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Catherine Fox is the art and architecture critic of the Atlanta Journal-Constitution.   Catherine Fox     “Buildings here in Atlanta remain disappointing, with a few exceptions,” states Catherine Fox, the art and architecture critic for the Atlanta Journal-Constitution. Renzo Piano’s addition to the High Museum is one of those exceptions. “The expansion, which is actually three buildings and a restaurant arrayed around a plaza, opened in 2005. As you’d expect, it’s a handsome project, designed to complement rather than outdo the Meier building, and it offers wonderful spaces for viewing art. The “piazza” at the center of the complex

Robert Campbell, FAIA, is the architecture critic of The Boston Globe.   Robert Campbell, FAIA     Readers of Robert Campbell’s columns in our pages perhaps don’t know that The Boston Globe’s longtime architecture critic helped the General Services Administration select Thom Mayne and Morphosis to design the San Francisco Federal Building, completed in 2007. “I’ve never seen a building of his that didn’t have major flaws, but I felt he needed a client who could hold his feet to the fire,” Campbell says. He compares the U.S. to the Netherlands, where young architects have greater chances at larger commissions.

The last time anyone made a fuss over the architecture of the New York Times’ headquarters was in the first decade of the 20th century. Then Cyrus Eidlitz, with Andrew C. MacKenzie, designed the Times’ offices, completed in 1905, for a new location far removed from its old home amid a cluster of newspaper buildings down by City Hall. Photo courtesy Suzanne Stephens Related Links: The New York Times Building Curtain-Wall Ingenuity Comments from Renzo Piano Videos Slide Show In an essay in RECORD, in 1903, Montgomery Schuyler, a staff member of the Times from 1883 to 1907 and a

Our extensive Web coverage of The New York Times Building includes three videos. Watch an interview with architect Renzo Piano; learn the purpose of the building’s outer skin made of ceramic rods; and hear how the company has cut down significantly on energy use. Watch an interview with Renzo Piano, who describes what he aspired to achieve with his design. Video length: About four minutes. Video courtesy The New York Times Company Learn about the benefits of the 185,000 ceramic rods covering the tower’s glass curtain wall. Video length: About three minutes. Video courtesy The New York Times Company Hear

[In an interview with RECORD deputy editor Suzanne Stephens in preparation for the magazine’s coverage in its February 2008 issue, the architect reflected on the building and underscored certain concerns relating to architecture at the current moment.] Photo © Annie Leibovitz/courtesy Renzo Piano Building Workshop Related Links: The New York Times Building Curtain-Wall Ingenuity A Look Back in History Videos Slide Show “Constantly present in my mind when designing the New York Times Building was that today's architecture should be inspired by what is happening with the climatic crisis. In the way the last [20th] century opened with an interest

Carl Galioto, Skidmore, Owings & Merrill’s partner-in-charge of the firm’s New York Technical Group, and Paul Seletsky, SOM’s director of digital design, are two of the architecture profession’s leading experts on BIM: building information modeling (also commonly referred to as virtual design and construction). The pair discuss how BIM facilitated a major redesign of the Freedom Tower; assess the technology’s strategic impact on the profession; address common misperceptions; explain BIM’s potential benefits for smaller practices; point out how BIM can lead to increased compensation for architects; and lay out the potential ramifications of BIM—both positive and negative—on the architect’s overall

Marshall E. Purnell, FAIA, was appointed the 84th president of the American Institute of Architects (AIA) at a ceremony in December, taking the helm from outgoing president RK Stewart, FAIA. Purnell is the design principal of Devrouax + Purnell Architects, a 35-person firm that he and his business partner Paul Devrouax started in 1978 in Washington, D.C. Its portfolio includes several large-scale sports and entertainment facilities such as the Washington Convention Center; the Verizon Center, formerly the MCI Center; and a new ballpark for the Washington Nationals, which it currently is designing with HOK Sport. The firm also specializes in

JM: Do enough architects give back these days? A couple of groups such as The 1% and Architecture for Humanity do pro bono work, but do you wish that there was more of that? Although Devrouax + Purnell Architects promoted four people to become partners in the firm last year, will it be difficult for Purnell to devote most of his attention to the AIA for a year? “You better plan all that out before you even declare a candidacy for AIA because you might win,” he says. (0:46) MP: Our firm has always done pro bono work and served