SOM

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SOM exhibits architecture models with stripped-away skins to reveal engineering beneath

by Jessica Mairs

A row of intricately detailed architectural models take centre stage at this pop-up exhibition celebrating the beauty of engineering by Skidmore Owings & Merrill, which coincides with the Chicago Architecture Biennial. The 30 structural models presented at 1:500 scale are arranged in ascending height order across the breadth of the exhibition space at the Mana Contemporary Chicago art

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Bands of glass wrap FBI technology building in West Virginia by SOM

by Jenna McKnight

Architecture firm Skidmore, Owings & Merrill has created a biometric technology facility for the US Federal Bureau of Investigation that features open, light-filled workspaces and views of the hilly terrain. The FBI Biometric Technology Center was constructed within an existing FBI campus in Clarksburg, West Virginia, that houses the division of Criminal Justice Information Services

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SOM designs “new skyline” for port area of Sri Lanka’s largest city

by Alyn Griffiths

SOM has won a competition to design a new district for Sri Lankan city Colombo, with a design featuring numerous skyscrapers, a marina, canals and a park, influenced by the country’s tropical climate. The finance and marina district masterplan was designed by SOM for CHEC Port City Colombo, which is looking to transform 269 hectares of reclaimed land beside Colombo’s

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Metal cube by SOM houses emergency call centre for New York City

by Jenna McKnight

Textured facades and a grassy berm help soften the boxy appearance of this high-security emergency facility in New York, designed by architecture firm Skidmore, Owings & Merrill. The Public Safety Answering Center II, or PSAC II, occupies a prominent nine-acre (3.6-hectare) site in the Bronx – one of New York’s five boroughs. The building sits

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SOM reveals designs for 16-hectare “vertical village” in central Bangkok

by Lizzie Fison

Skidmore Owings & Merril has unveiled its vision for One Bangkok: a new district in the centre of the Thai city made up of a family skyscrapers interspersed with green spaces. One Bangkok will provide extensive residential, hotel, retail, office and public space for an estimated 60,000 people once the district is complete in 2025. The design by Chicago-based architects SOM will integrate a

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SOM and Squire and Partners complete tallest tower in London’s Islington

by Eleanor Gibson

British firms Squire and Partners and SOM have completed a slender skyscraper just north of the City of London, which at 117 metres is the tallest tower in the borough of Islington. As the borough’s tallest building, the Lexicon is intended to act an icon for its location on the west side of the City Road Basin – part of the Regent Canal. Squire

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SOM unveils trio of towers for Downtown Los Angeles

by Dan Howarth

Architecture firm Skidmore Owings and Merrill has designed three residential skyscrapers that will add to the growing Los Angeles skyline. The Olympia development will include a trio of connected high-rises, public shopping and dining spaces, and outdoor areas in LA’s South Park neighbourhood – at the junction of Olympic Boulevard and Harbor Freeway. The towers

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SOM creates Christmas tree alternative at Denmark’s Utzon Center

by Jessica Mairs

Skidmore Owings & Merrill designed this latticed pavilion in lieu of a Christmas tree for the courtyard of a building designed by the late Jørn Utzon in Aalborg, Denmark. The Alternative Christmas Tree Sculpture is installed at the Utzon Center, the final building to be designed by Sydney Opera House architect Jørn Utzon before his death in 2008.

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SOM unveils masterplan for Philadelphia’s 30th Street Station district

by Dan Howarth

Architecture firm Skidmore Owings & Merrill has unveiled its vision to transform the Beaux-Arts 30th Street Station and its surrounding area in Philadelphia (+ movie). SOM’s masterplan covers a 175-acre (70 hectares) area around the station, which is currently the third busiest in the US and projected to see a further increase in transit activity. More

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Trapezoidal glass panels create prismatic facades for SOM’s Beijing skyscraper

by Jenna McKnight

Skidmore, Owings & Merrill has completed a 55-storey tower in Beijing with exterior glass panels that function as prisms, capturing and refracting daylight (+ slideshow). The mixed-use tower, called the Beijing Greenland Center, is located in the Dawangjing business district and sits halfway between the city’s historic core and international airport. Rectangular in plan, the More

