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PORTOLA VALLEY TOWN CENTER
When Portola Valley, California sought an updated, seismically safer civic complex, the existing mid-20th-century wood-and-concrete-block campus was deconstructed and its parts repurposed, along with other salvaged components, to create a sustainable new facility on another portion of the site.
The resulting Portola Valley Town Center is targeted for LEED Platinum certification and was named one of the Top Ten Green Projects for 2009 by the AIA Committee on the Environment (COTE). — Published 2009.1007
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CHURCH OF BOOKS
Though surely not as great a source of significant contemporary architecture as cultural institutions, places of worship — in one form or another — continue to generate invention and cutting-edge design. The reuse of places of religion for other purposes sometimes poses the problem of deconsecration, with the reticence some users may have when asked to dine or party in a former church. — Published 2009.0916
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ROTTERDAM PERISCOPE
Willem Jan Neutelings of Neutelings Riedijk Architects spoke with Emiliano Gandolfi, a correspondent for The Plan magazine, about the Dutch firm's design approach as exemplified in the Shipping and Transport College in Rotterdam, the Netherlands. — Editor
Emiliano Gandolfi: Part of the gradual revitalization of the port of Rotterdam, the Shipping and Transport College is the ultimate "urban icon," not at all what one would expect of a school building. How did it come about? — Published 2009.0520
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BEIJING BIRD'S NEST - ENGINEERING
Part One of this two-part series on Beijing National Stadium looked at the project from an architecture perspective. — Published 2008.0827
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BEIJING BIRD'S NEST - ARCHITECTURE
This is the first part of a two-part series about Beijing National Stadium. Part one looks at the stadium from the architects' perspective, part two from the engineers'.
In the weeks and months leading up to the 2008 Summer Olympic Games in Beijing, the Chinese government faced a range of complications, from polluted skies to Tibet protests. — Published 2008.0820
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NELSON-ATKINS MUSEUM OF ART
The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art in Kansas City, Missouri, recently underwent a complete overhaul — and the glowing lenses of the new Bloch Building, designed by Steven Holl Architects, are just the tip of the iceberg. — Published 2007.0905
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HOUSE RECYCLING
Depending on your generation, you may have been taught: "Waste not, want not." Thrift is certainly one incentive for deconstructing buildings for reuse. In addition, many of us are motivated by a desire to be environmentally sensitive, a fondness for antiques and other items from the past, a yearning to have more control over the quality of materials used in construction, or a recognition that many of the materials available for salvage are of higher quality than those produced today. — Published 2007.0530
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REUSABILITY BY DESIGN
The U.S. waste stream from demolition and construction amounts to about 150 million tons (136 million metric tons) annually. About 92 percent of this waste goes into landfills. In other industrialized nations, architects, the building sector, and regulators are doing more than in the United States to create a culture of building construction that reduces the future waste stream. — Published 2005.0817
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FRESH LOOK IN BUDAPEST
When I sat down to write about the architectural characteristics of the new Lehel Tér market, I was convinced of only two things. On one hand, I was delighted to finally see a kind of architecture that offers a comprehensive intellectual adventure on this otherwise increasingly boring Budapest street. — Published 2002.0731
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REWARDS OF UNBUILDING
There is a rich and increasingly available source of building materials that can't be found in manufacturers' catalogs or in the advertisements of glossy magazines. Embedded in buildings that were crafted in earlier centuries is a wealth of structural and finish materials. And when these buildings are beyond refurbishing, they can be deconstructed and their materials made available to architects for new projects. — Published 2002.0529
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