images © BIG

We have some BIG news! The architectural wonderboy has done it again: Bjarke Ingels will soon be moving forward with a one-of-a-kind pyramid building along Manhattan’s west side. Real estate giant Douglas Durst has long be pondering what to do with his almost entire block of land at 57th street and the Hudson River, and after plans for a data center, a school, and even a hip hotel fell through, BIG stepped in to create the most unique building on the strip. This week, city planning commissioner Amanda Burden gave her official stamp of approval for the project, which is sure to become a hot spot for shopping, dining, and—last not but least—living! Read more.

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Scale model (1979) of “The Mastaba”; Photo: Christo

The artist Christo has been known to make big gestures. He, along with his late wife and partner Jeanne-Claude, shot to fame for their larger-than-life installations that most famously saw Berlin’s Reichstag, Paris’ Pont Neuf, and even Sydney’s coastline cloaked in miles of cloth. Last year, Christo received approval to proceed with another grand project to “wrap” a bend of the Arkansas River, scheduled for completion in 2014. This “exaltation of scale” is only part of the art, whose transformative  merits are matched, if usually exceeded, by the great feats of planning and logistics, not too mention extensive (and creative) fundraising, necessary for the works’ realization.

In what is perhaps the culmination of a career of big and bigger projects, Christo is now planning his largest ever project, the likes of which have not been seen in art. As the Guardian reports,”The Mastaba“, which will rise 150 meters (492 feet) from the desert floor, is set to become the world’s largest permanent sculpture.  Oh, and at $340 million, it will be the most expensive sculpture in existence. Continue.

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All images: OMA

What does one build for Kanye West, self-proclaimed genius, Lothario, Byronic hero, mover of mountains and stone? What kind of structure could even handle the intense force of nature that is Kanye’s ego? A pyramid, of course. For this year’s Cannes Film Festival, West hired OMA to design a temporary polyhedral pavilion to debut his short film Cruel Summer. Located on Palm Beach, the 200-seat theater, which was inaugurated last night, consists of a massive (17′ X 17′, 17′ X 30′) seven-screen cinema configured according to a scheme “invented” by West’s creative team Donda and developed with 2X4, Inc. The screens envelop the audience in the glow of Summer‘s dazzling cinematography that, according to its makers, constitutes a “new cinematic experience.” Continue.

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The Earthscraper proposes burrowing down into the heart of Mexico City to create a new civic structure which preserves the city’s historic urban landscape while serving the needs of a modern metropolis. Designed by BNKR Arquitectura, the Earthscraper is an inverted pyramid whose base is the surface of Mexico City’s main public square and traditional center the Zocalo, and which is bordered by the city’s most treasured monuments–the Cathedal, the National Palace and the City Government buildings. Such a central site demands a decisive urban strategy that negotiates and reconciles the city’s seemingly disparate histories. BNKR Arquitectura’s pyramid does just that by literally cutting through and exposing the site’s layers of history. Click through for more!

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It only took 20 years or so, but the exterior of the massive North Korean Ryugyong Hotel has been completed. The hotel, which is pyramidal in form with walls that slope at a 75-degree angle, has long been lampooned as brute and permanent evidence of the totalitarian government’s deficiencies. At 330 meters (1,100 feet) tall,  the “phantom pyramid” stood over a decade and a half unfinished, without windows or interior walls, looming ominously over the North Korean capital of Pyongyang.  Several economic factors, not the least of which was the fall of the Soviet Union, disrupted construction, which has ceased until 2008, when Egyptian conglomerate Orascom Group (creepy website, right?) invested $400 million dollars to restart the project. Click for more.

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