Microsoft's new Asia-Pacific R&D Group headquarters, designed by NBBJ, has opened in Beijing, China. Photo: Courtesy NBBJ Extra Large Image
Beijing · 2011.0525
The new headquarters have opened in Beijing, China, for Microsoft Corporation's Asia-Pacific Research & Development Group. Designed by international multidisciplinary firm NBBJ, the new two-building campus houses 3,000 staff who were previously located in three separate Beijing locations. The two buildings are 15 and 18 stories high, respectively, and provide a combined 150,000 square meters (1.6 million square feet) of space.
The Beijing government offered Microsoft two nonadjacent pieces of property in the Zhongguancun area, known as China's Silicon Valley. The two parcels are over 100 meters (330 feet) apart, separated by a city park and a four-lane road. One challenge for the designers was to connect the two parcels. NBBJ achieved this partly via a third-story bridge between the two buildings. Another challenge was to reinterpret Microsoft's lowrise campus in Redmond, Washington, for the compact, urban Beijing setting. To this end, NBBJ conceived of the new buildings as vertically connected smaller buildings. A series of three-story sky gardens alternate between the north and south sides of the buildings, linking three-story clusters of offices.
Meeting and breakout spaces are distributed throughout the floors to facilitate collaboration. Open workspace lines the edges of each floor to maximize daylighting, while private offices and conferences rooms are located around the core. The four stairways of each building are located on the corners of the exterior. The stairs are naturally lit during the day, and at night each displays one color of the Microsoft Windows logo. Staff amenities are distributed between the two buildings to encourage movement between them.
The exterior cladding consists of glass curtain wall, metal panel, and stone. Sustainable design features and strategies include raised-floor air distribution, a double-skin southern facade, vertical sun shades on the east and west facades, auto-dimming electric lighting with photosensors, solar water heating, rainwater collection, and low-VOC paints and adhesives.
The local design institute was Beijing Institute of Architectural Design. Arup served as structural engineering, MEP engineering, and facade engineering consultant.
Virginia Tech's new ICTAS II research building, designed by SmithGroup, recently opened. Photo: Courtesy SmithGroup Extra Large Image
Blacksburg · 2011.0621
A new $24 million research building, known as the Institute for Critical Technology and Applied Science (ICTAS) II, opened in early 2011 at Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University (Virginia Tech) in Blacksburg, Virginia. The building supports research at the intersection of engineering and the physical, life, and social sciences. Designed by the Durham, North Carolina, office of architecture and engineering firm SmithGroup, the three-story, 42,190-square-foot (3,920-square-meter) facility includes laboratories, lab support spaces, faculty offices, collaboration areas, and workspace reserved primarily for research faculty and postdoctoral appointees.
The design represents a modern interpretation of Virginia Tech's trademark collegiate gothic style. Designed to achieve LEED Gold certification, the building includes sustainable design elements such as a heat-recovery system, a rain garden, and recycled-content and low-emitting materials.
Engineering services were provided by SmithGroup's Washington, D.C., office. JJR, SmithGroup's sister landscape design firm, provided landscape design services. Skanska USA Building Inc. served as the general contractor for the construction-manager-at-risk venture.
At Tilburg University in Tilburg, the Netherlands, the new faculty club designed by Shift has opened. Photo: © René de Wit Extra Large Image
Tilburg · 2011.0621
The new faculty club at Tilburg University in Tilburg, the Netherlands, was completed in early June. The single-story, 518-square-meter (5,580-square-foot) building houses an 80-seat restaurant, a lounge, two conference rooms, storage space, and other services. Shift architecture urbanism of Rotterdam designed the pavilion to reanimate the quintessential quality of the Tilburg campus: strong solitary buildings in the green. The campus's monumental 1960s modernist buildings by Jos Bedaux served as a frame of reference. The strong formal relation between the faculty club and existing buildings helps connect the new building to the campus despite its peripheral, wooded location and exclusive program.
The building consists of a limestone-clad box with long expanses of glass. Recessed windows in the front and rear facades define the entrance and a covered terrace, respectively. A four-rail system of sliding windows allows the space to be opened to the outdoors. Inside, all main functions are physically linked by a transparent axis running the length of the building.
IGS Energy has received LEED Platinum certification for its new headquarters in Dublin, Ohio, designed by Bird Houk. Photo: Courtesy IGS Energy Extra Large Image
Dublin · 2011.0620
The new Dublin, Ohio, headquarters building for IGS Energy, a natural-gas supplier, has received LEED Platinum certification under LEED-NC v2.2. The four-story, 104,500-square-foot (9,708-square-meter) building earned 52 out of 69 possible LEED credits, including all ten possible credits for energy efficiency. Sustainable features include sensor-controlled lighting, a highly efficient HVAC system with ground-source heating and cooling, recycled-content materials, and a rooftop photovoltaic array. IGS moved into its new building in July 2010.
Multidisciplinary firm Bird Houk (now a division of OHM) of Gahanna, Ohio, served as lead architect. The design team also included Prater Engineering as mechanical, electrical, and plumbing engineer; EMH&T as civil engineer; and Jezerinac Geers as structural engineer. Consultants to IGS Energy included Joslin Consulting, LEED consultant; Joe Ventressca, energy consultant; Jeff Persons, geothermal consultant; and Don McCarthy, owner's representative. Messer Construction served as construction manager/ general contractor. Third-Sun Solar installed the photovoltaic system. In addition, IGS received support and guidance from the City of Dublin throughout the project life cycle.
The Tour AXA office building just outside Paris has reopened as Tour First after a major renovation and alteration project designed by KPF, with SRA Architectes. Photo: Hufton+Crow/ Courtesy KPF Extra Large Image
Paris · 2011.0620
Just outside Paris, the Tour AXA office tower in Courbevoie, France, has reopened as Tour First after a dramatic reskinning and renovation project designed by New York City-based architecture firm Kohn Pedersen Fox Associates, with associate local architect SRA-Architectes. With a spire reaching 231 meters (758 feet) high, the extended, reskinned tower is currently the tallest building in France, according to the Council on Tall Buildings and Urban Habitat.
Located in La Défense, a business district west of Paris proper, the original 1974 building was designed by Pierre Dufau and colleagues for insurance company UAP, which was purchased by the AXA insurance company in 1996. KPF proposed a significant increase in building height along with transformation of the silhouette to create a new architectural statement and increased net area, up to about 85,000 square meters (915,000 square feet).
The design incorporates new openings into the existing perimeter concrete structure to maximize daylight and views. Originally conceived as three identical wings around a central core, the refurbished tower provides a modern interpretation of the original concept while improving the environmental performance, internal conditions, and circulation. The design also improves the accessibility of public areas and strengthens the connection between the building and nearby urban public spaces.
The project was developed by AXA Real Estate IM, Beacon Capital Partners, and Altaréa Cogedim.
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