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Archtober 2024: Check out these Buildings of the Day with architect-led tours in NYC next month

2024-09-25T11:34:00-04:00

Archtober is back for its 13th edition in New York City. The month-long event, organized each year by the Center for Architecture in collaboration with partner organizations, includes the always-popular Building of the Day spotlight, offering architects a unique close-up inspection of superlative new projects in the region with tours led by architects and other design professionals.

You can view the complete list of this year's sites below and use the Archtober Map to New York as your handy mobile guide.

Domino Sugar Refinery by Practice for Architecture (PAU). Photo by Max Touhey

Wednesday, October 2: 520 Fifth Avenue
Architect: Kohn Pedersen Fox (KPF)

Thursday, October 3: Sportime Randall’s Island/John McEnroe Tennis Academy
Architect: Ricardo Zurita Architecture and Planning P.C.

Friday, October 4: Inwood Library
Architect: Andrew Berman Architect

Saturday, October 5: Bronx River Greenway/Starlight Park
Architect: NV5

Sunday, October 6: Brick House
Architect: Philip Johnson; Restorati...

Check out Archtober 2019's Buildings of the Day (and our handy map to find them all)

2019-09-26T15:21:00-04:00

Archtober 2019, New York City's month-long festival of architecture & design, is only days away now.

As in previous years, the festival calendar also features exclusive tours and events again at nearly 30 Buildings of the Day in Manhattan, Brooklyn, Queens, the Bronx, and Staten Island. Registering early is recommended — many events sell out fast.

Take a look at the full Building of the Day list below and use Archinect's handy interactive map to easily locate each building. The map also allows to rediscover 2018's buildings, in case you missed some of them last year.

Oct 2: Brooklyn Children’s Museum. Photo: Chuck Choi/Rafael Vifioly Architects.

Oct 1: Hispanic Society Museum & Library
Original architect: Charles Pratt Huntington (1906)
Renovation Architects: Selldorf Architects + Beyer Blinder Belle (ongoing)

Oct 2: Brooklyn Children’s Museum
Original architect: Hardy Holzman Pfeiffer Associates (1977)
Renovation architect: Rafael Viñoly Architects (2008)
Rooftop canopy: Toshiko Mori (2...

'Meissen | SO - IL', 18th-century Porcelain in Contemporary Architecture'

2011-06-01T18:27:00-04:00

Archinect's Building of the Day series is brought to you by our friends at OpenBuildings.com, the web's most comprehensive directory of buildings.

During the summer of 2011 (May 28 - Aug 28), de KAdE in Amersfoort will host an extensive overview of the work of Solid Objectives – Idenburg Liu (SO – IL) architectural office. The show will take place concurrent to 'Meissen | SO - IL', 18th-century porcelain in contemporary architecture'.

SO – IL has designed 32 modern, geometrically shaped showcases in bright colours and with ‘pointed tops’. As well as showing off the fifty-plus Meissen objects to best advantage, these vitrines are autonomous works in their own right.

As Florian Idenburg of SO – IL explains, “We wanted to come up with a strategy to help visitors ‘take a fresh look’ at Meissen so that they could understand the pieces in a new way. By using the vitrine to ‘upset’ conventional ways of looking at the works, we force viewers to redefine their relationship with the...

Houses for elderly people in Alcácer do Sal by Aires Mateus Arquitectos

2011-05-31T20:09:24-04:00

Archinect's Building of the Day series is brought to you by our friends at OpenBuildings.com, the web's most comprehensive directory of buildings.

The nursing home in Alcácer do Sal, Portugal, designed by Aires Mateus Arquitectos, aggregates into a unique volume and harmoniously fits with the surroundings. Its minimal shape creates a pleasant contrast to the softer natural environment, creating a look that is clean, clear and uncluttered.

‘The project is based on a attentive reading of the life of a very specific kind of community, a sort of a micro-society with its own rules. It is a program, somewhere in between a hotel and a hospital, that seeks to comprehend and reinterpret the combination social/private, answering to the needs of a social life, and at the same time of solitude', explain the architects.

Independents unities aggregate into a unique body, whose design is expressive and clear. The reduced mobility of those who will live in the building suggests that ...

Galleria Centercity by UNStudio

2011-05-29T18:35:36-04:00

Archinect's Building of the Day series is brought to you by our friends at OpenBuildings.com, the web's most comprehensive directory of buildings.

UNStudio’s Galleria Centercity Department Store in the Korean city of Cheonan has been awarded a RIBA International Award 2011. It reclaims the social and cultural space within the private, commercial large scale department store.

The first element that catches the viewer’s eye is the striking façade. During the day the building has a monochrome reflective appearance, whilst at night soft colours are used to generate waves of coloured light across the façade.

The main architectural theme for the Galleria Cheonan is the dynamic flow.

“The most interesting thing to me about the effect of the Galleria Cheonan is that, because of the organisation of the atrium and the moiré treatment of the facade, Illusions are created which result in the seeming alteration of scales and the creation of double images. No image is permanent ...

Prada Transformer by OMA

2011-05-27T10:11:00-04:00

Archinect's Building of the Day series is brought to you by our friends at OpenBuildings.com, the web's most comprehensive directory of buildings.

