Archinect - News

Dirk Lohan proposes domed Soldier Field renovation as Bears new stadium talks take off

2024-05-06T13:01:00-04:00

A proposed redesign of Chicago’s soon-to-close Soldier Field stadium from architect Dirk Lohan gained some press recently after the Bears NFL franchise debuted Manica Architecture’s $4.7 billion design for its new lakefront home. Lohan is the architect of its modern 2003 renovation (in association with Wood & Zapata), a project that ultimately cost Soldier Field its landmark status. He says the design alternative is at once cheaper and more sustainable than the current proposal that’s been targeted by critics but still backed by team owners and Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson.

Image: Lohan Architecture via LinkedIn

The proposed plan calls for a lightweight domed roof to be constructed over the structure, with 20,000 new seats added underneath and upheld by cables connecting to four exterior columns. Lohan, who also designed the master plan for the surrounding Museum Campus, says it "remains] true to the values reflected in the Burnham and Bennett Plans and the Chicago Lakefront Ordinan...

Webuild and Carlo Ratti propose replacement for Baltimore’s collapsed Key Bridge following tragedy

2024-05-03T15:28:00-04:00

Today, the Webuild group advanced a proposal designed in collaboration with architect and MIT professor Carlo Ratti and French structural engineer Michel Virlogeux for a new bridge in Baltimore that would replace the collapsed Francis Scott Key Bridge.

The design, which was released ahead of next week’s preliminary reconstruction forum called by the Maryland Transportation Authority, calls for a cable suspension span totaling 2,300 feet with a 213-foot clearance and offering wider lanes and increased vessel navigation safety, structural maintenance monitoring technology, smart traffic management, and enhanced connection to the Harbor area.

Webuild had already famously contributed to the rapid reconstruction of Renzo Piano’s Morandi bridge replacement in Genoa, Italy, after the deadly 2018 collapse that killed 43 people. The company is also expecting to begin constructing what will become the world's longest suspension bridge over the Strait of Messina by the end of the year.

Render...

Manica Architecture debuts new NFL stadium proposal for potential Kansas City Chiefs relocation

2024-05-01T17:17:00-04:00

Manica Architecture has released renderings related to a late bid to lure the Kansas City Chiefs NFL franchise across the state border to Wyandotte County, Kansas. The design has been made public for the first time a week after the firm’s plans for a new Bears lakefront stadium in Chicago were panned by critics.

Rendering courtesy Manica Architecture

The proposed new dome-enclosed stadium was presented to Kansas lawmakers this week as part of a pitch to bring its first-ever major American sports franchise to the Jayhawk state in addition to potentially hosting the NCAA Final Four and concert tours, according to architect David Manica's recent statements to local outlets.

Rendering courtesy Manica Architecture

The repeat Super Bowl champions released a separate proposal for an $800 million renovation in Kansas City led by Populous in February. Its neighbor Kauffman Field (home to the Royals MLB franchise) is also weighing the costs of renovating its classic midcentury design over buil...

In Oklahoma City, plans for North America’s new tallest building move toward approval

2024-04-13T10:00:00-04:00

The Oklahoma City Planning Commission voted yesterday, April 12th, to recommend its city council's approval of the proposed 1,907-foot-high tower design from AO (fmr. Architects Orange) that would become North America's tallest building when realized.

Plans are still contingent on the success of the proposed first two towers' leasing agreements, as we reported in January. AO, which just celebrated its 50th anniversary, is working for a local Orange County-based developer named Scot Matteson to realize the design after increasing its initial proposal for a 1,750-foot design that would have been America’s second-tallest building. The so-called Legends Tower would be built at a total of 126 stories and include 944 luxury residences plus another 99 condominiums and 352 rooms reserved for the Hyatt Hotel chain.

Just 48 of the tower's apartments will be considered affordable (all of which are to be located in the podium). The proposed LED signage is the only part of the proposal that was...

