JM: Tell me about the ark design. AM: We felt Jim Olson, who has 30 years experience designing residences with our firm, would be the perfect person to work on the residence for Noah and his animals. It’s designed in an abstraction sort of way: it’s pulled away from the walls, ceilings, and Jim and the team used different devices to make it feel like the ark is much larger. There’s different ways, with mirrors, that effects are created. It actually fools people: people walk in and they want to know how they can get to the galleries beyond. Photo:
BR: I’d like to name quickly a couple of projects and then maybe you could talk about your inspiration for them and what you think really sets them apart as architectural works: “The Ship” (1:00)? FS: Ah, yes. There’s no question that’s one of the many variations on what started as the leaf on the top of the Groninger Museum. And that was originally intended to go on top of a building that was and is built. It was supposed to be a rooftop addition. photograph: the Metropolitan Museum of Art/Anna Marie Kellen. Installation view of “Frank Stella on the
The Miami-based architect, who heads Oppenheim Architecture + Design, initially made his reputation with for-sale multifamily projects that combine a sleek Modernism with the tropical (and hedonistic) atmosphere of their surroundings.
BR: Chad, let’s talk about Cor, your high-profile green tower in the design district. Your press release describes this building as “revolutionary … the building of the future.” What are the green features that really set this project apart? CO: It’s a building where the architecture is fully integrated with the ecological ideologies. For example, with the wind turbines on the roof, it looks like a green building—whereas so many other sustainable projects just look like generic buildings. The architectural and the ecological also fuse together in the building’s skin. A hyper-efficient exoskeleton shell simultaneously provides building structure, thermal mass
BR: Chad, in addition to designing Ten Museum, you’re one of its developers as well. From a purely design perspective, what are the pros and cons of having an equity stake in a building? CO: When I see a phenomenal opportunity, a location that hasn’t been tapped, and I can put together a proposal for a project that takes advantage of this, it’s like an actor creating his own vehicle—like Ben Affleck and Matt Damon writing Good Will Hunting so they could star in it. [Having an equity stake] gives us a better opportunity to create great architecture as it