Herald Center—From Discount Drab to LED Luminous
Proposed facade for the Herald Center mall. (Courtesy Moed de Armas & Shannon)
Located at one of the busiest intersections in Manhattan—and probably the world—the outdated Herald Center has recently been slated for a $50 million facelift by Moed de Armas & Shannon architecture firm. Hailing from the 1980s, the tinted black windows on the first three floors will be replaced with sheer insulated glass, while the façade of the remaining floors is transformed to offer passersby an LED-lit view befitting the luminous Times Square a few blocks north.
Pelli Clarke Pelli’s Transbay Center Glass Facade Could Become Perforated Metal
The perforated aluminum skin would replace the previously proposed glass facade. (Courtesy TJPA)
It looks like Pelli Clarke Pelli’s Transbay Transit Center, which stretches about three blocks through the city’s Rincon Hill neighborhood, might go ahead with its first major piece of value engineering. According to the San Francisco Chronicle, the architects have suggested that the building’s undulating glass skin become perforated aluminum. The move would meet federal safety guidelines and chop $17 million from the estimated $1.59 billion budget for the center’s first phase. The Transbay Joint Powers Authority (TJPA) board will be asked to approve the change at its March 25 meeting. The structure is not expected to be complete before 2017.
Act Fast! Early Bird Registration for Facades+PERFORMANCE Ends on March 1
Registration for AN‘s Facades+PERFORMANCE conference is now open with a limited-time Early Bird pricing offer that expires on March 1. The conference is taking place in New York City on April 11 and 12 and will feature presentations and workshops from leaders in the industry who will analyze, discuss, and dispute the development, implementation, and maintenance of high-performance building enclosures. Noted architect Christoph Ingenhoven will be delivering the keynote address. Make sure to reserve your spot today before Facades+PERFORMANCE sells out!
Christoph Ingenhoven to Deliver Keynote at Facades + PERFORMANCE
Atrium of 1 Bligh Street, Christoph Ingenhoven’s sustainable office tower in Sydney. (Courtesy Ingenhoven Architects)
“I think contemporary work environments are about communication. We tried to make interior space a community, “ said architect Christoph Ingenhoven of 1 Bligh Street, a sustainable office tower completed a little over a year ago in Sydney. Ingenhoven translated his idea of community into a building defined by a spectacular 28-story interior atrium capped by a skylight. With interior walls and elevators of glass, every view is a living, bustling cross-section. The atrium acts as natural cooling system while other green features include vacuum tube solar collectors for power and an onsite wastewater recycling system, adding up to a structure that is off the charts for its energy efficiency and low environmental impact.
Ingenhoven, recognized for his groundbreaking integration of progressive sustainability and modernist design, will deliver the keynote lecture on April 11 at Facades + PERFORMANCE, an upcoming conference on high-performance building enclosures sponsored by The Architect’s Newspaper. At the two-day event including a symposium and workshops, experts in the industry will analyze, discuss, and dispute the development, implementation, and maintenance of facades. Registration information available here. Read More
Product> Well Clad: Glass & Metal Facade Systems for All Seasons
(All Images Courtesy Respective Manufacturers)
You’ve got to have one. A facade, that is. So AN rounded up five leading glass and metal facade systems whose value is more than skin deep. For instance, Kalzip‘s FC Rainscreen, used on New Orleans’ Superdome. These aluminum panels form a non-penetrative facade system that can be installed in two directions, from top to bottom or from the bottom up. Individual sheets can be removed and installed independently of the rest of the assembly. The system’s quick, cost-effective installation procedure won it the job of renovating the Superdome in Louisiana in the wake of Hurricane Katrina.
Facades+Innovation in Chicago: Romero’s reunion, adaptive glazings and more
IIT’s Mccormick Tribune student center. (courtesy Charles MacEachen via Flickr)
AN’s Facades + Innovation Conference wrapped up last Friday in Chicago, rounding out the event’s inaugural run from New York to San Francisco and ending at the Illinois Institute of Technology. Architects, engineers, builders, and designers at today’s symposium plumbed the conceptual depths of form as well as the materials, programs and trends that could guide the future of design.
Fernando Romero, founder of architecture firm FREE, kicked off the morning with a tour of his facade work, from the hexagonal network of mirrored steel tiles enclosing the Museo Soumaya in Mexico City, to IIT’s McCormick Tribune Campus Center just two blocks from the conference hall. Romero worked on the McCormick Center while at OMA, but had never before visited the completed structure. Walking through the building after his talk, delivered on his 41st birthday, the architect said it was a gift to finally visit.
Fabricating New Solar Skins
 |
Brought to you by: |
A rendering of Martin Ferrero's new BIPV concept
Research into flexible active skins opens up new BIPV possibilities
As building integrated photovoltaic (BIPV) technology becomes more advanced, architects are getting involved in how new systems affect not only a building’s performance, but also its appearance. “The photovoltaic industry was until now largely developed by engineers,” said Daniel Martín Ferrero, a Madrid-based architect researching solar design. “The architect must enter the industry to develop their integration into the urban scene.” Ferrero has launched a new company named The New Solar Architecture with a goal of bringing a higher level of design to solar energy-producing facades.
Advertise on The Architect's Newspaper.
Archives
Categories
Architecture
Design
East Coast
Midwest
National
Planning
Shft+Alt+Del
Sustainability
Transportation
West Coast
