A classroom building designed by Parallax Associates has opened at Sierra Canyon School in Chatsworth, California. Photo: Oe/ Ueda Studio Extra Large Image

Maple Grove · 2008.1001
The Great River Energy headquarters in Maple Grove, Minnesota, has received LEED Platinum certification. The Minneapolis office of Perkins + Will designed the 166,000-square-foot (15,400-square-meter) building, which uses 50 percent less energy than a comparable facility built to state code requirements and 90 percent less water than a similarly sized corporate campus.

The facility features an in-lake geothermal HVAC system, in-floor displacement ventilation, and a concrete structural frame with fly ash from one of the electricity wholesaler's coal-burning power plants. A 166-foot- (50.6-meter-) tall, 200-kilowatt wind turbine and 72-kilowatt rooftop solar array provide up to 15 percent of the building's electricity. The building earned LEED points for energy efficiency and renewable energy, water efficiency, daylighting and views, a "green" education center, using local and recycled products and certified wood, and other sustainable features.

St. Paul-based McGough Construction was the general contractor.

Berlin · 2008.1001
Stanton Williams of London, United Kingdom, has revealed its winning design for a new €23.4 million Stadtmuseum in Berlin, Germany. The project will create a major new city museum through the adaptation and redevelopment of Berlin's existing Marinehaus, along with the neighboring Märkisches Museum.

The museum will present a permeable face to the city, with a new public space and arcade at ground level, a loggia on the second-floor level, and a viewing gallery on top of the Marinehaus tower, which will be reconstructed. The new museum will provide approximately 4,950 square meters (53,300 square feet) net floor area for displays relating to the history and development of Berlin, with gallery installations and wall linings that allow for adaptation.

The renovation is conceived of as a building within a building, organized in layers The interior will reveal the brick structure and the evidence of successive alterations. New construction will be clearly delineated and visibly spaced away from existing walls. Completion is slated for 2012.

Baton Rouge · 2008.0930
Construction is underway on a $17 million renovation of the Union Theater at Louisiana State University in Baton Rouge. HMS Architects of New Orleans designed the 47,000-square-foot (4,400-square-meter) project, which will include redesigned seating for the 1,300-seat theater, new side box seating areas, an upgraded audio system, and multistory lobbies and circulation spaces. New support spaces will include a box office, pre-function reception room, and dressing rooms. Ceiling and side wall reflectors will be added to improve the theater acoustics.

Keith Steger is serving as principal-in-charge for HMS. Consultants include Chapel Hill, North Carolina-based Theatre Consultants Collaborative and acoustical consultant BAi of Austin, Texas.

New York · 2008.0924
The National Park Service and the Statue of Liberty-Ellis Island Foundation, Inc. have unveiled the design for the new Peopling of America Center, a $20 million addition to the Ellis Island Immigration Museum in New York City.

The New York office of Highland Associates is serving as architect and engineer for the project, which entails the redesign of one major existing gallery, the restoration of two historically important spaces to accommodate additional exhibits, and the rehabilitation and adaptive reuse of the New Immigration Building to house the museum's curatorial center. ESI Design of New York City is the exhibit designer. Completion is slated for 2011.

Chicago · 2008.0923
John Ochsendorf, an associate professor in the architecture department at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, is one of 25 people named MacArthur Fellows for 2008. A structural engineer and architectural historian, Ochsendorf works to preserve historic structures and to reinterpret ancient technologies for contemporary use.

He has studied the construction of Incan hand-woven fiber suspension bridges in Peru, suspension and cable-stayed bridges in Japan, and, more recently, the causes of vault and buttress failures in French and Spanish Romanesque churches.

MacArthur Fellows receive $500,000 in support from the Chicago, Illinois-based MacArthur Foundation over five years. Selection criteria include creativity, originality, and potential for important future contributions.

Plymouth · 2008.0922
S333 Architecture + Urbanism of London has revealed its design for the first phase of a master plan for Bircham Park in the Derriford area of Plymouth, United Kingdom. Phase I of the 16-acre (6.5-hectare) urban center consists of a mixed-use building that combines a 20,000-square-meter (215,000-square-foot) multistory parking garage with a preschool, retail space, and a rooftop play area. Construction is expected to start in early 2009.

