In 1973, the American Institute of Architects (AIA) moved into its 180,000-square-foot headquarters on New York Avenue, near the White House. The Modernist building was designed by The Architects Collaborative, a firm that counted Walter Gropius among its founders. Photo courtesy AIA The AIA is renovating its headquarters, designed by The Architects Collaborative and completed in 1973. Now, more than three decades later, the aging concrete building is slated to undergo its first comprehensive renovation. “The building is 35 years old and it is becoming increasingly difficult to keep the systems operational,” explains James Gatsch, FAIA, who is serving as

Grimshaw Designs 'Airport City' for St. Petersburg The government of St. Petersburg, Russia is raising $1.5 billion for a Nicholas Grimshaw–designed expansion to the city’s Pulkovo Airport, as part of a plan to double capacity there by 2025. While the city views expansion as vital for its future, Grimshaw’s master plan makes reference to the past. Images courtesy Grimshaw Architects Grimshaw Architects is transforming a 39-acre commercial site into an “airport city” for St. Petersburg. The scheme calls for offices, shops, and a hotel, along with a 1.6-million-square-foot terminal for international travel. UK-based Grimshaw Architects was one of four firms

Superdome's New Skin is Tougher Than Pig Skin In deciding how to repair the outside of the Louisiana Superdome in New Orleans, a local design team faced a challenge of time and engineering. Locals love the bronze hue of aluminum panels that clad the arena’s curvy walls, but Hurricane Katrina had blown off some of those panels. Could the architects make repairs without stamping on incongruously shiny bits? Or, could they replace the entire skin without cheapening the dome’s resilient look? Images courtesy Trahan Architects The Louisiana Superdome’s steel skin is being replaced with new aluminum panels that will match

As owners and regulators ponder how to handle the aging of towers built during the time of the first oil shocks, in the 1970s, architects and engineers nationwide are proving that a new skin can make a middle-aged building more energy efficient—but only sometimes make it look more elegant. Images courtesy Gensler Gensler’s proposal to re-clad a masonry tower in Manhattan with glass has drawn criticism. Along with lava lamps and disco, the 1960s and 1970s produced a host of tall buildings that used crude window glazing and air control technology. “In those days you built on site, put in

You trained as an architect, so you work as an architect, right? Maybe not all the time. Some architects are hiring themselves out as owner’s representatives or going to work for salaried jobs at owner’s rep firms. What an owner’s rep does can be subtle, but architects who have tried it say the experience sharpens their ability to steer a project from brief to move-in. That can be of value later on. Image © The Gallery Collection/Corbis Budget management is one of the owner’s reps’ many roles. Consider the job as the assumption of an identity: You’re playing the idealized

Landscape architect James Corner unveiled plans yesterday for creating America’s largest urban park in Memphis: a 4,500-acre site, five-times the size of Manhattan’s Central Park. Corner’s firm, Field Operations, beat out Hargreaves Associates and Tom Leader Studio, the other finalists in a six-month competition to master plan Shelby Farms, a patchwork of open space that had been a state-run prison farm during the mid-20th century and has since remained un-programmed. Images courtesy Field Operations Field Operations’s vision of the Walnut Grove entry into Shelby Farms, a 4,500-acre park in Memphis, Tennessee (top).  The revamped park will offer new facilities for

For New York City, April is the cruelest month. Just one year ago it was poised to embark on $12 billion worth of eye-catching new development centered on mass transit hubs, and Mayor Michael Bloomberg unveiled a 127-point plan to reduce carbon emissions by 30 percent while adding a million new residents by 2030. A lot has happened since then. Autumn jitters over the sub-prime mortgage market snowballed during the winter into talk of a full-blown recession, making it difficult for private developers—which the city and state rely on to help make its massive developments possible—to secure financing. Then, in

When housing prices seemed like they’d never stop climbing, developers were using architects’ names as selling points—but now they’re finding that Hollywood, and royalty, lend a dependable air of glamour even in a down market. So when Brett Buehrer and Jeremiah O’Connor recently completed a litigation-strewn, rental-to-condominium conversion of Manhattan House, a Modernist apartment block on New York City’s chichi Upper East Side, they settled on marketing the building not as a masterpiece designed by Gordon Bunshaft but as the onetime home of Grace Kelly. Photo © James Murdock (top); courtesy Rubenstein Public Relations (above); courtesy Rubenstein Public Relations (right).