Workers have almost completed mounting the copper paneling on the American Copper Buildings (née 626 First Avenue), the new tilting, two-towered development on Manhattan’s East Side, but their most striking feature—a three-story, 100-foot-long skybridge—is still open to the elements. [...]
The skybridge itself, though, is designed to be the showstopper. The architects placed a 75-foot lap pool on the bridge, so residents can swim 300 feet in the air [...].
— bloomberg.com
↑ Interior rendering of the skybridge pool area on the 29th floor. ↑ Exterior rendering of the SHoP-designed towers with the skybridge spanning the 27th to 29th floors. (Image: JDS Development; via bloomberg.com)↑ JDS Developers hope to have the towers completed in 2017.Images via the... View full entry
The Landmarks Preservation Commission is set to consider a proposed $190 million renovation to the Ford Foundation...Although many aspects of the building have long been outdated...it is health and safety, not aesthetics or technology, that initially drove the foundation’s plans. The city has given Ford until 2019 to bring the building up to code for fire safety and handicapped accessibility... — Curbed
“...But since they had to scratch the building’s surfaces, Ford Foundation president Darren Walker and his staff decided to go further, upgrading not just by adding sprinklers to the ceilings and greater access to the atrium, but new security, new lighting and mechanicals, and a new spatial... View full entry
In Azure Magazine's annual AZ Awards, architects, designers, manufacturers, and students across the globe have a shot at getting their best work internationally recognized. Now in its sixth edition, the AZ Awards competition continues to grow. This year's call for submissions reeled in... View full entry
If Donald Trump were a building, he’d be Baroque-a-cola: It’s bombastic, pretentious, clumsy, tacky and absolutely over the top, just like he is. Most Baroque-a-cola structures are in the form of showy townhouses or McMansions, but downtown Denver has been unlucky enough to have witnessed the erection of several high-rises of the type... — Westword
Denver does have its historic architectural gems, but several recent developments in the city have been dull, if not straight-up hideous (What's with all the random patches of brick?). Writer Michael Paglia dives into Denver's “sea of awful architecture” and lists the city's “Hateful... View full entry
Described in a press release as a "spacious and distinctively contemporary gateway to the institution's existing complex of buildings," the new Pierre Lassonde Pavilion of the Musee National des Beaux Arts du Quebec by OMA appears to have an exceedingly functional quality. Admittedly, the building... View full entry
The way a building is envisioned to interact with people versus the way it actually does can be dramatically different, which is why the 16 films of Ila Bêka and Louise Lemoine are both aesthetically stunning and humanistically delightful. MoMA has acquired the pair's entire collection of work... View full entry
this plan creates a new complication all its own: a financing scheme that involves borrowing nearly $1.2 billion and extending five taxes beyond their expiration dates: Tax dollars collected in 2066 still would be paying off a deal cut a half-century earlier, in 2016. [...]
By law both proposed museum sites are submerged lake bottom and have special protections. [...] If you're a citizen, you own what's called a fractional beneficial interest in this public trust land. You can use it.
— Editorial Board – chicagotribune.com
Get caught up on the rocky development history of Chicago's Lucas Museum of Narrative Art:The Lucas Museum may have found a new location – but is it "a trap"?Chicago site of George Lucas' museum in legal battleChicago City Council approves construction of Lucas Museum of Narrative ArtLawsuit... View full entry
What happens in domestic interiors appears to be very relevant for our societies.
Bernd Upmeyer, Editor-in-Chief, April 2016
— http://www.monu-magazine.com/news.htm
What happens in domestic interiors appears to be very relevant for our societies. At least, that is what Andrés Jaque argues in our interview entitled "The Home as Political Arena" for this new issue of MONU. This issue, "Domestic Urbanism", deals with the domestic aspects of cities, and... View full entry
Sam Jacob Studio’s mixed-use development in the Hoxton Street conservation area retains the façade of the Victorian pub originally on the site while creating ground-floor community facilities with an apartment above.
The four-storey scheme will restore the last remaining piece of what was once a terraced street razed to the ground by bombing during the Second World War.
The new block is expressed as a curved wall punctured by diamond-shaped window openings.
— Architects' Journal
For more on Sam Jacob, or his former practice FAT, check out these links: FAT Announces The End of Its PracticeWild Potter Grayson Perry & FAT Design Shrine-like Cottage in EssexSam Jacob lecture at UK/CoDHome truths: architects tackle the housing crisis View full entry
Brooklyn is finally getting a new skyscraper development worthy of its 2.6 million populace. Today, the Landmarks Preservation Commission approved SHoP Architects‘ vision for 9 DeKalb Avenue, a rehabilitation of the landmarked Dime Saving Bank that will marry it with a dramatic, supertall skyscraper behind, the first 1,000+ foot building to arrive in the borough. To bring back more of the building’s grandeur, its exterior and interior spaces will be restored. — 6sqft.com
Newcastle’s Grade II-listed The Gibson Street Baths building was constructed in 1906 by FH Holford as a public swimming pool and wash house.
Informal planning guidance says the building could be converted for a range of uses, from private or student residential accommodation to leisure and sports facilities, a hotel, studios or restaurant. ‘The planners are going to be very flexible,’ says Riggall. ‘The city council really wants to see it brought back into use’.
— thespaces.com
More UK news stories:RIBA launches 2016 funding for new architecture researchBrunel’s Thames Tunnel transformed into an underground theatreTen Top Images on Archinect's "Bricks & Stones" Pinterest Board View full entry
postmodernism can be summed up in a single word: Memphis.
Although architectural incarnations such as Graves’s Portland Building in Oregon and Philip Johnson’s Chippendale-topped AT&T Building (now the Sony Tower) in New York generated heated discussion, it was the spectacle of Memphis objects that catapulted postmodern design into the public eye. [...]
postmodern designs, most often from Memphis affiliated names, are gaining market momentum
— blouinartinfo.com
The cycle continues.Related on Archinect:8 Reasons You Will Also Like Postmodern Architecture In 2016Can Helmut Jahn's Thompson Center be saved?Postmodern No 1 Poultry divides architects in debate over recent heritageMore is more: the gaudy genius of the late Deborah SussmanPortland Building still... View full entry
His architecture was an antidote to the era’s brazen showiness: subtle and natural instead of flashy and proudly artificial. Although he built a handful of private homes and public buildings from the ground up, his reputation was made by his reimaginings of centuries-old museums — commissions others might have scorned as too constrained by the past — in the process of which he created a road map for both honoring history and transcending it. — NYT
Nancy Hass praises Italy’s "less well known" Modernist Master, Carlo Scarpa. She touches on the influence of Frank Lloyd Wright and Japan in his work, as well his relationship to Venice. 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
Does Mayor Rahm Emanuel want to tear down the McCormick Place East building to make way for the controversial Lucas Museum of Narrative Art?
If reports to that effect are true, the move, which would demolish most of the massive structure, could be an olive branch to parks advocates dedicated to keeping the shoreline clear of buildings.
— Blair Kamin | the Chicago Tribune
"Yet the move could also be a trap. By signing off on a plan to allow the Lucas Museum to be built east of Lake Shore Drive, parks advocates would be trampling on the very principle they have used in federal court to block the museum backed by "Star Wars" creator George Lucas."For more on the... View full entry