We are happy to report another positive showing for the ABI this month as the index remained at 52.0 for the month of December. Prior to November, the volatile ABI showed the struggling and unstable conditions many practices were experiencing throughout 2011; yet, this month brings another bit of hope for the profession. “We saw nearly identical conditions in November and December of 2010 only to see momentum sputter and billings fall into negative territory as we moved through 2011, so it’s too early to be sure that we are in a full recovery mode,” said AIA Chief Economist, Kermit Baker, PhD, Hon. AIA. “Nevertheless, this is very good news for the design and construction industry and it’s entirely possible conditions will slowly continue to improve as the year progresses.” Regional breakdowns are as follows: Regional averages: South (54.2), Midwest (53.1), Northeast (52.6), West (45.1) and Multim-family residential led the sector index breakdown with 54.3. It was nice to finish the rocky year of 2011 with a consecutive positive index, and we’re optimistic for more improvement in 2012.
As we have shared previously on AD, Washington DC’s National Mall – America’s most visited national park with over 25 million visitors a year- is undergoing a total restoration. The $700 million project will be the first major renovation in over 35 years, and will focus on three sites of the Mall: Union Square, Sylvan Theater on the Washington Monument Grounds, and the Constitution Gardens. During an intensive three part competition, the jury first evaluated scores of portfolios to select up to eight designers per site; conducted team interviews to narrow the site designers to five; and finally, during Phase Three, the jury will hold a design competition for each site. We have just been notified byWeiss/Manfredi and OLINthat their team has been chosen to develop two of the three sites; no small feat for a competition that began with over 1,2000 designers. The multidisciplinary team of architecture, landscape and planning designers will develop proposals for both the Monument Grounds and the Constitution Gardens. We are excited to see what the team will develop, and we will keep you updated on the other Phase Three finalists and their proposals as we hear more.
Special thanks for Adam Goss from Spirit of Space for sharing this great clip of Harvard GSD “Waterline” studio led by Phil Enquist of SOM. When ArchDaily visited Chicago, our team had the chance to interview Enquist and gain some insight to his urban design and planning strategies, especially, the Beijing Central Business District and his Vision for the Great Lakes. This latest studio is a collaborative think tank of architecture, planning and landscape architecture students analyzing the Chicago River as a way to capitalize its potential to serve as a recreation, education, and transportation component of the city. Currently, the river is neglected and its presence is often ignored; yet, the students of Harvard are attempting to “rethink what the River means to the City” by questioning the existing relationships between River and City, and the public’s persepective and awareness of the river. Enquist’s multidisciplinary team is working to understand the issues of the river at large and by developing a larger, zoomed out, framework, smaller interventions can truly fuse to become a cohesive citywide system. We enjoyed listening to the students and seeing their passion for the river and its potential for Chicago, and we hope you enjoy the video, as well. Let us know what you think about the studio in the comments below.
Our friends from CEBRA have shared their new Information Center for Rebild Hills and Rold Forest, a winning competition entry in collaboration with HP Byg, Viggo Madsen and exhibition architect Elisabeth Topsøe. Situated in the amazing nature reserves of Denmark’s Rebild Hills and Rold Forest in northern Jutland, the project was conceptualized as an open and accommodating buiding that serves as a gathering place to inform, guide and inspire the 400,000+ visitors who are guided through the forests each year. “We have created an information portal, which is both building and nature, with a distinctive expression and character deriving directly from Nature’s own formal language and elements, which makes the building stand out from its surroundings and blend in with nature’s scenery at one and the same time,” explained CEBRA.
More about the project, including lots of CEBRA’s awesome hand drawings, after the break.
Check out this great video on one of our favorite landscape architects, James Corner. Named one of Time Magazine’s Game Changers - “innovators and problem-solvers that are inspiring change in America” – thousands have enjoyed Corner’s work on the High Line, and we are excited to monitor the progress of Corner’s recent joint win with SOM on Cornell’s NYC Tech Campus. The video sheds light upon Corner’s philosophy on landscape and how public spaces are a defining component of urban spaces. “…As designers, you bring an incredible sense of optimism and faith….and the capacity of good design to transform what may be perceived as negative to something very positive,” explained Corner. Overall, we found the video inspiring and we hope you enjoy it!
Opening tomorrow at the AA, Critical Territories will share the work of Groundlab and Plasma Studio -two interdisciplinary firms pushing the envelope of the relationship between and the expression of landscape design and architecture. The installation will share the firms’ top projects, such as the Xian International Horticultural Expo which we having been covering extensively on AD, by way of a site-specific grid arrangement of light boxes covered with technical drawings. The organization of the installation will showcase the underlying themes of the practices, namely their systemic approach and preoccupation with grids, ground and context. The exhibit will be run through February 11.
As a response to urban density, Waterstudio.NL has created a floating Sea Tree that would restore environmental value in crowded metropolises. The Sea Tree, a multilayered tower-esque structure, would inhabit the harbors and rivers surrounding major cities, such as New York, as a way to provide an opportunity for flora and fauna even when land is sparse.
Special thanks to Maziar Behrooz for sharing this lecture with us! Filmed during a PechaKucha event at the Parrish Art Museum, we enjoyed a good laugh while watching and hope you do, too. Behrooz’s selections made us wonder, what’s your favorite “inconvenient” piece of architecture? Be sure to share your thoughts below.
