ARCHITECTS TECHNOLOGY SUMMIT

The Internet is changing everything — including the practice of architecture. This strong message emerged from a recent conference: Understanding technology, and the value of technology to the client, gives a design firm an important competitive advantage.

What technological changes are coming, and how soon, were the hot topics at the Architects Technology Summit, Release 3.0, held in Philadelphia on May 3. The summit was co-hosted by the CMD Group and The Greenway Group.

KOOLHAAS WINS PRITZKER PRIZE

In April, Rem Koolhaas, a 56-year-old architect from the Netherlands, was named the Pritzker Architecture Prize Laureate for the year 2000. The controversial yet critically acclaimed architect will receive the equivalent of the Nobel Prize in architecture in a ceremony in Jeruselem on May 29. At that time, Koolhaas will be presented with a $100,000 grant and a bronze medallion. He is the 23rd Pritzker Laureate to be honored and the first from the Netherlands.

GENSLER WINS AIA FIRM AWARD

Gensler has won the American Institute of Architects' Year 2000 Architecture Firm Award. In announcing the award, AIA President Michael J. Stanton, FAIA, stated, "Gensler is America's foremost collaborative practice. The firm exemplifies how the creative mix of disciplines, all with 'place' as their focus, adds richness and value to buildings and their settings. Gensler has led our profession in bringing sustainability into mainstream corporate practice."

AIA CONVENTION PROBES LIVABILITY

The "City of Brotherly Love," home of the Liberty Bell, was the setting earlier this month for the annual convention of the American Institute of Architects. With its rich cultural and architectural history and its share of urban problems, Philadelphia was an appropriate setting for the AIA's theme of "New Century, New Vision: Livable Communities for America's Future." Architects from all over the U.S. gathered to hear experts promote their ideas for improving livability from political, social, and educational, as well as architectural points of view.

NEW YORK BRIDGEMARKET OPENS AFTER DECADES IN RESTORATION

Bridgemarket has been one of New York City's best kept secrets: a cathedral-like space beneath the Queensboro Bridge adorned with a canopy of Guastavino tile vaults. Hardy Holzman Pfeiffer Associates, a leading architectural, planning, and interior design firm first presented plans for a market in 1977 and ushered the project through an extensive public review process and several design incarnations. After three decades, the public-private effort to redevelop the historic marketplace became a reality earlier this year with the opening of the main space.

RAILWAY STATION TOWERS OVER NAGOYA, JAPAN

Official opening ceremonies were held in January for JR Central Towers & Station, a new 4,800,000 gross square foot (446,000 square meter) mixed-use complex, the largest building in Japan. This distinguishes the city of Nagoya as the foremost center of transportation, commerce, and hospitality in central Japan.

It is the project of The Central Japan Railway Company, Ltd., created by design architects Kohn Pedersen Fox Associates, master architect, Sakakura Associates, and general contractor and associate architect, Taisei Corporation.