GSD News Archive: February 2008
Hashim Sarkis, Aga Khan Professor of Landscape Architecture and Urbanism in Muslim Societies, sits on jury to select finalist for the design of the new Masdar headquarters, to be located in Abu Dhabi's Masdar City. Masdar Headquarters to be Located in World's First 'Positive Energy' Mixed-use Building Masdar announced today that it has chosen Chicago architecture firm Adrian Smith + Gordon Gill Architecture (AS + GG) to design its headquarters in Abu Dhabi’s Masdar City, the world’s first zero-carbon, zero-waste city fully powered by renewable energy. The headquarters will be the world’s first large-scale, mixed-use "positive energy" building, producing more energy than it consumes. In addition to being the location of Masdar Headquarters, the building will accommodate private residences and ’early bird’ businesses starting up in the city. [Abu Dhabi Chronicle, February 24, 2008] |
Outcry against demolition of award-winning library designed by GSD Kajima Adjunct Professor Mack Scogin’s firm Axing library would send artless message By David M. Hamilton Atlanta is a young, big city. First and foremost, it is a place that aspires to be known as both progressive and hip. It is a beacon of diversity and sophistication in what was once viewed, and still is by some, as the backwater South. In the relentless pursuit of reputation, wealth and growth, some important things have been overlooked. The city's increasingly large but still struggling arts community fights against the perception (and too often the reality) that Atlanta is not an arts-friendly town. It is because of that, I believe, that the reported destruction of the Buckhead Library seemed to strike such a deep chord with so many artists and architects in the city. The very notion that a developer seemingly committed to public art would advocate for the demolition of what is arguably one of the most significant pieces of art and architecture in Atlanta seemed to confirm their worst fears about the direction of the city. Replacement of a truly world-class and public piece of architecture with more shopping, parking and luxury living seemed to indicate that the city no longer held a place for the quirky, the experimental or frankly even the interesting things that make a culturally vibrant community. [Atlanta Journal-Constitution, February 18, 2008] |
The late Philip Johnson’s (BArch 1943) Glass House prompts preservation of modernist buildings A clear modern vision Philip Johnson’s house paves way for preservation By Robert Campbell, Globe Correspondent Johnson was an architect who became famous, or notorious, for designing an all-glass house for himself in this bucolic town. Johnson died at age 98 in 2005. The glass house, built in 1949, is now considered a modernist classic. Johnson left it to the National Trust for Historic Preservation, which last year opened it to the public. The Trust is doing much more, though, than creating one more house museum. It's breaking new ground in the field of historic preservation. It's making the glass house (the Trust capitalizes it, so it's now the Glass House) the focus of a national movement to preserve American's rapidly vanishing heritage of the modernist period of architecture. [The Boston Sunday Globe, February 17, 2008] |
Professor Rem Koolhaas’ firm applauded for collaborative design project in China CCTV’s new HQ set to make mark By Alexis Hooi
It is a building that could only have happened in China. And for the man behind the new CCTV headquarters, the Beijing Olympics was the catalyst in a perfect mix of factors that led to one of the most ambitious structures in the world. "There is probably nowhere else in the world that could have generated a project like this," Ole Scheeren, the German architect in charge of the building, told China Daily. A partner of Dutch architect Rem Koolhaas at the Office for Metropolitan Architecture (OMA), Scheeren, 37, has led a team of almost 400 architects, designers and engineers over the past six years of the project. Scheeren gave his assurance the building will be "visually complete" and "take its place in the city" in time for the Games. He said architecture is all about timing - and the time was just right for him to take on the challenge when he started to work on the project's design in 2002. “It was a very particular moment in history. Being awarded the 2008 Olympics exacerbated a lot of things that were already happening and really acted as a catalyst for a more focused moment of ambition.” With 475,000 sq m of gross floor area and a budget of $695 million, the new headquarters of the State broadcaster is said to be the world's second-largest office building after the Pentagon in the United States. [China Daily, February 20, 2008] image: An artist's rendering of the new CCTV headquarters |
