Bringing Design and Construction in Closer Proximity

  University of Florida’s College of Design Construction and Planning’s New Addition   Development phase image courtesy ©Brooks + Scarpa   If architects have had one complaint concerning the planning and realization of a project, it has been with planners and especially construction managers, both of whom often display a lack of knowledge about architecture. The survival of a well-conceived ...
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Shedding More Light on a Non-Profit’s Work Spaces

  Houston Endowment’s New Headquarters on the Bayou   Southwest view Houston Endowment Headquarters – Photo Ivan Baan, courtesy Kevin Daly     Following in the footsteps of other major non-profits—The Ford Foundation and LA’s California Endowment Center in particular—the Houston Endowment’s new headquarters, located on a grassy knoll just above the Buffalo Bayou in the city’s outskirts, has also made ...
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Transforming a Helsinki Harbor Site

The Makasiiniranta South Harbor Competition     Helsinki South Harbour and Tori Quarter Suomen Ilmakuva Helsinki. Image credit/ Tietoa Finland, Janne Hirvonen     As a prelude to a competition for the design of a new Architecture and Design Museum to be located in Helsinki’s South Harbor, the City of Finland staged an open competition to establish a roadmap for the ...
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Respect for the Old, In with the New

  Image courtesy Budapest Development Agency ©Grimshaw Budapest’s Nygati Rail Station Competition   Completed in 1877, Budapest’s Nygati Railway Station has witnessed many of the twists and turns of Hungarian history: the Austro-Hungarian Empire, revolutions of post-World War I and 1956, and various shades of expansion and shrinkage in their territory. Its important location in Europe’s history as a ...
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A Modern Concert Hall for Prague

  Vltava Philharmonic Hall Design Competition   View to Concert Hall from bridge ©BIG   Classical music is still part of a vibrant musical scene in Prague, with at least four principal venues hosting concerts, ballet and opera. As a modern European city, the only missing venue from these choices is a state of the art concert hall. Other European ...
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A Tribute to Veterans on the Wisconsin Prairie

  The Cold War Veterans Memorial Competition   Rendering: Oyler Wu Collaborative/Courtesy Pritzker Military Museum & Library   The Pritzker family is no stranger to good architecture; so it should come as no surprise that a project launched by the Pritzker Military Archives, including a competition for a Cold War Veterans Memorial in Wisconsin, would embrace this approach. Other major ...
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The Architect of GSA’s Finest Hour

  Edward A. Feiner, FAIA (1947-2022)     Nothing is a boon to architecture more than a knowledgeable patron. And one of the foremost “patrons” of architecture in modern societies is government—at its various levels. Our federal government’s role in this is carried out mainly by the General Services Administration (GSA), which oversees the design and construction of most ...
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Ottawa Parliamentary Precinct’s Block 2

  A Quest for that Elusive Connective Formula   First Place: Pedestrian perspective from Parliament – Zeidler Architecture in association with David Chipperfield Architects   How do you find a common thread that can connect an eclectic collection of buildings, visually as well as physically, all located within a one-block site, located just across from Canada’s Parliament building in Ottawa. ...
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Infrastructure Hub as Urban Revitalization Catalyst

  Vilnius Railway Station and Public Square Competition   Vilnius Station competition Image: ©Zaha Hadid Architects     Aerial view of Vilnius railway station (2021)    In European cities, recent history has seen their central railway stations become the subject of upgrades, or totally new projects, many of them springing up in Eastern Europe. In most cases, the focus on this phenomena occurred ...
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Belgrade Philharmonic Concert Hall Competition

  AL_A Prevails over a Star-studded Cast     After over a year of planning, the choice of a site, and the establishment of criteria for the staging an international competition for a new concert hall, the process recently culminated in the choice of an architect for the design of the new Philharmonic in Belgrade, Serbia. Once a rather ...
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