Archinect - News

SOM, Weiss/Manfredi, and Future Green's $336 million NJPAC redevelopment breaks ground in Newark

2024-09-20T11:05:00-04:00

Skidmore, Owings & Merril (SOM) have broken ground on a new $336 million campus redevelopment at the New Jersey Performing Arts Center (NJPAC) in downtown Newark. The state’s largest city will receive a new 350-unit SOM-designed ArtSide apartment complex through the plan. Other key elements include new headquarters for legendary WBGO radio, Future Green Studio’s reimagined Chambers Plaza park area, and the 58,000-square-foot Cooperman Family Arts Education and Community Center from Weiss/Manfredi.

ArtSide. Image: Skidmore, Owings & Merrill, courtesy of NJPAC.

SOM had created the NJPAC’s original master plan in 1988. Newark’s Mayor Ras Baraka commented: "The streets of Newark have always been steeped in the arts. This is a city where jazz and hip hop are in the breeze, and every wall without a mural is just a canvas no one’s yet claimed. The new neighborhood around NJPAC will fully embrace that dynamic spirit, bringing more housing, stores and gathering places to our already lively do...

Nina Cooke John's Harriet Tubman monument debuts in Newark

2023-03-09T12:08:00-05:00

This morning, Mayor Ras Baraka of Newark will preside at the unveiling of a massive monument to the abolitionist hero Harriet Tubman. “Shadow of a Face” has been installed in a park where a statue of Christopher Columbus stood until it was removed in 2020 in the aftermath of George Floyd’s murder in Minneapolis. Last year Baraka led a ceremony that changed the name of the park — which had been Washington Park since the 1790s — to Harriet Tubman Square.

Tubman, who may yet grace all $20 bills minted after 2030, made stops at the still-existing Old First Presbyterian Church on Broad Street while aiding escaped slaves on their journey through Newark. Baraka said the new monument would “make her experience real for all of us.” Its existence itself is a mild triumph considering the state’s previous rejection of Nina Cooke John’s proposal in June of last year.

The decision was eventually overruled to make way for the nearly 25-foot-tall monument. Speaking to the Times about her desire to keep a lasting vestige of its predecessor, Cooke John said “I’d love it in 10 years for someone to say, ‘What’s that?’ It needs to be part of the story of why the people of Newark decided it was important for it to come down and to have a monument to Harriet Tubman in what had been Washington Park.”

Arup and SOM selected to lead modernization and expansion of Newark Liberty Airport

2022-10-25T17:17:00-04:00

Arup has been selected for a multibillion-dollar expansion project for Newark Liberty International Airport following an announcement from the Port Authority of New York & New Jersey on Monday. SOM will also provide its expertise on the project.

The two will oversee the development of the Port Authority’s Vision Plan, which aims to “future-proof” the over 2,000-acre airport via a comprehensive framework that will take shape through the year 2065.

According to a press release, “the plan will accommodate future growth and demand, improve the travel experience, and identify opportunities for enhancing the sustainability and resiliency of the facility.”

Newark’s airport is one of the oldest in the United States and currently faces an 81.6% increase in travelers as it looks to upgrade its facilities with three ongoing projects that total $5.3 billion — including the delayed 33-gate new Terminal A from Grimshaw and $2 billion AirTrain upgrade, which has been called “critical component of ...

A mysterious painting could be an earlier plan for one of Mies van der Rohe's most revered residential projects

2021-08-09T17:32:00-04:00

“It’s been fifty years since Ludwig Mies van der Rohe’s death and the details of his international career have been carefully archived. But a mysterious painting has surfaced that reveals what may be an early version of his master plan in Newark”

The supposed painting depicts what could have been a disastrous expansion of the footprint of van der Rohe’s iconic 1960 apartment complex.

Courtesy of Newark Public Library Digital Collections

His Colonnade Apartments are perhaps the foremost example of the “Towers in the Park” typology synonymous with the International Style in the northeast. The painting depicts a seven-tower scheme that expands the plot north of 6th Avenue by several blocks. A local architect named Gabriel Dal’Maso reportedly came into its possession after seeing it in a 2011 documentary about the Colonnade by the Austrian filmmaker Heidrun Holzfeind.

Dal’Maso began inspecting the painting in the midst of a one-man stand against a proposed development at an abandoned area adjacent to the Pavillion towers, where he was living at the time. The towers were sold into private hands in 2018 and again earlier this year to the tune of $77 million. JerseyDigs has more on the mystery Mies plans here.

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Former Longaberger 'The Big Basket' building to reopen as luxury hotel

2019-10-25T15:02:00-04:00

The former Longaberger basket building on the eastern edge of Newark will be open for business again, although it will be a place to spend the night instead of work in an office. In a couple years, the seven-story basket building will open as a luxury hotel with 150 rooms, a restaurant and indoor pool.

Formerly the quirky headquarters of The Longaberger Company in Newark, Ohio, the building has been sitting empty since 2016 and was eventually sold to developers in late 2017 (previously on Archinect).

Cleveland-based Sandvick Architects will be designing the landmark's transformation into a luxury hotel.

Largest timber-constructed office building in the nation planned for Newark’s waterfront

2018-02-05T11:48:00-05:00

Lotus Equity Group announced on Monday plans to bring the largest mass timber office building in the United States to the Newark waterfront. Michael Green Architecture has been tapped to design the 500,000-square-foot office building made with a wooden structure for Riverfront Square, a massive mixed-use development proposed for the Broad Street corridor of the Jersey neighborhood. The building will rise in three separate sections to six, eight and 11 stories tall and have a concrete foundation. Its columns, exterior panels, elevators, stairwells and floor systems will be made of mass timber. Interiors will boast exposed wood with a facade covered in metal panels, brick or wood.

