Alan G Brake

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“DS+R’s education building suggests architectural innovation can still be put to the public good”

Opinion: the light-filled, social spaces at Diller Scofidio + Renfro’s medical education centre at Columbia University could make future doctors demand more from their workspaces and ultimately pave the way for better hospitals, says Alan G Brake. Diller Scofidio + Renfro (DS+R) have produced a strange, striking, and sophisticated new building for the Columbia Medical Center. Architectural insiders More

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“New York is rapidly evolving beyond a Manhattan-centric identity”

Opinion: major landscape interventions like West 8’s recently opened The Hills on Governors Island, along with planned improvements to transport links, will bolster New York’s coherence as a multi-island metropolis says Alan G Brake. Starting this week, New Yorkers and visitors to the city will have a new must-see landscape offering a whole new perspective More

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“Calatrava’s transit hub feels utterly scrubbed of memory and dislocated from New York”

Opinion: Santiago Calatrava’s World Trade Center transit hub may be Instagram-friendly, but it is part of a troubling trend for public spending on spaces that aren’t really public at all, says Alan G Brake. On a recent Sunday afternoon children sprawled on the gleaming white marble floor beneath the oculus in Santiago Calatrava’s new transit More

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WHY expands Louisville’s Speed Art Museum with a corrugated metal facade

Los Angeles architecture firm wHY has completed an expansion of the Speed Art Museum in Louisville, Kentucky, featuring facades of fritted glass and corrugated metal panels. The project includes the renovation of the 1927 Beaux Arts building and a pair of new additions, including a 5,500-square-metre North Pavilion housing the modern and contemporary art galleries. The More

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Hauser & Wirth opens LA gallery designed by Creative Space and Selldorf Architects

Switzerland-based art gallery Hauser & Wirth has opened a large outpost in Los Angeles, designed by local firm Creative Space with consultation from New York-based Selldorf Architects (+ slideshow). Located in LA’s Arts District, Hauser Wirth & Schimmel occupies the 10,775-square-metre Globe Grain & Milling company buildings, a series of conjoined industrial structures dating from between More

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SHoP and West 8 masterplan extends Philadelphia skyline across the Schuykill River

New York studio SHoP Architects and Dutch landscape firm West 8 have designed a new city quarter for Philadelphia that would extend the skyline beyond its traditional boundary, the Schuykill River (+ slideshow). Working in coordination with the City of Philadelphia, Drexel University, and Brandywine Realty Trust, SHoP and West 8 have drawn up a 14-acre (six hectares) masterplan More

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Architecture for Humanity relaunches as Open Architecture Collaborative

Following the bankruptcy and collapse of Architecture for Humanity in 2015, local chapters have banded together to create a new organisation called Open Architecture Collaborative (+ movie). More than 30 chapters in North and South America, Europe, Asia, and Africa have ground together to form the new organisation, which pledges to pursue community engagement through design. The group’s More

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Future of Foster + Partners’ 3 Sutton Place skyscraper in New York under threat

The developer behind Foster + Partners’ 3 Sutton Place tower on Manhattan’s East Side, originally planned to be 290-metres tall, lost a fight to block foreclosure proceedings on the site before declaring itself bankrupt this week. Developer Bauhouse Group defaulted on a $127 million (£89 million) loan from Gamma Real Estate and the site was set to be sold, More

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“New York should give Breuer’s building lasting protection”

Opinion: the New York Metropolitan Museum of Art’s temporary move in to the Whitney’s old unprotected Breuer building is the result of behind-the-scenes machinations of a major donor. Thank goodness, says Alan G Brake. It might be surprising that one of New York City’s best examples of publicly accessible modern architecture could be passed from More

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University of Texas architecture dean leaves post over new campus gun law

The dean of the School of Architecture at the University of Texas has resigned over a new state law that will allow students to carry guns on campus. Frederick “Fritz” Steiner will leave the Austin university after 15 years in the role to take up the post of dean of Penn Design, the University of Pennsylvania’s architecture school. The More

