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Columbia GSAPP establishes new James Stewart Polshek Scholarship in honor of its former Dean

2023-02-01T13:31:00-05:00

Former Columbia GSAPP dean James Stewart Polshek has been posthumously honored with a new endowed scholarship in recognition of the commitment to design excellence and social causes he embodied while helming the school for fifteen years.

The Ennead founder passed away in September and was subsequently remembered with a foundational gift of $125,000 from the firm that was meant to keep alive his enduring legacy as both an architect and educator. The new $350,000 total fund will thus be given in perpetuity to an M.Arch student in their final year of study whose work demonstrates the intellectual rigor and social concern Polshek strove for beginning with his appointment in 1972.

During his tenure in Morningside, Polshek was instrumental in adding degree programs in planning and preservation to the then-named School of Architecture. He also helped to establish the...

Ennead completes dome rehabilitation for NYC's historic Cathedral Church of St. John the Divine

2022-12-28T12:03:00-05:00

But now, after a painstaking three-year, $17 million rehabilitation — and just in time for Christmas festivities — the dome’s 113-year-old aches and pains have been tended to. Its striking terra-cotta tile has been repaired, and a new copper exterior has been added. “The new roofing could easily last 50 to a hundred years and there’s no reason it couldn’t last for centuries with good maintenance,” said Kevin Seymour, associate principal of Ennead

The project follows a 2019 addition and related work to finish the entryway and roof of the unfinished north transept, which was left incomplete after construction was halted in response to the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor in December 1941. The new copper dome covers the also incomplete south transept and was originally designed in 1909 by Rafael Guastavino. Costs for the three-year project are estimated to be about $17 million.

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James Stewart Polshek, academic and designer of important public architecture, has passed away aged 92

2022-09-12T19:14:00-04:00

A rare modest figure in a crowded era of star architects and designers has passed away as the New York Times is reporting the death of James Stewart Polshek on Friday at his home in Manhattan.

Polshek was known as the designer of the William J. Clinton Presidential Library and Museum in Little Rock, Arkansas, the Newtown Creek sewage plant in Brooklyn, and Newseum in Washington, D.C., among many others. His colleagues recalled him as a progressive champion who balanced the ideological pull of high modernism with a sensitivity to different forms, themes, building types, and architectural styles. In a statement published by the Architectural Record, Polshek’s former firm partner Richard Olcott said he was "ahead of his time."

William J. Clinton Presidential Center and Park. Photo credit: © Timothy Hursley.

Born in Akron, Ohio in 1930, Polshek studied architecture at nearby Case Western Reserve University and later Yale before pursuing a Fulbright Scholarship in Copenhagen and beginnin...

Ennead and Kahler Slater unveil new Milwaukee Public Museum design

2022-07-19T18:30:00-04:00

Ennead Architects and Kahler Slater, together with the Milwaukee Public Museum, have unveiled the design for a new five-story, 200,000-square-foot museum building atop a 2.4-acre site in Milwaukee’s Haymarket neighborhood. It is on track to be the largest cultural project to date in the city.

According to the project team, four core principles influenced the museum’s design: community, nature, education, and the preservation of the museum’s vast collections. It aims to reflect Wisconsin's rich natural history, drawing inspiration from the geological formations within Mill Bluff State Park, while establishing a new community space and educational destination. The museum will also be a hub for research.

Image courtesy Ennead Architects

The building's material palette will primarily comprise concrete and glass, with an exterior texture that mirrors the ancient sea stacks present in the state park. The museum will have rounded corners that are reminiscent of the erosion and weathering ...

Ennead Architects reveal their vision for a symbolic new free trade zone in Shanghai

2022-05-13T17:29:00-04:00

Today, Ennead Architects unveiled its design for a new master-planned commercial district in Shanghai called the Lingang Special Area. The plan includes four new large buildings and more than 124,500-square-meters (about 1.33 million-square-feet) of retail and public space to be realized over a multi-year project timeline.

Lingang will join Shanghai’s core business area to the adjacent Dishui Lake district and create a free trade zone that developers expect will lure a variety of international business concerns to the new venture.

Image courtesy of Ennead Architects

In a press statement, Ennead design partner Peter Schubert explained the firm’s “vision for the Lingang Special Area in Shanghai is to implement an international standard of architecture that reflects China’s role in 21st-century global commerce,” adding that “the integrated design of the mixed-use site lends itself to a variety of elevated experiences for the local community and tourist...

World's largest astronomy museum opens in Shanghai with an interstellar design from Ennead

2021-07-12T19:42:00-04:00

A cosmic new museum is bringing out the stars in Shanghai thanks to a celestial design from Ennead.

The Shanghai Astronomy Museum opens this weekend following a five-year construction process that left client Shanghai Science and Technology Museum with a new outpost in the heart of the city’s burgeoning Lingang district.

Photo: ArchExists.

The New York-based firm’s plans for the 420,000-square-foot museum won an international competition in 2014 for its tripartite scheme comprised of a planetarium, IMAX theater, exhibitions spaces, and a new 78-foot-tall solar telescope that will make the research center the largest of its kind anywhere in the world.

Photo: ArchExists.

Sun, moon, and stars come together to make a smart reference to the three-body problem of mathematics. The curvilinear structure of the museum is meant as a reflection of the orbit of the planets themselves. The planetarium’s profile is choreographed to look like a moonrise. Heaven an...

Ennead Architects envision the "Charging Towers" of the near, electric-car future

2017-04-07T12:15:00-04:00

If electric cars are the future, what will be the future the gas stations? Charging stations, of course—but what would they look like? The New York-based firm Ennead Architects has proposed a “charging tower” for an undisclosed client in Shanghai.

Inspired by Tesla charging stations (the renderings feature Model S cars), their “Charging Towers” are designed to work in small, pedestrian-oriented urban environments. In order to maximize the number of cars charging at once, the Tower makes use of existing stack-parking technology. In short, the ground level would feature “super charge” stations while the top would allow for a slower charge that doubles as a parking space.

To make the things pretty, the towers are clad in a reflective, perforated metal envelope “recalling the chrome-filled aesthetic history of the automobile and creating a beacon for those searching for parking and car charging,” according to the the architects.

H/T Electrek

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Ennead Architects to design a new 'University Commons' at Northwestern

2016-07-28T19:21:00-04:00

Northwestern University announced a plan to replace an existing campus center with a 209,000 sq. ft building designed by Ennead Architects. The lakeside building will be accessible from multiple sides on two levels and will include an auditorium, a black box theater, and a large multipurpose space. The building, named "University Center," will also have both indoor and outdoor spaces dedicated to performances, recreation, study, and other programs.

“We are excited to announce our plan to create a welcoming, dynamic space where the entire community can come to meet, create, learn and relax in this stunning lakeside setting,” states President Morton Schapiro in the press release. “This will be a spectacular place where students can study and hang out, faculty and staff can work or connect, and alumni and families can visit and engage with the community.”