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Skidmore Owings & Merrill has revealed plans to build a glass-and-ceramic office building for Disney‘s New York operations, called 4 Hudson Square.

New York architecture firm Skidmore Owings & Merrill (SOM) unveiled the visuals for The Walt Disney Company‘s new Manhattan headquarters today. The project is set to span an entire city block in the neighbourhood of Hudson Square, which is north of Tribeca and west of SoHo.

Named called 4 Hudson Square, it will comprise a series of structures of different heights – some blocks will rise to 19 storeys, while others to nine levels.

The Disney complex is designed to integrate with the many brick buildings and former lofts in the historic New York neighbourhood, which was formerly a printing district. All of 4 Hudson Square will be constructed in the same style of rectangular windows encased in a grid of green terracotta tiles.

“The Walt Disney Company’s new headquarters for its New York operations will fit seamlessly into its neighbourhood of Hudson Square,” said SOM.

“The 19-storey, as-of-right building will rise in a series of graceful setbacks, which culminate in two, 320-foot towers and several terraces matching the scale of Hudson Square.”

SOM’s complex will feature double- and triple-columned panelling of tiles coloured green, intended to complement the surrounding brick structures.

“The building’s facade design is inspired by the material palette of Hudson Square – a neighbourhood of masonry and stone, as well as bronze-coloured metal, hints of colour, and punched windows,” said SOM.

“With a soft and sinuous profile, rich texture and materiality, and deep-set picture windows, the new structure will harmonize with its surroundings while expressing a contemporary aesthetic.”

Disney’s 4 Hudson Square will be on a plot that currently houses an eight-storey brick structure and an adjacent two-story building painted bright red.

The New York office building will stretch from Vandam Street to the north, Spring Street to the south, Varick Street east and Hudson Street west. It will be topped with different patios at the varying roof heights.

Disney will move its New York operations from West 66th Street on the Upper West Side to the new structure. The ground floor will be dedicated to retail areas, while offices will be placed on the floors above with large expansive plans.

“The architecture of the former ‘printing district’ called for large floors, and the site of the new headquarters allows for floorplates that reach up to 85,000 square feet – a size ideally suited to contemporary media production – with 1.2 million gross square feet in total,” SOM said.

Disney is a media company based in Burbank, California that operates 14 theme parks around the world, in addition to Walt Disney Pictures, Pixar, Marvel Studios, ABC network, ESPN sports and National Geographic in addition to many other outlets.

The company also includes Disney World resorts in Orlando designed by Michael Graves, a cultural complex in Spain called Tomorrowland by Santiago Calatrava, a Frank Gehry-designed concert hall in Los Angeles that illuminates at night. Disney also has developed a neighbourhood called Celebration in central Florida.

In addition to this project, SOM has also released plans for new concourse terminals at Chicago O’Hare Airport, a supertall skyscraper in Dubai and a new Chicago neighbourhood called Lincoln Yards.

Project credits:

Architect: Skidmore Owings & Merrill
Development manager: Silverstein Properties
Interior architect: Gensler
Structural engineer: Thornton Tomasetti Inc
MEP/FP/IT engineer: Jaros, Baum & Bolles
Civil & geotechnical engineer: Langan Engineering
Vertical transportation consultant: Edgett Williams Consulting Group
Code consultant: Code Consultants
Acoustical engineering: Cerami & Associates
Sustainability/LEED: Atelier Ten
Landscape design: SCAPE
Facade envelope: Heintges
Facade maintenance: Entek Engineering PLLC
Lighting design: Brandston Partnership
Security: DVS Security Inc

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A “dream home” built on the “tightest of budgets” by architects McGonigle McGrath has been named by the Royal Institute of British Architects as the UK‘s best house of 2019.

House Lessans, which stands on the site of an old farmstead in County Down, was chosen over six other architect-designed homes vying for the annual Royal Institute of British Architects (RIBA) House of the Year prize.

It was named as this year’s winner during the final episode of the Channel 4 television series Grand Designs: House of the Year.

Belfast studio McGonigle McGrath designed House Lessans to meet the needs of a semi-retired couple and their children, who have left home but occasionally visit and stay.

