The skyline of Chile’s capital city, Santiago, has a new addition with the Gran Torre skyscraper casting a two-kilometre shadow across the historic city.
The 70-storey residential building stands more than 300 metres tall, making it the tallest building in South America. The five-ton steel structure cost an estimated one billion dollars to build and tenants are expected to move into the building next March.
— DesignBuild Source
The study argues that re-using Prentice and developing a new facility would generate more money and jobs than demolition and new construction.
The study claims the rehab would generate one-time taxes and temporary jobs, in fields ranging from construction to finance and insurance. And a re-designed, multi-purpose Prentice would mean 980 permanent jobs and just over $1 million a year in local tax revenues.
— wbez.org
The reuse alternatives for Prentice were unveiled at a press conference on January 3, 2013. You can view the presentation here (PDF file). View full entry
As neighborhoods devastated by Hurricane Sandy begin drafting plans for reconstruction, some progressive architects and urban planners have been pointing out that the emerging science of biomimicry offers a way forward. The notion is that the next generation of waterfront designs could draw inspiration from the intricate ways that plants and animals have adapted to their situations over hundreds of millions of years. — green.blogs.nytimes.com
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. Today's top images (in no particular order) are from the board Interiors. ↑ Rome Residence in Los... View full entry
China is also the land of the knock-off: knock-off designer handbags, knock-off blockbuster movies on DVDs, etc. But now, it seems the knock-off has gone off the charts in terms of proportion: entire buildings. — theworld.org
As we have previously mentioned, Zaha Hadid is the latest victim of piracy in China, with a upcoming copy of her Wangjing Soho complex... scheduled to be completed before the original. NPR explores this issue with McGill architecture prof Avi Friedman. View full entry
The United Technologies Corp. unit has to go beyond the braking mechanism Elisha Otis demonstrated with a rope and saber at the 1854 World’s Fair. It’s working on systems able to stop 16 metric tons (35,274 pounds) of elevator and cable falling from the top of a kilometer-tall tower -- equal to a half-full tractor trailer driven off a cliff. — bloomberg.com
Below are the 12 most visited Projects during 2012. For a full list of all of our top 12 lists for 2012, click here. 1. Deconstructing the Churches by Michael Jantzen 2. Alésia Museum by Bernard Tschumi Architects 3. Frank Lloyd Wright School of Architecture Shelter by David Frazee... View full entry
Below are the 12 most visited People Profiles during 2012. For a full list of all of our top 12 lists for 2012, click here. 1. Orhan Ayyüce 2. Tyler Hopf 3. Joann Lui 4. Natalie Hardbattle 5. Sean McGuire 6. Kimberly V.K.H. Nguyen 7. Donna Sink 8. Betsy Cole 9. Artur Nesterenko Alexandrovich... View full entry
Below are the 12 most visited Firm Profiles during 2012. For a full list of all of our top 12 lists for 2012, click here. 1. OMA 2. Wiel Arets Architects 3. Marmol Radziner 4. Diller Scofidio + Renfro 5. Allied Works Architecture 6. Roman and Williams Buildings and Interiors 7. Safdie Architects... View full entry
Architects think people aren’t interested in buildings anymore, and don’t look at them, and consequently don’t — can't — appreciate what architects really want to do, which is make fetishized constructions to sit on the landscape like mechanical praying mantids, which will make people look at them some more. — Places Journal
On Places, architect David Heymann writes about a heartbreaking house commission outside Austin — the kind of larger-than-life story that could only happen in Texas. The feature includes an audio recording of the author reading his work. View full entry
The fabricator for the 12,000 steel panels — no two alike — abruptly shut down midway through the job.
The panels have occasionally dripped rusty orange blossoms onto the sidewalk.
And lately, iron workers have replaced hundreds of bolts that anchor the panels to the building’s structure. Engineers determined that weaker ones were originally installed, raising concerns about the structure’s integrity.
— nytimes.com
In celebrating the 50th anniversary of the iconic building blocks being introduced into Japan, LEGO’s Japanese subsidiary sponsored a cross-country workshop in which over 5000 people in 6 different regions collaborated to create a gigantic map of Japan.The pieces that were assembled at each site then traveled to Tokyo, where they were put on display for one massive LEGO map. — spoon-tamago.com
fschlem started a blog The Dirty South...The blog takes it name from a studio titled the "Dirty South," offered at the Georgia Tech. The studio was the brainchild of TVSDesign Distinguished Studio Critic Jennifer Bonner and it’s goal was to look at the city of Atlanta through the filter of the rap ideology of east coast/ west coast/ dirty south, translated to the realm of architecture...Connely Farr thought "wow. really interesting idea for a studio..."
Just like last year, Archinect has begun the transition into the new year by reflecting back on the 2012 by sharing the most trafficked pages in Archinect's diverse online ecosystem, with a list of 12 top 12 lists for '12. As always, they listing the most popular pages from across the site, based... View full entry
Below are the 12 most visited Blogs during 2012. For a full list of all of our top 12 lists for 2012, click here. 1. Harvard GSD M.Arch.I (Lian) 2. design/buildLAB - Virginia Tech School of Architecture + Design 3. The Architectural Venn Diagram 4. Indo Inquisition - 13 weeks in India... View full entry
Below are the 12 most visited Feature articles during 2012. For a full list of all of our top 12 lists for 2012, click here. 1. Tadao Ando Interview: 20 Minutes with a Master 2. Working out of the Box: Pinterest Co-Founder Evan Sharp 3. The Architecture Job Application Hints & Suggestions... View full entry