Joann Gonchar, FAIA

Joann Gonchar, FAIA, LEED AP, is deputy editor at Architectural Record. She joined RECORD in 2006, after working for eight years at its sister publication, Engineering News-Record. Before starting her career as a journalist, Joann worked for several architecture firms and spent three years in Kobe, Japan, with the firm Team Zoo, Atelier Iruka. She earned a Master of Architecture degree from the University of Pennsylvania and a Bachelor of Arts from Brown University. She is licensed to practice architecture in New York State.

Media Production Center, Columbia College Chicago

Jeanne Gang turns to cinema to shape the spaces inside a new academic building.

Joann Gonchar, FAIA

November 15, 2010

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The southern reaches of Chicago’s South Loop might seem an odd place for a college academic building: The neighborhood is a gritty mix of warehouses, surface parking lots, loft conversions, and recently constructed residential towers.

Cambridge Public Library

Legible and Luminous: William Rawn’s pristine glass box for the Cambridge Public Library quadruples the size of the original historic building.

Joann Gonchar, FAIA

October 16, 2010

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Anyone who doubts the relevance of libraries in the age of e-readers, amazon.com, and the iPad should visit the new central branch of the Cambridge Public Library (CPL), in Cambridge, Massachusetts.

Joann Gonchar, FAIA

September 16, 2010

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Ask any seasoned journalist, and he or she will likely confirm that the office environment for a news and media organization needs to support several seemingly incompatible activities, often occurring simultaneously. At any given moment, reporters are gathering information on the phone, impromptu meetings are happening in aisles and corridors, while writers and editors are trying to complete stories on tight deadlines. STUDIOS Architecture grappled with these demands when it designed offices for Dow Jones, the news and financial information provider best known as publisher of the Wall Street Journal. Soon after Rupert Murdoch’s media conglomerate, News Corporation (News Corp.),

Joann Gonchar, FAIA

August 23, 2010

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Photo courtesy Forrec Related Links: Inside Beijing’s Bubble Box National Swimming Center Earlier this month, after almost a year of reconstruction, what is being touted as Asia’s largest water park opened inside the bubble-like ETFE walls of Beijing’s National Aquatics Center. The building, commonly known as the Water Cube, was designed by Australian architecture firm PTW and China Construction Design International as the site of aquatics events during the 2008 Olympic Games. It still contains pools for recreational swimming and competition, but now it also houses a 140,000-square-foot leisure hall created by Toronto-based planning and design firm Forrec. The park

CityCenter

A mega-development wagers that urbanism and architecture can trump flamboyance and kitsch.

Joann Gonchar, FAIA

August 16, 2010

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Even before the economy tanked, few would have called the scope of CityCenter anything less than incredibly ambitious.

CityCenter by MGM Resorts International and Infinity World

Las Vegas, Nevada

Joann Gonchar, FAIA

August 16, 2010

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Lighting designers favor form over flash for CityCenter's diverse set of buildings.

MIT Media Lab

Fumihiko Maki skillfully combines sectional complexity and transparency to create a fitting new home for MIT's Media Lab.

Joann Gonchar, FAIA

June 19, 2010

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In the world of architecture, it isn’t unusual for projects to fall victim to shifting priorities or changing financial circumstances and subsequently stall or be shelved indefinitely.

NYC Skyscraper Is First U.S. Commercial Tower to Earn LEED Platinum

Joann Gonchar, FAIA

May 25, 2010

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Last week, two years after its first occupants moved in, the owners of the 55-story office tower at New York City’s One Bryant Park celebrated the building’s official opening with a reception in the lobby.

Joann Gonchar, FAIA

March 9, 2010

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Almost since its inclusion in LEED in 2001, the materials and resources credit pertaining to certified wood products has been controversial. The credit recognizes only wood products that meet the standards of one organization—the Forest Stewardship Council (FSC). But last week, the U.S. Green Building Council (USGBC) moved a step closer to adopting new credit language that, at least in theory, could open up the rating system to other wood-certification schemes. The revamped credit, available for review and comment at usgbc.org, is the third set of revisions released since 2008. At the heart of the proposed changes is the elimination of