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VIRTUAL RESURRECTIONS
A camera moves slowly and smoothly through the portal of the synagogue in Berlin's Fasanenstrasse. It points up into the vaulted ceiling, revealing three domes. But there is no film crew here and, indeed, no actual synagogue. — Published 2004.0721
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SUSTAINING SYDNEY SPACES
A group of office workers in Sydney, Australia comes face to face with history every day. When entering their new building, they pass by an extraordinary four-story-high raw sandstone wall. It is the remains of a trench that convict laborers dug by hand for the installation of a 19th-century gasworks. Now that the site has been redeveloped, the wall is preserved as a major feature in an eight-story atrium. — Published 2004.0714
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GEHRY AT MIT
The latest installment in a billion-dollar construction program at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology has just opened on the Cambridge campus, and it's unlike anything else MIT has ever built.
The Ray and Maria Stata Center, designed by Frank Gehry, is a rambling collage of odds and ends that now houses three MIT departments: the Computer Sciences and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory, the Laboratory for Information and Decision Systems, and the Department of Linguistics and Philosophy. — Published 2004.0623
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GOING GREEN IN NEW ENGLAND
It's no longer enough to be energy conserving. To be truly "green," a building should integrate efficiency and form, use renewable energy systems, and demonstrate sensitivity to its natural surroundings and to the health of its occupants. It should also rely on materials, construction methods, and operational procedures that cause minimal disturbance to the environment. — Published 2004.0428
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TOMORROW'S PATIENT ROOM
In the health-care field, change comes quickly as medical technology advances and care-giving methods evolve. This change is reflected in contemporary hospital architecture, perhaps most visibly in patient rooms, where flexible design is critical.
What will the adaptable patient room of the future be like? That's the question Ellerbe Becket medical planners, architects, interior designers, and engineers set out to answer. — Published 2004.0303
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RENDERING PLANS IN DATACAD
The floor plan is arguably the single most useful method of architectural documentation. It gives an overview of the project and hints at how the project was conceived and organized. Yet some drafting conventions can be mysterious to nonprofessionals. So it is little wonder that a favorite presentation tool is the rendered plan. — Published 2004.0204
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MANHATTAN INSIDE UPDATES
Like putting a new engine in a classic car or an updated graphics card in an old computer, a few New York architects are giving high-tech interiors to historic buildings. In each case — car, computer, building — the external appearance of the original can be maintained while its function is upgraded. — Published 2004.0107
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BUILD BOSTON 2003
The World Trade Center in Boston was a hotbed of educational activity in mid-November, 2003 as some 15,000 architects, engineers, contractors, owners, and assorted construction professionals attended the 19th annual Build Boston conference. — Published 2003.1217
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PV AT HOME
As the cost of photovoltaic (PV) technology declines, it is becoming more common for large companies and institutions to install vast arrays of PV cells to capture solar radiation and convert it into electricity. But until recently, it was the rare individual who would place expensive photoelectric panels on the roof of his or her house. Increasingly, however, lower costs and the appeal of an independent power supply have encouraged small businesses and homeowners to take a closer look at the options. — Published 2003.1210
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SYSTEMATIC CENTRE POMPIDOU
The "high tech" style in architecture is easily identified by its imagery — revealed structure, exposed ducts, and machine-precision aesthetics. These modes of exposing hardware and refining the details of connections have made other new exploration necessary. As long as ducts and diagonal bracing were covered over by smooth finish materials or buried in basements and floor-ceiling layers, architects were primarily concerned with their physical requirements for space. — Published 2003.1203
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