A proposal for the second-tallest building in North America sneaks forward in Oklahoma City

2024-01-02T19:13:00-05:00

Oklahoma City could soon be home to the country’s second-tallest structure if plans for a new 1,750-foot skyscraper designed by the California practice Architects Orange (AO) are approved along with a larger $1 billion entertainment district proposal from developer Scot Matteson.

The tower is included as part of the mixed-use Boardwalk at Bricktown development that calls for a hotel, two condominium towers, and an LED-lit multilevel podium with a pool and other public areas at a site just two blocks away from where the new home of the Oklahoma City Thunder NBA franchise is now being planned.

Matteson and other developers behind the scheme are hoping the local real estate market can support their ambitions, and say the 134-story apartment tower could be added to the mixed-use scheme provided there is adequate demand. The plan would be funded in part by a $200 million tax increment financing.

Image render courtesy AO.

"We felt that creating someplace can live and work and play and be ...

In BRUTAL DC, Brooks + Scarpa proposes adaptive reuse of Marcel Breuer's landmark 1968 design

2023-10-25T13:49:00-04:00

Brooks + Scarpa has proposed an adaptive reuse renovation of the Marcel Breuer-designed Robert C. Weaver Federal Building in Washington, D.C. in an effort to address the chronic issue of empty office space plaguing the city’s economic growth and downtown core.

The proposal is included in a new exhibition at the Southern Utah Museum of Art that examines Brutalism’s past and future potential through seven key structures and Metro station designs. The exhibition includes Diller Scofidio + Renfro's scrapped 'Bubble' reimagining of the Hirshhorn Museum and other schemes from Gensler and students from the UNLV School of Architecture.

Image courtesy Brooks + Scarpa

The inclusion of the 55-year-old Weaver Building is significant as it is the headquarters of the Department of Housing and Urban Development, which wants to position itself in line with industry pushes to build a “just and equitable future for all citizens.”

Image courtesy Brooks + Scarpa

After the p...

HOK and PAU reveal rival 'P3' Penn Station renewal proposal

2023-07-03T12:19:00-04:00

A new proposal from HOK and Practice for Architecture and Urbanism (PAU) has been unveiled as the competition to design a more modern and accessible update to Penn Station continues just days after New York State Governor Kathy Hochul officially scaled back the project due to economic concerns and pushback from local residents.

The two firms’ split proposal would supposedly be delivered in six years and at a cost of $6 billion using a combination of grants, state, and federal money, in addition to a $1 billion capital investment from ASTM North America.

The plan calls for the addition of a new open-air plaza as well as open-air terraces and two new entrances along Eight Avenue.

Image courtesy of ASTM, PAU, and HOK

HOK’s President Carl Garlioto describes: “The New Penn Station will bring much-needed light into two new train halls, including a grand new Eighth Avenue hall with 55-foot ceilings above the passenger concourse and a glass-wrapped mid-block hall with a sunlit passage betwe...

Marvel proposes new Maritime, Business, Research, and Innovation Center for Puerto Rico

2023-04-25T18:13:00-04:00

Marvel Architects has unveiled their proposal for a new research facility in the rural Puerto Rican community of Ceiba.

The plan for the island’s Maritime, Business, Research, and Innovation Center (MBRIC) calls for the addition of a new landmark building at the site of a former U.S. Coast Guard-operated pier looking out over the Straight of Vieques.

Image courtesy Marvel

The oval building at the center of the proposal is elevated to avoid flooding and will encase an undisclosed research mission, highlighted by improved site access, research decks, and enhanced vegetation.

Marvel says: “In shape as well as in intent, the proposed designs draw inspiration from the reference to atolls as natural restorative responses to nature events of volcanic activity and erosion.”

Image courtesy Marvel

A series of restorative site improvements extends the surrounding mangrove further toward the shoreline in order to protect its status as a natural habitat and increase its ability to serve as a na...

A 50-story housing proposal is shaking up planning officials in San Francisco

2023-04-19T18:07:00-04:00

A proposed new high-rise development in San Francisco’s Outer Sunset district is standing out over its disputed manipulation of statewide density laws.

