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Rogers Stirk Harbour & Partners’ Leadenhall Building became the tallest building in the City of London when it topped out on June 18th. The 50 story tower opposite Lloyd’s of London rises to a height of 224.5 meters 802 feet), its slender form creating its own distinctive profile within an emerging cluster London. The building’s tapering profile is prompted by a requirement to respect views of St Paul’s Cathedral, in particular from Fleet Street. The building comprises a number of distinct architectural elements that provide clarity to the composition both as a whole and as a legible expression of its constituent parts. These elements include the primary stability structure, the ladder frame, the office floor plates, the northern support core, the external envelope and the public realm.
More images and video of The Leadenhall Building after the break...
Last year interdisciplinary architecture firm Höweler + Yoon Architecture were announced the winners of the Audi Urban Future Award for the project Boswash:Shareway 2030. The City Dossier in Boston, held this May, was organized as a series of workshops between Höweler + Yoon Architecture and Audi experts in developing steps to realize aspects of the Boswash: Shareway vision. Part research project, part feasibility study, part road map to the future of mobility - the focus of the workshops is to propose a pilot project that can be tested in the proposed region of Boston - Washington.
We featured the project last year as it highlights how the landscape of urban development has changed. The focus of "Shareway" is the string of high-density metropolitan areas, their suburbs and ex-urbs along I-95 between Boston, MA and Washington, DC. The I-95 corridor caters to some fifty million inhabitants, many of whom commute into metropolitan areas for work. Mobility and transportation are critical to the economic vitality of these urban areas; "Shareway" proposes an intentionally re-engineered "highly orchestrated and deliberately produced platform from which we might imagine alternate paths, different trajectories, or new cultural dreams" whereby imagining an "alternate life for the road" is imagining a new American Dream.
Read on for more on the progress of this project after the break.
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The revamped Transbay Transit Center in downtown San Francisco broke ground earlier this week, a project that will introduce a 1.5 million square foot development that will be part transportation hub, part public park and urban space, and part offices and retail establishments. The massive undertaking, designed by renowned architecture firm Pelli Clarke Pelli will bring together 11 systems of local and national transportation, serving 45 million people per year. In addition to securing access to myriad transit lines, the project will also provide downtown San Francisco with a 5.4-acre rooftop park, designed by PWP Landscape Architecture, along with numerous cultural programs. The project is budgeted at 4.2 billion dollars and is projected for completion in 2017. It is funded in part by the construction of a 1,070-foot tower that is adjacent to the Transbay Transity Center. It is also designed by Pelli Clarke Pelli and is slated to be the tallest tower in San Francisco. The tower will secure 60 stories of office space and jobs and will contribute to the projected $87 billion of revenue through 2030.
Join us after the break for more details on this project.
Beirut Terraces rethinks the concept of the skyscraper, creating a vertical village composed of thin, elegant platforms layered in a playful formation. By offering lavish outdoor spaces, breathtaking views, and meticulously composed lofts, architects Herzog & DeMeuron bring an unprecedented way of living to crowded and dense Beirut.
More on these contemporary living spaces after the break...
Designed by JHK Architecten + INBO the construction of the first phase of the new science campus of the University of Leiden officially started last Thursday, February 28th. The Faculty of Mathematics and Natural Sciences at Leiden will at completion of the building project present itself in one building, promoting the cooperation between the different institutions housed within. Leiden University will have a modern, open and communicative building in which the various research institutes of the Faculty of Mathematics and Natural Sciences will be interconnected better than ever. More images and architects' description after the break.
CityLife Milano is an ambitious commercial and residential development on Milan's historic former trade fair grounds: the Fiera Milano. On the surface, over half of CityLife Milano will be covered with upwards of 168,000 square meters of landscaped parkland dedicated to pedestrians and bicycles. This lush, pedestrianized space will be centered around a grand new piazza - 'piazza delle tre torri' - shaped by a trio of towers and surrounded by a cluster of residences, all designed by three world-renowned architects. As previously mentioned, Arata Isozaki and Andrea Maffei has contributed the Isozaki Tower, which is planned to become the tallest skyscraper in Italy at 202 meters and built alongside the curved, 150 meter Libeskind Tower. To complete the triad, Zaha Hadid has designed a twisting, glazed tower, which will rise 170 meters into the skyline.
More on the Hadid Tower and surrounding development after the break...
The Puente de Vida Museum, more commonly referred to as The Biomuseo, will be Frank Gehry's first design in all of Latin America. It is located in Panama in the area called Amador, which sits only a few blocks from the country's principal cruise port and is adjacent to Panama City. The mission of the Biomuseo is to "offer an impressing and educational experience about the biodiversity and emergence of the isthmus in Panama in order to motivate all Panamanians to get to know and to value this natural component of their identity, as well as to generate in all its visitors the need to protect the environment" (Biomuseo Website). The Biomuseo intends to explore the importance of Panama's biological systems and its emergence as a geological link between North and South America, both of which have had global impacts many are unaware of.
With these goals in mind, it quickly became clear that the museum design needed to be something very special to attract the international attention its founders desired. They wanted the museum to be a never-before-seen kind of design and to serve as a new architectural icon for Panama, much like the Eiffel Tower does for France or the Tower of Pisa for Italy. With the participation of Gehry Partners as well as the world-renowned landscape architect Edwina von Gal & Company, the Biomuseo began to take form: an extremely unique, Gehry-esque structure surrounded by an open botanical park that complements the exhibits within.
More after the break...
Three years have passed since a tremendous earthquake devastated Haiti. The long reconstruction process includes the construction of the country’s first stadium to be completed this year. Partners of Project Phoenix have created plans for Phoenix Stadium, a massive world-class professional soccer stadium soon to be located in Cite Soleil, Haiti. This project developed as a result of the 2012 Clinton Global Initiative when collaboration began between Morad Fareed of Delos and Boby Duval of L’Athletique D’Haiti. The vision is to create a world-class stadium for soccer games as well as many other community functions.
Read more about Phoenix Stadium after the break!
_SDL-02.jpg?1375047366 "Courtesy of Studio Daniel Libeskind")
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_ORCO-photo-by-Krzysztof-Wierzbowski_09.jpg?1366124261 "© ORCO photo by Krzysztof Wierzbowski")
_ORCO-photo-by-Krzysztof-Wierzbowski_03.jpg?1366124281 "© ORCO photo by Krzysztof Wierzbowski")
_Studio_Daniel_Libeskind.jpg?1366124707 "© Daniel Libeskind")
_Aldinger___Wolf.jpg?1366124743 "© Daniel Libeskind")
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