Not only do timber-built buildings reduce the number of greenhouse gases emitted, it saves developers overall time on construction. Plus, experts say wood connects workers to nature, creating a more pleasant and productive environment.

“The vision we share with Michael Green is to design the mos...

Longaberger "The Big Basket" building sold to developer; reconstruction announced

2018-01-04T20:00:00-05:00

The Longaberger basket building has been sold. The iconic seven-story office building at 1500 E. Main St. in Newark has been sold to Coon Restoration of Louisville, which is near Canton. The developer has an eye toward converting the building and its 21-acre site to a new use, the company said in a release.

Developer Steve Coon, the landmark building's new owner, hasn't revealed specific details about his redevelopment plans for the property but announced Cleveland-based Sandvick Architects as the designers for the job.

Want to work in a giant basket? Ohio's soon-vacated landmark faces uncertain future

2016-03-11T14:06:00-05:00

[JRJR Networks] is eager to shed itself of the big basket, but that may not be easy. What non-basket-related company will want a giant basket to be the face of their company? Are there enough well-off eccentrics in or visiting Newark to convert it into market-rate apartments or a boutique hotel?...A deal to donate the building to the city no longer appears to be in the works, and foreclosure is a possibility.

A few throwbacks related to weird architecture in Archinect news:

The politics behind China's ban on "weird" architecture

Movie-themed resort in Macau to show off "figure-8" ferris wheel

Southwark planners nix 'crude and literal' rocket-shaped flats

27 weird and compelling architectural evolutions of 2014

Newark's 69,000 sq ft indoor vertical farm to break ground today

2015-07-09T09:34:00-04:00

What will reportedly be the world's largest indoor vertical farm will break ground on July 9 along 212 Rome Street in Newark, New Jersey. Earlier this year, leading vertical farm commercial grower AeroFarms, the property management firm RBH Group, and their affiliates jointly announced the conversion of a former steel factory into a spankin' new 69,000 square-foot indoor vertical farm. The first phases of the project are scheduled to open later this year.

Located on a three-acre site in the heart of Newark's Ironbound district, the $30 million project will also include AeroFarms' global corporate headquarters. AeroFarms partnered with Ironbound Community Corporation to create a recruiting and job training program to boost job opportunities for the local community, which is dealing with an unemployment rate that is twice the national average.

The new vertical farm is said to be capable of growing up to 2 million pounds of baby leafy greens and herbs in a controlled and sanitary facili...

The Pulaski Skyway tells the tale of America's aging highway system

2015-06-16T13:49:00-04:00

Just north of Newark, New Jersey, the Pulaski Skyway became the country’s first so-called “superhighway” — a 3.5-mile raised roadway running over the top of some of the most heavily industrialized property in the country. [...] In infrastructure terms, the Pulaski is what’s called “functionally obsolete,” meaning it doesn’t meet modern design standards —and the money being spent to fix it up won’t change that.

Newark to convert steel factory into world's largest indoor vertical farm

2015-03-10T20:27:00-04:00

Next time you dig into a bowl of leafy greens, chances are they were grown in the heart of Newark, soon home to the world's largest indoor vertical farm*.

AeroFarms, a leading commercial grower for vertical farming and controlled agriculture, together with property management firm RBH Group, a slew of investment partners along with the City of Newark and the New Jersey Economic Development Authority (NJEDA) announced the intent to redevelop a former industrial site in Newark's Ironbound district into a state-of-the art 69,000 square foot indoor vertical farm.

Putting down roots (no pun intended) in a converted steel factory located at 212 Rome Street, the $30M project will also include AeroFarms' global corporate headquarters.

Read on for some more information we've received.

Currently under construction, the first phases will open in the second half of 2015, creating approximately 78 jobs in a local community with an unemployment rate that is twice the national average. Additionally, A...

New Jersey's first protected bike lane about to be removed again

2014-12-26T13:15:00-05:00

Mt. Prospect Avenue in Newark has New Jersey’s first protected bike lane, as far as we know. But unfortunately it looks like the Garden State will soon be back to zero. Andrew Besold at WalkBikeJersey is reporting Mayor Ras Baraka has ordered the removal of the bike lane, and in the meantime is allowing people to park in it.

Richard Meier Goes Home, to Recall and to Work

2014-01-27T11:53:00-05:00

Richard Meier is returning to his roots with two new developments in New Jersey, where he grew up.

Phase One of Richard Meier's Teacher's Village Opens in Newark

2013-10-01T09:55:00-04:00

Balancing Meier’s familiar white metal panels with a rich, iron spot brick, the architects were careful to break down the massing of the contemporary buildings, not exceeding a height of 60 feet in front, in keeping with the Newark Living Downtown Plan.

A $150M, Richard Meier-Designed Village For Teachers? In Newark?!

2012-05-30T13:24:00-04:00

“It was not typically a type of project we normally do,” says Dukho Yeon, the firm’s associate partner-in-charge on Teachers Village. “This was part of basically everybody including the investors giving back to the city of Newark.”

Newark Project Aims to Link Living and Learning

2012-03-07T11:14:00-05:00

NEWARK — Work has begun on an education-centered community featuring three charter schools and affordable housing for teachers in the city’s decayed downtown, with much of the design work done by the noted architect Richard Meier. The development, called Teachers Village, is expected to cost $149 million when it is completed two years from now.