If you recall back to the tail end of last year, when budget cuts were sweeping through the UK with an unmerciful vengeance, and sympathies were particularly heavy toward the Commission for Architecture and the Build Environment (Cabe) as they announced their government funding had been cut. Prince Charles even got a (now semi-routine) batch of flak for offering to help take over some of their architectural review duties with his Foundation for the Built Environment. However, according to a recent report by the Telegraph, perhaps the former employees, the ones who didn’t stick around when the organization merged with the UK’s more famous Design Council, did okay for themselves with some fairly generous severance packages. “Golden handshakes,” the paper calls the government-wide redundancy packages, which reportedly cost British taxpayers somewhere in the range of “almost £1 billion.” Cabe itself apparently did okay, with £2.7million spread across the 76 employees who were laid off. Building Designhighlights that its former director of resources, Charlotte Cane, “received £224,000 when she left her post” and Matt Bell, director of campaigns and education, “was handed a £111,000 payout.” Whether you think it’s a good thing that the people in these creative professions weren’t thrown out on the street when the government decided to cut off their employers, or that they should have to pay back every Pound and live in shame, working in forced labor on a peat bog somewhere in the country for the rest of their lives is completely up to you. We just post about it.
The first-ever building to have a carbon fibre structure is a mobile studio-cum-stage by Japanese architects Atelier Bow-Wow, which just opened in New York.
The BMW Guggenheim Lab comprises a black mesh-clad box, elevated by the lightweight framework that makes it easily transportable.
Nestled between two existing buildings, the structure shelters a courtyard studio that is open to the street at both ends.
A rigging of lighting, screens, audio equipment and other tools is suspended behind the mesh and can be lowered into the studio for different activities.
A timber hut provides a cafe for visitors where picnic benches are sheltered beneath a fabric canopy.
The lab is hosting a series of programs around the theme of comfort in the city, including talks, exhibitions, discussions, screenings, workshops and games.
As part of a six-year tour of mobile studios, the lab will later be relocated to Berlin and Mumbai, before being replaced by a new structure and theme.
Here are some more details from the BMW Guggenheim Lab:
BMW Guggenheim Lab Opens Aug 3 in New York, Launching Six-Year Worldwide Tour
Berlin and Mumbai are Next Stops in Nine-City Global Initiative
New York, NY, August 2, 2011 – The BMW Guggenheim Lab launches its nine-city worldwide tour tomorrow in Manhattan’s East Village. A combination of think tank, public forum, and community center, the BMW Guggenheim Lab will offer free programs that explore the challenges of today’s cities within a mobile structure that was designed to house this urban experiment. Over the next six years, the BMW Guggenheim Lab will go through three successive cycles, each with its own theme and specially designed mobile structure. Each structure will travel to three different locations, building on-site and online communities around the BMW Guggenheim Lab that raise awareness of important issues, generate ideas specific to each urban situation, and engage with innovative and sustainable designs, yielding lasting benefits for cities around the world. At the conclusion of the first cycle, in 2013, the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum in New York will present a special exhibition of the findings of the BMW Guggenheim Lab’s inaugural three-city tour—to New York, Berlin, and Mumbai. The itineraries of the subsequent two-year cycles will be announced at a later date.
The inaugural BMW Guggenheim Lab is located at First Park, Houston at 2nd Avenue, a New York City Parks property, and is open free of charge Wednesdays to Sundays, from August 3 through October 16. A diverse range of more than 100 programs will address the theme for the BMW Guggenheim Lab’s first cycle, Confronting Comfort, exploring how urban environments can be made more responsive to people’s needs, how a balance can be found between notions of individual versus collective comfort, and how the urgent need for environmental and social responsibility can be met. Programs include Urbanology, a large-scale interactive group game that can be played both on-site and online, as well as workshops, experiments, discussions, screenings, and off-site tours.
The BMW Guggenheim Lab website and blog at bmwguggenheimlab.org offer a global audience a variety of ways to participate in this multidisciplinary urban project. Activities at the BMW Guggenheim Lab will be reported on through the blog, which will also feature posts by notable guest writers and regular interviews with the BMW Guggenheim Lab’s collaborators. Members of the public are invited to join the BMW Guggenheim Lab’s dedicated social communities on Twitter (@BMWGuggLab, use hashtag #BGLab), Facebook, YouTube, Flickr, and foursquare.
