Archinect - News

Massive NYC development grinds to a halt

2021-02-08T16:38:00-05:00

Even more perilous, the promised second phase of Hudson Yards — eight additional buildings, including a school, more luxury condos and office space — appears on indefinite hold as the developer, the Related Companies, seeks federal financing for a nearly 10-acre platform on which it will be built. Related, which had said the entire project would be finished in 2024, no longer offers an estimated completion date.

The New York Times is reporting on the uncertain future of the $25 billion Hudson Yards mega-development in Manhattan’s Far West Side.

The starchitect-studded development is reeling from ongoing effects of the global Covid-19 pandemic, as luxury condos remain unsold and commercial tenants go under. Additionally, tourist attractions remain closed and the development's centerpiece—Heatherwick Studio's Vessel—has been closed following its third suicide in less than a year.

The situation enveloping Hudson Yards is representative of the state of speculative real estate across the country, though the Manhattan project is perhaps the nation's largest single site. Developers, architects and the entire real estate vertical are rethinking the needs of cities in which dramatically more people are working from home, demand for office space is shrinking, and delivery services are bringing more food and products directly to our doorsteps.

Construction begins on 1.4 million-square-foot office complex in New York city

2020-11-23T12:14:00-05:00

Construction has commenced the 1.4 million-square-foot development, One Madison Avenue, that will transform the existing full-block structure into a 27-floor, state-of-the-art office complex. The design and development team includes Kohn Pedersen Fox Associates (KPF), developer SL Green, and other partners.

KPF's design for One Madison Avenue updates an existing, mid-century podium and adds an elegant new tower along with over an acre of outdoor space and multiple terraces. The glass-enclosed tower will create a dynamic office space across floor plates upwards of 35,000 square feet.

The 10th and 11th will feature 22' slab heights with expansive outdoor roof decks. By retaining 67 percent of the building's original structure, a notable amount of embodied energy will be reused. The redesign is projected to result in an energy reduction of over 60 percent against the AIA 2030 Commitment baseline, KPF reports.

Existing building. Photo © Kevin Chu and Jessica Paul

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Philadelphia developers are going all-in on new projects

2020-08-12T14:13:00-04:00

in the middle of a historic pandemic, with massive numbers of people unemployed and the city’s economic fortunes uncertain, developers seem to have decided that this is a perfect time to build on the Delaware.

Inga Saffron, architecture critic for The Philadelphia Inquirer, offers a survey of several planned developments taking shape along the Delaware River in Philadelphia as a special tax holiday for residential development in these areas is set to expire on December 31, 2020.

Saffron reports that thousands of new residential units are in the process of being approved by local authorities as developers aim to complete projects, like the BKV Group-designed 1,140-unit Piazza Terminal complex, in anticipation of a post-pandemic rebound in regional housing and office markets.

YIMBY advocates prevail in Curpertino development legal battle over Rafael Viñoly-designed project

2020-05-12T09:00:00-04:00

Plans to turn the old Vallco Shopping Mall in Cupertino into a giant mixed-use development were met with much push back from community members, The Mercury News reports. But now the development, which will consist of 2,402 apartments, 400,000 square feet of retail, and 1.8 million square feet of office space, has been cleared by a Santa Clara County Superior Court judge.

According to Mercury News, J.R. Fruen, co-founder of the housing advocacy group Cupertino 4 All said, "This is a gigantic win for housing advocates specifically, and a huge win for proponents of development in general."

The developer Sand Hill Property Company initiated a design competition to design the new project and ultimately selected New York-based Rafael Viñoly Architects and Philadelphia-based OLIN Partnership Landscape Architects.

What if we don't want smart cities?

2019-07-25T12:21:00-04:00

Smart cities make two fundamental promises: lots of data, and automated decision making based on that data. The ultimate smart city will require a raft of existing and to-be-invented technologies, from sensors to robots to artificial intelligence. For many this promises a more efficient, equitable city; for others, it raises questions about privacy and algorithmic bias.

Promises for a better, smarter city have flooded media headlines, but if these so-called "smart cities" are said to be the answer, can the general public adapt to these infrastructure dreams? In a recent piece by Shoshanna Saxe for the New York Times, the experienced civil and mineral engineer at the University of Toronto shares her perspectives on the matter.

In her op-ed piece "Im an Engineer, and I'm Not Buying into 'Smart' Cities", Saxe sheds a detailed response to smart city dreams. For one thing, "they will be exceedingly complex to manage, with all sorts of unpredictable vulnerabilities. There will always be a place for new technology in our urban infrastructure, but we may find that often, “dumb” cities will do better than smart ones."

Saxe continues to add that with the rapid rate of technology turnover and disruption, could city residents deal with these types of technical disruptions when it comes to water and power services?

"City infrastructure, especially in high-i...

Activists turned planners: How citizens of Berlin helped tackle affordable housing and a massive redevelopment project

2019-06-13T15:33:00-04:00

The Berlin activists who staged a protest at a vacant government building didn’t imagine they’d end up leading a €140 million redevelopment project.

