No Such Thing as a Bridge Too Far in Dublin Santiago Calatrava’s bridges in Dublin are getting some company in the form of Spencer Dock Bridge—a curvy structure designed by Future Systems. Linking the city center to a docklands redevelopment area, the new 131-foot-long span over Dublin’s Royal Canal will be located within the new Linear Park. It will carry automobile traffic, pedestrians, and one of the Luas streetcar lines. Images courtesy Future Systems Designed by Future Systems, Dublin’s new Spencer Dock Bridge features a 62-foot to 95-foot-wide, shallow deck—just two feet thick—supported at its center by two piers; at
Saucier+Perrotte Experience Rocky Mountain High Saucier+Perrotte Architectes, in collaboration with Marc Boutin Architects, have designed the National Mountain Centre, a Rocky Mountain museum and visitor’s center to be constructed in Canmore, Alberta. Program elements within the five-story, 55,000-square-foot space will be layered—a touch inspired by geological stratification, says partner Gilles Saucier. Images courtesy Saucier+Perrotte Architectes Saucier+Perrotte Architectes, in collaboration with Marc Boutin Architects, have designed the National Mountain Centre (top). Program elements within the five-story, 55,000-square-foot space will be layered—a touch inspired by geological stratification (middle). A 98-foot-tall central, seismic column doubles as a rock-climbing wall, which will be North
Fuksas Serves Up Gourmet School Design Hotel and restaurant trainees in Montpellier, France, are due to get a crash course in chic design appreciation. Italian architect Massimiliano Fuksas has designed the new Marianne hotel, catering, and tourism trade school. Images courtesy M Fuksas ARCH Massimiliano Fuksas has designed the new Marianne hotel, catering, and tourism trade school in Montpellier, France (top). Partially exposed structural framework will create a diamond pattern on the curved exterior surfaces, while the building’s skin is made of triangular aluminum panels punctuated by triangular aluminum window frames with double glazing (middle). The school includes five buildings
Michigan State University (MSU) has picked Zaha Hadid Architects to design its new $26-million Eli and Edythe Broad Art Museum, in East Lansing, Michigan, school officials announced today. Hadid’s selection emerged from a competition that began last June and had narrowed to five firms, including Morphosis, Kohn Pedersen Fox, Coop Himmelb(l)au, and Randall Stout Architects. Joseph Giovannini chaired the selection committee. Images courtesy Zaha Hadid Architects Michigan State University has selected Zaha Hadid's design for its new Eli and Edythe Broad Art Museum (top). Her design calls for a sharply angular, low-slung horizontal three-story building with a glass and aluminum
A plan for redeveloping large sections of the riverfront in New Orleans took a step closer to reality when it received a green light from the city on January 9. The New Orleans Building Corporation (NOBC), whose board includes mayor Ray Nagin and three members of the City Council, endorsed conceptual plans and authorized work to begin on the project’s first phase, perhaps within months. New details about project financing were also released. Image courtesy New Orleans Building Corporation The redevelopment of New Orleans’ riverfront encompasses several areas within a 4.5-mile along the east bank of the Mississippi River. Work
Editor’s note: You may read the news digest below or listen to it, plus other news headlines from ArchitecturalRecord.com, as a podcast by clicking this link. Click the play button to begin | Click here to download The owners of Liverpool’s soccer team are “in no rush” to make a decision about replacing HKS as the architect of their new stadium, according to a January 10 article in the U.K.’s Daily Telegraph. The team’s owners, American businessmen Tom Hicks and George Gillett Jr., originally selected HKS last year, as RECORD reported, but the Dallas-based architect overshot the budget for a
The New York City Department of Buildings (DOB) is expected to send inspectors to the recently completed New York Times headquarters building today to determine what caused seven windows in the Renzo Piano and FXFowle-designed tower to crack on Wednesday afternoon. The windows were located on the building’s 22nd, 10th, and sixth floors of the building, according to the DOB. Two of the 52-story tower’s signature ceramic rods on the exterior of the 40th and 38th floors were also damaged. “Our engineers believe (Wednesday’s) high winds were a contributing factor (to the damage),” says DOB spokesperson Kate Lindquist. “But they
Santiago Calatrava’s 2,000-foot-tall Chicago Spire is a lofty experiment in bird-safe design. The residential skyscraper is rising in the midst of a large year-round bird population and in the path of a major migratory flyway on the shores of Lake Michigan, but its glass is designed to be visible to birds, which should help prevent fatal collisions. Images courtesy Studio Gang Architects Studio Gang Architects included several bird-friendly elements in its design of the Ford Calumet Environmental Center in Chicago, a 28,000-square-foot environmental education center due to open in 2009 (top) To reduce the possibility of bird strikes on the
Battling Rust Belt decline with a startlingly modern design, a New York City-based developer and architect have unveiled plans this week for Cadillac Centre, a $150-million residential, retail, and entertainment complex in the heart of downtown Detroit. Images courtesy Northern Group Inc. Cadillac Centre, designed by Anthony Caradonna, will feature two 24-story sculpted glass-and-steel apartment towers with 84 rental units, atop a 12-story base containing retail, cinemas, a health club and spa, restaurants, and 800 parking spaces. Cadillac Center will complete a circle of buildings around Campus Martius, Detroit's historic central square, where two other newer towers rise nearby. Named
The Dallas Museum of Nature & Science was formed in 2006 to inspire and educate the scientists of the future. Now its leaders have selected Thom Mayne, of Los Angeles-based Morphosis, as the architect for a new flagship building because they believe that he can help fulfill the institution’s mission. “Mayne is an teacher himself,” said Frank-Paul King, chairman of the museum’s board, speaking shortly before the museum’s press conference yesterday. King added that this background gives Mayne a unique understanding of how to create educational environments. The architect was one of four finalists along with New York-based Polshek Partners,
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