as being too large and criticized its design.

NOTE: image has been update per Mark Hogan's tip in the comments

Design for the Snøhetta / AECOM Warriors Arena is Unveiled

2012-10-18T19:59:00-04:00

The building’s exact design is not final, but Craig Dykers of Snøhetta said it would be a lozenge-shaped building constructed with a façade primarily consisting of semi-opaque glass with a whitish frit, or dotted, pattern. The exterior is meant to make the building translucent and light-colored but also environmentally friendly by limiting some of the direct sunlight streaming in, he said.

Latin America: A New Generation of Women Architects

2012-09-20T16:11:00-04:00

Yet women architects in Latin America — as in North America — continue to confront gender-based inequities. Partly this seems due to entrenched cultural attitudes, and partly to the traditional connections between architecture, engineering and capital, which can make it difficult to progress to a less patriarchal culture of building and design.

Places presents highlights from the exhibition Spaces Through Gender, now on view in San Francisco, with exemplary work by Latin American designers Tatiana Bilbao, Fernanda Canales, Frida Escobedo Lopez, Rozana Montiel, Nora Enriquez, Rocio Romero, Galia Solomonoff, Catalina Patiño and Viviana Peña (of the collective Ctrl G), Ana Elvira Velez, Carla Juacaba, and Sandra Vivanco.

Golden State Warriors Select Snøhetta And AECOM As Architecture Team To Build New Arena On SF Waterfront

2012-08-27T16:39:00-04:00

“Snøhetta’s extensive experience with ambitious waterfront projects and its world-class architects’ familiarity with San Francisco through their work on the SFMOMA expansion was a huge factor in our decision,” said Joe Lacob, Co-Executive Chairman and CEO of the Warriors. “All you have to do is look at what they’ve done for the new National Opera House in Oslo and the Great Library of Alexandria in Egypt to see what is possible at Piers 30-32.”

Neighbors to Twitter co-founder: Cease and desist

2012-08-14T18:09:00-04:00

Twitter co-founder Evan Williams and his wife were trying to find a nice San Francisco neighborhood for their young family to call home... they found what they were looking for, a 6,300-square-foot lot occupied by an early 1900s home that they now want to demolish to make way for a new house... The planned tear-down has ignited a Page Six controversy, pitting the rights of new tech money against an old community... trying to stop change on one of the city's most idyllic streets.

The Real iPod: Elon Musk's Wild Idea for a 'Jetson Tunnel' from S.F. to L.A.

2012-07-16T13:39:00-04:00

...how would you like something that can never crash, is immune to weather, it goes 3 or 4 times faster than the bullet train... it goes an average speed of twice what an aircraft would do. You would go from downtown LA to downtown San Francisco in under 30 minutes. It would cost you much less than an air ticket than any other mode of transport. I think we could actually make it self-powering if you put solar panels on it, you generate more power than you would consume in the system.

Happy 75th Birthday, Golden Gate Bridge

2012-05-24T13:58:00-04:00

For its 75th birthday on Sunday, the bridge's management is planning a celebration that includes music, art shows, lectures, a new book and a new visitor center. But one thing won't happen: Nobody gets to cross the bridge on foot on the big day.

PBS also published a very nice photo essay on the bridge's history: Golden Gate Bridge 75th Anniversary.

Golden Gate Bridge sounds inspire musical works

2012-05-21T13:21:00-04:00

Musicians look at the bridge differently. Mickey Hart, the former Grateful Dead drummer, sees the Golden Gate Bridge as a "giant wind harp." He plans to be at Crissy Field on Sunday evening, the bridge's 75th birthday, to perform an original composition. The bridge will be the star. "The most famous bridge in America," Hart said, "is actually a musical instrument."

Richard Meier & Partners tower planned in San Francisco

2012-04-26T10:22:00-04:00

The proposal would replace a parking lot and a low building near the northwest corner of Market and Van Ness with a 34-story, 400-foot residential tower designed by New York's Richard Meier & Partners.

bracket [goes soft]: ESP // Estuary Services Pipeline

2012-04-17T16:49:00-04:00

In anticipation of this week's event, Publish Or... bracket [GOES SOFT], we are showcasing a piece from the book each day this week. We hope to see you this Thursday!

ESP // Estuary Services Pipeline
by Bionic / Marcel Wilson

The Estuary Services Pipeline is a regional utility infrastructure designed to cope, adapt, respond, and leverage the changes presented by sea level rise in the 170 miles of coastline in the San Francisco Bay estuary. This century sea levels are projected to rise as much as 55” due to global climate change. This epic disaster will unfold slowly and threatens our most productive economies, infrastructures, cultures, and coastal ecologies. The sheer magnitude of the issue promises uncoordinated efforts among governments, agencies, and the private sector. Response is likely to be slow, late, and resource intensive. The pipeline is a coordinated large-scale force for the San Francisco Bay Metropolitan Area that leverages all available resources to engage...

URBANlab at California College of the Arts

2012-01-19T17:47:00-05:00

Academic institutions have a mandate to contribute to public knowledge, but the structures that support the transfer and dissemination of research, and the application of research within urban design practice, are often weak. There is a widening gap between what happens within the academy and what happens on the ground in cities — often a retrograde, generic and ad hoc agglomeration of politically or financially motivated initiatives.

Places interviews Ila Berman, director of architecture at the California College of the Arts, and Mona El Khafif, project coordinator of URBANlab, about research + design initiatives at the lab. The feature includes a slideshow of faculty and student work, including design proposals for projects in the San Francisco Bay Area, Jerusalem, and Tianjin.

