Images courtesy Rafael Viñoly Architects For the University of California, San Francisco, Rafael Viñoly Architects has designed a stem cell research facility that features terraced volumes with green roofs. The project is partly funded by taxpayers in California, where $271 million is earmarked for construction of stem cell labs throughout the state. It’s “one of the largest building programs ever dedicated to a new field of medical science,” says Robert Klein, chairman of California Institute for Regenerative Medicine. In August 2001, the Bush administration announced it was cutting off federal funding for most stem cell research. Three years later, in
Appended: June 13, 2008 Adding another mega-terminal to China’s aviation landscape, the Shenzhen Airport Authority announced it has selected Rome-based Fuksas Architects, run by Massimiliano and Doriana Fuksas, to design the new Terminal 3 at Shenzhen Bao’an International Airport.
One name that will be absent from RECORD’s 2008 list of the top 150 design firms is New Jersey-based CUH2A. The 400-member firm, which specializes in science and technology (S&T) projects such as hospitals and research facilities, is merging into HDR Architecture, in Omaha, Nebraska, to form what both companies say will be the world’s most comprehensive S & T design program. HDR has 1,300 employees and is the tenth highest grossing architecture and engineering firm in the world, with reported revenues of $260 million in 2007. The merger spawned from the company’s desire to expand its portfolio without slowing
Le Corbusier’s famous Ronchamp chapel (1954) in France is the center of a fierce online debate, reports Building Design. Cesar Pelli, Richard Meier, and Rafael Moneo are among the 1,500 people who have signed an online petition to block Renzo Piano’s scheme for new visitor facilities and accommodations for nuns at the landmark site. The Fondation Le Corbusier in Paris initiated the petition. In response, Renzo Piano Building Workshop (RPBW), and its client, L’Association Oeuvre Notre-Dame du Haut, have launched a counter-petition—and have collected nearly 250 signatures, including those of Peter Cook, David Adjaye, and Massimiliano Fuksas, according to the
On Wednesday, the MAK Center for Art and Architecture, in Los Angeles, announced that it would acquire the Fitzpatrick House, a residence designed by architect Rudolph Schindler in 1936. The property has been renamed the Fitzpatrick-Leland House in honor of its donor, current homeowner Russ Leland. Photo courtesy Julius Shulman Photograph Archive/Getty Research Institute The MAK Center for Art and Architecture, in Los Angeles, has acquired the Fitzpatrick House, designed by the architect Rudolph Schindler in 1936. Located at Laurel Canyon Boulevard and Mulholland Drive, the 2,400-square-foot, L-shaped dwelling—Schindler’s only spec house—perches on a cliff’s edge and features a series
Starchitect condos? Old news. Now real estate companies are tapping high-profile architects to design rental apartment buildings. In Lower Manhattan, Forest City Ratner Companies and Frank Gehry, FAIA—the team behind the controversial and recently downsized Atlantic Yards development in Brooklyn—are erecting what will become New York City’s tallest residential dwelling, Beekman Tower. Tenants will start taking occupancy in fall 2010, distinguishing the project as Gehry’s first completed residential tower. Image courtesy Artefactory The 76-story skyscraper is rising a few blocks from Ground Zero, and near important historic structures such as City Hall (1811), the Brooklyn Bridge (1883), and the Woolworth
In what is a tribute honoring his parent’s intellectual rigor and legacy, Jim Venturi, the 36-year-old son of Denise Scott Brown and Robert Venturi, is producing and directing a film about the highly regarded yet sometimes misunderstood architects.
A crane collapsed at a Manhattan construction site this morning, killing at least two workers, The New York Times reports. The accident occurred on the Upper East Side, at 91st Street and First Avenue, where a new 34-story condominium tower, the Azure, is rising. The building, designed by SLCE Architects, is being developed by The DeMatteis Organizations and The Mattone Group, according to the Azure Web site. The crane allegedly snapped apart and crashed into a building across the street, a law enforcement official told the Times. New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg told USA Today, “This is just unacceptable