State of Michigan to Save Minoru Yamasaki’s Architectural Records

LANSING, MI.- Good luck, good timing, and personal relationships played a major role in saving materials from the office of Minoru Yamasaki, one of the world’s premier Modernist architects. A native of Seattle, Yamasaki (1912-1986) moved to Detroit in 1945 to work for the firm of Smith, Hinchman and Gryls before starting his own firm in Troy, Michigan. Yamasaki, best known for designing the World Trade Center in New York, also designed the Century Plaza in Los Angeles, the Michigan [...]

Dutch Designer Joris Laarman Unveils New Work at Friedman Benda

NEW YORK, NY.- A new body of work by Dutch designer Joris Laarman was unveiled at Friedman Benda. Laarman’s unique aesthetic merges cutting-edge technology and the life-sciences to create work of unexpected beauty. In 2008, Laarman’s Bone Chair and Bone Chaise, his first two works since graduating from Eindhoven, were displayed in MoMA’s exhibition Design and the Elastic Mind. This marked a major milestone in his career and the chair subsequently was added to the museum’s permanent collection. The show [...]

Daylight Architect, James Carpenter, Honored With EUR100,000 Award

COPENHAGEN.- James Carpenter, the New York-based architect, sculptor and designer of daylight, is this year’s recipient of the VILLUM and VELUX FOUNDATION’S Daylight and Building Component Award. Carpenter played an important role in the design of 7 WTC, the first building to rise at Ground Zero since the attacks of September 11, 2001.
Carpenter, 59, will receive the award and a grant of EUR100,000 at a ceremony on March 2, 2010, in Hoersholm, a suburb of Copenhagen. The award, which includes [...]

Chicago’s “Aqua” Selected as 2009 Skyscraper of the Year

FRANKFURT.- The jury of the Emporis Skyscraper Award has announced Aqua, an 81-story residential and hotel tower in Chicago, as the winner of the 2009 Skyscraper of the Year. The award, now celebrating its tenth year, is given annually to a building at least 100 meters tall and completed within the award year.
The second place winner is O14 in Dubai. Third place goes to The Met in Bangkok. All winners were selected from 305 eligible buildings completed worldwide in 2009.
Members [...]

Twenty-One Hand-Built Bicycles to Be Showcased at Museum of Arts and Design

NEW YORK; NY.- Bespoke: The Handbuilt Bicycle, presented by the Museum of Arts and Design from May 11 through mid-August 2010, will display the designs of six internationally renowned bicycle builders whose work in metal, as well as graphics and artifacts, elucidate this refined, intricate and deeply individual craft. Organized by Michael Maharam, owner of the eponymous textile company and an avid bicycle collector, along with master builder Sacha White of Vanilla Bicycles in Portland, Oregon, this survey is presented [...]

Steven Holl Architects Wins Two 2010 “Good Design Is Good Business” China Awards

NEW YORK, NY.- Steven Holl Architects has received “Good Design Is Good Business” Awards for Linked Hybrid in Beijing and the Horizontal Skyscraper/Vanke Center in Shenzhen.
The awards, administered by Architectural Record and McGraw-Hill Construction, recognize a total of 17 projects in six categories.
Linked Hybrid, completed in 2009, won a Best Residential Project Award for “breaking with the usual developer formula of gated communities.” The Jury stated, “this complex of apartment towers, hotel, and multiplex cinema invites the entire city to [...]

Yona Friedman, Thomas Lommée, and Navid Nuur Exhibiti at Stroom

THE HAGUE.- The exhibition ‘Up to You’ brings together the work of architect Yona Friedman, designer Thomas Lommée and artist Navid Nuur. Very consciously they deploy aspects such as time and coincidence in their work. This is something the society we live in is not prepared for. Our society is built on security, represented by ideal images and ideal numbers. All in vain, because security is an illusion. Allowing insecurity to enter the design process creates a sense of freedom. [...]

Carsten Holler Presents New Series of Huge Complex Mushroom Replicas

ROTTERDAM.- Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen stages Carsten Höller’s exhibition Divided Divided. The popular contemporary artist is creating a 1,500 m2 installation especially for the museum. What’s more, visitors can spend the night in the Revolving Hotel Room. All the works on show are based on a simple mathematical formula that divides and re-divides the space and the objects into two.
Carsten Höller is presenting a new series of huge complex mushroom replicas (Triple Giant Mushrooms, 2009-2010). He has made a floating [...]