Two pared-back volumes with walls are made from white-rendered concrete with pitched zinc roofs, designed to complement the the neighbouring agricultural outbuildings.

McGonigle McGrath used deliberately simple details and construction methods that included cheap concrete blocks for the walls and huge openable windows, instead of bifold doors.

As a result, House Lessans cost just £335,000, equivalent to £1,425 per square metre.

RIBA president Alan Jones said the home was “executed with incredible clarity and restraint”.

“House Lessans demonstrates that life enhancing architecture does not have to cost the earth” he said.

“McGonigle McGrath have used simple and cheap materials to create a truly bespoke home that resonates with its owners and its context. Even with the tightest of budgets, House Lessans shows that a dream home, designed by a talented architect, can be a reality.”

One wing of the house contains a suite of three bedrooms, while the second hosts the communal living spaces that includes a double-height living room.

Like the exterior, all the rooms have simple finishes. The focus is on views out over the landscape that are framed through expanses of glass.

The house was chosen for RIBA House of the Year by a panel including Tom Miller of Haysom Ward Miller Architects, last year’s winner of the award, and John Pardey as chair.

Pardey said the house “represents a paradigm in creating relevant contemporary architecture that truly reflects its local context, vernacular and culture”.

“It has an elegant simplicity achieved within a remarkably low budget without excesses, creating delight in the subtly changing volumes as well as its relationship between the inside and outside,” Pardey added.

“The house takes the daily business of life and with the architects’ skills in making a house from simple materials, carefully detailed and with precise alignments, succeeds in becoming not just a house, but more importantly, a home.”

House Lessans was one of 20 houses on the RIBA House of the Year 2019 longlist, which featured in the Grand Designs: House of the Year series.

Over the four-week run of the TV series, the list was cut down to a shortlist of seven projects. This included Pocket House by Tikari Works, Nithurst Farm by Adam Richards Architects and Secular Retreat by Atelier Peter Zumthor.

House Lessans was the second project by McGonigle McGrath to have been shortlisted for the prize, following House Maghera‘s nomination in 2015, which lost out to Flint House by Skene Catling de la Pena.

Last year, the RIBA House of the Year prize was also awarded to another humble rural dwelling. Named Lochside House, it was designed by Cambridge studio Haysom Ward Millar Architects for a ceramic artist and functions off-grid.

Other winners of the prize include a “box of tricks” house in Edinburgh and a dwelling that references the hop-drying towers of the Kent countryside.

Photography is by Aidan McGrath.

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Thomas Heatherwick’s Pier 55 park within New York’s Hudson River has been renamed Little Island, as visuals and a video detailing the project’s construction are released.

Updated details of the project were revealed today by the Diller-von Furstenberg Family Foundation, which is funding the project.

Now called Little Island, the project is currently taking shape at 55 Hudson Greenway on the Hudson River, just off the shoreline in New York’s Chelsea neighbourhood.

Heatherwick Studio‘s design comprises a total of 132 planters mushroom-shaped concrete columns that will rise above the water to create a new parkland.

“It’s a joyous feeling to see Little Island rise up in the Hudson River, and now I can’t wait for New Yorkers and its visitors to cross the bridge, leave the boisterous city behind, and play, lay back and be stimulated every which way by the Island,” said media mogul Barry Diller, co-founder of Diller-von Furstenberg Family Foundation.

New footage captures the cast-in concrete planters being lifted by cranes to sit atop piles in the water. They are designed to look like tulips that rise in varying heights – rising between 15 to 62 feet (4.5 to 18.9 metres) above the river to create a topographical landscape, and enable different views of the city.

Little Island will comprise areas to host community events, including performances, arts and educational programmes.

The British studio has worked with Signe Nielsen of Mathews Nielsen Landscape Architects to design the 2.4-acre- green space to include lawns, paths and rolling hills. It is also set to be home to 100 species of trees and shrubs.

Renderings show that the park will be accessible from entrances on 13th and 14th Streets via elevated walkways.

Slated for completion in 2021, Little Island has encountered a number of stumbling blocks since it was first unveiled in November 2014.

