The Denver Museum of Nature & Science The Denver Museum of Nature & Science is one of the city’s most important institutions. It has been around for more than 100 years and has a strong national reputation. It’s also a top local tourist attraction and a destination for groups of schoolchildren—they arrive by the busload, more than 3,000 a day. But in a city with showpiece cultural projects by David Adjaye, Allied Works, and Daniel Libeskind, the Museum of Nature & Science is definitely not an architectural icon. In fact, it’s downright ugly. Sure, there are some fine neoclassical buildings
James Turrell, Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York, June 21–September 25, 2013 Aten Reign, 2013 Daylight and LED light, dimensions variable The great rotunda of the Guggenheim Museum in New York has recently been transformed—replaced, really—by a grand new James Turrell installation called Aten Reign. Five elliptical rings of LED color rise up, funnel-like, to the oculus of Frank Lloyd Wright’s structure, concealing his ramps and walls. As Turrell’s lights slowly modulate from blues to lavenders to fuchsias or to neutral grays, our sense of depth alters too: sometimes the rings so flatten space that they read as concentric ellipses
French Architect Rudy Ricciotti recently unveiled his completed Museum of European and Mediterranean Civilizations (MuCEM), a cube of lacy concrete resting at the lip of the Mediterranean Sea. Located in Marseille, the museum chronicles more than 4,000 years of Mediterranean history with a collection of art and artifacts spread over 40,000 square feet of exhibition space. The project also includes a 335-seat theater. A delicate walkway bridges Ricciotti’s building with Fort Saint-Jean, the city’s historic military stronghold built in the 17th century. Click the image below to view a slideshow. Museum of European and Mediterranean Civilizations (MuCEM)Rudy RicciottiMarseilles, France
Minneapolis Midtown Greenway British architect, journalist, and cyclist Peter Murray has embarked on a bike ride from Portland, Oregon, to Portland Place in London. As he makes the 4,347-mile journey with a rotating group of participants, he plans to survey the state of cycling in American cities, meet up with members of the design community, and raise funds for Architecture for Humanity and U.K. relief organization Article 25.Along the way, Murray is filing updates about his progress for Architectural Record. Stay tuned for the final U.S. leg of the journey when Murray arrives in New York City on July 2.
Hotel construction starts dropped precipitously during the recession. But now they are on the rebound, buoyed by consumers’ increased willingness to travel, falling vacancy rates, and rising room rates. Click the image above to view a full presentation of these stats [PDF].
The Palestinian MuseumHeneghan Peng Architects A museum of Palestinian history, culture, and identity, the largest in the West Bank, is under construction following the cornerstone laying in April. The Dublin-based Heneghan Peng Architects, who also designed the Grand Egyptian Museum, were chosen in an international competition. They drew inspiration from the West Bank’s landscape and are embedding the museum in a series of cascading fieldstone terraces. Clad in local limestone, a traditional building material, the structure consists of sleek, wedge-shaped sections. The Palestinian Museum is sited on a nearly 10-acre hilltop plot donated by the adjacent Birzeit University, near Ramallah,
Seven months after Hurricane Sandy devastated the Northeast, New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg released two reports, one calling for major changes to the city’s building codes and the other laying out a $20 billion plan to protect the region from the effects of climate change.
Denise Scott Brown will not receive a retroactive Pritzker Prize, said the chair of the award's jury, Lord Peter Palumbo, in a letter released today. The letter is addressed to the two Harvard Graduate students behind a petition to have Scott Brown honored alongside her husband and partner, Robert Venturi, who won the prize in 1991.
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