2025 August Issue | Architectural Record

For August, we embrace summertime diversions, with a focus on the artistic (and air-conditioned): a high-tech dance venue in the Berkshires, an expanded and renovated Toronto music hall, and a multitasking cultural center in Brooklyn. We also explore more leisurely, nature-connected pursuits with our cover story on a newly restored swath of Central Park anchored by a vast swimming pool that can be transformed for other seasonal uses. A special CE section showcases wide-ranging strategies for a greener future, including profiles of sustainable projects—mass-timber buildings in California and Switzerland among them—and a deep-dive into one London firm’s novel approach to material reuse.

Check back throughout the month for additional content.

Entertainment

A New Dance Venue Rises on the Site of a Theater Fire at Jacob’s Pillow in the Berkshires

Becket, Massachusetts

Dante A. Ciampaglia

August 4, 2025

No Comments

With the aid of Mecanoo and Marvel, the famed New England dance center debuts a bigger and better Doris Duke Theatre nearly five years after its predecessor was destroyed.

Entertainment

KPMB Maximizes a Narrow Site to Add State-of-the-Art Facilities to a Storied Toronto Concert Hall

Toronto

Matthew Allen

August 5, 2025

No Comments

With its curtainlike facade, the seven-story Allied Music Centre provides vital back-of-house functions for the restored Massey Music Hall.

Entertainment

Andrea Steele Architecture Inserts a Cultural Hub into the Podium of a Downtown Brooklyn Tower

Brooklyn, New York

Matthew Marani

August 6, 2025

No Comments

The long-awaited L10 Arts and Cultural Center provides new space for multiple organizations across three floors.

Continuing Education: Sustainability in Practice – Summer 2025

August 1, 2025

No Comments

This series covers wide-ranging strategies for a greener future, including projects by SOM, Herzog & de Meuron, and Lever Architecture.

Sustainability in Practice Summer 2025

In Conversation with Carmody Groarke

Tim Abrahams

August 13, 2025

One Comment

The London-based duo, who are featured speakers at RECORD’s forthcoming Sustainability in Practice conference, detail their thoughtful approach to the life of construction materials.

Sustainability in Practice Summer 2025

SOM Foregrounds Sustainability at a Multitasking County Office Building in Northern California

Redwood City, California

Clare Jacobson

August 15, 2025

No Comments

Located in Redwood City, 500 County Center is the first mass-timber civic building in the U.S. to achieve net zero energy.

Sustainability in Practice Summer 2025

An Adaptive Reuse Project by Lever Architecture Makes the Grade at the University of Oregon’s New Portland Campus

Portland, Oregon

Randy Gragg

August 12, 2025

No Comments

A dark and disregarded 1950s-era gym-turned-theater is transformed once again into Highland Hall, an inviting academic building populated by future architects.

Sustainability in Practice Summer 2025

Herzog & de Meuron Designs a Timber-Framed Swiss Office Building with Ambitious Sustainability Goals

Allschwil, Switzerland

Andrew Ayers

August 11, 2025

2 Comments

For the net-zero emissions–aiming Hortus, the firm gamely takes on a new type of challenge (and mostly does away with carbon-intensive concrete in the process).

Sustainability in Practice Summer 2025

In Toronto, The Well Aims for Environmental and Social Responsibility on a Grand Scale

Toronto

Matthew Allen

August 14, 2025

No Comments

The sustainable centerpiece of this immense mixed-use development, master planned by Hariri Pontarini Architects, is an innovative deep-lake-water cooling system.

Josephine Minutillo, Editor in Chief of Architectural Record

August 2025 Editor’s Letter

In the Swim

Josephine Minutillo

August 1, 2025

One Comment

Revisiting a 19th-century New York architect plus a taste of what's to come at our Sustainability in Practice conference on September 10 in Chicago.

Introducing the 2025 Women in Architecture Awardees

Matt Hickman

July 15, 2025

No Comments

Gina Bocra, Emily McGlohn, Chandra Robinson, Roberta Washington, and Cynthia Weese will be honored at a September 9 event held at the Illinois Institute of Technology in Chicago.

