As Frank Gehry’s Beekman Tower rises in Lower Manhattan, we can’t help but wonder if the apartments in this undulating, rippling building will be snatched up as soon as possible. The tower is scheduled for leasing to begin early spring of next year and, although information regarding floor plans and pricing still hasn’t been released, we are interested to see if you’d take up residence in the Beekman Tower.
Field Operations and DS+R’s High Line has been enjoyed by many ever since its opening, but we’ve been waiting patiently for the next segment to be finished. And, thanks to Curbed.com, we’re able to share some recent construction shots of the progress being made.
Check out more photos and more about the second phase after the break.
As workers labor over the newest development at Ground Zero, moving, bolting and welding the 46,074 tons of steel can be tiresome and, well, make a person hungry. With an allotted 30-minute lunch break, workers wait anxiously for the hoist that descends dozens of stories, making their 30 minutes often times extend to 60. The solution – bring the lunch to the workers. The new sandwich shop, built by DCM Erectors (the same company that is putting up the steel girders and beams), is a movable pod made of stacked cargo containers which sit on either side of two tower cranes.
More images and more about the new restaurant after the break.
In Paris, France, BASE has created an environment for the imagination with their latest playground design. Working with children and adults in different workshops, BASE was able to understand the users’ wishes and visions for the project. ”Our work then consisted in synthetising and interpreting the public’s expectations to provide a spatial response both truthful and original,” explained the designers.
More images and more about the playground after the break.
A-lab just won a competition to design a military base in Norway which will be situated on the northern border with Russia. The design challenge was to create a cohesive complex where work and private life coexist, and where military services meet the civil community.
More images and more about the winning design after the break.
Working collectively, four graduate students have transformed their clients’ traditional and rarely used fireplace into something completely new. Entitled Radiance, the project is intended to exploit the traditional qualities of the hearth by re-centering the focus of the home around a contemporary ambient environment. The clients’ background, one an artist and the other an architect, allowed this project to become more of “a commissioned artwork rather than a client-based architectural intervention” – an opportunity that truly allowed PROJECTiONE to further their theories and interest in their plyLight sketch prototype.
More about the project, including images, after the break.
WE ARCHITECTURE and Sophus Søbye Architects, both young Danish firms, have been awarded first prize for their competition entry for a cultural center in Denmark’s Rudersdahl municipality. “The future Mariehøj cultural center draws a clear profile in the landscape. With a new foyer, the culture center will get a new face that invites in all people in Ruderdahl’s municipality and also a heart that can bring together and highlight the many users and activities in the house,” explained the architects.
More images and more about the proposal after the break.
In his article about Renzo Piano’s revised vision for the Whitney, Nicolai Ouroussoff explains that the neighborhood’s criticism and the museum board’s indecisiveness have continually provided stumbling blocks for the museum during its attempts to expand. Upon agreeing to realize Piano’s design for a satellite museum in the Meatpacking district, hope were high that finally, after 25 years, the museum would complete its much needed expansion.
Yet, it seems that Piano is in the midst of a new struggle resulting from the global economic downturn. While construction costs have dropped, allowing the cost of the project to slide under $200 million (persuading the board to commit to breaking ground), the museum is still struggling to contain costs and begin building before prices rise.
Check out this master plan video by Vandkunsten for designing sustainable cities. Not only do we love the animation techniques, by the layers of information are presented in a clear manner. Upon viewing the video, the zoning of public space, circulation routes, and green spaces are made evident while great glimpses of zoomed-in perspectives tie the ideas together. The video depicts three different master plan ideas: reusing a shipyard in Sweden, redefining a recreational space in Denmark in an attempt to better integrate the area with the surroundings, and the renewal of a suburban city center in Denmark. Enjoy!
