Three architect-developer teams presented their plans for a massive downtown redevelopment scheme in San Francisco last week and the public now has until September 17 to comment on them. The designers are vying in a competition for the Landmark Transbay Transit Center and Tower: a 1-million-square-foot, multimodal transit hub and adjacent skyscraper on a roughly 12-acre site within a 40-acre downtown redevelopment district. Images Courtesy Transbay Joint Powers Authority Proposal by the team of Rogers Stirk Harbour + Partners—formerly the Richard Rogers Partnership—and Forest City Enterprises with MacFarlane Partners (top). Proposal by the team of Skidmore Owings & Merrill and
Virtual architecture is on the verge of leaping from the computer screen into real life. Engineers and architects from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) have designed a building made of water: a Digital Water Pavilion to be erected next summer at the 2008 World Expo in Zaragoza, Spain. Sponsored by the City of Zaragoza, the 5,000-square-foot, rectangular building will contain displays about the future of Zaragoza and its new technology-oriented Digital Mile district.
The British architect Will Alsop doesn’t do quiet buildings, so it’s fitting that his latest North American project will be an icon for an equally bold development project: a plan to build one of the largest film studios on the continent in Toronto. Images Courtesy ALSOP/Quadrangle A view of the main entry at Will Alsop’s Filmport tower in Toronto (top). The rear elevation of Alsop’s Filmport tower features a curving facade screen (above). Unveiled last week, Alsop’s design calls for a cantilevered 280,000-square-foot building that will function as a gateway to the new Filmport complex, now being constructed in the
Congress is considering a non-architect for the nation’s most visible architecture post, the Architect of the Capitol, and that’s riling the American Institute of Architects.
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 Gluckman Mayner was tapped by Donald and Doris Fisher, founders of the Gap clothing chain, to design a 100,000-square-foot museum in San Francisco to house their collection of contemporary art, the San Francisco Chronicle reported on August 8. Called the Contemporary Art Museum of the Presidio, the building will be located in the city’s Presidio park and contain 55,000 square feet of galleries—making
In the wake of several failures to preserve well known Brutalist buildings around the nation, preservationists in Baltimore are readying themselves for an August 14th hearing that will decide the fate of this city’s own cast-concrete progeny. The Morris Mechanic Theater, designed by John Johansen, will come before a public hearing at the Baltimore Commission for Historical and Architectural Preservation (BHAP) for the recommendation of Baltimore City Landmark status; the meeting will also set a six-month delay on new construction permits at the building’s site. Photos: Courtesy Michael V. Murphy Architect John Johansen’s 1967-vintage Morris Mechanic Theater, in Baltimore, is
Zaha Hadid made her New York stage debut last month at Lincoln Center’s performing arts festival, which presented the North American premiere of Ballet National de Marseille’s Metapolis II. The work, which explores themes of urbanism, was conceived by Hadid—who also designed the sets and costumes—with choreographer Frédéric Flamand, the company’s director.
SmithGroup, already No. 11 on Architectural Record’s 2007 list of the Top 150 Architecture Firms, just got a little larger: the Detroit-based architecture and engineering giant acquired Area Design, a boutique firm based in Chicago, for an undisclosed amount yesterday. Area is a seven-person commercial interiors firm founded by Angie Lee, FAIA, and Scott Baker, AIA, in 2005. Among its 20 clients are DDB Chicago, Exelon Corporation, and The HON Company. It posted $1.23 million in 2006 revenue. Prior to founding Area, Lee worked for 13 years at OWP/P—ending her career there as director of corporate practice. She will now
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