Associate Professor Michael Meredith Receives Grant for Beyond the Harvard Box Book; Honored by Architectural League and AICA USA The Graham Foundation in Chicago has awarded Associate Professor of Architecture Michael Meredith a grant to produce a book based on the exhibition that he curated in Fall 2006, Beyond the Harvard Box: The Early Works of Edward L. Barnes, Ulrich Franzen, John Johansen, Victor Lundy, I.M. Pei, and Paul Rudolph. The book will be published by Rizzoli next year. The exhibition will also be honored as the Best Architecture or Design Show by the New England chapter of AICA USA, the United States section of the International Association of Art Critics. The 2008 Annual AICA New England Awards Ceremony will be held at the Rose Art Museum at Brandeis University on February 27. The event will begin with a reception at 6:30pm followed by the awards ceremony at 7:30pm. Each year, in a widely covered event, AICA USA presents museums, galleries and alternative spaces with Best Show awards. AICA is the only organization to award excellence in museum and gallery exhibitions. As one of the Architectural League’s Emerging Voices 2008, Associate Professor Meredith will present a lecture at the Architectural League on March 26th. The Architectural League created the annual Emerging Voices lecture series in 1982 to recognize and encourage architects who are beginning to achieve prominence in the profession. The series focuses primarily on built work, at a variety of scales, and is structured to reflect the diversity of contemporary practice–geographically, stylistically, and ideologically. For more information on his firm’s work and reservations for the free lecture, see the Architectural League website. |
Charles Eliot Professor in Practice of Landscape Architecture Michael Van Valkenburgh a Leader in Restoring Harvard Yard The Greening of the Yard At one of the most hallowed spaces at Harvard University, the old and the sustainable have never been so compatible. By Allen Freeman
Until the 1970s, conservation was barely an afterthought in the minds of most architects and contractors. But when the OPEC oil embargo put crude oil in a stranglehold, conservationists were propelled into new positions of influence, and building industry professionals took notice. Architects began orienting their buildings to take advantage of the sun's warmth and to protect against cold and wind. They experimented with photovoltaic roof panels and wind turbines to generate electricity. And they paid greater attention to a building's envelope—the walls, roofs, doors, and windows that keep air and moisture from infiltrating a structure's interior. Today, green is America's color of progress, and forward-thinking restoration and landscape architects are building on the work of their forebears (and on the seminal studies of Rachel Carson, Ian McHarg, and Jane Jacobs) in making energy conservation a cornerstone of their working philosophies. Architect Jean Carroon and landscape architect Michael Van Valkenburgh are two such leaders in the field. Carroon is the head of the preservation and renovation practice at Goody Clancy architects in Boston, which has led the restoration of several buildings at Harvard University, including the extraordinarily beautiful brickwork facades of H.H. Richardson's 1880 Sever Hall. Van Valkenburgh heads a distinguished practice with offices in New York City and Cambridge, Mass., and has taught at Harvard's Graduate School of Design since 1982. In 1994, he won a National Trust Honor Award for master-planning the restoration of Harvard Yard and since then has overseen its execution. [Preservation, January-February, 2008] image: Harvard Yard . Marnie Crawford Samuelson and David Kurtis |
The Firm of Professors Herzog and de Meuron’s “Stunning” Olympic Stadium Nears Completion Secrets of the Bird’s Nest In a special feature on the architecture of the Beijing Olympics, Jonathan Glancey sneaks a look inside its signature building - the looping, swooping, stunning stadium [designed by the firm of Arthur Rotch Design Critics in Architecture Jacques Herzog and Pierre de Meuron].
When Sebastian Coe unveiled the design of the 2012 London Olympics stadium in November, you could have heard a pin drop. There was a breathless hush—and stifled yawns. Was this really it? The architect was smooth-talking, but as I looked around, the mood of photographers, cameramen and journalists said it all. It might well do the job, but its design seemed almost wilfully lacklustre. In dramatic contrast, the main stadium for this year's Beijing Olympics is, quite simply, stunning. Here is an adventure in steel and concrete, a building—despite its age-old purpose—like no other. Its structure is very nearly complete, while the fit-out, with its plethora of shops, restaurants, cafes, bars and meeting places, is racing ahead. At times, there have been as many as 7,000 construction workers on site, yet this is no rush job. It is a work of exceptional quality. [The Guardian, February 11, 2008] image: The National Stadium for the 2008 Olympic Games in Beijing. Dan Chung |
OMA to Buoy Hamburg's Waterfront By Alec Appelbaum [Professor in Practice of Architecture and Urban Design] Rem Koolhaas, the Dutch master of urban innovation and principal of the Office for Metropolitan Architecture (OMA), has unveiled plans to cap the reinvention of a German waterfront with an aquarium and science center. The project in Hamburg’s new HafenCity district aims to elevate street life while addressing the prospect of rising sea levels.
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