The LA Times is reporting on CH Planning‘s unlikely new proposal, which could add a Solomon Cordwell Buenz-designed 50-story tower to the neighborhood via provisions in California’s Density Bonus Law — a regulation they say allows for permitted deviations from local building restrictions to provide options for affordable housing.

“It simply defies logic that a building in a 100-foot height district seeking a 50% bonus could somehow rise to 560 feet,” Daniel Sider, chief of staff for San Francisco’s Planning Department said in a rebuke published by the newspaper. “While we agree that this site is ripe for housing, and we hope to work with the developer to achieve that, there is no provision in state or local law to permit the downtown-style building that’s been proposed.”

“The proposed project is flat out inconsistent with local zoni...

Italian firm proposes glass-wrapped alternative to Penn Station redevelopment

2023-04-05T13:10:00-04:00

The race to author an alternative solution to the recently-halted redevelopment of Penn Station may now have a top contender after the Italian firm ASTM Group released its plans for a proposal that would radically alter New York City’s iconic Madison Square Garden.

Last week, the New York Times reported on the newly-proposed alternative, which calls for the storied sporting “Mecca” to be wrapped in an aluminum-and-steel curtain while replacing the existing station with a two-hall glass-enclosed structure at its podium. The plan is said to be less expensive than the state’s Vornado-backed original proposal, and, if approved, would be completed no later than the year 2030.

According to the Times, several officials have already voiced their support for the alternative, making it into a “frontrunner” among those in power.

Last month, Vornado called off the already-maligned redevelopment scheme, citing economic conditions as a decisive factor in their postponing of the plan that would h...

A group of UCSB students pitches a thorough alternative to Munger Hall

2022-06-06T17:50:00-04:00

In an amazing rebuke of their university’s purblind pursuit of the Munger Hall megadormitory project last week, students at the University of California, Santa Barbara staged a public forum in order to showcase research-based alternatives to the development and long-term strategic plan.

Led by Professor Rita Bright, a group of 43 Environmental Studies concentrators took school administrators to task with a thorough proposal that simultaneously meets the campus’ attendant student housing crisis and a host of UCSB’s other stated objectives, according to a write up by Carolina A. Miranda in the LA Times.

Previously on Archinect: Munger Hall now has a walkthrough for the skeptical

The alternative plan calls for several new smaller dorms to be erected either above existing one-story dining hall structures, or else on a site currently occupied by a parking lot. It also recommended building at a smaller scale at the proposed site of Munger Hall, which is currently a maintenance facility. Mi...

Electric vehicle manufacturer Rivian in talks to build $5 billion factory in Fort Worth, Texas

2021-08-18T19:33:00-04:00

Rivian Automotive Inc., the electric-vehicle startup backed by Amazon.com Inc., is in talks to invest at least $5 billion to build a factory near Fort Worth, Texas, according to a document obtained by Bloomberg News.

The factory, labeled “Project Tera” according to the Bloomberg-obtained document, would be able to produce 200,000 vehicles a year and create at least 7,500 jobs by 2027. A number of incentives, including grants and a city tax abatement of up to $440 million, have also been proposed in the presentation made by the City of Fort Worth’s Economic Development Department to the City Council.

Fort Worth officials also offered to nominate Rivian’s plans for the Texas Enterprise Zone Project, which would make it eligible for further state tax incentives, in addition to other incentives from Tarrant County.

A number of states and cities are being considered, however, the Texas location has reportedly become the front-runner for the California-based manufacturer. Given the rapidly growing electric vehicle market, many locales are very eager to host companies such as Rivian.

Rivian is building 100,000 electric delivery vans for Amazon. Video: Amazon News on YouTube

The proposed location of ...

Tulsa's Gilcrease Museum unveils upcoming expansion plans that will connect visitors to the natural world

2021-06-24T19:18:00-04:00

The Gilcrease Museum has unveiled designs for an expansion of the 72-year-old Tulsa institution as part of a redevelopment plan meant to give its 350 years of collected history an upgraded 21st-century relevance.

