“It’s a clear, simple and concise concept,” says Thomas Corrato, project architect with Hickok Cole, the Washington firm that created the design. “The idea was about how to make the space a connection between architecture and the person on the street.”
The design also aims at changing how people perceive the profession. “We’re viewed as possibly compared to lawyers, and that’s a low hurdle,” says Michael Hickok, partner in Hickok Cole.
— washingtonpost.com
As the collection grew over the years, gallery space was lost to storage. Moreover, the building, designed by Eliel Saarinen, hadn’t been updated since it opened, in 1942, leaving it “no longer adequate to create a proper conservation or display environment,” said Reed Kroloff, the academy’s director. — nytimes.com
While the drawbacks of the Brutalist building, dedicated in 1975, have been known for years, two options mentioned in the GAO report, beyond modernizing the existing structure, could spell big changes for the building and downtown. The first: "[D]emolish the Hoover Building and construct a new headquarters on the existing site." And the second: "[A]cquire a new headquarters on a new site." — huffingtonpost.com
*Definitely gooier and weirder than your everyday parametrics. Maybe Spongebob Squarepants could live in one of these; otherwise, you’d be hard-put.
*But hey, great window-treatments!
— Beyond the Beyond
Bruce Sterling on some images featuring the work of some SCI-Arc Fall 2011 Midterm students. The images, can be found on a site promoting iGeo a free and open source 3D modeling software library in Java for computational design in architecture, product design, interaction design and more. View full entry
Both the two- and three-story buildings, quakeproof and made from freight containers, were designed by architect Shigeru Ban. The second and third floors have balconies. Units are built in a staggered fashion to curb noise disturbance. — japantimes.co.jp
The iconic Media-TIC building in Barcelona, designed by Spanish architects Cloud 9, has beaten off competition from hundreds of buildings around the globe to win the ‘World Building of the Year 2011’ award at the prestigious World Architecture Festival (WAF) Awards in Barcelona. — bustler.net
The Development Association for Renewable Energies (DARE) – an NGO based in Nigeria – is almost finished with an incredible two-bedroom bungalow entirely out of plastic bottles. Although many in Kaduna were dubious when the project began construction in June this year, the nearly-complete home is bullet and fireproof, earthquake resistant, and maintains a comfortable interior temperature of 64 degrees fahrenheit year round. — Inhabitat
As his life wound down, and cancer claimed his body, his great passion was designing Apple’s new, three-million-square-foot headquarters, in Cupertino. Jobs threw himself into the details. “Over and over he would come up with new concepts, sometimes entirely new shapes, and make them restart and provide more alternatives,” Isaacson writes. He was obsessed with glass, expanding on what he learned from the big panes in the Apple retail stores. — newyorker.com
“There would not be a straight piece of glass in the building,” Isaacson writes. “All would be curved and seamlessly joined. . . . The planned center courtyard was eight hundred feet across (more than three typical city blocks, or almost the length of three football fields), and... View full entry
Despite strident appeals from some neighbors, it looks like Zaha Hadid is coming to San Diego.
The city’s planning commission on October 20 approved a request to have Hadid and San Diego firm Public demolish an existing house on 8490 Whale Watch Way in La Jolla and replace it with a 12,700 square foot residence with four bedrooms, six bathrooms, and an indoor pool.
— archpaper.com
Following up on the festive opening ceremony of the Tel Aviv Museum of Art's brand new Herta and Paul Amir Building last week, we have received photos from the celebrations on October 30.Just a few hours later, on November 1, the auditorium was also the venue for a symposium on the architecture of... View full entry
The winning entries have been published at the international Hotel Liesma Design Ideas Competition for a music-themed upscale hotel in Jurmala, an important leisure and cultural site in the Gulf of Riga, in Latvia. Winner of the First Prize is Portuguese architect João Maria de Paiva Ventura Trindade of Lisbon-based VENTURA TRINDADE architects, Ida. — bustler.net
Today's the last day of the largest global celebration of architecture, the World Architecture Festival in Barcelona, and while the programs and parties slowly commence, we're happy to announce the World Architecture Festival Awards Category Winners of day one and day two on our sister site... View full entry
Wojcicki said the new campus — three adjacent buildings including Frank Gehry-designed Binoculars Building — would also help Google attract candidates from area colleges and universities... The company's focus on Web search is evoked by the iconic binocular sculpture at the site, created by Claes Oldenburg and Coosje van Bruggen. — latimes.com
On Wednesday Lord Foster announced a plan so big that even Burnham would have been impressed. The Thames Hub, a £50bn project devised by architects Foster and Partners, planners and builders Halcrow and Volterra, a consultancy group of British economists, aims to revolutionise Britain's often creaking and largely inadequate national transport and energy infrastructure. — guardian.co.uk
Tomorrow, November 2, the Tel Aviv Museum of Art will celebrate the public opening of its $55 million Herta and Paul Amir Building. The 195,000-square-foot building adds a visionary work of contemporary architecture to the Museum’s campus in the heart of Tel Aviv and provides a new international landmark for Israel’s cultural capital. — bustler.net
See also our recent in-depth ShowCase Feature on the building. View full entry