Archinect - News

Could NYC's Governor's Island hold the answers to fighting climate change?

2019-10-07T13:00:00-04:00

Since [...] the federal government turned control [of Governors Island] over to New York City, under the condition that it not be used for residential housing, it has been an island in search of a purpose [...] Now, the city has a new idea: transforming one of its last big chunks of developable land [...] into a “living laboratory” for coping with the effects of climate change.

The early stages of a plan to convert New York's Governor's Island into a self-funded sustainability laboratory have come to light.

The proposal bears some similarities to the Billion Oyster project, a decade-old proposal developed by an eponymous nonprofit and landscape architects SCAPE hat sought to transform the waters off Governor's Island with a 100-acre oyster reef that would filter and revitalize area waterways using living oysters.

West 8, Diller, Scofidio +Renfro, Rogers Marvel Architects, and Mathews Nielsen Landscape Architects recently completed an 87-acre master plan of the island.

OMA mixes historic renovation with new construction in the masterplan for Columbia Circle in Shanghai

2017-04-03T13:55:00-04:00

OMA has designed a new masterplan for Columbia Circle in Shanghai. A historically-rich area, Columbia Circle includes preserved colonial-era monuments as well as former industrial buildings. Located on a 4.7 hectare compound, the new master plan is the first urban renewal project in the city center by the Chinese real estate developer Vanke.

The site includes the Columbia Country Club, which was designed by the American architect Elliott Hazzard in the 1920s, as well as a villa designed by the Hungarian architect László Hudec in 1930, which was owned by Sun Ke, the son of Sun Yat-sen. Later, the latter building became a research campus owned by the Shanghai Institute of Biological Products.

In line with many other recent projects by OMA, the Columbia Circle Masterplan involves a mix of transforming existing buildings and building new ones. Intended to house a range of programs from business spaces to hotels and cultural venues, the mixed use development will also include outdoor space...

Plans for West 8-designed Houston Botanic Garden met with resistance

2016-02-22T13:42:00-05:00

By the year 2020, however, America’s fourth largest city will be able to claim a “premier” botanic garden all its own in the form of Houston Botanic Garden (HBG). [...] And, as it turns out, some folks living in the neighborhoods abutting the golf course would rather not see a stunning botanic garden designed by the same Dutch landscape architecture firm behind the redevelopment of New York City's Governors Island take its place. And it’s not because they're necessarily gaga over golf.

To learn more about the Houston Botanic Garden master plan, which recently won mayoral approval, click here.

"The Hills" park in NYC scheduled to open almost a year in advance

2016-01-25T15:14:00-05:00

The Hills on Governors Island will welcome visitors this summer — nearly a year ahead of schedule, it was announced last week — and add 10 acres of green space to the city, largely in the form of four artificial hills. Made of recycled construction debris and clean fill, the hills rise as high as 70 feet above the island...An unseasonably warm fall contributed to faster-than-expected construction times.

You can find more photos and renderings from the Governors Island's Flickr here and here.

Scroll down for a drone video of the park under construction.

More about public parks on Archinect:

Pershing Square Renew competition narrows down to four finalist teams

BIG unveils 28-acre master plan for Pittsburgh's Lower Hill District

Taking a stand against privately-owned public spaces

Locals welcome The 606, a.k.a. Chicago's "High Line", but anxiety for its future remains

BIG unveils 28-acre master plan for Pittsburgh's Lower Hill District

2015-11-19T14:03:00-05:00

A meandering urban flow lies at the heart of BIG's master plan for Pittsburgh, which is appropriate since the plan's primary function is to connect the Hill District to the city's downtown core. Collaborating with West 8 (landscape architecture) and Atelier Ten (sustainability), BIG's master plan includes 1.2 million square feet of residential space and 1.25 million square feet of office, retail, and hotel space.

As Bjarke Ingels explained, "The masterplan for the Lower Hill District is created by supplementing the existing street grid with a new network of parks and paths shaped to optimize the sloping hill side for human accessibility for all generations. The paths are turned and twisted to always find a gentle sloping path leading pedestrians and bicyclists comfortably up and down the hillside. The resulting urban fabric combines a green network of effortless circulation with a quirky character reminiscent of a historical downtown."

In an attempt to incorporate the aesthetics of th...

NYC Mayor Bloomberg Breaks Ground on West 8-Designed ‘The Hills’ Project at Governors Island

2013-07-29T17:51:00-04:00

Last week Friday, New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg broke ground on The Hills, a new public park land on Governors Island designed by Rotterdam-based landscape architects West 8. Made of recycled construction and fill materials, The Hills will rise 34 to 90 feet above sea level, and the summit of the tallest Hill will provide visitors with a 360-degree panorama of the Statue of Liberty, New York Harbor and the Lower Manhattan skyline.

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).

BIG & Design Partners Propose Miami Beach Square as Massive Convention Center Redevelopment

2013-05-14T19:09:00-04:00

BIG together with West 8, Fentress Architects, John Portman & Associates (JPA), Revuelta Architecture International and developers Portman-CMC have unveiled the urban planning proposal Miami Beach Square, the centerpiece of a 52-acre Miami Beach Convention Center District development. Portman-CMC is one of two development teams currently in the race for the project.

UPDATE: OMA Wins Miami Beach Convention Center Competition

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.

Yongsan Park Master Plan by West 8 & IROJE

2012-05-08T21:35:00-04:00

Rotterdam-based landscape architects West 8, together with local practice IROJE architects & partners, have recently won the international competition for the master plan of Yongsan Park, Korea. The park will be the first national park inside a South Korean city. More importantly, it will give ultra-dense Seoul some badly-needed green space and will be similar in size to New York’s Central Park.

West 8 Wins Freiham Nord Urban & Landscape Planning Competition in Munich

2011-10-11T14:31:00-04:00

Munich's Department of Urban Planning and Construction recently announced that Rotterdam-based practice West 8 has won Part B (Housing and Neighborhood Center) of the urban and landscape planning competition for the first phase of Freiham North. Part A (Community Center, School and Sports Center) was won by Ortner & Ortner Baukunst Gesellschaft von Architekten, Berlin.

Big Name Semi-Finalists for the St. Petersburg Pier Design Competition

2011-07-30T10:35:00-04:00

Six New York City firms were selected, including BIG, which Saitowitz said had designs of past projects that were "jaw dropping."

On Friday, a five-member panel narrowed down a list of 23 firms and teams competing to design a new $50 million Pier to nine semifinalists. They are:

West 8 Urban Design, New York City
Michael Maltzan Architecture, Los Angeles
BIG, New York City
James Corner Field Operations, New York City
HOK, Tampa
Frederic Schwartz, New York City
Weiss/Manfredi Architectural/Landscape/Urbanism, NYC
Farshid Moussavi Architecture, London
!melk Urban Design, NYC

West 8’s Garden of 10,000 Bridges Opens at Xi’an International Horticultural Exhibition

2011-05-23T14:49:20-04:00

The Garden of 10,000 Bridges, created by Dutch urban and landscape design firm West 8 in partnership with DYJG Beijing, has recently opened to the public at the International Horticultural Exhibition in Xi'an, China. The garden will be open until October 22, 2011.