The plan will add improved exhibition space for the city-owned museum founded by collector Thomas Gilcrease, a member of the Muscogee tribe who amassed a fortune in Oklahoma's early oil boom.

Aerial view overlooking the new Gilcrease Museum toward downtown Tulsa. Courtesy of Gallagher & Associates and Gilcrease Museum

“We need a space that provides a visitor experience to match the strength of the collection” explained Gilcrease Executive Director Susan Neal.

The soon-to-be razed museum holds a number of Indigenous artifacts and boasts the world’s largest collection of art of the American West in addition to a collection of over 100,000 manuscripts, photographs, and rare books housed by the Helmerich Center for American Research.

SmithGroup is responsible for the design th...

MAD's proposal for a new cultural center in Zhuhai is unveiled showcasing a conservationist approach to Urban Development

2021-05-21T21:27:00-04:00

Plans for a proposed cultural center in China’s southern Guangdong region have been released as MAD becomes the latest to enter its name in a competition for an urban renewal project that is equal parts conservation and inspiration, leaving intact the historic past while keeping an eye on the region’s glittering future.

Dominated by a massive floating dome, the studio’s vision for a new cultural arts center covers a centuries-old coastal village located on a peninsula on the northern tip of Zhuhai, the country’s most livable city.

Zhuhai Cultural Arts Center model, by MAD Architects

The dome’s structure is comprised of a cable membrane layered over the village’s former plaza and a plethora of scattered small-scale buildings meant to preserve some of the original charm lost to the massive development boom that followed its designation as a Special Economic Zone in 1980.

Urban renewal in China, especially in historic districts, should be preserved, revived, and re-created, instead of ...

Divergence between housing and commercial markets continues as pandemic impact on construction and design deepens

2020-07-16T14:45:00-04:00

A pair of recently published economic tracking studies for the construction industry developed by Quarterly Market Forecast (QMF) highlight the increasingly split nature of construction proposal activity within the United States following the COVID-19 pandemic.

Commercial projects are struggling, with some exceptions

First, the bad news: Commercial projects are facing dire straights.

A recent net plus/minus index (NPMI) conducted by QMF measuring the difference between firms that saw a drop in proposal activity and those that saw an increase shows that commercial developers have seen a 45% decline in proposal activity during the second quarter of 2020, slightly up from a minus 51% showing during the first quarter of the year.

Commercial Users Market Proposal Activity – 2007 to 2020 (NPMI). Graph courtesy of QMF.

Here, warehouse and fulfillment center developers saw an increase in proposal activity, predictably due to the drastic increase in online ordering that has taken hold in re...

Artists reimagine monuments celebrating the Confederacy

2018-08-17T16:02:00-04:00

After the tragedy, [a statue of Confederate general Robert E. Lee in Charlottesville, Va.] and another honoring Stonewall Jackson were shrouded, but only temporarily. Around the country, similar monuments have been removed. In some cases, only their pedestals remain. We asked artists to contemplate these markers of our country’s racist and violent history — the space they take up, physically and psychically — and imagine what should happen when they are gone.

Around the US many statues and monuments celebrating racism in our country's history have been removed, either partially or fully. The question currently remains on what we as a culture should do concerning the spaces these historical monuments inhabit[ed]. The New York Times asked artists to reimagine these spaces as possibilities for the future.

Reimagined monument by Studio Ijeoma and Michael Yarinsky Design. Image: Studio Ijeoma/Michael Yarinsky Design.

Studio Ijeoma and Michael Yarinsky Design proposed a spiraling structure around the remaining pedestal where a Robert E. Lee monument in New Orleans once stood. The design includes staining the pedestal with colors corresponding to the years of slavery, segregation, and inequity in US history.

Reimagined monument by Studio Ijeoma and Michael Yarinsky Design. Image: Studio Ijeoma/Michael Yarinsky Design.

Located atop the spiraling stairs is a glass sky room where participants are able to stand where the Confederate general's stat...