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Converted warehouse office by Domaen features sculptural plywood meeting rooms

A pair of conference rooms are housed within a sculptural glass and plywood volume at the centre of this Los Angeles office, created by California studio Domaen in a converted warehouse (+ slideshow). Domaen created the interior for Pasadena-based creative agency Conscious Minds, whose clients include Nike, Levis and Red Bull. The curved, folded, and faceted object forms More

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John Lautner’s Big Lebowski porn house gifted to the Los Angeles County Museum of Art

The Los Angeles County Museum of Art has announced that the art collector James Goldstein has donated his John Lautner-designed house, which famously appeared in the cult film The Big Lebowski, to the museum. Along with the gift of the house, which features a coffered concrete roof with 750 tiny skylights, Goldstein is also giving his More

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Shotgun Chameleon house in Houston is designed to help its owners off-set their mortgage

Taking influences from the vernacular houses of the southern US, this low-cost house in Houston by ZDES architects is designed to accommodate a family, but can be divided up to allow the owners to rent out private areas.  The 139-square-metre house, called Shotgun Chameleon, was conceived as a prototype that could be adapted with a variety of room configurations More

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Torchy’s Tacos by Chioco Design references 1950s roadside architecture

A new taco restaurant in Austin, Texas, by Chioco Design references mid-century American roadside buildings and signage with bright red columns and a distinctive roofline (+ slideshow). Built on the site of a 1970s burger chain called Fran’s Hamburgers, the new 269-square-metre branch of Torchy’s Tacos features a zigzag profile supported by red-painted structural columns that cross More

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New images of SHoP’s supertall Brooklyn tower revealed

New images of a planned 304-metre-tall tower in Brooklyn by SHoP Architects have been revealed in advance of a review by the New York City Landmarks Preservation Commission. The 73-storey tower would be the tallest building in the borough and the first supertall building in the city outside of Manhattan, which has been experiencing a More

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Robert A M Stern to design luxury condo building influenced by Manhattan’s industrial past

New York architect Robert A M Stern has revealed designs for a condominium building in Lower Manhattan that references the massive warehouse buildings of Tribeca, and the Art Deco buildings of the Financial District and Midtown. The 14-storey building is covered in limestone and will contain 46 units overlooking the Hudson River. Related story: US Treasury More

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Narrow MaHouse by The Very Many features a staircase with a built-in slide

This narrow house in Strasbourg, France, by New York-studio The Very Many features a translucent glass wall and an indoor slide for the younger residents (+ slideshow). Called the MaHouse, the 340-square-metre narrow residence comprises three stacked, slightly rotated irregular volumes. The different sizes and arrangements of the volumes were developed in response to the narrow site and More

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Works begins on Foster + Partners Norton Museum expansion in Florida’s West Palm Beach

Construction work has begun on Foster + Partners new wing for the Norton Museum of Art in West Palm Beach, Florida, a project that was first announced in 2013 (+ slideshow). The 59,000-square-foot (5,480 square metre) wing will create a new entrance for the museum under a monumental canopy with hidden supports that sits 43 feet (13 metres) More

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Amagansett Dunes House by Bates Masi Architects is shaded with strips of canvas

This house in Amagansett, New York, by Bates Masi Architects is designed to take advantage of its windy site on Long Island’s south shore (+ slideshow). Built on dunes that back up to a wooded nature preserve, the four-bedroom 1,725-square-foot (163 square metres) house is oriented toward the prevailing winds to help keep the house comfortable in the More

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Apple given New York preservation award for repurposing historic buildings

Apple may be better known for cutting-edge contemporary design, but a New York preservation group is honouring the company for sensitively reusing old buildings with its store designs (+ slideshow). The New York Landmarks Conservancy is bestowing its Chairman’s Award on the technology company. “Apple is being honoured for their contribution to preserving, restoring, and repurposing notable historic structures More

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Penthouse in BIG’s twisted Miami towers is on sale for $28 million

