Image courtesy OPEN Architecture Garden School, Beijing, China by OPEN architecture. Click on the slideshow button to see more images. A 45,000-square-meter public middle school designed by OPEN architecture breaking ground in August in the new town of Changyang, in Beijing’s Fangshan District. The competition-winning design is the first major commission for partners Li Hu (who had been a partner at Steven Holl Architects) and Huang Wenjing (who had worked for Pei Cobb Freed & Partners). The project is part of an initiative spearheaded by Wang Shi, head of Vanke, China's largest real-estate developer, to create 10 significant buildings in
Image courtesy HMC Architects Medical Complex, Shunde District, China. Click on the slideshow button to see more images. Related Links: Building Types Study: Health Care U.S.-based HMC Architects in collaboration with the Shunde Architectural Design Institute (SDADI) has designed a 223,000-square-meter medical complex for a 13.4-hectare site in the Shunde district, outside the city of Foshan, China. HMC project architect Raymond Pan describes the complex as a “tertiary medical center,” one that will offer in- and out-patient facilities, dormitories for resident physicians and staff, and training facilities for new doctors and technicians. The nine-building complex will also be home to
Responding to thousands of comments on the first draft, USGBC made major changes to LEED 2012, especially in materials. A second draft of LEED 2012 is out, and the U.S. Green Building Council (USGBC) is accepting public comments from August 1 to September 14. The new draft and its revisions reflect hundreds of hours of USGBC staff and volunteer time. If a final version of LEED 2012 is approved by USGBC members next year, it will be released around November 2012. Among the changes to this draft is the name. In its first draft of the new suite of LEED
Craig Dykers says new structure will 'complement' existing building by Mario Botta Image courtesy SFMOMA Click on the slideshow button to see more images. Related Links: SFMOMA Selects Snøhetta for Expansion RECORD Reveals: San Francisco Since the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art opened its distinctive, Mario Botta-designed home in 1995, the size of its collection has more than doubled and the average number of annual visitors has tripled. The institution is now in the midst of raising money for a major expansion conceived by the award-winning Norwegian firm Snøhetta. The museum launched a $480 million capital campaign last year
The 40-year-old Delancey and Essex Municipal Parking Garage in downtown Manhattan will receive a new cable fa'ade, under a recently announced $4-million NYC Department of Transportation renovation project. Photo courtesy Micheielli + Wyetzner Architects The renovated garage will include a 17-ft supergraphic. A construction manager for the work has not yet been chosen, and the project will go out to bid in September, says a spokesperson for New York-based Michielli + Wyetzner Architects, which designed the façade for the five-story concrete structure. Construction is expected to begin by early 2012 with completion anticipated by the end of 2012. The design
While the economy has stabilized in some regards, architects are still suffering. Just when it seemed that the architecture industry might be pulling out of its tailspin, some key economic indicators are suggesting that a recovery might take longer than expected. Related Links :Karlsberger Shuttered Top 250 Firms: Titans Maintain Lead While Industry Suffers Downward Slide for ABI Recession & Recovery The Architecture Billings Index, a measure of the industry’s health compiled by the American Institute of Architects, has dipped below 50 for three consecutive months, posting scores of 47.6 (April), 47.2 (May), and 46.3 (June). Those dips came after
Richard C. Halpern, a Chicago-based construction manager who oversaw numerous high-profile domestic and international building projects during a 50-year career, died July 3 of complications from cancer treatment in Houston. He was 78. Photo courtesy of Rebecca Halpern Richard Halpern As an executive at former building firm Morse Diesel, Halpern managed the construction of the Sears Tower, the world’s tallest building when it opened in 1974. He was among three executives cited by ENR in 1974 for their roles in the landmark project, which included the industry’s first major effort to recruit minorities into its workforce. In 1976, Halpern co-founded
Image courtesy Carlos Zapata Studio and EE&K, a Perkins Eastman company In Ho Chi Minh City, Carlos Zapata Studio and EE&K (now owned by Perkins Eastman) are working on a 7.5 million-square-foot development dubbed Ma Lang Center. It might have been unthinkable as a place to do business just a few decades ago, when half of the country was at war with the United States. It doesn’t have the resources of China, its booming neighbor to the north. And its communist government might not appeal to citizens from capitalist nations. But quietly, Vietnam has in recent years become a hot