MAD proposes mixed-use tower topped with a cantilevered “cloud” for downtown Melbourne

2018-07-27T15:52:00-04:00

MAD Architects is one of six architecture firms competing to design the “Southbank by Beulah” tower in the heart of downtown Melbourne. Located at City Road and Southbank Boulevard, the skyscraper must include a mixed-use program of more than 220,000 square meters. The other competing teams are BIG, Coop Himmelb(l)au, MVRDV, OMA, and UNStudio.

For their proposal, MAD Architects looked to Melbourne's historic parks and natural local terrain. With a building area of 225,238 square-meters, their concept is a single, 360-meter-tall skyscraper of “organic” forms resembling a mountain, tree, and most interestingly, a cantilevered cloud structure at the top. The design “establishes open connections between the interior and exterior spaces in the form of large terraces, gardens, and public art zones,” MAD says.

Image courtesy of MAD Architects.

The podium level of the tower features a “mount...

Finalists named for Portland's Broadway Corridor site

2018-03-15T18:22:00-04:00

Portland's urban renewal agency has named three finalists to shape the redevelopment of the soon-to-be-vacated downtown post office blocks. Not among them: a headline-grabbing but unlikely proposal for two massive skyscrapers, the taller of which would be nearly twice the height of any existing building in Portland.

Prosper Portland has selected 3 finalists for the 14 acre post office site located in the heart of the city: McWhinney, Related Cos., and Continuum Partners. It comes as no surprise that William Kaven's two tower proposal was not selected.

Broadway Corridor total development site of 32 acres in Portland. Image: Prosper Portland.

The redevelopment effort will include approximately 500 units of public housing developed by the Portland Housing Bureau and about 2,000 units of privately developed housing—of which 10 percent will include rent restrictions for low-income households.

The Colorado developer McWhinney has proposed a partnership with the James Beard Public Market, a food culture concept which would include 100 to 120 vendor stalls as well as full service restaurants. The New York developer Related Cos. has partnered with local real estate firm Melvin Mark Cos. and the homelessness nonprofit Central City Concern.

Zaha Hadid Architects proposal for London's Vauxhall Cross Island

2018-01-22T13:27:00-05:00

Zaha Hadid Architects designed a proposal for the Vauxhall Cross Island site in London. Located adjacent to Vauxhall Station, the proposal focuses on creating a Vauxhall district center by providing a mixed-use space to generate employment opportunities and a new public square to accommodate Transport for London's (TfL) emerging bus station plans.

Vauxhall Cross Island proposal by Zaha Hadid Architects. Render by Slashcube.

The London borough is undergoing a transformation with several other significant developments under construction or planned in the area. ZHA's design works with the height of the other proposed buildings in the area through its rectilinear form, grid-based façade, and materials.

Vauxhall Cross Island proposal by Zaha Hadid Architects. Render by Slashcube.

The new proposal includes two tall buildings with a low-level podium building to create a defined public square. The arrangement p...

Zaha Hadid Architects' conceptual rendering for Chicago Spire site

2018-01-02T13:43:00-05:00

While 2017 saw developer Related Midwest remain tight-lipped on its plans for the site of the defunct 2,000-foot-tall Chicago Spire project, a rendering showing a pair of very tall skyscrapers rising at 400 N. Lake Shore Drive recently reignited speculation regarding the site’s future redevelopment. The rather slender image surfaced online, credited to Britain’s Zaha Hadid Architects.

Another rendering for the vacant Chicago Spire site recently surfaced online. The image was confirmed as a proposal from Zaha Hadid Architects; however, the developer Related Midwest will not be pursuing the design.

While the project will not be built, the organic towers are certainly a stunning site to behold. Characteristic of ZHA's work, these sci-fi shaped towers appear to break the 984-foot tall supertall threshold. For now, future plans for what will be built at 400 N. Lakeshore Drive are still anyone's guess.

Image note: the previous image has been removed by request, as it was not intended for publication.

Norman Foster's “idli maker” design for state assembly building in Indian state's new capital

2018-01-02T13:16:00-05:00

Soon after the news, an Indian architect posted an image of [Foster's] design juxtaposed next to a stainless-steel idli maker—the kind used to steam idlis for breakfast in countless households across southern India—on an architecture-focused Facebook group. While some made fun of the resemblance—”How on earth will they cook in this?”—others praised the design for not being derivative of colonial-era architecture.

