The $12 million project, managed by Tishman Construction Corporation, came about in May 2014 when an ornamental plaster rosette fell 52 feet from the Reading Room’s ceiling. In addition to recreating and replacing this piece, all 900 rosettes in both rooms were reinforced with steel cables. Other work included the recreation of a 27′ x 33′ James Wall Finn mural on the ceiling of the Catalog Room and the restoration of the chandeliers. — 6sqft
After a two-year restoration, the New York Public Library's historic Rose Main Reading Room and Bill Blass Public Catalog Room will reopen to the public ahead of schedule on Wednesday, October 5th. To mark the occasion, the NYPL has released a series of incredible before-and-after photos. View full entry
A groundbreaking ceremony has taken place in Copenhagen for Foster + Partners’ headquarters for Ferring Pharmaceuticals.
The 39,000 square metre office is located on the urban fringe of the city in Kastrup, near the international airport, where it is possible to see the Swedish city of Malmö, where Ferring was founded.
The structure is made up of a triangular glass building that appears to float above a stone plinth, which also acts as its first line of defence against floods.
— globalconstructionreview.com
Other recent Foster + Partner stories in the Archinect news:Construction begins on major Foster + Partners project in SwedenApple's spaceship campus, by the numbers (including an estimated $5b price tag)What does a $1 million dollar staircase look like? View full entry
“This is the end of the matter, we have ruled out state funding (for Guggenheim) once and for all, for this government, we are not opposed to the project as such, we just don’t think it is something that the state should participate in.” — Hyperallergic
"Champions of the Guggenheim Helsinki don’t plan on giving up. The Guggenheim Foundation said it will continue talks with the government and the city to find other funding options. But without the state’s help, plans for the outpost could now be dead in the water: at an expected cost of... 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
After stalling for years, the $243 million World Trade Center Performing Arts Center started to make headway in recent months, and now Silverstein Properties have revealed the official renderings. With the help of billionaire businessman Ronald O. Perelman's $75 million gift, the 90,000-square-foot marble cube designed by REX will both stand out as an impressive piece of cultural architecture and co-exists with the other structures on the WTC complex. — 6sqft
The Guggenheim Foundation's Helsinki museum, the design of which was chosen after a hotly anticipated competition last year, is now missing a major financial backer, namely, the government of Finland. Prior to its withdrawal, Finland was going to pick up construction costs and a portion of the... View full entry
This years wooden spoon goes to a luxury block of flats in London’s Docklands. Lincoln Plaza, a residential development in London’s Docklands is the winner of the 2016 Carbuncle Cup. Designed by BUJ Architects for Galliard Homes, the development consists of two residential towers integrated with a hotel and a standalone drum shaped building set off to one side. — BD Online
The luxury block of flats in London designed by BUJ Architects has beaten five other projects in the running, Saffron Square by Rolfe Judd, The Diamond by Twelve Architects, One Smithfield by RHWL, Poole Methodist Church by Intelligent Design Centre and 5 Broadgate by Make Architects. The judges... View full entry
The sail and the spire challenged the best intentions of city planners, the fire department and the architectural community, who believed that a 1974 building code requiring helicopter landing pads on all buildings higher than 75 feet should be inviolable. [...]
A.C. Martin Partners, however, argued that the Wilshire Grand should change the status quo, and they took their inspiration in part from the ziggurat-inspired crown of City Hall, which their firm had designed in the 1920s.
— latimes.com
For more on L.A.'s changing downtown:Museum at the front line: One-to-One #33 with Dora Epstein Jones, executive director of the A+D MuseumDowntown LA has a new museum on the horizonWilshire Grand Tower, the West Coast's tallest building, structurally tops out in LA"Bouncy-house urbanism is on the... View full entry
When Condé Nast moved its 3,400 employees moved into One World Trade Center, Port Authority hoped it would attract more tenants. Now two years later, the tower is still one third empty. In fact, it only brought in $13 million in revenue last year– a mere 0.35 percent return on its investment. Now the cash-strapped Port Authority has made plans to sell One World Trade Center for as much as $5 billion, making it the highest price ever paid for an office building in the country. — 6sqft.com
From an experimental vertical-zoo, to a rather demure yacht club in Ullswater, it’s clear that no two Weston Williamson designs are ever approached in the same manner. They are a multiple award winning company, based in London, creating designs across the globe.Recently, they have beaten Zaha... 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
Modern architecture, during its heyday, was deeply concerned with its civic function; its mission to reform housing and improve the city was a moral imperative. But the failure of this utopian vision has served to...[give] rise to a profession in which its practice is defined increasingly by individual “star” architects and “architecture for architecture’s sake”... — AEI.org
In a piece on the civic benefits of music, literature, and architecture to the public sphere, Rebecca Burgess finds architecture to be somewhat lacking, based on the writings of Michael J. Lewis. Is this a complaint about the good old days in the vein of Prince Charles, or a meaningful critique in... View full entry
Once known as the city of single family homes, Los Angeles is now developing high-density housing complexes, not only in downtown, but according to this Urban Land article, on the traditionally reluctant-to-develop West Side.The developments mark a shift in how Los Angeles conceptualizes living... View full entry
The SP_Penthouse in Sao Paulo isn't Don Draper's never-before-seen getaway from a lost episode of “Mad Men”, although it can surely pass as a set for the TV show with all those modernist furnishings. Since Studio MK27 completed the polished abode last year, it has gained recognition in... View full entry
Los Angeles-based developer CIM Group has agreed to buy Tribune Tower for up to $240 million, marking the end of media ownership for the historic North Michigan Avenue building and the beginning of a new chapter, likely as part of a mixed-use redevelopment. [...]
Tribune Media unveiled conceptual plans last year to redevelop the parcel, adding several buildings to maximize the space with residential, retail and hotel components.
— chicagotribune.com
The Tribune Tower sale previously in the Archinect news: Chicago Tribune Tower inches closer to hotel & residential redevelopment View full entry
