Archinect - News

Shopping malls are being reimagined as health care centers across the country

2022-04-14T15:11:00-04:00

The hulking Hickory Hollow Mall — a full 1.1 million square feet of retail space in southeast Nashville — was once the largest shopping center in Tennessee. But like dozens of malls, it’s been in a downward death spiral for more than a decade — despite a scrappy revival effort. Now, the mammoth complex surrounded by acres of parking is on track to join the ranks of malls making a transition into medicine.

According to a national database kept by Georgia Tech urban design professor Ellen Dunham-Jones, a total of 32 enclosed malls have shifted to housing health care services, with nearly a third established at the start of the pandemic. Covid lockdowns had a tremendous impact on brick-and-mortar retailers who were already struggling to stay afloat. As noted by Marketplace.org, the rise of telemedicine and push to outpatient procedures will make malls increasingly attractive sites for healthcare services.

In addition, some disused malls are located in diverse neighborhoods that are in need of increased access to healthcare. Malls can also offer more convenient access compared to traditional hospitals as they’re equipped with large amounts of parking spots and are near major highways and interstates.

Perkins Eastman reimagines NYC grid for increased pedestrian and shared space

2018-08-31T13:29:00-04:00

The city grid, which once served to organize the development of private real estate by providing access to land parcels, now has a more pressing role to play in making cities livable. Our reimagining of the grid starts from the premise that how we use public rights of way no longer meets the city’s needs, so we should transform the streets radically, dedicating them to pedestrians.

Jonathan Cohn and Yunyue Chen propose a new pedestrian plan for Manhattan's grid grouping blocks into larger neighborhoods and organizing streets into either thoroughfares or local streets. Cohn leads the transportation and public infrastructure studio of Perkins Eastman, while Chen received the 2017 Perkins Eastman’s Architectural Fellowship for the Public Realm.

Manhattan grid divided into thoroughfare and local streets. Image: Perkins Eastman.

Their plan is a combination of the Dutch shared street idea of woonerf and the Barcelona “superblocks”. Shared, local streets would include continuous, curbless, and textured surfaces with cues that conform drivers to speeds of about 6 miles per hour.

Example of a shared street with less vehicle access and more pedestrian space. Image: Perkins Eastman.

"Superblocks" are limited to local traffic inside and would be sectioned off by thoroughfare streets with local streets in between. Local streets would always be within a 5 minute walk of any...

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...

What would The Louvre look like if it was Brutalist?

2018-05-01T15:23:00-04:00

These 7 iconic buildings have been reconstructed in different architectural styles, such as The Louvre in Brutalist style pictured above. The effect is jarring to say the least...

Buckingham Palace in Bauhaus style:

Falling Water House in Classical style:

Museu de Arte Contemporânea de Niterói in Sustainable style:

CN Tower in Ancient Egyptian style:

Petronas Towers in Gothic style:

Sydney Opera House in Tudor style:

These reworked renderings were designed by NeoMam Studios for Expedia Canada.

Finalists of "Reimagine a NYC Icon" contest announced

2016-03-03T17:51:00-05:00

Back in September, we told you about a competition to conceive a redesign of the MetLife Building. Earlier this week, the six finalists of the “Reimagine a New York City Icon” competition were announced. The competition, sponsored by Metals in Construction magazine and the Ornamental Metal Institute of New York, isn’t part of any actual process in the works to modify the Midtown office tower, but are fascinating ideas of what could be. Perhaps these ideas will be put into use at other buildings.

SHoP Architects, AECOM, and Volley Studio are among the six finalists for the competition, which encouraged entrants to reimagine the MetLife Building “with a resource‐conserving, eco‐friendly enclosure – one that creates a highly efficient envelope with the lightness and transparency sought by today’s office workforce – while preserving and enhancing the aesthetic of the building’s heritage.”

Here is FXFOWLE, Thornton Tomasetti, and Dagher Engineering's entry, described as "Harnessing Urban Energies":

Here is AECOM and Volley Studio's "Vertimeme":

And here's a look back at Archinect's coverage of the Pan Am/Met Life building:

eVolo Skyscrapers 2 now available for pre-order

2014-04-07T17:17:00-04:00

Need inspiration to prepare for next year's eVOLO Skyscraper Competition? eVOLO's latest publication, EVOLO SKYSCRAPERS 2 is now available for pre-order throughout April! Only 1,000 copies worldwide are in stock.

As the follow-up to the acclaimed first edition, the hardcover, 628-page book showcases 150 of the best skyscraper submissions to the popular eVOLO Skyscraper Competition from the past few years.

These reimagined super-tall structures explore technological advances, sustainable systems, and the establishment of new urban and architectural solutions to solve economic, social, and cultural problems of the world's contemporary cities.

Click here to order. Orders will ship out in May.

For more eVOLO on Archinect, click here.

Paris' "ghost stations" could be revitalized as galleries, swimming pools, restaurants

2014-02-07T14:42:00-05:00

The Paris Métro, opened in 1900, extends over more than 200 kilometers of track, serving more than 300 individual stops. But there are 11 more stations that, though once built, now stand nearly abandoned. Many of these "ghost" or "phantom" stations shuttered after the occupation during WWII. [...] Parisian mayoral candidate Nathalie Kosciusko-Morizet has a bold plan for these phantom stations ... these abandoned spaces should be reclaimed for the city's residents.

Working alongside mayoral candidate Kosciusko-Morizet, architect Manal Rachdi and urban planner Nicolas Laisné composed a few renderings of what the stations could become under the proposal. Featuring Arsenal, one of the stations closed since 1939, here are a few potential uses:

Night club:

Restaurant:

Art gallery:

Theater:

All images via NKM Paris, from Oxo architects + Laisné Architect.