j - the actual building cost is a much more modest 49M (or closer to 400sf). the remaining amount includes exhibitions, an operating endowment, sitework, design and engineering fees, etc. basically all of the other total project costs.
i'd also say the short list is not as exciting as it could have been - there were much more interesting names on their shortlist of 20 which didn't make the final cut. it'll be interesting to see what gets produced during the competition itself.
holz - all of the finalist teams (with the exception of the ds+r team, i think) have a minority team member, two as the explicit design lead. it was something that was very heavily encouraged.
trip - they wouldn't publish the list (we were on one of the teams, so we heard plenty of rumors but the organizers never officially released a list, even to us.) we heard adjaye was on it, msme, a few others. what was amazing to me is that of the 20 they listed, apparently a few were not to happy that the construction price 'dropped' to a mere 49m (they thought it was as described in the first post - 125m for the construction alone) and supposedly decided the project was 'too small' for them to pursue. again, that was insider info we heard, no way to verify who or if it was real. some of the public questions that were submitted by the shortlisted firms, though, would lead you to believe that it may not be too far off...
congrats, ff, even for having the potential to be involved.
it's easy to hate on the names when you don't have any direct relationship to them but, once you're closer to the situation you realize that ANY of these teams has the potential to make a very exciting project.
being close is pretty great. we're going after something big-gish right now, too, and it would be an exciting ride.
in my opinion, hok+freelon had the most polished design and best presentation graphically. their submission was pretty well designed and addressed the site relatively well. i could make a few critiques about a few things. ds+r put together the most "abstract" design and probably the most artistic, but there were a few things with it that werent jiving quite right with the site and the design was left a bit vague at times. polshek's entry was pretty decent, but since it wasnt as thorough as hok+freelon, it would be a difficult sell in the end.
i heard that they will be posting the entries on the website this week or next. hopefully the content will be there for everyone to see.
Predock designed the Canadian Museum for Human Rights, which is being built here in Winnipeg. Not sure if any shovels have broken ground yet, but there you have it.
what do you mean "there you have it?" three of the other entries were from firms that have designed african american musuems and civil rights museums around the US, which is not canada.
freelon group for example, has designed many cultural centers
i thought you were implying that predock was going to win due to his affiliation with the canadian museum. my apologies. i saw predock lecture on that project and was not impressed. interesting to see how it will turn out.
Freelon/HOK:
I agree with Bucku that the Freelon design was the most polished and the strongest presentation, but at the end of the day, they just designed a building.
Sure it is a beautiful building with an efficient floor plan, but it is nothing more than that. That is why I am afraid they are going to win.
D+S/Stanley Beeman:
Their presentation was an absolute train wreck! Their computer froze up. You couldn't see the whole presentation, b/c the slide show was too large on the screen.
I think formally, this design needs a little work, and the exhibits seem kind of slapped together, but their concept of global/urban connectivity and the way the main ("present") level could really challenge the meaning of what civil rights actually mean was incredible! D+S get my vote if they refine the form.
The quote of the night was by Liz Diller, saying "this building should not be a model of efficiency, but a place to get lost in and experience". A major contrast to the more boring views of the atlanta architecture seen.
I really don't understand why the most polished design wins. Freelon's design was kind of generic in my opinion (we've all seen those zoomy tentacle whirlwind moves), the roof garden was unaccessible and undeveloped. Fine they put on the best "show" of renderings and video but that wasn't enough I think. Their concept was one of the most interesting of the bunch but you really don't see it in elevation, which makes it kind of useless. If you were walk through that building you wouldn't get any sense of interlocking arms.
The DSR/SBS proposal had a lot more interesting ideas I think, and was more sophisticated. They integrated several sustainable principles (recycled water, solar power, ground source heat pumps...), not just the ubiquitous win-it-all "green roof". The concept was clearly visible in the building, the site was linked to the "lynching exhibit"; the rechargeable mobile galleries were thoughtful; there was plenty of shaded (under the multi-path bridge) and unshaded green space for congregating... This project has the potential to be a really strong addition to Atlanta's pool of good architecture.
