Houston · 2006.0710
Japanese architect Yoshio Taniguchi has unveiled his design for Asia House in Houston, Texas. The $40 million project will provide a permanent home in Houston's Museum District for the Asia Society Texas, a nonprofit organization that promotes understanding of Asia. Taniguchi's design fits gallery space, meeting rooms, and a 300-seat auditorium into a two-story building with a central lobby. Most rooms will have views of one of five gardens, with downtown Houston visible from a second-story water garden. Construction is scheduled for 2007 to 2009. Taniguchi and his Tokyo architecture firm previously designed the 2004 renovation of the Museum of Modern Art in New York City.
Abu Dhabi · 2006.0709
The Guggenheim has announced plans for an art museum in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates, on Saadiyat Island in the Persian Gulf. Frank Gehry and his Los Angeles, California, firm Gehry Partners will design the $200 million museum; plans are expected to be unveiled in November 2006, with construction scheduled for completion in 2012. Gehry previously designed the Guggenheim Bilbao in Bilbao, Spain.
Newport Beach · 2006.0707
Two California firms have merged: Newport Beach-based gkkworks, an architecture, construction, and construction management firm, and Glendale-based architecture firm Leidenfrost/ Horowitz & Associates, Inc. (LHA), now known as LHA, a division of gkkworks. Both will maintain separate offices, with a combined staff of 240, in ten locations. The two largest architecture projects to date by gkkworks are the $90 million Laguna Niguel Courthouse in Laguna Niguel, California, and the $54 million Riverside Community College District Nursing and Science Building. LHA's largest projects to date include the $750 million Paris Hilton Hotel and Casino in Las Vegas, Nevada, and the $70 million Anderson Graduate School of Management at the University of California, Los Angeles.
Minneapolis · 2006.0706
Minneapolis, Minnesota-based KKE Architects, Inc. has appointed Tom Gerster, AIA, NCARB, president and hired A.C. Atherton, AIA, as a principal and head of its new West Coast hospitality group. Also KKE's chief operating officer, Gerster will provide leadership and oversee operations of the firm's four offices, located in Minneapolis; Las Vegas, Nevada; and Irvine and Pasadena, California. He joined KKE in 1981 and was named principal in 1988. Gerster has been honored for his work planning and designing several retail centers in Minnesota. Atherton has over 20 years of experience in resorts, spas, hotels, themed entertainment, sports clubs, retail, mixed-use, and large-scale commercial projects. She was previously a principal at the Orange, California, office of DMJM H&N.
Cambridge · 2006.0705
Hugh A. Stubbins, founder of the Cambridge, Massachusetts-based architecture and design firm The Stubbins Associates, died on July 5, 2006, at age 94. During his 60 years as a practicing architect, Stubbins showed great versatility in style, juxtaposing modern and traditional elements. His works include the Citicorp Center in New York City; the Congress Hall in Berlin, Germany; and the Federal Reserve Bank of Boston. Stubbins also served on the faculty of the Harvard University Graduate School of Design. He was a fellow and former vice president of the American Institute of Architects (AIA), a fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, and a member and past president of the Boston Society of Architects. He received the University of Virginia's 1980 Thomas Jefferson Medal for Architecture and the Boston Society of Architects 1988 Award of Honor. The Stubbins Associates received the AIA Architectural Firm Award in 1967.
Liège · 2006.0622
Construction progresses on the new Liège–Guillemins high-speed-rail station in Liège, Belgium, with the 10,000-ton (9,000-metric-ton) steel structure now in place for a vast arched vault and its two supporting footbridges. The frames were assembled off-site to avoid disrupting train service, then pushed onto their supports over the course of a year. Spanish architect and engineer Santiago Calatrava designed the 656-foot- (200-meter-) long terminal to have three stories on its downhill, city-facing side, and five stories on its uphill side facing a residential area. The vault's glass roof will allow views into the station from the hillside. The station is scheduled to open in late 2007 as one of the main nodes in Europe's high-speed TGV rail network.
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