Archinect - News

Mecanoo revives Scotland’s past into a new source of community pride

2024-04-08T17:26:00-04:00

Mecanoo has shared the news of its completed transformation of the Perth Museum in central Scotland.

The three-year construction yields 37,700 square feet worth of new public space inside of the Edwardian-style former City Hall that serviced the community from 1914 on. A specially carved Vennels-inspired intervention connects the two separate halls, framed by two new portals made from Black Isle timber and finished with a bronze casing.

Image credit: Greg Holmes Photography

Visitors will be welcomed into the brightly-lit new Main Hall archives space by a dramatic oak box container for the mythical returned Scottish Stone of Destiny. The adjacent Lesser Hall is thereafter recreated as a new communal space with larger windows and replete with a café and events venue.

Image credit: Greg Holmes Photography

This creates new panoramic views of the St. Johns Kirk church outside. Artifacts taken from the Jacobite period are on display within, including the silver broadsword used by Bonnie Pr...

Smithsonian American Art Museum selects Selldorf Architects to lead its much-needed revitalization

2023-02-07T17:32:00-05:00

The Smithsonian American Art Museum (SAAM) has announced Selldorf Architects as the lead designer for an effort aimed at revitalizing its public spaces and permanent collections galleries for the first time since 2006.

The scope of the project entails the creation of a new dedicated space for time-based media art and other types of displays in line with the museum’s “new vision.” Selldorf’s design will “highlight the grandeur of the historical architecture” of the Greek Revival Old Patent Office Building while simultaneously creating the new spaces. A press release mentioned the firm’s engagement with the Smithsonian Institution on the project dating back to 2020.

“This reinstallation project will invite essential conversations around inclusion and diversity now central to both public discourse and the daily work of arts organizations,” SAAM's Director, Stephanie Stebich, said in a statement. “It will shed new light on American artists whose voices will be more prominent in convers...

Denise Scott Brown says she's not pleased with Selldorf Architects' Sainsbury Wing redesign

2022-11-28T15:19:00-05:00

A considerable row has sprung up concerning Selldorf Architects' controversial revamp of the National Gallery's Sainsbury Wing after one of its original co-designers, Denise Scott Brown, made comments over the weekend indicating a disagreement and lack of support for the currently under-review proposal.

"She’s making our building look like a circus clown," Scott Brown told The Guardian's James Tapper without elaborating on which specific elements the already widely-opposed plans she has an issue with. "There are elements of tragedy – circus clowns are made up to look happy, but they’re not. This is a circus clown wearing a tutu."

Selldorf had previously mentioned in an April New York Times preview of her MOCA San Diego makeover and in another Architects Journal update from August that she had spoken with Scott Brown about both projects. During our coverage of the Sainsbury Wing in October, Seldorf said, "she has been counseled by the wing's original co-architect Denise Scott Brown ...

AIA announces energy-efficient redesign scheme for its Brutalist D.C. headquarters

2022-04-20T19:09:00-04:00

In an effort to bring the organization closer to its own self-stated goals on sustainability, equity, and collaboration, the Board of Directors of the American Institute of Architects (AIA) has today unveiled plans for a comprehensive new upgrade to its aging Washington, D.C. National headquarters.

San Francisco-based EHDD will lead the overhaul of the nearly 50-year-old Brutalist structure using the AIA’s Framework for Design Excellence to author a host of efficiency upgrades that are expected to save some 58% of the building’s pre-Covid energy use levels.

Renderings courtesy AIA

“[The] AIA’s headquarters should serve as an expression of the value architects provide and align with the values we uphold as a profession,” President Dan Hart explained. “We have a responsibility to redesign this iconic building to the highest standards in sustainability, resilience, and equity. By demonstrating the powerful role design can play in improving our communities, we can...

Hiroshi Sugimoto's redesign of the Hirshhorn Museum sculpture garden is finally approved by the U.S. Commission of Fine Arts

2021-07-19T12:34:00-04:00

The U.S. Commission of Fine Arts has approved plans for artist and architect Hiroshi Sugimoto's redesign of the Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden in Washington, D.C.

This vote clears way for the Smithsonian to go to the National Capital Planning Commission (NCPC) for their final approval. The NCPC previously gave preliminary approvals alongside the CFA in the spring of 2019.

Images courtesy of Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, Washington, D.C.

The plan had previously come under fire after the Cultural Landscape Foundation, a group that advocates the interests of historic landscape sites around the country, protested, claiming the artist's vision would harm original elements of the Hirshhorn campus designed by Pritzker Prize winner Gordon Bunshaft.

