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Image courtesy The Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum and BMW announced on Friday that they will collaborate for the next six years on a project called the BMW Guggenheim Lab, an initiative to conduct a vast research and development project that will engage the public and improve urban life. Details about the format of the Lab project and the expected results were slim. “The goal is to develop and create solutions for future cities,” said Frank-Peter Arndt, a member of the board of management from BMW Group, at a press conference held in the basement of the Guggenheim. While the project’s

Designed by RNL, the U.S. Department of Energy's National Renewable Energy Laboratory in Golden, Colorado, has a matrix of innovative features. When the U.S. Dept. of Energy’s National Renewable Energy Laboratory in Golden released its 506-page RFP for a non-negotiable LEED-Platinum-certified office building, it wasn’t clear how something jammed full of sustainable elements would take shape. The RFP laid out not what the building should look like but how it should perform; it was up to the design-build team to come up with the rest. At 222,000 sq ft, the Research Support Facility, completed in June, is the largest net-zero-energy

The international architecture exhibition produced every two years in Venice is a sprawling, humid, one-stop shopping experience. When done right, it’s also exhilarating. Though the strategy of showcasing architecture’s freshest ideas through national pavilions and exhibition galleries has had its drawbacks in the Architecture Biennale’s 30-year history, high-quality submissions help make this year’s show feel curated. The recurring threads of sustainability, adaptive reuse, and traditional building methods — while planning for an uncertain future — give the show an underlying coherence. This year’s director, Kazuyo Sejima of the Japanese firm SANAA, chose a remarkably enigmatic theme for the Biennale —

Photo © Tom Zasadzinski/Cal Poly Pomona The CLA complex includes the iconic eight-story structure and a connected seven-story classroom building. Both may be demolished. Photo © Tom Zasadzinski/Cal Poly Pomona Related Links: Predock Wins 2006 AIA Gold Medal Good Design Is Good Business: Petco Park San Diego Padres Ballpark/Petco Park Flint RiverQuarium Antoine Predock’s futuristic Classroom Laboratory Administration (CLA) Building, on the campus of Cal Poly Pomona, is only 17 years old, but it may be headed for demolition. University officials say the triangular structure, known on campus as the “pointy building,” needs extensive repairs and seismic upgrades that could

Ove Arup & Partners says it is "incredulous" over a lawsuit by the Art Institute of Chicago accusing the company of errors on the museum’s 264,000-sq-ft Modern Wing. Filed in federal district court in Chicago, the lawsuit claims the multidisciplinary engineer failed to discharge its obligations during design and construction of the wing, which opened in May 2009. Photo © Charles G. Young Interactive Design Architects Art Institute of Chicago alleges Arup did not provide adequate engineering services for the 264,000-sq-ft Modern Wing. The lawsuit, filed Sept. 21, claims Arup's services were "woefully inadequate." The museum asked the court to

While the country’s economic future is looking a bit brighter, architects are still enduring the pains of a prolonged recession. The overall economy may be experiencing the stirrings of a recovery, but the design industry is still reeling from the effects of a punishing and enduring downturn. Layoffs and closures continue to wrack the profession, while firms scramble for work and struggle to get paid for buildings already designed, according to a sampling of architects around the country. Although there have been signs of stabilization in the past few months, including a slight uptick in the summer’s billing numbers, even

Image courtesy NYC Dept. of Housing, Preservation & Development In Queens, an industrial area is being transformed into the Hunters Point mixed-use district. Steven Holl has been commissioned to design a new library for the neighborhood. Photo courtesy Steven Holl Architects Foster to Renovate NYC Library Holl Prevails in Global Competitions Holl’s Glasgow Commission Rankles Scots Linked Hybrid by Holl Herning Museum by Holl Public libraries across the country are cutting employees and closing facilities, but the one that serves the borough of Queens, New York, is taking an opposite tack: It’s planning to open one of its largest branches

Photo © Melissa Majchrzak / courtesy Gehry Partners Frank Gehry Frank Gehry added his name this week to a list of more than 150 art world luminaries who are supporting Israeli actors who refuse to perform in a West Bank Jewish settlement. He is the first architect to sign the letter of support, which is being circulated online by Jewish Voice for Peace (JVP), a U.S. organization that promotes peace in the Middle East through equality for Israelis and Palestinians. The letter was published September 6. It has since been signed by actors Julianne Moore and Wallace Shawn, Pulitzer Prize-winning

The project’s second phase, which starts in 2013, will focus on the slope-roofed General Assembly building (1952). The architecture firm Einhorn Yaffee Prescott will oversee the renovation. As diplomats from around the world gather this week at the United Nations headquarters in New York City for the annual General Assembly meeting, they are encountering a rare sight: scaffolding hung from buildings’ exteriors. After years of intense preparation, the 17-acre U.N. campus is undergoing its first major renovation since it was erected along the East River shortly after World War Two. The sweeping renovation won’t come cheap, at $1.87 billion, with