Proposed for a site between Hackescher Markt, Friedrichshain and Berlin-Mitte, the building is conceived as a cluster of distorted cuboids that have been rotated away from one another to relate to some of the city’s main focal points, particularly the nearby Karl-Marx-Allee.
Three hundred apartments and a hotel will be located within the building, while the exterior will be clad with stone.
“Gehry’s design is strong in visual expression and introduces an unusually eccentric, new pattern for this location. Nevertheless, the facade radiates agreeable tranquility,” commented Regula Lüscher, director of the city’s urban development department and one of the competition judges.
“The design blends well with the neighbourhood and conveys all aspects of metropolitan living,” she added.
This will be the third time that Gehry has collaborated with Hines. The firm was his client for the DZ Bank in Berlin and acted as development manager for his New World Center in Miami Beach.
“The quality of the designs submitted was extremely high and reflected the importance of this prominent location in the centre of Berlin,” commented Christoph Reschke, one of Hines’ managing directors.
“This place has a strong symbolic character and will develop into a metropolitan residential and retail area. In order to transform the square, we want to take a chance on something new and exceptional,” he said.
G is for Frank Gehry in our seventh A-Zdvent calendar window. The American architect’s Guggenheim Museum in the Spanish city of Bilbao (pictured) famously sparked a trend for cities commissioning iconic buildings as catalysts for regeneration, while other high-profile projects include his Walt Disney Concert Hall in Los Angeles and the upcoming new headquarters for Facebook.
News: architect Frank Gehry has submitted new plans for a hotel and apartment complex to be located across the road from his Walt Disney Concert Hall in Los Angeles.
Frank Gehry’s original plans for the three-acre site on Grand Avenue were declined in 2006, but the architect is once again working alongside real estate developer Related Companies on a new vision that would see a pair of towers constructed opposite one of his most iconic buildings.
According to the LA Times, the complex will comprise a stacked arrangement of shops and restaurants arranged around a U-shaped plaza. The two towers will be positioned on either side, with the first housing a 300-room hotel and the second containing apartments for both rental and sale.
Landscaped terraces would cascade down the side of the complex, offering residents and guests a view towards the famous concert hall. There’s also an option to add an auditorium that could be used as both a performance space and a nightclub.
Proposals were submitted to planning officials on Monday. If approved, construction could begin in 2015 and be complete by 2018.
Gehry is also reported to be looking at the design of the Grand Avenue streetscape and could propose new paving and street lighting between the concert hall and the site. He recently complained about plans for a new subway line nearby, claiming it would ruin performances.
News: architect Frank Gehry is designing new offices for social network Facebook in London and Dublin.
Frank Gehry first started working with Facebook last year on the design of its new Silicon Valley campus, but will now work with the company to replace its existing offices in the UK and Irish capitals.
The new London headquarters will reportedly occupy three floors of 10 Brock Street – a British Land development at Regent’s Place, London. With an area of 8000 square metres, it will double the size of the existing Covent Garden address and will place Facebook in the same building as rival social network Twitter.
“Our new home will give us the space to double the number of people working at Facebook London and build on what we’ve achieved there over the past few years,” Facebook’s European chief Nicola Mendelsohn told the Evening Standard.
Facebook’s Dublin staff will relocate to a new 11,000 square-metre space in Grand Canal Square, allowing capacity for up to 1000 employees.
Los Angeles firm Gehry Partners will collaborate with London office Foster + Partners to carry out phase three of the Rafael Viñoly-designed masterplan, adding a shopping street to connect the old Victorian power station with a new London Underground station, and building residential neighbourhoods on either side.
The two firms will co-design the retail stretch, known as The High Street, which will encompass shops, restaurants, a library, a hotel and a leisure centre. Foster + Partners will add residential buildings to the east, while Gehry will work on the residential zone to the west – the architect’s first major project in the UK.
“Our goal is to help create a neighbourhood and a place for people to live that respects the iconic Battersea Power Station while connecting it into the broader fabric of the city,” said Gehry. “We hope to create a design that is uniquely London, that respects and celebrates the historical vernacular of the city.”
Speaking to the Financial Times, he described his ambition to add a sculptural form to the centre of his design. “The developers said the [potential] renters loved the view of the power station, so I said why don’t we put a more sculptural object, we call it a ‘flower’, in the middle, as a secondary sculpture for Battersea – it gives something for everybody,” he told the paper.
Grant Brooker, design director at Foster + Partners, added: “[The project] has a vision which will transform this area and create a vibrant new district for South London that we can all be proud of.”
