The Redpath Lofts, an historic sugar mill adapted for mixed residential and commercial use by Groupe Cardinal Hardy of Montreal, Quebec. Photo: © Denis Farley

Chicago · 2007.0817
The new $60 million "dana hotel and spa" is under construction in Chicago, Illinois. Eckenhoff Saunders Architects of Chicago designed the slender 26-story, 150,000-square-foot (14,000-square-meter) building. The exterior facade wil be a glass-and-aluminum window wall bordered by concrete. The lobby will be on the second floor, allowing the ground floor to serve a more public function, including a sidewalk cafe. A 28-foot- (8.5-meter-) high glass curtain wall will allow views into the hotel, with the entrance anchored by an undulating timber wall. A sushi bar will appear to float in the lobby.

Houston, Texas-based EDI Architecture, Inc. designed the interiors of the 216 guest rooms with exposed concrete ceilings and walnut wood floors. The rooms will also feature floor-to-ceiling windows, and some will have balconies. The public spa within the hotel will sport such materials as bamboo bricks and recycled-glass terrazzo flooring. International construction and project management company Bovis Lend Lease is building the hotel, which is scheduled to open in summer 2008. The former Hotel Dana, formerly the Erie Hotel (1891), was demolished to make way for the current construction.

Palm Desert · 2007.0820
RBF Consulting has promoted Bradley R. Mielke, S.E., P.E., to senior vice president and office manager of the firm's Palm Desert, California, office. Mielke has over 29 years of experience in structural engineering and project management, with specific expertise in the design of transportation and public works infrastructure. He also has significant experience in building structural design for educational campuses and industrial facilities, and in civil and structural engineering design of projects for the U.S. Department of Defense. RBF provides consulting services for planning, design, and construction of the built environment.

Troy · 2007.0816
The "mooradian lofts" development has opened on the banks of the Hudson River in Troy, New York. The developer is the New Amsterdam Development Company (NADC) of New York City, a subsidiary of De Lijn Office for Urban Development, headquartered in Amsterdam, the Netherlands. The project is an adaptive reuse of an 1899 Italianate industrial building of soft red brick, lime mortar, and heavy timber columns, with almost 300 oversized windows. The interiors, finishes, and open floor plans of the 48 loft units were designed by Pietro Costa, a partner at NADC. The first floor is intended for a cafe and retail area.

New York · 2007.0816
Construction has begun on a new academic building at the Cooper Union in New York City. Thom Mayne and his firm, Morphosis of Santa Monica, California, designed the building in collaboration with associate architect Gruzen Samton LLP of New York City. The eight-story building will feature "aerial piazzas" on the fourth and seventh floors that will serve as the social hubs, connected vertically by a 120-foot- (37-meter-) high atrium. Above the glass-framed first floor, the building will be clad in operable panels of semitransparent perforated stainless steel. A LEED Silver rating will be sought.

West Palm Beach · 2007.0815
Construction continues on Two City Plaza, a high-end residential tower in downtown West Palm Beach, Florida. The Miami office of BC Architects AIA, Inc. designed the building with stepped setbacks to match One City Plaza, also designed by the firm. The 21-story building will feature 467 residential units, a fifth-floor courtyard, a sky garden, a rooftop terrace with a swimming pool, and views of the city and the ocean.

Montreal · 2007.0814
The second and third phases of the Redpath Lofts mixed-use development have been completed in Montreal, Canada. Groupe Cardinal Hardy of Montreal, an architecture, landscape architecture, and planning firm, designed the project, an adaptive reuse of the Redpath Sugar mill complex from the mid-1800s, located on the banks of the Lachine canal.

Five of the mill buildings have been converted to residential and commercial space in these two phases of the project, following a similar conversion of five buildings in phase one. The facades of the exterior perimeter on the canal side maintain an order and proportion similar to the orignal buildings. The ground-floor commercial spaces have distinct entrances into an interior courtyard.

Chicago · 2007.0814
Gonzalez Partners of Chicago, Illinois, has merged with DeStefano + Partners, Ltd., an architecture, planning, and interior design firm. Joseph A. Gonzalez, AIA, founder of Gonzalez Parters, has joined the Chicago office of DeStefano + Partners as a design principal. Gonzalez has experience designing a range of projects, from modestly scaled residential and institutional projects to large-scale mixed-use developments.

People and Places Last Week

People and Places Archive

ArchitectureWeek Professional Directory
ArchitectureWeek Web Directory