The $28 million full-floor penthouse at the BIG-designed Grove at Grand Bay towers includes a rooftop pool, four car garage and ten bathrooms (+ slideshow). The 10,100-square-foot (938-square-metres), five-bedroom condominium includes eight full bathrooms, two half bathrooms, a gym, staff quarters, a spa, a 2500-square-foot (232-square-metres) terrace, and 2000-square-foot (185-square-metres) rooftop garden with a pool. Images have More

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Photos released of New York’s first micro-apartment tower by nArchitects

New York architecture firm nArchitects has released new photos of its modular, micro-unit residential building that is intended to serve as a “systemic new paradigm” for cities facing an affordable housing crisis (+ slideshow). Formerly known as My Micro NY, the nine-storey building has been renamed Carmel Place. It is located in Manhattan’s Kips Bay More

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Michael Maltzan’s Ribbon of Light Bridge to break ground in Los Angeles

Work starts this week on a huge bridge made up of 10 pairs of arches, designed by architect Michael Maltzan to replace the iconic Art-Deco Sixth Street Viaduct in Los Angeles (+ slideshow). Called the Ribbon of Light, the 3,500-foot-long (approximately 1,100 metres) bridge will span the Los Angeles River and several busy roads, providing pedestrian, bicycle and vehicular More

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Studio Gang designs Brooklyn fire station with bright red details

Architecture firm Studio Gang has designed a fire station for Brooklyn, where emergency workers will be able to live, work, and use the building itself for training exercises. Located in the Brownsville area of Brooklyn, New York, the 20,000-square-foot (1,858 square metres) station will be made of precast concrete panels with large openings edged in red-glazed terracotta. The design is organised More

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16 residential condos by famous architects that are changing the face of New York

New York is experiencing a boom in high-end residential construction not seen since before the 2008 recession, including buildings by Álvaro Siza, Bjarke Ingels, Rafael Viñoly and Renzo Piano. The list of architects now designing towers in New York includes several Pritzker Prize winners, like Shigeru Ban and Zaha Hadid. Though these buildings are reshaping both the skyline and the street, More

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Covered bridge provides all-weather connection between Toronto hotel and convention centre

This enclosed bridge with a geometric black and white facade connects a hotel to the Metro Toronto Convention Centre, helping visitors pass between the two even in the depths of winter. Toronto-based artists Jennifer Marman and Daniel Borins collaborated with New York-based architect James Khamsi to design the structure, which spans a busy roadway and railway line. Located More

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MoMA scales back expansion by Diller Scofidio + Renfro in New York

New York’s Museum of Modern Art has simplified plans for an expansion by Diller Scofidio + Renfro that will include the site of the now demolished American Folk Art Museum Building designed by Todd Williams and Billie Tsien. The museum has eliminated plans for the so-called “Gray Box” and “Art Bay” envisioned by Diller, Scofidio More

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SOM debuts “world’s largest 3D-printed polymer building” designed for off-grid living

Architecture firm SOM has created a 3D-printed structure that generates its own power and shares energy with a companion vehicle, providing a model for off-grid living (+ slideshow). Skidmore, Owings & Merrill (SOM) worked in partnership with the US Department of Energy’s Oak Ridge National Laboratory to create the curved pavilion, which the firm claims More

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Trio of wooden cabins forms Little House on the Ferry in rural Maine

US design-and-build firm Go Logic has completed a summer house on the rocky coastline of Maine made up of three wooden cabins, each linked by terraced decks (+ slideshow). Located near the waterside in Vinalhaven, the 890-square-foot (82 square metres) house comprises a main building with living and dining areas, and two freestanding bedroom structures linked by decks. Named Little House on More

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AlterStudio adds black-stained angular extension to renovated 1920s bungalow in Texas

Texas architecture firm AlterStudio has turned an Austin bungalow into a three-bedroom home with a black timber extension connected by a glass corridor (+ slideshow). Called the Hillside Residence, visitors enter the house through the glass corridor, which splits the home into communal and more private realms. The linking structure is accessed from a sloping driveway, which helped reorient the house More

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SOM reveals new images of Manhattan West skyscrapers spanning rail yards in New York City

