For what will be the eighth-tallest building in the world when finished in Tianjin, China, later this year, SOM didn’t want to do a by-the-numbers glass facade. Which is good, because the designers couldn’t have even if they wanted to—the Tianjin CTF Finance Centre’s convex and concave surfaces, along with its tapered shape, meant to help shed
In October 2018, Amherst College opened the New Science Center on its historic Massachusetts campus. The new academic building, which replaced an aging science center that was failing to keep up with its contemporary academic needs, is a six-story structure offering a home for six different science departments. Designed by the Boston-based architectural practice Payette with aggressive energy
Long after the golden era of corporate modernist skyscrapers (think Mies van der Rohe’s Seagram Building, SOM’s Lever House, and so on), many contemporary office skyscrapers are still designed with traditional glass curtain walls that have low insulation and cause overheating from unnecessary direct sunlight. Bjarke Ingels Group (BIG) conjured an otherworldly alternative for Shenzhen International Energy Mansion: a
Viracon offers a complete range of architectural exterior glass products. We not only fabricate glass, we also deliver design, aesthetic, budget and performance solutions for projects big and small. Our offering includes insulating, laminated, silk-screened, digital print, spandrel, hurricane-resistant, acoustical, blast-mitigating, electronic eavesdropping mitigating and a broad selection of proprietary high performance coatings. In 2021
Exterior Technologies (EXTECH), a Pittsburgh-based wall systems firm, promises both increased daylight and thermal performance with its LIGHTWALL 3000 curtain wall series. The LIGHTWALL is marketed as a highly flexible curtain wall system, able to be outfitted with both insulated glass units and cellular polycarbonate glazing. In a statement, Extech’s Director of Development Kevin Smith
With 71 facades articles published in 2021, it’s time to take a look at a few of AN ’s most popular and some whose projects feature unique materials and construction methods. Ranging from large dormitory projects by well-known firms to a projects that utilize local cork, thatch, and brick, the following list covers the full
The Harold Alfond Athletics and Recreation Center (HAARC) at Colby College in Waterville, Maine is a sprawling, 350,000-square-foot complex containing a multiuse field house with a 656-foot track, tennis courts, an ice arena, an Olympic-sized pool, a competition gymnasium for basketball and volleyball, squash courts, a strength and fitness center, multi-purpose studios, locker rooms, sports
Facade ManufacturerErie Architectural Products Centria Boston Valley Terra Cotta ArchitectsPBDW Architects Structural EngineerSeverud Associates Facade Consultant Heitmann General Contractor McGowan Builders Date of Completion2020 SystemsTerra-cotta Rainscreen and window wall with metal paneling Products Bendheim channeling Unusual among the sardined building fabric of Manhattan, PBDW Architects’ freestanding Cooke School & Institute takes full advantage of the
Though it’s been open for less than a year, One Hundred, a 36-story residential tower in St. Louis’s Central West End neighborhood, carries itself like a city landmark. Designed by celebrated Chicago architecture firm Studio Gang, the building peacocks along Kings-highway Boulevard, its tiered, faceted profile evoking a giant crystalline headdress. ManufacturerLorin Industries Architect Facade ConsultantStudio NYL Structural EngineerMagnusson
As demonstrated by the growing list of firms joining the AIA’s 2030 Commitment, energy performance is rapidly becoming an increasingly pressing and integrated part of architectural design. The standards set by the 2030 goal emphasize how retrofitting an existing building’s energy performance is just as critical to achieving net-zero energy for a project as it
A new hotel designed by Skidmore Owings & Merrill landed at the beginning of 2021 on West 33rd Street in Manhattan’s still-rising Hudson Yards neighborhood. Pendry Manhattan West tops out at 21 stories and is part of a 5-building master plan that will bring new hospitality and mixed-use buildings to Tenth Avenue, adjacent to Hudson Yards. Wedged between One and Five
The new Winter Visual Arts Building at Franklin & Marshall College was envisioned as a “pavilion on the park” by Steven Holl Architects (SHA). Rising between canopies of old-growth trees and their driplines in south-central Pennsylvania, the art center seemingly floats above the landscape of the campus and Buchanan Park. The 32,000-square-foot project is wrapped in
New York City’s skyline is forever adapting, thrusting ever higher upwards as a jostling amalgam of evolving styles and forms. Although surpassed in height by more recent projects such as SHoP Architect’s 111 57th Street and KPF’s One Vanderbilt, Shreve, Lamb & Harmon’s Empire State Building remains the city’s penultimate skyscraper and icon from the art deco era. The mooring mast,
In the decades following World War II, countries across the globe embarked on campaigns of residential construction, and for reasons of economy and time, many reached for an off-the-shelf, modernist solution: “Towers in the park” ringing an existing urban core. Few municipalities were as gripped by this building fever as the Greater Toronto Area, which eventually amassed
As the decades roll on, public appreciation of post-war office buildings continues to wane, and owners are often stuck with a depreciating asset with poor energy performance to boot. The usual course of action is wholesale demolition and the construction of an entirely new structure on the site. In contrast, a design team consisting of Gensler,
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
Diller Scofidio + Renfro (DS+R)’s first skyscraper, 15 Hudson Yards, is now complete after four years of construction. The 88-story residential tower fuses the largest cold-warped glass curtain wall in North America with a louver and limestone base. The tower is located on the southwestern flank of Hudson Yards‘s first phase located on 28 acres between 30th and