Archinect - News

Take a look inside the new International African American Museum ahead of its opening

2023-06-05T17:41:00-04:00

One of the most anticipated projects of the summer is ready to make its official public debut later this month as the finishing touches are being put in place for the new Moody Nolan and Pei Cobb Freed-designed International African American Museum in Charleston, South Carolina.

Sited along the city’s historic harbor that was, in its heyday, the “ground zero” of the slave trade in the southern United States, the museum seeks to educate visitors using a series of nine thematic galleries and the “power of place” present in its location at Gadsden’s Wharf.

The project is the culmination of over two decades of planning, advocacy, and design consultations between both firms, varied stakeholders, historians, politicians, and residents whose collaborations, in the end, beget what ought to become a transformative testament to the power of storytelling for Americans of every background.

Credit: © Sahar Coston-Hardy/Esto. All rights res...

Renewed modernist Esplanade Place Ville Marie opens in Montreal

2023-04-18T14:46:00-04:00

A comprehensive overhaul of Montreal’s Esplanade Place Ville Marie by Sid Lee Architecture and Menkès Shooner Dagenais LeTourneux Architectes (MSDL) is now complete, marking the end of a $200 million revitalization project that’s brought much-needed civic life back to a busy section of the city’s downtown commercial core.

Originally constructed in 1958 and designed by I.M. Pei and Henry Cobb, who had opened their practice in New York just three years before, the site had become shopworn since its last redevelopment was completed in the 1980s.

Image: David Boyer

The new Esplanade PVM comes with improved pedestrian access, a modernized shopping mall, and reconfigured underground entrance to public transit. MSDL worked to enact new monumental staircases and a horizontal floating glass structure it says is the longest in North America. The perimeter of the plaza area is also reopened to attract circulation between the street and raised public level, and the original parking lot entrance ...

Downtown LA's U.S. Bank Tower completes two-year overhaul (bye-bye, Skyslide)

2023-04-06T17:57:00-04:00

Silverstein Properties has just completed its overhaul of the Pei Cobb Freed & Partners-designed U.S. Bank Tower in Downtown Los Angeles.

The two-year, $60 million project issued major upgrades across 35,000 square feet of the building while installing a new entrance lobby and amenities-laden 54th-floor Vista feature. Jeffrey Beers International and A+I were in charge of leading the redesign, which also removed the 69th-floor Skyslide attraction that was first installed in 2018.

“The U.S. Bank Tower is a landmark in Downtown Los Angeles,” Silverstein Properties Chairman Larry A. Silverstein said in a statement. “We have reimagined the building with spaces and amenities that reflect the new way of working. We want to ensure it remains a beacon of the business district and also contributes more broadly to a thriving downtown — one of the best places in LA to work, live, and visit.”

Related on Archinect: LA's iconic US Bank Tower sold to NYC developer

The company purchased the tower in...

Opening of the anticipated International African American Museum pushed back due to climate control problems

2022-12-22T17:32:00-05:00

The International African American Museum (IAAM) in Charleston, South Carolina, will postpone its scheduled opening date next month due to unresolved climate control issues in its new building. The museum was expected to open on 21 January 2023 and now expects to open sometime in the first half of next year, according to a statement released on 16 December.

Construction of the Moody Nolan and Pei Cobb Freed & Partners-designed International African American Museum (IAAM) began in the fall of 2019 after nearly two decades of planning. In April, a request for additional funding was submitted to the city of Charleston in order to complete the genealogy center that’s planned for the museum. The board apparently had known about the HVAC issues for some time and is now planning a new special exhibition in the interregnum.

“I was as excited about this opening as everyone else,” museum President Tonya M. Matthews told supporters via email. “I am an overachiever and I am ambitious. I honor and respect things like deadlines, but this is a huge responsibility and we will do what we need to make sure that we present this museum and the stories we tell in an extraordinary light.”

Moody Nolan and Pei Cobb Freed set an opening date for South Carolina’s International African American Museum

2022-08-04T13:50:00-04:00

The much-awaited debut of the Moody Nolan and Pei Cobb Freed & Partners-designed International African American Museum (IAAM) in Charleston, South Carolina, now has an official opening date after the latter announced it will be available to the public for the first time on January 21st, 2023.

This is an important project to both offices as over 22 years of planning have gone into the creation of the almost $100 million new institution. Its location on the site of the city’s former Gadsden’s Wharf is significant, too, as Charleston Harbor is considered the “ground zero” of the North Atlantic slave trade, a place where 48.1% of all enslaved Africans entered the United States, according to Henry Louis Gates, Jr., a Harvard professor, historian, and early contributor to the project.

Image courtesy International African American Museum.

The museum's website, therefore, outlines a mission to “create an opportunity for visitors to engage with authentic and lesser-known history through tran...

Henry Cobb, the architect behind some of America's most iconic skyscrapers, has passed away

2020-03-03T21:26:00-05:00

Henry N. Cobb, the bold Modernist architect responsible for the designs of a wide range of iconic buildings through his work with Pei, Cobb, Freed & Partners, has passed away at age 93.

Sadly, the great Harry Cobb has died at 93. A teacher, poet of form, gentleman, longtime partner of Pei, the architect of the Hancock Tower, still producing works of subtlety like the African American Museum in Charleston at the end of his life. A truly humane and generous soul.
— Michael Kimmelman (@kimmelman) March 4, 2020

Michael Kimmelman, architecture critic for The New York Times, broke the news Tuesday evening via Twitter. Word of Cobb’s passing was confirmed to Archinect by members of Pei, Cobb Freed & Partners.

The US Bank Tower in Los Angeles, designed by Henry Cobb. Image courtesy of Wikimedia Commons / Selvingarcia.

