Why Stopby Kim Poliquin
Winning entry by Emer O’Daly What would make you stop? A glowing greenhouse? A rolling theater? Or how about a super pier? During the summer of 2011 SHIFTboston challenged architects, urban designers, designers and landscape architects — professionals and students — to visualize new destinations along the proposed South Coast Rail extension, a new rail line that will connect Boston to Taunton, New Bedford, and Fall River, Massachusetts.
This international competition generated concepts for a new, vital urban network along the railway, from 5 countries and 7 states. Winning and select submissions from the WHY STOP Competition have become part of the WHY STOP Exhibition at South Station in Boston Massachusetts. The winner and three honorary recipients presented their proposals at the opening of the exhibition on January 19, 2012. Attendees included competition participants and a number of local leaders in architecture, academia and government including competition advisor Edward Mitchell, assistant professor of Yale University, Fred Koetter of Koetter, Kim and Associates and Richard Henderson, Executive Vice President of MassDevelopment.
The opening began with a comprehensive presentation by the competition winner, Emer O’Daly of Dublin, Ireland. Emer’s ‘New Bedford Super Pier’ proposal establishes New Bedford as a regional infrastructural hub for New England. According to juror and former Massachusetts governor, Michael Dukakis “The bold, exciting Super Pier, is a recognition of New Bedford’s historic and continuing connection with the sea and its prominence to this day in the fishing industry. It brings the train into the city where it belongs– and where it can connect directly with the island boat service. Add to this the possibility of major cultural and recreational events, and you really have something that is impressive in its modernity and contrasts nicely with the city’s historic center.”
Following the winner were presentations by three honorable mentions: Marcus Martinez and Ana Ansari of AlloyBuild Somerville, MA presented Urban Grafting; David Yang and Amir Shahrokhi of DnA, New York, NY presented AgroLand; and Chris Aubin of New York, NY presented Sky Lab.
Winner
New Bedford Super Pier
Emer O’Daly, Dublin, Ireland
Click to enlarge The New Bedford Super Pier creates a new waterfront center for New Bedford while establishing the city as a regional infrastructural hub for New England. The city of New Bedford sits at the end of the South Coast Rail line. Currently, the PROPOSED train station is positioned north of downtown, which unfortunately will cut it off from the waterfront and the community it will serve. New Bedford Super Pier proposes rotating the station OUTWARD from this location toward the river in the form of a pier, tying into the existing infrastructure and reconnecting the town with the sea.
Honorable Mention
AgroLand
David Yang and Amir Shahrokhi of DnA, New York, NY
Click to enlarge Agroland is a reconsidered form of agricultural settlement that seeks to reinforce the cultures of local food production and family farming while reconciling the economies of food production. By analyzing traditional homestead farms and various aspects of industrialized agricultural practices, the project arrives at innovative hybrid models of modular homesteads and small-scale, high-productivity enhanced farming outfits. Agroland will not only serve as a regional market and distribution center, but will export new models of living and food culture, ultimately attracting a diverse constituency of individuals who wish to live work, shop and learn around it.
Honorable Mention
Urban Grafting
Marcus Martinez and Ana Ansari of Alloy Build, Somerville, MA
Click to enlarge A bold appreciation for the capacities of existing systems strategically relocates the site to the more dense and historic downtown area as a ‘superblock’. This reinforces established public spaces, businesses and services for new ventures. The fusion of he plaza assemblage directly with the rail form a new perspective on the train cab as the public realm, transforming the rail cabs into a spatial catalyst or spontaneous theatre or marketplace. The compound response delivers a new value through the serial arrival to the city and a kinetic public realm.
Honorable Mention
SKY- LAB
Elihu Rubin, Jacob Dugopolski and Chris Aubin, New York, NY
Click to enlarge A bold appreciation for the capacities of existing systems strategically relocates the site to the more dense and historic downtown area as a ‘superblock’. This reinforces established public spaces, businesses and services for new ventures. The fusion of he plaza assemblage directly with the rail form a new perspective on the train cab as the public realm, transforming the rail cabs into a spatial catalyst or spontaneous theatre or marketplace. The compound response delivers a new value through the serial arrival to the city and a kinetic public realm.
