The Colorful Camouflage of a Secret Tea Shop
The Gourmet Tea shop begins to unfold (Djeng Chu)
Bright colors are not typically associated with inconspicuous spaces but when it comes to The Gourmet Tea storefront, the shop manages to bring the two together.Through the use of clever ingenuity and compact design Brazilian architect Alan Chu successfully plants a secret tea shop inside a public shopping center in São Paulo, Brazil.
Tower by Dattner Architects to Elevate Downtown Brooklyn
New images of the Dattner-designed Hub tower. (Courtesy Dattner Architects)
Plans for the Hub, a 53-story tower planned for the ever-growing Downtown Brooklyn were released in February, but the Dattner-designed project comes into clearer focus when new views were revealed this month. Developed by the Steiner family, who is also building a 50-acre media hub/film studio in the Brooklyn Navy Yard, the tower will house 720 apartments and 42,000 square feet of retail space and feature a large rooftop terrace and bike parking for each unit. Located at 333 Schermerhorn Street just blocks from the new Barclays Center, The Hub could measure up as Brooklyn’s tallest when it’s completed in 2014.
Massive Project by Norman Foster could Transform Toronto
Proposed redevelopment of the Metro Toronto Convention Center. (Courtesy Oxford Properties)
Starchitects are descending on Toronto. First it was Frank Gehry with his plan for three 80-story skyscrapers on top of an art museum, and now Norman Foster with a massive plan to redevelop the Metro Toronto Convention Centre area adjacent to the CN Tower and Rogers Centre Stadium. Developed by Oxford Properties Group and dubbed Oxford Place, the plan calls for upgrades to the current convention center and four new towers for housing, office space, a hotel, and a casino surrounding a five-and-a-half acre park spanning a railroad.
Unveiled> OMA Designs an Academic Village Under a Single Roof in Suburban Paris
Entrance to École Centrale from Metro Station (Courtesy OMA)
OMA has won the design competition for the new École Centrale Engineering school in Saclay, France, a suburb of Paris. The final design calls for an enormous block composed of smaller buildings creating an open plan grid. According to OMA, the concept behind the design is a “lab city” where multiple events can take place while all being simultaneously observed.
Slideshow> Foster Won, But Check out Zaha Hadid, Rem Koolhaas, & Richard Rogers’ NYC Visions
Norman Foster’s winning design. (Courtesy Foster + Partners)
Park Avenue in Manhattan is ready to grow taller, and a starchitect-filled competition won by Lord Norman Foster revealed the first of what’s likely to be many new towers along the corridor. But what of the three runners up? Renderings from all four finalist—Zaha Hadid, Richard Rogers, OMA, and Norman Foster—have now been released by L&L Holdings and Lehman Brothers detailing four distinct visions for the future of the New York skyscraper.
Foster’s final winning design will be presented at the Municipal Arts Society’s Summit for New York City, which begins on Thursday, October 18 (Foster will present on Friday at 9 a.m.). Also during the two day summit, an exhibition displaying the work of all four finalists’ designs will be on view.
Parsons Students Making a Splash in Washington Heights
Navigating Through Splash House (Michael Moran)
Parsons The New School of Design has recently completed a new pool pavilion called Splash House for Highbridge Pool and Recreation Center. Led by students in the School of Constructed Environments at Parsons, Splash House was designed and developed pro bono by students in partnership with NYC Parks & Recreation as an addition to the WPA-era Highbridge Pool and Recreation Center.
Two New Apps Change the Way Designers See Architecture
Sketches from the Trace application over a site image (Courtesy Morpholio)
Two new apps are helping to change the relationship between architecture and technology, allowing architects and designers to sketch and trace and view augmented reality 3-D renderings right on their iPads.
As its name suggests, the Trace app from the Morpholio Project allows users to draw—with a stylus or a finger—over digitized manilla-yellow tracing paper and sketch graphic concepts directly onto an iPad screen. Designers can add new layers of Trace, creating a timeline for the design process and allowing for easy sharing between colleagues.
Chinese Firm Plans to Build World’s Tallest Building in 90 Days
Rendering of Sky City Changsha. (Courtesy Broad Group)
Move over Burj Khalifa, a group in China has its eye set on building the next world’s tallest skyscraper, and they plan to do it in just 90 days. Called Sky City Changsha, the tower envisioned for central China’s Hunan province could rise nearly 2,750 feet over 220 floors. That’s 32 feet higher than the current world’s tallest in Dubai. Broad Sustainable Building (BSB), an air conditioning manufacturer behind the proposal, will prefabricate building components to achieve the impossibly short deadline.
Urban Reef: Solving the Underwater Housing Crisis for Fish & Coral
Urban Reef home in Cancun Mexico (Credit: Jason deCaires Taylor)
While many have dreamed about living underwater, until humans can inhabit on the ocean floor, perhaps it’s best to simply assist those that already reside there. In his exhibition, Urban Reef, artist and founder of the Museo Subacuático de Arte (MUSA), Jason deCaires Taylor has done just that.
Discover the Landscape Architecture of Washington D.C.
Meridian Hill (Malcom X) Park (Photo Credit: Glenn LaRue Smith, ASLA)
Washington, D.C., is often admired for its monuments. Now there is another part of our nation’s capital that its 19 million annual visitors can tour and enjoy. The American Society of Landscape Architects (ASLA) has recently announced the launch of an online mobile-friendly guide meant to give not only tourist, but also locals a new perspective on the historic, modern, and contemporary landscapes in Washington, D.C. and Arlington, VA.
The Grass Looks Greener On The Riverside
WNYC Transmitter Park Waterfront (Photo Credit: juliewoodnyc via Instagram)
Green outdoor space, outside of Central Park, is often thought of as a rare commodity in New York City; but now it doesn’t have to be. The recent opening of WNYC’s Transmitter Park on the East River in Greenpoint, Brooklyn is one of the many projects that will be improving over 500 miles of shoreline across the city.
Breaking ground back in 2010, Transmitter Park is now finally open for the public to enjoy. As part of the Waterfront Vision and Enhancement Strategy(WAVES) citywide initiative, Transmitter Park supports the plan’s vision to provide more open recreational space for the city’s residents and a functional waterfront that will no longer display decaying industrial sites. The park is also a result of the 2005 Greenpoint-Williamsburg rezoning meant to provide local residents and visitors with continuous public access to the waterfront. The new park includes1.6-acres of open space with an esplanade for passive recreation, a new overlook to the south, new seating, and a pedestrian bridge built across an excavated historic ferry slip. The center of the park offers a large open lawn with a nautical themed children’s play area that reflects the site’s context, spray showers, and nature gardens.
Event>Olmsted on Staten Island: The Rural Laboratory
1848 Olmsted (Courtesy of Museum of the City of New York)
Frederick Law Olmsted, designer of Central Park, spent nine formative years on a 130-acre farm on the southern shore of Staten Island. Olmsted’s involvement in agricultural experimentation and nature conversation allowed him to develop his own thoughts about open space and urban settings. At 6:30 p.m. on Wednesday, September 19th join Alan G. Brake, executive editor of The Architect’s Newspaper, at the Museum of the City of New York as he moderates a discussion exploring how Olmsted’s time on Staten Island influenced the field of American landscape architecture and the timeless parks he designed for the city. Included on the panel will be Ryan J. Carey, co-curator of From Farm to City; Tatiana Choulika, Associate Partner at James Corner Field Operations; and Gus Jones, Snug Harbor Heritage Farm Manager. The panel is also in conjunction with the museum’s exhibition From Farm to City: Staten Island, 1661-2012.
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