Archinect - News

Zaha Hadid Architects director designs ‘glowing, swirling’ whisky bottle for V&A Dundee

2024-03-25T13:24:00-04:00

Zaha Hadid Architects director Melodie Leung has collaborated with Scottish whisky distillery Dalmore to create a “dramatic glass sculpture” housing two rare Highland Single Malt whiskies. The sculpture is the second chapter of ‘The Dalmore Luminary Series,’ a collaboration between the distillery and V&A Dundee, Scotland’s design museum.

Image credit: The Dalmore

Leung’s piece is titled ‘The Dalmore Luminary - The Rare - 2024 Edition’ and will be offered at auction with all proceeds donated to the museum. For the piece, Leung worked with Dalmore and master glass artist Fiaz Elson from The Glass Foundry to create a “dynamic glass amber sculpture” to house the 49-year-old Old Single Malt.

Image credit: The Dalmore

The sculpture was produced at The Glass Foundry’s kiln for 12 weeks. An initial molding was made at 890 degrees Celsius and held at that temperature for 15 hours to remove moisture and air bubbles. The temperature was then grad...

BIG tapped to design a new $51 million whiskey distillery in Kentucky

2023-03-23T13:55:00-04:00

BIG has been announced to lead the design of a new whiskey distillery in Georgetown, Kentucky for a three-year-old local company called Blue Run Spirits.

The 35,000-square-foot distillery and adjacent 20,000-square-foot rick house structure dubbed ‘Meander’ will begin construction later this year at the Lanes Run Business Park located at the northeastern edge of the city, which is just 15 miles from Lexington.

Renderings appear to show a stream-like curved sequence of four interconnected pavilion-like forms with interiors framed by a glass curtain wall and landscaping on a site that is well integrated into the undulating hillside.

Image courtesy BIG

“For Blue Run, we have boiled the entire process of whiskey-making down to a single linear sequence - from distilling to maturing to bottling,” Ingles describes in a preview. “The half-mile-long process meanders through the gentle hillsides creating bends and banks, inlets, and outlooks. A single shingled roof of photovoltaic tiles twist...

Daniel Libeskind toasts Hennessy's namesake with new crystal decanter design

2022-03-10T12:04:00-05:00

A celebration was on hand Tuesday night for the legendary French label Hennessy as it joined with Daniel Libeskind to unveil the architect’s newly re-designed Richard cognac decanter in tribute to the brand’s namesake and founder Richard Hennessy.

A host of Hollywood A-listers including Naomi Watts and Henry Golding joined the architect and Hennessy master blender Renaud Fillioux de Gironde for a cocktail party at a private location in Brooklyn.

Image courtesy Hennessy

The Baccarat crystal decanter is topped by an arrow and holds within it the rarest blend of cognac that Hennessy has ever made. With the addition of his collaboration with the 257-year-old house to a list of works that includes a recent ice hockey arena in Finland and the Jewish Museum in Berlin, Libeskind now joins rank with Frank Gehry, who designed his own signature decanter for the label in 2020.

Image courtesy Hennessy

Hennessy says the new decanter is in keeping with L...

Frank Gehry designs "masterpiece decanter" for Hennessy X.O. 150th Anniversary

2020-09-28T11:02:00-04:00

In celebration of the 150th anniversary of Hennessy X.O., the French cognac distiller has unveiled a sculptural decanter designed by Frank Gehry. Using his signature style, Gehry reimagines Hennessy X.O's classic design. The new bottle is wrapped with crinkled 24 carat gold-dipped bronze and encased in a "fractured" glass glorifier to illustrate its inspirations of water and light.

"I wanted to bring it to life, and so I took inspiration from its birthplace and used this crumpling effect of the material that gives it a feeling of movement," Gehry said in a statement. "The materials I've chosen catch the light and make this a really beautiful object on its own, but then you realize it is a bottle of Hennessy X.O."

Gehry has also pulled from past explorations in his conception of the packaging for this new collection. The decanter, glorifier, and fusil are packaged in a protective case made imprinted with Gehry's signature and made of compressed cardboard, paying homage to Gehry's ear...

NY Construction Alliance pushes for mandatory drug/alcohol testing on all NYC construction sites

2017-05-11T13:06:00-04:00

The New York Construction Alliance is urging City Council to consider mandatory drug and alcohol testing on all New York City construction sites.

NYCA president Kenneth Thomas recently made the following statement:

“New York Construction Alliance (NYCA) is committed to worksite safety and our members take proactive steps to prevent substance abuse-related incidents. In fact, our members already engage in proactive random drug tests on sites. Industry stakeholders such as the Associated Builders and Contractors and the Building Trades Employers Association have already expressed strong support for addressing the problem of drug and alcohol in the construction industry.

The City Council should consider how mandatory drug and alcohol testing could increase construction safety on New York City worksites. We look forward to discussing this issue with city officials and how a drug and alcohol testing mandate could help make our industry safer for all workers.”

The Associated Builders and Co...

Cheers! Manhattan decriminalizes public drinking, urination

2016-03-02T18:45:00-05:00

Beginning on Monday, March 7, 2016, the Manhattan District Attorney’s Office will no longer prosecute most violations or infractions, and the NYPD will no longer arrest individuals who commit these offenses – such as littering, public consumption of alcohol, or taking up two seats on the subway – unless there is a demonstrated public safety reason to do so. This initiative will enable the NYPD to devote its resources to investigating serious crimes...

New Yorkers rejoice! A new initiative announced by the Manhattan District Attorney, the NYPD Commissioner and the Mayor means that you're now less likely to get arrested for sipping on a tallboy on your way back from a bodega.

While you still may get a summons and have to pay a fine, the announcement suggests you may just find yourself with a warning. Either way, this is good news – particularly for people of color, as about 81% of quality-of-life violations given in NYC between 2001 and 2013 were to African American or Hispanic individuals.

The changes also mean it's less likely for you to get arrested for urinating in public. As any visitor to Manhattan knows, a good public bathroom is hard to find.

For more New York news, check out other Archinect coverage:

Boozy Blueprints: The U.S. Forest Service's Cocktail Construction Chart

2015-04-07T14:51:00-04:00

Earlier this week, venerable miscellany repository Kottke stumbled across a curious item in a section of the National Archives Catalog pertaining to the U.S. Forest Service: a precisely rendered and impressively illustrated 1974 document, titled Cocktail Construction Chart that meticulously detailed how to serve up various mixed drinks. [...] Esquire phoned up the agency to find out how this cool, but bizarre, part of our nation's history came to be.

Click here for a larger version of the chart.