Archinect - News

U.S. Pavilion co-commissioners make the American porch a focus at the 2025 Venice Architecture Biennale

2024-08-14T14:07:00-04:00

A delegation from Arkansas will be traveling to Italy to represent the United States in its official pavilion at next year’s Venice Architecture Biennale.

The announcement was made Wednesday by the U.S. Department of State's Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs. The group includes presenters from The University of Arkansas's Fay Jones School of Architecture and Design in Fayetteville, the Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art in Bentonville, and the independent consultancy DesignConnects, which is based in New York City.

Guided by co-commissioners Peter MacKeith, Susan Chin, and Rod Bigelow, the U.S. Pavilion will showcase their presentation, PORCH: An Architecture of Generosity, which focuses on porches' role as a social and environmental space in the American context.

A "dynamic showcase" of projects and practices from around the country, the exhibition proposes a "positive, productive" presentation of American architecture that emphasizes both empathy and education.

Rela...

UVA architecture students present ideas for rebuilding a war-torn Ukrainian city to the U.S. Department of State

2024-01-08T14:25:00-05:00

The culmination of the 2023 Fall semester at the University of Virginia saw a contingent of students from UVA’s School of Architecture travel to Washington, D.C., to discuss ideas for rebuilding the war-torn eastern Ukrainian city of Izium upon a special invite from the U.S. Department of State.

Together with Professor Suzanne Moomaw, the cohort of 23 students who participated in the school’s Ukraine Green Recovery Lab were delegated to the National Museum of American Diplomacy in order to present their research to State Department officials, other government representatives, and the Ukrainian Ambassador to the United States Oksana Markarova.

Highlighting topography and other similarities between Izium and Charlottesville, the students presented six phases of a proposed redevelopment to those assembled. What they took away from it was a rewarding experience delivering findings that will, in turn, be presented to the people of Izium for feedback. All in attendance report to have en...

The new U.S. Consulate General Matamoros announced as a winner of The Chicago Athenaeum's 2021 International Architecture Award

2021-09-14T13:42:00-04:00

The Bureau of Overseas Buildings Operations’ (OBO) new Consulate General project in Matamoros, Mexico was awarded The Chicago Athenaeum Museum of Architecture and Design’s 2021 International Architecture Award. It joins a collection of some of the world’s best new buildings and urban planning projects from over 35 countries.

The Chicago Athenaeum, alongside The European Center for Architecture Art Design and Urban Studies, organized this award program to honor and recognize international projects that stretch the boundaries of architecture, regardless of style, complexity, and scheme and budget size.

Within the Government Buildings category, the U.S. Consulate General in Matamoros was designed by Richärd Kennedy Architects and constructed by B.L. Harbert International with Page Architects as the architect of record. As stated in the U.S. Department of State’s release on the award announcement, the building was recognized “for its superior design leadership and pioneering architectur...

The Bureau of Overseas Buildings Operations announces selected firms for worldwide architectural and engineering support services

2021-08-02T17:33:00-04:00

The Bureau of Overseas Buildings Operations (OBO), responsible for providing facilities abroad for the United States Department of State and the U.S government, at large, has selected 12 Architectural and Engineering (A/E) firms for the Worldwide Architectural and Engineering Support Services Indefinite Delivery / Indefinite Quantity (IDIQ) from a shortlist of 25.

As detailed by the U.S. Department of State, the firms will provide program-level process and procedure-improvement support and conduct surveys and analyses for existing facilities. They will also assist with master plans, security mitigation studies, site expansion studies, project phasing analysis, and historic structures survey.

The selected firms are:

AECOM Services, Inc.
Buro Happold Engineering
Davis Brody Bond
Arthur Gensler, Jr. & Associates, Inc. (dba Gensler)
HDR KCCT JV
Jacobs Government Services Company
Lake Flato Architects
The Mason & Hanger Group, Inc.
Moore Ruble Yudell Architects & Planners
ODA-Architecture, P.C...

New U.S. Embassy in The Hague, Netherlands breaks ground

2014-05-30T13:49:00-04:00

Over in The Hague in The Netherlands, the U.S. Department of State's Bureau of Overseas Buildings Operations (OBO) celebrated the groundbreaking of the new U.S. Embassy earlier this week. Located on a 10-acre site in the Wassenaar municipality, some features of the $206 million project will include a chancery office building, a U.S. Marine Corps residence, a utility building, and multiple access pavilions.

Moore Ruble Yudell Architects & Planners of Santa Monica, CA will be project architect with Caddell Construction Company of Montgomery, AL for construction.

Find more about the project on Bustler.

New U.S. Consulate General by SOM officially opens in Guangzhou

2014-03-05T19:03:00-05:00

U.S. and local Chinese officials gathered to host the ribbon-cutting of the new U.S. Consulate General today in Guangzhou, China. Perceived as a symbol of the bilateral relationship between the U.S. and China, companies from both countries collaborated on the $267 million project, which broke ground in October 2009 and was completed in June 2013.

Skidmore, Owings, & Merrill's San Francisco office designed the complex while BL Harbert International, LLC, of Birmingham, AL and China Huashi Enterprises, Ltd., of Chengdu, China were the project's contractors.

Located on a 7.4-acre site in Guangzhou's blossoming Business Center District near the Pearl River, the seven-building complex includes a 4-story main consular building for visa services and public events, an office building for 400 employees, a residence for U.S. Marines, a warehouse with service shops, three entrance pavilions.

Building façades and landscaped areas integrate local stones from the Fujian province as well as trees and...