“This isn’t your grandfather’s Wall Street.” — Bloomberg Business
According to a statement issued on Tuesday, the design of Two World Trade Center, which was formerly the province of Foster + Partners, is now being handled by Bjarke Ingels' firm BIG and will likely house employees of both 21st Century Fox and News Corp. The media organizations inked a... View full entry
Google already had building rights for a fifth site overlooking Charleston Park, just east of the current Googleplex [...]
A 2007 lease agreement allows Google to build up to 595,000 square feet of office and commercial space there. [...]
The new plans feature the same futuristic designs by European architects Bjarke Ingels and Thomas Heatherwick that were part of the larger plan debated by the city this year.
— mercurynews.com
For some background on the Googleplex expansion plans: Google loses to LinkedIn in Silicon Valley HQ pitchCritical response to Googleplex expansion focuses on suburban development, not architectureGoogle Unveils BIG + Heatherwick Studios Collaboration for New Campus Master Plan View full entry
Legends, a company that manages skyboxes and stadiums and now runs the World Trade Center observation deck, has turned the view into a high-tech spectacular. Before you get a glimpse of an actual place, you follow a winding path through cheesy synthetic bedrock; ride an elevator where 500 years of an ever-changing New York unfold as if seen from a rising balloon [...]
A view gives the illusion of omniscience.
— nymag.com
The observatory, located on floors 100, 101 and 102, opened to the public on May 29th. View full entry
It’s where the Girl Scouts set up their cookie-selling tables, and community groups host bake sales in the parking lot. In the store, Barragan inevitably runs into students, former students, parents of students, and fellow teachers; sometimes it takes forever to get a simple errand done because of all the neighborly small talk. — Talking Points Memo
Rachel Monroe examines how in rural America WalMart has become the new town square. View full entry
Most ideas usually end up in the trash but few ideas are inspired by the basket that holds them. A recent discovery has revealed that...432 Park Avenue, was actually inspired by a Josef Hoffmann-designed wastebasket released in 1905. The revelation came via a talk held last December at the Cornell Center for Real Estate and Finance where Harry Macklowe, the co-developer of the supertall, told the crowd that the repository was an “important touchstone” for the 1,396-foot-high design. — 6sqft
Recognized by Wright as the earliest 'Usonian' house, La Miniatura is also the first residence to utilize Wright's highly inventive textile block building system. — architectureforsale.com
After hitting the market in 2013, La Miniatura (aka The Millard House, 1923) was originally listed at approximately $4.5MM. The final sold price hasn't been made public, but the house is listed on the National Register of Historic Places, and is located in Pasadena's Prospect Historic District –... View full entry
UAE-based X-Architects has won a competition to design a new masterplan for Makkah, Saudi Arabia - the holiest city in the world for Muslims. [...]
“We proposed a complex network of pedestrian routes on different levels to enhance the movement during the “Nafrah” [...]
“The surrounding roads have either been bridged or tunneled so as to strengthen the pedestrian tissue. This will solve the current situation of the constant crash between people and vehicles.”
— constructionweekonline.com
All images via X-Architects' website. Learn more about the proposal here.In case you were looking for royal floors and helipads, you may get lucky over here: World's largest hotel under construction in Mecca — and it's worse than you thought. View full entry
One of the biggest homes in U.S. history is rising on a Los Angeles hilltop, and the developer hopes to sell it for a record $500 million.
Nile Niami, a film producer and speculative residential developer, is pouring concrete in L.A.’s Bel Air neighborhood for a compound with a 74,000-square-foot (6,900-square-meter) main residence and three smaller homes, according to city records. [...] including a 5,000-square-foot master bedroom, a 30-car garage and a “Monaco-style casino,” Niami said.
— bloomberg.com
Rendering of the "largest home built in the U.S. this century." (Image: McClean Design; via bloomberg.com) Previously: The Biggest House in the US (according to Curbed) is Now Underway in Bel Air View full entry
Pritzker Prize laureates Kazuyo Sejima and Ryue Nishizawa of SANAA were revealed today as the winners of an international competition to design the AUD$450 million expansion of the Art Gallery of New South Wales in Australia. As part of the Sydney Modern Project, the expansion will upgrade the... View full entry
In an apparent video message, ISIS forces occupying the ancient city of Palmyra and its environs have stated that they do not intend to bulldoze its architecture, but plan to “pulverize” unspecified statues that they believe have been worshipped by “heretics” in the past. [...] The veracity of the message cannot be independently confirmed, but it has been assumed to be authentic by specialists on the subject, including the journalist Hassan Hassan, co-author of “ISIS: Inside the Army of Terror.” — artinfo.com
Previously:ISIS militants seize control of ancient Syrian city of PalmyraAncient Syrian city of Palmyra under threat by ISISMeanwhile in Palmyra: ISIS executes more than 300 civilians in Syria’s Palmyra View full entry
The 260-meter long, 100-meter wide, six-floor building was built by Hong Kong-listed Chinese online game developer NetDragon Websoft, whose founder Liu Dejian — a 43-year-old University of Kansas alumni — is a huge [Trekkie]...With a total investment of 600 million yuan ($97 million), the building was inspired by the USS Enterprise NCC-1701-E, which appeared in three “Star Trek” movies in the late 1990s and early 2000s. — The Wall Street Journal
Sources report that construction of the office building started in October 2010 and was then completed in May 2014.Check out the building on Google Maps or in the drone footage below. View full entry
Zhangjiajie, a scenic national park in the country's Hunan province, is set to open the world's longest and highest glass-bottomed bridge in July.
Spanning two cliffs in the Zhangjiajie Grand Canyon area, it will stretch 430 meters (1,410 feet) long and 6 meters (20 feet) wide, hovering over a 300-meter (984-foot) vertical drop.
In comparison, the Grand Canyon Skywalk in the United States is 21 meters (69 feet) in length and stands 219 meters (718 feet) above the canyon floor.
— cnn.com
UPDATE: World's longest and highest glass bridge opens in China View full entry
Axel Bering and Michael Jacobi, the main investors behind the Prora project, claim they could not care less about a building once being dedicated to Hitler. [...]
He and his partner, Michael Jacobi, both confess that because they had to comply with German regulations, their investment carries some Third Reich architecture qualities. They did, however, add a balcony, but otherwise they see Prora as a nice beach town and a solid investment.
— thedailybeast.com
Artist impressions of various sections of the Prora colossus and their new make-up (source: Seebad Prora):Previously View full entry
Look out—not up—because there’s a new low-rise Rafael Vinoly-designed building coming our way. The architect mastermind behind the city’s tallest residential tower, 432 Park Avenue, has just been chosen to to design a comparatively demure ten-story office-and-retail building in the Meatpacking District, reports The Real Deal. The new addition is being developed by Vornado Realty Trust and Aurora Capital Associates and is located on the former site of Prince Lumber at 61 Ninth Avenue. — 6sqft.com
Exterior becomes interior, public space overlaps with private space, and society is integrated into nature: or is it? These are but a few of the concepts seemingly behind the design of MAD's Clover House, a Kindergarten adjacent to a Japanese rice paddy field that also serves as a private... View full entry