In 2006, the doors of the Hearst Tower were swung open for business. The design of starchitect Norman Foster, the building was one of the most cutting-edge of its time, lauded for its diagrid form, its green construction, and the then-radical approach of marrying the old with the new... Now, a decade later, Foster has returned to the Hearst Tower to mark its anniversary and reflect on his creation. — 6sqft
Earlier this week, the Museum of Fine Arts Houston revealed the design of its upcoming $450 million Fayez S. Sarofim Campus. As a milestone in the institution's 90-year history, the 14-acre redevelopment will transform the MFAH and its surrounding neighborhood the city's effort to improve the... View full entry
At a hearing earlier today, Los Angeles’ Culture Heritage Commission voted to consider granting Historic-Cultural Monument status to Norms Coffee Shop on La Cienega. This would protect the iconic building in the Googie modern style until a final decision is made by the commission. According to the Los Angeles Conservancy, the new owners of Norms were issued a demolition permit on January 5, triggering a wave of outrage from architectural preservationists. — hyperallergic.com
The building that housed the world’s first Taco Bell is under “imminent threat of demolition,” according to the Downey Conservancy [...]
Although Downey is more famously recognized as the site of the oldest operating location for [McDonald's], it is Taco Bell that built its very first location within the city. [...]
“The [Conservancy] recognizes that the building’s current location may not be the best for its future and, as such, is also looking at opportunities to relocate"
— thedowneypatriot.com
Why does this matter? Not because Taco Bell is inherently newsworthy, but because fast food spots are arguably Downey's local urbanism icons. The city in southeast Los Angeles County is known for its Googie fast-food joints, historic McDonald's and drive-ins (as well as the birthplace of the... View full entry
The rural village of Sinthian in southeastern Senegal is home to the THREAD arts center, a new artists' residency and cultural community space set to open this March. The idea for the arts center originated from the long-term efforts of doctor and local Sinthian leader, Magueye Ba, who spearheaded... View full entry
The world’s tallest proposed modular tower may actually reach its full potential.
Developer Bruce Ratner has finally resumed work on his 32-story residential building next to the Barclays Center after a five-month hiatus stemming from a dispute with construction giant Skanska over the pre-fabricated design.
As a result of that legal fight, Ratner gained control of Skanska’s factory in the Brooklyn Navy Yard, where modules for the proposed tallest modular tower were made.
— nydailynews.com
Previously:Lego High-Rise: World's Tallest Modular Apartment Tower Getting Snapped Together In BrooklynAtlantic Yards Will Be Getting 32-Story, SHoP-designed Modular Tower After All View full entry
The owners of the 222-metre (734ft) “Cheesegrater” building, the second tallest building in the City of London, are to replace dozens of long bolts on its structure after it was revealed that another one had fractured.
The bolts, among 3,000 on the building’s 15,000-tonne frame, are each just under a metre long. Two snapped in November, with some debris falling to the ground from the fifth floor. Nobody was hurt, but an area below the tower is still cordoned off.
— theguardian.com
Previously: Bolt part falls off Cheesegrater skyscraper in the City of LondonRelated: Another big concrete panel falls off Zaha Hadid-designed library View full entry
That’s a lot of accolades for one building, but the SHoP Architects-designed tower at 111 West 57th Street is looking to sweep the supertall competition. Originally planned to rise 1,397 feet, the tower will now soar to 1,421 feet, surpassing 432 Park Avenue (the current tallest residential building in the Western Hemisphere) by 24 feet, according to city records uncovered by Crain’s. It will also retain its title as the world’s slenderest tower. — http://www.6sqft.com/
On Wednesday, developer Richard L. Friedman will formally kick off construction of the tallest skyscraper to be built in Boston in 40 years — a 700-foot tower at 1 Dalton St. that will include the city’s second Four Seasons Hotel and some of its most expensive condominiums. [...]
The skyscraper at One Dalton is being designed by Hancock Tower architect Harry N. Cobb, of Pei Cobb Freed & Partners, in collaboration with Gary Johnson of Cambridge Seven Associates Inc.
— bostonglobe.com
Hours before the official inauguration of the Philharmonie de Paris concert hall on Wednesday, its architect, Jean Nouvel, declared his intention to boycott the gala because he said the towering, 386 million euro (about $455 million) building is not ready to open. [...]
Mr. Nouvel wrote a column that appeared on the website of the French daily Le Monde denouncing the “contempt” of the concert hall managers for “the architecture, the work of the architect and the architect.”
— artsbeat.blogs.nytimes.com
Construction escalated in the days preceding the opening but large parts of the Philharmonie are still not complete, including the restaurant and exhibition space. The inaugural concert will feature the Orchestre de Paris, with dignitaries and French president François Hollande among... View full entry
Skidmore, Owings & Merrill can update their track record of AIA awards with the recent win of their sixth AIA Twenty-Five Year Award for the Exchange House at the Broadgate development in central London. Since 1969, the AIA bestows its sought-after Twenty-Five Year Award to a completed... View full entry
As the Norton Museum of Art in West Palm Beach, Florida, prepares to break ground on its Foster + Partners—designed expansion in 2016, the institution has launched the second phase of its capital campaign, which has already raised nearly $34 million, more than half of the museum's $60 million goal. [...]
"Foster + Partners' plan pays homage to the Museum's past by restoring the clarity and symmetry of the original building, but also looks to its future as a leading museum in Florida" [...]
— news.artnet.com
[Ray Bradbury's] Cheviot Hills house ... hit the market last May, and sold in a little over a month for $1.765 million [...]
the buyers were Pritzker-Prize-winning architect Thom Mayne, of the firm Morphosis, and his wife, Blythe Alison-Mayne. [...]
the new property owner's plan is to demolish Bradbury's house to put in a new house with three underground levels—one of which will hold a swimming pool—and two stories above ground.
— la.curbed.com
CurbedLA also points out that, according to Morphopedia, this will be Mayne's first residential project in LA in more than ten years.More photos via File 770. View full entry
Like the fork, the cellphone expires and no longer feels as useable in its user’s hand. Like the fork, the cellphone was not first designed for all people. New cellphones work for most people who invested in personal computers and the internet, but they don’t work for anyone else without guidance or instruction. — toskovic.com
After two years in redeveloping the electric power grid, re-engineering water treatment facilities, and redesigning HVAC for cultural density and experimenting with live 'non electronic' materials such as structural steel and concrete and drywall, flooring, and paint at various research labs and... View full entry
Buoyed by some of the largest donations in the city's history, the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston will unveil a $450 million project today that envisions its campus as the cultural heart of the city. [...]
The project, by Steven Holl Architects, is the most exciting in the institution's 90-year history, board chairman Richard Kinder said. The plan, named the Fayez S. Sarofim Campus, is so transformational that in five years Houstonians might not recognize the 1000 block of Bissonnet.
— chron.com
Previously: MFAH hires Steven Holl Architects to design expansion View full entry