Author Archive
Stone Vault, MLK Jr. Park – Austin, Texas
Project: Stone Vault, MLK Jr. Park
Location: Austin, Texas
Design and Structural Engineering: Ochsendorf, DeJong and Block, LLC
CNC Fabrication and Masonry: AX5 Resources and Escobedo Construction
Expected Completion: April 2015
AE Interests: Complex geometry, 5-Axis CNC stone-cutting machine, catalyst for community activities.
Thanks: C.Shortall, W.Meredith
Baylor University Stadium – Waco, Texas
Project: Baylor University Stadium
Location: Waco, Texas
Architect: Populous
Structural and Facade Engineer: Buro Happold
Approved to proceed: 2012 (in progress)
Expected Completion date: Fall 2014
AEInterests: Stadium long span roof, facade technology, LEED rated.
Article: 1,
The Broad – Los Angeles, California
Image Source: 1, 2,
Building: The Broad (museum of contemporary art)
Location: Los Angeles, California
Design Architect: Diller, Scofidio + Renfro
Architect of Record: Gensler
Structural Engineer: Leslie E. Robertson Assoc.
Construction: MATT Construction
Parking Structure: IDGParkitects
‘Veil’ facade fabricator: Seele
AE Interest: Concept: “The Vault and the Veil” (DS+R), daylighting, complex honey-comb facade (glass fiber reinforced concrete), complex concrete floor structure.
Note: “MATT is building the project utilizing sophisticated 3D modeling software (CATIA), managed through Gehry Technologies’ Digital Project.”
Rice University Turrell Installation – Houston, Texas
Building: Rice University, Turrell skyspace installation: ‘Twilight Epiphany’ – Houston, Texas
Artist: James Turrell
Technical Architect: Thomas Phifer and Partners
Images and drawings: See Architectural Record online article
AE Interest: 118 foot square floating roof on slender columns, architectural concept of sky-viewing space.
Bolla – Genoa, Italy
Project: Bolla
(part of the redevelopment of the Genova Old Harbour)
Location: Genoa, Italy (Genova)
Architect: Renzo Piano Building Workshop
AE Interest: 20-meter diameter glass sphere featuring the largest collections of ferns in the world.
Canton Tower – Guangzhou, China
Building: Canton Tower (also known as Guangzhou TV & Sightseeing Tower)
Location: Guangzhou, Guangdong, China
Architect: Information Based Architecture (Mark Hemel + Barbara Kuit)
Engineer: Arup
AE Interest: World’s tallest tv tower, height: 610m, form similar to bundled branches, with twist in center of tower. Diagonal column structure.
article, images and more information
Asia Society Texas Center – Houston, Texas
Building: Asia Society Texas Center
Address: 1370 Southmore Blvd, Houston, TX
Tel: (713) 496-9901
Map: link
Architect: Yoshio Taniguchi
Construction: Linbeck
AE Interests: Rectilinear form-language, high-quality finish materials, linear skylight, minimalism.
Rice University East Servery – Houston, Texas
Building: Rice University East Servery
City: Houston, Texas
Architect: Hopkins Architects
Structural Engineer: Architectural Engineers Collaborative
Construction: Tellepsen Builders
Completed: December 2010
AE Interests: Expressed steel structure, very transparent building, 3-dimensional exposed custom trusses, custom steel connections and custom steel shape column details. Aluminum exterior louver system (shading structure) with steel vertical supports integrated with building structure.
Clyfford Still Museum – Denver, Colorado
Building: Clyfford Still Museum – Denver, Colorado
Location: Denver, Colorado (adjacent to Denver Art Museum)
Architect: Allied Works Architecture
Landscape Design: Reed Hilderbrand Associates
Structural Engineering: KPFF Consulting Engineers
Mechanical Engineering: Arup
Lighting Design: Arup
Project Management: Romani Group Inc.
General Constructor: Saunders Construction Inc.
Completion date: November 2011
(fact sheet)
Arch Record article (photo source)
AE Interest: Cast concrete structure and wall details, concrete light screen, filtered light, wood light screens. Built to house the work of artist Clifford Still.
More About this building.