Architecture firm SOM has released new renderings of Manhattan West – a mixed-use development including a trio of towers that will be built next to New York’s massive Hudson Yards (+ slideshow). The five-million-square-foot (464,000 square metres) project includes a pair of office towers, a residential tower containing 844 apartments, retail space and a new public square. More

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SOM reveals new images of Manhattan West skyscrapers for New York City

Architecture firm SOM has released new renderings of Manhattan West – a mixed-use development including a trio of towers that will be built next to New York’s massive Hudson Yards (+ slideshow). The five-million-square-foot (464,000 square metres) project includes a pair of office towers, a residential tower containing 844 apartments, retail space and a new public square. More

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Selldorf Architects to redevelop Washington DC HIV clinic named after Liz Taylor

Selldorf Architects has been selected to design a major mixed-use project in Washington DC on the site of the Elizabeth Taylor Medical Center, an HIV treatment centre named for the late actress. A joint venture between nonprofit Whitman-Walker Health, the owner of the Elizabeth Taylor Center, and for-profit company Fivesquares Development, the block-long site will More

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New Jersey church by Urban Office Architecture to feature “sky chapel” and reflecting pool

Urban Office Architecture has unveiled plans to build a concrete church in New Jersey featuring a “sky chapel”, elevated walkways and a shallow pool (+ slideshow). Proposed for Englewood in Bergen County, the 80,000-square-foot (7,400 square metres) Holy Spirit Church will be flanked by two concrete towers – one holding the church’s bells and another containing the so-called “sky chapel”. The building More

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US Treasury to ID cash buyers of super-luxury real estate in New York and Miami

The US is to require the identification of cash buyers for high-end residential properties in New York City and Miami in an attempt to crack down on “dirty money” in real estate. The United States Treasury Department will require real estate companies to disclose the names of all-cash buyers for properties over $3 million (approximately £2 million) in New York More

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SOM reveals images of new waiting room at proposed Penn Station complex in New York

US architecture firm SOM has released new images of the proposed Moynihan Train Hall expansion at New York’s Pennsylvania Station, which would turn an old post office into a grand waiting room for Amtrak. The 486,000-square-foot (45,000-square-metres) hall would feature a curved glass roof set inside the 1903 Farley Post Office building, originally designed by McKim, More

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Port Urbanism proposes two bike and pedestrian bridges for Chicago’s Goose Island

A proposal for two bicycle and pedestrian bridges could connect Chicago’s industrial Goose Island to surrounding neighbourhoods and transit points. Chicago-based developer R2 and urban design studio Port Urbanism are campaigning to regenerate the island, which occupies a central site in the city. Their proposal includes a curving span at Ogden Street, designed by local firm Hartshorne Plunkhard Architecture, which More

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New York’s Pennsylvania Station renovation and expansion plans revived

New York Governor Andrew Cuomo has unveiled a plan to restart the long-stalled renovation and expansion of New York City’s Pennsylvania Station, the busiest train hub in the US. Cuomo is aiming to create a new public/private partnership with a developer to expand the existing station and build a new hub across the street in More

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Chicago Architecture Biennial attracts more than double the attendees of Venice Biennale

Chicago Architecture Biennial 2015: organisers of the inaugural Chicago Architecture Biennial have counted more than 500,000 visitors and the city has renewed its commitment to host another edition in 2017. The biennial drew a total of 530,551 visitors, which includes totals from the Chicago Cultural Center main venue (276,806), the Stony Island Arts Bank (8,100), the Lakefront More

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Le Bic House extension by Naturehumaine combines wood and steel panelling

Montreal-based architecture firm Naturehumaine has transformed a modest house in the Quebec countryside into a family retreat near the Bic National Park. (+ slideshow) The now 3,860-square-foot (358-square-metres) house was originally one level until the architects added a second story, creating an L-shaped plan with bedrooms placed above the common living spaces. The original house is More

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SOM designs first net-zero energy school in New York City on Staten Island

