Cathleen McGuigan

All in a Day's Work

Office design: a constantly changing landscape for architects.

August 16, 2015

The workplace is an ever-evolving design challenge. With continuous upgrades in technology, advances in telecommunications and rising costs of commercial real estate, space for individual employees keeps shrinking'whether for assistants or executives. The average allotment per office worker fell from 225 square feet in 2010 to 176 square feet in 2012, and these days can go as low as 60 square feet.

Beauty in Small Packages

Cathleen McGuigan

July 16, 2015

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Ingenious pavilions and a pair of bold cultural complexes offer surprise and delight. The Dallas-based architect Frank Welch recently sent me his just-published memoir, On Becoming an Architect. In the book, he describes how he, as an inquisitive, artistic young boy growing up in Sherman, Texas, during the Depression, became a critically acclaimed modernist whose distinguished career was cemented by one extraordinary project. Photo © Michel Arnaud The seminal building wasn't grandiose: it was a simple pavilion. A shelter set on a rocky rise on a ranch in West Texas, it opened to magnificent views across the rugged landscape. The

The Transformative Power of Architecture and the Arts

Design and culture bring change to communities at every scale, around the world.

Cathleen McGuigan

June 15, 2015

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In this issue of RECORD, we look at architecture in communities around the world that typically don't have access to good design.

MIT Unveils Memorial for Officer Killed by Boston Bombers

Cathleen McGuigan

May 20, 2015

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Dedicated to the campus police officer killed by the Tsarnaev brothers as they fled, the Sean Collier Memorial is both a poetic sculptural form and an amazing feat of engineering and technology.

Money Changes Everything

A rebounding economy pushes luxury real estate sky-high

Cathleen McGuigan

May 16, 2015

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Architecture is a cyclical business. Just five years ago, the industry was down in the depths, and now the profession, by most measures, is rebounding.

Beyond Habitat: Interview with Moshe Safdie, 2015 AIA Gold Medal Recipient

Cathleen McGuigan

May 16, 2015

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Beginning with an innovative multi-unit housing project he built in Montreal nearly 50 years ago, Moshe Safdie, this year's AIA Gold Medal–winner, presides over a successful global practice, creating large-scale mixed-use complexes while keeping a firm hand on nearly every aspect of design.

After the Bubble Burst

Cathleen McGuigan

April 16, 2015

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Has the average new house changed since the recession—and what will the future look like? It is April, and at Architectural Record, our thoughts turn to houses—the beautiful, innovative custom dwellings, featured in the pages ahead, where architects experiment with form and materials on a domestic scale and push design ideas in often radical new directions. Photo © Michel Arnaud But before we get to RECORD Houses—and the best designs of the year—let's pause to look at the broader scene for quotidian residential building in the U.S. today. With the bursting of the housing bubble now behind us, and the

The Sea Ranch at 50

Cathleen McGuigan

April 16, 2015

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An Earthly Paradise: In planning, design, and sustainability, the Sea Ranch, now 50 years old, was far ahead of its time. Photo © Jim Alinder Condominium One, in all its rustic majesty, presides over an outcropping above the Pacific. Esherick’s own modest, ingenious house. If you drive north from San Francisco, along the wildly beautiful Sonoma coast beyond the Russian River, you eventually arrive at the Sea Ranch. Stretching along 10 miles of rugged cliffs that hover above the crashing waves of the Pacific, this enclave of weathered weekend houses began as a unique experiment in design. Scattered over 4,000

Civic Architecture Comes Down to Earth

Cathleen McGuigan

March 16, 2015

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Exemplary, if modest, design in the public realm is directly engaging communities What is civic architecture today? Some of the best examples are surprisingly modest. The sense of majesty once expressed by public buildings'a grand, domed courthouse overlooking a town square; a temple-front city hall dominating an urban core'is part of the distant past. Public architecture has come down off its podium to engage cities and citizens. Photo © Michel Arnaud In looking at new civic architecture for this issue, RECORD'S editors came across a remarkable number of innovative libraries. Not so long ago, the public library was a passive

A Delicate Balance

Cathleen McGuigan

February 15, 2015

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How to honor the layers of history and express the culture of today. This spring marks the 50th anniversary of the law that created New York City's Landmarks Preservation Commission. It is not the oldest such law in the country'cities like Charleston, Baltimore, and New Orleans had protections against the destruction of historic property much earlier'but New York's is considered a national model because it is so comprehensive, according to Andrew Dolkart, professor of preservation at Columbia University's Graduate School of Architecture, Planning and Preservation. The statute is broad'it can be applied to single buildings, interiors, or entire neighborhoods. And