Archinect - News

Sam Lubell on cultural institutions’ newfound embrace of landscape architecture

2024-04-23T18:30:00-04:00

[...] such projects have fundamentally transformed in recent years, reflecting, among other things, seismic shifts in both museums’ priorities and the profession of landscape architecture, as well as a surge in interest in outdoor space because of the pandemic. The first rule: don’t dare call them gardens. These are sophisticated landscapes integrating — and enhancing — institutions’ missions while also encouraging education, sustainability and a much-needed sense of civic welcome.

Sam Lubell of the New York Times talks to Walter Hood, William Fain, and Kate Orff for a survey focused on the expanding role of landscape architecture in major American cultural sector projects.

He says: "The ascension of landscape in the museum world shows no signs of abating." Projects of note include the Hirshhorn Museum’s debated Hiroshi Sugimoto-led sculpture garden redesign, Studio-MLAand Frederick Fisher and Partners’ work for the Natural History Museum in Los Angeles, and the forthcoming Calder Gardens in Philadelphia from Piet Oudolf and Herzog & de Meuron.

"Museums are places where you can say something about the culture. Where we can begin to vet some of these things that we don’t want to talk about. It goes back to the idea of these being the new civic spaces, where honest conversations can be had," Walter Hood told him. (A look at his firm's contributions to the new International African American Museum in South Carolina by Moody Nolan and Pei Cobb Freed can be found ...

London's Camden Highline project gets official planning approval

2023-01-20T11:46:00-05:00

London is getting an attractive new elevated parkway feature after planning approvals were granted for the proposed Camden Highline, the BBC reported on Friday.

Running from Camden Gardens to Royal College Street near the King’s Cross transit hub, the parkway will transform a disused Victorian rail viaduct while adding green space to some of the capital’s traditionally underserved districts. It will also bring projected economic benefits totaling £10.9m ($13.46 million) over the project’s lifetime, and help stitch together the snaking chessboard of different neighborhoods that lie along its 1.2 kilometer (0.75-miles) path.

Piet Oudolf will lead the design, which apparently entails a series of “ecosystems and experiences” made up of three sections culminating in a fully-accessible entry point at York Street to the north. Each section will include a program of features such as a children’s playground, nesting sites, and an outdoor classroom. Construction costs for the first section o...

Studio Gang adds to Amsterdam's much-needed housing stock with its first-ever European project

2022-12-14T13:41:00-05:00

A new, two-tower mixed-use scheme from Studio Gang has been delivered in Amsterdam, representing a first for the firm on the continent as it looks to grow outside of the American market with recent expansions into Canada and now the EU.

The 297,170-square-foot Q Residences are meant to address the capital region’s considerable housing needs with a scheme that adds 248 total residences located in the center of Buitenveldert – one of the last “garden cities” constructed in Amsterdam following the conclusion of World War II.

Image © Kees Hummel via Studio Gang

Studio Gang says their design “brings a more organic, sculptural feel to the rational rectilinearity of the surrounding 1950s developments.” Its two volumes distribute the residential program into mid- and high-rise forms dubbed Qube and Quartz, respectively. A series of angled balconies are set at staggering depths and cascade down the taller structure in what the architects described as an origami-like pattern. The mid-rise Qub...

Take a closer look at MVRDV's newly-opened Amsterdam 'Valley' towers

2022-09-20T13:24:00-04:00

After five years of construction, MVRDV’s highly-touted mixed-use Valley project has officially opened in Amsterdam.

Behind the under-construction Canyon, recently-completed Grotius Towers, and last year’s Depot Boijmans Van Beuningen project, the three-tower scheme represents one of the firm’s larger and more significant works of recent vintage.

Featuring a cantilevered series of terraces and vertical forests designed by Piet Oudolf, the 75,000-square-meter (807,000-square-foot) development is meant as a stimulus to the otherwise bland Zuidas business district and includes an open fourth and fifth floor Green Valley, boutique ground-level retail and cultural offerings, and a covered grotto that further connects the public to what founding partner Winy Maas called a “first step towards transforming this part of Amsterdam into a greener, denser, and more human city.”

A total of 271 young trees and 13,500 small local plants were...

Herzog & de Meuron reveals plans for a dedicated Alexander Calder sculpture garden in Philadelphia

2022-09-07T17:25:00-04:00

The extraordinary work of late artist Alexander Calder will soon be displayed in his hometown of Philadelphia thanks to a dedicated new sculpture garden designed by Herzog & de Meuron.

The Calder Foundation has shared renderings of the forthcoming Calder Gardens project ahead of its anticipated fall groundbreaking on a 1.8-acre site located adjacent to other prominent arts institutions along the city’s Benjamin Franklin Parkway.

Image © Herzog & de Meuron

The images appear to show a sunken structure with subterranean galleries that emerge into a dynamic 18,000-square-foot main building surrounded by gardens manicured by famed landscape designer Piet Oudolf. HdM says that the project "blurs the boundaries between architecture and the natural world" and is thus intended to "unfold as a choreographed progression that moves visitors from the quotidian city context to a more contemplative realm beyond the traditional museum experience" in order to "catalyze discovery and reflection."

Imag...

The High Line opens its newest and final section, the Spur

2019-06-12T15:02:00-04:00

The widest open space of the High Line opened [...], marking the completion of the wildly popular elevated park. A 16-foot bronze sculpture by Simone Leigh anchors the new section, called the Spur, which offers vistas in every direction. The Spur is a 420-foot section that extends over the intersection of 10th Avenue at West 30th Street.

"The design of the Spur has gone through many iterations over the years: from theater, to garden, to woodland, to event platform, to an immersive ‘bowl,’ among others," said James Corner, who led the design of the Spur, as well as other sections of the High Line, in collaboration with Diller Scofidio + Renfro and Planting Designer Piet Oudolf.

View this post on Instagram “Brick House”.
A post shared by Timothy Schenck (@timothyschenck) on Apr 7, 2019 at 3:12pm PDT

"But we ended up with the best solution, typical High Line: tough, simple, and authentic. Leaving the large lofted space of the Coach Passage, you enter the Spur through a lush woodland, which opens into a large clearing with large-scale artwork on the Plinth. This dramatic space is flanked by generous seating and overlooks and immerses you in the massive scale of the surrounding city."

"The Spur opens new vistas to and from the city and visually reconnects the High Line back to the 10th Avenue Overlook...

The Architect and the Plantsman

2012-10-25T16:08:00-04:00

[Zumthor] runs a small office from his mountain home in Switzerland; he doesn't give interviews by telephone; he rarely makes public appearances; and his projects—like the ghostly luminescent bathhouse he created for the Swiss town of Vals—emanate a high seriousness that could only have come from this oracle of the Alps. Yet recently, the typically solitary Zumthor has taken to palling around with another prominent designer: celebrated garden designer Piet Oudolf.

Piet Oudolf's garden at the Serpentine Gallery pavilion

2011-07-01T00:45:29-04:00

So who did Zumthor call upon to provide the garden, the green hortus at the centre of his conclusus? Piet Oudolf, of course, foremost exponent of the new perennials movement, a low-key Dutchman with the build of a rugby player who has practically cornered the market in high profile planting projects: the Lurie Garden at Chicago’s Millennium Park, New York’s Battery Park and the wildly popular High Line are among his best known works.