David Baker Architects clads Blue Oak Landing, an affordable housing complex, in weathered steel

David Baker Architects (DBA) have delivered Blue Oak Landing, a new modularly constructed affordable housing complex in Vallejo, California. The project takes cues from the firm’s earlier projects, such as the Tahanan Supportive Housing Complex in San Francisco, where a similar sawtooth design and perforated weathered steel panels were implemented. In total, the development provides

TAO shrouds In-Between Pavilion in a veil of stainless steel

Brought to you by: Architect: Trace Architecture Office Location: Shenzhen, China Completion Date: 2023 View More Project Info Trace Architecture Office’s (TAO) In-Between Pavilion is a multilevel exhibition space wedged between two residential towers in Shenzhen’s Nantou Ancient Town. A stainless steel mesh veil is draped from the building’s exposed steel structure to shade an

Bilgin Architects envelopes solar panel control center in stainless steel

Brought to you by: Architect: Bilgin Architects Location: Karapinar, Turkey Completion Date: 2023 View More Project Info One of Europe’s largest solar fields, comprised of nearly eight square miles of photovoltaic cells, is located in the desert outside of Karapinar, a municipality in Central Turkey. Unusable for agricultural purposes, the site was designated an energy

Jahn designs steel truss hangar for Pritzker Military Archives

Brought to you by: Architect: Jahn Location: Kenosha, Wisconsin Completion Date: 2023 View More Project Info In 2003, Colonel Jennifer Pritzker founded the Pritzker Military Museum and Library in Chicago, Illinois. According to its website, the museum’s mission is to “increase the public’s understanding of military history, military affairs and national security by providing a

Steel Institute of New York

The Steel Institute of New York is a not-for-profit association created in 1972 to advance the interests of the steel construction industry. In this regard, the Institute sponsors programs to aid developers, architects, engineers and construction managers in using structural steel for buildings and structures. The geographical area served by the Institute encompasses the City

Payette crafts operable stainless steel fins for Northeastern’s EXP building

Brought to you by: Architect: Payette Location: Boston Completion Date: 2023 EXP, a brand new science facility for Northeastern University, opened to students earlier this year. Located between Boston’s Roxbury and Fenway neighborhoods, EXP, designed by Payette, allows for the expansion of the school’s scientific research and education programs. The research and laboratory building is

Steel and glass define a public-facing greenhouse that pushes the scale of urban agriculture

Brought to you by: Architect META architectuurbureau and van Bergen Kolpa Architecten Location Roeselare, Belgium Completion Date September 2021 Diffuse Glass Vetrasol Greenhouse Roof BOAL Screens Phormium Stability and Technical Studies Tractebel Cultivation Techniques Studies Wageningen University & Research, BU Greenhouse Horticulture Greenhouse Studies Smiemans Projects Built atop an existing concrete office building, the Agrotopia

Vancouver House, a twisting cantilevered tower

The matte stainless steel facade of Vancouver House highlights twisting innovation

Architectural collaborations often arise from networking or crossing paths on site. In this case, it was by chance that Bjarke Ingels met Ian Gillespie, owner of Canada’s leading luxury development company Westbank, at a lecture series where the award-winning firm DIALOG Design was also in attendance. BIG worked with DIALOG and James K.M. Cheng Architects to produce a 497-foot-tall tower with

Permasteelisa

The Permasteelisa Group engineers, designs and manufactures architectural envelopes for signature landmark buildings throughout the world, applying constant innovation in the fields of quality, safety and environment through the use of advanced technologies.

VSA’s dynamic web of steel, glass, and vegetation blooms in West L.A.

Replacing a dilapidated two-story building, Valerie Schweitzer Architects’ Hide and Seek apartment complex is one of many new projects to join the low-slung stretch of Los Angeles’s Overland Avenue. The 4-story, 15 unit building brings a dynamic facade full of depth to a multifamily housing cluster straddling the border of single-family lots—a condition common to

Archi-Tectonics’ Asian Games Park lands in Hangzhou with a steel diagrid of glass and brass shingles

New York based firm Archi-Tectonics has master-planned an eco-village in the heart of the bustling skyscraper district of Hangzhou, China, for the upcoming 2022 Asian Games. Integrated within the existing city fabric, this eco-village sits on a mile-long landscape of 116 acres with program and park fluidly integrated. Two stadiums, the Hockey Field and Table Tennis