“New York City has long been an urban laboratory for new ideas and innovative enterprises, so we are pleased to host the inaugural BMW Guggenheim Lab experiment,” said Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg. “This creative project provides an important opportunity for New Yorkers to connect and share ideas, and we look forward to the conversations that will take place when the Lab travels around the world.”
“Tomorrow’s launch of the BMW Guggenheim Lab in New York City is just the beginning of what we expect to be an incredible journey,” stated Richard Armstrong, Director of the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum and Foundation. “The Guggenheim is taking its commitment to education, scholarship, and design innovation one step further. We’re taking it on the road. From New York to Berlin to Mumbai and beyond, we will address the enormously important issues our major cities are facing today and engage others along the way. We sincerely thank BMW for collaborating with us on this worthy endeavor.”
“As a company, we like to take action,” said Harald Krüger, Member of the Board of Management BMW AG. “We are interested in fostering an open dialogue about the challenges ahead for all of us. The world premiere of the global, six-year BMW Guggenheim Lab initiative is a true milestone for BMW, building upon our experience in both sustainability and cultural engagement. We are thrilled to support a multidisciplinary platform for forward-looking ideas and new solutions for megacities. With a great collaborator like the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum and Foundation, we are confident the BMW Guggenheim Lab will thrive.”
BMW Guggenheim Lab Programming in New York
The BMW Guggenheim Lab addresses issues of contemporary urban life through free programs designed to spark curiosity and interaction, encouraging visitors to participate in the BMW Guggenheim Lab’s research by generating questions, answers, ideas, and dialogue.
A central component of the BMW Guggenheim Lab’s programming in New York is Urbanology, a large group game that can be played on-site, in an interactive installation, as well as online at bmwguggenheimlab.org/urbanology. Participants role-play scenarios for city transformation and become advocates for education, housing, health care, sustainability, infrastructure, and mobility as they build a city that matches their specific needs and values. The game experience for Urbanology was developed by Local Projects, and the physical design was created by ZUS [Zones Urbaines Sensibles].
Leading architects, academics, innovators, and entrepreneurs who will give public talks at the BMW Guggenheim Lab in New York include BMW Guggenheim Lab design architect Yoshiharu Tsukamoto (co-principal of Atelier Bow-Wow); BMW Guggenheim Lab Advisory Committee members Elizabeth Diller (founding principal of Diller Scofidio + Renfro), Nicholas Humphrey (emeritus professor of psychology at the London School of Economics), and Juliet Schor (professor of sociology at Boston College); Saskia Sassen (Robert S. Lynd Professor of Sociology at Columbia University); and Gabrielle Hamilton (chef and owner of the restaurant Prune).
An ongoing series of off-site experiments will allow participants to use special equipment to measure the effect that different areas of the city have on the brain and body. Another series, organized by spurse, a creative consulting and design collaborative, will explore the complexities of comfort through a multiweek series of on- and off-site programs with public participation.
Screenings will take place at the BMW Guggenheim Lab on Wednesdays and Sundays. The first two screenings will feature Blank City by Celine Danhier (2011, USA/France, 94 min.) on August 3; and Last Address by Ira Sachs (2010, USA, 9 min.) and Wild Combination: A Portrait of Arthur Russell by Matt Wolf (2008, USA, 71 min.) on August 7.
Architecture and Graphic Design
The mobile structure for the first cycle of the BMW Guggenheim Lab has been designed by the Tokyo-based Atelier Bow-Wow as a lightweight and compact “traveling toolbox.” The 2,200-square-foot structure can easily fit into dense neighborhoods and be transported from city to city. In New York, the two-story structure is nestled between two buildings on a three-quarter-acre T-shaped site; at its southern end, it opens out onto an inviting landscaped public space and cafe.