So what if they weren't as polished, they only had 2,3 weeks. What do you do with the next several mths if it's all wrapped up? Bang it out?
bucku - thanks for posting those. i hope the cchr will post pdf's of the entire presentations, because i'm having a really difficult time getting my head around the ds+r project.
the one thing about the freelon project that i do like is that they seemed to more explicitly address the street fronts. that was not stressed in the brief and seems to show in the other schemes, at least in the way they are shown here.
thanks for keeping us up to date bucku. it will be interesting to see how this develops.
i'm having trouble locating the site. is it near centennial park?
disregarding the blatant borrowing from the delft library design or any formal signification they made have had in mind, i think the nolan - predock proposal correctly addresses the need for public space/usable surface in atlanta. their design is accessible, inviting, and great for sledding should we see another snow storm!
bucku- it was announced at the cap annual breakfast this morning. got it on twitter as it was happening. the friends i had who were in it....well, they weren't on the winning team...
Center For Civil and Human Rights, Atlanta
For those of you interested in the barely present architecture of Atlanta, there may be some change blowing our way:
The Center for Civil & Human Rights (CCHR) today announced its selection of five architectural firms as finalists in the competition to design the new $125 million Center to be located in Downtown Atlanta
nice shortlist!
J, when you break it down by the sf its really impressive!
j - the actual building cost is a much more modest 49M (or closer to 400sf). the remaining amount includes exhibitions, an operating endowment, sitework, design and engineering fees, etc. basically all of the other total project costs.
i'd also say the short list is not as exciting as it could have been - there were much more interesting names on their shortlist of 20 which didn't make the final cut. it'll be interesting to see what gets produced during the competition itself.
sorry - the building program they gave the top 20 was 100,000sf. so, closer to 490/sf.
Predock is the only one of that list I believe could really bring about a successful result. Not a great list in other worse. We'll see I guess.
I couldn't find the previous list of 20 anywhere. Anyone have any luck or happen to have it handy?
tripto
more so than ds&r?
i've been to several predock buildings in the last year and they were all really awful.
would be interesting to note, are there any minorities represented?
i guess liz diller counts, though women make up more than 50% of the world...
holz - all of the finalist teams (with the exception of the ds+r team, i think) have a minority team member, two as the explicit design lead. it was something that was very heavily encouraged.
trip - they wouldn't publish the list (we were on one of the teams, so we heard plenty of rumors but the organizers never officially released a list, even to us.) we heard adjaye was on it, msme, a few others. what was amazing to me is that of the 20 they listed, apparently a few were not to happy that the construction price 'dropped' to a mere 49m (they thought it was as described in the first post - 125m for the construction alone) and supposedly decided the project was 'too small' for them to pursue. again, that was insider info we heard, no way to verify who or if it was real. some of the public questions that were submitted by the shortlisted firms, though, would lead you to believe that it may not be too far off...
really? that's good.
it's unfortunate adjaye's not a finalist, but i think he's probably doin ok.
( i am working on one of the teams, shhh)
ff - hey, we're out at this point. i guess, in the end, it's nice to get through the first cut, but we were a longshot to win overall.
congrats, ff, even for having the potential to be involved.
it's easy to hate on the names when you don't have any direct relationship to them but, once you're closer to the situation you realize that ANY of these teams has the potential to make a very exciting project.
being close is pretty great. we're going after something big-gish right now, too, and it would be an exciting ride.
the teams are making presentations at the American Cancer Society on March 3 & 4.
ff, are these presentations going to be of the individual team entries?
and by the way, i am now curious as to the team you are on. are you here in atlanta?
I hope Huff + Gooden win this project. They are a wonderful southern, minority firm that haven't gotten the attention I think they deserve.
hate to say it bluesman, but Huff+Gooden fumbled tuesday night. i dont know how much time they spent on this thing but it wasnt good.
anyone else see the presentations? comments? impressions?
personally, i think last night has better designs than tuesday's presenters.
couldn't make it - any pictures out on the web bucku? any thoughts on who made the best case?
in my opinion, hok+freelon had the most polished design and best presentation graphically. their submission was pretty well designed and addressed the site relatively well. i could make a few critiques about a few things. ds+r put together the most "abstract" design and probably the most artistic, but there were a few things with it that werent jiving quite right with the site and the design was left a bit vague at times. polshek's entry was pretty decent, but since it wasnt as thorough as hok+freelon, it would be a difficult sell in the end.
i heard that they will be posting the entries on the website this week or next. hopefully the content will be there for everyone to see.
