Archinect - News

Studio Gang updates progress on mass timber conference center at Harvard

2024-12-17T16:12:00-05:00

The new David Rubenstein Treehouse conference center project from Studio Gang for Harvard University has topped out near its campus in the Allston neighborhood of Boston.

What will become Harvard’s first-ever mass timber structure is included as part of the larger 36-acre Enterprise Research Campus (or ERC) development that was announced last summer along with designs from MVRDV, Moody Nolan, and Marlon Blackwell. It follows another creative higher ed timber design from Studio Gang, the new two-building campus expansion for the California College of the Arts (CCA) in San Francisco, which was unveiled in November.

Studio Gang to design new sustainability commons at Stanford

2023-06-06T16:50:00-04:00

A new project led by Studio Gang will deliver Stanford University a home for the recently-established Stanford Doerr School of Sustainability, called Stanford Sustainability Commons, at a site located on the western half of the school’s Palo Alto, California campus.

New York-based practices SCAPE and atelier ten will join the firm for the design of the Commons, which aims to help consolidate a group of interrelated academic disciplines in the hopes of enabling a “thriving habitat supporting the region’s larger network of living things.”

Jeanne Gang says: “The climate crisis is the most urgent challenge facing our world today. We are going to be working with Stanford to design a home for the Doerr School of Sustainability that can support the cross-disciplinary collaboration needed for generating climate solutions in all industries. At the same time, we are excited to model ways for the built environment to address this challenge head-on.”

An aerial view of campus courtesy of Flickr ...

Studio Gang and SCAPE partner for Memphis riverfront park

2020-05-27T16:33:00-04:00

A proposal for the Memphis River Parks Partnership's Studio Gang- and SCAPE-designed waterfront park in Memphis has taken a step forward as the firms present their latest visions for the 30-acre project site.

Site plan.

Following years of design and community engagement, the semi-final design of Tom Lee Park includes a collection of discretely programmed landscaped areas designed alternately to accommodate human needs alongside those of the mighty Mississippi River.

The park's central gathering areas.

The northernmost section of the park connects to Memphis's Beale Street and to a forthcoming downtown art museum, while central portions are geared more toward neighboring community use.

An interior view of the Civic Canopy.

Here, a "Civic Canopy" offers a large, flat expanse for public gatherings and events. A central forested overlook provides shade as well as a promontory from which to see the river and the city in an adjacent area .

View of the nature overlook zone at the southern ...

MVRDV, Studio Gang, Henning Larsen, WORKac, and SCAPE design a new neighborhood for San Francisco

2019-10-17T16:30:00-04:00

A new neighborhood is coming to San Francisco's southern edge, where developers Tishman Speyer, the San Francisco Giants baseball team, and the Port of San Francisco are collaborating with a team of architects on a new 28-acre master plan for an existing surface parking lot and an underutilized waterfront.

For the masterplan, dubbed "Mission Rock," Studio Gang, MVRDV, Henning Larsen, and WORKac have come together as design architects to craft an approach that will bring a series of mid- and high-rise mixed-use buildings to the vacant site. Landscape architects SCAPE, Miller Company, and Min Design are providing landscape architecture services, including the redesign of a 5-acre waterfront park.

View of MVRDV's pixelated tower. Image courtesy of Binyan Studios.

Phase one of the project includes a 540-unit tower designed by MVRDV, in collaboration with Perry Architects, that will contain 550,000 square feet of retail uses spread out within a pair of shorter commercial buildings. The ...

Studio Gang completes work on prismatic mid-rise tower in New York City

2019-08-19T12:30:00-04:00

Chicago-based Studio Gang architects, Aurora Capital Associates, and William Gottlieb Real Estate have completed work on 40 Tenth Avenue, a 10-story, 160,000-square-foot, prismatic boutique office building created for New York City’s Meatpacking District.

Image courtesy of Studio Gang, ©Nic Lehoux.

The structure is marked by a terraced corner window configuration that steps in and out from the tower’s waist to create dramatic views and dynamic corner offices overlooking the High Line for the tower’s occupants. This so-called “Solar Carve,” according to the architects, “explores how shaping architecture in response to solar access and other site-specific criteria can expand its potential to have a positive impact on its environment.”

Image courtesy of Studio Gang, ©Nic Lehoux.

The dramatic corner is shaped in response to the high and low angles the sun takes, both in the morning and afternoon, as it crosses the site. This configuration allows for those rays to reach a planted, west-faci...

Studio Gang reveals new twisting tower design for San Francisco

2018-08-25T11:03:00-04:00

Studio Gang reveals a new, 400-foot tall residential tower called "MIRA" for San Francisco's Transbay neighborhood. The building features classic bay windows staggered in a twisting design around the structure.

"MIRA" high rise rendering by Studio Gang, located in San Francisco. Image: Studio Gang.

The design provides each unit with ample lighting and views of the bay, while also creating a high-performance facade reducing energy consumption.