The lower half of the BMW Guggenheim Lab structure is an open space that can be configured to meet the particular needs of the various programs, shifting from a formal lecture setting with a stage to the scene for a celebratory gathering or a workshop. The upper, “toolbox” portion of the structure is loosely wrapped in two layers of semitransparent mesh, which creates a shimmering moiré effect and allows visitors to catch glimpses of the extensive apparatus of “tools” that can be raised or lowered on a rigging system to configure the lower space for the different programs. Remarkably, the BMW Guggenheim Lab is the first building designed with a structural framework composed of carbon fiber. Videos and images of the structure and the construction process can be viewed at youtube.com/bmwguggenheimlab and flickr.com/bmwguggenheimlab.
“Rather than architects educating the public on how to behave within spaces, it is the public who should have the autonomy of spatial practice in their cities,” stated Yoshiharu Tsukamoto and Momoyo Kaijima of Atelier Bow-Wow. “We have always been advocates of people regaining ownership in order to shape the city around them, and are very pleased to participate in the launch of the BMW Guggenheim Lab. We always conceived the Lab as a public space without enclosure.”
The inaugural BMW Guggenheim Lab will leave behind permanent improvements to the once-vacant East Village lot on which it sits, including the stabilization and paving of the site, replacement of sidewalks, and new wrought-iron fencing and gates.
The graphic identity of the BMW Guggenheim Lab has been developed by Seoul-based graphic designers Sulki & Min.
BMW Guggenheim Lab Team
The BMW Guggenheim Lab is organized by David van der Leer, Assistant Curator, Architecture and Urban Studies, and Maria Nicanor, Assistant Curator, Architecture, Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum. Selected by an international Advisory Committee composed of experts from various disciplines, the members of the New York Lab Team are: Omar Freilla, a Bronx, New York–based environmental justice activist, cooperative developer, and founder and coordinator of Green Worker Cooperatives; Charles Montgomery, Canadian journalist and urban experimentalist, who investigates the link between urban design and well-being; Olatunbosun Obayomi, Nigerian microbiologist and inventor and 2010 TEDGlobal Fellow; and architects and urbanists Elma van Boxel and Kristian Koreman of the Rotterdam-based architecture studio ZUS [Zones Urbaines Sensibles].
Public Information and Amenities
The BMW Guggenheim Lab and all programs are free and open to the public on a first-come, first-served basis during operating hours. Advance registration for selected programs will be available online. Hours of operation are 1 to 9 pm on Wednesdays and Thursdays, 1 to 10 pm on Fridays, and 10 am to 10 pm on Saturdays and Sundays. The 42-seat BMW Guggenheim Lab cafe, operated by the Brooklyn-based restaurant Roberta’s, is open 1 to 9 pm on Wednesdays to Fridays and 10 am to 9 pm on Saturdays and Sundays.
Future Venues
Following the New York presentation, the BMW Guggenheim Lab will move on to Berlin in the spring of 2012, where it will be presented in collaboration with the ANCB Metropolitan Laboratory in Pfefferberg, a former industrial complex. In winter 2012–13, the first three-city cycle will be completed when the BMW Guggenheim Lab travels to Mumbai. The Mumbai presentation will be organized in collaboration with the Dr. Bhau Daji Lad Museum.
Dezeen Screen: BMW Guggenheim Lab by Atelier Bow-Wow
Well, our pick didn’t win, the one that had the hole in the side so that a giraffe could poke its head in and see what was going on, but we suppose the important thing is that now Barbie finally has an official place to hang her many fashionable hats at night. The American Institute of Architects has announced the winners of their Architect Barbie Dream House Design Competition, Ting Li and Maja Paklar, who received a whopping 8,470 votes and took home the title. The house is pretty cool, we guess, featuring boxes upon boxes with gigantic windows and a cool overhang. However, in their rendering, they seem to be rubbing it in a bit, because while they’ve included a giraffe (always important), the poor creature has no way of poking its head in. Instead, it can just peer through its modern glass facade and wonder why it and Barbie have grown so distant. That shame aside, here’s a description of the house:
The winning house design features entertaining space and chef’s open kitchen on the first floor, along with an office / library / meeting space. There is also a terrace on the second floor. The third and fourth floors are Barbie doll’s private enclave, her bedroom and her inspiration room respectively. The roof has a green house and a landscaped garden for her domestic pets. The design elements include solar panels, landscaped rooftop and irrigation system, operable shading devices, bamboo flooring, low flow toilet and sink fixtures, and locally sourced and manufactured materials and furnishings.
