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Chicago’s most infamous vacant site of the 21st century is finally getting a tower. But will we be getting the architect’s best vision — or just half of a good design? A look at some recent history of large projects in the city offers some guidance, and reason for concern.
I have no reason to doubt Related’s stated intention to build both towers, but if history is a guide, it’s more likely than not that the single tower will never see its sibling.
— Chicago Tribune
The Windy City's newest architecture critic, Edward Keegan, explains 400 Lake Shore Drive (designed by SOM's Chicago office with David Childs) against five other similar projects that never saw the original vision of their architects fully realized. He says a potential void might become a... View full entry
Skidmore, Owings & Merrill has shared photos of its new bus shelter designs for the City of Los Angeles. The LA STAP (short for Sidewalk and Transit Amenities Program) shelters are the first prototype designs for the initiative that will eventually install 3,000 shelters and 450 shade... View full entry
Skidmore, Owings, and Merrill has announced a new partnership with the Swiss energy storage company Energy Vault Holdings that will produce a series of prototype designs for deployable structures and vertical energy storage units up to 1,000 meters (3,280 feet). Led by SOM Partners Adam... View full entry
Skidmore, Owings, and Merrill has announced plans for a new satellite concourse at Chicago O’Hare International Airport along with Ross Barney Architects, Juan Gabriel Moreno Architects, and Arup. What will become the first new building in the airport’s largest expansion in 68 years... View full entry
The new home for the recently established MIT Stephen A. Schwarzman College of Computing at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in Cambridge, Massachusetts, has been completed by Skidmore, Owings & Merrill. What will be a research hub for AI and other disciplines in the computing... View full entry
Electric vehicle maker Rivian has pressed pause on the construction of a major manufacturing plant in Stanton Springs, Georgia. As we reported late last year, the company selected Clayco and Skidmore, Owings & Merrill to deliver the 1,800-acre complex. Previously on Archinect: Clayco and SOM... View full entry
New updates have been shared recently by the Los Angeles Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA), charting progress on the $750 million new David Geffen Galleries from Peter Zumthor that is expected to finish construction by the end of this year. According to the museum's most recent April 5th... View full entry
Following last week’s look at an opening for Visiting Faculty Fellowships in Design for Spatial Justice at the University of Oregon, we are using this week’s edition of our Job Highlights series to explore an open role on Archinect Jobs for a Technical Architect - US Government Work at... View full entry
Skidmore, Owings & Merrill (SOM) and Mithun have announced they are collaborating on a new student housing project for the University of California, Santa Barbara (USCB). The two-phase project will deliver accommodations for 4,000 students by 2029, led by the new 2,140-bed San Benito complex... View full entry
SOM has unveiled the newly completed Star River Headquarters project in Guangzhou, China, which it says is emblematic of the city’s late transformation into a national destination for trade and cultural tourism. The 918-foot-tall office tower was realized at Pazhou Island and anchors a new... View full entry
The much-publicized void left behind in the wake of Santiago Calatrava’s failed Chicago Spire proposal is finally being attended to, as now the Chicago Sun-Times and other outlets are reporting on developer Related Midwest’s start of construction for the SOM-designed replacement at 400 Lake... View full entry
LACMA’s Unframed blog recently profiled the work of contractor Clark Construction to build the concrete structure for the Peter Zumthor-designed $750 million new David Geffen Galleries extension. The concrete will be left untreated to match its architect’s long-established aesthetic and... View full entry
SOM has completed work on their Two Manhattan West tower project to culminate the shorter second half of its $4.5 billion mixed-use Manhattan West development in New York City. The four-year construction effort yielded a total two million square feet of new office space that was built above... View full entry
The groundbreaking on SOM’s $550 million William H. Gray III 30th Street Station redevelopment was held in Philadelphia this month in advance of the next 50-year leg of the historic building’s journey in service to commuters who first began making use of it in 1933. Gilbane will be directing... View full entry
Skidmore, Owings & Merrill (SOM) have shared photos of their new U.S. DOT Volpe National Transportation Systems Center project in Cambridge, Massachusetts following the building’s formal public inauguration in September. The 13-story, 410,000-square-foot building reclaims an existing 14-acre lot... View full entry