The project, which is intended to replace an old pier, gained planning permission in 2016 but came up against a series of court challenges and permit issues the following year, which caused the costs to balloon from $35 million to $250 million.

It also faced opposition from advocacy group City Club of New York, which argued that the structure was not suitable for its proposed location in a protected estuary.

Billionaire Diller – who runs the foundation backing the scheme with his wife, fashion designer Diane von Furstenberg – scrapped the project for a brief period following these issues.

Now well underway, the park will join a number of projects designed by Heatherwick for areas along the Hudson River, and near to the elevated High Line Park.

The designer’s Lantern House residential towers are currently under construction just a few blocks further up the city’s High Line, while his The Vessel staircase opened earlier this year in the Hudson Yards development, located north of the pathway’s tip.

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From the return of the escape key to substantial spec upgrades inside and out

With today’s debut of Apple‘s all-new 16-inch MacBook Pro (an evident upgrade from the previous 15-inch iteration), the design team once again maximized functionality in conjunction with size (now 16.2mm thick) and weight (4.3 pounds). Hot off their announcement of the world’s best Pro Display XDR and an advanced Mac Pro machine, both available this December, Apple’s latest laptop strengthens their line-up in the pro sector to its strongest ever. Several upgrades contribute to the new MacBook Pro’s enhanced value—especially regarding its keyboard, speaker system and all-around performance. Of course, there’s the captivating 16-inch Retina display (of 3072 by 1920 pixels at 226ppi) with 500 nits of brightness and P3 wide color gamut. But that superior visual experience is only part of what impressed us while we toyed with the product.

A quick glance at the keyboard reveals the return of the escape key (set beside a more refined touch-bar). For this alone developers may delight, but that’s not all that’s noticeable. Apple has moved away from their butterfly keyboard and pushed the essence of their Magic Keyboard further and incorporated the results. The keys here have been reconfigured based on several human factors and—with regard to key design—acoustics, accuracy and tactile perception all play a big role. For this, a new stable key was invented, based upon a reimagined rubber dome and a redesigned scissor mechanism. When touching each, or simply typing away at many, there’s a satisfying physical response—but it’s much quieter than expected. As we compare it alongside 2015’s 15-inch MacBook Pro, the typing experience is far more finessed.

Six internal speakers deliver a swell of sound that’s louder, clearer and deeper than expected. Part of this pertains to the fact that Apple has placed the laptop’s woofer drivers back-to-back, allowing each to cancel out the others’ vibration force. This is a patented system and definitely merits attention as laptop sound systems generally distort songs. The MacBook Pro has one other audio development: the inclusion of three studio-quality mics. With technology that rivals that of professional digital microphones, the notebook picks up clear sound with natural hiss-reduction. This should be beneficial to podcasters and recording artists alike.

As expected, the MacBook Pro features a laundry list of performance upgrades. There’s a reimagined thermal architecture inside that increases airflow and delivers 12 more watts of power. From the six-core and eight-core ninth-generation processors to the 64gbs of memory and up to 8TB SSD storage, capabilities and speed increase. There are also AMD Radeon Pro 5000M series graphics. Apple claims that the battery (the largest ever in a MacBook Pro) will offer 11 hours for both wireless web and video usage. This, too, sets a new standard. During our time with the computer, we weren’t able to test that claim, but can attest to the machine’s speed and clarity—and its ability to handle several exceptionally large tasks at once. The only thing that hasn’t changed: the four Thunderbolt 3 ports. Though, now they can handle two simultaneous Pro Display XDRs.

The 16-Inch MacBook Pro is available to order today and will be rolling out by the end of the week. Primary configurations will start at $2,399 and $2,799—with options for further customization. It’s worth mentioning that Apple also offers a trade-in program for MacBooks at their retail stores.

Images courtesy of Apple

The Disney+ streaming service is finally here, and yesterday they premiered the much-anticipated show The Mandalorian. For the next month and a half, Star Wars fans will get to tune in to the eight-episode show, which follows the titular bounty hunter around the edges of the galaxy.

This isn’t the kind of blog where I can review the show, but I can certainly go over some of the production design details with you. (Warning: Mild spoilers ahead.)