Landscape

Central Park’s Davis Center Creates Space to Cool Off and Slow Down

Joann Gonchar, FAIA

August 1, 2025

No Comments

Designed by Susan T Rodriguez, the project features a landscape-camouflaged amenity building and a vast public pool that converts into an ice rink in the winter.

In Focus

In Studio Refashions a Historic Manhattan Schoolhouse as a Tutoring Center

New York

Leopoldo Villardi

August 8, 2025

No Comments

Featuring a variety of learning spaces, the new Upper East Side home of Advantage Testing was built in 1891 with a design by Vaux & Radford.

RECORD Forum

Comic Strip Criticism

Gabriele Neri

August 7, 2025

No Comments

Are architects too serious? Caricatures and cartoons might offer a way to enliven discourse and elicit a few laughs, writes Gabriele Neri.

House of the Month

In Mexico, Sordo Madaleno Designs a Sprawling Family Compound Where Nature is the ‘Protagonist’

Valle San Nicolás, Mexico

Michael Snyder

August 15, 2025

One Comment

Set into a hillside, Rancho El Bosque comprises six largely independent dwelling modules, including a trio of two-bedroom duplexes.

Books

Summer Book Roundup: RECORD Editors Survey New Sustainability Titles

RECORD Editors

August 11, 2025

No Comments

Our picks include a resource on teaching carbon neutral design and the latest from the head of MIT's Sustainable Design Lab.

Guess the Architect: August 2025

RECORD Editors

August 8, 2025

Designed to showcase a novel filmmaking technology, this theater hosted the premieres of countless Hollywood films in the decades following its 1963 opening.

Snapshot: Hungary’s Tokaj Winery Pairs Fine Vintages with Panoramic Views

Hungary

Peter Xu

August 22, 2025

One Comment

Designed by Bord Architectural Studio, the vineyard features a pair of saucer-shaped volumes integrated into the surrounding landscape.

Products

Textiles for Summer 2025

August 25, 2025

No Comments

Handtufted rugs, an acoustic partition-curtain system, and wool-like yarn spun from nylon waste are among our picks for notable textile releases.

Products

Wallcoverings for Summer 2025

August 27, 2025

No Comments

These new wallcovering offerings are suitable for sprucing up both commercial and residential spaces.

Credits: 1 AIA LU/HSW; 1 AIBD P-CE; 0.1 ICC CEU

Learn how porous paving systems support stormwater management, reduce heat island effects, and enhance sustainable site design performance.

Credits: 1 AIA LU/HSW; 1 AIBD P-CE; 0.1 ICC CEU

Examine advanced fire detection strategies that support uptime and enhance safety in data centers and other mission-critical facilities.

Our Publications

Architectural Record

2025 August

Building Type Study

A New Dance Venue Rises on the Site of a Theater Fire at Jacob’s Pillow in the Berkshires

KPMB Maximizes a Narrow Site to Add State-of-the-Art Facilities to a Storied Toronto Concert Hall

Andrea Steele Architecture Inserts a Cultural Hub into the Podium of a Downtown Brooklyn Tower

Architectural Technology

Continuing Education: Sustainability in Practice – Summer 2025

In Conversation with Carmody Groarke

SOM Foregrounds Sustainability at a Multitasking County Office Building in Northern California

An Adaptive Reuse Project by Lever Architecture Makes the Grade at the University of Oregon’s New Portland Campus

Herzog & de Meuron Designs a Timber-Framed Swiss Office Building with Ambitious Sustainability Goals

In Toronto, The Well Aims for Environmental and Social Responsibility on a Grand Scale

Departments

August 2025 Editor’s Letter

Introducing the 2025 Women in Architecture Awardees

Central Park’s Davis Center Creates Space to Cool Off and Slow Down

In Studio Refashions a Historic Manhattan Schoolhouse as a Tutoring Center

Comic Strip Criticism

In Mexico, Sordo Madaleno Designs a Sprawling Family Compound Where Nature is the ‘Protagonist’

Summer Book Roundup: RECORD Editors Survey New Sustainability Titles

Guess the Architect: August 2025

Snapshot: Hungary’s Tokaj Winery Pairs Fine Vintages with Panoramic Views

Products

Textiles for Summer 2025

Wallcoverings for Summer 2025

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