During the 1960s, the Haus der Statistik was built for the national statistics office for East Germany. The massive complex spreads over eight blocks at half a million square feet, comprising three connected mid-rises and some smaller buildings. As years passed, the Haus der Statistik's history and political involvement soon became a thing of the past after it closed down in 2008. Laying dormant and abandoned, local Berlin artists and activists decided to intervene once word of the building was said to be torn down and replaced with private apartments and offices.

Haus der Statistik. Image © BIM GmbH

Banner drop at the Haus der Statistik, 2015. The one-story building later converted to a planning workshop is seen at the right edge of the frame. Image © Allianz bedrohter Berliner Atelierhäuser

Upset with the lack of affordable housing, these artists worked together to save the building and use its massive size and structural potential to transform it into something the community needs...

Historic NYC African American burial ground marketed for $13.8M

2019-06-03T14:54:00-04:00

A site in Queens home to the United African Society of Newtown, the first community of free African Americans founded in New York State, is currently being marketed by real estate entity Cushman & Wakefield for $13.8 million as a development opportunity.

What's left of the 1828 community now exists on a mid-block plot of undeveloped land that contains, among other elements, a cemetery holding at least 300 graves. The community was founded the year after New York State abolished slavery in 1827. The site was once home to the Union African Church, a modest frame structure that served the community and administered the cemetery. According to 6sqft, construction workers in 2011 discovered the remains of Martha Peterson, a formerly-enslaved person who died in the 1850s from smallpox.

Historical photograph of the Union African Church that currently occupied the site, Image courtesy of EHCPS.

The nonprofit Elmhurst History & Cemeteries Preservation Society (EHCPS) is working to preserve an...

Does the future of the Los Angeles Rams go beyond football? The new $5 billion dollar stadium impacts more than just fans

2019-02-04T15:03:00-05:00

“If you’re going to build a stadium in a city, it has to play a larger role than the NFL. It has to bring people together in a meaningful way — both on Sunday and on every other day of the week, both in the fall and every other season. That’s the driver, [...] If you’re looking at a stadium project, everybody now is trying to figure out how you make it the epicenter of day-to-day life. Hopefully, this project will serve as a great model for that.”

Although recent events may have put a damper on the Rams historic season, the team's future is still bright. Los Angeles is already home to many championship teams, but what makes this particular team different is what its presence and growth will do for the city. Construction for the $5 billion stadium began in 2015, the stadium's timeline has kept the city buzzing with hope and optimism. Sports stadiums and arenas have been known to transform towns and cities alike. The new Los Angeles Rams football stadium is no exception.

Los Angeles Rams Stadium render by HKS Architects Image courtesy of HKS Architects

Los Angeles Rams construction site Image courtesy of Los Angeles Rams

Located in Inglewood, California the new stadium not only shapes the future of a sports team but of a city. According to Inglewood Mayor James T. Butts Jr. he "sees his city rising again after hard times and double-digit unemployment further damaged Inglewood’s psyche following the loss of its identity as a spor...

Burj Al Babas, the city of empty castles

2019-01-12T18:42:00-05:00

Deep in a provincial region of northwestern Turkey, it looks like a mirage -- hundreds of luxury houses built in neat rows, their pointed towers somewhere between French chateau and Disney castle. Meant to provide luxurious accommodations for foreign buyers, the houses are however standing empty in what is anything but a fairytale for their investors.

A city of castles has sprung up in Northwestern Turkey. Burj Al Babas, the 732-home and shopping center development built by the Sarot Group, cost a whopping $205 million and may not be inhabited in the foreseeable future. In recent years, the country's high inflation and currency crisis have negatively impacted its housing market. While investors felt secure investing in developments like Burj Al Babas only a few short years ago, the current economic climate is now given an image in the eerily empty development of Burj Al Babas.

How New York City's built environment will change in 2019

2019-01-02T14:46:00-05:00

Now, with 2018 in our collective rear view, it’s time [to] look at what 2019 will bring. Rent stabilization will take center stage in June when the city’s laws are up for renewal, megaprojects throughout the five boroughs will make giant strides, the city’s new tallest residential tower will top out at 1,550 feet, and so much more.

From the city's new tallest residential building topping out, the dreaded L train shutdown, to Amazon’s HQ2 development in Long Island City, here's a preview of what's to come for New York City's urban landscape in 2019.

Can a commute be beautiful? These colorful rendered maps show us they can

2018-12-05T20:25:00-05:00

Everyone can relate to daily commutes. Whether it's fifteen minutes or an hour, infrastructures in various cities dictate how transportation affects our daily lives. Through the use of data visualization, Craig Taylor, Data Visualization Design Manager at ITO World uses color and form to portray commute distances in an artistically beautiful way.

A project that depicts city infrastructure in a whole new light, Taylor blends art, urban planning, and science together to create beautifully rendered images of street networks in 40 major cities. The project appropriately called, Coral Cities, showcases how far one can travel by car 30 minutes from the center of major cities across the globe. Growing from the inside out, the visual depiction of city infrastructures resembles the form of growing coral.

Depending on the geological features of the city, each "Coral City" is unique to its region. According...