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The Russian President Vladimir Putin opened Zaryadye Park near Red Square on 9 September, designed by Diller Scofidio + Renfro, creators of New York’s High Line, but what Moscow city officials are lauding as a “new symbol of Russia” preservationists are decrying as a travesty that impinges on the Kremlin and St Basil’s Cathedral, two of Russia’s most sacred landmarks. — The Art Newspaper
Diller Scofidio + Renfro's Zaryadye Park proposal for an ambitious replacement of the colossal Soviet-era Hotel Russia near the Kremlin in central Moscow won the international competition back in 2013 with a "wild urbanism" concept. Rendering of DS+R's Zaryadye Park project in central Moscow... View full entry
According to a press release from Apple, it will take six months to move all 12,000 employees into the 175-acre campus, which will officially open for occupancy in April. In addition to the 2.8 million square foot, naturally ventilated Foster + Partners'-designed "spaceship" building, the campus... View full entry
After months of antici.............pation, Herzog & de Meuron's Elbphilharmonie has finally opened, and a slew of luminaries, including Angela Merkel and the architects themselves, were in attendance to celebrate the inaugural concert. The event featured the debut of “Zum Raum wird hier die... View full entry
The world’s highest bridge officially opened Thursday in China, spanning a gorge that’s almost 2,000 feet deep.
The Beipanjiang Bridge in southwest China took three years to build, and cost $146.7 million. The four-lane structure stands 1,854 feet above the Beipan River below. [...]
Technically, France’s Millau Viaduct bridge still holds the title of world’s tallest bridge, thanks to the height of its towers rising from the valley floor. But its road bed is a mere 890 feet above the ground.
— MarketWatch
Photos by Eric Sakowski (Illustration of the completed bridge by Jon Fether, Jesus Catalan, Eric Sakowski); Images via HighestBridges.com.Related stories in the Archinect news:China's record-breaking glass bridge already closed again after two weeksWorld's longest and highest glass bridge opens... View full entry
On Friday October 7th, Steven Holl and Senior Partner Chris McVoy will be on hand to officially open the firm's Visual Arts Building for the University of Iowa, which in addition to being the only building in the United States that uses an integrated hydronic radiant heating and cooling system in... View full entry
From the outside, not much has changed. After a three-year, $69m renovation, the East Building of the National Gallery of Art (NGA) in Washington, DC, looks about the same as it did when it first opened in June 1978. [...]
Step inside and the differences become clear. The gallery, which reopens to the public on 30 September, has managed to carve out more than 12,250 sq. ft of additional exhibition space without expanding its physical footprint.
— theartnewspaper.com
↑ I.M. Pei, who designed the East Building, on the structure's original opening day, June 1, 1978. Photo © Dennis Brack/Black Star. National Gallery of Art, Washington, Gallery ArchivesRelated stories in the Archinect news:Louvre director plans its grand revampPei Cobb Freed faces lawsuit... View full entry
It's touted as the "world's highest and longest" glass-bottom bridge, elegantly stretched between two mountain peaks in central China's Hunan province.
And as of this weekend, it's open to visitors. Now, one can walk the 470-yard length of the glass bridge, which is positioned a vertigo-inducing 328 yards above the ground, as China's state-run news agency Xinhua reported.
The bridge is located in the Zhangjiajie National Forest [...].
— npr.org
Related stories in the Archinect news:China announces world's longest and highest glass bridgeChina opens 590-foot-high glass-bottom bridgeNow THAT's a skywalk! Jin Mao Tower to open world's highest fenceless, all transparent walkway in ShanghaiChinese glass-bottom walkway cracks below tourists... View full entry
The $1.5-billion second leg of the Expo Line, which opened Friday from Culver City to Santa Monica, adds seven light-rail stations and more than six miles of track to the growing Los Angeles County transit network. [...]
In the immediate context of L.A.'s attempts to turn its public-transit network from national punch line to something that increasingly resembles a mature system, 13 new Metro stations in less than three months qualifies as a pretty dramatic upgrade.
