A South Bay developer is reimagining an outdated Cupertino mall by building the world’s largest green roof on top of it.
The Vallco Shopping Mall, bought by Sand Hill Property Company for $316 million last year, is destined to become a 30-acre elevated public park that will connect shops to offices, trails and vineyards.
The $3 billion design was inspired by “starchitect” Rafael Viñoly, who is working alongside Olin Landscape Architects to replace most [of] the Valleco Shopping Mall...
— CBS
Prospects look promising right now for the Glasgow School of Art as their plan to restore the historic Mackintosh Building from a devastating fire last May pieces itself together. After months of debate about whether to restore or replace the Mackintosh, locally based Page\Park Architects won the... 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
In western Europe, the bus stop is the most humble of building types, a meanly utilitarian structure that adds little or nothing to the roadside. But in the old Soviet empire, from the shores of the Black Sea to the Kazakh steppe, the norm is “wild going on savage”, as Jonathan Meades writes in a beautiful new photobook featuring 159 bus stops, each illuminating “the Soviet empire’s taste for the utterly fantastical”. — theguardian.com
Find more of these beauties photographed by Christopher Herwig for the new book Soviet Bus Stops over at The Guardian.Related stories on Archinect:Community Bus Stops Transform BrazilWorld Class Architects Design Bus Stops in AustriaHigh Tech Bus Stop in Paris by Patrick Jouin View full entry
Moscow's landscape is filled with Soviet-era buildings, many of them shuttered after the privatisation programme of the Nineties. Built for the people's benefit, they are now shut away off from public access, patrolled by security guards, most of whom never dream of exploring the upper floors.
But it is the roof of the Moscow pavilion that brings us here. Because of its concave shape the roof looks like a giant skate ramp. My friends and I want to see if it can perform like one too.
— calvertjournal.com
Head over to Calvert Journal for many more stunning photos by Pasha Volkov.In other daring-Russian-kids news on Archinect:Skywalking - hacking architecture in RussiaHong Kong, from the perspective of crazy, fearless Russian kids View full entry
When the 70th regular session of the General Assembly convenes on Sept. 15, it will do so in a complex of buildings that hasn’t looked so good or felt so secure in generations.
“We now have a very safe compound,” said Michael Adlerstein, [...] executive director of a seven-year, $2.15 billion renovation, known as the capital master plan, that is nearing completion. More visible than anything else is the robust yet crystalline new glass facade of the 39-story Secretariat building.
— nytimes.com
A City of London skyscraper, nicknamed the Walkie Talkie, has won the annual Carbuncle Cup, awarded to a building judged to be the UK's worst.
In its short history, the 37-storey office tower has melted parked cars and critics have compared its three-storey roof garden to an airport terminal.
Thomas Lane, who runs the awards, said the carbuncle "crashes into London's skyline like an unwelcome party guest".
— bbc.com
Previously:Walkie Talkie Tower summons the elements again — this time it's wind!'Walkie Scorchie’ building given permanent sunshadeRafael Viñoly-designed "Walkie Talkie" skyscraper melts car with light reflections'Prison-like' student housing wins Carbuncle Cup for Britain's worst building of... View full entry
When Barack Obama's people announced last week that they are searching worldwide for an architect for the Obama Presidential Center in Chicago, they won no points for transparency. [...]
Having consulted sources, I can now name 11 of the firms and observe that they are A) Of high caliber; B) Represent a broad geographic and aesthetic spectrum; and C) Include the established firms one would expect to be invited.
— chicagotribune.com
Rumors have been running wild which architects were among the 50+ selected firms to receive RFQs from the White House for the design of the Obama Presidential Center in Chicago.While Martin Nesbitt, chairman of the Barack Obama Foundation, remains tight-lipped about names of the invited... View full entry
For almost twenty years, The Finnish Committee for the Restoration of Viipuri Library worked to restore Alvar Aalto's rarely seen Viipuri library. Located in Vyborg, Russia, which was under Finnish rule when the library was originally conceived (hence its occasional moniker of the Vyborg Library)... View full entry
A shortlisted finalist in the 2015 World Architecture Festival awards, CRG Architects' Bamboo Skyscraper is not only noteworthy for its unusual choice of material, but its vision of what constitutes a skyscraper. Instead of focusing on a single prominent tower, the design is a cluster of... View full entry
Mitsubishi Estate Co. says it will construct a 390-meter-high building, making it Japan’s tallest, as part of redevelopment project near Tokyo Station.
The structure will overtake the 300-meter-tall Abeno Harukas in the city of Osaka.
Mitsubishi Estate hopes the new building will serve both as a centerpiece of a major business district and tourist destination, officials said Monday.
— japantimes.co.jp
More recent Tokyo architecture news:It's lights out at the old Okura: reconstruction of the iconic Tokyo hotel starts next weekNot over yet: Zaha Hadid releases 23-minute film pushing for Tokyo Olympic StadiumTokyo begins farming produce beneath its subway lines View full entry
The elements of the Broad that have been most closely scrutinized or most often reworked, in fact, are the most uneven. It is only in the relative shadows — in the peripheral or easily overlooked spaces, or in the rooms added or enlarged late in the design process — that the architecture of the museum really comes to life. — latimes.com
More on The Broad on Archinect:What makes an artless museum?So what's new at the Broad?DS+R's Broad Museum set to open on Sept. 20, with a Feb. 15 previewIs The Broad Museum's newly unveiled facade living up to its renderings? View full entry
Islamic State has destroyed part of another ancient temple in the Syrian city of Palmyra, according to activists on social media and a group monitoring the conflict, this time targeting the Temple of Bel. [...]
It is the second temple that Islamic State has attacked in Palmyra this month. On 25 August, the group detonated explosives in the ancient Baal Shamin temple, an act that the cultural agency Unesco has called a war crime aimed at wiping out a symbol of Syria’s diverse cultural heritage.
— theguardian.com
Previously in the Archinect news:ISIS blows up 2,000-year-old Baalshamin temple in PalmyraISIS beheads leading archaeologist in PalmyraISIL destroys ancient mausoleums in historic Palmyra 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
Tokyo’s venerable Hotel Okura is getting a remake, starting next week.
Over the course of the past 53 years since its opening on May 20, 1962, the Okura, located in Toranomon, has earned an unsurpassed reputation both at home and abroad as a luxury hotel to represent Japan.
The hotel said in a statement that it will maintain the Japanese traditional aesthetics and the basics of the architecture style of Hotel Okura.
— japantoday.com
Previously on Archinect: As the Okura says sayonara, Tokyo doesn't seem to care muchFarewell to the Old Okura And before the wrecking ball ends an era of Japanese 1960s Modernism to make way for the new, shiny, 41-story, $836M Okura Hotel, here a few more impressions of all its glory on the... View full entry