A translucent training centre in northern Italy has earned architects Iotti + Pavarani the Renzo Piano Foundation prize for the best Italian practice under 40.
Lighting set behind a panelled glass exterior allows the two-storey Domus Technica to glow by night.
The centre houses training facilities for the staff of boiler manufacturers Immergas, including ground floor meeting rooms and a first floor cafe.
The Renzo Piano Foundation prize is awarded by the Italian Association of Architecture and Criticism (AIAC) and judged by renowned Italian architect Piano, whose London skyscraper The Shard is presently under construction – see our earlier story.
Photography is by Iotti + Pavarani apart from where otherwise stated.
Here is some more text from the architects:
Domus Technica – Center For Advanced Training
Immergas has extended its research and production field to new generation technologies, related to renewable resources exploitation (like solar thermal, photovoltaic and heat pumps); the new Center for Advanced Training contains teaching rooms and showrooms where technicians and professionals may be trained and updated on both implanting and installation technologies tied to productions based on renewable resources.
So the building’s outline is that of an “open laboratory”- a space in which one works and is received.
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It is shaped to create a flexible and sophisticated machine, perfectly capable of operating alternately with all the different technologies : the edifice does in fact produce all the energy for its own needs as well as contributing excess energy to the existing office building thanks to the operation of the technology on display.
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The building stands in alignment and continuity with the front entry of the existing offices, yet it features as an isolated and prismatic block.
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The rising part of the building leans on a “heavy base” that roots it to the ground, performing like a translucent compact volume inspired by the industrial vocation of the region.
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At the same time it tries to redeem this area’s appearance by showing a refined and evocative image of “technical place”.
Today, the BMW Guggenheim Lab launched their 6-year global tour; first stop: New York City’s East Village. Part think tank, part exhibition space, part public forum, the LAB explores challenges facing today’s cities and bustling urban populations through a carefully curated program of events. Over the next 2.5 weeks, five LAB Team members grapple with the theme of “Confronting Comfort” through over 100 free public programs—workshops, speakers, exhibitions and screenings. Kicking off the series, tonight the LAB hosts a screening of the documentary Blank City, which chronicles avant-garde filmmaking and renegade movements of New York City in the ’70s and ’80s.
The five LAB members are a mix of global thinkers and local activists—Omar Freilla (Founder of Green Worker Cooperatives, Bronx), Charles Montgomery (Journalist and Urban Experimentalist), Olatunbosun Obayomi (Microbiologist and Inventor) and Studio ZUS (Architects and Urabnist). A true public experiment, the theme of “Confronting Comfort” hopes to explore how urban environments can be made more responsive to peopleʼs needs, how a balance can be found between modern notions of individual versus collective comfort and how the urgent need for environmental and social responsibility can be met. Speakers include Elizabeth Diller, Sakia Sasson, David Simon, Juliet Schor, Interboro Partners, Assaf Biderman and Jake Barton.
BMW Guggenheim LAB New York City site before construction
Nestled between two buildings, the LAB is housed in a mobile structure by Tokyo-based Atelier Bow-Wow. The architecture serves as a sort of public theater for staging programming. With a loggia serving as architectural inspiration, the bi-level, open-air space is structured like a traditional theater with a fly system of rigs suspending a “toolbox”—for changing over the space from program to program—in the upper level to create a multi-functional and flexible open-loft floorplan.
New York architects Work AC have won a competition to design a cultural hub on a St Petersburg island that has been closed to the public for over 300 years.
Former military warehouses occupy the eight-hectare New Holland Island and are to be fully restored to accommodate commercial spaces, galleries and educational facilities.
An elevated snaking promenade will weave in and out of each warehouse to provide viewing platforms.
A canopy nestled against two corner warehouses will shelter an exhibition area and garden.
Lakes and lawns will surround the buildings, while car parking and infrastructure are to be concealed beneath a grassy slope.
Visitors will be able to overlook the island from a tethered balloon that will float up into the sky.