In 1955, Cobb was one of three co-founders, along with I.M. Pei and Eason H. Leonard, of the now-storied Pei, Cobb, Freed & Partners architecture practice, based in New York C...

Architects, writers, museums, and a Prime Minister remember the life and work of I.M. Pei, 1917–2019

2019-05-17T15:39:00-04:00

It is a rare moment when the words "architect" and "architecture" appear in the elusive list of trending Twitter topics, but yesterday's sighting followed a sad occasion: architect I.M. Pei, the revered master of modernist architecture, had died on Thursday at the proud age of 102.

Architecture critic and writer Paul Goldberger was the first to share the news—triggering a prompt outpouring of sympathy and memories from the architecture community and beyond.

Some sad news: I’ve just learned that I.M. Pei died last night, at 102. The end of an architectural era, truly. A sad moment, but a career—and a life—worthy of celebration.
— Paul Goldberger (@paulgoldberger) May 16, 2019

Michael Kimmelman, the current NYT architecture critic, shared his personal experience with Pei's architecture, writing "Like others, I deeply admire Pei's beautiful and thoughtful Islamic museum in Qatar, respect the sculptural power of the East Building in D.C. and the Pyramid in Paris, among obvious landmarks...

I.M. Pei dies at 102

2019-05-16T18:13:00-04:00

Ieoh Ming Pei, among the most well-known names in architecture, passed away overnight at the age of 102.

Le Grand Louvre, Paris, France, 1989

It was first announced online by Paul Goldberger, in this heartfelt tweet:

When considering the number of projects completed under his name over the course of a career spanning more than seven decades, it is difficult to say for which of Pei's buildings he is best known. In the Western world, it might be his controversial addition to the Louvre, completed in 1989; in the Eastern world, it might be the Bank of China Tower in Hong Kong, completed in 1990. His distinct use of geometry and unique ability to respond to program made Pei a household name along with those of Hadid, Gehry and Wright.

Bank of China Tower, Hong Ko...

AIA honors I.M. Pei's Grand Louvre with 2017 Twenty-Five Year Award

2016-12-15T20:54:00-05:00

When I.M. Pei's Grand Louvre in Paris was first completed in 1989, it was denounced as a modernist insult to its historic location, the 800-year-old Grand Palais. But 27 years later, the 71-foot-tall glass pyramid has become as treasured as the artwork it houses. In an announcement today, the AIA announced the Grand Louvre - Phase I project as the 2017 Twenty-Five Year Award recipient.

The Twenty-Five Year Award distinguishes a building that has gracefully stood the test of time over the last 25-35 years. Chaired by LMN Architects' Mark Reddington, the 2017 jury selected the project that best “demonstrate[s] excellence in function, in the distinguished execution of its original program, and in the creative aspects of its statement by today’s standards.” The nine-person jury also included Adrian Smith, Timothy J. Johnson of NBBJ, and William Q. Sabatini.

The Grand Louvre was executed in two phases over the course of a decade. In Phase I, Pei built the pyramid and reorganized the museum...

98-year-old I.M. Pei reportedly assaulted by caregiver

2016-01-04T12:24:00-05:00

A carer for the architect IM Pei [...] has been charged with assaulting the 98-year-old in his Manhattan townhouse. Eter Nikolaishvili, 28, was arrested on Tuesday on suspicion of assaulting Pei early in December when he threatened to report her to the police for “doing something bad”, police said. [...] Pei was taken to hospital at 4am on the day of the alleged assault suffering from bleeding lacerations and bruising, after Nikolaishvili grabbed and twisted his arm, police said.

Pei Coob Freed-related news on Archinect:

Henry Cobb presented with 2015 Architectural League of NY President's Medal

2015-05-07T15:30:00-04:00

Over 300 guests gathered at New York's Metropolitan Club for the Architectural League of New York's 2015 President's Medal dinner to honor medal recipient Henry N. Cobb, a founding partner at Pei Cobb Freed & Partners.

Bestowed by the League's President and Board of Directors as the organization's highest honor, the President's Medal recognizes a distinguished body of work in architecture, urbanism, art, or design. Architectural League President Billie Tsien, who also previously received the Medal, presented the award to Cobb.

Here's more about the event from the Architectural League.

2015 President's Medal Dinner. Photo: Fran Parente.

In presenting the award, Tsien remarked:

"'There’s a lovely moment that happens from time to time when you look at a person’s face and you can see exactly what they looked like as a child. It is fleeting, and it is very beautiful. Now, often that look happens when curiosity is sparked and with it a sense of wonder. I have been lucky enough to spend some ti...

Pei Cobb Freed faces lawsuit from Cornell over "faulty" Johnson Museum expansion scheme

2015-05-07T14:45:00-04:00

Cornell alleges that the firm Pei Cobb Freed & Partners committed 'architectural malpractice' in its plans for the new wing of the museum, leading to structural deficiencies, cavities in the roof, cracks in the ceiling and other problems. The university says it has suffered 'at least' $1.1 million in damages as a result of the flawed designs. Pei, who also designed the original museum in 1968, was hired by the university to build the addition in 2006.

Boston’s tallest new skyscraper in 40 years breaking ground today

2015-01-15T14:11:00-05:00

On Wednesday, developer Richard L. Friedman will formally kick off construction of the tallest skyscraper to be built in Boston in 40 years — a 700-foot tower at 1 Dalton St. that will include the city’s second Four Seasons Hotel and some of its most expensive condominiums. [...] The skyscraper at One Dalton is being designed by Hancock Tower architect Harry N. Cobb, of Pei Cobb Freed & Partners, in collaboration with Gary Johnson of Cambridge Seven Associates Inc.