Kim Poliquin, a Project Designer at Perkins and Will Architects, is the Director of SHIFTboston and has previously worked at Brian Healy Architects and Cambridge Seven Associates. |
1st Place: Zaha Hadid Architects – night view from river – Render by Negativ
Arriving to board a ferry boat or cruise ship used to be a rather mundane experience. If you had luggage, you might be able to drop it off upon boarding, assuming that the boarding operation was sophisticated enough. In any case, the arrival experience was nothing to look forward to. I recall boarding the SS United States for a trip to Europe in the late 1950s. Arriving at the pier in New York, the only thought any traveler had was to board that ocean liner as soon as possible, find one’s cabin, and start exploring. If you were in New York City and arriving early, a nearby restaurant or cafe would be your best bet while passing time before boarding. Read more… Preparation and Organization of Design Competitions 
[phase 1] Benjamin Hossbach / Christian Lehmhaus / Christine Eichelmann
210 × 230 mm, 192 pp.
over 600 images
softcover
ISBN 978-3-86922-316-2 (English)
ISBN 978-3-86922-240-0 (German)
Dom Publishers
€48 in EU (For price abroad, see below)
Founded in 1998 in Berlin, Phase 1 has been a principal player in the organization and facilitation of design competitions, not only in Germany, but abroad as well. The accomplishments of the firm have been well documented in three volumes—The Architecture of Competitions—beginning in 2i006. Whereas these books mainly focused on the results of the competitions they have administered, the present work, Fundamentals of Competition Management, takes one from the very beginnings of the competition process to its conclusion. The authors envisioned the publication as “three three books in one: one „blue book“ with example projects, one „yellow book“ with statements and the „white book“ with the actual guideline to competition management.”
Although there have been a number of handbooks covering the administration of designcompetitions a study covering the entire process in such detail is a welcome addition to the the literature in this field. As a contribution to this important democratic process that has yielded exceptional design for decades, this volume is not only valid for Europe, but a current overview of the process for those globally who wish to raise the level of design by virtue of a design competition. -Ed Foreign institutions wishing to obtain a copy of the book will recieve a discount to cover the cost of foreign shipping.
To obtain a copy for that offer, go to: accounting@phase1.de 
Helsinki Central Library, by ALA Architects (2012-2018)
The world has experienced a limited number of open competitions over the past three decades, but even with diminishing numbers, some stand out among projects in their categories that can’t be ignored for the high quality and degree of creativity they revealed. Included among those are several invited competitions that were extraordinary in their efforts to explore new avenues of institutional and museum design. Some might ask why the Vietnam Memorial is not mentioned here. Only included in our list are competitions that were covered by us, beginning in 1990 with COMPETITIONS magazine to the present day. As for what category a project under construction (Science Island), might belong to or fundraising still in progress (San Jose’s Urban Confluence or the Cold War Memorial competition, Wisconsin), we would classify the former as “built” and wait and see what happens with the latter—keeping our fingers crossed for a positive outcome. Read More… 
2023 Teaching and Innovation Farm Lab Graduate Student Honor Award by USC (aerial view)
Architecture at Zero competitions, which focus on the theme, Design Competition for Decarbonization, Equity and Resilience in California, have been supported by numerous California utilities such as Southern California Edison, PG&E, SoCAl Gas, etc., who have recognized the need for better climate solutions in that state as well as globally. Until recently, most of these competitions were based on an ideas only format, with few expectations that any of the winning designs would actually be realized. The anticipated realization of the 2022 and 2023 competitions suggests that some clients are taking these ideas seriously enough to go ahead with realization. Read more… 
RUR model perspective – ©RUR
New Kaohsiung Port and Cruise Terminal, Taiwan (2011-2020)
Reiser+Umemoto RUR Architecture PC/ Jesse Reiser – U.S.A.
with
Fei & Cheng Associates/Philip T.C. Fei – R.O.C. (Tendener)
This was probably the last international open competition result that was built in Taiwan. A later competition for the Keelung Harbor Service Building Competition, won by Neil Denari of the U.S., the result of a shortlisting procedure, was not built. The fact that the project by RUR was eventually completed—the result of the RUR/Fei & Cheng’s winning entry there—certainly goes back to the collaborative role of those to firms in winning the 2008 Taipei Pop Music Center competition, a collaboration that should not be underestimated in setting the stage for this competition Read more… 
Winning entry ©Herzog de Meuron
In visiting any museum, one might wonder what important works of art are out of view in storage, possibly not considered high profile enough to see the light of day? In Korea, an answer to this question is in the making. It can come as no surprise that museums are running out of storage space. This is not just the case with long established “western” museums, but elsewhere throughout the world as well. In Seoul, South Korea, such an issue has been addressed by planning for a new kind of storage facility, the Seouipul Open Storage Museum. The new institution will house artworks and artifacts of three major museums in Seoul: the Seoul Museum of Modern Art, the Seoul Museum of History, and the Seoul Museum of Craft Art.
Read more… |
