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The Obama Foundation announced yesterday the conclusion of a four-year-long federal review process for the Obama Presidential Center (OPC), and intent to break ground on the Center in 2021. The City of Chicago has already scheduled the start of pre-construction work due for April, which will... View full entry
A groundbreaking ceremony has just taken place for the Monument to Freedom and Unity, in central Berlin. The 50m-long (164ft) bowl will move gently up and down when enough people stand on it, and it should be completed by the end of next year.
In a guide to the design, architects Milla & Partner, who won a competition called "Citizens in Motion", say "freedom and unity aren't static conditions, they require participation and interaction".
— BBC
The monument, nicknamed "unity seesaw" by Berliners, is conceived as an enormous bowl-shaped kinetic platform that invites people to interact with each other. Image courtesy of Milla & Partner Stuttgart-based practice Milla & Partner in collaboration with choreographer Sasha Waltz created the... View full entry
Warner Bros. on Tuesday officially broke ground on a pair of Frank Gehry-designed office towers, which when completed will mark a major expansion of the Burbank-based movie and TV studio’s headquarters. [...]
The construction endeavor is part of a larger expansion of Warner Bros.’ footprint in the area that includes the acquisition of Burbank Studios.
— Los Angeles Times
The groundbreaking ceremony for the high-profile Second Century Project was joined by California Governor Gavin Newsom, Burbank's new Mayor Sharon Springer, Warner Bros. Chair and CEO Ann Sarnoff, and architect Frank Gehry himself. Yesterday, Gov. @GavinNewsom and Burbank Mayor Sharon Springer... View full entry
A groundbreaking ceremony will be held Thursday for the 2.25-mile Automated People Mover at Los Angeles International Airport, which aims to cut down on auto traffic traveling in and out of the airport, officials announced Monday.
The project has a targeted opening date of 2023.
— NBC Los Angeles
Rendering of the people mover train above the terminal loop.Earlier this morning, LA Mayor Eric Garcetti and other city officials celebrated the kick-off of what will be one of the most significant upgrades to Los Angeles International Airport—an elevated Automated People Mover system that will... View full entry
In one of their latest developments in Taiwan, MVRDV announced the groundbreaking of their upcoming Tainan Xinhua Fruit and Vegetable Market. Designed with LLJ Architects, the open-air wholesale produce market transforms an often-overlooked part of the food industry into a public experience... View full entry
Construction work on the enormous The Grand development (formerly known as Grand Avenue Project) is finally underway in Downtown Los Angeles. Delayed for years and nearly believed dead, the $1-billion mixed-use complex vis-à-vis the Walt Disney Concert Hall and The Broad museum recently... View full entry
MAD Architects unveiled their scheme for the upcoming “Courtyard Kindergarten”, which will be located within a traditional siheyuan courtyard in Beijing that dates back to 1725. Currently under construction, the kindergarten is expected to be operating by fall 2019. Rendering by SAN.The... View full entry
“Fitts-Woolard Hall will be a state-of-the-art facility that truly supports our vision of collaborative, interdisciplinary instruction, research and innovation,” states NC State University Chancellor, Randy Woodson. “This project is vital to the future of the College of Engineering.” — NC State University
NC State University has broken ground on Fitts-Woolard Hall, a new $150 million engineering building on Centennial Campus. In the past 10 years, engineering undergraduate enrollment at NC State has grown by 22 percent, and graduate enrollment has more than doubled. Designed by Clark Nexsen, the... View full entry
After several years of planning and proposals in different cities, the Lucas Museum of Narrative Art, funded by the “Star Wars” filmmaker George Lucas, is breaking ground today on a new building here that its leaders predict will take about four years to complete.
Designed by Ma Yansong of MAD Architects, the museum will occupy a corner of Exposition Park, an urban hub near the University of Southern California that already contains three museums [...].
— The New York Times
Image courtesy of Lucas Museum of Narrative Art.After protective fencing went up last month at its Exposition Park site in South Los Angeles, the $1-billion Lucas Museum of Narrative Art, designed by MAD Architects, finally broke ground today. View full entry
One year after Los Angeles unexpectedly won the right to host the Lucas Museum of Narrative Art, the spaceship-like project is now ready to push dirt in Exposition Park. Protective fencing now encircles the site of filmmaker George Lucas' $1-billion legacy project, which replaces two parking lots at the intersection of 39th Street and Vermont Avenue. The eventual four-story, 115-foot-tall building will feature[...] Lucas' 10,000-piece collection, a library, two theaters, classrooms, and offices. — urbanize.LA
Image courtesy of Lucas Museum of Narrative Art.Exposition Park in South Los Angeles has already a number of high-profile construction projects going on (new MLS soccer stadium and Coliseum makeover to host the 2028 Summer Olympics) or on the books, and the $1-billion Lucas Museum of Narrative... View full entry
Tokyo has held a groundbreaking ceremony for a $1.5bn (£1.2bn) national stadium that will host the 2020 Olympic Games.
The prime minister, Shinzo Abe, Tokyo’s governor, Yuriko Koike, and other dignitaries attended the event on Sunday at the site of the demolished national stadium that was used during the 1964 Tokyo Olympics. [...]
The ceremony ended with a video showing how the stadium is expected to look and function once completed by November 2019.
— The Guardian
A quick refresher, here are just a few instances of the Tokyo Olympic Stadium saga in the Archinect news:Kengo Kuma selected for new Tokyo Olympic StadiumKengo Kuma & Toyo Ito rumored to be designers behind new Tokyo Olympic Stadium proposalsTokyo Olympics refusing to pay Zaha Hadid for work... View full entry
The University of Notre Dame in Notre Dame, Ind., has broken ground on a new home for the university's architecture school. [...]
The new building will enable the university’s School of Architecture to add two graduate programs: historic preservation and real estate development. Walsh Family Hall will be the second element of a planned arts quadrangle. [...]
The hall is designed by John Simpson Architects of London; Stantec is the architect of record.
— asumag.com
Learn more about the new building— a prime example of New Classicism— on the School of Architecture's website.Related stories in the Archinect news:London Architect John Simpson to Design New Architecture Building at Notre DameScott Merrill wins the 2016 Driehaus Prize View full entry
A groundbreaking ceremony has taken place in Copenhagen for Foster + Partners’ headquarters for Ferring Pharmaceuticals.
The 39,000 square metre office is located on the urban fringe of the city in Kastrup, near the international airport, where it is possible to see the Swedish city of Malmö, where Ferring was founded.
The structure is made up of a triangular glass building that appears to float above a stone plinth, which also acts as its first line of defence against floods.
— globalconstructionreview.com
Other recent Foster + Partner stories in the Archinect news:Construction begins on major Foster + Partners project in SwedenApple's spaceship campus, by the numbers (including an estimated $5b price tag)What does a $1 million dollar staircase look like? View full entry
A ceremonial groundbreaking on February 6 marked the official kick off for construction of the ambitious Norton Museum of Art expansion in West Palm Beach, Florida. The event went hand-in-hand with the annual gala later that day celebrating the Museum’s 75th anniversary. Lord Foster, design... View full entry
A handful of Steven Holl-designed buildings will be popping up in the next few years, with the groundbreaking of the Maggie's Centre Barts in London last month and construction of the Queens Library already underway in New York. Steven Holl Architects recently announced the groundbreaking of... View full entry
