Photo courtesy ELS Barry Elbasani Barry Elbasani, FAIA, an architect whose master plans and buildings were frameworks for revitalizing downtowns throughout the country, died on June 29, 2010, at his home in Berkeley, California. He was 69.The cause of death was brain cancer. Elbasani, one of the founding principals of ELS Architecture and Urban Design in Berkeley, was responsible for major buildings and plans in Milwaukee, Portland, Oregon, Phoenix, Summerlin, Nevada, Los Angeles, Austin, and Coral Gables. Grounded in a belief that architecture and urban design were interdependent, his designs drew on the principles of thriving urban streets. Elbasani and
Photo courtesy Kanner Architects Stephen Kanner In automobile-dominated Los Angeles, it seems entirely fitting that two of the city’s most celebrated buildings of recent years are a gas station and a drive-through hamburger restaurant. The United Oil Gasoline Station (2009) at the corner of Slauson and La Brea features a swooping steel canopy and a curved concrete ramp meant to resemble a freeway entrance. The red-and-yellow In-N-Out Burger (1998) in Westwood takes its design cues from the company’s boomerang logo and pays homage to Southern California Googie architecture. Both projects were designed by Stephen Kanner, a third-generation Los Angeles architect
Photo courtesy RNL John B. Rogers John B. Rogers, FAIA, co-founder of Denver-based architecture firm RNL, died on July 12 at the age of 85. Rogers first arrived in Denver in 1947 with a bachelor’s degree in architectural engineering from Kansas State University and three years overseas with the army in Lentz, Austria. It was during a postwar ski trip to Winter Park that he decided to move to Denver, where he found employment with Mark Musick and Temple Buell. Though he left again to earn a bachelor’s degree in architecture from the University of Texas, he returned upon graduation
July 12, 2010 As campuses prep for the fall semester, some top architecture schools are experiencing turnovers among their high-level staff. Deans and other administrators have stepped down, or announced plans to, at the Art Institute of Chicago, the University of Maryland, the Cooper Union, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (M.I.T.), the University of Michigan, and the University of California, Berkeley. Ever year brings a changing of the guard at one school or another, so these recent departures don’t indicate the sky is falling. But, they do highlight a trend: Tenures, in general, are shortening, which may be the result
Photo courtesy Tourism Development & Investment Co. Saadiyat Island Entertainment and Leisure Destination Click on the slide show icon to see additional photos. Engineering News-Record, a sister publication to Architectural Record, has released its list of the 10 largest construction projects around the globe. The projects range in scope and purpose, from creating a vacation hot spot in the Persian Gulf to diverting water to quench North China’s thirst. The projects here have been ranked by cost, based on U.S. dollars. Costs are not adjusted to reflect the significant differences in purchasing power among countries. Click on the slide show
An American architecture professor at a university in the Middle East is developing an energy-saving way to make bricks using bacteria known for its ability to solidify sand. Ginger Krieg Dosier, assistant professor of architecture at the American University of Sharjah in the United Arab Emirates, has developed a method that involves filling a form with alternating layers of sand and a solution containing urea, calcium chloride and the non-pathogenic Sporosarcina pasteurii (or Bacillus pasteurii). Within a few days, a chain of chemical reactions yields a mineral growth that seeps between the grains of sand and “biocements” them together into
Photo courtesy Nigel Young, Foster + Partners Related Links: Architectural Emblems of Kazakhstan's Energy Wealth Covered by what is claimed to be the world’s tallest tensile structure, the Khan Shatyr Entertainment Center has opened in Astana, Kazakhstan. Designed by London-based Foster+Partners, the 150-meter-tall transparent tent is clad in cushions of insulating ethyl tetra fluoro ethylene to shelter Kazakhs from their harsh climate. With a 250 x 230-m elliptical footprint, the tent encloses a park as well as entertainment and leisure facilities. The structure’s design-build team includes Sembol Construction, Antalya, Turkey, and structural engineer Buro Happold, London.
An appropriations package that includes $2.9 billion in relief and reconstruction aid for Haiti has cleared the House and will next move to the Senate for a vote. The spending measure, which the House passed late on July 1, focuses mainly on funding for the Afghanistan war. But Republicans oppose the non-defense spending House Democrats added to the bill, and the White House has threatened a veto because of a provision that would cut certain education funding. The bill has not had a smooth path. The Senate had approved a $58.5-billion supplemental spending bill on May 27, which provided $2.8
Ambitious plans for a new concert hall are well under way in Orlando, Florida. In conjunction with HKS Architects and local firm Baker Barrios Architects, Los Angeles-based Barton Myers Associates (BMA) has been selected to design the Dr. Phillips Center for the Performing Arts (DPAC), for which groundbreaking is scheduled for this fall. Image courtesy Barton Myers Associates Click on the slide show icon to see additional photos. Related Links: Tempe Center for the Arts Fashioning an Aural Architecture 9350 Civic Center Drive BMA is well known for its bold performing arts centers, like Arizona’s Tempe Center for the Arts,
Many states have clamped down on eminent domain. Recent court cases signal that New York won't be following their lead. Seizing another person’s land is a pretty strong-armed way of doing business. Property owners have often challenged eminent domain in courts, and lawmakers in many states have tried to limit its use. Recent decisions in New York show that the state won’t hesitate to apply the broadest interpretation of the law to make mega-developments happen. Image courtesy Columbia University A recent court decision allows Columbia University to move forward on its planned 17-acre expansion in NYC. A portion of the
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