Detail of curtain wall module

Pei Cobb Freed’s One Dalton joins the Boston skyline with curved glass curtainwall

Rising from a triangular lot in Boston’s Back Bay, One Dalton is a 61-story, 706,000-square-foot residential tower designed by Pei Cobb Freed & Partners. Its gently curving triangular floorplan—a direct product of the unique site—is extruded vertically to create the building’s clean but dynamic glass form. The slightly bulging facades and the sheer size of

Exterior of the Lipton Thayer Brick House by Brooks + Scarpa

Brooks + Scarpa parts the veil with an undulating brick screen wall

Evanston, Illinois is located over a dozen miles from the city center of Chicago, on the northern fringe of Cook County, and is bounded by Lake Michigan to the east. The city is fairly typical for the region: there is a postwar central business district surrounded by tracts of suburban housing, some clad with wood drop-siding

Exterior image of Olympic Museum construction

DS+R’s Olympic Museum rises and twists with anodized aluminum

The United States Olympic and Paralympic Museum, located in the southwest corner of downtown Colorado Springs, Colorado, is being constructed as a 60,000-square-foot curatorial and event facility celebrating American Olympians. The project, designed by New York’s Diller Scofidio + Renfro(DS+R), with architect-of-record Anderson Mason Dale, was inspired by the movement of athletes; the massing propels upward with shingled

ODA’s 10 Jay Street in DUMBO shines with a faceted facade

Over the last two decades, Brooklyn’s DUMBO neighborhood has undergone a significant degree of development, including the restoration of historic warehouses that dominated the neighborhood for centuries and plenty of new construction. ODA, which has a number of projects across the borough, recently completed the restoration and partial recladding of a decrepit 19th-century refinery and warehouse with a

Denver’s Meridian 105 delivers a residential model for using salvaged materials

Like many cities across the United States, Denver is undergoing tremendous demographic growth with the subsequent result of intense development and densification. Jason Street Multifamily, designed by local architectural-firm Meridian 105, is a four-unit residential project located in the Sunnyside neighborhood that responds to the region’s need for thoughtfully-designed and budget-restrained compact developments with a

Exterior of the Cummins HQ

A modernist Cummins corporate campus receives a facelift with reflective glass

Originally built in 1985 in the modernist Mecca of Columbus, Indiana, the Cummins Corporate Office Building was designed by Kevin Roche John Dinkeloo and Associates (KRJDA). The 480,000-square-foot building featured an intricate facade of alternating precast concrete and glass panels in a sawtooth plan overlooking a parklike campus designed by landscape architect Jack Curtis. As part

Construction image of the Denver Art Museum

The Denver Art Museum announces itself with scalloped glass panels

The Denver Art Museum is undergoing a significant expansion and overhaul led by design architect Machado Silvetti and architect-of-record Fentress Architects. The project includes the restoration of Gio Ponti’s glass tile-clad North Building and the construction of an entirely new, elliptical-shaped welcome center defined by a scalloped structural glass curtainwall. The site of the welcome

Detail of an undulating, crooked facade

3XN’s Olympic House undulates with a parametrically designed glass curtain wall

Positioned adjacent to Lake Geneva and the Parc Louis Borget, the Olympic House is located on the outskirts of Lausanne, Switzerland. Opened in June 2019, the objective of the building’s scheme was to bring the International Olympic Committee‘s hundreds of employees, spread across the city, under one roof. The project—which began as a competition in 2012—was led

A pleated glass facade of the tower formerly known as Solar Carve

Studio Gang’s Solar Carve tower meets the sun with sculpted glass

The most recent addition to an already impressive collection of architectural characters inhabiting New York City’s High Line, 40 Tenth Avenue offers a sculpted massing that will maximize its solar exposure along the public park. The project, led by Studio Gang, is situated between the Hudson River and the High Line, with a primary west-facing orientation. To

NADAAA’s Daniels Building complements Gothic design with concrete and glass

Opened last spring on the periphery of the University of Toronto’s St. George Campus, the Daniels Building is an approximately 700,000-square-foot academic building for the Daniels Faculty of Architecture, Landscape, and Design. The project entails a new three-story addition added onto a 19th Gothic Revival former theological school, clad in grey concrete panels and a glass curtain

Detail of concrete and aluminum

Boston University’s Joan & Edgar Booth Theatre takes center stage with concrete and aluminum

Commonwealth Avenue, snaking from the Boston Public Garden through the greater metropolitan area, is no stranger to significant cultural venues and institutional buildings. Boston University’s Joan & Edgar Booth Theatre and College of Fine Arts Production Center, by local firm Elkus Manfredi Architects, joins this assemblage with an angled glass curtainwall shrouded in a scrim of ultra-high-performance concrete (UHPC) and

