Archinect - News

Acclaimed architect Jeffrey Beers passes away aged 67

2024-03-22T11:59:00-04:00

New York's Jeffrey Beers International (JBI) has shared news that its founder Jeffrey Beers passed away from a battle with cancer on Monday, March 18th, at the age of 67.

A prominent figure in hospitality design and planning schemes, Beers began his career as an architect in I.M. Pei's New York office shortly before forming his own studio practice in the city in 1986. The next 38 years have seen its brand grow in influence to be synonymous with celebrity chefs and entertainers, corporate America, and international hotel brands.

Beers credited his Fulbright program mentor Oscar Niemeyer and former RISD professor glass artist Dale Chihuly among his influences as he pursued an architecture that suffused fine art, luxury, and a highly-tuned sensibility for good design.

“Throughout my career, I’ve been very fascinated by the intersection between architecture, design and art. Over the years I have collaborated with many artists, incorporating their work in a space but also bringing their...

Pininfarina’s first Mexican residential design gets underway in the Yucatan

2023-03-07T12:12:00-05:00

Pininfarina has just shared an update on its new Light Towers luxury residential project in Mérida, Mexico.

The development broke ground last Wednesday with local politicians in attendance to celebrate the beginning of construction on a project the firm and developers Branson say represents a "path forward; a nod to new ideas, fresh perspectives, and hope for future generations."

Image courtesy Pininfarina

Featuring a V-shaped pair of 17- and 18-story volumes connected at the base by a five-story podium, the design centers a "green valley" at its core to create a communal space with private terraces, wellness amenities, and a co-working space all entwined with the building’s concept.

Image courtesy Pininfarina

A total of 121 modular "Skyvilla" condominiums come with configurations that offer between 25% and 75% of their total floor areas to greenspace. Interior color palettes used in the residential units evoke local traditions, the design team says.

Image courtesy Pininfarina

Image c...

$8 billion turtle-shaped luxury yacht could become the largest floating structure ever built

2022-11-28T18:35:00-05:00

The latest luxury boat to hit the market is Pangeos -- named after Pangea, a supercontinent that existed from 200 million to 335 million years ago. And if those seem like big numbers, wait until you hear how many dollars it'll take to construct it: $8 billion, according to designers Lazzarini.

If funded and built, the sea turtle-shaped "terayacht" would be the largest floating structure ever built, spanning 1,800 feet long and 2,000 feet wide. Dubbed a “floating city,” the boat would feature hotels, shopping malls, parks, and ports for smaller vessels and aircraft to connect.

Due to its size, the yacht would require the construction of a special dam that would flood to levitate it before being launched. The designers have noted Saudi Arabia’s King Abdullah Port as a potential building location. The shipyard would stretch approximately 2,133 feet wide and 1,969 feet long.

The yacht’s hull would be comprised of 30,000 "cells," and its draft would stretch 98 feet. It would be capable of moving at a speed of five knots. The boat’s “arms” would draw energy from the drag and waves that break against it. Rooftop solar panels would also provide power. Unlike cruise ships or other commercial sea voyages, Pangeos wouldn’t operate out of a port or have a set itinerary, "it would s...

ABIBOO Studio pulls from their expertise in space architecture to develop a luxury doomsday bunker

2021-01-07T16:19:00-05:00

2020 taught us to embrace the indoors. However, as the world enters 2021, some may feel more propelled to seek out shelters that can protect them from calamity. At least that's how the New York and Miami-based practice ABIBOO Studio explains their latest project, the DBX Doomsday Bunker.

Led by Spanish architect and designer Alfredo Munoz, the firm's work focuses on many design projects that revolve around architecture, technology, interiors, and research and development. Munoz is also a member of the AIAA (American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics) and recognized on an exclusive list of Space Architects. Here he pulls from the firm's expertise in space architecture and luxury living to develop DBX.

"The shelter can accommodate up to two family groups and a maximum of ten people. It occupies 12,000 square feet and is accessed through a lifting military-grade door camouflaged on a green-covered hill." Project visual and description courtesy of ABIBOO Studio

"The entrance i...

RAMSA tops out another stone-clad NYC high-rise

2020-08-27T16:30:00-04:00

Robert A.M. Stern Architects (RAMSA) has topped out a forthcoming residential tower in New York City billed as the firm's "smallest Manhattan Building" currently under development.