Architecture firm SOM has completed the first public school in New York City that generates as much energy on site as it consumes (+ slideshow). Called the Kathleen Grimm School for Leadership and Sustainability, the 444 seat, 68,000-square-foot (6,317-square-metres) primary school is located on Staten Island, the least populated of New York City’s five boroughs. Set More

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SOM recasts old San Francisco movie house for new role as a nonprofit theatre

SOM’s San Francisco office has transformed an abandoned cinema into a multipurpose performance and community venue for the American Conservatory Theater, a prominent arts organisation in the Bay Area (+ slideshow). The firm renovated the 20,000-square-foot (6,000 square metres) movie house to create a flexible theatre with two auditoriums, along with with a three-storey lobby and cafe. The building’s cast stone facade was More

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Gluckman Tang designs museums for art and model trains in western Massachusetts

Officials in Massachusetts have announced plans for a pair of new museums designed by New York studio Gluckman Tang in the state’s northwestern region (+ slideshow). One museum will be dedicated to contemporary art while the other will show both architecture and “extreme model railroads.” Both will be located in the town of North Adams, also the home of More

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Museum of Tomorrow by Santiago Calatrava opens in Rio de Janeiro

Spanish architect Santiago Calatrava’s science museum with a skeletal roof that projects over a public plaza has opened in Rio de Janeiro (+ slideshow). Called the Museum of Tomorrow, the museum hold 5,000 square metres (53,819 square feet) of exhibition space surrounded by a 7,600-square-metre (81,805 square feet) plaza on Guanabara Bay. The project is part of More

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Revolution Precrafted recruits famous architects and designers to create prefab homes

Design Miami 2015: Revolution Precrafted is aiming to “democratise high-design and architecture” with prefab structures by over 30 famous designers including Tom Dixon, Marcel Wanders, Kengo Kuma and Zaha Hadid. The new company launched by developer and art collector Robbie Antonio unveiled its first collection of limited-edition designs for prefabricated homes and pavilions during Design Miami last week. More

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Thomas Heatherwick to redesign home of New York Philharmonic orchestra

London-based Heatherwick Studio and Canadian firm Diamond Schmitt have been selected to replace Foster + Partners on the overhaul of Lincoln Center’s David Geffen Hall, home to one of New York’s leading orchestras. The team will completely gut the symphonic hall, originally designed by mid-20th-century American architect Max Ambramovitz. Formerly known as Avery Fisher Hall, More

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Perkins Eastman proposes turning New York’s Broadway into one long park

Perkins Eastman Architects’ Green Line concept would see New York’s iconic Broadway converted into a linear park running from Columbus Circle to Union Square. The Green Line would create a more than 40-block long park for pedestrians and cyclists that would connect many of the city’s famous public spaces – including Union Square, Madison Square, More

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Santiago Calatrava unveils three bridge designs for Huashan, China

Spanish architect and engineer Santiago Calatrava has unveiled designs for three new multi-modal bridges for the growing Chinese city of Huashan (+ slideshow). The three spans will cross a new Yangtze River canal in the central province of Hubei, accommodating pedestrians, cyclists, and automobile traffic, and will connect to canal-side promenades and parks. “Architecture is one […]

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OMA’s Frank Lloyd Wright-inspired Faena Forum takes shape in Miami Beach

Construction is well underway on OMA’s drum-shaped Faena Forum cultural centre in Miami Beach, which was influenced by the Guggenheim Museum in New York according to the project’s lead architect. The 42,565-square-foot building (3,954 square metres) is made up of a cylindrical hall fixed to a rectangular box. Its scale and distinctive form were inspired […]

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Courtyard house in Tijuana by T38 Studio is based on a nine-square grid

This concrete house in Mexico by New York- and Tijuana-based T38 Studio is organised as a nine-square grid with a courtyard at its centre (+ slideshow). The property, referred to as HDJ89, is the 12th infill project the firm has designed in Tijuana’s HDJ district. Each side of the 3,175-square-foot (295 square metres) building is […]

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Glass facade reveals timber structure of Frame Work building in Portland

