AMAZING BUILDINGS
Landmarks On Purpose: The Vessel and The Lucky Knot
When future Architecture Textbooks are written, it seems as safe a bet as any that New York’s High Line project will mark an important turning point not just in the history of adaptive reuse but also in our popular engagement with urban design. It’s fair to call the...
Designing Sun-First: Studio Gang’s Solar Carving
Traditionally, a building's design is dictated by its purpose. Its footprint, facade, and layout are planned to house a certain kind of resident, accommodate a type of commerce, or even signify the values of the building’s owner. In best-case scenarios, considerations...
Symbolic Design: The International Olympic Commission Gets a Fitting Home
Every two years, the world gives itself over to a strange, temporary fervor. United by the thrill of competition and the spectacle of international pageantry, we suddenly become experts in obscure sports, aficionados on the finer points of uniforms, and devoted...
Building Beyond the Bottle: The Rise of Cork
For centuries, the bark of the cork oak was so synonymous with a single application that it lent its name to the product: the wine cork. Today, about sixty percent of all harvested cork is used to stop bottles, although its share in that market has been challenged by...
Golden State, Gold Standard: California Redefines the Sporting Venue
At some point in our nation’s history, a ballpark was just a ballpark. Whether idiosyncratic urban jewels defined by their contexts and boundaries or massive suburban concrete shrines with plenty of parking, sporting venues were relatively simple affairs. You found...
Back on Track: Michigan Central Station Gets a Second Life
When Detroit's Michigan Central Station was dedicated in 1914, it became the tallest train station in the world at eighteen stories. The massive Beaux-Arts structure was designed by the same architects as New York's Grand Central Terminal Warren & Wetmore and...
Wander the Sea: Norway’s Submarine Restaurant
For decades, architectural tourism was about checking off the established icons: the Eiffel Tower, the Empire State Building, the Taj Mahal. Those with more than a passing interest in design might make pilgrimages to Fallingwater, the Bradbury Building, or the...
Building Community Up: The Rise of the Vertical Village
Over the past fifty years, one global demographic trend has remained remarkably steady: increased urbanization. At the turn of the 20th century, only 15% of the planet's people lived in cities. Today, that share is around 55%. And by 2050, we'll see the total urban...
Return of the Jet Set: TWA’s Terminal Turns Time Machine
In 1955, Trans World Airlines commissioned the brilliant architect and industrial designer Eero Saarinen to design a new terminal at New York's Idlewild Airport. In the 63 years since almost every proper noun in the previous sentence would be altered by some kind of...
Dundee’s Ship Has Come In: How One Museum Could Transform a City
When the Wall Street Journal identified Ten Hot Destinations in its "Where to Travel in 2018" piece, a curious outlier joined the likes of Shanghai, Montenegro, and Madagascar: the Scottish coastal city of Dundee. A former industrial hub on the banks of the River Tay,...
The House of Brick: The Lego House is a Grown-Up Triumph
Survey a group of architects, engineers, and designers about their childhoods, and a common affinity is sure to emerge: Lego. With a little imagination, a Lego set can become a potent primer for space planning, structural engineering, and even landscape design. In...
Framing Dubai: A Giant Structure Showcases More Than Just a Skyline
Fueled by one of the world's fastest-growing economies, Dubai has never been a city troubled by humility. Long crowded with construction cranes, the desert city boasts a dizzying collection of ultramodern and hyper-tall skyscrapers, unreal manmade islands, and massive...