MVRDV and Adept Architects have revealed their winning design for a mixed-use building in Rødovre, a suburb of Copenhagen, Denmark. Image: MVRDV and Adept Extra Large Image

Boston · 2008.1112
Anand K. Seth, P.E., has joined the Boston, Massachusetts, office of architecture, engineering, and planning firm Cannon Design as a principal. Seth has over 30 years of experience designing, operating, and optimizing building systems for healthcare facilities, high-tech research laboratories, industrial, and educational buildings. He is currently serving as engineering principal in charge for the King Faisal Cancer, Research and VIP Complex in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.

Seth was previously president for the northeast region and national director of healthcare at Sebesta Blomberg in Woburn, Massachusetts. Prior to that, he served for almost 25 years at Massachusetts General Hospital and Partners HealthCare System, Inc. in Boston.

Kaohsiung · 2008.1112
The Star Place department store in Kaohsiung, Taiwan, has opened. UN Studio of Amsterdam, the Netherlands, designed the building with a curved facade that combines curtain-wall glazing with horizontal lamellas and vertical glass fins. The position and size of each facade element are derived from a twisted frame system, which is related to the interior organization of the building.

Berkeley · 2008.1111
The University of California, Berkeley recently broke ground for an addition its Boalt Hall School of Law. Designed by Ratcliff of Emeryville, California, the 52,000-square-foot (4,800-square-meter) library and academic building is being constructed in the law school's former courtyard. LEED Gold certification is expected.

The pavilion's two light-filled underground levels will house highly efficient library stack space, reading rooms, seminar spaces, computer labs, library staff offices, and collection services. The one above-grade level will feature large skylights and open stairways, with a large classroom and a cafe. Outdoor spaces will include a roof-deck garden and newly landscaped entry courtyards. Sustainable features will include a green roof, low-flow faucets and toilets, efficient lighting and HVAC systems, and FSC-certified sustainably harvested wood.

The existing Boalt Hall building will also undergo a series of phased renovations to improve site circulation and wheelchair accessibility.

Beverly Hills · 2008.1110
The conference center at TreePeople's newly reopened Center for Community Forestry in Beverly Hills has received LEED Platinum certification from the USGBC. Designed by Marmol Radziner and Associates of Los Angeles, the conference center is the focal point of the nonprofit's four-acre (1.6-hectare) environmental educational campus in Coldwater Canyon Park.

The building is oriented to make the best use of the sun and prevailing winds. Concrete walls provide thermal mass. All rainwater on the site is captured through an underground drainage network, stored in a 216,000-gallon (818,000-liter) cistern underground, and reused in landscaping and as a firefighting resource.

Rødovre · 2008.1103
Architecture firms MVRDV of Rotterdam, the Netherlands, and Adept Architects of Copenhagen, Denmark, have revealed their winning design for a mixed-use building in the Copenhagen suburb of Rødovre. The firms conceived of the 116-meter- (381-foot-) tall tower (rendered above) as a vertical neighborhood or "sky village."

The design is based on a flexible grid of standard-sized units arranged around a central core, allowing future alteration of the program. The lower part of the high-rise is intended to house offices. The middle section, for apartments, leans north, creating a variety of terrace gardens along the south side. The top of the building is designed for a hotel.

The building is slender near the ground to allow space for a surrounding public plaza with retail stores and restaurants. An adjacent public park will also be refurbished. Sustainable features planned for the tower include a graywater system, the use of 40 percent recycled concrete in the foundation, and a variety of energy-producing devices on the facade.

Houston · 2008.1029
Ground was recently broken in Houston, Texas, for Broadstone Voss, an urban infill multifamily development designed by Meeks + Partners of Houston. A redevelopment of a former 1970s apartment complex on a 4.89-acre (two-hectare) site, the project will include 307 rental apartments at a density of 63 units per acre (157 units per hectare). The massing of the nine four-story buildings will be broken into clusters that wrap around three courtyards and a six-level parking structure hidden from street view.

The architecture is composed of rectangular volumes, with flat roofs, brick, stone, exposed steel, storefront glazing, and metal siding in a basket-weave pattern. Moveable sunscreens will provide daylighting control to residents and create a changing facade. The open-plan units will feature ten-foot- (three-meter-) high ceilings and expansive windows.

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