The project, designed for developers CBSK Ironstate, features 14 full-floor residences and a duplex penthouse, according to a project announcement. The tower rises a total of 250-feet, 8-inches.

Image © Field Condition.

Construction photographs shared by the architects highlight the tower's concrete structural walls completed, with lower level areas already clad in masonry and stone finishes. The project, designed to evoke a bygone era of luxury development, respect's the existing streetwall along the sidewalk, is decked out in classically-inspired trim and ornamentation, and features punched window openings instead of glass curtainwalls, like many of the firm's signature housing projects.

Image courtesy of Grain London.

A statement from a press release describing the project reads: "The rising facade show...

Study finds higher greenhouse gas emissions from high-income homes

2020-07-23T19:35:00-04:00

The homes of wealthy Americans are responsible for about 25% more greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions than low-income households, according to a new study released Monday by University of Michigan researchers.

The study, writes Smart Cities Dive's Jason Plautz, found the GHG impact of U.S. homes is lowest in Western states and highest in Central states, and the carbon footprint of wealthy neighborhoods can be as much as 15 times higher than lower-income areas. CoreLogic, a database of tax assessor records was used to analyze the carbon footprint of roughly 93 million homes, Smart Cities Dive reports.

The bunker business is booming

2020-06-30T19:53:00-04:00

The basic model at Northeast Bunkers is a cylindrical steel vessel eight feet in diameter, in 13- or 20-foot lengths, welded from quarter-inch plate steel and equipped with an entrance hatch on top. Standard features include rust-resistant exterior paint, cedar plank flooring, zero-VOC (volatile organic compounds) interior finishes, two vent ports, floor hatches for storage, and an emergency exit hatch.

Writing in The New York Times, Mira Ptacin surveys the growing demand for underground bunkers across the United States as disease, social unrest, and political instability push some people to prepare for potential worst case scenarios, both real and imagined.

Brian V. Camden, principal of Hardened Structures, a bunker manufacturer, tells Ptacin, “I collaborate with architects, engineers, Navy Seals,” adding, “We have ex-military employees specializing in C.B.R.N. — chemical biological radio nuclear analysis.”

Construction on NYC's 200 Amsterdam continues despite court ruling

2020-06-08T14:19:00-04:00

Despite concerns that the upper 20 stories of the Elkus Manfredi Architects-designed 200 Amsterdam tower in New York City were inappropriately approved for construction, work on the 56-story luxury residential tower continues apace.

Earlier this year, a New York State Supreme Court ruling handed down against SJP Properties and Mitsui Fudosan America, the developers behind the project, indicated that the building's permitting approvals should be revoked by New York City officials. The ruling indicated that the project's buildable envelope was created as a result of a "gerrymandered" lot configuration that was developed to strategically goose up the allowable height and bulk of the proposed project.

Previously on Archinect: "Let's Move the Conversation From Demolition to Creating More Affordable Housing." View of the 200 Amsterdam tower. Image courtesy of 200 Amsterdam.

New York YIMBY reports that construction has reached the stepped tower's crown, where final cladding and curtain wal...

Charlap Hyman & Herrero envision a concrete house topped by a swimming pool

2020-06-05T16:41:00-04:00

A concrete and wood home situated above the hills of Los Angeles designed by architecture and design firm Charlap Hyman & Herrero is currently under construction.

The "small concrete villa," according to the designers, is "submerged into a hillside" and is designed to appear as "a bridge spanning two large cylinders, pierced by a tree that extends through the roofline."

Organized along along a central "narrow plan" hallway that "unfolds as a sequence of distinctly shaped indoor and outdoor rooms," the home offers a stylized and severe interpretation of the California hillside home typology.

Previously on Archinect: "The Dazzling Work of Charlap Hyman & Herrero is What Happens When a Furniture Designer and Architect Team Up"Image courtesy of

The home is organized so that this hallway, lined with concealed storage spaces, links the opposing ends of the home, including the aforementioned central courtyard space.

The courtyard, according to the architects, orients the house toward its m...

RAMSA breaks ground on tallest residential tower in Minneapolis

2019-10-23T14:38:00-04:00

Robert A.M. Stern Architects (RAMSA) and developers Arcadia and Ryan Companies have broken ground on Eleven, a 41-story condominium tower slated to become Minneapolis's tallest residential building.