DS+R and Rockwell Group’s The Shed opens its massive guillotine doors

Opened in April 2019, Rockwell Group and Diller Scofidio + Renfro’s (DS+R) The Shed is an eight-level, 200,000-square-foot art center located on the southern, 30th Street flank of Hudson Yards. The project has received acclaim for its operable features, notably its gliding ETFE-clad shell and multi-ton doors. Facade Manufacturer Cimolai S.p.A BGT Bischoff Glastechnik AG Bator

Birds eye view of Dune Museum

UCCA Dune Museum burrows into a Chinese beach

On a beach in northern China, light cannons emerge from the tops of a dune, hinting at a structure buried beneath the sand like a lost Courbusian villa. But the Ullens Center for Contemporary Art Dune Museum (UCCA Dune) is neither lost nor buried, but carved into the sands of Bohai Bay by the Beijing-based

Facades+ will spotlight Minneapolis’s experts and innovators

On July 24, The Architect’s Newspaper is bringing Facades+ to Minneapolis for the first time to discuss facade trends within the city and beyond. Panels for the conference will highlight the recently completed Allianz Field stadium, perspectives on curtainwall systems by leading contractors and manufacturers in the region, and the challenges of high-performance design for

Congress Square splits past and present with fiberglass-reinforced plastic

Architectural preservation is often cast as a zero-sum game; historic structures are either painstakingly maintained or demolished in favor of contemporary development. Arrowstreet’s Congress Square, a 530,000-square-foot project in Boston’s Financial District, provides an alternative solution for this quandary with the restoration and consolidation of an entire block of historic structures that integrates a contemporary glass addition with a fiberglass-reinforced plastic (FRP)

SHoP’s Midtown supertall brings terra-cotta and bronze to new heights

Over the last two decades, SHoP Architects has pushed the envelope of facade design, leading a notable shift from predominantly glass-clad skyscrapers to supertalls incorporating a variety of materials. SHoP’s 111 57th Street is currently rising on Manhattan’s Billionaires’ Row—a stretch of dizzyingly luxurious towers. The tower stands out with a facade that incorporates three materials: terra-cotta, glass, and bronze ornamental

Harvard updates skin of brutalist campus center for the 21st century

The Greater Boston area is home to a large collection of brutalist structures. Now, with these historic buildings passing their semicentennials, municipalities and institutions are reappraising their original designs and coming up with solutions to adapt them to contemporary needs. Harvard’s Smith Campus Center, a colossal academic building located on Massachusetts Avenue across from Harvard Yard, is an

Fabrics could be the next big thing in facades

Humans have been using fabric to create shelter for thousands of years. If a set of groundbreaking researchers and designers have their way, however, applications of textile-based architectural elements have the potential to play an important role in shaping the future of enclosures as well. Across scales and methods of application, research into the use

NADAAA integrates past and present at Beaver Country Day

The Beaver Country Day School, founded in 1920, is located in Chestnut Hill, Massachusetts. The school completed three major expansions to its campus over the course of its near-century-long existence, and in 2017, NADAAA and facade consultant Studio NYL completed a project to bridge these accretions into a cohesive whole with a comprehensive revamp of the interior and an enclosure

German hotel meets the street with a sintered stone facade

Completed this year, the Flare of Frankfurt is a seven-story, mixed-use project of hotel rooms, residences, and offices located in the center of the German city. The 260,000-square-foot project, designed by German-Iranian architectural practice Hadi Teherani, is clad in three-dimensional slabs of sintered stone. The massing of the complex matches the cornice line of the surrounding historic building stock

Leading women in facades address challenges facing the industry

Topic Legend Heading toward decarbonization Technological change Inspiration Special Projects Material innovations—laminated glass and stone Trends in facade design We surveyed the leading women in the facade design and manufacturing industry and asked: What do you find most interesting about facade innovation today? What are you working on now and what do you think we

University of Oregon’s Tykeson Hall announces a campus presence with a terra-cotta and brick facade

Tykeson Hall, currently wrapping up construction, is nestled in the center of the University of Oregon’s Eugene campus. Designed by Portland’s OFFICE 52 Architecture, the intervention consolidates classrooms, academic advisors, counseling, and tutoring for nearly 23,000 students under one roof. The 64,000-square-foot academic building carefully inserts itself into the campus with a variegated terra-cotta and brick facade with moments of glass curtain

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