Archinect - News

California city becomes first in the U.S. to ban new gas stations

2021-03-03T15:48:00-05:00

Petaluma, California, has voted to outlaw new gas stations, the first of what climate activists hope will be numerous cities and counties to do so. [...] The Petaluma effort inspired groups like the Coalition Opposing New Gas Stations — or CONGAS — which seeks to ban gas stations in Sonoma County, California.

The ordinance will not shut down Petaluma's 16 operational gas stations but prevents them from adding more pumps and prohibits the construction of new gas stations.

It is expected that the move will inspire more municipalities to follow the example, similar to Berkeley's 2019 ban on natural gas installations in new construction.

Charging in Style: Danish firm COBE is rethinking fueling stations

2018-01-22T13:40:00-05:00

Shortly, electricity will replace petrol and diesel as the fuel for our cars, and such a change could radically shift our urban landscape as the formal aspects of gas stations is then open to reimagining. Danish Architecture firm COBE is looking to do just that. Understanding that under current technological trends the average charging time for an electric vehicle is upwards of 45 minutes, COBE is looking to use such a newly established time frame as a possible opportunity for rethinking the traditional gas station as a place and less of a transient space.

Ultrafast Charging Station: Small. Image: COBE

Ultrafast Charging Station: Medium. Image: COBE

Ultrafast Charging Station: Large. Image: COBE

“Electric vehicles are the future. In our design, we want to offer drivers a much-needed and meaningful break in a green oasis. The energy and the technology are green, and we want the architecture, the materials and the concept to be green as well. Therefore, we’ve designed a sculptural charg...

2017's 10 best gas stations, worldwide, as ranked by Design Curial

2017-05-18T15:58:00-04:00

Angelenos may be mildly alarmed to learn that local favorites Johnston Marklee Architects's striking Helios House (co-designed with Office dA) has slipped two spots to eighth place from its ranking on last year's top ten global filling stations as assembled by Design Curial. However, it's for a good cause: new entrants are fueling some alternative aesthetic takes on the usually quotidian gas station. Here are the winners:

FIRST PLACE: REST AREA NIEMENHARJU, by Studio Puisto Architects, in Niemenharju, Finland

SECOND PLACE: POPS ARCADIA ROUTE 66, by Elliott + Associates Architects, in Oklahoma, USA

THIRD PLACE: BATUMI PETROL STATION, by Giorgi Khmaladze, in Batumi, Georgia

FOURTH PLACE: NP GAS STATION, by Moneo Brock Studio, in Madrid, Spain

FIFTH PLACE: ORIVAL GAS STATION, by Samyn and Partners, in Orival, Belgium

SIXTH PLACE: ESSO MOBIL STATION, by Eliot Noyes, in Leicestershire, UK

SEVENTH PLACE: HOUTEN SERVICE STATION, by Samyn and Partners, in Houten, Netherlands

EIGHTH PL...

Vernacular architectural photographer John Margolies has died

2016-06-16T13:10:00-04:00

Mr. Margolies, who died on May 26, at 76, was considered the country’s foremost photographer of vernacular architecture — the coffee shops shaped like coffeepots; the gas station shaped like a teapot (the Teapot Dome Service Station in Zillah, Wash.); and the motels shaped like all manner of things, from wigwams to zeppelins to railroad cars — that once stood as proud totems along America’s blue highways.

In memoriam, here are a few of Margolies' idiosyncratic finds, many of which were compiled into the 2010 book "John Margolies: Roadside America":

Other architectural photographers who are still doing their signature thing:

90 Years Later, Frank Lloyd Wright’s Fuel Station Finally Built in Buffalo, NY

2014-06-27T14:12:00-04:00

Filling up the ole’ gas tank is not a glamorous job, and usually not a task that leaves one marveling at the surrounding architecture. But in 1927, Prairie-style extraordinaire Frank Lloyd Wright put together plans for a fuel filling station in Buffalo, New York that would leave even the most seasoned driver awe struck ... 90 years later, the Buffalo Transportation Pierce-Arrow Museum has realized Wright’s vision.