OMA has begun to install its exhibition of projects with Prada at Ca’ Corner della Regina, a 17th century palazzo in Venice and the venue of a new outpost for the Fondazione Prada. The show, which opens on 1 June, includes the Prada Transformer project and a detailed scale model for the future Fondazione Prada in Milan.

The 20-metre high Prada Transformer is a portable, shape-shifting cultural pavilion, consisting of four basic geometric shapes – a circle, a cross, a hexagon, a rectangle – leaning together and wrapped in a flexible, elastic white skin, manufactured by the Dutch company Cocoon Holland. Each shape is a potential floor plan designed to be suitable for different cultural programming- fashion exhibitions, film festivals, art exhibitions, or a Prada fashion shows.

'Walls become floors and floors become walls ...

Hillcott Barn by RRA

2011-05-26T09:15:30-04:00

Archinect's Building of the Day series is brought to you by our friends at OpenBuildings.com, the web's most comprehensive directory of buildings.

“Take an isolated Hilltop Barn, add some crispy edged modern steel and glass, and three hundred years of history and you have the rich ingredient in which to create a mouth watering contemporary barn conversion”
Kevin McCloud

RRA Architects was formed in 1986 and has developed a reputation as a highly innovative architectural practice. They bring three essential qualities: imagination, value for money and freedom from worry.

'Hillcott barn is a celebration of the fabric of an impressive historic structure within the Wye valley,' explain the architects. 'The need to keep costs down drove the desire for off site manufacture and the ability to phase construction. The lightness of the central spaces around the threshing doors of the barn were where the living accommodation was placed, and the darker more intimate spaces we...

Fogo Island Long Studio by Todd Saunders

2011-05-24T08:21:28-04:00

Archinect's Building of the Day series is brought to you by our friends at OpenBuildings.com, the web's most comprehensive directory of buildings.

The Shorefast Foundation and the Fogo Island Arts Corporation commissioned Todd Saunders to design a series of six artists’ studios on various Fogo Island locations. The key consideration for the design was committed to preserving the Islanders’ traditions and aims at rejuvenating the island through the arts and culture. An enchanting place to work and live!

The concept of the long studio responds to the transition of the seasons. The studio is organized in a linear from that consists of three different spaces. An open but covered area representing the spring marks the entrance to the studio and the beginning of the seasonal activity. The central portion is left open and mostly exposed to be fully immersed in all that is offered by the long summer days on Fogo Island. The end and main body of the studio is fully enclosed to p...

Villa Vals by SeARCH and Christian Muller Architects

2011-05-22T16:58:16-04:00

Archinect's Building of the Day series is brought to you by our friends at OpenBuildings.com, the web's most comprehensive directory of buildings.

Shouldn’t it be possible to conceal a house in an Alpine slope while still exploiting the wonderful views and allowing light to enter the building?

SeARCH and Christian Muller Architects designed this gorgeous private holiday villa in Switzerland, located near the thermal springs of Therme Vals. A truly inspiring sight to behold!

Surprised that it was permissible to construct a pair of dwellings so close to the world famous thermal bath of Vals, the client seized the opportunity to develop the site, without disturbing the bath’s expansive views. The introduction of a central patio into the steep incline creates a large façade with considerable potential for window openings. The viewing angle from the building is slightly inclined, giving an even more dramatic view of the strikingly beautiful mountains on the opposite side of...

Cité du Surf et de l’Océan by Steven Holl

2011-05-21T12:21:00-04:00

Archinect's Building of the Day series is brought to you by our friends at OpenBuildings.com, the web's most comprehensive directory of buildings.

'Cité de l'océan et du surf', a project in Biarritz, France by Steven Holl, and Brazilian artist Solange Fabião, opens in june 2011. The museum intends to raise awareness of oceanic issues and scientific aspects of the surf and sea. The design revolves around a central plaza that Steven Holl describes as 'open to sky and sea, the horizon in the distance.'

A concave "under the sky" shape creates a central gathering plaza, open to sky and sea, with the horizon in the distance. The convex structural ceiling forms the "under the sea" exhibition spaces. This concept generates a unique profile and form for the building, and through its insertion and efficient site utilization, the project integrates seamlessly into the surrounding landscape.

Shaped like a giant wave, the museum is composed of delicate gl...

The White House by WT Architecture

2011-05-20T16:07:41-04:00

Consolidation of the structure provided a challenge given the size of the cracks and a system of exposed stainless steel ties and bracing frames in original window and fireplaces openings was devised with project engineers David Narro Associates.

The RIBA has announced the 17 ‘best new houses’ vying for this year’s Manser Medal. The White House by WT Architecture won the Ambassador Award. This exceptional private home, situated on the Isle of Coll, Scotland, was built in the ruins of a house abandoned 150 years earlier.

'Consolidation of the structure provided a challenge given the size of the cracks and a system of exposed stainless steel ties and bracing frames in original window and fireplaces openings was devised with project engineers David Narro Associates. There was no economic means of closing the main cracks up and it was also felt that they contributed so much to the identity of the house that they should be retained and enhanced where possible. The consolidation work was carefully undertaken by local island builder Tom Davies and took almost a year up to the point when the main construction contract started', explains Will Tunnell.

A three storey high entrance hall and stairway was created in ...