Here are some more details from New Holland Development:
Winner announced for New Holland Island Competition
The architectural practice WORKac is the winner of the competition to select a master planning consultant for the future development of New Holland Island in St Petersburg.
The competition, organised by The Architecture Foundation, invited entries from all over the world and an exhibition of proposals recently went on show at the Central Naval Museum in St Petersburg overlooking the New Holland site where it attracted 6,617 visitors within a two week period. Opinions left on comment cards filled out by the public at the exhibition overwhelmingly coincided with the views of the competition organisers in supporting WORKac’s vision.
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Based in New York City, WORK Architecture Company (WORKac) is involved with numerous cultural institutions and urban planning projects. The practice were the master planners of the new BAM cultural district in Brooklyn and the award-winning architects of Diane von Furstenburg’s Headquarters in New York’s Meatpacking District. It is currently working on three major museum projects for the Blaffer Museum in Houston, the Clark Art Institute at Mass MoCA and the new Children’s Museum of the Arts in New York City. WORKac is also the winner of the Hua Qiang Bei redevelopment competition at the heart of Shenzhen, China. Identified by Icon magazine as one of the 25 most influential design firms in the world, the practice has won numerous honours and, in 2009, was among the finalists for the US National Design Awards.
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New Holland is an 8-hectare island bordered by two canals and a river in the heart of St Petersburg, within 20-minutes walk of the Hermitage and the city’s other major cultural sites.
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The island was conceived by Peter the Great in 1719, and became Russia’s first military port in 1721. It belonged to the military since its foundation and had thus been closed to the general public for 300 years.
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WORKac’s winning entry creates a public park, whose topography transforms New Holland Island into an outdoor amphitheatre and performance space. An elevated promenade brings the park to the interior of the existing structures, connecting a series of programmatic ‘voids’ – art, design, education and commercial – that builds on St Petersburg’s rich cultural history to create a new vibrant cultural hub for the city.
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WORKac principals Amale Andraos and Dan Wood said: “We are very excited at the opportunity to work with the Iris Foundation and NHD on this critically important project for one of the world’s most beautiful cities. Our master plan balances preservation with innovation, respecting St Petersburg’s past while paving the way for its continued artistic development and future.”
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As the project moves from the concept phase to the planning phase, New Holland Development and the Iris Foundation plan to hold a series of closed and public discussions with interested parties to ensure that the public’s input continues to be a central part of New Holland’s development.
A partial reproduction of a planned Utah renovation, Jason Payne, principal at Hirsuta and SCI-Arc alum, attempts to “pervert” the shingle-style architecture, or rather, swerve it.
Payne intentionally attached 1/2″ thick shingles “improperly” on only one side of a residential project. Each shingle was unfixed at the bottom with the grain oriented horizontally rather than vertically to encourage “curling.” On the other side of the residence, everything was attached according to conventional wisdom. The result is a house literally with two faces. One, wild and feral; the other, staid and reliable. In short, a contemporary twist on a classic architectural style.
An unusual combination of limestone columns and concrete bands surrounds the exterior of a laboratory by UK architects Stanton Williams in the botanic gardens of Cambridge University.
The Sainsbury Laboratory provides facilities for botanical research, spread over two upper storeys and a basement.
The stone piers screen a glass curtain wall on the north and east elevations, whilst the south and east facades feature gridded windows that overlook a courtyard.
Glass-fronted laboratories allow scientists to see across a double-height circulation corridor to the courtyard beyond.
This continuous corridor winds through the building and provides informal meeting areas.
Elsewhere, the building contains a herbarium, an auditorium, meeting rooms, a public cafe, garden-staff quarters and social spaces.
The laboratory is named after Lord Sainsbury, whose charitable foundation was responsible for funding the project.
The columned facade of the building presents a similar mix of modernism and classicism to David Chipperfield’s Museum of Modern Literature completed in 2006 – see our earlier story.
Other laboratories from the Dezeen archive facilitate research into natural history, genomics and nanotechnology to name a few – see all our stories about laboratories here.
The Sainsbury Laboratory, an 11,000 sq.m. plant science research centre set in the University of Cambridge’s Botanic Garden, brings together world-leading scientists in a working environment of the highest quality. The design reconciles complex scientific requirements with the need for a piece of architecture that also responds to its landscape setting.
