2024 December Issue | Architectural Record

Architectural Record

2024 December

For December, RECORD surveys cultural projects that artfully navigate deep-rooted histories and complex sites: Warsaw’s new modern art museum, an expanded natural history museum in South L.A., a performing arts complex in Italy, and an interpretive center nestled in the Maine wilderness. Elsewhere in the issue, we profile a burgeoning housing development in St. Louis’s arts district, a reimagined public garden outside of Philadelphia, and a nature-inspired hotel tower near the Denver Art Museum. The major capital projects underway at New York’s Metropolitan Museum of Art are the subject of this month’s CEU and we reveal the winners of our annual Products of the Year competition.

Check back throughout the month for additional content.

Arts & Culture Projects 2024

December 2, 2024

No Comments

These tricky commissions tackle deep-rooted histories, cultural divides, and complex sites.

Arts & Culture 2024

Warsaw’s Museum of Modern Art is a Lesson in Contrast

Joann Gonchar, FAIA

December 2, 2024

No Comments

The Thomas Phifer and Partners–designed new home for the young and previously nomadic institution holds its own on a site with a fraught past.

Arts & Culture 2024

In Brescia, Italy, a New Theater by Botticini + Facchinelli ARW Enlivens a Former Factory District

Brescia, Italy

Andrew Ayers

December 4, 2024

No Comments

Camillo Botticini brings a refined performance venue to his industrial hometown under a tight budget.

Arts & Culture 2024

Saunders Architecture’s Trailblazing Park Facility Straddles a Remote Ridge in Northern Maine

Maine

Leopoldo Villardi

December 3, 2024

One Comment

The Tekαkαpimək Contact Station orients visitors to the Katahdin Woods and Waters National Monument, and the overlooked Indigenous culture around them.

Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County Commons

Arts & Culture 2024

Frederick Fisher and Partners Reinvigorates L.A.’s Natural History Museum with a Transparent Gateway

Los Angeles

Sarah Amelar

December 5, 2024

No Comments

A glassy addition and inviting garden create a living room for the community—shared with a colossal dinosaur skeleton.

Continuing Education: Remaking the Metropolitan Museum of Art

The New York institution is updating its enormous complex

Clifford A. Pearson

December 6, 2024

No Comments

An expansive renovation program updates and replaces key parts of the New York institution’s enormous complex, taking into account curatorial needs, visitor experience, and energy use.

Josephine Minutillo, Editor in Chief of Architectural Record

December 2024 Editor’s Letter

Museum Piece

Josephine Minutillo

December 3, 2024

No Comments

As museums strive to be more accessible, the architectural response does not need to be an expected or formulaic one.

On the Boards

Ambitious Museum Projects in Memphis and Richmond Confront the Past

Memphis & Richmond

Pansy Schulman

Matthew Marani

December 9, 2024

No Comments

The Memphis Art Museum and Virginia Museum of Fine Arts reckon with their history by prioritizing community-focused design.

Studio Gang’s Populus Takes Inspiration from Colorado’s Towering Aspens

Denver

Leopoldo Villardi

December 9, 2024

No Comments

With an ambitious ‘carbon positive’ goal, the 13-story hotel in downtown Denver features eye-like windows that echo bark patterns.

Landscape

Weiss/Manfredi and Reed Hilderbrand’s Revamp of Longwood Gardens Reaches Full Bloom

Chester County, Pennsylvania

Matt Hickman

December 10, 2024

No Comments

The ambitious $250 million reimagining is anchored by a state-of-the-art glasshouse that appears to float above a shallow rectangular pool.

Books

Books for the 2024 Holiday Season Picked by the Editors

RECORD Editors

December 5, 2024

No Comments

This roundup of the year-end's most captivating reads includes monographs and more from Shigeru Ban, Fernanda Canales, Carol Ross Barney, and many others.

RECORD Forum

The Museum After Spectacle

Julian Rose

December 10, 2024

No Comments

Thirty years after the ‘Bilbao Effect,’ museums are shunning exuberant form-making in favor of thoughtful programming that engages new audiences.

Tribute: Victor Lundy (1923–2024)

Matt Hickman

November 6, 2024

One Comment

The New York-born Modernist best known as a key figure in the Sarasota School of Architecture has died at 101.

Guess the Architect: December 2024

RECORD Editors

December 6, 2024

The Byzantine emperor who commissioned this 1,500-year-old church-turned-mosque is better known than its designers, who were trained in engineering and mathematics.