Archinect - News

Take a look inside Woods Bagot's lobby design for The Brooklyn Tower

2023-05-30T19:55:00-04:00

Woods Bagot has shared photos of their ongoing interior work inside SHoP’s supertall landmark The Brooklyn Tower (formerly known as 9 DeKalb), in anticipation of the record-breaking high-rise’s completion later this year.

The project was led by Principal Krista Ninivaggi of Woods Bagot’s New York studio. Their brief for a lobby space and an amenity program called for a seamless transition between the 93-story building’s interior and exterior facade, whose own design was inspired by the imagined “Metropolis of Tomorrow” first envisioned by writer and architect Hugh Ferriss in the late-1920s.

Photo by Adrian Gaut

An assembly of wood veneers and milled panels scaled to the facade's extrusions feature prominently among the building’s interior. Further details include stone cladding and a vaulted ceiling that harkens to the former Dime Saving Bank that forms the tower’s base. Overall, The Brooklyn Tower includes a total of 547 apartment units, a commercial gym, and four pools in addition...

Rare Isamu Noguchi ceiling installation in New York City is threatened

2020-02-26T14:28:00-05:00

The Museum of Modern Art collects and prizes the sculpture and designs of Isamu Noguchi, a towering figure in 20th-century American art. But just across West 53rd Street, the developer of 666 Fifth Avenue, Brookfield Properties, is planning the opposite: dismantling one of Noguchi’s largest sculptural installations, one that he called “a landscape of clouds” that he designed in 1957 in the skyscraper’s twin lobbies.

Writing in The New York Times, Joseph Giovannini looks into the uncertain fate facing a "landscape of clouds" designed by noted sculptor Isamu Noguchi for the lobby of a 41-story skyscraper that is undergoing a renovation from Kohn Pedersen Fox Associates. Preservation groups, including Docomomo and the Isamu Noguchi Museum, have voiced concern over the proposed lobby renovations and are fighting to have the installation preserved in-situ.

Zaha Hadid Architects to refurbish Southbank Tower lobby in London

2019-12-04T03:00:00-05:00

In true parametric fashion, Patrik Schumacher and the team at ZHA have designed a striking new look for the lobby of the Southbank Tower in London. Considered to be "one of the UK's most ambitious renovation projects," the office building was completed in 1972 by Richard Seifert and then converted by Kohn Penderson Fox Associates (KPF) from a 30-story office tower to a 41-story mixed-use complex in 2015.

Render by Arch018 srl. Image © Zaha Hadid Architects

According to a press statement by ZHA, the overall lobby design pulls inspiration of flower petals. Using these organic forms the design team took this concept to create a series of overlapping petals to conceal the lighting infrastructure within the lobby. Fluid in nature, the lobby's new look is shaped using class fibre reinforced gypsum and features furniture created using 3D digital fabrication techniques. According to ZHA, "...

Former Los Angeles City planning director charged $281,250 for illegally lobbying on behalf of real estate developers

2019-08-20T17:00:00-04:00

Former planning director Michael LoGrande recently admitted to violating city ethics laws by lobbying planning department officials just months after leaving his job running the agency.

This week, the City of Los Angeles Ethics Commission voted to fine former Los Angeles City Planning director Michael LoGrande $281,250 for violating the city’s “revolving door” rules. The fine is the largest single penalty ever levied against a current or former city employee, according to The Los Angeles Times.

Shortly after leaving his post, LoGrande was hired as a consultant by the City of Los Angeles to provide his expertise on unresolved projects, The Los Angeles Times reports. During this time, LoGrande used his influence and relationships with former colleagues variously to curry favor for several development projects he had been hired to lobby on behalf of as a private citizen.

Los Angeles Ethics Commission President Melinda Murray told The Los Angeles Times in a statement, “These are extremely serious violations that illustrate the reason we have revolving door laws,” adding, “Former city officials should not use inside information or personal relationships to try to creat...

Brute Force: Atlanta's endangered Breuer, Ban's disaster relief efforts, and a honking huge lobby for driverless vehicles on Archinect Sessions #63

2016-05-05T14:31:00-04:00

This week on the podcast, Donna, Ken and I discuss the uncertain future of downtown Atlanta's brutalist Public Library (the last building Marcel Breuer designed), how Shigeru Ban's relief efforts in Ecuador relate to his celebrity, and the emergence of a heavy-hitting lobbyist group for driverless cars in the US.

Listen to episode 63 of Archinect Sessions, "Brute Force":

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The campaign to save Marcel Breuer...

Google, Uber, Lyft, Ford and Volvo join forces to lobby for autonomous vehicles

2016-04-28T12:51:00-04:00

Self-Driving Coalition for Safer Streets, a lobbying group with the express purpose of advocating autonomous driving. [...] "Self-driving vehicle technology will make America's roadways safer and less congested," [David Strickland, a former administrator of the NHTSA] said [...] "The best path for this innovation is to have one clear set of federal standards, and the Coalition will work with policymakers to find the right solutions that will facilitate the deployment of self-driving vehicles."

Lyft has also been in talks with General Motors (which is not a part of the Self-Driving Coalition) to put out its own group of autonomous for-hire vehicles. Models for Google's vehicles include both bespoke prototypes and Lexus SUVs, and Uber is developing its own testing grounds for self-driving cars in Pittsburgh.

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