The Open Parliament of Albania, Tirana, Albania
Images: Coop Himmelblau
Project: The Open Parliament of Albania
Location: Tirana, Albania
Design/Planning: COOP HIMMELB(L)AU | Wolf D. Prix / W. Dreibholz & Partner ZT GmbH
Client: The Republic of Albania, The Parliament
Structural Engineering: B+G Ingenieure, Bollinger Grohmann Schneider ZT-GmbH, Vienna, Austria
Energy Design: Prof. Brian Cody, Berlin, Germany
AE Interest: symbolism of “fundamental democratic values such as openness, transparency and public co-determination”, complex geometry, perforated steel second skin, natural daylighting.
Grand Theatre – Rabat, Morocco
Project: Grand Theatre
Location: Rabat, Morocco
Architect: Zaha Hadid Architects
Structure Engineer: Adams Kara Taylor (AKT)
MEP engineer: Maxfordham
Acoustics & Theatre: Artec Consultant
Facade: Donnell Consultants Incorporated
Lighting: Office for Visual Interaction Inc
Info: 27,000 m2
Est Budget: $163m
AE Interest: Complex Geometry
Images by Zaha Hadid Architects
Article 1
Caen Library – Caen, France
Building: Caen Library (Bibliothèque Multimédia à Vocation Régionale / BMVR)
Status: Competition winner – announced 9/10/2010
Architect: OMA (Rem Koolhaas)
AE Interest: Massing response to context, open middle floor, exposed diagonal bracing, large openings in floor diaphragm. For similar work, see Seattle Central Library.
Marina Bay Sands – Singapore
Building: Marina Bay Sands
Location: 10 Bayfront Avenue, Singapore 018956
Completion: Summer 2010
Architect: Moshe Safdie Associates
Engineer: Arup
AE Interests: curved towers, giant cantilevered SkyPark (world’s longest public cantilever), 150-meter long roof-top swimming pool with infinity edge.
Articles:
1 Design Boom
Austin Convention Center – Austin, Texas
Building: Austin Convention Center, Northwest Lobby
Location: 500 E. Cesar Chavez St., Austin, Texas
Architect: PageSoutherlandPage LLP
Structural Engineering: Architectural Engineers Collaborative, Chuck Naeve, PE
Atrium Concept, blue glass facade: James Carpenter Design Associates, Inc.
General Contractor: SpawGlass Contractors
AEInterest: curtainwall system, double-glass facade (west). Solar panel technology. Exposed custom structural steel design.
International Space Station
Completion: May 2010
Location: click here for current location
Design/Construction: joint effort by Russia, U.S., Japan, Canada, Europe.
AEInterest:
Architecture in Space. Orbiting Earth, this laboratory houses 12 people for 6months at a time.
Solar powered, extremely water-efficient, aluminum material technology. Assembled over 12 years and over 100 missions.
Masdar Headquarters – Masdar City, U.A.E
Building: Masdar Headquarters
Location: Masdar City, United Arab Emirates (outside Abu Dhabi)
Status: Under construction
Architects: Adrian Smith + Gordon Gill Architecture
MEP engineers: Environmental Systems Design
Structural engineers: Thornton Tomasetti
AE Interest: Energy-positive building (creates more energy than it consumes), 11 heat chimneys, natural ventilation, natural day-lighting, world’s largest solar panel array (1.4million sf), integrated wind turbines. Roof is built first to power construction of the building. $300million estimated cost.
photo/info credit: WAN, ArchiEnvironmental
Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, Mather Expansion – Richmond, Virginia
Building: Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, Mather Expansion
Location: Richmond, Virginia
Completed: May 2010
Architect: Rick Mather
Structural Engineers: Hankins and Anderson Consulting Engineers
Environmental Engineer: Atelier Ten
Building Services Engineers: Dewhurst Macfarlane and Partners
Contractor: Whiting-Turner Contracting Company
AE Interest: 3-story atrium with 5 bridges, limestone walls and large glass boxes
Rolex Learning Centre – Lausanne, Switzerland
Building: Rolex Learning Centre at the Ecole Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL)
Location: Lausanne, Switzerland
Completed: Feb 2010
Architect: Sanaa
Structural Engineer (conceptual design): Sasaki and Partners
Structural Engineer: Bollinger and Grohmann
AE Interest: Curved concrete floors and roof (large compressive forces), round holes/courtyards in form.
