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
	PALLADIO AWARDS 2009 The Danforth University Center provides a new gothic-style gathering space and "front door" for Washington University in St. Louis, Missouri. Designed by Tsoi/ Kobus & Associates, Inc., the center received one of eleven Palladio Awards for 2009. — Published 2009.0311
	APPALACHIAN SUNCATCHER Nestled into a hillside near Asheville, North Carolina, the Blue Ridge Parkway Destination Center is projected to use 75 percent less energy than a comparable conventionally designed facility. Trombe walls, a planted roof, bioswales, daylighting, a high-efficiency mechanical energy-recovery system, and other "green" features add up to make this National Park Service facility a contender for LEED Gold certification. — Published 2008.0521
	LEED GOLD RESURRECTION To visit the RiverEast Center in Portland, Oregon, is to stand at a major crossroads. The newly renovated former warehouse building sits along the Willamette River, just across from downtown, at the base of the Hawthorne Bridge. This location affords unobstructed views of boats and cars streaming by in the foreground with the classic downtown Portland skyline behind. The RiverEast Center also sits beside a massive freeway bridge and overpass to the west and a railroad track busy with freight and occasional passenger trains to the east. — Published 2008.0109
	HEARST TOWER Pritzker Prize laureate Norman Foster is a master of levitating buildings of dubious design, treatment, or association to the pantheon of architectural icons. The Hearst Tower in Manhattan, which he designed in collaboration with architects Adamson Associates and Gensler, is the most recent example of this resuscitation. The 42-story glass- and metal-skinned tower is characterized by a large diagonal grid, emphasized by vertically alternating recessed and projecting multistory corner triangles. — Published 2007.0523
	HOK STRAW BALE For over a decade, straw-bale construction has been growing in popularity among "alternative" house builders. The durable, low-cost, nontoxic, highly insulating, pest-resistant, and potentially structural material is especially practical in hot arid climates. It was used extensively in the treeless grasslands of the U.S. Midwest early in the 20th century. — Published 2007.0516
	LEED GOLD HOSPITAL Because of unusually strict technical, mechanical, and air quality requirements, hospitals are one of the most difficult building types to design sustainably. Yet the Providence Newberg Medical Center by Mahlum Architects has achieved a LEED Gold rating — the first hospital in the United States to do so. It is also the first U.S. hospital to acquire enough renewable electric power to meet all its needs. — Published 2007.0502
	BIG RIPPLES Magic in architecture often occurs when the client presents the architect with clear criteria and formidable challenges and when, rather than engineer around obstacles, the designer embraces the challenges as opportunities to enrich the project. Such was the case with the Heifer International Center, in Little Rock, Arkansas, designed by Polk Stanley Rowland Curzon Porter Architects. The result is a building that meets the client's needs with stellar design and an anticipated LEED-Gold rating. — Published 2007.0404
	MAYNE COURTHOUSE The new Federal Courthouse in Eugene, Oregon by Thom Mayne and his Los Angeles firm Morphosis, is in some ways an outstanding building for this small city. Mayne certainly delivers a strong dose of visual excitement. The depth of art in this architecture is more open to question. — Published 2007.0103
	OREGON ENGINEERING Engineering students today face a different future from that of their predecessors. As design professionals develop new approaches to sustainability in architecture, old ideas about technology and mechanical controls as the ultimate solution are flying out the window. — Published 2006.1115

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