Archinect - News

LMN completes overhaul of Buxton Center to connect with history and ecology of Pacific Northwest’s Bainbridge Island

2024-02-13T11:50:00-05:00

LMN Architects has completed an extensive renovation and expansion of the Buxton Center for Bainbridge Performing Arts on Bainbridge Island, Washington. Described by the team as marking “a new era for performers and the arts community in the Pacific Northwest,” the center has been upgraded with a renovated main auditorium and lobby.

Image credit: Lara Swimmer

Visitors to the center are greeted by a new two-story lobby enclosed by a wood and glass curtain wall, responding to the site’s woodland context. Above, a wave-form roof and ceiling plane displays an exposed wood structure, tying the new program spaces together to give the building a clear identity.

Image credit: Lara Swimmer

“The roof and ceiling plane echoes the region’s architectural vernacular and is expressive of the building program,” said LMN Architects principal Mark Tumiski about the scheme. “We took advantage of the scale and tectonic identity of the original structure...

Steven Holl’s zinc-clad Ostrava Concert Hall set to begin construction

2023-04-21T11:39:00-04:00

Construction is set to begin on the Steven Holl Architects-designed Ostrava Concert Hall in the Czech Republic. Hall won the competition for the scheme’s design back in 2018 with a proposal that saw the concert hall “encased” in a case of zinc.

Image credit: Steven Holl Architects

The 1,300-seat concert hall was designed in collaboration with Prague-based associate architects Architecture Acts and is being developed in collaboration with the city of Ostrava. The team has previously described the scheme as a “perfect acoustic instrument in its case,” with a smooth facade of zinc covering a vineyard-type concert hall plan made of concrete and maple wood.

Image credit: Steven Holl Architects

“We celebrate the completion of construction drawings and building permit with the hope of realizing this great public work for the joy of future generations,” Hall said as the scheme prepares to begin construction. “Ostrava’s legacy of music, the highest art, shall get a space of perfect acoustics a...

Darin Johnstone Architects creates ‘ephemeral experience’ in Pasadena auditorium renovation

2023-04-07T11:10:00-04:00

Los Angeles-based Darin Johnstone Architects has offered an inside look at their recently-completed renovation of the Ahmanson Auditorium. Located on the ArtCenter College of Design’s Hillside campus in Pasadena, the 3,300-square-foot auditorium saw upgrades to its lobby, main theater, and projection room.

Image credit: Joshua White

Upon entering the venue, the upgraded lobby deploys simple design elements such as an historic existing feature steel stair and an original Keith Haring mural to “create a threshold” from the wider campus. Elsewhere, the 214-seat auditorium has been upgraded to achieve full ADA accessibility while sound and light components have been used as a catalyst to create a contemporary atmosphere.

Image credit: Joshua White

The side walls of the auditorium are lined with over five thousand color gradient sound-absorbing “dots.” The “dot walls” transition from orange to black as one moves through the auditorium, co...

One of Oscar Niemeyer's last drawings to be realized at Château La Coste in France

2022-04-07T19:24:00-04:00

France’s Château La Coste will make history this summer with the realization of one of Oscar Niemeyer’s last architectural drawings.

Set idyllically amongst the Château’s 500-acre estate in one of the country’s most significant wine regions, the latest in a series of pavilions will play host to a 1,250-square-foot art gallery and 80-seat cylindrical auditorium.

The project was initiated in 2010 and took more than a year to perfect, resulting in a striking final gift to his adopted home and its age-old craft, which Niemeyer considered a sacred and essential human activity.

Visitors will enter the pavilion’s glass facade across from a shallow reflecting pool that provides a perfect frame for the structure’s signature curved form and surrounding Provencial terroir. Niemeyer worked alongside founder Paddy McKillen and his grandson-in-law, architect Jair Valera, to select the site and ...

Archinect - News

LMN completes overhaul of Buxton Center to connect with history and ecology of Pacific Northwest’s Bainbridge Island

Steven Holl’s zinc-clad Ostrava Concert Hall set to begin construction

Darin Johnstone Architects creates ‘ephemeral experience’ in Pasadena auditorium renovation

One of Oscar Niemeyer's last drawings to be realized at Château La Coste​ in France

One of Oscar Niemeyer's last drawings to be realized at Château La Coste in France