The Giles Gilbert Scott-designed Battersea Power Station has been out of use since 1983 and has been subject to a number of unsuccessful proposals over the last 30 years, including a stadium for Chelsea Football Club, a public garden and a theme park.
The latest masterplan by New York architect Rafael Viñoly includes the construction of 3,400 new homes. London firm Wilkinson Eyre is working on the renovation of the power station, while Ian Simpson Architects and dRMM are carrying out phase one of the surrounding development.
Architect Frank Gehry has released images of his shortlisted entry for the competition to design National Art Museum of China (NAMOC) in Beijing – a competition thought to have been won by Jean Nouvel.
Gehry’s submission features translucent stone cladding and an interior made up of a series of tall, geometric courtyards reminiscent of pagodas and temples.
“We realized the project from concept through design to a full scale mock-up [of the cladding] that we manufactured in Beijing,” says David Nam, partner at Gehry Partners. “The project was developed in depth over one and a half years through 3 stages of competition.”
Nam added: “To our knowledge the Chinese government has made no official announcement [about the winner of the competition]”.
The National Art Museum of China (NAMOC) will be the showpiece of a new cultural district being built close to Herzog & de Meuron’s National Stadium in Beijing’s Olympic Park. It will attract up to 12 million visitors per year, making it the world’s busiest art museum.
Here’s some text about the project from Gehry Partners:
NATIONAL ART MUSEUM OF CHINA
COMPETITION
Beijing, People’s Republic of China
The globalization of art is connecting the cultures of the world. Art can act as the instrument for breaking down the barriers to understanding between cultures. China is the focus of this global conversation at this moment. The Chinese contemporary art world is exploding at an unprecedented rate proportionate to the size of its population. People all over the world are flocking to experience Chinese art. This form of cultural engagement promotes cross cultural understanding and appreciation. This is the model for the future, and is central to the design of the National Art Museum of China (NAMOC).
The competition for NAMOC involved three rounds that took place between December 2010–July 2012. Round One was the concept phase. Round two was the primary design phase. Round three addressed client feedback from round two, and advanced the technical development of the project.
NAMOC will form the centerpiece of a new cultural district in Beijing. Located to the north of the city center in the Olympic Park, the district will be comprised of four museums. NAMOC will occupy the most important site facing the central axis of the Olympic Park. The primary goal of the competition brief was to create a design that addresses the concept of a 21st century Chinese architecture. We created a design that is uniquely tailored to China and its rich cultural history, evoking historical models without copying them, to create an innovative building unlike anything else in the world.
Throughout our projects we have been looking for a way to express movement with inert materials like the Greeks did with the horses and soldiers in the Elgin marbles and like the Indian Shiva dancing figures. Our effort to express subtle movement in the façade is what leads us to studying glass.
The façade is clad with a new material developed by Gehry Partners – translucent stone. Evocative of the most precious Chinese materials, it has the qualities of jade. Of all the materials we explored, we found glass to be the most transcendent and symbolic of Chinese landscape paintings, of moving water, of the mountains covered in mist. It has gravitas that creates an emotional impact on visitors. It gives the building a stately and noble appearance, appropriate for a national museum.
We experimented with the translucent stone in many different conditions and configurations, looked at it in various lights, and found that it has the ability to project movement. It changes beautifully with the light, becoming ephemeral, and allowing for different effects with artificial lighting, banners and projection. The glass allows the building to easily transform throughout the day and the seasons, as well as for festivals and for changing exhibitions.
The translucent stone is part of the innovative sustainable façade concept that incorporates a ventilated airspace to reduce the heating and cooling loads of the building. In addition, the airspace is used to display art banners and projections, which provides the ability for the building’s façade to change and remain current far into the future, even becoming a canvas for artist projects.
The building’s entries and interiors have been organized to accommodate an unprecedented number of patrons expected to visit the museum. The building has been designed to efficiently and comfortably accommodate 38,400 visitors per day and approximately 12 million visitors per year, enabling NAMOC to have the highest attendance of any museum in the world. Four distributed entries at each corner of the building facilitate the processing of a large number of visitors, and minimize any queuing of visitors. Each of the four entries is connected to one of four escalators systems that provide fast and efficient distribution of visitors to all parts of the museums. A ceremonial entrance is placed in the center of the west façade, facing the Olympic Park. The articulation of this entrance evokes the silhouette of a Chinese temple.
The building interiors are organized around a series of large public spaces, connected vertically by escalators. These spaces are inspired by pagoda and temple forms- rendered as occupiable voids; the shapes are only legible from the inside. The public spaces provide an orienting device for visitors to easily navigate the large museum, and establish a formal continuity between the shapes of the building façade and the interior of the museum. In addition to providing access to galleries, the public spaces provide opportunities for large scale art exhibit spaces and events.
