GWWO Inc./ Architects recently unveiled its design for the new visitor center at Fort McHenry National Monument and Historic Shrine in Baltimore. Image: GWWO Inc./ Architects

Minneapolis · 2007.0912
Ripley Gardens, a mixed-income housing development, has opened in the historic Harrison Neighborhood of Minneapolis, Minnesota. The Minneapolis office of LHB designed the project, which combines the rehabilitation and reuse of three existing buildings with construction of three new buildings on the site of the historic Ripley Memorial Hospital.

Central Community Housing Trust and Twin Cities Habitat for Humanity developed the complex, which comprises 52 rental units and 8 owner-occupied townhouses, for households at very low, moderate, and median income levels. Ripley Gardens includes many sustainable design features in the site and building design, and is one of the first four Minnesota Green Communities Demonstration Projects.

Edison · 2007.0911
Stan Michalowski has joined the Edison, New Jersey, office of VJ Associates in the newly created position of director of scheduling and project controls. VJ Associates is a consulting firm that specializes in cost estimating, scheduling, value engineering. and project management.

Doncaster · 2007.0910
A new national aviation academy has opened at Robin Hood Doncaster Sheffield International Airport in Doncaster, United Kingdom. The Sheffield office of Race Cottam Associates designed the academy facility, located in a 55,000-square-foot (5,100-square-meter) hanger, which includes lecture rooms and other training areas in addition to housing working aircraft.

Melbourne · 2007.0910
International engineering firm Arup has appointed Dr. Robert Care, CEO of Arup Australasia, to its Group Board. Care first joined Arup in 1977 in London, United Kingdom, and spent nine years in Australia and Asia. In the late 1980s, he spent several years as chief engineer of the National Capital Development Commission in Canberra, Australia. Care returned to Arup in 1990 as a director, and was appointed to his current role as CEO in 2004.

His project management experience includes the AUD$480 million Wandoo Oil Field development, advice to the Australian government on the Gallipoli Roads in Turkey, and a rail infrastructure project in the United Kingdom after the 2000 Hatfield train crash. He is a Fellow of the Australian Academy of Technology, Science and Engineering, and a Fellow of Engineers Australia.

Chicago · 2007.0907
Thornton Tomasetti has promoted Thomas D. Poulos, P.E., S.E., SECB, to principal in the firm's Chicago, Illinois, office. Poulos, who joined the firm in 1997, also continues to hold the title of vice president. He has 20 years of structural engineering experience with all types of structures, including those requiring design-build delivery. As the aviation sector leader, his portfolio includes such projects as a FedEx hangar facility at Memphis International Airport in Memphis, Tennessee, and the North Terminal redevelopment at Detroit Metropolitan Wayne County Airport in Romulus, Michigan. Additional notable experience includes the structural design of the 50-story UBS Tower in Chicago, which features an innovative two-way cable net wall.

New York · 2007.0907
Morrisania Homes has opened in the Bronx, New York City. Steven Winter Associates, Inc., based in Norwalk, Connecticut, designed the 64-unit affordable housing development, which has received LEED for Homes certification. Features include high-efficiency sealed combustion boilers, Energy Star lighting fixtures, and recycled-content flooring. The developer was Blue Sea Development.

Baltimore · 2007.0907
GWWO Inc./ Architects of Baltimore, Maryland, has revealed its design for the new visitor center at Fort McHenry National Monument and Historic Shrine in Baltimore. Fort McHenry is best known for its role in the War of 1812, including a bombardment during which Francis Scott Key was inspired to write the "The Star-Spangled Banner."

The architects' primary inspiration for the design was the U.S. flag. The juxtaposed brick and copper walls are a reference to the flag's red and white stripes. The upward slope of the brick wall will direct the visitor’s eye toward the flag atop the Fort, creating a visual dialogue between the historic building and the visitor center. The contrasting volumes of the walls and the gentle change of their heights in opposite directions will suggest a sense of motion, enhanced by the landscape design, by Mahan Rykiel Associates, Inc. of Baltimore.