"MIRA" high rise rendering by Studio Gang, located in San Francisco. Image: Binyan.

40% of the building's units have been designated to be priced below market rate.

"MIRA" high rise rendering by Studio Gang, located in San Francisco. Image: Studio Gang.

The high rise also includes sustainable features such as a VRF cooling system, a graywater harvesting system, green roofs, and high-efficiency fixtures and is targeted for LEED Gold certification.

Studio Gang's first LA project will be a wavy high-rise in Chinatown

2018-04-19T14:39:00-04:00

Chicago-based architecture firm Studio Gang has signed on to design an eye-catching 26-story apartment and hotel tower in Chinatown. The widely-respected firm has designed numerous projects in Chicago, San Francisco, and New York, including the expansion of the American Museum of Natural History. This would be its first in Los Angeles.

Studio Gang has released plans to design a high-rise in Los Angeles' Chinatown, a space near the rapidly evolving Arts District downtown. The developer Compagnie de Phalsbourg, a French real estate investment company, brought on the firm to design the mixed-use building.

The new project will house 300 apartments, 149 hotel rooms, as well as shops and open public spaces. The site is planned for 643 North Spring Street with the building rising 26 stories, yet only measuring 55 feet wide. This narrow design allows for each unit to receive air and sunlight, as well as preventing the building from feeling like a wall.

Jeanne Gang returns home to share her firm's work

2017-05-12T19:14:00-04:00

Jeanne Gang caught the architecture bug as a child. Her father was the Boone County engineer and family vacations were long road trips that crisscrossed the country, with countless stops along the way "to see every bridge there was."... "This concept of ecology — the idea of building relationships between each other and our environment — that's what really interests me," said Gang.

Last month, Jeanne Gang spoke in Rockford, Illinois, near her hometown of Belvidere, to present her firm's work at a well-attended luncheon.

First look: Studio Gang's “Hive” installation at the National Building Museum this summer

2017-04-19T13:38:00-04:00

The National Building Museum in Washington D.C. revealed the renderings of Studio Gang's upcoming 2017 Summer Block Party installation called the “Hive”, which is the firm's latest collaboration with the Museum.

Located in the Great Hall, the Hive will be made entirely of over 2,700 wound paper tubes whose heights will range from several inches to 10 feet tall. The tubes will be interlocked to create three interconnected, domed chambers, with the tallest dome reaching 60 feet high and featuring a 10-foot-diameter oculus. Every tube will have a reflective silver exterior and a vibrant magenta interior to create what seems like will be a dazzling environment.

Image © Studio Gang.

People can gather at the larger main chamber for the Museum's summer events, or they can hang out in the smaller, intimate chambers where they can also play with tubular instruments like drums and suspended chimes. Each chamber will have unique acoustic properties to affect the instruments' tones and reverberati...

Landmarks reveals new renderings for Studio Gang's Natural History Museum expansion project

2016-10-12T11:23:00-04:00

In light of the Landmarks Preservation Commission's approval of Jeanne Gang's expansion plan for the American Museum of Natural History, the Commission has revealed a slew of new renderings, which show the $325 million project from various angles, as well as new views of the surrounding parkland. Chairwoman Meenakshi Srinivasan referred to the new Richard Gilder Center for Science, Education and Innovation as a “stunning piece of architecture” and an “absolutely wonderful addition.”

Does Jeanne Gang's architecture inspire social justice?

2016-07-21T12:36:00-04:00

In this New York Times interview with Ginia Bellafante, Jeanne Gang discusses the importance and challenges of designing work that isn't simply aesthetically pleasing, but that influences positive changes in social behavior and policy. In addition to her work on waterways, she discusses her idea behind designing a fire rescue station in one of New York City's poorest and most violent neighborhoods:

You feel like you trust a firefighter, a rescue worker. And those doors on the building are often open. And we even put a bench in the front of the building so people can actually sit there instead of taking this approach of creating a fortress, which I think is a contrast to what we see in the design of police stations.

And so really designing this Fire Rescue 2 started me thinking about, are there ways that design could help improve the relationship between community members and police if we looked at the architecture? Not that it can solve everything. But I think, you know, maybe it can ...

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.

Studio Gang Architects selected to design new U.S. Embassy in Brazil

2016-03-09T12:55:00-05:00

Out of a shortlist of six firms, The Department of State's Bureau of Overseas Buildings Operations has chosen Studio Gang Architects, run by MacArthur fellow and winner of 2016's Architect of the Year from the Women in Architecture Awards, Jeanne Gang, to design a multi-building campus for the new U.S. Embassy based in Brasilia, Brazil. Studio Gang Architects, which has tackled such easy breezy projects in the past as a proposal to reverse the flow of the Chicago River, was chosen in part for its "more than 20 years of collaborative experience executing projects with complex constraints at challenging sites," according to a press release. The new embassy, which will rebuild the existing compound on its 12 acre site, will feature a Marine Security Guard Residence, a Chancery, and various support facilities.