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Oblique glass pyramid thrusts skyward from SOM’s leadership centre at US military campus

by Jenna McKnight

Skidmore, Owings & Merrill has completed a new building on the grounds of the US Air Force Academy in Colorado, featuring a glass skylight resembling the tail-fin of a jet that points towards the North Star (+ slideshow). The Center for Character and Leadership Development (CCLD) is situated on the historic campus of the US Air Force Academy, More

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SOM builds new Geneva headquarters for Japan Tobacco International

by Amy Frearson

Architecture firm SOM has completed a major new headquarters for Japan Tobacco International in Geneva, Switzerland, featuring an innovative facade of glass triangles and a huge central courtyard (+ slideshow). The new JTI Headquarters provides an open-plan workplace for 1,200 employees of the company, which has been based in Switzerland for nearly 50 years, and which More

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A 3D-Printed Off-The-Grid Shack

by Jessica Jungbauer

In collaboration with the Oak Ridge National Laboratory, award-winning architecture firm SOM created a 3D-printed shack, complete with a 3D-printed vehicle, which together serve as a prototype for off-the-grid living with the aim of zero energy waste…

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

by Alan G Brake

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

by Alan G Brake

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 spanning rail yards in New York City

by Alan G Brake

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

by Alan G Brake

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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New York’s Pennsylvania Station renovation and expansion plans revived

by Alan G Brake

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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SOM creates a circular library wrapped in aluminium fins for Chicago’s Chinatown

by Jenna McKnight

Architecture firm SOM incorporated principles from Feng Shui, the ancient Chinese design philosophy, while conceiving the new Chinatown Branch Library in Chicago (+ slideshow). Encompassing 16,000 square feet (1,490 square metres), the new library is located in Chicago’s Near South Side, on an urban site near a busy intersection and elevated metro station. “The building sits at More

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

by Alan G Brake

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

by Alan G Brake

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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The 10 projects that sum up Chicago’s architectural history

by Zach Mortice

Feature: With the first Chicago Architecture Biennial kicking off later this week, Dezeen picks 10 of the projects – past and present – that have helped shape the city that gave birth to contemporary high-rise architecture. New York might be North America’s architecture and design capital, but Chicago is where all of the good ideas originally emerged. […]

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SOM adds glass skyscraper to growing Chinese tech district

by Jenna McKnight

American firm SOM has completed a new tower in Nanchang, China, which features an exterior diagrid system that helps to shade the glass building. Rising 56 storeys, the Jiangxi Greenland Zifeng Tower is located in Gaoxin, a growing high-tech district in Nanchang. Rectangular in form, the 268-metre-tall glass skyscraper is clad in a diagrid structure made […]

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SOM’s Baccarat tower in New York overlooks MoMA’s sculpture garden

by Alan G Brake

American architecture firm SOM has completed work on a controversial 50-storey hotel and condominium tower on a site directly opposite New York’s Museum of Modern Art. The mid-block building on 53rd Street is the first completely new structure built for Baccarat Hotels, a division of the Starwood hotel group that is named after the 250-year old luxury […]

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SOM unveils vision of new Egyptian capital for seven million people

by Amy Frearson

Architecture firm SOM has released its masterplan for a new privately funded capital city for Egypt – a 700-square-kilometre development that will boast one of the world’s largest urban parks and over 100 new residential neighbourhoods (+ slideshow). The Capital Cairo project envisions a new administrative and financial capital that would extend Cairo eastwards to […]

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for seven million people appeared first on Dezeen.

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One World Trade Center is most costly skyscraper in history

by Amy Frearson

News: figures released this week reveal that One World Trade Center is now the most expensive skyscraper of all time, having cost more than twice as much as the world’s tallest building. Skidmore, Owings & Merrill’s 541-metre-high tower for the Ground Zero site in New York came with a price tag of $3.9 billion (£2.5 billion), according to buildings […]
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