London · 2008.0922
Work has begun on a river-served energy-from-waste plant in the London borough of Bexley, United Kingdom. The Sheffield office of Race Cottam Associates designed the Belvedere facility for Riverside Resource Recovery, a subsidiary of Cory Environmental. The plant is being built on the south bank of the Thames and is expected to burn an average of 585,000 metric tons (645 tons) of waste per year for 30 years. Waste from London will be used as a fuel to generate 66 megawatts of electricity.

Maidenhead, UK-based Costain is building the facility, which is scheduled for completion and operation by 2011.

Nova Gorica · 2008.0922
The Lace Apartments have been completed in Nova Gorica, Slovenia. The building comprises four floors of residential units, ground-floor common space, and two levels of underground parking. Ofis Arhitekti of Ljubljana, Slovenia, designed the structure such that the projecting roofs, pergolas, dividing walls, terraces, and balconies with loggias create a lacy three-dimensional facade. Those elements also function to buffer the main living areas from severe temperatures and winds.

Philadelphia · 2008.0919
Construction has begun on 1706 Rittenhouse Square Street, a new 31-story condominium tower in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Cope Linder Architects of Philadelphia is the architect on the project, and Philadelphia-based Daroff Design is the interior designer.

Each of the 31 full-floor residences will offer 360-degree tower views, balcony terraces, and ten-foot- (three-meter-) high ceilings. With a palette of neutral, natural finishes, including granite and porcelain tile floors, the interiors echo the limestone, granite, and steel finishes of the tower's facade. At the base of the tower, a two-story lobby, sheathed in granite and glass, leads to a mezzanine conference center. The third-floor fitness center features glass tile finishes.

Occupancy is expected in spring 2010. The developers are Scannapieco Development Corporation of New Hope, Pennsylvania, and Parkway Corporation of Philadelphia.

Indian Wells · 2008.0919
The IW Club has opened at Indian Wells Golf Resort in Indian Wells, California. Douglas Fredrikson Architects of Phoenix, Arizona, designed the 53,000 square-foot (4,900-square-meter) clubhouse in a desert modern style, with sandstone walls, large expanses of glass, metal roofing, limestone and granite accents, and stainless-steel detailing. A sheet of water cascades from the upper level to a collection pool below.

The interior features warm wood detailing, travertine floors, and leather accents. The second floor includes restaurants, with views of the golf course and surrounding mountains. A ballroom opens to a reception hall and an outdoor veranda.

Providence · 2008.0919
The Dunkin' Donuts Center sports and event arena in Providence, Rhode Island, recently reopened after a three-year, $80 million renovation designed by the Washington, D.C., office of Ellerbe Becket. Additions and improvements include a new steel-and-glass facade, a larger lobby and concourse, ADA-accessible entrances, a relocated box office, more restrooms, two food courts, new seating, improved sightlines in the lower bowl, a dedicated suite level, and renovated and expanded locker rooms for the Providence College Friars and Providence Bruins basketball teams.

New York · 2008.0918
Ground has been broken for a modernization project at Harlem Hospital in the Harlem neighborhood of New York City. The New York office of Hellmuth, Obata + Kassabaum (HOK) and Studio JTA of the Bronx designed the project, which includes a new patient pavilion and the renovation of key nursing and clinical units in the Martin Luther King Pavilion. New construction will comprise 180,000 square feet (17,000 square meters), and 120,000 square feet (11,000 square meters) of existing space will be renovated.

The design will preserve and highlight the Works Progress Administration murals from existing buildings that are slated to be demolished. Restored mural images will be incorporated into the building's 80-foot- (24-meter-) high facade as transparent images integrated within a curtain wall.

Chatsworth · 2008.0917
At Sierra Canyon School in Chatsworth, California, the science and humanities classroom building (pictured above) has officially opened, inaugurating the campus. Parallax Associates of Culver City designed the building, which comprises the first phase of a master plan, also created by the firm, for the five-acre (two-hectare) campus.

The three-story, 53,000-square-foot (4,900-square-meter) structure includes 23 classrooms, a library, art studios, an 11,000-square-foot (1,000-square-meter) science wing, and other facilities. A curved facade follows the line of the street. Sustainable features include a rainwater filtration system, dual-pane windows with operable panels, perforated aluminum sun screens on south-facing elevations, and fluorescent lighting controlled by motion sensors.

Located on a hillside in the San Fernando Valley, the school is partially elevated, offering views of the valley and mountains. Vehicular traffic is restricted to street level, with a pedestrian-oriented campus above.

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