For more on what the Gang has been up to:

Editor's Picks #442

2016-03-03T13:23:00-05:00

ICYMI Will Galloway penned a reflection on a workshop he instigated at Keio University, with members of Assemble, Paloma Strelitz and James Binning (pre Turner Prize). The studio ended with students building a very rough and very temporary Onsen. The three later discussed, the history of Assemble, architecture’s "long history of collective action" and "amazingly entrepreneurial architectural practices".

Donna Sink loved their take on radicalism "as just being a reasonable way to practice. They believe they're not radical at all. I'm onboard with removing the word ‘non-traditional’ from the descriptor ‘non-traditional practice’ when it comes to architecture of this kind. It's just practice, which is a broad world."

Plus, Amelia Taylor-Hochberg published an interview with Steven Holl and Kevin Lippert (founder of Princeton Architectural Press) about Pamphlet Architecture. rprt frm th heartland praised Pamphlet as "chewy and lovely".

News
Over at Architect Magazine Blaine Brownell, AIA, e...

Watch the teaser trailer for fall's Chicago Architecture Biennial

2015-07-23T10:09:00-04:00

With a list of over 90 participants and partners including U.K.-based Assemble, Jimenez Lai, Jeanne Gang, Archinect and Sou Fujimoto, the inaugural Chicago Architecture Biennial will open to the public on October 3rd. Officially billed as "North America’s largest international survey of contemporary architecture," the Biennial will feature a variety of installations, exhibitions, and events, which perhaps figures into the concept behind the freshly released teaser trailer (which we've embedded below): gradually intersecting red grid lines meet over famous Chicago landmarks, including Anish Kapoor's "bean" or Cloud Gate. View it now:

Jeanne Gang's proposed 160 Folsom tower in S.F. faces sudden local opposition

2015-06-26T13:58:00-04:00

These are strange days in San Francisco, where the clamor to build needed housing — especially at affordable levels — is matched only by the self-righteous vigor with which actual proposals for that housing tend to be opposed...But if we want a well-planned city with distinctive new buildings for all its citizens, projects like this show that good design and good policy can go hand in hand.

Developer Tishman Speyer's nearly one-year-old proposal for a 400-foot-tall residential tower, which Jeanne Gang designed, at 160 Folsom St. is suddenly facing opposition from local groups. With former mayor Art Agnos at the forefront of the opposition, the groups argue that the building promotes "economic segregation" and is yet another example of "developers wreaking vengeance" on the city, as S.F. Chronicle's urban design critic John King states in the article.

Opponents claim the 400-foot tower would overshadow the nearby Rincon Park and the Embarcadero waterfront, although that area is already developed with large structures like the Gap HQ, the Hills Plaza complex, and the Infinity luxury condo complex — where Agnos and other opponents recently held their kickoff meeting, interestingly enough.

In terms of exterior design, King writes that Gang's corkscrew tower would be "a great addition" to San Francisco's skyline, and that the tower's visual distinction has the potential to "g...

Jeanne Gang's proposed Wanda Vista tower could be Chicago's third-tallest

2015-04-14T15:26:00-04:00

The outlines of what could be Chicago's third-tallest skyscraper came into sharp focus Monday when the project's developers unveiled their latest plan for the riverfront tower — a trio of interconnected high-rises that would bring stacks of undulating glass to the city's skyline. [...] Details about the plan, designed by Chicago architect Jeanne Gang and her firm Studio Gang Architects, were revealed at a community meeting called by Ald. Brendan Reilly, 42nd [...].

American Museum of Natural History Plans an Addition by Studio Gang

2014-12-11T13:44:00-05:00

The American Museum of Natural History, a sprawling hodgepodge of a complex occupying nearly four city blocks, is planning another major transformation, this time along Columbus Avenue: a $325 million, six-story addition designed to foster the institution’s expanding role as a center for scientific research and education...

Building on Community: Architect Jeanne Gang reveals master plan for new University of Chicago dorm complex

2013-07-25T10:30:00-04:00

Esteemed Chicago architect Jeanne Gang unveiled the design plan for the new University of Chicago North Campus Residence Hall and Dining Commons this past Tuesday. Created by Studio Gang Architects and Mortenson Construction, the stunning $148 million project is expected to open in the fall of 2016 where Harry Weese's Pierce Tower currently stands.

The new structures intend to create a welcoming "front door" to the University of Chicago campus and function as an easy gateway to surrounding communities like Hyde Park. Each building towers at 15, 11, and 5 stories, at 250 feet in length, and will house about 800 students. A diagonal path will connect the project to the nearby Smart Museum of Art and the businesses on 55th Street. Gang's project will also include designated retail spaces.

The bent-rectangular form and windowed exterior give the structures a rejuvenating contemporary appeal without being pretentious--an ideal combination for the modern college student. At...