A little more than a year after its splashy debut, the new harbor-side home of Boston’s Institute of Contemporary Art (ICA), designed by Diller Scofidio + Renfro, is looking less than watertight. Museum-goers this winter have observed leaks along the ceiling of the building’s top level where it joins the glazing of the curtain wall, and buckling of stucco under an exterior stair adjacent to the main entrance. All buildings experience settling-in periods and require adjustments of one sort or another, and high profile buildings attract more scrutiny. But the ICA’s construction involved some bad luck, including the demise of
After a year has passed without a permanent replacement being named for the Architect of the Capitol position, the American Institute of Architects is stepping up its lobbying efforts to have the slot filled.
An engineering firm based in the U.K. says it is designing a tower that will rise nearly twice as high as the Burj Dubai, The Architects’ Journal reported on February 20. Speaking at a construction conference in the Middle East, sponsored by the Journal’s sister publication MEED, a representative of Hyder Consulting said that his firm is working on a structure some 1,200 meters (3,937 feet) tall. “Andy Davids, Hyder Consulting’s director of structures, confirmed that the tower would be located in the Middle East region, but would not give any further details,” MEED wrote on February 14. Hyder is
A whimsical guest house designed by Frank Gehry, completed in 1987, will be moved from its site in Orono, Minnesota, overlooking Lake Minnetonka, to the University of St. Thomas’ Daniel C. Gainey Conference Center in Owatonna, Minnesota, the university announced on Monday. Preparations will begin within the month, although the move itself is scheduled for this summer and needs approval from Steele County officials, according to Kirt Woodhouse, a real estate developer who donated the residence to St. Thomas to insure its preservation.
Whoever is elected president in the year 2108 might be taking up residence in a White House surrounded by fields of heirloom tomatoes—at least, that’s how Beyer Blinder Belle Architects & Planners (BBB) envisions the future appearance of Washington, D.C., in a scheme that calls for farmland to replace pavement along Pennsylvania Avenue and other thoroughfares.
The 2008 Jury of Fellows from The American Institute of Architects (AIA) elevated 116 association members to its College of Fellows yesterday. These men and women join an elite cadre: of the AIA’s total 83,000 members, fewer than 2,650 are fellows. The AIA bestows the honor on architects who have been association members for at least 10 years and have made significant contributions to the profession in one or more of five categories: (1) Promoting the aesthetic, scientific, and practical efficiency of the profession. (2) A dvancing the science and art of planning and building by advancing the standards of
A brownfield in Norway will be going green, literally, thanks to a new master plan that calls for a rolling green roof to shelter a cultural center. The Danish architecture firm 3XN beat out Henning Larsen Architects, Niels Torp, L2 Arkitekter, and IN’BY LPO Arlitektur and Design in an invited competition to redevelop a former industrial waterfront known as Nedre Malmø, in the town of Mandal. Images courtesy 3XN A green roof will shelter the “Buen” cultural building in 3XN’s waterfront redevelopment in Mandal, Norway (top). Row housing will flank the Buen building (middle). The Buen, or Arch, rises 46
2007 Shenzhen-Hong Kong Bi-City Biennale of Architecture and Urbanism. Curated by Qingyun Ma (Shenzhen, through March 9) and Weijen Wang (Hong Kong, through March 15). Can we envision a city with buildings that don’t last forever? Should buildings have expiration dates? Can we trust our judgment about the future? These are the issues being debated at the 2007 Shenzhen-Hong Kong Bi-City Biennale of Architecture and Urbanism. The biennale features more than 130 exhibits. At least 200 architects, urban planners, and artists have converged to brainstorm about some of the most pressing issues facing the future of the city. The theme,
Despite rising construction estimates and at least a $1 billion funding gap, New York governor Eliot Spitzer remains committed to remaking Penn Station. At a press conference this week, The New York Sun wrote on February 13, he said that “‘real progress’ was being made in the planned overhaul”—and that the project would avoid the fate of the Javits Center expansion, a Richard Rogers design that was drastically scaled back last month. As RECORD has reported, Skidmore, Owings & Merrill, Foster + Partners, and Kohn Pedersen Fox have been engaged to redesign the existing subterranean rail station in Midtown Manhattan
Predock's Flexible Arts Center Suits College's Boundary-Breaking Style A biologist, musician, and a playwright enter a classroom: this isn’t the setup for a joke, but rather the essential pedagogy of Colorado College. This small liberal arts school, located in Colorado Springs, operates on a so-called block plan, in which students enroll in just one course every three-and-a-half weeks. The classes are interdisciplinary and intense, taught by a tag team of three or four professors from different departments and culminating in a final project that weaves all their subjects together. Images courtesy Colorado College Antoine Predock’s new Cornerstone Arts Center at