Pat Finn
Flood prevention is a perennial concern for architects, and one that is becoming more relevant each year, as climate change continues to cause sea levels to rise and storms to rage with increasing frequency and intensity. As architects across the globe rack their brains for solutions to this dire problem, few have come up with…
New York City is known for its expansive views: Nothing approaches the modern sublime quite like tak ing in the Manhattan skyline from a Brooklyn rooftop. However, the city does not offer a comparable experience with regard to the natural world. Beautiful as Central Park is, the experience of nature one finds here is cozy and…
The competition to design the First & Broadway Civic Center Park in Downtown Los Angeles has com e down to four finalists: OMA, AECOM, Brooks + Scarpa andEric Owen Moss Architects. From cantilevered restaurants to undulating strips of raised gardens, each of the remaining proposals includes features that would dramatically change the landscape of America’s second-largest…
São Paulo Arquitetura’s recently opened Espaço Cultural Porto Seguro is a building of contrasting ar chitectural qualities. A windowless, concrete monolith, the cultural center nevertheless allows a great deal of natural light due to strategically placed folds in the asymmetrical design. A latticed wood screen on the front of the building lends texture and warmth to…
Plans for Expo 2020 in Dubai are taking shape. Organizers of the event recently announced the design s of the three major pavilions for the exposition, which were chosen from a pool of 13 submissions. The winning firms are Foster + Partners, BIG and Grimshaw, with each design following one of the three themes for the…
Plans for an iconic new civic center for the Darling Square district of Sydney have been announced b y Kengo Kuma, proposed in collaboration with development company Lendlease. The six-story, spiraling tower will contain a market hall on the ground floor in addition to a public library, a center for childcare and a rooftop bar. The…
BIG, the New York and Copenhagen-based architecture firm behind Google’s revamped Mountain View Head quarters, is rethinking the modern sports arena. Its conceptual plan to overhaul the Washington Redskins’ stadium would make the football team’s home a year-round destination, where sports are not the only attraction. “The stadium is designed as much for the tailgating, like…
FC Barcelona’s iconic Camp Nou stadium is set for a massive renovation. The Japanese architecture fi rm Nikken Sekkei was chosen to carry out the project, which will expand the seating capacity of the stadium to 105,000 and involves the addition of a 506,000-square-foot canopy to provide coverage to fans in inclement conditions. This renovation will…
The MetLife Building — formerly the Pan Am Building — is one of New York City’s most unassuming, yet unmistakable landmarks. Built in 1963 by a team that included Walter Gropius, this monumental glass tower looms behind Grand Central Terminal like a sentinel, a modernist masterpiece that, somehow, doesn’t clash with the Terminal’s ornate beaux-arts…