United States, British Architects Win Israel’s Wolf Prize

JERUSALEM.- British and American architects were named winners of Israel’s prestigious Wolf Prize.
The Wolf Foundation said Wednesday that British architect David Chipperfield is being recognized for overseeing the reconstruction of Berlin’s Neues Museum in a building that had been abandoned since World War II.
His new building incorporated bricks, stairs and bullet holes from the original museum, which opened in 1855.

British architect David Chipperfield poses in front of a of a computer generated image depicting the facade of the planned James [...]

Archival and Vintage Architectural Photography at Max Protetch Gallery

NEW YORK, NY.- Max Protetch Gallery presents Building by Shutter: Archival and Vintage Architectural Photography. The exhibition includes photographs by renowned architectural photographers Lucien Hervé and Balthazar Korab; their subjects include buildings by Le Corbusier (Hervé), Ludwig Mies van der Rohe and Eero Saarinen (Korab). It highlights the special relationships that architectural photographers form with the buildings they document, as well as with those buildings’ creators.
As modern architecture became a global phenomen on, those who were passionate about it became [...]

Mayor Bloomberg Unveils New Design for Sidewalk Sheds (New York)

NEW YORK, NY.- Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg, Department of Buildings Commissioner Robert D. LiMandri and President of the New York Chapter of the American Institute of Architects Anthony Schirripa, AIA, unveiled a new design for sidewalk sheds – the wood and steel structures built to protect pedestrians walking alongside buildings under construction. The design of the City’s sidewalk sheds has remained primarily unchanged since the 1950s and the new design will improve quality of life, reduce construction impacts on businesses, [...]

Three Architects Selected to Receive the 2010 AIA Thomas Jefferson Award

WASHINGTON, DC.- The American Institute of Architects (AIA) has selected, Curtis Fentress, FAIA, a designer, Les Shepherd, AIA, a government agency head, and Ken Greenberg, Assoc. AIA, an urban planner to receive the 2010 Thomas Jefferson Award for Public Architecture. This year’s award recipients will be honored and receive their awards at the 2010 AIA National Convention and Design Exposition in Miami.
The Thomas Jefferson Award recognizes excellence in architectural advocacy and achievement in three categories: Private-sector architects who have established [...]

Biennale di Venezia Presents Kazuyo Sejima as Director of Architecture

VENICE.- The Board of Directors of the Biennale di Venezia, chaired by Paolo Baratta, today presented Kazuyo Sejima as Director of the Architecture Sector, with specific responsibility for curating the 12th International Architecture Exhibition to be held in Venice between 29th August and 21st November 2010 (vernissage on 26th, 27th and 28th August). Kazuyo Sejima is the first woman to direct the Architecture Sector of the Biennale.
Born in Japan, in the prefecture of Ibaraki in 1956, Kazuyo Sejima is a [...]

MoMA and P.S. 1 Select Winner of 11th Annual Young Architects Program

NEW YORK, NY.- The Museum of Modern Art and P.S.1 Contemporary Art Center announce the winner of the 2010 MoMA/P.S.1 Young Architects Program: the architectural firm Solid Objectives – Idenburg Liu (SO – IL). Celebrating its eleventh year, the program continues its commitment to offering emerging architectural talent the opportunity to design and present innovative projects. After a successful first decade, the Young Architects Program will now focus on designs which address sustainability, recycling, and reuse. The five finalists selected [...]

2010 AIA Institute Honor Awards Excellence in Architecture

WASHINGTON, DCL.- The American Institute of Architects (AIA) has selected the 2010 recipients of the Institute Honor Awards, the profession’s highest recognition of works that exemplify excellence in architecture, interior architecture and urban design. Selected from over 700 total submissions, 28 recipients located throughout the world will be honored in June at the AIA 2010 National Convention and Design Exposition in Miami.

Outpost: Central Idaho” by Olson Kundig Architects

2010 Institute Honor Awards for Architecture
The jury for the 2010 Institute Honor Awards [...]