Archinect - News

Houston's Rothko Chapel breaks ground on 2026 expansion

2024-05-24T11:50:00-04:00

Houston’s iconic Rothko Chapel is expanding for 2026 and recently broke ground on Phase 2 of its $42 million campus plan. The initiative will yield two new buildings designed by Brooklyn-based Architectural Research Office (ARO) and an outdoor garden from Nelson Byrd Woltz Landscape Architects. The new buildings will stand at 6,600 and 3,800 square feet, respectively, and the entire project will be targeting LEED v4.0 certification.

Rendering courtesy of ARO

“On the heels of our recent 50th anniversary, the work also gives us a welcome opportunity to lift up and celebrate those who have contributed to the design, building, and stewardship of the Rothko Chapel, including the de Menils, Philip Johnson, Howard Barnstone, Gene Aubrey, Barnett Newman, and so many others. All of them shared a vision that brought together modern art and sacred space to promote human unity, solidarity, and justice. This vision is still as relevant today as it was 50 years ago, and I believe it will remain so...

Architecture Research Office reveals plans for Frederic Church Center for Art and Landscape in Upstate New York

2023-09-21T19:38:00-04:00

Architecture Research Office (ARO), in partnership with the New York State Office of Parks, Recreation and Historic Preservation (NYS OPRHP) and The Olana Partnership (TOP), has today revealed a new plan for the Frederic Church Center for Art and Landscape at the Olana State Historic Site in Upstate New York.

The new Center is the centerpiece of a larger master plan designed in 2015 by Nelson Byrd Woltz Landscape Architects (NBW). The scheme includes a restoration of the famed Hudson River School painter’s self-designed farm and homestead, which was constructed on the property between 1860 and 1900. ARO’s Center will serve as the new visitors arrival gateway overlooking the Catskills range at the site’s historic core, ensuring that their experience will be compatible with the surrounding landscape and vistas beyond.

Featuring a mass timber design, the total 4,500-square-foot structure includes a broad outdoor terrace and large bird-safe glazed windows. CLT roof panels combine with e...

ARO's renovated Rothko Chapel set to reopen in September

2020-05-19T13:46:00-04:00

With the renovation and expansion of the Rothko Chapel campus in Houston nearing completion, project organizers have announced that the sacred art space will reopen to the public in September.

The renovation is being designed by New York City-based Architecture Research Office and includes a series of preservation- and climate-minded fixes for the space that will "more closely align the building with the original vision of Mark Rothko and John and Dominique de Menil, the Chapel’s founders," according to a press release.

Rendering courtesy of Architecture Research Office.

The $30 million Open Spaces master plan for the chapel campus aims to offer "a space for ecumenical and interfaith celebration and contemplation, as well as to foster community engagement on critical social issues." The project seeks to continue the space's decades-long function as a space for international peace and spirituality by modernizing and building in resilience to the chapel and its surrounding site.

For t...

All-electric and Passive House approaches guide NYC mixed-use complex designed by ARO and Alloy Development

2019-12-16T14:52:00-05:00

A recently unveiled mixed-use complex located at 80-100 Flatbush Avenue in Brooklyn envisioned by Alloy Development aims to embrace the coming era of sustainable building design.

How? As New York YIMBY reports, the sizable, multi-building development is designed to bring a double-dose of alternative energy-powered buildings to the area. According to the report, in addition to bringing an all-electric 256-unit residential component to the site, the development will also include a pair of school facilities designed to Passive House standards.

100 Flatbush could become NYC's first ground-up, all-electric residential tower. Rendering courtesy Alloy Development.

The educational facilities, which include a new elementary school as well as a new building for the Khalil Gibran International Academy, are designed by Architecture Research Office (ARO), the recent winners of the American Institute of Architects 2020 AIA Firm Award. When completed, the schools, which are being developed in par...

AIA Gold Medal goes to Marlon Blackwell, ARO receives 2020 AIA Firm Award

2019-12-11T16:43:00-05:00

The American Institute of Architects (AIA) has announced its two top honors for 2020.

The AIA Board of Directors announced today that architect Marlon Blackwell will receive the 2020 Gold Medal citation, which honors "an individual whose significant body of work has had a lasting influence on the theory and practice of architecture," according to an official statement. According to the AIA, Blackwell is being recognized specifically for a "body of transcendent work" in Northwest Arkansas. Blackwell is the founder of Marlon Blackwell Architects, the E. Fay Jones Chair in Architecture at the E. Fay Jones School of Architecture and Design in Arkansas, and was recently named as one of the "30 Most Admired Educators" by DesignIntelligence.