Situated in a residential neighborhood with buildings dating back to 1900, Reiulf Ramstad Arkitekter’s new kindergarten was required to have a “contemporary expression.” The school’s placement within the middle of a small park provides a protected outdoor area for the children to enjoy. The design offers two units for children between 1-3 years of age, and two units for older children between 3-6 years of age. These four units can operate both independently and together, as needed. All units share a common area and a kitchen in the heart of the building, while administration on the upper floor separated from the children areas.
More images after the break.
The national cultural event, Imaginez Maintenant, features work of young multidisciplinary designers (all under the age of 30) in nine French cities. Finding inspiration in Gilles Clément’s description of “wandering plants phenomenon,” Nicolas Dorval-Bory and Raphaël Bétillon’s selected project creates an experimental journey, inviting visitors to explore an unlikely landscape. Open from July 1st through the 4th, the project consists of an artificial cloud, a long greenhouse and thousand of seedlings which will rest on the banks of the Garonne, next to the Hospital of La Grave.
More about the installation after the break.
We have seen a growing interest in parametric design as it offers a new approach to architecture based on advanced computational design techniques. As parametricism becomes a tool more designers are turning toward, is this method beginning to define the style of our time? In an effort to identify our architectural style to allow it to be recognized, Patrik Schumacher, a partner at Zaha Hadid, has communicated his beliefs in his Parametricist Manifesto. “As a style, parametricism is marked by its aims, ambitions, methodological principles, and evaluative criteria, as well as by its characteristic formal repertoire.”
More about the manifesto after the break.
We’re happy to share Google’s launch of the newest Google Earth Pro 5.2. Lots of people in the profession use Google Earth for site work, bringing “geographic data to life”, and now, the latest version will make it easier to find and access the data. With three new productivity-enhancing layers, 5.2 will include demographic and parcel data in addition to daily traffic counts. Information regarding 2010 and projected 2015 income, age, education will be available at the state, county, tract, and block group level. Everything from use codes, and zoning data to even the sales history and average number of cars that have passed through an intersection will be link from each parcel selection. We are excited for this new version and to work with the new levels of information it provides.
Infamously known for their work with shipping containers (be sure to check out their Puma City previously featured on AD), American-firm LOT -EK has nearly completed the APAP Open School, in Korea. The containers are perched atop each other creating spaces beneath them for a public amphitheater, within them for educational functions and even on top of them for a long decked roof offering great views.
More images and more about the school after the break.
Dutch NL Architects’ newest bridge is part of their proposal to connect Hong Kong with the mainland of China. The bridge’s dynamic twisted form is a great resolution to the differences in driving styles, namely that in Hong Kong, people drive on the left side of the road and in the mainland China, they drive on the right side.
SOM is in the process of retrofitting their 1958 Inland Steel Building to meet modern sustainability and landmark restoration goals. The idea for the upgrade, although headed by SOM, was actually conceived in 2007 when, non other than Frank Gehry and New York real estate player Richard Cohen purchased the 19-story, 232,450-square-foot property for approximately $57 million, and set out to transform the aging structure into Class A space.
We love listening to TED talks as the speakers offer fresh perspectives and challenge us with thought provoking ideas. Today, we share David Byrne’s talk about music and architecture. Byrne chronologically moves through different architectural periods, noting the difference musical composition experiences as the years progress. For instance, the airy and flowing music that filled cathedrals became more textural with frequent changes in key as the size and shape shifted to become something like Carnegie Hall.
More about Byrne after the break.
Reiulf Ramstad Arkitekter, whose National Tourist Route was a finalist for the 2009 Building of the Year Awards, has recently been awarded first prize for an invited competition to design a mountaineering center. Situated in Norway, the center possesses an expressive geometry that is an artificial interpretation of the site’s mountainous backdrop. Covered in a uniform surface, the angularity of the form breaks the large mass into a more contextual and scalable entity. The design intends to give the “existing house a special character that conveys the content with a unique and existing expression” giving the center of Åndalsnes a “one of a kind building.”
More images after the break.