For more than two decades, the Battersea coal-fired power station, rumored to be the largest brick building in Europe, has sat dormant on the south bank of River Thames in London. The facility, built in 1939, was designed by Sir Giles Gilbert Scott, the architect responsible for the city’s iconic red telephone booths and the Bankside power station, which, in 2000, Herzog & de Meuron converted into the Tate Modern.
Twenty years ago, Fort Worth’s Kimbell Art Museum announced a major expansion, and promptly got stuffed by critics, architects, and the public. “Hands off Louis Kahn’s masterpiece” was the outraged response, and the Kimbell quickly abandoned the idea. Now it is back with a new $70 million scheme that is more respectful of the Kahn building and, it hopes, less politically toxic.
When Charles Bower Winn donated $140,000 to the small Massachusetts city Woburn to build a freestanding public library, he suggested selecting an architect by way of a design competition.
In late September, José Torres, an architectural designer, was laid off from the Miami firm where he had worked for two years. Because of the global economic crisis, he says, “there were no more projects coming to the table.” His severance package included two weeks’ pay and a letter of reference that attributed his lay off to “the dire financial environment that has overtaken the country.” Now, he’s struggling to find a new job, he says, as candidates with similar credentials flood the market. Nationwide, unemployment is on the rise. According to the "Employment Situation: October 2008" report released on
Photo courtesy Page Southerland Page “Then there’s a little buffer of green space, which is very, very important because that makes them not feel like they’re on the sidewalk,” says Lawrence Speck of the Dunn Center’s outdoor space for Houston’s homeless residents. Lawrence Speck, FAIA, has worked with well-off clients on many residential projects, but he has also spent a lot of time talking about architecture with people living on the streets. A few years ago, the architect and professor at the architecture school at the University of Texas in Austin won the commission to design a $19.1 million expansion
Another Grand Plan for the South Boston Waterfront The redevelopment of Boston’s waterfront has been a start-stop affair in recent years. Now, another grand project is planned for the area, and this one is particularly ambitious. Images courtesy Gale International Seaport Square is a planned, 23-acre development featuring 19 buildings designed by Studio Daniel Libeskind, HOK, and CBT Architects, among others. In May, developer Gale International and partner Morgan Stanley filed a proposal for Seaport Square, a 23-acre mixed-used development featuring 19 buildings designed by the likes of Studio Daniel Libeskind, HOK, and CBT Architects. The 6.5-million-square-foot, $3.5 billion project—one
With its partners DekaBank and the Deutsches Architekturmuseum, the City of Frankfurt am Main announced today that the Hearst Tower in New York by Foster and Partners is the winner of its 2008 International Highrise Award, given to a project completed between January of 2006 and April of 2008. Photo ' Nigel Young, Foster + Partners The Hearst Tower in New York by Foster and Partners is the winner of the 2008 International Highrise Award, given to a project completed between January 2006 and April 2008. Chosen from among five finalists and 26 nominated projects by a seven-member jury that
President-elect Barack Obama was one of the most vocal advocates on the campaign trail for sustainability, with respect to both the environment and economic stimulus. The U.S. Green Building Council (USGBC) has wasted no putting together a progressive green agenda to push in Washington, consisting of a variety of measures Obama has supported on record. The USGBC has singled out four major nodes on which to base an aggressive sustainability agenda. Green building is at the forefront, and Obama has proposed the expansion of federal grants that assist states and municipalities to build LEED-certified public buildings. Furthermore, Obama has planned
The million-dollar view to London’s House of Parliament and Westminster Bridge will soon include a jewel-like addition. Image courtesy Sheppard Robson In London, Sheppard Robson has designed a 12-story building for the South Bank neighborhood, near the Thames River. Sheppard Robson, based in London, is working with real estate investment firm Delancey to make way for a new 345,000-square-foot, 12-story building located in the South Bank neighborhood, near the Thames River. Named Westminster Place, which refers to its view of the famous Westminster borough across the river, the building resembles a cut gemstone. “Because it looks at the House of
In late September, the University of Chicago broke ground on a $42 million addition to its Regenstein Library. Designed by Chicago’s Murphy/Jahn, it is not a wing, per se, but rather a bunker of books topped by a glass dome. Images courtesy Murphy/Jahn Murphy/Jahn have designed a new wing for the University of Chicago’s Regenstein Library, a Walter Netsch–designed Brutalist work that anchors the predominantly Gothic campus. In 2005, the university commissioned Murphy/Jahn to design an addition to the Regenstein, a Walter Netsch–designed Brutalist work that anchors this predominantly Gothic campus. Although Netsch had created expansion plans for the five-story
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