FACADES BY FRONT Focusing on conceptually and technologically sophisticated facades, the consulting practice Front has had considerable influence on high-profile projects despite its small size. Bruce Nichol, a partner and cofounder of Front, talks with Jon Dreyfous, Elite Kedan, and Craig Mutter about his experience working with Renzo Piano on the New York Times Building in New York City, and with Rem Koolhaas and the Office for Metropolitan Architecture (OMA) on the China Central Television Headquarters (CCTV) and the Seattle Public Library. — Editor — Published 2010.0616
	MAKI'S MIT MEDIA LAB For an academic unit that produces such forward-thinking projects as electronic ink, humanoid robots, and a digital opera, one might expect an edgy, geometrically wild building by Zaha Hadid or Coop Himmelb(l)au. But for the new building for the MIT Media Lab, Japanese architect Fumihiko Maki designed a serene example of classic modernism — a glass-and-steel form wrapped in an elegant aluminum screen. — Published 2010.0602
	FOSTER'S NEW OPERA The extroverted Margot and Bill Winspear Opera House by Norman Foster has sprung up in Dallas, Texas, across the street from the internally dynamic Dee and Charles Wyly Theatre by REX and OMA. — Published 2010.0526
	BEHNISCH DOUBLE-WALL FACADE The twelve-story Terrence Donnelly Centre for Cellular and Biomolecular Research, located at the University of Toronto's St. George campus, is a high-performance building that achieves impressive levels of energy efficiency and — with airy, light-filled spaces throughout — attention to occupant comfort. The building responds intelligently to its climate and orientation with an enclosure system that presents an open face to the campus and adapts to changing environmental conditions. At the same time, it strikes a balance between automated and individually controlled devices. — Published 2010.0505
	BURJ KHALIFA In 2007, several records fell as the Burj Dubai skyscraper climbed above that city-state's skyline. In May 2007, the Burj surpassed the height of the tallest building in the United States, the Sears Tower (recently renamed the Willis Tower), designed by Skidmore, Owings & Merrill in the 1970s. SOM's Adrian Smith designed the Burj in the early years of the new millennium, but by the time the new skyscraper zoomed past Sears (at 1,450 feet, or 442 meters), Smith had left SOM to start his own firm. — Published 2010.0421
	TRANSPARENCY IN PRESERVATION Continuity and the ability to recognize original design intent is critical to the preservation of modern architecture. Original design intent is the visual and conceptual expression of the designer's creativity and therefore informs every aspect of both the building and its construction. — Published 2010.0127
	HOLL'S LINKED HYBRID China's recent willinginess to be an architectural testing ground has left it with a fair share of question marks dotting urban horizons, but in Linked Hybrid the gamble may have paid off. The bold, high-end residential complex in Beijing, by Steven Holl Architects, offers a more pervasive and open sense of neighborhood than most other modern high-rise housing in the city. — Published 2010.0120
	CAMBRIDGE PUBLIC LIBRARY A stunning new addition has opened at the Cambridge Public Library in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Using ideas of transparency, inclusiveness, and efficiency as starting points, William Rawn Associates designed the glass-and-steel addition as a modernist foil to the original 1888 library by Van Brunt & Howe. — Published 2009.1209
	GRAND TETON VISITOR CENTER Early in the design process of the Craig Thomas Discovery and Visitor Center in Grand Teton National Park, Bohlin Cywinski Jackson made several key design decisions that were critical to the success of the project. — Published 2009.0819
	PIANO IN CHICAGO Renzo Piano is known for his finely tuned designs, especially for a refined talent in dovetailing elegant new architecture with an existing context, playing on contextual strengths without duplicating the neighbors. He has achieved this feat once again at the Art Institute of Chicago, where a light-studded new museum wing by Piano opened in May 2009. The Art Institute's new addition is laudable in its intelligent siting, sensitive scale, urban presence, and manipulation of light. — Published 2009.0805

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