This small commercial building in Portland, Oregon, designed by Works Partnership Architecture has an engineered timber frame that is visible behind a glass curtain wall (+ slideshow). The structure, called Frame Work, includes a concrete base with the upper four floors framed in glue-laminated beams, and diagonally laid tongue-and-groove floors and ceilings. The concrete base […]

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Tiny writer’s studio by Architensions provides a creative refuge in Brooklyn

Tucked away at the bottom of a Brooklyn garden, this tiny cedar-clad pavilion was designed as a retreat for a pair of writers. Brooklyn-based firm Architensions has created a minimal space with carefully placed views and plenty of natural light, designed to reduce potential distractions. The 50-square-foot (4.6 square metres) interior of the structure is made entirely […]

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Waechter Architecture updates century-old Portland house with a bright red facade

A small late-Victorian dwelling in Portland, Oregon, has been transformed into a modern home with a monochrome red steel and wood exterior (+ slideshow). The two-storey, 2,200-square-foot (204 square metres) house retains the basic shape of its original design, but its overall form has been simplified. Waechter Architecture’s goal for the renovation was to create a “modern sculpture,” […]

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REX Architecture to replace Gehry on World Trade Center performing arts centre job

New York-based architecture firm REX has been chosen to design a performing arts centre at the World Trade Center site in Lower Manhattan, replacing Frank Gehry’s previous stacked-box design. REX beat European studios Henning Larsen Architects and UNStudio for the commission, which is one of the last pieces of the Daniel Libeskind-designed masterplan for the […]

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Atelier Kastelic Buffey creates miniature book exchange that folds up into a glowing black box

This miniature wooden library for a Toronto suburb is designed to provide a public reading nook and book exchange, and folds into a box at night for security (+ slideshow). Called the Story Pod, the community-funded lending library and book exchange opens up to reveal shelves and seating nooks for reading. The whole structure retracts into an eight-foot […]

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Studio Gang designs curving concrete expansion to New York’s Natural History Museum

Architect Jeanne Gang has unveiled plans for a geologically-inspired extension to the American Museum of Natural History in New York (+ slideshow). Located on the Upper West Side of Manhattan, Studio Gang’s proposal for the Guilder Center for Science, Education, and Innovation calls for a 218,000-square-foot addition (20,252-square-meters) to the American Museum of Natural History. Curving forms created by […]

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MOS Architects creates modular house made entirely from corridors

Chicago Architecture Biennial 2015: New York-based studio MOS Architects has created an installation that explores the possibility of building homes using only corridor and hallway-like spaces (+ slideshow). The Corridor House is a series of plywood modules, staggered and layered to create a puzzle-like dwelling with a courtyard in the centre. Each unit is designed to resemble a […]

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Snøhetta’s new building for SFMOMA nears completion

San Francisco Museum of Modern Art has released the first images of Snøhetta’s near-complete extension building showing its striated facade and atrium. The 235,000-square-foot (21,832 square metres) addition sits behind the institution’s Postmodern Mario Botta-designed home and will more than double the museum’s footprint. The new building’s distinctive facade is made of fiberglass-reinforced polymer panels punctuated by horizontal band […]

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Lowline Lab demonstrates viability of an underground New York park

A new mock-up of the Lowline, the underground park planned for New York City, demonstrates how its designers will bring sunlight and plant life below the streets of Manhattan’s Lower East Side (+ slideshow). Called the Lowline Lab, the 5,000-square-foot (464 square metres) space reveals the solar collection and distribution technology the organisers plan to use to bring sunlight down to […]

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Helmut Jahn’s Thompson government centre faces demolition threat

The governor of Illinois has announced plans to sell Helmut Jahn’s James R Thompson Center in Chicago – a move that could lead to the demolition of the Postmodern government office building. Located in Chicago’s core central business district, known as The Loop, the full block-long building by the German-born, Chicago-based architect is a prime candidate for redevelopment. The […]

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Vo Trong Nghia Architects’ low-cost housing moves towards mass production