The show opens with a cantina barfight that ends with grisly results. As evinced by the design of this door, building safety codes are not very strict on this planet.

The starport where the Mandalorian parked his ride doesn’t offer shuttle service, so he calls for an Uber. The first option presented is an autonomous (okay, droid-driven) model.

No one in any universe thinks autonomous cars are totally safe, so he gets a second Uber that appears to be driven by Louis C.K. in exile.

I find it hard to believe that the Speeder dealerships on this frigid snow planet sell the same roadster models they sell on hot desert planets. No canopy, not even a windscreen!

Let’s talk about the Mandalorian’s ship. While it looks cool from the three-quarters angle you see above…

…I can guarantee it was not presented at the pitch meeting in orthographic views. Because from the front, it looks like R2-D2 lifting weights.

We can see, however, that he’s got some pretty sweet options on it. Panoramic sunroof, check.

And the interior’s pretty dope, he’s got perforated leatherette seats.

And finally, finally! We get to see what a spaceship toilet looks like. I believe this is the first time they’ve ever shown one in the Star Wars universe. It’s not very clear to me how this thing is meant to be used, and I don’t see any toilet paper nor a handle to flush with.

Inside a closet we get to see the Mandalorian’s Vision Wall. It appears he’s, like, a total gun nut.

We also get to see that he’s frozen multiple perps in carbonite, and stores them on board. This Rodian capture is hardcore–he’s flashing gang signs even as he’s frozen.

There’s also a female capture. If sexism exists in a galaxy far, far away, I’m guessing her bounty is 77 space-cents on the space-dollar.

Here we see something interesting: This guy started to cry when he got frozen, and his tears have streamed out and frozen solid. I’m going to say this guy was in touch with his feelings and not a proponent of toxic masculinity.

This Darth-Maul-lookin’ dude was obviously a problem, as he was frozen while still wearing cuffs. If the Mandalorian was wearing a body-cam, I guarantee he turned it off before dealing with this guy.

I know it’s super-blurry in this shot, but that little want that you use to scan carbonite-frozen quarry looks like it was designed by the same people who did the Nintendo NES controller.

This was the coolest design I found all episode: When the hatch on his ship opens, it’s supported by hydraulic arms. But those arms might be obtrusive for loading and unloading, so they slide up and out of the way on little tracks. Props to the designer for sweating the details on this one.

Here we see some Star Wars EveryDay Carry items we’ve not seen before: fugitive-tracking key fobs and Imperial money, which looks like you unwrap them and there’s delicious chocolate inside.

More EveryDay Carry items: The iPhone XX…

…which has a holographic display.

Here’s an alleyway junkie with an Oculus Rift.

I can’t decide if this guy is a wok chef who brings it home with him every night, an inventor of a hands-free umbrella, or half-human and half-mushroom.

The Hello Nest doorbell that emerges from the wall looks like it’s still on Halloween mode: It’s filled with some kind of creepy, gummy treats.

Here we see some seriously crusty Stormtroopers. These guys haven’t washed their armor since Return of the Jedi. Each one of them probably smells like an entire locker room.

The Mandalorian’s armor is pretty banged-up too. I guarantee you when he’s off-shift, he wears Carhartt.

At one point he goes to visit a Bunsen burner saleswoman who moonlights as a blacksmith.

She’s got a Limited Edition golden helmet with little horns.

Back on another desert planet, we see a great shot of his rifle, which doubles as a tuning fork.

He stops off at a town that looks like Burning Man when they’re first setting it up.

I wasn’t crazy about the character design for this creature, called a Blurrg. What was the brief? “Make it look like a cross between Don Rickles and a deep-sea fish.”

I know the Blurrg is a carryover from one of the sequels, but they didn’t have to put it in. It looks like one of the drawings your kid did that didn’t score high enough to make it onto the refrigerator.

The IG-11 droid he meets has seen a lot of John Woo movies. He can also shoot both forwards and backwards at the same time, which is pretty bad-ass.

IG-11 also walks exactly like he was created by Boston Dynamics.

Don’t worry, I won’t spoil the final scene. And in all seriousness, what did the designers among you think of the show’s production value? And will you watch more?