Foster + Partners was invited to design the state assembly building in Amaravati, the new capital of the Indian state Andhra Pradesh. Since it was released, Foster's proposed design has drawn mixed reactions from the public. Some people compared the building's spiked design to an idli maker, which is used to steam idli, a popular breakfast food made throughout southern India.

Backed by Shigeru Ban and others, artist Jae-Eun Choi envisions garden-lined bridge for Korean DMZ

2017-12-28T21:07:00-05:00

At the 2016 Venice Architectural Biennale, Ban and Choi presented a scale model of a 13-kilometer (about eight-mile), garden-lined bamboo walkway meandering between North and South Korea, elevated to protect visitors from ubiquitous DMZ landmines. Along its length would be towers for viewing nature and, every kilometer, open-air “Jung Ja” meditation pavilions designed by different architects and artists, including several reserved for North Koreans.

With support from Shigeru Ban and others, artist Jae-Eun Choi envisioned a garden-lined bridge called "Dreaming of Earth" that would meander through the Korean Demilitarized Zone, which has ironically grown into one of Asia's most significant wildlife sanctuaries. The initial proposal, which Choi and Ban presented at the 2016 Venice Biennale, includes designs by Olafur Eliasson and Sebastian Behmann, Bijoy Jain, Seung H-sang, Minsuk Cho, and artists like Lee Ufan and Lee Bul, Tadashi Kawamata, and more. Despite the current political climate, Choi is determined to make her peace project a reality.

A Trump Tower in L.A.? Thankfully, that was only part of "Never Built Los Angeles"

2017-02-15T00:51:00-05:00

In LA, Trump bragged he was going to spend a billion dollars on what he claimed would become the world’s tallest building. His architect Bill Fain delivered a gilded 125-storey office tower etched in a diamond-patterned exoskeleton...David Martin also devised a skyscraper: ‘When I told Ivana [Trump] the basis of the idea was to put two diamonds together, she lit up,’ Martin said. ‘I think they were divorced a week later.’

Whether you've been following the tumultuous life of proposed architecture projects in Los Angeles or not (a stretch of Grand Avenue, for example, has been undergoing elaborate proposals designed in part by Frank Gehry for almost forty years) "Never Built Los Angeles," a book by architectural critics at large Sam Lubell and Greg Goldin, shows us via The Guardian the almost-reality of a Los Angeles-based Trump Tower designed by Johnson Fain back in 1989.

Future sustainable skyscrapers will be made of...wood?

2016-05-18T12:29:00-04:00

Proponents of the material, called cross-laminated timber, or CLT, say it can be used to erect buildings that are just as strong and fire-resistant as those made from steel and concrete. Those qualities have helped excite the passions of architects and environmentalists, who think it could unlock a greener method for housing the world’s growing population, and timber producers, who hope to open a U.S. market for the value-added good.

Right now the structures are mainly proposals, but CLT could be the principal element of a 100-story tower nicknamed "The Splinter" in London as designed by PLP Architecture, while there's an ornamental 40-story timber tower in Stockholm on the boards, as designed by Anders Berensson Architects:

These aren't your grandfather's skyscrapers:

Agence Ter and Team wins Pershing Square Renew with “radically flat“ proposal

2016-05-12T18:00:00-04:00

The Pershing Square Renew initiative revealed Agence Ter and Team as the winners of the competition to redesign Downtown L.A.'s oldest public park, exactly two weeks after the four finalist teams delivered their final presentations. The winning consortium is led by French landscape practice Agence Ter, whose major landscape work is largely based in Europe. Agence Ter collaborated with L.A.-based firms like SALT Landscape Architects, Deborah Murphy Urban Design + Planning, Rachel Allen Architecture, as well as arts programming organization Community Arts Resources LA.