Chicago Architecture Biennial 2015: Vietnam-based Vo Trong Nghia Architects has unveiled a fourth prototype of its low-cost housing design, which is now moving towards mass production (+ slideshow). The S House – a project that has been ongoing since it was first unveiled in 2012 – was developed by Vo Trong Nghia’s studio in response to Vietnam’s housing crisis. […]

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David Adjaye retrospective at Art Institute of Chicago includes a full-size pavilion

Chicago Architecture Biennial 2015: the first career retrospective of architect David Adjaye has opened at the Art Institute of Chicago, featuring a full-size replica of his 2007 Horizon pavilion (+ slideshow). Making Place: The Architecture of David Adjaye spans more than 20 years of architecture, furniture design, and urban planning. The exhibition, spread across galleries on two floors, […]

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First images of SANAA-designed Grace Farms building in Connecticut revealed

The first official photographs of SANAA’s sinuous cultural centre at the Grace Farms nature reserve in Connecticut have been released ahead of its opening tomorrow (+ slideshow). Called The River, the 83,000-square-foot (7710 square metres) structure is a series of five pavilions linked by a curved roof, which descend a gently sloping hillside on a former farm site in New Canaan. […]

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Local architects take on Windy City challenges at the Chicago Architecture Biennial

Chicago Architecture Biennial 2015: a capsule exhibition within the Biennial’s main show focuses on the future of Chicago, with proposals including a peninsula on the Chicago River and a landscape of sunken spaces. While much of the show – which is located at the city’s Cultural Center – focusses on international architects and projects, the Bold: Alternative Scenarios for […]

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Rural Urban Framework awarded Curry Stone Design Prize at Chicago Architecture Biennial

Chicago Architecture Biennial 2015: Hong Kong design and research group Rural Urban Framework has been awarded the 2015 Curry Stone Design Prize for humanitarian architecture (+ slideshow). The non-profit company was presented with the $100,000 (£66,117) award during a ceremony ahead of the official opening of the inaugural Chicago Architecture Biennial. Related story: Rural Urban Framework […]

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Herzog & de Meuron designs art museum made of stacked wooden boxes in Vancouver

The Vancouver Art Gallery has unveiled a conceptual design for its new building by Herzog & de Meuron, featuring a series of stacked volumes clad in wood. The 310,000-square-foot (28,800-square-metre) building by the Swiss architecture studio will be located in downtown Vancouver, Canada. It will house 85,000-square-feet (7,900-square-metres) of gallery space, more than double the museum’s […]

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David Adjaye unveils designs for a red concrete art museum in Texas

British architect David Adjaye has revealed plans for a museum in San Antonio, Texas, with a red concrete skin based on a dream of its patron, philanthropist Linda Pace. The distinctive facades of the two-storey, 14,000-square-foot (4,267-square-meters) contemporary art museum for the Linda Pace Foundation will be made of crimson precast panels flecked with glass aggregate. The panels […]

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MAD Architects unveils slimmed-down design for Lucas Museum in Chicago

The team led by MAD Architects has presented revised designs for the proposed George Lucas Museum of Narrative Art along Chicago’s lakefront (+ slideshow). The controversial project’s square footage has been reduced by 25 percent to 300,000-square-feet (91,440 square metres) and its footprint has been cut by 40 percent. The project has faced lawsuits and […]

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Mecanoo replaces Foster + Partners on New York Public Library renovation

The New York Public Library has selected Mecanoo – the Dutch architecture firm behind Europe’s biggest library – to lead the renovation of its iconic main building on Fifth Avenue and a smaller branch nearby. Mecanoo has been tasked with expanding the public areas of the Stephen A Schwarzman Building, the library’s main non-circulating research […]

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Postmodern buildings: the Portland Municipal Services Building, Oregon, by Michael Graves

Pomo summer: Michael Graves’ pink and teal Portland Municipal Services Building in Portland, Oregon, is one of Postmodernism’s most important structures – and also one of its most divisive. As our season dedicated to the controversial movement nears its end, we revisit the building that kickstarted the debate about preserving Postmodern architecture. When the Portland Municipal […]

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