May 7, 2013
This week Snøhetta and AECOM released new renderings for the Golden State Warriors arena, a 740,000-square-foot sports complex that will rise on Piers 30–32 on the San Francisco waterfront.
Last time we checked in, the arena—which is slated to open in 2017—was but a distant gleaming orb, with few public details beyond the promise of ample open space (and water taxi service!). The updated renderings give us a few more clues about the Warriors’ new home. Read more!
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May 3, 2013
Photo: Tom Andrews, via High Country News
Bodies of water have so much allure—particularly in overpaved cities—that we’re content to put up with the algae-scented funk of the Central Park pond, or even the stench of Brooklyn’s Gowanus Canal, just to rest our eyes on something blue (or, er, brown).
In recent years the LA River has enjoyed a renaissance. Though the waterway hasn’t really been a natural habitat since the 1930s (when the city lined the riverbed with concrete to control flooding), new bike paths, public art, and kayak tours now draw Angelenos to the water’s edge. So far these upgrades have been largely peripheral, due in large part to urban enthusiasts’ determination to start using the giant ditch they inherited as a river. Meanwhile, the city’s more substantial plan to transform the channel into a living habitat is mired in delays at the federal level. Read more.
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February 26, 2013
Toronto is going through a major, more glamorous, transformation right now, thanks largely to an ambitious plan to redevelop its waterfront. The new, LEED-certified George Brown Waterfront Health Sciences Campus has already transformed the once seedy lakefront to an energetic, humming urban center. The just-announced Eau Du Soleil towers will soon make up one of Canada’s tallest condo communities. And Toronto’s waterfront plans prompted the Intelligent Community Forum to name the city as one of the world’s top intelligent communities.
Another waterfront project that has us excited? The Awards Pavilion for the 2015 Pan American Games. (Yeah, we know we have a while to wait.) Designed by four recent graduates from the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Zurich, the new stadium will be made out of bundles of reusable vinyl-based balloons floating across the Pan American Village. (Delightful!) The design won first place at the AIAS competition in 2011. See more images!
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February 25, 2013
Project: Hewlett House
Architect: MPR Design Group
Location: Bronte, New South Wales, Australia
The commissioners of the Hewlett House desired a private sanctuary in which to escape the hectic work world–a place deeply connected to the ocean–right in the middle of dense, suburban Bronte. To accomodate these design imperatives, the architect stacked twisted concrete “tubes” with opaque walls to keep the neighboring community at bay and openings that allow the inhabitants to look out. The resulting webbed form acts as a hybrid truss and sculptural screen, allowing amazing views of the ocean below. The main vertical circulation between the levels was achieved with the insertion of a self-supporting “nautilian” spiral stair.
Read more about this project in the Architizer database!
Images courtesy MPR Design Group
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February 22, 2013
Project: Cove 6—Pezula Knysna
Architect: SAOTA [Stefan Antoni Olmesdahl Truen Architects]
Location: Knysna, Western Cape, South Africa
Overlooking the open ocean, the Cove 6 Villa is a contemporary tour de force of cinematic architectural staging. The individual spaces of the residence were conceived of as viewing platforms, each offering a unique and precious vantage point for visually consuming the surrounding heathland (fynbos in the local Afrikaans). In keeping with this design imperative, the different interior spaces of the villa unfold along long view lines, never fully closed off or isolated. Even the circulation of the residence is kept open, with a spectacular cantilevered stair connecting the principal levels.
Read more about this project in the Architizer database!
Images courtesy SAOTA, if you couldn’t tell already
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February 1, 2013
Project: Seaside Boomerang
Architect: Atelier Haretoke
Location: Chiba, Japan
Situated on an ocean cove outside of Chiba, the Seaside Boomerang house takes in phenomenal panoramic views of the Pacific. Though located close to neighboring structures, the waterfront residence acts as a screen, dividing the private spaces of the home from its suburban milieu. A double-story glazed frame connects the large exterior deck to the primary living area, replete with light and an expansive sense of space. The clean contemporary aesthetic extends throughout the house, showcasing the surrounding natural landscape as wallpaper par excellence.
Read more about this project in the Architizer database!
Images courtesy Toshiyuki Yano / Nacasa & Partners
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January 24, 2013
Project: Steel Study House II
Architect: Archipelontwerpers
Location: Leeuwarden, Netherlands
Function: This modern home is a reiteration of a classical courtyard house, spreading fully across its lot while preserving a central void, onto which the adjacent rooms open. The central patio also divides the house programmatically, with the fully enclosed programs of bedrooms and service spaces facing the street, while the leisure spaces remain opened and face the lake. Lustrous powder-coated panels and operable louvers add texture and cladding to the 6m x 6m steel frame. Read more about this project in the Architizer database.
Think you’ve got a better project? Submit it for an Architizer A+ Award!
Photos: Marcel van der Burg
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January 3, 2013
Project: Bronte House
Architect: Rolf Ockert Design
Location: Bronte, New South Wales, Australia
Function: Opening onto unparalleled views of the Tasman Sea, this well-composed residence makes perfect use of an open floor plan and clerestory windows to create a living space that “feels alone with the sea and sky”. The minimal white walls act as mass-walls to moderate the ambient temperature, in addition to providing privacy from neighbors on either side. The house opens to East, and the constant ocean breezes are controlled by operable louvers and sliding glass panels. To Read more about this project in the Architizer database.
Photos courtesy of Rolf Ockert Design
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December 11, 2012
Fashion designer Pierre Cardin’s proposed Palais Lumière, a residential, hospitality, and shopping emporium planned for Venice (left) and a tiered skirt from Cardin’s collection. Right photo: Associated Press
In his 75-plus years in the fashion industry, the 90-year-old couturier Pierre Cardin has molded silhouettes, cinched panstuits, and stretched and shortened hemlines. More recently he has sent his sights on shaping the Venice skyline. His proposed Palais Lumière—a dizzying 60-story pirouette of glass and steel—represents either economic salvation for a faded corner of Venice or a grandiose fetish worthy of Dubai, depending on whom you ask. Continue.
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November 20, 2012
The historic bulkhead of pier 15 (left) and the new glass-enclosed observatory.
When the physicist Frank Oppenheimer opened the Exploratorium science museum in San Francisco in 1969, he was betting on an innovative idea: that a nonexpert public could be convinced to while away Saturday afternoons rehearsing principles of physics and perception. Oppenheimer (who, as the kid brother of Robert J., was sort of the uncle of the atom bomb) accomplished this by turning science education into a carnival of small wonders; today the popular museum offers exhibits like the Bernoulli Levitator, the chaotic pendulum, the Momentum Machine, perspective-distorting rooms, and an antigravity mirror.
This spring the Exploratorium, which has lived in the careworn exhibit hall at the Palace of Fine Arts since it opened, will be on the cutting edge once again with a design by EHDD. The institution’s new 330,000-square-foot HQ on Pier 15 of San Francisco’s waterfront is on track to become the largest net-zero museum in the country. Situated between the artisanal food mecca of the Ferry Building and the pseudo-Disney madness of Fisherman’s Wharf, the new Exploratorium will offer asylum to wharf refugees and give foodies someplace to work off their artisanal calories. Read more!
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