A bold urban strategy transforms a worn beachfront into a vivid curvilinear 'plaza' on Spain's Costa Blanca. Photos © Aleix Bagué  Click here to view images. When Carlos Ferrater, principal of Office of Architecture in Barcelona (OAB), won the competition to upgrade the mile-long Poniente Beachfront of Benidorm — a sliver of a city dubbed the “Manhattan of Spain” for its concentration of high-rise buildings along the Mediterranean — he and his associate, Xavier Martí Galí, who are the project’s design architects, referenced the landscape and wavy patterning of Roberto Burle Marx’s Copacabana promenade, as well as the work of Antonio

Image courtesy Lutron Click on the slide show icon to see additional photos. A significant contribution to modern building design and science was celebrated on April 29 in the daylit halls of the Smithsonian National Museum of American History [recently renovated by Skidmore, Owings & Merrill] in Washington, D.C. Joel Spira, inventor and developer of the solid-state electronic dimming device, as well as chairman and founder of Lutron Electronics (1961), donated a range of his company’s most innovative and historic materials to the museum’s Electricity Collection—home of Thomas Edison’s earliest light bulbs. “The tools of everyday life, like light switches,

When Asymptote principals Hani Rashid and Lise Anne Couture won a 2007 competition to design a 500-room luxury hotel and marina on Abu Dhabi’s Yas Island, northeast of the mainland, the directive was firm: to create an iconic complex around a Formula 1 racecourse and complete it in time to host the country’s inaugural Grand Prix on November 1, 2009.

Project Specs The Yas Hotel Abu Dhabi, U.A.E. Asymptote Architecture << Return to article the People Architect: Asymptote Architecture 11-45 46th Ave. LIC, NY 11101 P: 212.343.7333 F: 718.937.3320 Lead Architects/principals: Hani Rashid and Lise Anne Couture Project directors: Mick McConnell, Andrew DrummondProject Managers: Theo Sarantoglou Lalis, Constantin, Doehler, Matthew Utley Architect of record: Dewan Architects & Engineers, Abu Dhabi Tilke & Partners W.L.L., Dubai Grid-Shell Engineer(s): Schlaich Bergermann und Partner, Stuttgart Waagner-Biro, Vienna Consultant(s) Landscape: Cracknell, Dubai Lighting: Arup Lighting, New York—Brian Stacy, Richard Fisher, designers Photographer Bjorn Moerman   the Products Lighting Exterior(grid-shell): Cooper Lighting and Safety (luminaires)

For ten years architects Jeffrey Williams, AIA and Yann Leroy, AIA, and interior designers Kate Greenwood and Paul Greenwood—partners at BBG-BBGM—along with the firm’s Director of China Patrick Lo considered branching out on their own. Frustrated by the constraints inevitable at such a large international architecture and interior design practice, they aspired to a more personal, hands-on working environment. On January 2, they took the plunge and launched studioaria, an office still global in scope, with a similar client base of luxury hotel operators and commercial and residential developers, but scaled down to be able to offer the kind of

Developer Dai Zhi Kang, chairman and CEO of the Shanghai Zendai Group is a small, gentle man with a super-sized vision—to create a world-class multi-cultural center for art and commerce in his hometown’s Pudong district. Image courtesy Shanghai Zendai Group Click on the slide show icon to see additional photos. “In China, art is mixed with daily life,” explains Zhi Kang. “I want to interpret this tradition into a new aesthetic for Chinese architecture.” So rather than erect a stand-alone museum, a concept he deems foreign in China (therefore not likely to be embraced by locals or investors), he worked

Photo © 2009 Philip Greenberg The Wright restaurant opened this month as part of the Guggenheim’s 50th anniversary celebration. The 1,600-sqaure-foot eatery was designed by Andre Kikoski Architect. Related Links: Wright Exhibition Opens at the Guggenheim A Fitting Tribute to Frank Lloyd Wright Guggenheim Restoration Has the Wright Stuff Looking to join such acclaimed museum dining rooms as The Modern at The Museum of Modern Art, and Terzo Piano, atop the Modern Wing of The Art Institute of Chicago, The Wright is the latest destination restaurant with a legacy of art and architecture. Adjacent to the soaring rotunda of Frank

Lighting: Armani/5th Avenue Canada Line Mitchell Park Horticultural Conservatory New York, USA Studio Fuksas Architects Armani animates 5th Avenue On a crisp evening before Christmas, New York City’s Fifth Avenue was packed with shoppers hurrying to pick up last-minute gifts. The stores — appropriately decked out with the subtle signage and tasteful decorations mandated by the city for businesses here — beckoned customers with softly glittering LED bows, stars, and supersize trimmings. But none conveyed the dynamic aura of the year-old Armani/5th Avenue boutique, a four-story glass-enclosed box on the corner of 56th Street wrapped in a virtual blizzard of

At the base of lake Constance, Within the picturesque Rhine Delta Nature Conservation Zone of southwestern Austria, a radiant, transparent pavilion celebrates the completion of a small but distinctive marina in the town of Fussach.

Project Specs Nordwesthaus Fussach, Austria Baumschlager Eberle << Return to article the People Architect Baumschlager Eberle Lochau ZT GmbH Lindauer Strasse 31 6911 Lochau Austria Tel.: +43 5574 43079-0 Fax: +43 5574 43079-30 Christoph von Oefele, project architect Consultant(s) Building technology: GMI Ing. Peter Messner GmbH, Dornbirn/Austria Structural engineer: Mader + Flatz, Bregenz, Austria Façade: Glas Marte GmbH, Bregenz, Austria Superstructure: Oberhauser-Schedler Bau, Andelsbuch, Austria Illumination: Ledon Lighting GmbH, Lustenau, Austria Photographer Eduard Hueber + Ines Leong / archphoto.com Eduard Hueber Arch Photo, Inc. 109 South 5th Street, Suite 401 Brooklyn NY 11211-5501 USA Tel: +1-212-941 9294 CAD system, project