The U.S.-born, London-based architect pursued a contextual modernism that smartly bridged different eras. Virginia Museum of Fine Arts (with SMBW), Richmond, Virginia, 2010 Rick Mather’s death on April 20 from mesothelioma (caused by exposure to asbestos) was especially unexpected because, although approaching his 76th birthday, he always had a youthful air about him. Born in Portland, Oregon, a distant descendant of Puritan minister Cotton Mather of Salem Witch Trials notoriety, he moved to London in 1963 to study urban design and stayed. Having a strong interest in history, he found himself attracted to studying and working in the older European
Cass Gilbert’s Gothic masterpiece, once the tallest building in the world, celebrates its centennial year. Image courtesy Architectural Record The Woolworth Building opened to much fanfare on April 24, 1913, when President Woodrow Wilson famously pressed a button to illuminate the tower for thousands of onlookers. Hailed as New York’s "Cathedral of Commerce," at a 792-foot height, Cass Gilbert’s Gothic-style tower held the title of tallest building in the world until the Bank of Manhattan Trust, designed by H. Craig Severance, and the Chrysler Building, by William Van Alen, were completed in 1930. For the Woolworth’s 100th birthday, Architectural Record
Founded in England in 1980, Nicholas Grimshaw and Partners, known for sleek buildings like London's first Eurostar terminal, opened a New York office in 2001.
A slew of high-profile architects and critics, including Annabelle Selldorf, Steven Holl, Wendy Evans Joseph, Thom Mayne, Richard Meier, Michael Sorkin, and Robert A.M. Stern, have joined the campaign to save the American Folk Art Museum building.
Jean Nouvel may have regretted letting the cameras roll as he asked his staff, through gritted teeth, if their painstaking design for a new art museum was meant for pigeons.
This story first appeared on BuildingGreen. 355 11th Street: The Matarozzi/Pelsinger Multi-Use Building Aidlin Darling Design San Francisco, California With an outstanding 2013 line-up, the American Institute of Architects’ Committee on the Environment (AIA/COTE) Top Ten Green Projects continues in its role as the nation’s premier showcase of projects that marry good design and green performance. This year’s projects continue the strong focus from 2012 on social consciousness. “This group of projects underscored the social value of providing high functioning buildings for people who are often without the benefit of that,” notes juror Gail Vittori of the Center for Maximum
Opening on Earth Day, a Seattle office claims to be the world’s greenest commercial building. To bring its net-zero-energy goal within reach in cloudy Seattle, the Bullitt Center has a 242-kW photovolatic array covering 14,000 square feet. It extends as much as 20 feet from the edges of the roof.
The George W. Bush Presidential Center by Robert A. M. Stern Architects is located on the campus of Southern Methodist University (SMU) in Dallas. Visitors enter through the limestone portico. The George W. Bush Presidential Center, designed by Robert A.M. Stern Architects and located on the campus of Southern Methodist University (SMU) in Dallas, does not reflect the colorful nature of the 43rd president’s personality. Nor does it symbolically suggest the fact that Bush was the first president of the 21st century. Although the three-story brick-and-limestone building is the first presidential library to contain e-mails—some 200 million—its design is traditional,
As of today, 9,300 people had signed an online petition demanding that Denise Scott Brown be given a retroactive Pritzker Architecture Prize as the equal partner and collaborator of her husband, Robert Venturi, who won the prize in 1991.