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FIVE WORKS BY ZAHA HADID
Zaha Hadid was asked to design the BMW Central Building in Leipzig, Germany (2005), described as the "nerve center of the whole factory complex," subsequent to an April 2002 competition she won, when the layout of adjacent manufacturing buildings had already been decided. Suppliers chosen for the rest of the factory provided many prefabricated elements, in harmony with the "industrial approach to office spaces" decided by BMW. — Published 2009.1111
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CONNECTICUT SCIENCE CENTER BY PELLI
The Connecticut Science Center is a new architectural showpiece in the city of Hartford, Connecticut, designed by Pelli Clarke Pelli Architects. The design expresses themes that have been part of Cesar Pelli's oeuvre for many years: the importance of public space and its role in the city. — Published 2009.1028
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NAGASAKI ART MUSEUM
The Nagasaki Prefectural Art Museum in Nagasaki, Japan, is one of Kengo Kuma's most successful designs in an urban setting.
In this project, a small canal with flanking pedestrian promenades runs between two interconnected sections of the complex, bringing a part of the nearby sea, the port area, and the public realm of the city into the domain of the museum. — Published 2009.1014
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COLLEGE IN COPENHAGEN
From the outside, Ørestad College in Copenhagen, Denmark, is a simple five-story cuboid. But the conventional exterior form conceals a radical open-plan interior.
Designed by Danish architects 3XN, the experimental secondary school seems to embody all kinds of things that a school typically isn't. — Published 2009.0930
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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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PARISH CHURCH IN LECCE
The city of Lecce, located in the southern heel of the Italian peninsula, is associated with highly ornate baroque palaces and churches, their facades overlaid with elaborate decorative carvings in the local limestone. — Published 2009.0902
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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
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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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SEATTLE LOFTS
At the edge of the Pike Street and Pine Street corridor in downtown Seattle is a public transit-oriented neighborhood populated by mixed-use developments. The 40-by-80-foot (12.2-by-24.4-meter) site for the 1310 E. Union Lofts was an infill (midblock) plot, smaller than a typical single-family residential lot in Seattle. — Published 2009.0729
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MAGIC BLUE BOX
A giant blue cuboid has sprung up in Copenhagen, Denmark. This striking scaffolding box wrapped in translucent blue fabric is the new Copenhagen Concert Hall.
During the day, the building's blue skin largely conceals the faceted forms within, with peeled-back areas on the sides of the steel-framed box showing that the outside wrapping is more than just an imposing blue billboard. From the right angle, visitors can see vague outlines of the building forms beneath the translucent textile. — Published 2009.0722
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