Superstorm Sandy inundated Lower Manhattan, causing billions in property and infrastructure damage. To protect against future flooding, storm surges, and sea level rise, landscape architects are developing an innovative mix of green and grey solutions along the southern coast of Manhattan.
These are not nature-based solutions but forms of armor. And designers are showing how this armature can be woven into the public realm, creating new kinds of infrastructure. Smart design is resulting in retractable gates and walls, landscaped berms, and raised platforms. No concrete walls separating communities from each other or the waterfront here.
Landscape architecture firm SCAPE together with Bjarke Ingels Group have announced plans to transform Connecticut's ManresaIsland into a public-oriented development as a hub for learning, exploration, and community engagement. Originally slanted for private waterfront housing, the new scheme aims to open up the area as a public park with ample waterfront access, a project led by SCAPE. Additionally, the decommissioned coal-fired power plant is set to be converted by BIG into a community hub for multiple activities including swimming, small and large-scale events, research, and educational rooms. Supported by a private philanthropic investment from Austin McChord, the project is set to open in 2030 through a phased development.
The Obel Award is an international prize seeking to highlight unconventional and original initiatives within the architectural profession. Supported by the Henrik Frode Obel Foundation, each annual award is centered around a specific theme. By exploring a different challenge of the built environment each year, the award remains open to a wide range of solutions and architectural innovations, honoring those contributions that have a positive impact on both people and the planet.
"Architectures WITH," the recently announced theme of the 2024 edition, explores participatory design, co-creation, and interdisciplinary collaboration, challenging traditional roles in architecture to foster inclusive, adaptable environments. It aims to empower all stakeholders and enhance collective intelligence in architecture.
The Obel Award is an international prize for architectural achievement presented annually by the Henrik Frode Obel Foundation. Each year, the jury selects a specific theme and grants an award to a promising solution. For the 2024 edition, the prize that honors architectural contributions that positively impact both people and the planet will be focused on “Architecture With”.
Previous emphasis included Adaptations, Emissions, Cities, Mending, and Well-being. In 2023, the fifth cycle recognized ‘Living Breakwaters’ in New York, a green infrastructure project off the shore of Staten Island, by SCAPE Landscape Architecture and its founder Kate Orff. In 2022, the Obel was awarded to Seratech, a carbon-neutral concrete solution, in 2021, the concept of the 15-minute city received the prize for its value in creating sustainable and people-centric urban environments, and in 2020, Studio Anna Heringer was acknowledged for Anandaloy, in Bangladesh, an unconventional, multifunctional building that hosts a therapy center for people with disabilities on the ground floor and a textile studio on the top floor producing fair fashion and art. Finally, in its first edition, fixated on well-being, the Obel Award was granted to the Art Biotop Water Garden project in Tochigi, Japan, by Junya Ishigami & Associates.
Focused in its fifth edition on Adaptation, the Obel Award has been granted to ‘Living Breakwaters’ in New York, a green infrastructure project off the shore of Staten Island. Awarded to SCAPE Landscape Architecture and its founder Kate Orff, masterminds behind ‘Living Breakwaters’, the yearly prize honors architectural contributions that positively impact both people and the planet.
The Obel Award is an international prize for architectural achievement presented annually by the Henrik Frode Obel Foundation, and each year, the jury sets a focus and awards a potential solution. Previously, it recognized Seratech, a carbon-neutral concrete solution, as the 2022 Obel Award winner, while in 2021, the concept of the 15-minute city received the prize for its value in creating sustainable and people-centric urban environments. The award ceremony will take place at the Sydney Opera House on 21 October 2023, and the winner will receive a prize sum of EUR 100,000 and a unique work of art by artist Tomás Saraceno as a trophy.
The newly transformed Arkansas Museum of Fine Arts in Little Rock, US, is ready to open to the public on April 22, 2023. Designed by architecture practice Studio Gang in collaboration with Polk Stanley Wilcox and landscape architecture and urban design practice SCAPE, The Museum’s new architectural identity aims to signify its role as a leading arts institution in the region. One of the Museum’s most recognizable features, the folded plate concrete roof, is now complete. The new roofline spans the length of the building, connecting the new construction and the renovated spaces to create a coherent architectural character for the cultural institution.
Designed by Studio Gang architects, together with landscape design firm SCAPE and Polk Stanley Wilcox Architects, ArkansasMuseum of Fine Arts (AMFA) reaches an important construction milestone with the recent completion of its signature new roof. Spanning the entire length of the project and connecting the various buildings, both renovated and new, the folded plate concrete roof establishes the museum’s new architectural identity as the leading cultural institution for the state of Arkansas.
4 Hudson Square is Walt Disney’s new headquarters in the Big Apple, designed by Skidmore, Owings & Merrill LLP (SOM). Located in the Lower Manhattan district, in the neighborhood of Hudson Square, the project will create a space for the company’s New York operations.
Overview – Daytime . Image Courtesy of Mission Rock/ China Basin Park
The first phase of the planning vision for Mission Rock in San Francisco was initiated. The masterplan developed by the San Francisco Giants and Tishman Speyer put in place four buildings designed by internationally renowned architecture firms MVRDV, Studio Gang, Henning Larsen, and WORKac. The scheme also includes a 5-acre waterfront park by SCAPE.
