Since its completion in 1997, the Guggenheim Museum Bilbao has been a splendidly sore thumb in the cityscape. While its main entrance aligns with the center-city artery Parraguirre, the Frank Gehry–designed icon undulates and vibrates on the shore of the city’s namesake river, ostensibly alone: Only a bridge and some austere landscaping butt up against the architecture. Images © Balmori and Bilbao Ria 2000 Balmori Associates won a design competition last week with its proposal for Campa de los Ingleses, a 6.2-acre park that will abut Frank Gehry’s Guggenheim Museum in Bilbao, Spain. The site features a 32.8-foot grade change,

Japanese architect Shigeru Ban, known for his cardboard houses, has just installed his latest endeavor in the paper-building world—a temporary bridge over the Gardon River, in the south of France. The 7.5-ton structure is made of 281 of Shigeru’s trademark cardboard tubes, each of which measures 4 inches across and 0.47 inches thick. It provides a visual foil to the nearby Pont du Gard: an ancient Roman bridge now listed as a World Heritage site by the United Nations Educational Scientific and Cultural Organization. Photos: © Didier Boy de la Tour Japanese architect Shigeru Ban has designed a temporary bridge

The British architect Will Alsop doesn’t do quiet buildings, so it’s fitting that his latest North American project will be an icon for an equally bold development project: a plan to build one of the largest film studios on the continent in Toronto. Images Courtesy ALSOP/Quadrangle A view of the main entry at Will Alsop’s Filmport tower in Toronto (top). The rear elevation of Alsop’s Filmport tower features a curving facade screen (above). Unveiled last week, Alsop’s design calls for a cantilevered 280,000-square-foot building that will function as a gateway to the new Filmport complex, now being constructed in the

Congress is considering a non-architect for the nation’s most visible architecture post, the Architect of the Capitol, and that’s riling the American Institute of Architects.

Editor’s note: You may read the news digest below or listen to it, plus other news headlines from ArchitecturalRecord.com, as a podcast by clicking this link. Click the play button to begin | Click here to download Gluckman Mayner was tapped by Donald and Doris Fisher, founders of the Gap clothing chain, to design a 100,000-square-foot museum in San Francisco to house their collection of contemporary art, the San Francisco Chronicle reported on August 8. Called the Contemporary Art Museum of the Presidio, the building will be located in the city’s Presidio park and contain 55,000 square feet of galleries—making

In the wake of several failures to preserve well known Brutalist buildings around the nation, preservationists in Baltimore are readying themselves for an August 14th hearing that will decide the fate of this city’s own cast-concrete progeny. The Morris Mechanic Theater, designed by John Johansen, will come before a public hearing at the Baltimore Commission for Historical and Architectural Preservation (BHAP) for the recommendation of Baltimore City Landmark status; the meeting will also set a six-month delay on new construction permits at the building’s site. Photos: Courtesy Michael V. Murphy Architect John Johansen’s 1967-vintage Morris Mechanic Theater, in Baltimore, is

SmithGroup, already No. 11 on Architectural Record’s 2007 list of the Top 150 Architecture Firms, just got a little larger: the Detroit-based architecture and engineering giant acquired Area Design, a boutique firm based in Chicago, for an undisclosed amount yesterday. Area is a seven-person commercial interiors firm founded by Angie Lee, FAIA, and Scott Baker, AIA, in 2005. Among its 20 clients are DDB Chicago, Exelon Corporation, and The HON Company. It posted $1.23 million in 2006 revenue. Prior to founding Area, Lee worked for 13 years at OWP/P—ending her career there as director of corporate practice. She will now

As gasoline prices speed toward the $4-per-gallon mark, consumers are buying hybrid and flex-fuel cars or filling up with biodiesel, and new ethanol plants are sprouting up to squeeze an alternative fuel from corn. Fittingly, the retailers of these cleaner fuels are using green design to make an architectural statement that their pit stops are as ecoconscious as their fuels. Photo © Tomas Endicott (top); Courtesy BP (above). The roof of SeQuential Biofuels, in Eugene, Oregon, is planted with native shrubs. Pump islands are sheltered by photovoltaic panels, which generate electricity for the building (top). Helios House in Los Angeles 

BusinessWeek and Architectural Record magazines announced the winners of their 10th annual “Good Design is Good Business” international competition today. These honors recognize innovative building design projects that help solve problems and achieve specific goals for companies, nonprofits, institutions, and governmental agencies. Four projects received an Award of Excellence in 2007: Navy Federal Credit Union, Pensacola, Fla., designed by ASD Inc. InterActiveCorp headquarters, New York City, designed by Gehry Partners/STUDIOS Architecture Young Centre for the Performing Arts, Toronto, designed by Kuwabara Payne McKenna Blumberg Architects United States Census Bureau Headquarters, Suitland, Md., designed by Skidmore Owings and Merrill An additional