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. |
Completed IMEX by Tuck Hinton Architects. Photo courtesy Anecdote
It is not often that we look back to a competition that occurred three decades ago that was also covered in detail by COMPETITIONS (Vol. 4, #4; pp. 14-27). What made the Chattanooga IMAX different back in 1994 was that the article covering that competition was authored by Prof. Marleen Davis, then Dean of the University of Tennessee’s School of Architecture and a member of the jury panel. This was not just a short article, covering the high points of the competition with a few talking points about the winning design. This 4,000+ word document also described in detail the jury’s observations about all the finalists, including the honorable mentions—one of the few times we have gained such a detailed glimpse in this country from the inside of the competition process. 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: [email protected] 
Winning entry by Luca Poian Forms Image ©Filippo Bolognese images
Good design seldom happens in a vacuum. And so it was with an international competition for a new mosque in Preston, U.K. A mid-sized city of 95,000, and located in Lancashire near the west coast and almost equally distant from London and Glasgow, Preston has a storied past, going all the way back to the Romans and the late Middle Ages, where it was the site of significant battles. During the Industrial Revolution, the city prospered, and it was not until after World War II that Preston experienced the British version of the U.S. Rust Belt. In the meantime, the city has experienced an upswing in economic activity, with an unemployment rate of only 3%. Aside from the appearance of new industries, the city has benefitted from the establishment of Central Lancashire University (CLU), which employs over 3,000 faculty and staff, and, as such, is one of the regions major employers. Any new university requires new facilities, and one of the most outstanding examples of this at CLU was the new Student Centre and Plaza, a result of a 2016 RIBA-sponsored competition won by Hawkins/Brown
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 Changdong Station winner – image ©D & B Partners Architects
Whereas international competitions for real projects have become a rarity lately, Korea is a welcome exception. Among the plethora of competition announcements we receive almost weekly, several have ended with foreign firms as winners. But the history of welcoming international participants does go back several years. One notable early example was the Incheon Airport competition, won by Fentress Bradburn Architects (1962-70).
Among the more recent successes of foreign firms was the Busan Opera House competition, won by Snøhetta (2013-) and the Sejong Museum Gardens competition, won by Office OU, Toronto (2016-2023).
Read more… 
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… 
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… |