The 17,200-square-foot (1,600-square-meter) building will feature expanded reception, orientation, retail, and office spaces, a multipurpose room, and an innovative combined exhibit and theater "immersion experience" by the Falls Church, Virginia, office of Haley Sharpe Design. A daylit lobby with a central information desk will serve as the organizing element for the public spaces. Two tall, thin windows will allow light into the gallery space to create a sense of openness and warmth. The second level will house park offices and support spaces.

The new facility will be sited outside the original 1814 reservation boundary to help restore the park’s primary historic area. The existing center will be demolished. Construction of the new building will start in 2009 and is expected to be complete in 2010. LEED Gold certification will be sought.

Plano · 2007.0906
Construction is underway on the Wilcox Center in Plano, Texas. Dallas-based Omniplan designed the project for developer Cawley Wilcox, also based in Dallas. The developer has received LEED Silver pre-certification for the project and aspires to LEED Gold certification. The three-story, 180,000-square-foot (16,700-square-meter) project will feature efficient energy- and air-management systems, solar-powered faucets, waterless urinals, and recycled building and finishing materials and textiles. Rainwater will be directed into native plant beds.

Sierra County · 2007.0906
The winning design has been revealed for Spaceport America, expected to be the world's first purpose-built commercial spaceport. The project team includes Foster + Partners, the London, United Kingdom-based firm led by Norman Foster, and San Francisco, California-based engineering firm URS, with local firm SMPC Architects of Albuquerque.

Their design for the 100,000-square-foot (9,300-square-meter) main terminal and hangar facility itself resembles futuristic visions of spacecraft. Planned for rural Sierra County, New Mexico, the building was designed for LEED Platinum certification, with a low, partially below-ground form, photovoltaic panels, and other features to improve net energy efficiency.

The planned location of the spaceport on a site crossed by El Camino Real de Tierra Adentro National Historic Trail spurred the National Trust for Historic Preservation to name the historic trail to its 2007 list of the "11 Most Endangered Historic Places" in the United States. Construction of the spaceport is tentatively planned to begin in 2008 and be completed by 2010. The main tenant of the spaceport will be Richard Branson's Virgin Galactic.

Los Angeles · 2007.0905
Construction is underway on the new Wattstar Educational and Entertainment Facility in the Watts neighborhood of Los Angeles, California. Behr Brower Architects of Westlake Village, California, designed the facility, which will house a movie theater plus space for training young people in film production, animation, and graphic design.

San Francisco · 2007.0905
Excavation has begun for the Walt Disney Family Museum in the Presidio of San Francisco, a national park and former military base. San Francisco-based Page & Turnbull is leading the project, which comprises almost 72,000 square feet (6,700 square meters) of space, including both historic preservation and new construction.

The museum will be located in a 19th-century red-brick barrack, with the library and archive going into a 1904 gymnasium. A 1940 munitions building will house the campus mechanical system. Page & Turnbull designed a contemporary glass pavilion to be inserted into the courtyard of the C-shaped barrack.

Approximately 170 stabilizing piers filled with concrete and rebar will be inserted under the barrack, with its load-bearing masonry, to upgrade the structure seismically. A sub-basement will be created to house extensive new infrastructure and technologies. Jay Turnbull, FAIA, is serving as principal-in-charge for Page & Turnbull. Completion is expected in summer 2009.

Stamford · 2007.0905
Construction continues on the Post House Apartments, a supportive housing development in Stamford, Connecticut. Herbert S. Newman and Partners PC of New Haven designed the project, which includes 60 one-bedroom units, common spaces, and support space for counseling staff. Completion is expected in 2008.

This is reportedly the first such project financed by federal Hope VI funds — seed money provided to replace obsolete or dilapidated public housing with mixed-style and mixed-income housing. The Post House Apartments are part of a four-phase program to revitalize Fairfield Court public housing, for which Herbert S. Newman and Partners also performed design for two other sites and master planning.

People and Places Last Week

People and Places Archive

ArchitectureWeek Professional Directory
ArchitectureWeek Web Directory