View of the tower against the city skyline. Image courtesy of RAMSA.

The 550-foot, stone-and-glass tower features punched windows, glass balconies, and a stepped crown filled with penthouses and luxury amenities. Each floor of the tower will contain four individual units along the lower levels of the building. Higher up, the building will contain either one or two units per story.

The tower is wrapped in balconies and terraces. Images courtesy of RAMSA.

For the project, Ryan Companies is serving as a co-developer, builder, and design architect partner; Additional design services are being provided by Peterssen/Keller Architects and Martha Dayton Design.

Foster + Partners transforms 70's government office tower into luxury hotel in Hong Kong

2018-05-16T15:22:00-04:00

Foster + Partners' new Hong Kong luxury hotel, The Murray, is now fully open to the public. Formerly a 1970's government office building, the firm has transformed these 25 stories into a unique urban experience for visitors.

Reception area of the Murray Building, renovated by Foster + Partners, located in Hong Kong. Image: Michael Weber.

Exterior Details of The Murray. Image: Michael Weber.

The Murray Building was originally constructed when urban planning revolved around cars, leaving the structure inaccessible to pedestrians.

Exterior view of the garden terrace at night. Image: Nigel Young / Foster+Partners.

Hotel lobby area of The Murray. Image: Nigel Young / Foster+Partners.

One of the main goals in the building's transformation was to reconnect the structure at ground level with a new street front, transparent and open ground floor space, and enhanced landscaping of the surrounding grounds.

Exterior Details of The Murray. Image: Michael Weber.

Visitors are now greeted by entering...

Luxury apartment towers aren't just for NYC

2018-03-16T19:58:00-04:00

The Manhattan skyline is one of the world’s most iconic, but it wouldn’t be complete without the city’s famed residential supertalls. Luxury buildings like 432 Park Ave and One57 have set a high bar in the era of tower living, but the past decade has seen the vertical lifestyle catching on across the globe—from Boston to Monaco to New Orleans.

Check out these luxury residential skyscrapers outside of NYC:

Boston, MA

Designed by Kohn Pedersen Fox, Echelon Seaport is Boston's latest project located in the Seaport District. This new luxury condo and apartment development is currently under construction with a completion date of 2020.

Echelon Seaport by Image: Warren Residential.

San Francisco, CA

181 Fremont Street was designed by Heller Manus Architects with interiors by Orlando Diaz-Azcuy. Reaching 70-stories high it is the tallest residential building in San Francisco. Prices range from $3.24 million to $42 million for an enormous penthouse.

181 Fremont Street by Heller Manus Architects, located in San Francisco. Image: 181 Fremont.

Monaco

Designed by architect Alexandre Giraldi with interior designer Alberto Pinto, Tour Odéon is the tallest building in the city-state. It is also home to the world’s most expensive apartment, a $335 million penthouse that takes up the top five floors of the tower.

Tour Odéon by architect...

Architects want to bring back Venice's eclectic architectural character

2017-12-26T13:00:00-05:00

To many longtime residents, the cookie-cutter constructions stripped Venice of its distinctive architectural character, turning parts of the neighborhood into uniform eyesores. “Over the last year or two specifically, we’re seeing more chances being taken and more unique developments going up,” Lackey said. “This wave of architecture is great for Venice, which has always been a hub of individuality.”

Boring boxy developments have taken over Venice, California in the last 15 years, but in this LA Times piece, some architects think it's time for the coastal town to return to its eclectic architectural roots...currently in the form of multimillion-dollar luxury homes.

New images of Jean Nouvel's posh, MoMA-integrated luxury condo tower 53W53

2017-09-12T19:04:00-04:00

As the brand-new rendering above shows, the luxury condo tower designed by Jean Nouvel will boast an unusual amenity: floors 2, 4 and 5 of 53W53 will serve as new gallery levels for the Museum of Modern Art when construction is completed. Additionally, according to a fact sheet, "benefactor W53 MoMA membership runs with each residence, and includes curated benefits and the potential for the building to host private events in the museum's sculpture garden." The tower, which is slated to top out at 1,050 feet, will be home to 145 residences ranging in size from one to five bedrooms, with a few private-elevator-accessible penthouse suites.

