VIÑOLY AT WAGENINGEN Sometimes a building is so well suited to its use, to the client, and to the site that it is hard to imagine it designed any other way. The Atlas Building at Wageningen University in the Netherlands, designed by New York City-based Rafael Viñoly Architects, is such a building — once you get to know it. — Published 2008.0625
	PRESERVING CULTURAL LANDSCAPES Just as the concept of cultural landscape can mitigate polarized views of nature versus artifice, so it can bridge divisive opinions on the relative importance of "architecture" versus "history." — Published 2008.0604
	TWO NEW TENTS In Frei Otto's landmark examples, the tent fabric was largely glass. Using the term "tent" with admitted looseness, here are two recent examples in the continuing romance of modern expression with tensile engineering. At the Estádio Municipal de Braga, the sheltering tent is made of concrete, while at the Burj Al Arab Hotel, the tent covering is on its side, a great white spinnaker defining a spectacular atrium. — Editor Braga Stadium — Published 2008.0528
	APPALACHIAN SUNCATCHER Nestled into a hillside near Asheville, North Carolina, the Blue Ridge Parkway Destination Center is projected to use 75 percent less energy than a comparable conventionally designed facility. Trombe walls, a planted roof, bioswales, daylighting, a high-efficiency mechanical energy-recovery system, and other "green" features add up to make this National Park Service facility a contender for LEED Gold certification. — Published 2008.0521
	SUPER SEISMIC MEDICAL CENTER The Mills-Peninsula Medical Center, currently under construction in Burlingame, California, will be the first "base-isolated" hospital in northern California. Built on isolator bearings with seismic dampers, the building was designed by Anshen + Allen to remain operational after a major seismic event. During an earthquake, the building can move up to 30 inches (76 centimeters) horizontally and two inches (five centimeters) vertically without incurring major damage. — Published 2008.0514
	BROAD CONTEMPORARY ART MUSEUM The Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA) has traditionally been known for two things: its status as the largest encyclopedic art museum in the western United States, and its schizophrenic campus. Bolstering the former and addressing the latter, LACMA has unveiled a long-awaited free-standing addition to its collection: the Broad Contemporary Art Museum (BCAM), designed by Renzo Piano Building Workshop in conjunction with executive architect Gensler. — Published 2008.0507
	COOP HIMMELB(L)AU'S BMW WORLD Like its competitors, BMW knows that cool sells. And there is no doubt that BMW Welt — the German motor company's new sales, exhibition, and event center in Munich — is cool. — Published 2008.0416
	LES ARCHIVES DÉPARTEMENTALES There is something inherently abstract about the government archive. Storage of old records can too easily be seen as a utility function free of aesthetic aspiration. Compared to a classic library program, an archive might be seen as exaggerating the stacks while minimizing the interacting human element. In some archives this tendency leads to the place where the technical function of storage obliterates the impulse for architecture. — Published 2008.0319
	ENGINEERING SIDRA TREES The Education City Convention Center on the outskirts of Doha, Qatar, designed by Arata Isozaki, includes a giant structure resembling two intertwined trees to support the building's exterior canopy. Used in lieu of vertical columns, the 250-meter- (820-foot-) long, doubly curved steel tree structure forms the signature entrance to the convention center, currently under construction. — Published 2008.0227
	SPECIAL ISSUE - BRIDGES Whether crossing an atrium, street, canal, canyon, or sound, whether ancient, historic, modern, or high-tech, made of stone, concrete, steel, or glass, the bridge is a special kind of connecting structure. Topologically, whereas most buildings exist largely to enclose space, bridges tend to puncture it to varying degrees. — Published 2008.0213

Concrete Construction page: [prev] | 01 | 02 | 03 | 04 | 05 | 06 | 07 | 08 | 09 | 10 | 11 | 12 | 13 | 14 | 15 | 16 | 17 | 18 | 19 | 20 | 21 | 22 | 23 | 24 | 25 | 26 | 27 | 28 | 29 | 30 | [next]