Images courtesy of Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, Washington, D.C.

The museum has held a line against the protests, claiming that Bunshaft and landscape designer Lester Collins had both looked to Japanese gardens as inspir...

"LA's Museum for Nobody": Kate Wagner's astute response to Zumthor's LACMA design

2019-05-31T12:44:00-04:00

The clunky, amoebalike building cannot seem to decide between the digitally derived expressionism of such architects as Frank Gehry or Zaha Hadid, and Zumthor’s own brand of minimalist modernism. We’re left with a museum that benefits nobody and satisfies none of the needs of the art in its collection, nor of the public that will view it. And yet in April, it was approved...

With the recent approval of LACMA's redesign back in April, Peter Zumthor's design for Los Angeles' iconic art museum has received an alarming reaction from the public, specifically those in the architecture community. In Archinect's most recent coverage of the museum, many of our readers shared their concerns and criticisms of the new design. Questioning Zumthor's overall decision many worry the design fails to highlight the most important aspect of the museum itself, the art, and its connectivity to the community.

Museums and museum curators are always searching for new and innovative ways to increase the number of visitors and increase overall interest and engagement. In her recent op-ed piece in The New Republic, architecture critic Kate Wagner shares her thoughts on the new LACMA redesign and highlights why Zumthor fails to create a building that satisfies the art it will house and the public viewing it.

Peter Zumthor. Image courtesy of cladglobal

Wagner notes on Zumthor's pas...

Brooks + Scarpa completes bright yellow campus building for South Los Angeles high school

2018-05-31T16:47:00-04:00

Clad in a vivid yellow aluminum facade that perfectly complements L.A.'s typically sunny blue skies, Animo South Los Angeles High School's newest building signals a fresh start. After a massive fire in 2014 destroyed half of the campus, which has been around since the 1950s, locally based architecture firm Brooks + Scarpa took on the task of designing a new building for the school.

The public charter high school is known for its collaborative curriculum and strong connections to the surrounding community in South Central L.A. Located in a historically troubled area that was also a central spot in the 1964 Watts and 1992 Rodney King Riots, the new building has a visually open but secure design for the school's 630 students and faculty, the architects describe.

Photo: Tara Wujcik.

Brooks + Scarpa wanted to create a flexible teaching environment that supports parental involvement and puts student life at the center of the school. Completed this yea...

Construction starts for MVRDV's redesign of the ’70s Vandamme Nord building in Montparnasse

2018-02-15T14:29:00-05:00

Approved back in 2015, MVRDV's plans to redesign and expand the 1970s Vandamme Nord shopping complex in Montparnasse, Paris have officially begun. First built by architect Pierre Dufau, the shopping center's glory days faded as it failed to adapt to a changing urban environment over the years.

MVRDV's restructuring scheme for the new Gaîté Montparnasse complex aims to improve its urban connectivity and to make it a pedestrian-friendly space. According to the latest details from MVRDV, the Vandamme Nord will be expanded into a 108,000 m2 mixed-use building with a new program on the roof, a hotel, office space, 62 social housing units, a 350 m2 kindergarten, and new entrances on Avenue du Maine and Rue Mouchotte. The Vandamme public library will be moved from its current underground location to the top of the building.

Rendering © L'Autre Image.

The facade will be opened up and fragmented into a “collection of boxes” that will be inserted into the existing str...

Richard Meier & Partners completes their first bridge project, the new Cittadella Bridge

2017-09-26T19:09:00-04:00

Over 20 years after being commissioned, Richard Meier & Partners finally completed the new Cittadella Bridge in Alessandria, Italy. As the practice's first bridge (which they worked on with Dante O. Benini & Partners Architects), the 185-meter-long structure reconnects the city with an 18th-century citadel across the Tanaro River, and replaces the original Napoleonic-era Cittadella Bridge.

Photo © Hufton+Crow.

Following the floods of Alessandria in 1994, the water level rose high enough to cover the roadway and the piers of the original bridge. The new bridge is 32.5 meters tall and stands well above the flood plain, restoring the natural flow of the river. With a surface area of about 4,150 m2, the new bridge is made of white precast concrete, painted steel, aluminum, and ipe hardwood. It was also designed with separate parallel routes for vehicles and pedestrians.

Photo © Hufton+Crow.

Photo © Hufton+Crow..

Photo © Hufton+Crow.

“I am extremely pleased to have completed this new modern...