Images above and below: Hayes Davidson

No two condos will have the same layout, thanks to the combination of Jean Nouvel's self-described "diagrid," which refers to the tower's pronounced exterior structural system, and the tapering design itself, which precludes repetitive formats. The interiors of each condo are being designed by Thierry Despont, a...

NYC's super skinny skyscraper is fat with cost overruns, prompting a lawsuit

2017-07-27T17:09:00-04:00

The best things in life are free, but construction cranes still cost money, which has prompted an investor to sue the developers behind SHoP's 111 West 57th Street for failing to budget appropriately for the cost of cranes (among other things) for the super skinny tower, which is already way over budget and only approximately 25% assembled. According to Curbed NY:

One of the investors on the project is suing the developers and the lender over alleged construction cost overruns.

The lawsuit, filed in the Manhattan Supreme Court, alleges that the project is already $50 million over budget when it hasn’t even reached 20-stories yet. Eventually the building is proposed to rise to 1,421 feet with 82 stories.

MIT team wins NASA challenge to design luxury hotel in low Earth orbit

2017-06-29T13:07:00-04:00

The MIT project — the Managed, Reconfigurable, In-space Nodal Assembly (MARINA) — was designed as a commercially owned and operated space station, featuring a luxury hotel as the primary anchor tenant and NASA as a temporary co-anchor tenant for 10 years. NASA’s estimated recurring costs, $360 million per year, represent an order of magnitude reduction from the current costs of maintaining and operating the International Space Station.

Left to right: Caitlin Mueller (faculty advisor), Matthew Moraguez, George Lordos, and Valentina Sumini are some of the members of the interdisciplinary MIT team that won first place in the graduate division of the Revolutionary Aerospace Systems Concepts-Academic Linkage Design Competition Forum.

Part luxury hotel, part future Mars explorer, MIT's MARINA has a modular design that works not only to provide a bar, restaurant, gym,and eight rooms for low orbit guests, but can be reconfigured to create an "interplanetary Mars transit vehicle that can enter Mars’ orbit, refuel from locally produced methane fuel, and return to Earth." At last: a luxury hotel at which it would be appropriate to charge sky-high prices.

Swimming with Skyscrapers: Watch video from a glass-bottomed sky pool

2017-04-11T13:29:00-04:00

What's more relaxing than a glass-bottomed sky pool 42 stories above Houston? Well, pretty much every other thing in the known universe, which makes the existence of this Jackson + Ryan Architects-designed pool not only an eye-catching publicity stunt for the residential tower's developer, but a viral, stomach-clenching video that is now titilating news anchors over at CNN. Here's the video, in full, as posted on the developer's Facebook page:

Holing up in hoity-toity hovels: doomsday architecture for the super-wealthy

2017-01-24T17:25:00-05:00

Trump is President, the climate is chaos, and the wealth gap is starting to qualify as its own national canyon. So if you've got vats of money and are afraid of all the people who don't, what do you do? Build doomsday architecture to survive the collapse of society! In this piece for The New Yorker, Evan Osnos investigates the luxury bunkers of folks who realize that they'll probably need to plan to take the family of the pilot of their private jet with them, for, you know, maintenance issues (sigh):

Hall led me through the garage, down a ramp, and into a lounge, with a stone fireplace, a dining area, and a kitchen to one side. It had the feel of a ski condo without windows: pool table, stainless-steel appliances, leather couches. To maximize space, Hall took ideas from cruise-ship design. We were accompanied by Mark Menosky, an engineer who manages day-to-day operations. While they fixed dinner—steak, baked potatoes, and salad—Hall said that the hardest part of the project was susta...

Designing for drones: a condo tower with drone-friendly balconies

2016-08-15T13:08:00-04:00

Make no mistake: Drones are coming, and they’re going to change a lot of things about how we shape our lives. So why shouldn’t we change how we shape our buildings to get ready for them? [...] That’s the basis for my Drone Tower, which would look like a futuristic condo building, with large balconies built to accommodate small electric aircraft or shipping drones. You wouldn’t need to buy your own drone, you’d simply order a ride with an app like a taxi—and hop in right from your terrace.

For more on the intersections between autonomous flying machines and the city, check out these links: