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AMERICAN LANDSCAPE AWARDS 2009
Buffalo Bayou flows through downtown Houston, Texas, under a tangle of freeways and bridges on its way to Galveston Bay and the Gulf of Mexico. Landscape architects SWA Group reenvisioned a neglected 1.2-mile- (1.9-kilometer-) length of bayou front, transforming it into pedestrian-friendly parkland with improved floodwater conveyance. — Published 2009.0617
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SOLID GREEN PRACTICE
Given the urgency of our response to climate change and other environmental needs, is it really okay to keep building new non-green buildings?
Here are nine U.S. firms that took sustainability to heart and made green design a centerpiece of their work, and have now taken the next logical step: they have committed to create only green buildings, from here on out. — Published 2009.0506
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AIA/COTE TOP TEN GREEN PROJECTS FOR 2009
In September 2005, as construction was starting at the Shangri La Botanical Gardens and Nature Center in Orange, Texas, the property was severely damaged by Hurricane Rita. The building team led by Lake/Flato Architects salvaged storm-felled trees and incorporated the wood into the project. — Published 2009.0429
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AIA/ALA LIBRARY AWARDS
In León, Mexico, a white stone-and-glass-clad structure expresses monumental solidity while maintaining indoor-outdoor connectivity. A three-story pergola of white-painted steel covers a plaza and rooftop terrace, adding a rhythmic lightness to the composition. This is the new library designed by Pei Partnership Architects for the state of Guanajuato. — Published 2009.0408
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MULTI-ELEPHANT HOUSING BY FOSTER
The Copenhagen Zoo's new Elephant House by Foster + Partners emerges gently from the surrounding park grounds, its two leaf-patterned glass domes topping walls of pink-hued concrete. At once playful and serious, transparent and solid, this modern menagerie provides both high-quality living conditions for the animals inside and an exciting and interactive visitor experience. — Published 2009.0401
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REAL LIFE REGREENING
What of the middle scale — the ten- to 40-acre (four- to 16-hectare) shopping centers with two or more anchors? What kind of impacts and communities can retrofits build at this scale? — Published 2009.0304
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OLSON SUNDBERG KUNDIG ALLEN AIA FIRM AWARD
Since Olson Sundberg Kundig Allen Architects was founded, the Seattle firm has sought to integrate contemporary architectural forms into the natural settings of the Pacific Northwest, employing a combination of sensitivity and efficiency that can be recognized as sustainable design. — Published 2009.0225
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TOKYO SWATCH BY SHIGERU BAN
The new Swatch flagship store in Tokyo's Ginza district immediately stands out from the surrounding high-end fashion boutiques on this densely packed street. There is no doorway, no visible sign, and no glass storefront. Instead, a towering four-story void in the streetscape seems to signify a civic-scale entry. — Published 2009.0218
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GREENBUILD IN BOSTON
Attendees of the 2008 Greenbuild International Conference and Expo had good reason to be excited. Since the conference's debut in 2002 in Austin, Texas, when just over 4,000 people gathered to discuss the importance of sustainable design, Greenbuild has expanded dramatically. — Published 2009.0204
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VERTICAL GARDENS
About 15 years ago, I met an uncommon and fascinating man. His solid reputation as a scientist and researcher preceded him, a living encyclopedia on plants worldwide — growing in severe and difficult conditions, deprived of light in the shadows of tall trees (where, in contrast to the old saying, there is always something growing), or deprived of nutrients among rocks... Here was a man who was familiar with strolling the Amazon forests and riding under the canopy on a raft. — Published 2009.0121
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