Articles by Joann Gonchar, FAIA

Barclays Center

Beauty and the Behemoth: SHoP deploys digital technology and imaginative design to give Brooklyn's Barclays Center unexpected civic presence.
Joann Gonchar
Joann Gonchar, FAIA
December 16, 2012
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The gargantuan structure sits just beyond several neighborhoods of quaint brownstone rowhouses characteristic of this New York City borough.
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Forest City Ratner Moves Ahead With Modular Construction for SHoP-designed Atlantic Yards Tower

Joann Gonchar
Joann Gonchar, FAIA
November 28, 2012
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Forest City Ratner Companies (FCRC), developer of the $4.9 billion Atlantic Yards project in Brooklyn, New York, has officially announced today that the mixed-use complex’s first residential building—a 22-story, 350-unit, metal-and-glass-clad tower designed by SHoP Architects—will be built with modular methods. The developer has estimated that the modular structure, which will have a series of setbacks and cantilevers, will cost about 20 percent less than a nearly identical conventionally constructed tower. FCRC will partner with construction and development group, Skanska USA, to create FC + Skanska Modular. The new company will rely on union labor to assemble the components in
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Tower at PNC Plaza

Let the Fresh Air In: A tower offers an alternative to the hermetically sealed glass box
Joann Gonchar
Joann Gonchar, FAIA
October 16, 2012
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At 33 stories and about 550 feet, PNC Financial Services Group's new headquarters in Pittsburgh will not break any records for its height.


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Center for Sustainable Landscapes

How Green A Garden Grows: A Conservatory targets a certification trifecta.
Joann Gonchar
Joann Gonchar, FAIA
October 16, 2012
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Pittsburgh is home to what is arguably one of the greenest buildings in the country: the Center for Sustainable Landscapes, a recently completed facility for research and educational programs on the campus of the 119-year-old Phipps Conservatory and Botanical Gardens.


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Three PNC Plaza

Joann Gonchar
Joann Gonchar, FAIA
October 16, 2012
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Photo © Bruce Damonte Pittsburgh-based PNC Financial Services Group claims more green buildings than any other company in the world. Nationwide it has about 160 LEED projects, with several major ones on its home turf, including Three PNC Plaza (background), a glass-clad, 23-story mixed-use building by Gensler. When it opened in 2009, it was the first tower completed in the downtown core in more than two decades. The building has three programmatic elements'a hotel, condominiums, and office space'with separate but interconnected lobbies. It overlooks Market Square (foreground), a recently renovated public space surrounded by restaurants and retail that was the
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David L. Lawrence Convention Center

Joann Gonchar
Joann Gonchar, FAIA
October 16, 2012
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Photo © Brad Feinknopf The sweeping roof of Rafael Vi'oly's David L. Lawrence Convention Center (below) echoes Pittsburgh's 'Three Sisters' bridges. When it opened in 2003, the LEED Gold, 1.5 million-square-foot facility was the world's largest green building. Earlier this year, the convention center earned a Platinum rating for its operations and maintenance practices as part of the LEED-EBOM program, making it the first convention center with certification for both new construction and existing buildings. In 2011, a waterfront plaza in front of the building (bottom) was completed, extending an existing shoreline trail for pedestrians and cyclists. The park, designed
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Dune House

A coastal village is the backdrop for Jarmund/Vigsn's Architects' Dune House, one of Living Architecture's modern holiday homes in Suffolk, England.
Joann Gonchar
Joann Gonchar, FAIA
June 16, 2012
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Defying the typical angsty design process, the first conceptual sketch of the Dune House was the one that stuck.


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Al Hamra Firdous Tower

Sculpting the Skyline: Architects, engineers, and contractors tackle a challenging geometry to build a supertall tower with a striking silhouette for a desert city.
Joann Gonchar
Joann Gonchar, FAIA
May 16, 2012
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It is in the nature of tall buildings that rankings are short-lived, but at least for the moment, the 1,354-foot-tall, 77-story Al Hamra Firdous Tower, by Skidmore, Owings & Merrill (SOM), is the tallest building in Kuwait City.


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