This is the second installment in an ongoing series of profiles of university-based design centers. Previously: Stephen Luoni and the University of Arkansas Community Design Center.

5 changes that San Francisco can build on in 2012

2012-01-04T14:48:21-05:00

Construction cranes have only recently returned to the skyline and stasis remains the quo. Instead, here are five changes that I'd like to see in San Francisco. Some involve structures, but most involve sensibilities: the need to pay attention to the final product, rather than the process along the way.

Scott Weaver's Rolling through the Bay

2011-12-21T16:48:01-05:00

Scott Weaver's amazing piece, made with over 100,000 toothpicks over the course of 35 years, is a depiction of San Francisco, with multiple ball runs that allow you to go on "tours" of different parts of the city. It will be on display in the Tinkering Studio until June 19th!

Via Surfstation

SFMOMA Expansion

2011-12-12T19:09:00-05:00

The architects' sketches for SFMOMA's new expansion reveal a transformative design for the museum, the neighborhood, and the city. "Our design for SFMOMA responds to the unique demands of this site, as well as the physical and urban terrain of San Francisco," says Snøhetta principal architect Craig Dykers. "The scale of the building meets the museum's mission, and our approach to the neighborhood strengthens SFMOMA's engagement with the city.

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.

The Transportation Planning Rule Every City Should Reform

2011-12-06T02:12:49-05:00

The source of the disconnect between San Francisco's transit-first heart and its car-centric hand is an arcane engineering measure called "level of service," or LOS. In brief, LOS suggests that whenever the city wants to change some element of a street — say by adding a bike lane or even just painting a crosswalk — it should calculate the effect that change will have on car traffic.

Changing a city from being car-centric isn't just a matter of building better bike lanes and drawing up better bus routes. Sometimes, developers have to go up against restrictions which won't let them build at all if it interrupts too much car traffic.

An Imposing Museum Turns Warm and Fuzzy

2011-11-30T21:04:50-05:00

Is it a building filled with art with some people in it, or a building filled with people with some art in it? There needs to be enough social space to make people feel comfortable in what can be an austere environment, the white box. You shouldn’t feel like you need to be quiet in the public spaces.

CA Academy of Sciences Crowned World’s Largest Double LEED Platinum Building

2011-09-27T14:29:34-04:00

Today the California Academy of Sciences achieved a groundbreaking feat of sustainable design as the U.S. Green Building Council presented it with its second LEED Platinum certification, making it America’s first double platinum museum, and the world’s largest double platinum building.

Salesforce plans a colorful jolt for Mission Bay

2011-06-07T02:34:54-04:00

[Legorreta and Legorreta] caught Salesforce founder Marc Benioff's eye with its UCSF community center, a red stucco cube enlivened by an oversized purple-walled courtyard and, at one corner, a steep sculptural tower. It's the only campus building that brings a smile; it also typifies the firm's knack for spirited buildings that strive to catch the eye.

Snøhetta Defends Its Controversial Design For SF's Museum of Modern Art

2011-06-02T16:48:18-04:00

In San Francisco, you feel like you’re always leaving and going, you go up and down, up and down. You’re always provided with a new view of the city. So we felt we could use that idea to allow people to experience the museum and the city in different ways. We’re creating a lot of variation within the design. So even though the building is relatively compact, you’ll always be able to step into a space and look down or across or up into another space.

First look at SFMOMA's new wing

2011-05-28T16:14:03-04:00

Designed by busy Norwegian firm Snøhetta, which is also at work on the museum at New York's ground zero, the addition will slip a massive, 335-foot-long cruise ship of a structure behind the museum's existing building, which was designed by Mario Botta and opened in 1995. The main entry to Botta's museum, along Third Street, will remain, but a second gateway to the museum will open up along Howard Street.

Upcoming Architecture & Design Events

2011-04-21T13:40:10-04:00

Thursday April 21

Van Alen Books Launch Party, New York, NY

Lecture by Ogrydziak Prillinger, Bellevue, Washington

Friday April 22

Interpretations: Exhibition Practice, New York, NY

PIDGIN Magazine #10 Launch, New York, NY

Kim Beom, Los Angeles, CA

Saturday April 23

Triangle Modernist Houses Presents 2nd Frank Lloyd Wright Tour, Pittsburgh, PA

Open house by Droog led by Diller Scofidio +Renfro, New York

Monday April 25

Lecture by Antón García-Abril | Ensamble Studio, Chicago, IL

Tuesday April 26

International Sculpture Center (ISC) Lifetime Achievement Awar, New York, NY

Wednesday April 27

Architectural Photography Exhibit / Drinks by Design, San Francisco, CA

European Media Art Festival 2011, Osnabrück, Germany

Thursday April 28

Streets as Places, New York City, NY

How to Turn a Place Around, New York City, NY

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Will Treasure Island Meet Expectations?

2011-04-19T12:39:41-04:00

On Thursday, the City Planning Commission will be asked to give its final approval to both the environmental impact report for the project and the development itself, with a final hearing before the Board of Supervisors looming.

Chronicle writer John King is starting to sound more luke-warm on this plan, now that several of the more "sustainable" features have been trimmed: "may include" green energy; housing units added (but ferry terminal was moved); redevelopment money off the table... I don't quite get what the Board of Supervisors is voting on. They would be approving an EIR, but does the EIR reflect all the recent changes that make the environmental impact worse? Besides, the number of affordable units has been cut, while the plan overall grew to 8,000 units/19,000 residents. And who are the potential buyers?

More gloomy updates: Quake investment to undergird private development seen as a waste in light of more pressing infrastructure needs around the city. Read | Fewer affordable units: Read | And to make matters worse, even the fire marshall is having doubts!