One name that will be absent from RECORD’s 2008 list of the top 150 design firms is New Jersey-based CUH2A. The 400-member firm, which specializes in science and technology (S&T) projects such as hospitals and research facilities, is merging into HDR Architecture, in Omaha, Nebraska, to form what both companies say will be the world’s most comprehensive S & T design program. HDR has 1,300 employees and is the tenth highest grossing architecture and engineering firm in the world, with reported revenues of $260 million in 2007. The merger spawned from the company’s desire to expand its portfolio without slowing
Le Corbusier’s famous Ronchamp chapel (1954) in France is the center of a fierce online debate, reports Building Design. Cesar Pelli, Richard Meier, and Rafael Moneo are among the 1,500 people who have signed an online petition to block Renzo Piano’s scheme for new visitor facilities and accommodations for nuns at the landmark site. The Fondation Le Corbusier in Paris initiated the petition. In response, Renzo Piano Building Workshop (RPBW), and its client, L’Association Oeuvre Notre-Dame du Haut, have launched a counter-petition—and have collected nearly 250 signatures, including those of Peter Cook, David Adjaye, and Massimiliano Fuksas, according to the
On Wednesday, the MAK Center for Art and Architecture, in Los Angeles, announced that it would acquire the Fitzpatrick House, a residence designed by architect Rudolph Schindler in 1936. The property has been renamed the Fitzpatrick-Leland House in honor of its donor, current homeowner Russ Leland. Photo courtesy Julius Shulman Photograph Archive/Getty Research Institute The MAK Center for Art and Architecture, in Los Angeles, has acquired the Fitzpatrick House, designed by the architect Rudolph Schindler in 1936. Located at Laurel Canyon Boulevard and Mulholland Drive, the 2,400-square-foot, L-shaped dwelling—Schindler’s only spec house—perches on a cliff’s edge and features a series
Starchitect condos? Old news. Now real estate companies are tapping high-profile architects to design rental apartment buildings. In Lower Manhattan, Forest City Ratner Companies and Frank Gehry, FAIA—the team behind the controversial and recently downsized Atlantic Yards development in Brooklyn—are erecting what will become New York City’s tallest residential dwelling, Beekman Tower. Tenants will start taking occupancy in fall 2010, distinguishing the project as Gehry’s first completed residential tower. Image courtesy Artefactory The 76-story skyscraper is rising a few blocks from Ground Zero, and near important historic structures such as City Hall (1811), the Brooklyn Bridge (1883), and the Woolworth
In what is a tribute honoring his parent’s intellectual rigor and legacy, Jim Venturi, the 36-year-old son of Denise Scott Brown and Robert Venturi, is producing and directing a film about the highly regarded yet sometimes misunderstood architects.
A crane collapsed at a Manhattan construction site this morning, killing at least two workers, The New York Times reports. The accident occurred on the Upper East Side, at 91st Street and First Avenue, where a new 34-story condominium tower, the Azure, is rising. The building, designed by SLCE Architects, is being developed by The DeMatteis Organizations and The Mattone Group, according to the Azure Web site. The crane allegedly snapped apart and crashed into a building across the street, a law enforcement official told the Times. New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg told USA Today, “This is just unacceptable
Attribute it to empty-nest syndrome, falling crime rates, or rising gas prices: suburbanites are downsizing to apartments and condos located near theaters and cafes on walkable downtown blocks in San Diego, Milwaukee, Atlanta, and other cities nationwide. Photos courtesy Target Corporation In urban settings, big-box retailers are building slimmer stores with multiple levels, which can put off customers used to shopping with carts. Architects for Target faced that problem with its store in Glendale, California, which at three stories is the chain’s tallest (above). Their solution was to reconfigure the escalator banks. There are still traditional sets of moving stairs
As the academic year draws to a close, several architecture schools have announced changes in leadership. Monica Ponce de Leon, principal at Office dA, which she founded in Boston in 1991 with Nader Tehrani, was appointed dean of the University of Michigan’s A. Alfred Taubman College of Architecture and Urban Planning. She starts her new position on September 1. Leon is leaving Harvard’s Graduate School of Design (GSD), where she is director of its digital lab. She joined the GSD faculty in 1996 after teaching at the University of Miami, Northeastern University, and the Georgia Institute of Technology. Ponce de
Even Frank Gehry projects don’t seem to be immune to the current economic downturn. Atlantic Yards, a 22-acre, 8-million-square-foot mixed-use New York City project that’s been mired in controversy from day one, is now scaling back its signature building, Miss Brooklyn, from 620 to 511 feet in height. Along with the downsizing comes a change in function: originally, the tower was to feature condos and offices, but the new design calls for just 650,000 square feet of commercial space. As such, developer Forest City Ratner Companies is also renaming it, from Miss Brooklyn, for the borough it will sit in,
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