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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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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
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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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MAKING BUILDINGS GOOD
The days of making the business case for sustainable design, or even explaining what LEED means and why it is important, have passed. Today's green building challenges have moved to more complicated areas of policy — permitting and politics — and the motivating sense of competition to be "the greenest." — Published 2009.0722
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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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THE REVOLVING VILLA
"I have decided to make the complete turn."
Euphoric over seeing his still under-construction house rotate its planned 180 degrees for the first time, the Italian civil engineer Angelo Invernizzi quickly wrote a colleague that the final version had to go all the way around. — Published 2009.0715
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MICHIGAN AIA AWARDS 2009
For its new northeastern branch, the Ann Arbor District Library asked inFORM studio to design a sustainable building that would promote observation of and respect for its natural surroundings. The resulting Traverwood Branch Library traces a narrow L shape on the corner of a triangular lot, treading lightly on its wooded site while also engaging the street edge. — Published 2009.0715
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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
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ENGINEERING A PEI CANTILEVER - DALLAS CITY HALL
Innovative architecture often requires equally innovative engineering and technologies for successful realization. An outstanding example of design and engineering interdependence can be seen in the Dallas City Hall, a landmark building completed in 1977, designed with daring vision by one of the world's leading architectural teams, I.M. Pei & Partners. — Published 2009.0708
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FREE ENERGY ANALYSIS WITH IES VE-WARE
Dr. Don McLean, founder and CEO of Integrated Environmental Solutions (IES), believes every architect should have the ability to understand the environmental impact of his or her building design. To realize this vision, McLean is prepared to give architects free access to some of the most basic features of his company's Virtual Environment software suite. — Published 2009.0624
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