An architect in northwest Arkansas converts a typical metal shed into a striking place of worship.

Smithgroup had completed four Microsoft Technology Centers (MTC) for the software giant by the time the multidisciplinary firm was asked to design a fifth, in Southfield, Michigan.

World Building of the Year (and Office): Media-TIC, Barcelona, Cloud 9, Spain The fourth annual World Architecture Festival (WAF) wrapped up in Barcelona on November 4. More than 1,300 people attended this year’s awards ceremony, which capped the three-day event, and got a peek at the 700-plus international projects entered. Seminars and keynote speakers touched on issues of “disaster” and “difference,” including David van der Leer, assistant curator of Architecture and Urban Studies at New York’s Guggenheim Museum, who also led the museum’s team in executing the BMW Guggenheim Lab, a touring project that wrapped up its New York City

Frank Gehry drapes his first skyscraper in rippling stainless steel, bringing luxury living to lower Manhattan.

Image courtesy Perkins + Will Shanghai Natural History Museum, Shanghai, China, Perkins + Will When it is completed at the end of 2012, Perkins + Will’s nautilus-shell-shaped Shanghai Natural History Museum will emerge from a proposed sculpture park and provide views of the surrounding city. Perkins + Will won the international competition in 2007 to design the museum, which will replace an existing natural history museum. The architects were inspired by the classical gardens in Suzhou with their water features, rock formations, and screened walls, which they abstracted in their design. “It’s important that the museum is in the old

Photo by Paul Warchol © Solomon R. Guggenheim Foundation Click on the slideshow button to see more images. Amidst a cacophony of truck brakes, street sweepers, and ambulance sirens in Manhattan’s East Village, the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum and BMW launched the first BMW Guggenheim Lab on Tuesday, which will open to the public on Wednesday, August 3rd. The minimalist open-air structure designed by Tokyo-based Atelier Bow-Wow is a pop-up think tank, event space, and pavilion that will offer free movie screenings, lectures, and workshops relating to the theme of “Confronting Comfort” through October 16. Constructed on a 25-by-100-foot site

Evoking the creations of a brilliant, futuristic insect, architect Michael Hansmeyer’s fantastical extrapolation of classical columns leaves no smooth surface untouched.

The organization will open the doors to its renovated facility this fall, marking the end of a long, troubled saga. Image courtesy of Platt Byard Dovell White Architects Click on the slide show button to view more images of New-York Historical Society Renovation. Related Links: NY Historical Society Henry Luce III Center for the Study of American Culture Completed in 1908 by York and Sawyer, the New-York Historical Society’s classical, Roman Eclectic style building, on Central Park West, has long been known as a “bunker”—its elegant yet severe granite façade fails to extend a warm welcome to visitors and passersby.