DesignBoom link
Neues Museum – Folkwang In Essen, Germany
Building: Neues Museum
Location: Folkwang In Essen, Germany
Completed: Feb 2010
Architect: David Chipperfield Architects,
Client: Neubau Museum Folkwang Essen,
Structural engineer: Ingenieurberatung Pühl and Becker VBI, Seroneit and Schneider,
Services engineer: Giesen-Gillhoff-Loomans, BBT Engineers,
Facade consultant: KonTec Fassadenberatung, Pazdera AG,
Lighting engineer: Arup,
Landscape architect: Planungsbüro Meinholf Hasse
New Museum of Contemporary Art – New York City, New York
Building: New Museum of Contemporary Art
Location: 235 Bowery, New York, NY 10002
Map
Architects: SANAA (Kazuyo Sejima + Ryue Nishizawa)
Structural Engineer: Guy Nordenson, Sasaki and Partners
AE Interests: Staggered box structural scheme, Exterior cladding: expanded metal mesh on corrugated aluminum panels. `
Museum of Fine Arts – Houston, Texas
February 2012 announcement: Steven Holl to design a new expansion to the MFAH. No images released at this time.
Audrey Jones Beck Building
Completed: 2000
Architect: Rafael Moneo
Design Firm: Vignelli Associates, New York
Design Team: Massimo & Lella Vignelli (Principals in Charge), Peter Vetter, Mischa Leiner, Yoshiki Waterhouse, Christian Altmann, Yuji Yamazaki at Vignelli Associates; Rafael Moneo, Eduardo Miralles, Cristina Carriedo at José Rafael Moneo, Architect; Bill Kendall, Larry Burns, John Goodman at Kendall/Heaton Associates, Inc.
Fabricators: Graphtec, Schlitzberger
Consultants: Hines (project), CBM Engineers, Inc. (structural engineer), Altieri Sebor Wieber (mechanical/electrical engineer), Fisher Marantz Stone (architectural lighting design), Walter P. Moore and Associates, Inc. (civil engineer), Ulrich Engineers, Inc. (geotechnical engineer)
AE Interests: Natural daylighting, James Turrell tunnel.
More info
MFA-Houston also includes:
Caroline Wiess Law Building
Completed: 1974
Architects: two additions by Ludwig Mies van der Rohe (1958 and 1974), original building by William Ward Watkin (1924).
Lillie and Hugh Roy Cullen Sculpture Garden
Completed: 1986
Landscape architect: Isamu Noguchi
Central Administration and Glassell Junior School of Art Building
Completed: 1994
Architect: Carlos Jimenez
Byzantine Fresco Chapel Museum – Houston, Texas
Building: Byzantine Fresco Chapel Museum
Location: Houston, Texas
(part of The Menil Collection, a neighborhood of museums)
Completed: 1997
Architect: Francois de Menil
Engineer: Arup
Tate Modern Addition – London, U.K.
Building: Tate Modern 2 – addition to the Tate Modern
Architect: Herzog & de Meuron
Completion expected: 2012
Structural and facade engineering: Ramboll Whitbybird (new name Ramboll UK)
Mechanical and electrical engineers: Max Fordham LLP
CDM coordination: Cyril Sweett
Construction management: Mace
Project manager: Gardiner & Theobald
Cost Consultants: Davis Langdon
AE Interests: complex form, perforated brick facade.
GBlecL1
UTL2011-E, UTL2011-A
20 Fenchurch – London, U.K.
Project: 20 Fenchurch (nickname: The Walkie Talkie)
Location: 20 Fenchurch, London, U.K.
Status: Pilings and groundwork completed early 2009. As of Oct 2009 all work suspended.
Expected completion: 2014
Architect: Rafael Viñoly
Structural Engineers: Expedition Engineering
Cost Estimating: Davis Langdon
Access Consultant: Buro Happold Consulting Engineers PC
AE Interest: Skyscraper, construction in urban London
One New Change – London, U.K.
Building: One New Change
Location: London, U.K.
Status: Oct 14, 2009 – topping out (last beam placed on top)
Expected Completion: late 2010
Architect: Ateliers Jean Nouvel
Client: Land Securities
Construction management: Bovis Lend Lease
Facade contractor: Josef Gartner & Co
Glass treatment: Bischoff Glas Technik
Ateliers Jean Nouvel facade consultant: RFR Engineers & Eckelt Glas
AE Interest: White fritted exterior glass, complex geometry.
Article link 15Jan2010