Titled “The Dynamic Heart of Los Angeles”, the proposal is a plaza-park hybrid that would clear out the walls, ramps, and other such barriers along Pershing Square's perimeter, and transform the Square into an open rectangular lawn. Other elements include a “smart canopy” that provides shade during the day and lights up at night, a reflection pool, and new gardens and grassy lawns.

“Because we believe that too much t...

Dror envisions second geodesic dome in Montreal's Expo 67 site

2016-04-26T14:24:00-04:00

Originally built as the U.S. Pavilion in the memorable World Expo of 1967, the steel structural frame of Buckminster Fuller's Biosphere remains standing to this day as a sole landmark in Montreal's Parc Jean-Drapeau. In planning for the 50th anniversary of Expo 67 as well as Montreal's 375th anniversary next April, designer Dror Benshetrit of the New York-based practice Dror came up with the idea for adding, what do you know, a second geodesic dome near the Biosphere.

After touring Montreal's Île Sainte-Hélène with the Buckminster Fuller Institute, Benshetrit thought of a second dome as a way to help reinvigorate the seasonally used Expo 67 site grounds and evidently pay tribute to Fuller's landmark. Compared to the Biosphere, which is 76 meters in diameter and 62 meters high, Dror's proposed dome is a 150-meter-wide aluminum latticed sphere with a planted canopy.

The studio describes that its vegetated cover would act as a natural sound buffer and provide an enchanting public enviro...

Building upgrades proposed for Roche + Dinkeloo's Ford Foundation Building

2016-04-21T14:10:00-04:00

The Landmarks Preservation Commission is set to consider a proposed $190 million renovation to the Ford Foundation...Although many aspects of the building have long been outdated...it is health and safety, not aesthetics or technology, that initially drove the foundation’s plans. The city has given Ford until 2019 to bring the building up to code for fire safety and handicapped accessibility...

“...But since they had to scratch the building’s surfaces, Ford Foundation president Darren Walker and his staff decided to go further, upgrading not just by adding sprinklers to the ceilings and greater access to the atrium, but new security, new lighting and mechanicals, and a new spatial organization.”

How Jeanne Gang wants to make police stations community-friendly

2016-04-05T17:58:00-04:00

“A police station could be welcoming...And if you can remake space, you can change a culture." Out of that comes Polis Station...Working in their home city, [Studio Gang] looked at a typical station on the troubled West Side. Their proposal reimagines the station house, placing the secure areas at the back and a variety of public services – a library, daycare, mental-health-care providers and a community room – all sharing a grand public entrance and adjacent to new park space.

Mark Foster Gage wants to propose this Game of Thrones-like skyscraper for NYC

2015-12-15T14:06:00-05:00

No, these images aren't for an upcoming Lego kit design or a fantasy-genre video game, although they might as well be. They're Mark Foster Gage's concept for a 102-story ornamental skyscraper nicknamed "The Khaleesi", proposed for 41 West 57th Street in NYC's Billionaire's Row.

Interestingly enough, the luxury residential tower has garnered enthusiasm that's as amusing as its Gargoyle statue-like exterior, which has been described as "regal", "visionary", and "futuristic". According to a press release from the architect, Robert A.M. Stern commented with a "WOW" in a recent email to Gage. (Interpret that as you wish.)

An undisclosed developer commissioned Gage to design the tower to envision the possibilities of ultra-luxury designs for the site. Built with a concrete frame, the 1,492-foot structure is "draped in a façade of limestone-tinted Taktl concrete panels with hydroformed sheet-bronze details and brass-tinted alloy structural extrusion enclosures," Gage writes on his website. T...

$90K feasibility study proposed for Puget Sound bridge made from decommissioned aircraft carriers

2015-04-13T17:52:00-04:00

The bridge, should it be built, would be about a mile long. It would span Sinclair Inlet, connecting Bremerton and Port Orchard, about 15 miles west of Seattle. Today, it’s a 10-mile, often traffic-clogged, drive between the towns. Rep. Jesse Young, whose district includes these two towns, thinks using an old carrier or two would make a fine tourist attraction and tribute to the military.