Archinect - News

Tod Williams Billie Tsien Architects to deliver $122M Detroit Music Hall expansion

2023-10-24T12:26:00-04:00

Tod Williams Billie Tsien Architects (TWBTA) has been attached to a major new expansion of the historic Detroit Music Hall, the firm announced on Monday. The project aims to connect an important part of downtown to a burgeoning economic revitalization while providing Detroiters with a “canvas to express the energy and creativity for which the city is globally recognized.”

At seven stories and a total of 100,000 square feet, the new Detroit Music Hall Center will sit next to the existing 95-year-old Wilson Theater and offers the public a 1,900-seat main concert hall, 200-seat recital hall, offices, rooftop restaurant, music academy educational component, and a 4,000-square-foot activated public outdoor area.

In terms of its design, the building utilizes an LED-lit perforated metal rain screen facade to cast itself and its twin as the vibrant cultural anchors for new development in the neighborhood. The duality between industrial daytime activities and the city’s nightlife scene is f...

Billie Tsien to receive honorary doctorate at the Boston Architectural College's 2022 graduation ceremony

2022-05-18T18:43:00-04:00

Architect, educator, and Tod Williams Billie Tsien Architects | Partners co-founder Billie Tsien is set to receive an Honorary Doctorate and deliver the commencement speech at the Boston Architectural College’s (BAC) graduation ceremony on Friday, May 27th.

“It is an immense privilege to have Billie Tsien deliver the BAC’s commencement address to our graduating class in-person this year,” said Boston Architectural College President Mahesh Daas. “Her commitment to designing deeper and slower existential experiences grounded in an unmistakable sense of service, materiality and profound optimism complements the BAC’s own commitment to furthering social justice, inclusion, and diversifying design education.”

Previously on Archinect Sessions: "Starts with me, ends with us": A conversation with Tod Williams and Billie Tsien on Archinect Sessions Episode #22

This is the latest addition to Tsien’s long list of accolades, including the National Medal of the Arts from President Obama, the Tho...

Billie Tsien on New York City, student loans, and hating Hudson Yards

2021-10-26T14:26:00-04:00

I would like to remove Hudson Yards. I don’t even know what I would replace it with. I just feel really angry because it’s a part of the city that turns its back to the city. It’s not even the buildings, or size of the buildings — which are humongous — that bother me. It’s that back-turning. I actually have refused to enter it, except when I was walking on the High Line […] it pretends to be a space for everybody when it is not.

Tsien, who broke ground last month on the Obama Presidential Library in Chicago, recently began a four-year term as Chair of the U.S. Commission of Fine Arts, which will afford her a direct line to government officials on a number of different topics involving the design community.

"The biggest problem and opportunity facing the profession of architecture is diversity," she told Curbed when asked about the challenges facing the industry today. "And one of the causes is expensive graduate school with not necessarily any payoff in the end. Leaving school $200,000 in debt, and the prospect of a job that might pay $65,000 a year, is daunting to anybody."

Tod Williams & Billie Tsien named 2019 Praemium Imperiale architecture laureates

2019-09-17T14:33:00-04:00

Japan's preeminent art and architecture prize, the Praemium Imperiale, today announced the newest round of laureates with the award in the Architecture category going to Tod Williams and Billie Tsien this year.

Established in 1986, the New York-based practice Tod Williams Billie Tsien Architects has gained international recognition through their thoughtful and materiality-focused approach towards mostly public and institutional projects, such as the American Folk Art Museum (R.I.P.), the Barnes Foundation, the LeFrak Center at Lakeside, and more recently, their competition-winning design for the Obama Presidential Center in Chicago.

The American Folk Art Museum in New York City before it was demolished in 2014. Photo: Dan Nguyen/Flickr

"No matter the complexity or size of project," praises the Japan Art Association's laureates description for Williams and Tsien, "their values remain intact and their pursuit of leaving good marks on the earth and transcending expectations is unwaveri...

RIBA announces 30 projects selected for International Prize

2016-05-10T15:16:00-04:00

The 30 buildings to be visited by the RIBA awards committee and under consideration for the inaugural RIBA International Prize have been announced today. This is the first RIBA award open to any qualified architect in the world and includes projects of varying size and budget.

Consequently the buildings span 20 different countries across the globe such as; Mexico, Turkey, Dublin and Vietnam. The selected projects will be whittled down to 20 and then a final six in the autumn, with the winner announced in December 2016.

