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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
Progress on the second highest tower in the Hudson Yards mega-development has reached a milestone. 35 Hudson Yards has officially topped out at 1,009 feet. Now that it has reached that height, it is the ninth tallest structure in New York City and 19th tallest in the United States. Related Companies and Oxford Properties Group are responsible for the development. Next door, 30 Hudson Yards is tantalizingly close to topping out, but the milestone has not yet officially occurred. — New York YIMBY
Rendering of what the completed 35 Hudson Yards will look like. Image courtesy of Related-Oxford. View full entry
Skidmore, Owings & Merrill LLP (SOM) together with Zyscovich Architects and Rockwell Group, have completed three new stations for Brightline, Florida's new public transit rail service. Designed by SOM in association with Zyscovich Architects. Image © Smilodon CGThe largest private... View full entry
The long-awaited vision for the 2.2-acre site along the Chicago River and Lake Michigan, unveiled in the first community meeting for the project, is toned down a bit from the 2,000-foot-tall Spire plan that stirred emotions but never advanced beyond a 76-foot-deep foundation hole. The design, by One World Trade Center architect David Childs, includes a south tower rising 1,100 feet and an 850-foot north tower. — Chicago Tribune
Ever since work on Santiago Calatrava's 2,000-foot-tall Chicago Spire came to a halt in 2008 due to financial troubles, the city was left with a gaping hole in the ground rather than the nation's tallest building. Rendering: Related Midwest.A new proposal by Related Midwest for a pair of towers... View full entry
Next fall, Indiana University announced Monday, the building will house the university’s new master of architecture program, serving as an outpost of the flagship Bloomington campus 36 miles to the west. But this will be no ordinary outpost.
Columbus, a small-town architectural mecca, boasts buildings by such renowned architects as Eliel and Eero Saarinen, I.M. Pei and Chicago’s Harry Weese.
— Chicago Tribune
Blair Kamin tells the story of the former The Republic newspaper building—a modernist gem designed by SOM partner Myron Goldsmith and opened in 1971—which will soon find a second life as Indiana University's new architecture graduate program studio in Columbus, Indiana. View full entry
Skidmore, Owings & Merrill just revealed designs for a new mixed-use skyscraper in the eastern Chinese city of Hangzhou, a rapidly growing metropolis with a population of nearly 10 million and host of the Asian Games in 2022. The 280-meter-tall, 54-story Hangzhou Wangchao Center makes a strong... View full entry
270 Park Avenue, also known as the Union Carbide Building, is slated for demolition. Designed by Skidmore Owings & Merrill partner, Natalie Griffin de Blois, and completed in the early 60s, the mid-century office tower will be town down in order for the building's owner, JPMorgan Chase, to... View full entry
Earlier today, news broke that the De Blasio administration has hashed out a deal with JPMorgan Chase to demolish its existing headquarters at 270 Park Avenue, and replace the structure with a shiny new 70-story building. The deal was negotiated in the wake of the Midtown East rezoning, which loosened zoning regulations for the area in exchange for developers providing street-level and infrastructure improvements. — Curbed New York
Not so fast! said architecture critics and preservationists when news broke that the midcentury 270 Park Avenue tower in Manhattan's East Midtown, currently home of banking giant JPMorgan Chase, had quietly been selected—not for landmark designation—but for the chopping block. Designed by... View full entry