Besides winning the commission, getting planning approved, breaking ground, and having that invoice paid, no milestone in an architectural project is as anticipated and satisfying as the opening celebration — welcoming actual building occupants into the new space after months, years, or even decades of collaborative work.
2023 saw plenty of projects around the globe reach completion. From shiny new skyscrapers in Manhattan to parametric cultural centers in China to sustainable classrooms in Denmark, here are some of our highlights from Archinect's news coverage this year.
MVRDV had another banner year in 2023, announcing new commissions left and right and also completing projects around the world, including the anticipated The Canyon tower in San Francisco's new Mission Rock community; a colorful conversion of an old '90s tower into the vibrant Shenzhen Women & Children’s Centre; the transformation of Albania's communist-era Tirana Pyramid monument into a new tech education center; the reimagination of an aging Berlin office building into a new eye-popping innovation hub; as well as a high school renovation and a demountable science building with over 120,000 reusable components in the Dutch studio's native country.
OMA's New York studio completed two major buildings this year, led by the renovation of Tiffany & Co.’s 5th Avenue New York City flagship in May and followed by the massive 873-foot-tall Toranomon Hills Station Tower in Tokyo's bustling Toranomon Hills mixed-use district.
Celebrating their 15th year of doing business in China, Zaha Hadid Architects wrapped up construction on three prominent projects in the country in 2023: Besides the Chengdu West First Bridge across the Jiangxi River, the London-based powerhouse also completed the Chengdu Science Fiction Museum in October and, earlier this month, the Zhuhai Jinwan Civic Art Centre in southern China. In Europe, meanwhile, ZHA's new Masaryčka office and retail complex recently opened its doors in Prague.
Snøhetta's team was also busy cutting red ribbons all over the world this year. In January, we covered the firm's collaboration with WERK Arkitekter for the standout The Lantern maritime center in Esbjerg, Denmark; followed by the Blanton New Grounds redesign opening at the University of Texas at Austin’s Blanton Museum of Art in May and the Orionis planetarium and observatory design debuting in the northern French city of Douai in June. During the fall, Snøhetta also completed work on the Vesterheim Commons for the National Norwegian-American Museum and Folk Art School in Decorah, Iowa, and the 700-foot-tall AIRSIDE mixed-use development in Hong Kong.
Foster + Partners celebrated the inaugurations of a number of their designs on several continents in the past twelve months, including the light-filled ICÔNE office complex in Luxembourg; the 656-foot-tall Suhe Centre for China Resources Land tower in the Suhewan area of Shanghai; Penn Station’s revamped (and ADA-accessible) entrance at 7th Avenue and 32nd Street in Manhattan; as well as Apple Store designs in London's reborn Battersea Power Station and in Mumbai — Apple’s first flagship store in India.
Two completed Renzo Piano projects in Europe featured in our news coverage this year: the slick aluminum-clad Istanbul Modern (the first dedicated museum of modern and contemporary art in Turkish history) overlooking Istanbul’s Bosphorus waterfront and the new CERN Science Gateway design in Geneva, Switzerland, which was inspired by the tubing of the Large Hadron Collider particle accelerator.
In New York City, plenty of new stand-out buildings celebrated completion this year, such as the Studio Gang-designed and long-anticipated $465 million Richard Gilder Center for Science, Education and Innovation at the American Museum of Natural History; PAU's The Refinery at Domino adaptive reuse office component former Domino Sugar Factory site in Brooklyn; the 66-story 130 William residential skyscraper with its much-publicized hand-cast concrete facade by Adjaye Associates; BIG's The Spiral office tower in Midtown Manhattan (also 66 stories tall — A PATTERN, ANYONE?); Brooklyn's Powerhouse Arts adaptive reuse transformation of a former brownfield site by Herzog & de Meuron; as well as a pair of timber bridges, called the Moynihan Connector, designed by SOM and Field Operations, which now connect Manhattan's famed High Line with surrounding urban spaces.
In other parts of the country, meanwhile, construction workers successfully added finishing touches to Frank Gehry's design for the Warner Bros. Second Century expansion in Los Angeles; the new 32,000-square-foot Houston Endowment HQ project, designed by Kevin Daly Architects in collaboration with PRODUCTORA; Moody Nolan and Pei Cobb Freed's important (and slightly delayed) International African American Museum in Charleston, South Carolina; and the Lindemann Performing Arts Center, designed by REX/Joshua Ramus, which opened in October at Brown University's Providence, Rhode Island, campus.
Our news editorial covered a plethora of fascinating smaller-scale schemes as well — too many to all be mentioned by name here, but standout concepts worth revisiting include a Henning Larsen-designed sustainable school expansion project in a small Danish village performed in bio-based construction; the stunning Komera Leadership Center in rural Rwanda by BE_Design; a quirky public restroom in Beijing shaped by a single meandering wall by People’s Architecture Office (PAO); Tetro’s Casa Açucena residential project floating and weaving through the Brazilian rainforest; a 30-foot-tall cantilevering modular treehouse peeking into the Estonian wilderness envisioned by Arsenit; and — giving cozy Middle-earth vibes — the submerged Library of the Earth for a Japanese farming community by Hiroshi Nakamura & NAP.
What was your favorite new project this year? Let us know in the comments below.
Be sure to follow Archinect's special End of the Year coverage by following the tag 2023 Year In Review to stay up to date.
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