Scottsdale · 2007.0523
The Frank Lloyd Wright Foundation board of trustees has approved sweeping changes to the foundation's articles of incorporation and bylaws. The foundation will now be managed as a nonmembership corporation. Embedded into the new articles are critical principles concerned with preserving the historical and ongoing importance of all of the foundation's key entities: the National Historic Landmarks Taliesin in Spring Green, Wisconsin, and Taliesin West in Scottsdale, Arizona; Taliesin, the Frank Lloyd Wright School of Architecture; the Frank Lloyd Wright Archives; and the Taliesin Fellowship.
Other recent changes include an increase in the number of public trustees; the recruitment of Victor Sidy as the new dean for the School of Architecture; a new strategic plan for the school; the appointment of Phil Allsopp, RIBA, as president and CEO last year; and management reorganization.
San Diego · 2007.0523
DiamondView Tower has opened in San Diego, California, adjacent to Petco Park, home of the San Diego Padres baseball team. The 305,000-square-foot (28,300-square-meter) mixed-use building comprises 237,000 square feet (22,000 square meters) of office space, plus residential, retail, and restaurant space. The ballpark-themed project features environmental graphics in the lobby and stacked office levels with setbacks to emulate stadium bleachers.
The building's three- and four-story base is styled like a brick warehouse to blend with its East Village surroundings. The glass-and-metal tower features floor-to-ceiling windows and balconies on every floor, with views of the stadium and the Pacific Ocean beyond. The San Diego office of Carrier Johnson provided architectural services; Frank Wolden was the firm's design principal on the project.
Milan · 2007.0523
Construction has begun on business park and entertainment portions of the Milanofiori North mixed-use development in Milan, Italy. Erick van Egeraat Associated Architects (EEA), based in Rotterdam, the Netherlands, designed the master plan for the 2.35 million-square-foot (218,000-square-meter) development, and is realizing several parts of the plan in addition to supervising its overall execution. The development will incorporate energy-efficient features and use renewable energy.
Phase I of the development, slated for completion in 2009, includes four office buildings, housing, and a leisure and entertainment center, with cinema, hotel and retail areas embedded into green spaces around a central square. Phase II will comprise 1.08 million square feet (100,000 square meters), primarily office and retail space.
Frederick · 2007.0518
The Frederick Innovative Technology Center, Inc. has opened a new facility, FITCI@Monocacy, in Frederick, Maryland. This second FITCI facility was designed to offer a supportive environment for information technology and biotechnology companies starting new businesses in Frederick County.
The project affected 12,800 square feet (1,190 square meters) of workspace, including demolition of a portion of the second floor and the creation of a new "incubator" to encourage the formation and development of new ideas, including a common lab and eight wet labs. The common lab provides a central location where the more expensive pieces of equipment can be shared by each of the start-ups. All labs are Bio Safety Level 2 (BSL2), meeting the standards of the Center for Disease Control and Prevention and the National Institutes of Health.
Leading the design-build team was RLS, a Gaithersburg, Maryland, consortium that designs, builds, and outfits custom scientific laboratories. The team also included architecture firm Notari Associates of Baltimore; the Rockville, Maryland, office of engineering firm Greenman-Pedersen, Inc. (GPI); and Greatstar Construction & Management of North Potomac, Maryland. Lab Recyclers, Inc. was the lab planner and provided all equipment and benchwork for the project.
San Francisco · 2007.0514
The San Francisco, California, office of Kaplan McLaughlin Diaz (KMD) has revealed its design for the new headquarters of the San Francisco Public Utilities Commission. KMD designed the 12-story, 254,000-square-foot (23,600-square-meter) building to exceed both LEED Platinum standards and California's recently instituted Title 24 requirements for energy efficiency in new office buildings. Groundbreaking is planned for 2008.
Features such as rooftop wind turbines, photovoltaic cells, and a "thermal chimney" will allow the building to supply about 40 percent of its own energy, with the capacity to go fully off the power grid on windy, sunlit days. Daylight will penetrate well into the structure's interior thanks to the use of sun-filtering shades, new window-glazing materials, and other techniques. Waterless urinals, faucet sensors, on-demand water heaters, and a gray-water recycling system will ensure a high level of water conservation.
Eugene · 2007.0511
The University of Oregon has broken ground for the James F. Miller Theatre Complex on its Eugene campus. Thomas Hacker Architects Inc. of Portland is the architect for the $7.8 million project, which will add 18,200 square feet (1,690 square meters) of space to Villard Hall (1886) and its 1949 theater addition. The project will include the renovation of an existing lobby and the addition of a black-box theater, costume shop, green room, and scene shop. A wall of windows will be added to Villard Hall, providing daylighting inside and illuminating the campus grounds at night. Completion is scheduled for 2008.
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