Follow this tag to curate your own personalized Activity Stream and email alerts.
A District of Columbia preservation panel told the National Geographic Society on Thursday to suspend its current campus redesign plan pending further review of the proposed removal of an acclaimed sculptural installation on the site. — The New York Times
A controversial plan to demolish an existing stone sculpture located at the National Geographic headquarters complex in Washington, D.C. has hit a road block as the city's preservation board has asked the project team to reconsider their designs in an effort to save or repurpose the artwork... View full entry
A long simmering SOM-designed skyscraper pair slated for the former Chicago Spire site has taken a step forward in Chicago, where the city's planning commission has given the green light for the project to proceed. Now that the project has been approved by the Chicago Planning Commission, it... View full entry
A Los Angeles Superior Court judge has thrown out a lawsuit initiated against a series of high-rise developments slated for a stretch of Sunset Boulevard in Los Angeles's Hollywood neighborhood. The projects in question, The Los Angeles Times reports, include the 905-unit SOM... View full entry
Park claimed the design, construction and marketing of the tower ripped off a design he planned and modeled for his thesis at the Illinois Institute of Technology in 1999. He said his thesis adviser was an associate partner at SOM and a second senior partner from the architectural firm also reviewed his work...
The judge, however, wrote in a September order that these claims survive “only by the skin of their teeth, owing principally to the highly deferential standards on a motion to dismiss.”
— The Real Deal
Jeehon Park, a Georgia-based architect, sued Skidmore, Owings & Merril, Tishman Construction, the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, and The Durst Organization back in 2017. According to The Real Deal, an SOM spokesperson said, "While it is positive that so much of the case was... View full entry
This week Consultatio Real Estate and Skidmore, Owings & Merrill LLP (SOM) released renderings for Catalinas Rio, a waterfront office building designed to become the center of activity in Buenos Aires' Catalinas Norte business district expansion. As two adjacent towers, one rising 29 floors... View full entry
The City of Los Angeles Bureau of Engineering has announced a trio of finalist teams competing to redevelop the site of the former Parker Center police headquarters in the city's Civic Center district. Each of the teams, according to Urbanize.la, is each made up of designers, contractors... View full entry
In light of a recent breakthrough within the topic of space, the architecture design firm Skidmore, Owings, and Merrill (SOM) shares their partnership with the European Space Agency (ESA) and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) in designing the first "full-time human habitat on the... View full entry
With a 33-15 vote, the Chicago City Council [...] approved the Lincoln Yards planned development, clearing the way for Sterling Bay to move ahead with its $6 billion plan.
The developer faces a final hurdle next month when the City Council considers the creation of the Cortland/Chicago River tax-increment financing district, which would be used to subsidize infrastructure projects that would make Lincoln Yards more accessible.
— Crain's Chicago Business
Lincoln Yards previously in the Archinect news. Image: Lincoln Yards/Sterling Bay View full entry
New details and renderings have been released for 35 Hudson Yards, set to be the tallest residential tower in the Hudson Yards neighborhood at over 1,000 feet. The boutique apartments come with a wide array of in-house lifestyle services, some provided by the Equinox Hotel, which is part of the development. David Childs and Skidmore Owings & Merrill are the architects, while interior design is being led by Tony Ingrao. — New York YIMBY
To make 35 Hudson Yards your new home address, be prepared to open the checkbook extra wide — two-bedroom condos start at $5 million, while the average unit of the overall 134 apartments will set you back $11 million ($4,100 per square foot). The three penthouses have yet to be priced, reports... View full entry
Lincoln Yards, one of the most ambitious real estate projects ever proposed for the city’s North Side, was approved Thursday by the Chicago Plan Commission, an important step toward reshaping the city’s skyline and a large swath of land along the Chicago River.
Sterling Bay’s $6 billion plan for about 55 acres of riverfront land was approved during the commission’s monthly meeting.
— Chicago Tribune
The $6 billion master plan for Chicago's North Side, designed by Skidmore, Owings & Merrill, CBT Architects, and James Corner Field Operations, was unveiled to the public last summer. Image: Lincoln Yards/Sterling BayView the entire master plan in detail here (PDF, 7 MB). View full entry
Chicago's West Loop neighborhood celebrated the inauguration of its very first public library last Thursday. Designed by Skidmore, Owings & Merrill, the two-story library — which is the City of Chicago's 81st branch — was once part of the Harpo Studios campus and was donated to the city... View full entry
Aecom has been appointed by the United Nations to work on the renovation of its European headquarters in Geneva. [...]
The UN is looking to upgrade the systems at its 100,000 sq m Palais des Nations complex, much of which was built in the 1930s.
Aecom will work with architects SOM and Burckhardt+Partner to renovate the power, cooling, security and IT systems.
— Construction News
Completed in 1938 as the League of Nations HQ, the expansive Palace of Nations building complex has been the home of the United Nations Office at Geneva since 1946 (Switzerland actually did not join the UN until 2002). The Aecom/SOM team is joined by Swiss firm Burckhardt+Partner. View full entry
Skyscrapers as tall as 70 stories are part of a developer’s ambitious plan to bring 23,000 jobs and 5,000 homes to the Chicago River on the city’s North Side.
Those are among new details that Chicago developer Sterling Bay unveiled Wednesday night during the long-anticipated first public meeting for its planned Lincoln Yards project, a more-than-$5 billion development planned for at least 70 acres along the river between Lincoln Park and Bucktown [...].
— Chicago Tribune
The master plan was designed by Skidmore, Owings & Merrill and CBT Architects with James Corner Field Operations as the landscape design contributor. Image: Skidmore, Owings & Merrill View full entry
Maurice Cox grew up in Brooklyn, a borough whose name has since become a global shorthand for gentrification. An urban designer, architectural educator, and former mayor of the City of Charlottesville, VA, in 2015 Cox became head of the planning department of Detroit, where he hopes to prevent the forces that have reshaped his childhood home from taking over the Motor City. [...] Cox is using design to catalyze growth that’s incremental and closely in line with the city’s strong sense of self. — Urban Omnibus
Urban Omnibus presents an insightful conversation between Maurice Cox, Director of Planning and Development for the City of Detroit, and Marc Norman, founder of the consulting firm “Ideas and Action” and Associate Professor of Practice at UMich's Taubman School of Architecture and Urban... View full entry
A 56-storey tower called The Diamond is set to join the growing cluster of skyscrapers in the City of London and will be the financial district’s third-tallest building when completed.
The planned 263.4m tower at 100 Leadenhall Street will rank behind 1 Undershaft at 290m, nicknamed the Trellis, where work is yet to start, and 22 Bishopsgate, the reworked Pinnacle at 278m, which is under construction.
— The Guardian
Image: The Diamond.The City of London's third-tallest building has just received planning permission, and it will be somewhat of a déjà vu: the SOM-designed, wedge-shaped 56-story tower, officially called The Diamond, is going to sit right next to Richard Roger's Cheesegrater—London's OG wedge. View full entry
