Advances in float glass are enabling ever more flexible, ethereal facade expressions

Up until the mid-20th century, the incorporation of glazing into any project was an exorbitantly expensive decision and potentially fraught with error due to the irregularity of manufacturing processes. The development of float glass through the Pilkington process, which can be roughly described as rolling molten glass over a tin bath, has enabled continually growing

Chris O’Hara

O’Hara is facade director for the Skins Group, a division of Studio NYL, established to provide full service facade design specializing in thermal modeling, moisture/condensation analysis, and in-depth detailing. Although Studio NYL is recognized for its skins work with cutting-edge glass and glazing, their team also specializes in digitally fabricated metal skins, GFRC, reinforced polymers,

A long squat mies van der rohe building under construction

Thomas Phifer and Partners revives an unbuilt Mies van der Rohe project in Indiana

  ArchitectsThomas Phifer and Partners Structural EngineerSOM MEP EngineerCosentini Associates General ContractorCDI LocationBloomington, Indiana GlazingViracon Structural SteelMAK Steel WindowsWaltek LimestoneIndiana Limestone Fabricators TerrazzoSantarossa Mosaic and Tile Co. Indiana University (IU) is something of an architectural menagerie. The past century brought considerable change to its Romanesque-inflected Bloomington campus through the incursion of numerous modernist or Brutalist

a flat elevation of the east entrance with the colored wayfidning illuminating the checkerboard windows

The Aya delivers a new housing prototype with its four-faced facade

Facade ManufacturerACME YKK Architects Studio 27 Architecture LEO A DALY Structural EngineerRobert Silman Associates General ContractorBlue Skye Construction LocationWashington, D.C. Date of Completion2020 Systembrick and window wall ProductsACME – 50% Steel Gray Utility, 50% Ridgemar Velour Utility YKK YCW Curtainwall In an effort to improve services for homeless families in Washington, D.C., Mayor Muriel Bowser

exterior corner shot of the kebonized wood scrim exterior with thin lighting illuminated at dusk at the new studio ma office

Studio Ma’s Phoenix office oasis is shrouded in a kebonized wood scrim

Adhering to their regenerative bioclimatic design ethos, Studio Ma has designed its own eco-conscious office in the desert to the same standards they uphold for their clients. The new 2,412-square-foot office transformed an undistinguished dentist’s office into a “net-zero energy and water” space that encourages walking and biking—an impressive feat considering the city of Phoenix averages temperatures over 85 degrees Fahrenheit seven

Schock

Schöck is the originator and world’s largest producer of structural thermal breaks, with over 10 million installations in 38 countries. Focused on improving the building envelope, energy efficiency and occupant comfort, Schöck manufactures structural components for concrete, steel and wood that provide thermal and sound insulation, as well as structural reinforcement.

scale of the flat windowless facade of the amant at the opening preview event

SO–IL’s Brooklyn Amant Foundation art campus embraces idiosyncrasies of clay and cement brick

An internationally recognized firm, SO–IL’s latest project in East Williamsburg is close to where the Brooklyn-based team operates. On June 5th, the Amant Foundation opened a multi-building art campus as the nonprofit art group’s new headquarters. The 21,000-square-foot project is spread across four buildings—315 Maujer Street, 932 Grand Street, with two at 306 Maujer—and will

image of the building at sunset, the Hans Rosling Center, clad in glass fins

The Hans Rosling Center’s glass and aluminum fins embody the university’s health initiative

ArchitectThe Miller Hull Partnership Facade ManufacturerElicc Group Facade InstallerElicc Group Civil and Structural EngineerKPFF Consulting Engineers General ContractorLease Crutcher Lewis LocationSeattle DateOctober 2020 System36″ Glass fins and 8″ aluminum fins on unitized curtain wall system ProductsCurtainwall and exterior shading by Elicc Group, precast concrete by Northwest Precast, stonework by J&S Masonry, Inc. Located between the University

Gate Precast

GATE Precast operates nine manufacturing facilities with the most diverse product lines of prefabricated concrete systems for structures. With a delivery area encompassing more than two-thirds of the U.S., GATE maintains its reputation for superior quality while continuously engaging with academia, design-assist partners and others in the construction industry to research and develop innovative prefabricated

Altus Group — Denver

An exclusive partnership of the leading precasters in North America dedicated to “innovation powered by collaboration”. Members work together to speed and perfect technologies that improve the build environment. Products and Technologies offered by AltusGroup members include CarbonCast® high performance sandwich walls and architectural cladding, ARCIS® ultra-thin prestressed concrete panel products, and Graphic Concrete imaging

exterior photograph of a contemporary New York luxury residential building with large bay windows

The bulbous bay windows of the Lantern House illuminate NYC’s High Line

New York City’s High Line is no stranger to development. Since first opening in 2009, the elevated railway–turned–public park has spurred a building frenzy on Manhattan’s Far West Side, much of it architecturally meager. Straddling the High Line today—several years after its third and final stretch was inaugurated—are gleaming glass stalactites, anonymous in their bearing

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

image from the building from the bottom up

Adjaye Associates’ 130 Williams re-enchants the Lower Manhattan skyline

More than a century ago, urban reformers warning of the perils of congestion and unregulated development pointed to Lower Manhattan as Exhibit A. That the great monuments of the era—notably, the Woolworth Building—appeared to stand aloof from this cacophony even as they contributed to it only hardened calls for change. Later developments attest to the consequences: Skyscrapers,

MIT Site 4, a tall, narrow building covered in louvers

MIT Site 4 is a new icon for the Cambridge-based school

From the beginning, MIT Site 4, a new 29-story graduate residential tower in Cambridge, Massachusetts, was conceived by its architects as an icon. But not just any icon, said Nader Tehrani of the architecture firm NADAAA; the project, one of several being developed concurrently by MIT in the Kendall Square neighborhood, needed to both anchor this inchoate skyline and

a corner shot showing the two story poured concrete arches at the mechanical, or "skyview", level and the north herringbone concrete wall

180 East 88th highlights craftsmanship with a waterfall of hand-laid Kolumba brick

New York’s Upper East Side neighborhood is home to an eclectic range of scale and style largely thanks to its early history; a few blocks from the marble and limestone chateaus sprinkling Park Avenue are the brick and stone Neo-Federal and Georgian townhomes from the late 19th century. As nesting ground for some of the most expensive housing in Manhattan,