Charles Gwathmey, the notable New York architect, once wrote, “I have always believed that constraints are the seeds of invention.” In that case, he was referring to his 1997 addition and renovation of the Henry Art Gallery in Seattle—a typically precise intervention of Modernism on a Beaux Arts structure.
Correction appended August 13, 2009 After a decade spent operating out of a pair of nondescript offices in Seattle’s South Lake Union neighborhood, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, the world’s largest charity organization, is building a proper headquarters. Located a few blocks north of downtown—under the iconic Space Needle and across the street from the Frank Gehry-designed Experience Music Project—the $500 million Gates Foundation headquarters will encompass an entire city block, approximately 12 acres. The project was announced in the fall of 2005 and is expected to open in the spring of 2011. Image courtesy NBBJ In Seattle, NBBJ
Robert A. Peck, FAIA, is coming back to the General Services Administration as the commissioner of the agency's Public Buildings Service, the GSA announced today. Peck served as PBS commissioner from 1995 to 2001, during the Clinton administration. He calls the public-buildings position "the best job in real estate.” It is certainly one of the biggest real-estate jobs in the country. PBS oversees design, construction, leasing, management, and security for the 354 million square feet of space that the federal government owns or leases. Peck, who expects to begin work at the GSA during the week of August 17, told
Lifestyle doyenne Martha Stewart, more at home with comforters than cars, likely never dreamed her commuting-to-work routine would inspire a way of living, which could be called insider parking.
Need to stop flooding or reduce stormwater runoff and sewer overflows? Looking to ease demand on treatment plants and avoid the cost of expansion? Seeking cleaner air or water? Interested in recharging an aquifer, rebuilding a shoreline or remediating a brownfield? Trying to stem highway pollution? Need to rebalance a watershed or ecosystem? Photos: SWA Group Houston’s buffalo bayou transformation turns derelict channel into urban paradise(top). The city’s Buffalo Bayou project involves re-engineering banks, stabilizing soil, anchoring rock and more. The park is designed to withstand natural periodic flooding (above). If so, a landscape architect may be in your future.
Nearly 16 years after founding Costa Rica’s trailblazing architecture school, Universidad del Diseño (UniDis), Alvaro Rojas, AIA, has decided to close it.
Blake Hughes, a longtime publisher at McGraw-Hill—most notably of Architectural Record magazine, which he headed from 1968 to 1981—died in Charleston, South Carolina, on June 11. He was 94. Hughes was known in international planning circles for his particular concern with the housing and infrastructure problems of developing countries. During his years at RECORD, he founded the International Architectural Foundation, which he led from 1973 to 1978. The organization was dedicated to alleviating living conditions in Third World slums, as addressed in an ambitious design competition it sponsored for Greater Manila, which won admiration among specialists but was never implemented
John Ullman While there are numerous nonprofits that aim to realize buildings for those in need, a fledgling Brooklyn-based organization wants to offer architectural assistance to a group of people it feels is underserved—the Tibetan exile community living in northeast India. Named Architecture for Tibet, American designer John Ullman founded the registered nonprofit after visiting the small town of Tawang in the Himalayas. The initial motivation for his trip didn’t come from any grand ambitions: he needed to fulfill community service requirements as part of NCARB’s Intern Development Program, he explains. However, while teaching basic engineering and working on a
With summer break fast approaching, some key federal design posts remain unfilled, including commissioner of the Public Buildings Service of the General Services Administration.
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