Shelby Farms Park, Memphis, Tennessee | Marlon Blackwell Architects + James Corner Field Operations. Photo: Timothy Hursley.

Thom Mayne, 2013 AIA Gold Medal recipient and founder of Morphosis, writing in support of Blackwell’s nomination says, "As a p...

Rothko Chapel closes for its big overhaul

2019-02-28T13:22:00-05:00

The Rothko Chapel in Houston, founded in 1971 by the art patrons John and Dominique de Menil as an ecumenical site for both reflection and activism, will be closing on Monday for the rest of the year for the first phase of a $30 million restoration and campus expansion by Architecture Research Office.

New York-based firm Architecture Research Office (ARO) was selected in 2016 to be in charge of the restoration work.

"During the closure, work inside the Chapel will include modifications to the entryway and vestibule, enhanced audio, security and fire systems, replacement of the existing skylight and updates to the overall lighting design to allow for heightened illumination and an unimpeded interaction with the artwork," reads the announcement about the temporary closure, beginning Monday, March 4, on the Chapel's website.

Image via Wikipedia

"These upgrades will ensure more access and engagement with Mark Rothko’s extraordinary paintings and will improve the visitor experience as a whole. These preservation efforts will bring the experience of the Chapel closer to the founders’ and artist’s original intentions."

The building is scheduled to reopen in winter 2019.

The city as fulfillment center: architects envision New York after Amazon

2018-11-28T14:19:00-05:00

One of ARO’s two concepts shows a huge white building emblazoned with the Amazon logo. [...] It’s a never-ending fulfillment center that the architects dub “Continuous Fulfillment.” According to ARO principals Adam Yarinsky and Stephen Cassell, the idea is an homage to a 1969 concept from the Italian radical architecture firm Superstudio called “The Continuous Monument.” The idea posits that technology will render the built environment uniform, turning buildings into white monoliths.

The billion-dollar cat is out of the bag, and Amazon will soon be ascending on Long Island City, New York and Crystal City/Arlington, Virginia to split its anticipated, tax-incentivized HQ2.

As both regions prepare for the new neighbor to move in, Fast Company asked AIA New York State firm of the year, Architecture Research Office (ARO), to envision an Amazonian New York. The firm provided two (rather dystopian) tongue-in-cheek concepts.

Architecture Research Office to update the Rothko Chapel

2016-10-25T14:09:00-04:00

The Rothko Chapel in Houston, a masterpiece of midcentury architecture, houses 14 panels by the revered artist Mark Rothko. But the Chapel is in need of some TLC, from fixing the HVAC system to improving the lighting. The New York-based office Architecture Research Office (ARO) has been selected to oversee the renovations.

In addition to bringing the mechanics of the Chapel up-to-date, ARO will retool the entrance vestibule and renovate the Chapel’s skylight. They will also design a master plan, which will include modifications to an outdoor plaza and a reflecting pool that contains the Barnett Newman sculpture “Broken Obelisk”. The master plan also includes several nearby bungalows.

ARO has a proven track record when it comes to light-weight, highly-sensitive restoration projects. Back in 2013, they renovated a 19th century cast-iron warehouse used by Donald Judd as his studio and home until his death in 1994. While extensive renovations were required, ARO updated the building with ...

Unfolding dumpling design with Architecture Research Office

2016-02-05T15:09:00-05:00

'The dumpling maker has a structural problem,' says Jason Kim, a project manager at ARO. 'The skin has to be thin enough where you have the right ratio of meat to skin, but strong enough to hold together.'

"How do the principles of architecture and design apply to dumplings?" Sporkful has a quick chat with dumpling fanatics Architecture Research Office about how particular design concepts can structurally improve the Lunar New Year food staple. Maybe you'll learn a trick or two on how to eat the seemingly gravity-defying soup dumpling, too.

If you don't want to listen to the whole episode — although you should still give it a listen because, hello, dumplings — ARO's interview starts around 13:25.

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Cooper-Hewitt Unveils 2011 National Design Award Winners

2011-05-27T19:48:02-04:00

The Smithsonian’s Cooper-Hewitt, National Design Museum yesterday announced the winners and finalists of the 2011 National Design Awards. First launched at the White House in 2000 as a project of the White House Millennium Council, the National Design Awards were established to promote excellence and innovation in design across a variety of disciplines.