Only about 125 miles separate Dubai and Abu Dhabi, but the Persian Gulf emirates can seem worlds apart in terms of opportunities for architects. In Dubai, unfinished high-rises litter the horizon, as the emirate dramatically suffers the effects of the housing downturn. In January, the emirate even experienced its first foreclosure when the British-bank Barclays won a case to take back a property (details are undisclosed). More foreclosures are expected in coming weeks. Photo courtesy Wikipedia (top); Leo O Daly (above) Work is reportedly progressing in Abu Dhabi (top). 'It can feel a bit like the California Gold Rush,' says
Photo ' Andr' Souroujon Robert Ivy, FAIA Related Links: Editorials by Robert Ivy Alpha Rho Chi, a national architecture fraternity, has named Robert Ivy, FAIA, Vice President and Editorial Director of McGraw-Hill Construction Media and Editor-in-Chief of Architectural Record, a “Master Architect.” Since its founding in 1914, the organization has awarded the designation to only seven people: Nathan Ricker (the first graduate of an American architectural school), Cass Gilbert, Eliel Saarinen, John Wellborn Root, Ludwig Mies van der Rohe, Richard Buckminster Fuller, and I.M. Pei. Selected for his contributions to communicating the value of design both within the fraternity and
Architect Steven Holl might not have nabbed this year’s Pritzker Prize, like some predicted he would, but he is on a winning streak nonetheless. Image courtesy Steven Holl Architects Click on the slide show icon to see additional photos. Related Links: Holl’s Glasgow Commission Rankles Scots Holl Wins Half-Million Dollar Prize Linked Hybrid by Holl Linked Hybrid Named Best Tall Building Last fall, he won an international competition to design a new building at the Glasgow School of Art, alongside Charles Rennie Mackintosh’s masterpiece. More recently, he was victorious in two competitions: one commission is for a campus building in Iowa, the other
Cubellis, the Boston-based architecture firm that was written off for dead five months ago when it closed over problems with creditors, has staged a phoenix-like comeback. Related Links: One of Boston’s Largest Firms Shuttered Former principals John Larsen and Christopher Ladd, and former partner Richard Rankin, have launched a new firm, CI Design, Inc., which appears to be a spitting image of its predecessor. For one, the firm, which opened in December, just a few weeks after Cubellis was shuttered, takes its name from the initials for “Cubellis International.” It also focuses on familiar markets, with offices in three cities
A two-year-old organization dedicated to preserving and documenting Modernism on Cape Cod has achieved its first success. This month, the Cape Cod Modern House Trust (CCMHT) will welcome visitors to the Kugel/Gips House, which it restored and updated with the help of volunteers including Fox Diehl Architects. The 2,200-square-foot residence was designed by Charles Zhender, one of the most prolific Modernist architects on the Cape during the 1960s and ’70s. Photo ' Eric Youngren/courtesy CCMHT The Kugel/Gips House was designed by Charles Zhender, one of the most prolific Modernist architects on the Cape during the 1960s and '70s. Related Links:
Photo courtesy MIT Eduardo Catalano Eduardo Catalano, an inventive Argentine architect and longtime professor, died on January 28 in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Born in Buenos Aires, Catalano studied architecture at the University of Pennsylvania and Harvard. He is best known for the Raleigh House (1954), a glass pavilion topped by a 4,000-square-foot hyperbolic paraboloid roof. The three-bedroom dwelling, which Catalano designed for himself while living and teaching in North Carolina, was named “House of the Decade” by House and Home Magazine. It was demolished in 2001 after years of neglect. Catalano’s other projects include the Juilliard School of Music in New
Photos courtesy MIR Related Links: Duany Designs Prefab Houses for Haiti First MIR Homes Complete Make It Right Unveils New Designs In 2007, actor Brad Pitt’s organization, Make It Right, unveiled its plan to build new homes in New Orleans’ devastated Lower Ninth Ward and hired a roster of modern architects to conceive the designs. Since then, lot owners have been selecting designs by David Adjaye, Shigeru Ban, KieranTimberlake, Trahan Architects, and other locally and internationally renowned architects. Yet future homeowners have not embraced the schemes equally. In fact, none had selected the floatable 1,000-square-foot, single-family house conceived by Morphosis
The General Services Administration has awarded a $61-million contract to ZGF Architects LLP to be lead design architect for new Dept. of Homeland Security headquarters facilities in Washington, D.C. The other short-listed firms competing for the project were Goody Clancy, Boston; Gund Partnership Inc., Cambridge, Mass.; Kallmann McKinnell & Wood Architects Inc., Boston; Robert A.M. Stern Architects LLP, New York City; and RTKL Associates Inc., Baltimore. ZGF, formerly Zimmer Gunsul Frasca Architects LLP, said in an April 1 release that its contract includes more than 2.1 million square feet of new office space for DHS at the St. Elizabeths Hospital
RSS