Peek inside the new Dorte Mandrup-designed Wadden Sea Centre

2017-02-07T19:51:00-05:00

The newly redesigned Wadden Sea Centre is now in full operation at the Wadden Sea National Park, Denmark's largest national park and a UNESCO-appointed heritage site. Copenhagen-based Dorte Mandrup Arkitekter, who designed the Sailing Tower in Aarhus and won the Träpriset prize for the Råå Day Care Center, was put in charge of converting and expanding the Sea Centre in 2014.

The Sea Centre lets visitors learn about the unique backstory of the surrounding landscape, which is described as a resting place for some 15 million migratory birds. Costing approximately €7.2 million (53 million DKK), the redesigned building now has 2,800 square meters of exhibition space and large glass windows to allow ample sunlight and views of the landscape.

Dorte Mandrup envisioned the building's design as “a new sculptural interpretation” rooted in the region's tradition and history — and quite literally too, in that the architects wanted the building to appear as if it had emerged from the ground.

Based ...

Seized “Skopje 2014” documents could lead to criminal investigation

2016-10-20T14:36:00-04:00

Documents that Macedonia's Special Prosecution, SJO, seized on Tuesday with a court order from the Culture Ministry refer to a million-euros-worth tender to build the Museum of VMRO and Macedonian Struggle for Independence...The SJO [...] says it will reveal the start of two new investigations. If one refers to "Skopje 2014", it will be the first-ever serious criminal investigation into this costly project which, according to BIRN’s database, has cost 667 million euros already.

Balkan Insight reports that the hefty €667 million+ price tag (approx. $730 million+) of the grandiose revamp “was mainly due to the signing of 123 contracts with firms and individuals for its construction, many of which were annexes to the original contract.”

Balkan Investigative Reporting Network's database: Skopje 2014 Uncovered.

Previously on Archinect:

Macedonians protest to protect modernism

Macedonian Makeover: Europe's Flailing Capital of Kitsch

Raw Rendering Ranters: Zumthor's 'undercooked' LACMA redesign on Archinect Sessions #76

2016-08-11T14:13:00-04:00

Peter Zumthor released new renderings for his LACMA redesign last week, and boy are people not impressed! We talk about the "undercooked" look of Zumthor's snaking concrete inkblot plan for the museum, and experiment with a new segment devoted to ranting on the podcast. You've been warned.

Listen to episode 76 of Archinect Sessions, "Raw Rendering Ranters":

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This week’s podcast is sponsored by AIA Advantage Partner, BQE Software, and the makers of ArchiOffice. ArchiOffice is the only Office and Project Management Software built with the needs of architects in mind. It will help you manage people and projects, while you focus on designing great architecture....

How patients would redesign the psychiatric ward

2016-07-25T21:04:00-04:00

[James] Leadbitter called it “a playful and exciting space for redesigning madness, a utopian attempt at what a mental health hospital could be like.” Each structure...is an abstract interpretation of the feedback from the workshops, designed to offer varying levels “of privacy and intimacy ranging from total isolation to complete togetherness.” “This is only a small glimpse of a project that has huge potential to influence the way we think about the design of mental health care environments,”

More than 300 patients, architects, and psychiatrists pitched their ideas on how they would redesign the psychiatric ward for “Madlove: A Designer Asylum”, a collaborative project conceived by artist and activist James Leadbitter, who has suffered from mental illness and has stayed at several psychiatric wards himself. Leadbitter wanted to address the direct negative effects that terribly designed wards have on patients.

DTLA's Music Center Plaza will get a $30M remodel, its first since 1964

2016-07-19T15:56:00-04:00

Grand Avenue’s Music Center Plaza is about to get a major renovation for the first time since it opened to the public in 1964. Often overshadowed (literally) by the prominent Downtown venues that stand above it, the plaza is a gathering place and event space in its own right. Thus, a major part of the plan would increase event capacity from 1,500 to 2,500. [LA County] has already given $2 million to plan the project, with $25 million of funding expected down the road.

More recent L.A. news on Archinect:

Michael Maltzan proposes greening L.A.'s 134 freeway

Downtown LA has a new museum on the horizon

Historic LA Times Building to be redeveloped

"Bouncy-house urbanism is on the rise." – Christopher Hawthorne rides the U.S. Bank Tower's 'SkySlide'

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

Barbara Bestor on the Jamba Juice “Innovation Bar” she redesigned in Pasadena

2016-06-28T15:34:00-04:00

Usually, you go to these fast casual things and you're in and out in a minute...In all of the commercial projects that we do, the reason that we do them and the reason that we probably get hired to do them is that we are interested in this idea of making a joyous space for everyday activities... It's not so much about the brand name being reinforced everywhere as much as it is to provide this urban amenity living room.