The six finalist chosen will be visited by the Grand Jury which includes Richard Rogers, Billie Tsien and Marilyn Jordan Taylor FAIA among others.

RIBA President, Jane Duncan commented:

“We have been delighted with the response to our inaugural RIBA International Prize, which has brought a huge range of exceptional entries from all around the globe.It will be fascinating to see insights from the judges and entrants intothe power and value of great architecture, whe...

"Starts with me, ends with us": A conversation with Tod Williams and Billie Tsien on Archinect Sessions Episode #22

2015-03-26T12:30:00-04:00

We are delighted to devote the entirety of this episode to an interview with Tod Williams and Billie Tsien. Our discussion spanned their nearly 30 years (and counting) working together, focusing not on individual projects but their architectural philosophy, their material explorations, and their work with landscape. The rising cream throughout was the way Williams and Tsien talk with one another, each pulling on their side of the rowboat to work towards a truly collaborative response.

As always, you can send us your architectural legal issues, comments or questions via twitter #archinectsessions, email or call us at (213) 784-7421. And if you can, we'd love for you to rate us on iTunes or Stitcher!

Listen to episode twenty-two of Archinect Sessions, "Starts with me, ends with us":

iTunes: Click here to listen, and click the "Subscribe" button below the logo to automatically download new episodes.
Apple Podcast App (iOS): click here to subscribe
Stitcher: click here to listen
SoundCloud: c...

2013 AIA Architecture Firm Award Goes to Tod Williams Billie Tsien Architects

2012-12-06T18:55:00-05:00

Besides the winner of the 2013 AIA Gold Medal, the American Institute of Architects today also announced the recipient of the 2013 AIA Architecture Firm Award: New York City-based Tod Williams Billie Tsien Architects.

Op-Ed: Architect Magazine Finally Found its Voice

2012-11-28T03:04:00-05:00

I recently received my November Issue of Architect and for the first time since the blogs caused us all to begin devouring images at warp speed and sent print media into a battle for survival, I actually "read" an architecture magazine. It was truly satisfying.

From its inception, the idea behind Architect was clear; its title was the proof. Architectural Record had lost touch. It had become a glossy product placement catalog, serving its advertisers but increasingly bereft of intellectual rigor. Architect promised to peel back the facade of idealized pre-occupancy images and to share the stories of the people who make architecture: to deliver us process and ideas. The bar was high and so were many of our expectations. Perhaps that is why I have been so underwhelmed as Architect has struggled for nearly 7 years to find a voice. The magazine has taken us on a journey from in-depth interviews of firms producing irrelevant projects, to garnish cartoony graphics that distracted from...

Tod Williams and Billie Tsien’s new UChicago Arts Center opens this weekend

2012-10-12T12:47:00-04:00

Tod Williams and Billie Tsien’s Reva and David Logan Center for the Arts opens to the public this weekend at the University of Chicago, setting up shop just steps away from storied structures designed by Mies van der Rohe and Eero Saarinen. The $114-million project has been over ten years in the making

Charlie Rose interviews Tod Williams & Billie Tsien tonight

2012-06-18T20:43:00-04:00

Charlie Rose will be interviewing Tod Williams & Billie Tsien on tonight's show. Check your local listings for broadcast times.

By itself, the gallery structure is ravishing

2012-05-12T12:09:00-04:00

while there are many moments of breathtaking refinement, and the galleries themselves are a revelation, the result is sadly - no, tragically - a long way from being a successful addition to the city.

Inga Saffron reviews the new building, and the relocated Albert Barnes Foundation, by architects Tod Williams and Billie Tsien.

The New Barnes Foundation Building: Soulful, Self-assured, and Soaked with Light

2012-05-07T14:18:00-04:00

Beginning on May 19th, people will see the Barnes collection not where Barnes intended it to be seen, but in a new building designed by the New York architects Tod Williams and Billie Tsien. This building won’t please the absolutists, the people we should probably call Barnes fundamentalists, because nothing would please them short of a return to the way things were. But it really ought to please everybody else, because—to cut to the chase—the new Barnes is absolutely wonderful.

MoMA to Buy American Folk Art Museum Building

2011-05-11T10:31:00-04:00

The folk art museum’s building was designed by Tod Williams Billie Tsien Architects and opened in 2001. It was not clear whether it would be torn down. The folk art museum took on $32 million of debt to construct the 53rd Street building. But attendance never met expectations, and after sustaining investment losses in the financial crisis, the museum defaulted on its debt.