The Eisenhower Memorial awes with steel mesh and abundant light

The Dwight D. Eisenhower Memorial in Washington, D.C. was completed at the tail end of summer following nearly two decades of contentious debates ranging from budget disputes to the rhetorical broadsides of advocates for traditional civic architecture. The project, led by Gehry Partners, is located on a full-block site on Maryland Avenue just off of the National

Trahan Architects’ 309 Magazine Street infills with monumental steel and poured concrete

Architectural preservation is often a continued struggle between human-made constructs and the inexorable forces of natural phenomena. Nowhere in the United States is this relationship more pronounced than in New Orleans, that polyglottal metropolis at the border of the Mississippi River Delta and the Gulf of Mexico. Located in the Picayune Place neighborhood, Trahan Architects’ under construction 309

The Harvard Business School’s Schwartz Pavilion opens with steel canopies and operable doors

Tucked beneath a stately London planetree in Harvard Business School’s new quadrangle in the Allston area of Boston is a 4,168-square-foot contemporary structure that brings a laid-back, informal sensibility to the famously buttoned-up, McKim, Mead & White–designed campus. Outfitted with a gas-powered fire feature, a bar, and Adirondack chairs aplenty, the Schwartz Pavilion functions as a breakout space for large

The South Central Regional Library reflects Louisville’s landscape with a stainless steel facade

The South Central Regional Library, located in Louisville, Kentucky, is the second project realized through the Louisville Free Public Library’s 12-year master plan; dating back to 2008, the plan calls for the construction of three regional libraries within Jefferson County to accommodate underserved communities and a growing population. The nearly 40,000-square-foot project was designed by MSR Design—the

Gensler’s Cadillac House Shanghai propels forward with an angled steel facade

Over the last two decades, as the ownership of American and European-produced cars has proliferated in China, car manufacturers have pushed to establish a prestigious presence in the country in the form of showrooms and high-designed office parks. Designed by Gensler, The Cadillac House Shanghai is an exemplar of this trend and joins the scene with a

Florida garage adds new twist to stainless steel mesh facades

Garages are fairly ubiquitous across Florida—the state has one of the highest car ownership rates in the country—but in recent years, the local typology has received a bit of a revamp. Opened in February 2019, Sarasota’s St. Armands Circle Garage continues this trend with a spiraling stainless steel mesh skin. The $12 million project was designed by Sarasota-based Solstice Planning

This office building in Mexico City filters sunlight through a flowing steel veil

Since 1997, California’s Belzberg Architects has consistently delivered forward-thinking facade systems across North America. Profiles is a six-story commercial building draped in a diaphanous and perforated carbon-steel veil that partially resembling a stylish extraterrestrial ship landed in the heart of Mexico City. Profiles is located mid-block, surrounded by rows of predominantly three-to-five-story structures. The south elevation of the project

The Palace for Mexican Music sings with local stone and dramatic steel ribs

Completed in June 2018, the Palace for Mexican Music is a bold intervention in the heart of historic Mérida, Mexico, that establishes a relationship with the surrounding century-old architectural milieu through lightly detailed limestone and dramatic matte-black steel ribs. The design team consisted of four local practices: Alejandro Medina Arquitectura, Reyes Ríos + Larraín arquitectos,

Permasteelisa and Frank Gehry partner up for Battersea Development

On August 1st, Italian-Manufacturer Permasteelisa announced an approximately $80 million contract to design, supply and install nearly 300,000 square feet of Frank Gehry’s Battersea Phase 3A located in London. Since 2013, the Battersea Power Station Development Company has been leading an expansive redevelopment of the 42-acre stretch of relatively fallow land surrounding the eponymous power

Glass and steel structure slides into iconic Boston church

Located within the former Holy Trinity German Church, an 1877 structure designed by Patrick Keely in Boston’s South End, Finegold Alexander Architects inserted an eight-story, extruded glass-and-steel condominium residence. The Lucas preserved solely the original stone walls, tower, and arched windows of the facade and “slid” in the new residences to maintain its iconic nature

David Bowick

Dave Bowick is a Senior Principal at Blackwell with 34 years of experience as a structural engineer. His inventive approach to design has made him sought-after, particularly when a project calls for innovative solutions. He is a three-time recipient of the WoodWorks Building the Future engineer award, and has received awards for his work in

Adrian Betanzos

Adrian is a Materials lover born in Mexico.  He is married, has two kids and a dog.  In his free time, he is a Principal at VIA, a facade consulting firm with projects all over the world. He’s spent the last decade working for Apple Inc in their Sourcing and Innovation teams, pushing the envelope on facade