Most people don't rave about the interior design in the average Jamba Juice. But Barbara Bestor and her practice might have changed that in the expanded Old Town Pasadena location they recently revamped. Bestor chats with KPCC's Alex Cohen in this 8-minute conversation about the new “Innovation Bar” concept store, in addition to her other projects around LA.

You can also listen to this previous Archinect Sessions episode featuring Barbara Bestor:

Archinect Sessions #5: Barbara Bestor, The Michael Graves School & Material Witness

Archinect's critical round-up of Snøhetta's SFMOMA addition

2016-05-04T13:19:00-04:00

While not open to the public until May 14, the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art has officially unveiled its completed redesign to the press: a massive, iceberg-like addition by Snøhetta, conjoined to the original Mario Botta pomo building.

The redesign is a boon to exhibition space in the museum: Snøhetta's 235,000-square-foot expansion more than doubles the space of the original building, and allows for "art-filled free-to-the-public galleries". In total, that amounts to more gallery space than what the eastern-coast's MoMA has. While much of Botta's original building was left more or less the same, the staircase in the entrance atrium was adapted by Snøhetta to adjust to a projected increase in visitor traffic.

Julia Ingalls attended the press preview; look for her take later this week. Meanwhile, here's what the other critics are saying:

Christopher Hawthorne for the Los Angeles Times is at once pleased by Snøhetta's design and disappointed by the new museum writ large:

Around back...

Another bittersweet look at Hotel Okura's legacy, as redesign is underway

2016-01-07T14:18:00-05:00

The company promised to “faithfully reproduce” several beloved artifacts in the lobby, including wall tapestries, paper lanterns and sliding doors, the lacquered furnishings and map of time zones...But those plans have done little to assuage the concerns of preservationists, many of whom contend that Tokyo is destroying its greatest postwar architectural assets to accommodate the 2020 Olympics and a recent surge in tourism.

The New York Times profiles the historic Hotel Okura Tokyo, which began reconstruction last September, much to the dismay of preservationists worldwide. The Times covers its modernist legacy and the pressures of the real estate and tourist market that Tokyo can't avoid.

Previous news about the Hotel Okura:

Hurry if you want to own a piece of Tokyo's iconic modernist Hotel Okura

It's lights out at the old Okura: reconstruction of the iconic Tokyo hotel starts next week

As the Okura says sayonara, Tokyo doesn't seem to care much

A new LaGuardia is the "airport that New York deserves", says Gov. Cuomo

2015-07-30T15:00:00-04:00

'We are transforming LaGuardia into a globally-renowned, 21st century airport that is worthy of the city and state of New York. It’s the perfect metaphor for what we can achieve with the ambition and optimism and energy that made this the Empire State in the first place, and I want to thank our many partners for joining us to build the airport that New York deserves.' — Gov. Cuomo

New York Governor Andrew Cuomo alongside Vice President Joe Biden officially unveiled the proposed design for the new LaGuardia Airport earlier this week. The $4 billion revamp will transform the airport into a single, structurally unified main terminal, including expanded transportation access and increased taxiway space, and new top-notch passenger amenities.

The overhaul aims to alleviate the air-ground congestion and gate delays that have long plagued the airport — to the point where Biden previously described it as a place one would find in "some third world country". According to a report by the Governor’s Airport Master Plan Advisory Panel, the LaGuardia Airport is "consistently rated as among the worst airports in the world".

Groundbreaking of the first half of the project is expected to start in 2016, once the Board of Directors of the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey grants final approval. The first half is expected to open to passengers in 2019, and full completion...

"The Pier Park" wins New St. Petersburg Pier competition

2015-04-27T15:38:00-04:00

After public comments were provided, the committee discussed the concepts, the input they had received, and deliberated on the ranking. The final ranking of the Design Concepts by the Selection Committee is as follows: The Pier Park by Rogers Partners Architects+Urban Designers, ASD, Ken Smith Destination St. Pete Pier by St. Pete Design Group ALMA by Alfonso Architects, inc. City staff will now present these rankings to City Council for approval at a meeting in the near future.

"We established a pier process that citizens on every side of this issue agreed would result in a fair and objective decision," said St. Petersburg Mayor Rick Kriseman. "I am proud that we have stayed true to that process and that it has been transparent and open to the public throughout. I thank the Selection Committee for their diligence and their hard work. This was not an easy job, but it was a necessary one. The iconic St. Petersburg Pier has often been the source of passionate debate in the Sunshine City, but it is also a source of great pride. I'm looking forward to the day we cut the ribbon on a new St. Petersburg Pier."

