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Florian Idenburg: The Latest Architecture and News

SO – IL Unveils Design for a Revitalized Arts Campus in the Detroit Marina

SO-IL, in partnership with Detroit’s Library Street Collective, has revealed the design for a new arts campus in the Stanton Yards marina on the Detroit River. The office is leading the adaptive reuse of four existing pre-war industrial buildings at Stanton Yards with the aim of creating a campus for arts organizations, creative retail, artist studios, and independent hospitality ventures along the waterfront. The master plan for the 13-acre site is led by design firm OSD (Office of Strategy + Design), a development that strives to transform the now-disused waterfront area into a 'dynamic cultural amenity' with over 80,000 square feet of commercial and creative space, 85 boat slips, and programmed waterfront parks. The project aims to expand upon the program of Detroit's Little Village, a diverse arts neighborhood recognized for its cultural and artistic scene.

SO–IL Designs a Teaching Museum of Art for Williams College in the United States

Brooklyn-based firm SO-IL has revealed the design for a new campus art museum at Williams College in Massachusetts, created to become a primary teaching resource for the institution renowned for its art history program. Since its inauguration in 1926, the Williams College Museum of Art has gathered an expansive collection of over 15,000 works. Through the design of SO-IL, the museum will be able to move into its first freestanding purpose-built home. In May 2024, the museum will present an exhibition on SO-IL’s design.

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Why "Darling" Architects Who Came Up Under Recession Are Doubling Down on Budget

This article was originally published by Metropolis Magazine as "The Build Up."

This November, the Manetti Shrem Museum on the University of California, Davis, campus opened to the public. Designed by New York City–based SO-IL with the San Francisco office of Bohlin Cywinski Jackson, the museum pays homage to the agricultural landscape of California’s Central Valley with an oversize roof canopy. The steel members of the 50,000-square-foot (4,650-square-meter) shade structure, nearly twice the size of the museum itself, reference the patterning of plowed fields and create a welcoming outdoor space for visitors. It is both expressive and practical, but getting that balance wasn’t easy.

SO-IL, founded by Florian Idenburg and Jing Liu in 2008, has a portfolio filled with smaller projects, installations, and exhibition-related work. The Manetti Shrem Museum is easily the firm’s largest work to date, demanding a rigorous design-build process while maintaining a strong conceptual vision. In short, it required architecture.

50 Architects Tell Us What They Are Looking Forward to in 2016

As the first month of 2016 draws to a close, we decided to tap into our network and ask an esteemed group of architects, critics, theorists and educators to tell us what they are looking forward to this year in architecture. 

What are you looking forward to in architecture this year?