It provides a collegial, stimulating environment for innovative research and collaboration. The building is situated within the private, ‘working’ part of the Garden, and houses research laboratories and their associated support areas. It also contains the University’s Herbarium, meeting rooms, an auditorium, social spaces, and upgraded ancillary areas for Botanic Garden staff, plus a new public café. The project was completed in December 2010.
Cambridge University Botanic Garden was conceived in 1831 by Charles Darwin’s guide and mentor, Professor Henslow, as a working research tool in which the diversity of plant species would be systematically ordered and catalogued. The Sainsbury Laboratory develops Henslow’s agenda in seeking to advance understanding of how this diversity comes about. Its design was therefore shaped by the intention that the Laboratory’s architecture would express its integral relationship with the Garden beyond.
The building as a whole is rooted in its setting. There are two storeys visible above ground and a further subterranean level, partly in order to ensure efficient environmental control, but also to reduce the height of the building. The overall effect is strongly horizontal as a result. Solidity is implied by the use of bands of limestone and exposed insitu concrete, recalling geological strata and indeed the Darwinian idea of evolution over time as well as the permanence which one might expect of a major research centre. At the same time, however, permeability and connections – both real and visual – between the building and the Garden have been central to its conception.
The building’s identity is established externally by the way in which it is expressed and experienced as a series of interlinked yet distinct volumes of differing height grouped around three sides of a central courtyard, the fourth side of which is made up of trees planted by Henslow in the nineteenth century. The internal circulation and communal areas focus upon this central court, opening into it at ground level and onto a raised terrace above in order to provide immediate physical connections between the Laboratory and its surroundings.
Further visual connections are created by the careful use of glazing in the building. At ground level, extensive windows provide views of the courtyard and the Garden beyond, allowing these internal areas to be read as integral elements of the outdoor landscape. The first floor is also largely glazed. Its windows are screened by narrow vertical bands of stone that imbue the elevation with a regular consistency, behind which the pattern of fenestration could potentially be altered in response to future requirements.
Related to the conception of the building in terms of its landscape setting is the way that its internal areas are connected by a continuous route which recalls Darwin’s ‘thinking path’, a way to reconcile nature and thought through the activity of walking. Here the ‘thinking path’ functions as a space for reflection and debate.
It is intended to promote encounters and interaction between the scientists working in the building, and between them and the landscape. With glazed windows facing the court on one side and internal windows offering glimpses of the laboratories on the other, it operates as a transitional zone between the top-lit working areas at the centre of the building and the Botanic Garden itself. In this respect, the ‘path’ reinterprets the tradition of the Greek stoa, the monastic cloister, and the collegiate court, all of which were intended to some extent as semi-outdoor spaces for contemplation and meetings. As a result, past, present, and future are connected. The work of the laboratories will seek to understand the plant diversity that is glorified by the arrangement of the historic Botanic Garden in which it is set and which, though pleasant to visit, continues to function as a working space devoted to groundbreaking research.
Professor Sir Leszek Borysiewicz, Vice-Chancellor of the University of Cambridge, said: “Cambridge has a strong record in the study of plant biology – a science which is now accepted as critical for our planet. This makes the Gatsby Foundation’s award to the University both natural and transformational – we are truly grateful.”
Lord Sainsbury said: “This is one of the most exciting projects with which my Charitable Foundation has been involved. It combines an inspirational research programme, an historic site in the Botanic Garden and a beautiful laboratory designed by Stanton Williams, and I believe it will become a worldclass centre of excellent plant science.”
Professor John Parker, the recently retired Director of the Botanic Garden who has been the sole representative of the Garden at project meetings, said: “The Garden looks forward in the 21st Century to maintaining its position with the study of plant diversity in the most modern way. The Laboratory will be dedicated to the advancement of curiosity-driven research. However it is hard to imagine that increasing our knowledge of the fundamental mechanisms of plant development is not going to have a very significant impact on the improvement of agriculture in years to come.”
