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A little-known building in Aspen, Colorado, designed by the late Chicago architect Harry Weese—whose most celebrated work is the Washington, D.C., Metro system—is threatened with demolition. Built in 1972, Weese’s Given Institute is a small concrete-block conference center owned by the University of Colorado School of Medicine. The 12,000-square-foot structure sits on a 2.25-acre lot in Aspen’s pricey West End residential neighborhood. For years, the medical school has used the institute for summer conferences and retreats, but faced with ongoing budget cuts, it now plans to close the Given and sell the property. School officials are negotiating with a potential

In 1947, a visionary named Eero Saarinen won an architectural competition to design what would become his best-known structure, the Gateway Arch in St. Louis. Image courtesy Jefferson National Expansion Memorial A landmark project will breathe new life into the riverfront park 630 ft below the top of the St. Louis Arch. In September, the winner of a similar competition will be revealed. This time, the landmark project will breathe new life into the riverfront park 630 ft below the top of Saarinen’s famous stainless steel, inverted catenary arch. Five international teams have made it to the finals of the

Image courtesy Edward M. Kennedy Institute Gehry is designing a $60 million new home for the Signature Theatre Company. The theater will be located inside a new glass tower by Arquitectonica and Ismael Leyva Architects. New York City’s Signature Theatre Company has added some star power to its line-up: Frank Gehry. The Los Angeles-based architect is designing a $60 million permanent home for the 19-year-old, off-Broadway theater company inside a glass tower now rising at West 42nd Street and 10th Avenue, one block east of Signature’s current location. The theater company originally had planned to move to a freestanding venue

From a distance, interfere(nce) looks like an abstract sculpture. Step closer, though, and the plywood structure’s irregular openings tempt you to step inside to examine its sloped walls and jaggedly framed views of the surrounding fields and forest. Is it sculpture or architecture? That isn’t an easy question to answer, which is why interfere(nce) is the perfect debut piece for Architecture Omi, a program in Ghent, New York, devoted to fostering work that probes the intersection of architecture, sculpture, and landscape. Photo © Oliver Kruse The first piece installed at the Architecture Omi park was interfere(nce), designedby Oliver Kruse and

Photo courtesy Forrec Related Links: Inside Beijing’s Bubble Box National Swimming Center Earlier this month, after almost a year of reconstruction, what is being touted as Asia’s largest water park opened inside the bubble-like ETFE walls of Beijing’s National Aquatics Center. The building, commonly known as the Water Cube, was designed by Australian architecture firm PTW and China Construction Design International as the site of aquatics events during the 2008 Olympic Games. It still contains pools for recreational swimming and competition, but now it also houses a 140,000-square-foot leisure hall created by Toronto-based planning and design firm Forrec. The park

Photo © Patrick McMullan Co. Playwright June Finfer Some years back the Chicago-based playwright and filmmaker June Finfer discovered stories about architecture to be packed with drama, and increasingly focused on this topic in her work. Her play, The Glass House, a quasi-fictional account of the story behind Ludwig Mies van der Rohe’s Farnsworth House, has been staged at various venues, including the terrace of the Farnsworth House. Most recently, the Resonance Ensemble company performed a short, sold-out run in New York City. Finfer hopes the play will be presented at other theaters across the U.S.; in the meantime, she’s

A plan to enlarge the only surviving synagogue by Louis Kahn has sparked opposition among some preservationists, who call the alterations insensitive. Completed in 1972, the 20,000-square-foot spruce-and-concrete home of Temple Beth El of Northern Westchester, in Chappaqua, New York, was intended to host services and classes for 400 families. But in recent years the congregation had swelled to more than 700 families, meaning it needed more space, says senior rabbi Joshua M. Davidson. Photo © Scott Benedict (top); Image courtesy www.bethelnw.org (above). Construction has begun on an expansion to the Kahn-designed Temple Beth El of Northern Westchester. To see

Construction is scheduled to begin this fall on a center conceived by the late Senator Edward Kennedy to teach students about the inner workings of government. On July 28, the Edward M. Kennedy Institute for the United States Senate finally unveiled the design of its forthcoming home, to be built on the Boston waterfront alongside the John F. Kennedy Presidential Library and Museum. The $60 million project, designed by Rafael Viñoly Architects, is slated to be finished in 2013. Image courtesy Edward M. Kennedy Institute Click on the slide show icon to see additional photos. Viñoly won a competition to

Photo courtesy SCAD Heriberto J. Brito The Savannah College of Art and Design (SCAD), which has a notable track record in historic preservation, has picked a like-minded designer to head its architecture program. In June, architect Heriberto J. Brito became the dean of SCAD’s School of Building Arts, replacing Brian Wishne, who stepped down after two years. For his new job, Brito relocated from Miami, where he taught at Miami International University of Art and Design while running his 20-year-old practice, Brito LLC, which specializes in historic rehabs. That two-employee practice has relocated with him. Wishne, meanwhile, becomes chair of

With the news that Facebook had surpassed 500 million users, the social networking website has decided to more than double the size of its first wholly-owned data center currently under construction in Prineville, Ore. The initial $188-million project, designed by Chicago architect Sheehan Partners, broke ground in January and has been moving along rapidly. The expansion will add another 160,000 sq ft of shell space to the 147,000 sq ft facility now being built, with the shell space being built out later as business demand dictates. Photos courtesy Sheehan Partners "We are making excellent progress on the first phase of