YALE'S GREEN ARK Every so often, an exceptional work of architecture emerges from an opportune convergence of just the right client working with just the right team of architects, engineers, and consultants on a building that is just right for the times. Kroon Hall at Yale University is one of these. — Published 2010.0106
	MAYA LIN - UNCHOP A TREE As we wait and listen around the world to hear what new increment of our collective fate will emerge from the final days of the Copenhagen climate conference, this new video piece by Maya Lin, itself an increment of her "What is Missing?" environmental memorial project, speaks deeply on the disaster of ongoing deforestation. — Published 2009.1216
	NEW ENGLAND AIA AWARDS The rectangular volume of Kroon Hall by Michael Hopkins wears one great roof, pitched up to a broadly curving ridgeline. This new home for Yale University's School of Forestry & Environmental Studies in New Haven, Connecticut, achieves both a welcoming form and a high level of sustainable design. Designed by Hopkins Architects of London, with Centerbrook Architects and Planners as executive architect, Kroon Hall is expected to earn a Platinum LEED certification. — Published 2009.1104
	HISTORIC PRESERVATION IN SUB-SAHARAN AFRICA The overwhelming cultural and architectural diversity of the African continent is united by the shared experience of wholesale exploitation and colonization by outside forces. Though many world regions grapple with the complications of post-colonialism, this problem is especially acute in sub-Saharan Africa, where this legacy pervades all contemporary experiences, including heritage conservation. — Published 2009.0916
	PRESERVATION IN PORTLAND The recent threat of demolition to Memorial Coliseum in Portland, Oregon, one of the city's most visible architectural landmarks, galvanized local architects and historic preservation advocates. But the city's record on historic preservation, in terms of both involvement and actually preserving buildings, is spotty. — Published 2009.0729
	MEMORIAL COLISEUM - PORTLAND, OREGON The perimeter of Memorial Coliseum bounds the equivalent area of four city blocks in Portland, Oregon, yet the entire envelope of the building, designed by Skidmore, Owings & Merrill, stands on just four columns. — Published 2009.0708
	ENDANGERED HISTORIC U.S. PLACES 2009 Unity Temple, designed by Frank Lloyd Wright for his own Unitarian congregation in Oak Park, Illinois, remains an icon of early modern architecture, with its geometric design, strong massing, characteristic detailing, and use of exposed concrete. — Published 2009.0513
	GREEN SYNAGOGUE When the Jewish Reconstructionist Congregation of Evanston, Illinois, set out to build a new synagogue, they found the goal of achieving LEED Platinum certification arising naturally from the spiritual context. "The Torah teaches us that the earth does not belong to us, that we are but stewards of God's creation," says Rabbi Brant Rosen. "Building the most sustainable facility possible was for us a religious act." — Published 2009.0415
	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
	NEWSEUM BY POLSHEK The Newseum building by Polshek Partnership Architects adds vitality and a sense of time and place to Pennsylvania Avenue, a street that, like so many important streets in Washington, D.C., had been devoid of movement and three-dimensionality in massing. A museum about news, the aptly named Newseum moved from across the Potomac River, in Arlington, Virginia, where it had outgrown its space. Its parent organization, the Freedom Forum, sought a location more heavily frequented by tourists. — Published 2008.0903

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