The organization of the galleries was developed through discussions with NAMOC. Sixty percent of the galleries are dedicated to the permanent collections of 20th century Chinese art, Chinese calligraphy, Chinese folk art, and international art. The permanent collection is housed on the second, third, and fourth floors in gallery types to align with the requirements of the art. The ground floor, fifth floor, and roof top galleries are dedicated to changing contemporary art exhibitions. They are taller in height and have a greater variety of shape and scale.
The museum includes a full complement of supporting functions. An art academy, an art research and conservation institute, five auditoriums, retail stores, restaurants and cafes, and large art storage areas have been incorporated into the design of the museum.
The design for the museum was developed with an integrated sustainability concept. The design is based on a high comfort-low impact strategy that includes concepts for load reduction, system optimization, and renewable resource substitution.
The innovative façade design reduces the heating and cooling loads for the building.
Extensive daylighting of circulation spaces is used to reduce artificial lighting requirements.
Photovoltaic cells are incorporated on the roof, and generate enough electricity to power 100% of the lighting electrical loads for the building.
Geothermal wells incorporated with the building’s foundation system are used to satisfy 100% of the heat rejection requirements of the heating and cooling system, eliminating the need for cooling towers at the roof of the building.
The calculated impact of the integrated sustainability concept is a 57% reduction in energy use and carbon emissions over a standard museum, the equivalent of 275 Beijing households.
Gehry Partners developed a larger landscape and master plan design for the museum’s surrounding areas to link with master plan for the cultural district. A revitalized waterfront park to the west provides new public open spaces and ground level retail areas, and a visual foreground to the museum as viewed from the main axis of the Olympic Park. A connection to the subway is provided at the first level below grade that links directly to the museum. A new park to the east of the museum offers additional public open space and sculpture gardens as an extension of the museum. The roof of the museum has a public garden that allows visitors views to the Olympic Park beyond, and provides a key fifth elevation to the museum when viewed from above.
Planned for King Street West at the centre of Toronto’s entertainment district, the proposed gallery and university complex includes the construction of three 82-86 storey metre skyscrapers, atop an expansive art gallery and a learning centre for OCAD University‘s art history and curatorial courses.
Moving on from the initial design revealed in October 2012, Frank Gehry envisages the three residential towers with layers of ribbon-like cladding, creating curving surfaces and asymmetrical shapes. Despite objections from the city’s planning department, the proposed heights remain unchanged.
The planned demolition of three warehouses and a small theatre to make way for the new buildings also prompted concerns from city officials. In response, Gehry has added a structure of vertical, horizontal and diagonal wooden beams to the base buildings as a reference to the area’s industrial past.
“Toronto has grown to look like every other screwed-up city,” Gehry told the Toronto Star. “We’re searching for that way of expressing old Toronto without copying what they did.”
He continued: “It’s not hard to do a skyscraper; but how do you do one that has some Toronto DNA in it? I lived not far from the site. I remember the warehouses. It was the industrial section where the factories were. But we need to bring a new kind of life down there.”
The project is currently set for completion in 2023.
News: an amended proposal by architect Frank Gehry for a memorial to President Dwight D. Eisenhower in Washington D.C. has been approved after several years of debate over its design.
Following a presentation by Gehry on Friday, the Eisenhower Memorial Commission voted through his proposed changes, despite continuing dissent from members of Eisenhower’s family.
In 2001, Gehry accepted criticism of the original proposal, which the family claimed was too extravagant. The design features large woven steel “tapestries” depicting scenes from Eisenhower’s early life in Kansas.
Gehry has now added plans for sculptures showing him with troops of the 101st Airborne Division at the Normandy landings and signing the first Civil Rights Act since Reconstruction.
“The memorial celebrates Eisenhower as general and president. In bronze and stone, he is represented by his words and by the people who helped him accomplish so much,” said Gehry in a letter to the Commission.
“Eisenhower’s story, achievements, and words have been an inspiration to countless Americans,” he added. “I hope you will find that the memorial we have designed to commemorate his life will serve as a beacon to amplify that inspiration.”
The Commision’s decision to back the updated design means that the project can now be presented to the US Commission of Fine Arts and the National Capital Planning Commission.
Read Frank Gehry’s letter to the Eisenhower Memorial Commissioners below:
Commissioners:
Thank you for inviting me to be here today.
President Eisenhower said, “I come from the very heart of America”, and it is a sentiment he expressed often.