Predock designed the Canadian Museum for Human Rights, which is being built here in Winnipeg. Not sure if any shovels have broken ground yet, but there you have it.
Oops.
http://www.canadianmuseumforhumanrights.com/
what do you mean "there you have it?" three of the other entries were from firms that have designed african american musuems and civil rights museums around the US, which is not canada.
freelon group for example, has designed many cultural centers
D+S - Presentation last night was amazing. Even though their computer died.
HOK: Made me wonder if they had visited the site at all. It felt like their building could have been dropped from the sky anywhere.
All of the work presented though was good and I'm excited to see more progressive architecture in the ATL.
bucku, I have no idea what you're talking about. By "there you have it," I was simply reserving judgment on the project of which I was speaking.
i thought you were implying that predock was going to win due to his affiliation with the canadian museum. my apologies. i saw predock lecture on that project and was not impressed. interesting to see how it will turn out.
DS+R:
FREELON/HOK:
NOLAN/PREDOCK:
HUFF+GOODEN
POLSHEK/STANLEY LOVE/ COOPER CARRY:
so sleepy!
polsheck
I only caught the second night's presentation.
Freelon/HOK:
I agree with Bucku that the Freelon design was the most polished and the strongest presentation, but at the end of the day, they just designed a building.
Sure it is a beautiful building with an efficient floor plan, but it is nothing more than that. That is why I am afraid they are going to win.
D+S/Stanley Beeman:
Their presentation was an absolute train wreck! Their computer froze up. You couldn't see the whole presentation, b/c the slide show was too large on the screen.
I think formally, this design needs a little work, and the exhibits seem kind of slapped together, but their concept of global/urban connectivity and the way the main ("present") level could really challenge the meaning of what civil rights actually mean was incredible! D+S get my vote if they refine the form.
The quote of the night was by Liz Diller, saying "this building should not be a model of efficiency, but a place to get lost in and experience". A major contrast to the more boring views of the atlanta architecture seen.
I really don't understand why the most polished design wins. Freelon's design was kind of generic in my opinion (we've all seen those zoomy tentacle whirlwind moves), the roof garden was unaccessible and undeveloped. Fine they put on the best "show" of renderings and video but that wasn't enough I think. Their concept was one of the most interesting of the bunch but you really don't see it in elevation, which makes it kind of useless. If you were walk through that building you wouldn't get any sense of interlocking arms.
The DSR/SBS proposal had a lot more interesting ideas I think, and was more sophisticated. They integrated several sustainable principles (recycled water, solar power, ground source heat pumps...), not just the ubiquitous win-it-all "green roof". The concept was clearly visible in the building, the site was linked to the "lynching exhibit"; the rechargeable mobile galleries were thoughtful; there was plenty of shaded (under the multi-path bridge) and unshaded green space for congregating... This project has the potential to be a really strong addition to Atlanta's pool of good architecture.
So what if they weren't as polished, they only had 2,3 weeks. What do you do with the next several mths if it's all wrapped up? Bang it out?
Adjaye did not submit...
bucku - thanks for posting those. i hope the cchr will post pdf's of the entire presentations, because i'm having a really difficult time getting my head around the ds+r project.
the one thing about the freelon project that i do like is that they seemed to more explicitly address the street fronts. that was not stressed in the brief and seems to show in the other schemes, at least in the way they are shown here.
thanks for keeping us up to date bucku. it will be interesting to see how this develops.
i'm having trouble locating the site. is it near centennial park?
disregarding the blatant borrowing from the delft library design or any formal signification they made have had in mind, i think the nolan - predock proposal correctly addresses the need for public space/usable surface in atlanta. their design is accessible, inviting, and great for sledding should we see another snow storm!
the site is at the corner of ivan allen and centennial. adjacent to world of coke and the aquarium.
ds+r section through building:
.jpg)
just announced - freelon/hok are your winners...
where did you see this?
bucku- it was announced at the cap annual breakfast this morning. got it on twitter as it was happening. the friends i had who were in it....well, they weren't on the winning team...
bummed DS+R didn't win it.
HOK/Freelon project was nice, but I felt the overall metaphor of the project was a bit of a one liner, not much depth in thought.
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