A three-story public technical high school with 212,000 square feet—82,000 renovated, 130,000 new—including classrooms, offices, science labs, a library, a gymnasium, a wood shop, and an auto shop.

“Who are you?” asked a Machias Elementary School first grader as she ran out of her classroom on the way to recess and spotted out-of-place adults.

In a district plagued by years of bond failures and overcrowding, a high school initiates a fresh start with collegiate learning tracks and a complementary campus.

Instead of the boxlike apartment and commercial towers in cities everywhere, architect Yansong Ma, principal of Beijing-based MAD, prefers structures that are “organic and soft.”

With all the glitzy-hip hotels opening in New York City these days, you could get very tired of the boutique approach that went into full throttle after Ian Schrager and Steve Rubell opened Morgans Hotel in 1984.

While India's Park Hotel group has forged a reputation over its 44-year history for boutique luxury establishments, its brazenly sculptural, 270-room hotel in Hyderabad is the first it has built from scratch.