He did not come from great beginnings, yet he became a great general and a great President.
He was born in a modest frame house, yet he became one of the most revered occupants of the White House.
I come here today more humbled than ever to present the evolution of our design for the Eisenhower Memorial. I have spent the last four years immersed in Eisenhower’s words,and the words of those who have shaped how history will define him. These two perspectives are often at odds – one modest, the other monumental.
President Eisenhower’s historic achievements and his genuine humility combined to make him truly exceptional. This unique combination – common modesty paired with uncommon vision and leadership – is what equipped him, time and again, to overcome seemingly insurmountable odds; to succeed in the face of great adversity.
Victory in the face of obstacles is Eisenhower’s story, but it is also the story of America: the promise that anyone can rise from any background to become anything he or she wants, through hard work and diligence.
This is our history, but it is also our future. It is the promise that should inspire each visitor to the memorial.
In designing this memorial to President Eisenhower’s life of public service, we have striven to embody that balance, to create a physical memorial that exemplifies the immaterial qualities that have made him an indelible part of our nation’s legacy.
As you know, Eisenhower’s story starts in Abilene – the heart of the Middle West. Throughout Eisenhower’s life, he never stopped considering Abilene a part of himself – his true home. It was here that his identity was formed. It was here where he developed the qualities that would take him from the beaches at Normandy to the White House.
Abilene served as our inspiration for a backdrop to Eisenhower’s story – not only because of its importance to him, but because of its message to future generations of America’s leaders. Abilene serves as a reminder that out of difficult circumstance come character,innovation, and even greatness. It demonstrates that dreams can be achieved as long as they are bolstered by hard work, perseverance and education.
Eisenhower’s modest, pastoral roots are represented on the tapestries that surround the memorial and set the stage for the memorial core.
The memorial celebrates Eisenhower as General and President. In bronze and stone, he is represented by his words and by the people who helped him accomplish so much.
As General, he is depicted with the troops of the 101st Airborne Division, with thelanding at Normandy in the background.
As President, he is depicted in an artistic representation of him signing the first Civil Rights Act since Reconstruction.
The landing at Normandy was the turning point in the Western Front and in the salvation of Europe from the Nazis. The signing of the Civil Rights act was one of the many significant pieces of legislation that Eisenhower shepherded into law. It exemplifies his passionate advocacy for all of the citizens of this great country and his unshakable belief that everyone – regardless of their race– deserved equal access to the resources that make america great.
Eisenhower saw himself as an ordinary man, yet his leadership was extraordinary.
He was a humble man, yet his achievements continue to make Americans proud.
He did not set out to make history, but his strength of character has resonated for generations.
Eisenhower’s story, achievements, and words have been an inspiration to countless Americans. I hope you will find that the memorial we have designed to commemorate his life will serve as a beacon to amplify that inspiration.
He said the new offices would “share many of the features of [Facebook’s] headquarters, but will be distinctly Big Apple in design and speak to the unique experience of working in a place like Manhattan.”
Gehry’s design will provide employees with “big, open spaces for people to work and collaborate, and lots of room for conference rooms and cozy spaces where people can meet or grab a white board to talk through ideas on a whim,” Piantino added.
Scheduled for early 2014, the move will double the size of the firm’s engineering offices, which are currently based at 335 Madison Avenue, and will also accommodate sales, marketing, communications and design teams.
News: architect Frank Gehry has warned that performances at his Walt Disney Concert Hall in Los Angeles could be ruined by the noise of a subway line planned nearby.
The new Metro line below the parking garage of the venue, which is one of the architect’s best-known buildings, is expected to open in 2020.
In an acoustic experiment conducted in April, subwoofers simulating the sound of a passing train could be heard in the auditorium.
“The test was several minutes long,” said Fred Vogler, a recording engineer who oversees concert-taping for the Los Angeles Philharmonic. “Then they said, ‘Is anybody troubled by the train sounds?’ We said, ‘Well, we heard them, if that’s what you’re asking.’ It set off a lot of concerns.”
Tests of subway noise carried out nearly two years ago by Metro’s noise abatement consultants had led them to predict there would be no audible impact on Disney Hall, but Gehry has now called for this decision to be reviewed.
“The flag is up, and we should go over it and make sure,” he said.
However, Art Leahy, Metro’s chief executive, reassured concerned parties that nothing that might damage the hall would be approved to be built.
“We are not about to do anything which in any fashion, however slightly, impairs or damages … Disney Hall or any other feature in that area,” he said.
The Walt Disney Concert Hall was completed by Gehry in 2003 and designed to be one of the most acoustically sophisticated concert halls in the world.
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