Key Values
Project Value: £82 million Contract value: £69 million Construction value: £65 million (contract value less the consultants fees) Cost per sq m: £4,975/sq m for the main laboratory
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Key dates Construction Start date: February 2008 Completion Date: December 2010 Date of Occupation: January 2011 Project Duration: June 2006 – January 2011 Planning phase: June 2006 – February 2008 Construction phase: February 2008 – January 2011
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Building Details Postal Address: The Sainsbury Laboratory, Bateman Street, Cambridge, CB2 1LR Number of Occupants: 150 Gross Internal Area: 11,000m2 (incl. all buildings, excl. external landscaped areas)
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Project Team Client: The University of Cambridge Funder: The Gatsby Charitable Foundation Strategic Project Manager: Stuart A. Johnson Consulting Ltd Project and Contract Administrator: Hannah – Reed Project Officer: University of Cambridge Estate Management Representative Users: Cambridge University Botanic Garden, The Gatsby Charitable Foundation Main Contractor: Kier Regional Architect: Stanton Williams Civil and Structural Engineer: Adams Kara Taylor Building Services Engineer: Arup Cost Consultant: Gardiner & Theobald Landscape Architects:Christopher Bradley-Hole Landscape and Schoenaich Landscape Architects CDM Coordinator: Hannah – Reed Approved Building Inspector: Cambridge City Council
We’ve already run a post this week about toilet paper, so why should we stop ourselves when considering writing about more bathroom-related material? We can’t think of a single reason, other than perhaps dignity, so here we go. The company Cintas has once again brought back their contest/marketing effort with the annual “America’s Best Restroom,” wherein they let we Americans vote on what public restroom looks the most inviting. It’s design-related, sure, as would be expect, some of these bathrooms look about as nice as the come. However, this year our interest was piqued by the promotional stunt because of the inclusion of two culture-based organizations, The Scottsdale Center for the Performing Arts and the Field Museum in Chicago. Because we’re sure you’ll find all of this extremely important, you can vote on your favorite until September 19th after reading up on the great short descriptions of each facility in the press release. And as this writer is based out of Chicago and therefore obviously biased toward the Field Museum, here’s that:
With two large family-friendly restrooms on the ground floor, the Field Museum features sufficient stalls and sinks, as well as eco-friendly hand-dryers. The women’s restroom has a special nursing room with a shut door, sink, and small sofa for new mothers. The women’s restroom also has a large “Tot Area” with smaller toilets for our littlest guests.
Almost immediately after the buzz had finally settled down about the opening of Dubai’s Burj Khalifa, the “world’s tallest building,” talk started up about the next “world’s tallest building,” the Kingdom Tower in Saudi Arabia. Though there was apparently a competition to design the new super-skyscraper, it’s long been assumed that it would be designed by Adrian Smith, who had created the Burj (and who complained a bit that the firm he worked for while that record-setting building, Skidmore, Owings & Merrill, was trying to take too much credit for his work). And so has happened, with official announcements by both the architect and the developer, that the Kingdom Tower is moving forward like we’re still in 2005 and projects like these are booming. Smith and his business partner Gordon Gill will oversee their design for the 1000 meter building (a full 568 feet taller than the Burj) and construction will begin “imminently,” with an estimated $1.2 billion price tag to build the structure and another $20 billion to create a whole Kingdom City surrounding it. The whole thing is certainly impressive, but given how many hurdles the Burj went through to finally open (and stay open after that, not to mention reports of its vast swaths of unused space), it’s the sort of thing we’ll see happen when we see it happen. And six months after that, we’ll report on the new “world’s tallest building” being constructed. Here’s a bit from the developer’s press release about some of the specifics of the project:
Five contractors were invited to offer proposals for the Kingdom Tower and a short list of three firms submitted final offers for the tower construction. The Saudi Bin Laden Group (SBG) whose offer was the most attractive in terms of price, quality and schedule was chosen for the project.
With a total construction area of over 500,000 square meters, the soaring Kingdom Tower will be a mixed-use building featuring a Four Seasons hotel, Four Seasons serviced apartments, first class office space, luxury condominiums and an observatory that will be higher than the world’s current highest observation deck.
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BMW Guggenheim LAB New York City site before construction
Images and Reporting by Carren Jao
