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
	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
	KUROKAWA ART CENTER According to architect Kisho Kurokawa, the new National Art Center Tokyo is a perfect expression of his philosophy of symbiosis. Rather than trying to iron out irregularities and resolve contradictions into what he calls a "dull, flat harmony," his distinctly non-Western idea seeks to apply conflicts and tensions in positive ways to achieve interesting and energizing effects. — Published 2007.0404
	POSTCARD FROM NEW HAVEN Dear ArchitectureWeek, On December 10, 2006, the Yale University Art Gallery, designed by Louis Kahn, will reopen after a $44 million restoration/ renovation. Completed in 1953, the building is considered Kahn's first major work of architecture. Just across the street, to the south, it faces his last building, the Yale British Art Center, which he did not live to see completed. — Published 2006.1115
	REJUVENATING BOOMERS An article in the New York Times late in 2005 reported on the escalating demise of brutalist buildings designed and constructed during the post-war years — the hard-edged, unforgiving, sterile, and often-humorless creations of modernism's aging gurus and, especially, their uninspired copyists. — Published 2006.1108
	SMOKE AND MIRROR SLEEPOVERS Two new hotels, one small and one very small, are explorations in the use of light and reflection to transform space — and to create a world unlike anything hotel guests might inhabit day-to-day. — Published 2006.0628
	WALLS STILL GROWING UP Thousands of years ago, a primitive mortar helped transform a pile of stones into an enclosure of habitable space. Since then, a complex interweaving of technical and social change has continually redefined the way we build, culminating in the modern practice of architecture and building design. — Published 2006.0510
	POSTCARD FROM ROME Dear ArchitectureWeek, In April 2006, the new Ara Pacis Museum in Rome, designed by Richard Meier & Partners, is scheduled to officially open. But as I found on my recent visit, there's still a bit of work left to be done, and much of the museum is still under wraps. — Published 2006.0329
	HIGH-METAL TOWER A crisp, subtly articulated new form has risen among the towers of New York. The Helena, a 580-unit apartment building designed by FXFOWLE ARCHITECTS, formerly Fox & Fowle Architects, brings elegant design and sustainable technologies to a building type often underserved in both these regards. — Published 2005.0928
	ATLANTA MID-CITY In the 1950s, Atlanta, Georgia named itself the city "too busy to hate." Unfortunately, it also became the city too busy to walk and, in recent history, was a deadly metro for pedestrians, ranking as high as third in the nation for pedestrian/ traffic fatalities. — Published 2005.0601

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