You don’t have to be religious to appreciate the Tree Church in Ohaupo, New Zealand. A heavenly 100-seat chapel set among a 3-acre landscaped garden, the church boasts walls made of living trees planted around an iron frame. In 2011, Barry Cox, who runs a tree relocating business, decided that his backyard was missing an old stone church like the ones he had studied and admired on travels to Europe. — Slate
Get a glimpse inside the Tree Church in the video below.And here's more tree love and cool churches on Archinect:Tree-hugging in the modern ageIt's official: trees are good for your healthNew photos of E. Fay Jones' Thorncrown Chapel unveiled to mark 35th anniversaryGreat Synagogue of Edirne in... View full entry
Julia Ingalls explored how a firm the size of Gensler manages to maintain a cohesive studio culture. midlander wondered "when did Gensler get so big? I feel like I never heard of them until 10 years ago, then suddenly they were everywhere? Was it organic growth or have they been buying up local... View full entry
After occupying a lower-level space in one of Pratt Institute's athletic buildings, prospects are looking bright and shiny for Pratt's Film/Video Department as it settles into its new home on 550 Myrtle Avenue in Brooklyn. The 15,000 square-foot facility was fully gutted and redesigned by... View full entry
Marina City, the iconic Chicago riverfront complex famed for its corncob-shaped towers, could soon be on the way to becoming an official city landmark. [...]
Goldberg's design, a poetic expression in concrete that combined residential, commercial and entertainment uses to form a "city within a city," is one of the most recognizable images on the Chicago skyline.
— chicagotribune.com
Other Goldberg buildings in Chicago weren't so lucky: the Prentice Women's Hospital could not be saved from the wrecking ball — despite enormous public outcry. View full entry
In case you haven't checked out Archinect's Pinterest boards in a while, we have compiled ten recently pinned images from outstanding projects on various Archinect Firm and People profiles.(Tip: use the handy FOLLOW feature to easily keep up-to-date with all your favorite Archinect... View full entry
"There were many meetings when the Apple representative would pick up your [iPhone] and say: 'That's what we're building.' What that means is — if you look at the phone, there's the sheen on the phone, there's the bevel on the phone, there's how much shine they have ... every piece of that phone is engineered, and the building is the same way." [...]
The project is so extensive — and Apple is so demanding — that Apple Campus 2 has effectively "raised the bar for construction standards"
— businessinsider.com
For more news on Apple's under-construction second campus in Cupertino:Apple under fire for not hiring construction workers with past felonies for their new campusDrone footage shows the latest construction status of the Foster-designed Apple campusApple CEO Tim Cook says new spaceship campus will... View full entry
City of St. Petersburg officials formally approved a $5.2 million contract that will ultimately lead to the construction of the new St. Petersburg Pier. The team consisting of Rogers Partners, ASD, and WORKSHOP: Ken Smith Landscape Architect had the winning proposal for the second run of the St... View full entry
Architect Frank Gehry’s modified design for the National Eisenhower Memorial received final approval from the National Capital Planning Commission Thursday, the final step in the federal approval process that has dragged on since 2011.
The commission voted 9 to 1 to move forward with the design for a memorial park on a four-acre site along Independence Avenue in Southwest Washington.
— washingtonpost.com
Previously in the Archinect news:Chairman of Eisenhower Memorial Commission to step downEisenhower Memorial clears key hurdle on Gehry designEisenhower Memorial to consider plan that removes most of Frank Gehry’s designsEisenhower memorial, politics as usualPanel rejects design for... View full entry
The City of London Corporation has promised a more "rigorous" assessment of developers' predictions of ground winds, following complaints about strong gusts outside the 20 Fenchurch Street Building, better known as the Walkie Talkie.
"I almost got blown over the other day walking up past the building," a sales assistant working nearby said earlier this year. "When I got around the corner it was fine. I was scared to go back."
— bbc.com
It's not the tower's first run-in with the laws of physics:Rafael Viñoly-designed "Walkie Talkie" skyscraper melts car with light reflections'Walkie Scorchie’ building given permanent sunshade View full entry
It’s one of the first Mexican projects for award-winning architect Richard Meier, who is known for his white geometric design such as the Getty Center in Los Angeles — CNN
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... View full entry
While not exactly preserved in situ, Ray Bradbury's former home in Cheviot Hills is getting a second life in an appropriate, if nonconventional, form – bookends. When Thom Mayne bought the property last year, with plans to build his own house, he had the modest yellow home carefully... View full entry
In the first, “Ideation” phase of the initiative, those working in the building efficiency area are invited to submit problem statements describing challenges that need to be overcome in order to promote better engagement with building occupants and to improve the ability to balance energy and occupant comfort objectives in a building. In addition to submitting problem statements, participants are invited to vote and comment on ideas that have already been submitted. — U.S. Department of Energy
Manhattan’s 30 Rockefeller Plaza, the focal point of Rockefeller Center and home to the NBC television network, has changed its name to the Comcast Building.
Comcast Corp.’s NBCUniversal will illuminate a sign with the new name and NBC logo atop the 850-foot (259-meter) building [...].
Comcast Building is the third official name for the landmark property, completed in 1933.
— bloomberg.com
The stadium will be wrapped in a cage of slender concrete and brick columns that will rise to a zig-zagging profile, before folding over to form the roof – as if the architects’ tangle of struts in Beijing’s Bird’s Nest stadium had been straightened out and neatened up. — theguardian.com
Herzog & de Meuron's design for the Football Club stadium in Chelsea takes fandom to the level or religious zealotry, borrowing dramatic gothic elements from Westminster Abbey – the structure that formerly stood on the same site. The design's heavy masonry, brick and railway-style vaults... View full entry