As the world recognizes Earth Day 2019, the public discourse is increasingly dominated by citizen action across the world manifesting a widespread fear and frustration at a perceived lack of action by governments and officials to confront the issue forthrightly. From the Extinction Rebellion protests that have gripped London, to school student strikes across 125 countries, global cities are increasingly finding themselves on the front line of a battle to limit the effects of global warming.
https://www.archdaily.com/915510/how-three-major-us-cities-are-preparing-for-climate-changeNiall Patrick Walsh
Studio Gang and SCAPE has unveiled further details of their plans to transform the Memphis waterfront with the new Tom Lee Park. One of five zones included in Studio Gang's six-mile masterplan for the riverfront, the park has been developed with input from over 4,000 people, including community groups, stakeholders, and local students from North and South Memphis.
The proposal for Tom Lee Park draws inspiration from the Mississippi River, “reimagined as a vibrant and dynamic civic space that fosters positive encounters and civic pride, restores natural ecology and conditions, and better connects the city to the river.” New architecture floating above the landscape is inspired by historic structures that once dotted the riverfront, such as terminal buildings, grain elevators, and barges.
The pavilion representing the United States at this year’s biennale brings together the work of seven different transdisciplinary teams who each prepared an installation addressing the concept of citizenship at a different scale. Entitled Dimensions of Citizenship, the exhibition is intended to challenge the definition and conception of citizenship, examining issues and citing examples on the scale of the citizen, civitas, region, nation, globe, network and cosmos. The pavilion was commissioned on behalf of the US Department of State’s Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs by the School of the Art Institute of Chicago and the University of Chicago.
One year after the launch of Resilient by Design's Bay Area Challenge, led by TLS Landscape has presented the final nine design concepts. The Bay Area Challenge launched with a call to action to "bring together local residents, community organizations, public officials and local, national, and international experts to develop innovative solutions that will strengthen our region's resilience to sea level rise, severe storms, flooding, and earthquakes." The idea formulated as a “blueprint for resilience” that can be replicated and utilized locally and globally. Other urban challenges will also be addressed, including housing, transport, health and economic disparity as a means of not just protecting the current regions, but strengthening them.
The elite, collaborative teams include world-renowned designers like BIG, Mithun and HASSELL+.
Read on for more about each of the final design concepts.
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New North Entry from Crescent Drive. Image Courtesy of Studio Gang
Studio Gang has revealed the design of their $70 Million expansion of the Arkansas Arts Center, located in historic MacArthur Park in the state capital of Little Rock. Working with associate architects Polk Stanley Wilcox and landscape architecture firm SCAPE, Studio Gang has envisioned a sweeping roof structure that will connect the existing architecturally disparate museum pavilions into a cohesive whole.
In their latest issue, Rolling Stone has named Elon Musk "The Architect of Tomorrow," as well as listed architects David Benjamin and Kate Orff as two of their "25 People Shaping the Future in Tech, Science, Medicine, Activism and More."
From a pool of over fifty submissions, Resilient by Design have chosen ten winning teams to collaborate with engineers, climate change experts, designers, architects and community members to imagine a better future for The Bay Area in the face of potentially devastating climate change. The winning teams AECOM, BIG, Bionic, TLS, Field Operations, HASSELL, Mithun, Base Landscape, SCAPE and Gensler will spend the next year on a combination of collaborative research projects and site-specific conceptual design solutions.
The curatorial team for the U.S. Pavilion at the 2018 Venice Architecture Biennale have announced the seven designers who will create the pavilion’s main exhibitions. Consisting of architects, landscape architects, artists and designers, the group will produce responses to the theme of Dimensions of Citizenship, exploring “the meaning of citizenship as a cluster of rights and responsibilities at the intersection of legal, political, economic, and societal affiliations.”
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_Studio_Gang.jpg?1549280979 "A terraced, universally-accessible pathway flows down the bluff to connect downtown Memphis to the new Tom Lee Park from Beale Street. Wide steps provide a comfortable place to sit and take in the views of the revitalized park and the river beyond. Image © Studio Gang")
_Studio_Gang.jpg?1549281341 "Near the river’s edge, a central canopy floats above a set of Activity Courts, framing the river beyond and protecting the courts below that can be used for basketball and other sports, as well as events like concerts or weddings. Concessions, lockers, storage, and bathrooms are located nearby. Image © Studio Gang")
_Studio_Gang.jpg?1549281155 "Natural play areas, dynamic topography, rocky boulder outcroppings, and winding paths make the Tailout zone of Tom Lee Park a playtime paradise. An outdoor classroom, experimental garden, and other hands-on opportunities give kids a chance to connect with and learn about the unique ecology of the Mississippi River. Image © Studio Gang")
_Studio_Gang.jpg?1549280808 "A welcoming entry plaza greets visitors and orients them to a range of riverfront and park activities, from boat cruises to basketball. In the heart of the plaza, water features and bright swaths of native plants evoke the movement of the river and provide photo-worthy moments for all ages. Large open areas within the plaza can accommodate public gatherings, art installations, and festival tents. Image © Studio Gang")
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