Project Specs National Swimming Center Beijing, China PTW Architects, CSCEC+Design, and Arup << Return to article the People Architect: PTW Architects In association with CSCEC and ARUP Level 17, 9 Castlereagh Street, Sydney, NSW, Australia Tel NO.: +61 2 9232 5877 Fax No.: +61 2 9221 4139 Design Consortium: PTW Architects + CSCEC+Design + ARUP PTW Design Team: John Bilmon, Managing Director Mark Butler, Project Architect Chris Bosse, Project Architect CSCEC+Design Team: Zhao Xiaojun, Wang Min, Shang Hong ARUP Team: Tristram Carfrae, Design Engineer Peter Macdonald, Structural Engineer Kenneth Ma, Building Services Engineer Haico Schepers, Building Physics Ken Conway, Environmental
In a pair of essays, two RECORD editors look at the city's rapid transformation, try to make sense of the current boom, and ponder its future. What happened to all those blue-mirrored-glass buildings that popped up everywhere in Chinese cities in the 1990s? Where are the white-bathroom-tile facades I remember so well from my first trip to Beijing in 1995? They’re probably still standing, but they no longer dominate Beijing’s cityscape the way they did just a decade ago. Today, they sit in the shadow of some of the most daring and sophisticated architecture going up anywhere in the world.
Set in the southeast corner of Tongji University, the Sino-French Centre fits into a dense campus fabric that has developed since the university was founded in 1907. With its east side facing busy Siping Road, its north almost touching the existing Xuri Pavilion, and its west addressing the Monument of Martyrs and a large classroom building, the Centre must negotiate a number of different conditions. In addition, the university wanted to preserve many of the beautiful trees on the site.
An 860,000-square-meter, mixed-use development with offices, hotels, retail space, service apartments, and a curving central park, Beijing Finance Street aims to become a neighborhood that stays active day and night, seven days a week.
Catherine Fox is the art and architecture critic of the Atlanta Journal-Constitution. Catherine Fox “Buildings here in Atlanta remain disappointing, with a few exceptions,” states Catherine Fox, the art and architecture critic for the Atlanta Journal-Constitution. Renzo Piano’s addition to the High Museum is one of those exceptions. “The expansion, which is actually three buildings and a restaurant arrayed around a plaza, opened in 2005. As you’d expect, it’s a handsome project, designed to complement rather than outdo the Meier building, and it offers wonderful spaces for viewing art. The “piazza” at the center of the complex
Paul Goldberger is the architecture critic of The New Yorker. Paul Goldberger “I DON’T SEE THE REGIONAL differences in design that were apparent in the past,” states Paul Goldberger when asked what American architecture looks like from his perspective at The New Yorker. “Trends today are national or even global. Sustainability is certainly one. We should be doing more on this, but we’re doing more than we did in the past.” He also talks about “the democratization of architecture,” a process that in recent years has brought Modernism to the masses, or at least, to a larger
Christopher Hawthorne is the architecture critic of the Los Angeles Times. Christopher Hawthorne “L.A. IS THE MOST INTERESTING CITY IN THE country right now, because of what’s happening with its urbanism, more than its architecture,” states Christopher Hawthorne, who has been the architecture critic of the Los Angeles Times for three years. The city that became synonymous with sprawl has “hit the limits of its growth and is turning back on itself,” he explains. “But it’s not just getting denser; it’s having to redefine itself as a city.” This redefinition is affecting everything from mass transit and
Six critics examine the state of American architecture from their hometowns. Taking the measure of American architecture depends on where you look. What’s generating buzz in Chicago might not resonate in L.A. And the issues driving design in Miami might not mean much in New York. Although big-name, international architects are working all over the United States—Renzo Piano, for example, has current or recently completed projects in New York, Chicago, L.A., San Francisco, and Atlanta—smaller, domestic firms are playing important roles, too. This mix of big and small, global and regional is shaping the American architectural landscape. The projects shown