Common sense says a laboratory should cost more to design than a dormitory because its piping, ventilation, and special-use areas would require more hours of work, more drawings, and more consultants than a dorm of equal size. Since 1866, when the American Institute of Architects first published professional guidance, designers considered it wise to charge higher fees for more complicated projects. But a new study by university researchers and facility planners throws at least part of this logic into question and shows several possible reasons why design fees vary. Published in January in the Journal of Management in Engineering, a
Daniel Libeskind is accused of “hypocrisy of the first order” after it was learned that he is working in Hong Kong—despite having recently called for architects to boycott jobs in what he called the “totalitarian regime” of China. The UK’s Building Design magazine reported on April 4 that construction has begun on the 269,000-square-foot Creative Media Center at the City University of Hong Kong. But back in February, as RECORD reported, Libeskind urged architects to “take a more ethical stance” by avoiding work in China and other countries that have a poor record on human rights. His apparent about face
The Newseum, the world’s largest museum dedicated to journalism, opens its doors tomorrow in Washington, D.C. Designed by Polshek Partnership Architects, the $450 million, mixed-use building provides 250,000 square feet of space for the museum, three-times more room than its little-trafficked previous home in suburban Arlington, Virginia. Now located near the northeast corner of the National Mall, it fronts Pennsylvania Avenue with a glass-clad facade intended to symbolize the openness of the press and democracy—and to help lure tourists inside. “It is great collaboration of architecture and content,” says Peter S. Pritchard, president of the Freedom Forum, a nonpartisan foundation
Landscape architect James Corner unveiled plans yesterday for creating America’s largest urban park in Memphis: a 4,500-acre site, five-times the size of Manhattan’s Central Park. Corner’s firm, Field Operations, beat out Hargreaves Associates and Tom Leader Studio, the other finalists in a six-month competition to master plan Shelby Farms, a patchwork of open space that had been a state-run prison farm during the mid-20th century and has since remained un-programmed. Images courtesy Field Operations Field Operations’s vision of the Walnut Grove entry into Shelby Farms, a 4,500-acre park in Memphis, Tennessee (top). The revamped park will offer new facilities for
For New York City, April is the cruelest month. Just one year ago it was poised to embark on $12 billion worth of eye-catching new development centered on mass transit hubs, and Mayor Michael Bloomberg unveiled a 127-point plan to reduce carbon emissions by 30 percent while adding a million new residents by 2030. A lot has happened since then. Autumn jitters over the sub-prime mortgage market snowballed during the winter into talk of a full-blown recession, making it difficult for private developers—which the city and state rely on to help make its massive developments possible—to secure financing. Then, in
Ralph Rapson, FAIA, regarded as one of the foremost architectural draftsmen of the 20th century and Minnesota’s premier Modern architect, died of heart failure on March 29 at his Minneapolis residence. He was 93 and still working at his office the day before. “For him, it wasn’t really work, it was what he enjoyed the most. He was drawing a cabin and making furniture designs,” says his son Toby, president of Rapson and Associates.
In 1855, a band of French socialists, many of them artists and craftsmen, established a utopian community called La Reunion in Dallas, just west of downtown. They were inspired by the writings of philosopher Charles Fourier, who had nothing helpful to say about Texas weather, Texas soil, or Texans generally. Within four years the community failed and its members scattered. Images courtesy La Reunion TX Bang Dang, of Dallas-based Cunningham Architects, won first place in the La Reunion TX competition. The design combines an old rail trestle (top) with additional walkways to link a series of artist studios and apartments
“There has been nothing to signal a transformation in the sea of blight and abandonment that still defines much of” New Orleans, The New York Times reported on April 1, one year after municipal officials unveiled the city’s rebuilding plan. Created by Edward Blakely, who led the successful recovery of Oakland, California, after that city suffered both an earthquake and fires during the 1990s, the New Orleans plan targeted 17 recovery zones. “On their one-year anniversary, the designated ‘zones’ have hardly budged,” the Times wrote. As residents seek explanations, they are blaming Blakely—who they criticize for spending too much time
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