Click here to see the full The Pier Park proposal (PDF).

Previously:

Three teams left to compete for St. Petersburg Pier redesign

2015-04-15T19:11:00-04:00

Just three proposals left in the second attempt of the St. Petersburg Pier design competition in St. Petersburg, Florida. Back in 2012, "The Lens" by Michael Maltzan Architecture and Tom Leader Studio won the original competition, but that design was kicked to the curb after local group Concerned Citizens of St. Pete fiercely opposed it -- mostly because it eliminated the pier's iconic inverted pyramid that was built in 1973. The group's request to preserve the pyramid became a requirement for RFQ #2.

A final shortlist of seven new proposals was revealed last December. The Pier Selection Committee convened on March 20 to discuss each proposal, and then narrowed down the list to the following three proposals and their current designs:

ALMA by Alfonso Architects
Original proposal.

Destination St. Pete Pier by St. Pete Design Group
Original proposal.

The Pier Park by Rogers Partners Architects+Urban Designers, ASD, Ken Smith
Original proposal.

Each team is now preparing responses to an additio...

Redesign of DC's main Mies library tip-toes around the good and the bad

2015-04-07T15:52:00-04:00

It’s hard to find a landmark building in Washington more polarizing than the Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial Library. Designed by legendary German-born architect Ludwig Mies van der Rohe, the city’s central library was never much loved by Washingtonians. If anything, its popularity has gone downhill since its 1972 opening. [...] But now, as a four-year process wends its way toward a final design, it’s clear Washingtonians shouldn’t expect a major overhaul of Mies’s flawed design.

According to the Washingtonian, Mecanoo (the firm leading the redesign) will release updates to their redesign (along with local partner Martinez & Johnson) later this month. But only after many of the proposed redesign elements have already been nixed: a "3-story rooftop addition"; replacing the brick stairway enclosure with glass; turning windowless rooms into wide, open spaces. But, it's likely that the redesign will include:

a one-story addition with bordering "garden-like public space"
a ground-floor cafe
a lobby that opens up into "an amphitheater-like performance space"

Redesigning the Mies building is problematic for many reasons, especially considering Modernism's fraught reputation in the US, and the shifting status of public libraries. From Washingtonian:

"Modernism’s status as preservation-worthy is still relatively tenuous. The United States nominated its first examples of Modernist architecture to the UNESCO World Heritage List only earlier this year, all of them relative...

With the Apple Watch coming soon, Jony Ive is already revamping the Apple Store design for its arrival

2015-02-17T17:34:00-05:00

Apple design chief Jony Ive and retail head Angela Ahrendts are working together on a redesign of Apple's retail stores — a different approach that will make them better suited for selling the fashionable Apple Watch, according to a new report. [...] And while Apple Stores are known for their carpet-less floors, Ive did tell Parker that he overheard someone say they wouldn't buy a watch from a store if they weren't standing on carpet.

Cooper Hewitt puts can-do spirit into the house Carnegie built

2014-12-09T15:32:00-05:00

After a $91m, three-year renovation, the Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum is due to reopen on Friday, 12 December. [...] the firms Gluckman Mayner, Beyer Blinder Belle and Diller Scofidio + Renfro—moved the museum’s offices and research library, previously on the third floor, into the adjacent Miller-Fox townhouses, which had been used for storage. In the offices’ place, they built the Cooper Hewitt’s first open-plan galleries.

Previously: Cooper-Hewitt Selects DS+R as Exhibition Designer and Local Projects as Media Designer

Five teams shortlisted for London’s Natural History Museum Civic Realm competition

2014-03-06T17:22:00-05:00

London's Natural History Museum recently revealed five shortlisted teams that still have a chance to redesign the historic museum in the Civic Realm competition...Teams will present their designs to the jury on March 13, and the winner is expected to be announced in April 2014. Designs are currently on exhibition -- with team names hidden -- at the Museum until March 11.

The five shortlisted teams are:

BIG (Bjarke Ingels Group) with Martha Schwartz Partners
Grant Associates with Feilden Clegg Bradley Studios
Niall McLaughlin Architects with Kim Wilkie
Land Use Consultants (LUC) with Design Engine
Stanton Williams Architects with Bradley-Hole Schoenaich Landscape Architects

Check out the proposals and see if you can guess who designed what.

Pictured above: Team 1

Team 2

Team 3

Team 4

Team 5

For more, head over to Bustler.