— latimes.com
The aggressively expanding LA Metro system in recent Archinect news stories:How LA is changing, one rail line at a timeWill LA's new metro extension bring growth to the city's peripheries?L.A. seeks to accelerate infrastructure projects in advance of potential Olympics View full entry
The Art University Bournemouth’s new drawing studio, designed by alumnus Sir Peter Cook, is to be officially today by Zaha Hadid. It is the first purpose-built drawing studio to open in the UK for 100 years and is the renowned architect and founding member of radical collective Archigram’s first building in the country.
The curved studio has been designed to emphasise natural light [...] there is a large circular north-light and a rear clerestory, which provides softer light.
— itsnicethat.com
Here are a few more images of the delightful little structure (via CRAB studio's website):Related news and feature stories on Archinect:Conversation with Peter Cook on the State of ThingsIn new exhibition, Sir Peter Cook reflects on architecture's possibilitiesExtraordinarily Beautiful... View full entry
Commissioned to convert an abandoned printing plant into a university art museum, Diller Scofidio + Renfro took inspiration from fresh fruit. The architects left the original building intact, stretching a sleek skin around it, split open at the front. The new Berkeley Art Museum will open next week with an exhibition that historically contextualizes Diller Scofidio + Renfro’s design process, and provides a formidable storehouse of ideas for future architecture. — forbes.com
Recent photo of the almost completed structure on January 21. (Image via @BAMPFA on Twitter.)Previously on Archinect: DS+R's new Berkeley Art Museum gets opening date View full entry
A pedestrian bridge designed by Olafur Eliasson has opened in Copenhagen, inspired by the Danish-Icelandic artist's childhood in Iceland.
Reminiscent of sailing boats, Cirkelbroen, or circle bridge, is made of five circular platforms in different sizes, each with its own "mast", according to Danish foundation Nordea-fonden [...].
Spanning the Danish capital's Christianshavn canal, the bridge, some 40 meters-long (131 feet), has a section that swings open to allow boats to pass through.
— reuters.com
Olafur Eliasson in the Archinect news:Olafur Eliasson Wants You to Design Utopia (Out of Legos)Olafur Eliasson turns Louisiana MoMA into a 'Riverbed'Olafur Eliasson receives 2014 McDermott Award in the Arts at MIT View full entry
Opening in October, Newport Street Gallery is the realisation of Hirst’s long-term ambition to share his diverse collection – which includes over 3,000 works – with the public. [...]
Designed by architects Caruso St John, Newport Street Gallery spans 37,000 square feet, which includes a restaurant and shop. Its construction has involved the conversion of three listed Victorian buildings [...].
— Damien Hirst
Previously: Damien Hirst's gallery development draws closer to completition View full entry
Dasha Zhukova’s Garage Museum for Contemporary Art is due to open the doors of its new $27m home in Gorky Park to invited guests on 10 June and the public two days later. The museum is housed in a Soviet-era pavilion that has been converted by the Dutch architect Rem Koolhaas [...].
In another riff on the building’s architecture, Garage will be hosting a conference in October on Soviet Modernism, a project of the Austrian curator Georg Schöllhammer [...].
— The Art Newspaper
To learn more about Garage's new Gorky Park building, click here.Previously on Archinect:Rem Koolhaas and Dasha Zhukova share what's in store for the new Garage MuseumGarage Museum Teaches an Old Building New Tricks View full entry
In over 140 years of making glass, [...] Corning Inc. has also established a reputation for commissioning first-rate works of architecture at its home base in this small city in the Finger Lakes region of New York. [...]
And now there’s a Contemporary Art + Design Wing by Thomas Phifer and Partners. Mr. Phifer is a New York architect whose intensely crafted minimalist sensibility comes as close as any American architect has to a Japanese aesthetic.
— wsj.com
Previously: An (almost seamless) Glass Museum View full entry
One World Observatory today announced that its official public opening date will be Friday, May 29, 2015. [...]
Positioned on top of the tallest building in the Western Hemisphere – on levels 100, 101, and 102 of the One World Trade Center building – One World Observatory will provide guests with unique, panoramic views of New York City, its most iconic sites, and surrounding waters from above 1,250 feet.
— One World Observatory
Visitors will board one of five dedicated elevators, termed Sky Pods, to ascend to the 102nd floor in under 60 seconds. Immersive, floor-to-ceiling LED technology in each cab invites guests to experience a virtual time-lapse that recreates the development of New York City’s skyline from the... View full entry