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The architecture giant Skidmore, Owings & Merrill LLP (SOM) has announced that they will open a new office in Dubai, a move intended to further their presence in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region. The office will be led by Thomas Behr, who will oversee all operations in the... View full entry
The LA-based developer City Century has filed a project application with the city planning department for a major new building complex design by SOM and P-A-T-T-E-R-N-S. Located at the intersection of Olympic and the 110, right across from the Staples Center and LA Live, the project would comprise... View full entry
The $350-million, 633,000-square-foot courthouse, designed by Skidmore, Owings & Merrill, is an unusually polished work of civic architecture — especially by the standards of Los Angeles...This is a building that wants to look respectable and rational but not staid, one that is fairly conventional on the horizontal plane and takes a significant if measured chance on the vertical one. Still, it’s a chance that pays off. — Christopher Hawthorne, Los Angeles Times
Christopher Hawthorne gives a thumbs up in his review of SOM's design for the now-completed Los Angeles U.S. Courthouse, which appears to “float” in mid-air. Don't forget to check out a virtual tour of the building in the video below. Previously on Archinect: LA Federal Courthouse under... View full entry
Chicago’s Union Station is slated to get a $1 billion facelift that could add up to 3 million sq. ft. of new buildings. Amtrak just announced a shortlist of four contenders for the gig, as reported by Chicago Real Estate Daily. The shortlist comprises the development firms John Buck, Riverside... View full entry
Looking for something new to do in Shanghai? Well, if you're someone who enjoys dangling off a terrifyingly high ledge with nothing but a safety rope to stop you from plunging to your death, then have we got an activity for you!
Tomorrow, a skywalk will open outside of the 88th floor of the Jin Mao Tower in Lujiazui. [...] it will be the highest fenceless, all transparent walkway outside a high-rise building in the world and is sure to scare you senseless, 340 meters above the ground.
— shanghaiist.com
For more terrifying photos, head over to Shanghaiist (if you can handle it).Related stories in the Archinect news:Chinese glass-bottom walkway cracks below tourists – 3,540 feet above groundChina opens 590-foot-high glass-bottom bridgeSorry, Willis Tower, but Shanghai Tower just kicked you out... View full entry
Skidmore, Owings & Merrill released new rendering of their proposal for a master plan for Philadelphia’s 30th Street Station Precinct. Described as a “long-awaited vision of a bold, fully-integrated mixed-use urban district, with a vibrant transformation hub situated at its core,” the... View full entry
The first permanent publicly-viewable artwork by Refik Anadol, a media artist known for his immersive, site-specific light installations, was recently unveiled in San Francisco. Virtual Depictions: San Francisco, a series of "data sculptures" based on a publicly-available dataset, occupies a... View full entry
A research team from Oak Ridge National Laboratory's (ORNL) Department of Energy has created a new model for how we can connect the way we power our homes and vehicles. Dubbed AMIE... the platform features special technology that allows a bi-directional flow of energy between a dwelling and a vehicle. In other words, the house can fuel the car and the car can fuel the house. What's more, ORNL used 3D printing technology to build the dwelling and the vehicle... — Gizmag
AMIE, or Additive Manufacturing Integrated Energy, is a hybrid of different futuristic technologies, mashed together into a single platform. First, both the house and the vehicle were 3D printed.The former, a single-room structure, was designed in collaboration with Skidmore, Owings and Merril and... View full entry
We updated our methodology to include new metrics: percentage of women and minority designers; range and value of employee benefits; rate of employee turnover. — Architect Magazine
What defines a successful architectural firm? For Architect Magazine, it's a blend of diversity in staffing, sustainability, and overall design savvy/business acumen. Accordingly, big names Gensler, SOM, and Perkins + Will snagged places in the top five, while Adrian Smith + Gordon Gill... View full entry
Construction is slated to start this month on what-will-be the world's first high-rise residential tower built according to Passive House (PH) standards, considered the most rigorous criteria for reducing a building's greenhouse gas emissions. Passive houses, such as the building on the right in... View full entry
“The architecture becomes a solution to an almost unsolvable puzzle,” Ingels told me one recent morning. — WIRED Magazine
Last week Archinect broke the news that Bjarke Ingels' BIG had taken over the design of Two World Trade Center from Foster + Partners, and today BIG has released its first renderings of its proposed new design. Foster's slanted quadruple diamond crown has been nixed in favor of a stepped-back... View full entry
The technology of supertall buildings is a bit like genetic testing or nuclear energy: a volatile form of power. Technological capacities have outpaced our judgment. We know we can do it, but we don’t know when not to do it. And so some endlessly wealthy mogul [...] will eventually move into a preposterously expensive penthouse so far above the Earth’s crust that the air is thin and gales hammer at the glass. A mile’s not science fiction. It’s not even an outer limit. — nymag.com
Archinect Sessions is proud to have Brian Newman of Dykema Gossett PLLC as our official legal correspondent, offering insight into the legal quagmire of architectural practice. Brian is a regular guest on the podcast, dishing out advice to make every architect better informed and protected... View full entry
Skidmore, Owings & Merrill can update their track record of AIA awards with the recent win of their sixth AIA Twenty-Five Year Award for the Exchange House at the Broadgate development in central London. Since 1969, the AIA bestows its sought-after Twenty-Five Year Award to a completed... View full entry
“It’s not so bad,” offered an architect who has a window facing the building.
Alas, it is.
Like the corporate campus and plaza it shares, 1 World Trade speaks volumes about political opportunism, outmoded thinking and upside-down urban priorities. It’s what happens when a commercial developer is pretty much handed the keys to the castle.
— The New York Times