In his State of the State address last week, New York Governor Cuomo introduced the notion of replacing the Jacob Javits Center along Manhattan’s West Side with a new convention center in Queens. Such a plan envisions a 3.8 million-square-foot exhibition center at the Aqueduct Racetrack in Jamaica, Queens – a project that would become the largest convention center in the United States and a major urban redevelopment project. Through a joint-partnership with Genting Americas, the government would provide the land and Genting would provide the $4 billion to finance the convention center. “Let’s build the largest convention center in the nation, period,” Mr. Cuomo said. “It will be all about jobs, jobs, jobs, tens of thousand of jobs.”
We have been coveringRenzo Piano’s Shard for London throughout its design and construction process. Slated to become the tallest building in Europe, the Shard will make a remarkable impression of the London skyline, dwarfing most of the metropolis as the 1000ft+ tower streamlines toward the sky. The tower has been constructed in an era of economic uncertainty, and although its height alludes confidence and a feeling of power, as it takes shape, many question the motives behind the project and its future implications on the city.
We are continually impressed by the variety of projects from UNStudio’s office. The firm just unveiled a new vertical city highrise for Singapore previously featured on AD, and recently, the Dutch studio’s international air terminal and traffic control tower for Kutaisi was officially presented by Mikheil Saakashvili, President of Georgia. The country is growing quickly and changing rapidly, with new tourist and economic activity, plus different political developments. As such, the design for the new airport seeks to showcase Georgia new identity by providing a contemporary gateway to the country.
In early December, Ben van Berkel unveiled his firm’s latest design for a 31-storey residential tower in Singapore. The tower presents a new take on functional and flexible space, as the structure is conceived as a framework for a vertical city complete with landscaped gardens, sky terraces, roof gardens and recreational facilities. ”An interesting facet of the Scotts Tower is the way that it reacts to the urban context of Singapore. Instead of the more usual means of planning a city horizontally, we have created neighborhoods in the sky; a vertical city where each zone has its own distinct identity,” explained van Berkel.
In 2007, Zaha Hadid won an international design competition for the Broad Art Museum on the campus of Michigan State University. The 4000 m2 building, which is donated by alumnus Eli Broad and his wife, Edythe, will provide ample space for large art installations and galleries dedicated to “international contemporary culture and ideas through art.” The design takes cues from the surrounding topography as the volume seeks to extend and emphasize existing circulatory and visual connections. Manifested in a series of pleats, the building’s abstracted connections create linear perpsective lines that change are the vistor moves past and through the building, “creating great curiosity yet never fully revealing its content,” explained Hadid. Ground breaking began in March of 2010, and now, construction is nearing completion on the project, which is slated to open in April of this year.
Check out more construction photos, along with the competition proposal renderings, after the break.
Back in June, we sharedJDS‘ winning mixed use project for Hangzhou, China. Conceptualized as the iconic link that fuses two prominent parts of the city, the Hangzhou H project is a dynamic experiment of formal expression. The tiered volume opens pedestrian connections at the ground level, and supports a generous landscape that functions as a rain water retainer on the roof level. The young firm has just received the necessary building permits, and will begin construction in March of 2012. We’ll keep you covered on the building’s progress, and be sure to view our previous coverage of the winning competition proposal here.
As Manhattan grows and progresses, change, with regard to building performance, is inevitable. Many newly constructed buildings uphold sustainable standards from the start; yet, the city is overwhelming settled with existing structures that need some upgrading – case in point, the retrofit project of the Empire State building that will cut energy usage by close to 40% and carbon emissions by over 100,000 metric tons over the next 15 years. As the city tries to put its greenest face forward by retrofitting older buildings and adding sustainable features, zoning laws from the 1960s did not account for, and thus, in some cases do not allow, such changes.
Recently, the city has introduced its latest initiative, Zone Green, which Amanda Burden, Chair of the City Planning Commission, has called the most comprehensive effort of any U.S. city to sweep aside zoning obstacles to the construction and retrofitting of green buildings. ”Removing zoning impediments to green buildings will give building owners more choices to make investments that save money, save energy, and improve the quality of our environment,” explained Burden.
Check out this fun video of students from Carleton University enjoying a series of cool architecture installations at their annual public gala. This year, Barry J. Hobin & Associates Architects and GRC Architects with Wall Sound-Lighting.com and Graphic Carleton Services sponsored the efforts to transform the open hall with architectural interventions and installation art to create one of the largest student organized events in Ottawa. We love the tunnel that changes color and the metal slides on the grass – what’s your favorite?
With the New Year approaching, how will you give thanks for a great 2011? We are big supporters of Cameron Sinclair’s Architecture for Humanity and we hope this video will inspire you to join their efforts in some way in 2012. In the past few years, we have experienced serious natural disasters and Architecture for Humanity constantly provides a sense of stability, offering immediate help and a future plan for those most severely affected. In the past 12 years, the organization has built over 2250 structures in 44 countries - an amazing accomplishment that has impacted millions of people. How many more millions can we help in 2012? Check out Architecture for Humanity to join their team, and make this a resolution you will keep.
JDS has just been awarded first prize for their Hangzhou Waves scheme – a competition entry that called for the design of not one, but two buildings for the financial district of Hangzhou Xintiandi of Hangzhou, China. The two sloping volumes offer different exterior expressions and hold different programmatic entities (a hotel and an office building); yet, the forms are guided by similar attitudes regarding sunlight, green roofs, an active ground plane, etc, which immediately creates a strong relationship between the pair.
More about the winning competition entry after the break.
