The Office for Metropolitan Architecture...has been chosen to design the Albright-Knox Art Gallery’s first major expansion in more than 50 years...The comparatively delicate and more budget-conscious Albright-Knox expansion project, which is expected to cost about $60 million, will unfold on a small but famous plot of public parkland and will be attempt to fuse the architectural styles of three centuries. — The Buffalo News
More on Archinect:Albright-Knox Gallery announces short list of firms for $80m expansion: Snøhetta, BIG, OMA, wHY, Allied WorksShohei Shigematsu of OMA transforms the Met for the spring Costume Institute exhibitA tour of OMA's Pierre Lassonde Pavilion View full entry
By living above 800 feet, Estis and Enkin are two members of an unexpectedly exclusive group in Manhattan. In my estimation, no more than 40 people currently live above that line, scattered among just three buildings...
As my elevator descended and my ears popped, it occurred to me that I would almost certainly never take in such a view again. And in fact, maybe nobody will, if these apartments wind up becoming empty investments.
— The New York Times
In this elegantly observed and exquisitely written piece, Jon Ronson not only takes in the view of Manhattan at 800+ feet with visits to Trump World Tower, One57, and 8 Spruce Street but looks toward the future of a nation divided by an increasingly intractable wealth gap. Real estate of the... View full entry
With the working title Utzon, The Man Behind the Opera House, the film will tell the story of Danish architect Jørn Utzon, who was just 38 years old and relatively unknown when he won the international competition to design an opera house on Sydney’s Bennelong Point in 1957...
The Sydney Opera House was completed by Australian architect Peter Hall – a handover which ostracised Hall from the architectural community, and which his family believe led to his ruin.
— The Guardian
With a screenplay by Oscar-nominated Petter Skavlan, the film promises to get into some thorny emotional terrain. As producer Jan Marnell explains, “We have a world wonder. We have its creator – who wasn’t allowed to see his dream fulfilled. We have creativity versus bureaucracy and... View full entry
A teetering stack of fibreglass blocks has landed in Kensington Gardens, rising above the Serpentine Gallery in a stepped wall, before billowing out to form a cave-like space within...
From one side, it looks like a wall that has enjoyed a good lunch. The blocks stretch outwards in a swollen bulge, like a snake devouring its gallery-going prey. From the other, it looks caught in a stiff breeze, a pixelated curtain rippling in the wind.
— the Guardian
"In keeping with the best-observed-from-a-distance nature of other BIG buildings, the detailing is also a bit clunky, with each fibreglass frame bolted and bracketed in rather heavy-handedly, due to time constraints," writes Oliver Wainwright. "Still, the interior remains a stunning space, a... View full entry
When the architecture community learned of the passing of Zaha Hadid in late March, it came as a bit of consolation that her first and only building in New York, 520 West 28th Street, had already begun to take shape along the High Line, ensuring that her legacy would last in our skyline. In much welcome news, 6sqft learns today that yet another design of hers will rise just three blocks away in Chelsea. — 6sqft
The Moinian Group worked with the late Zaha Hadid on one of her final creations, 220 Eleventh Avenue in West Chelsea. The building will be a collection of loft-like condos and penthouses, as well as a cultural institution that will be a hub of the Chelsea art district. Construction is expected to... View full entry
The Turkish word for Gated Community is site, from the French cité, and they generally resemble the French highrises of the same name, rather than American tract housing. Towers and slabs stand shoulder to shoulder, dancing in a circle around the gardens they surround. — failed architecture
How to Make an Enclosed Paradise:Raze a blighted industrial site or neighborhood close to the city center, preferably along a new highway or metro line.Build an access road around the perimeter. Like a castle moat, this isolates your project from context and gives distance for height... View full entry
Julia Ingalls wrote about architectural solutions, four major U.S. cities have used, to address homelessness. no_form quipped "Giving homeless people housing solves homelessness. Wow, fucking brilliant. Took long enough to recognize the obvious." Plus, Nicholas Korody previewed Anupama... View full entry
With the new mayor focusing our attention on smart development and social equality, 2016 will be a banner year for the London Festival of Architecture. Election watchers will be familiar with many of this year’s hot topics: community spaces, social housing, docklands renewal. But considering the theme this year is ‘community’, there will be something for every tribe of Londoner. Out of 300 events, we’ve picked the 10 must-sees. — thespaces.com
See related news here: This week's picks for London architecture and design events London's Natural History Museum to create outdoor exhibition spaces Zaha Hadid's repertoire is a stunning display in Venice's Palazzo Franchetti View full entry
Liverpool's Riba North will have conference facilities and a gallery "at its heart", a spokeswoman said.
