On May 8 the Holcim Foundation for Sustainable Construction announced the winners of its second Global Holcim Awards competition. Selected from nearly 5,000 submissions from 121 countries, the four winning entries include a river remediation scheme in Morocco, a greenfield university campus in Vietnam, a rural planning strategy in China, and a shelter for day laborers in the United States. In total, $2 million in prize money was awarded.
The University of Arkansas recently opened to the public its archive of work by Fay Jones, the noted Arkansas architect who combined the architectural traditions of the Southeastern United States with a Wrightian sensibility, producing such masterpieces as Thorncrown Chapel (1980). The collection spans Jones’ professional and academic career, between the founding of his studio in 1954 and his retirement in 1998.
Photo courtesy Holabird & Root John Holabird Jr. John Holabird Jr., FAIA, died on February 16 in Chicago after battling health problems, including intestinal cancer. He was 88 years old. His grandfather was architect William Holabird, founder of the firm that became Holabird and Roche. Established in 1880, just as Chicago was about to undergo the building boom that revolutionized the construction of tall buildings, the firm designed such Chicago School skyscrapers as the Marquette Building. After World War I, it was reestablished as Holabird & Root and shaped Art Deco landmarks like the Chicago Board of Trade Building. Still
For more than a decade, Cornell University has grappled with its plan to construct a new facility for its College of Architecture, Art and Planning (AAP). On June 8, however, a backhoe began digging up dirt at the building’s proposed site—the north edge of the Arts Quad—perhaps marking the end of an epic drama that has involved a large cast of characters, a global financial crisis, and the looming threat of academic decertification.
This great recession is a tough time for a startup, but a group of architects and boosters in the Canadian city of Sudbury think it’s just the right moment for a new school of architecture. They’re gathering support for the planned Northern Ontario School of Architecture (NOSOA), which would be Canada’s first new architecture school in four decades. Photo courtesy NOSOA Residents of Sudbury are gathering support for the planned Northern Ontario School of Architecture, which would be Canada’s first new architecture school in four decades. Blaine Nicholls, a retired architect who chairs the school’s steering committee, argues that NOSOA—which
Nearly two decades ago, the Metropolitan Museum of Art completed the 1970 master plan by Kevin Roche, FAIA, of Kevin Roche John Dinkeloo and Associates (KRJDA), for its building in New York City’s Central Park. Since then, the museum may not expand up or out on its site. Yet it continues to reconfigure interior spaces to accommodate changing curatorial needs and increased attendance. The latest installment in this ongoing process, the second phase of a three-part renovation of the museum’s American Wing, was unveiled on May 18 in a ribbon-cutting ceremony presided over by First Lady Michelle Obama. Photo courtesy
LY: Another problem with the former design is that people had trouble finding the galleries upstairs. When did you first notice this? MH: In 1924, when they placed the earliest galleries and period rooms on the top floor. It was always a problem for people to get to the beginning of the sequence. The principal goal of our effort was to clarify patterns of access—pathways for visitors. And the 1980 design did not solve the linkage issue between the 1924 structure and the rest of the building. At that time, they tried to integrate the wing with the main building,
Brooklyn Arts District Plods Ahead Despite delays and the cancellation of high-profile plans, the BAM Cultural District in downtown Brooklyn is slowly but surely moving forward. Envisioned as a hub of artistic activity clustered around the existing Brooklyn Academy of Music, four projects are scheduled to break ground later this year. Image courtesy Downtown Brooklyn Partnership Related Links: BAM's Next Wave BAM District Regains Momentum The district was originally organized around a master plan completed in the year 2000 by Diller Scofidio + Renfro and the Office for Metropolitan Architecture, and included an Enrique Norten-designed glass library shaped like a
Beyer Blinder Belle to Restore Budapest’s Exchange Palace Images courtesy Beyer Blinder Bell Beyer Blinder Belle Architects & Planners is designing a major renovation and adaptive reuse of Exchange Palace, a historic landmark occupying two city blocks in central Budapest. New York firm Beyer Blinder Belle Architects & Planners (BBB) has announced that it will begin a major renovation and adaptive reuse of Exchange Palace, a historic landmark occupying two city blocks in central Budapest. The 1905 building was designed in the Hungarian Secessionist style by Ignacz Alpar, and according to BBB principal and project lead Jack Beyer, it “is
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