It will open in August with an exhibition of designs for Liverpool that were never built.
The centre, which will be housed in the Broadway Malyan-designed Mann Island on the city's waterfront, "will offer a magnificent opportunity to display Riba's historic collections, telling hundreds of years of the UK's extraordinary architectural history", Duncan said.
— bbc.com
More UK news here:Edinburgh's maker-architects: a visit to GRASLondon's Natural History Museum to create outdoor exhibition spacesBrighton's Embassy Court by Wells Coates featured in new film 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
[King Carl XVI Gustav] said the sprawling brass-clad structure, designed by the British architect David Chipperfield to house the Nobel Foundation and host its prestigious annual prize ceremony, would dominate Stockholm’s celebrated 19th-century waterfront...
‘The size of the building is determined by what is necessary for a Nobel Centre. It’s not exploiting the value of the land or something – it’s not a developer building, an office building or a hotel...’ [Chipperfield said.]
— The Guardian
King Carl XVI Gustav isn't favorable toward Chipperfield's dominating design plan for the Nobel Center, which inevitably has sparked opposition. But, supporters of the project beg to differ.Previously on Archinect:David Chipperfield wins Nobel Center architectural competitionNobel Center... View full entry
THE Palestinians’ new national museum is a striking monument to the state they don’t yet have. Designed by a firm in Dublin, the museum itself is angular and modern, with glass curtain walls topped by smooth white limestone. From afar it looks almost like a low-slung bunker perched on a hill north of Ramallah; inside, though, it is light and airy. A terraced garden stretches out below, filled with dozens of local species...
Only one thing is missing—the exhibits.
— the Economist
A series of curatorial disputes, as well as cost overruns and delays in part attributable to the occupation of the West Bank by Israel, mean the new Palestinian National Museum will open this month without its inaugural exhibitions. The museum was designed by the Irish firm Heneghan Peng.In... View full entry
[Garth England's] extraordinary drawings, made in Hengrove Lodge care home between 2006 and 2013 and published in a beautiful book called Murdered with Straight Lines, capture the changing city through the eyes of this post-war everyman. Born in Bristol general hospital in 1935, England spent most of his 79 years in the city’s suburban south: in Knowle West, Hengrove, Bedminster and Totterdown... — The Guardian
The essence of a city isn't just contained in its physical brick and mortar, but in the memory of its denizens. Garth England, who managed to see virtually every type of structure in Bristol in his work as a milk delivery man, began to draw his artistic recollections while in a retirement home... View full entry
Foster is a surprising choice for the project, as his commissions are typically flashy and in high-profile areas like midtown or the Financial District. But the sole rendering shows his signature mix of contemporary panache (glassy construction with a cantilevering portion) and contextual thoughtfulness (low-scale, boxy structures in keeping with the industrial area). — 6sqft
Thor Equities has announced that starchitect Norman Foster will design their 7.7-acre waterfront office complex in Red Hook. The project, which will be Foster's first in Brooklyn, will feature more than 600,000 square feet of creative office space spread across two low-scale buildings, as well as... View full entry
In a region at once feared and exoticized, we have been witnessing for more than a generation the devastation of old centers and the rise of new ones. Today there is no better context in which to investigate the complexities of global practice in architecture than that of the rapidly changing Arab city. — Places Journal
How does the deeply traditional meet the hypermodern in the older centers of Beirut, Damascus, and Cairo, and in the emerging new cities of Dubai, Doha, and Abu Dhabi? In Amale Andraos’ new article on Places, and in the new book, The Arab City: Architecture and Representation, she explores the... View full entry