Thomas Crane Library

TGIF! 
Thank you Tom Williams for today's YEOW!

For this week’s Y.E.O.W, I’d like to feature the Thomas Crane Library located in Quincy, Massachusetts.  I have been an admirer of H. H. Richardson since I was first introduced to his work in an American Architectural History course in college.  I have visited this particular building on multiple occasions and been struck each time by the sensitivity of the architects of the later additions to the original historic structure.  It is an excellent example of the manipulation of space and volume, the play of light on the building’s interior, and the fine use of materials with all of the juxtaposed textures. 

The original H. H. Richardson-designed structure is typical of the “Richardsonian” Romanesque style demarcated by the asymmetry, rusticated stone, turrets, repeated window patterns, rounded arches, and eyebrow dormers.  If you squint really hard, and mash things down a bit to emphasize the horizontal, you start to see some Frank Lloyd Wright beginning to emerge (arriving on the scene about 30 years later).   

The best way to appreciate this building is by entering through the door below the low sweeping arch (seen in the image below).  Once inside, you enter into a dimly lit space (the times we have been there, the lights have been turned off) with lots of exposed woodwork; despite being a two-story space, it still maintains an intimate feel and character.  The book stacks are located at one end – arranged around the perimeter and on two levels; a fireplace at the other end adds to a rather cozy experience where you can just imagine hanging out on a rainy day.  The relatively new 2001 addition is truly amazing (see images below).

I cribbed the write-up below from the Internet, which provides the necessary credits and a little more history.

The original building designed by H. H. Richardson.

 Below image is a view of the 1908 addition designed by William Martin Aiken – showing great sensitivity to Richardson’s original building.

 

Thomas Crane Library, a photo by Paul Keleher on Flickr.

Views of the original reading room with book stacks at one end, and fireplace at the other.

A nice shot showing the juxtaposition of the Aiken-designed addition on the left and the new 2001 addition on the right.

Enjoy! And have a great Labor day weekend.

0-14 Tower

TGIF!

 

Michael Hadley has sent you a link to a blog:
“Checkout the wicked rebar action and form work during construction.” John Fennel

Thank you John Fennell for today’s YEOW suggestion!

[If anyone else has any YEOW’s they’d like to share, please feel free to let me know! Thx]

Do Enjoy! Y.our E.nvironment O.f the W.eek

Reiser + Umemoto

The showy skyscrapers that established Dubai's identity in this hot, humid, desert site on the Persian Gulf have been overshadowed by the towering Burj Khalifa. Yet one short office building — a mere 22 stories— holds its own against Skidmore Owings & Merrill's 2,717-foot-high glass-and-steel behemoth. The diminutive office tower (347 feet high), designed by New York architects Reiser + Umemoto, stalwartly rises from a white, sandy lot in this instant city in the United Arab Emirates. It makes its mark by original means: with a holey, curvaceous outer shell.

Called 0-14 after the site number of the Business Bay district, the slim structure's dominant feature is a poured-concrete exoskeleton gouged with 1,326 blobby holes in five sizes. The architects intentionally sought to create an alien presence in the melange of banal towers. “We embraced the radically abstract terrain of nowhere and its artificiality,” says Jesse Reiser.

The ghostly white exoskeleton stands 3 feet away from an inner glass-walled enclosure that follows its swerving contours: The two are linked by structural concrete tongues. With a central stair and elevator core, the interiors are column-free, allowing each floor to provide 6,000 square feet (net) of office space to its tenants.

Jesse Reiser and Nanako Umemoto, best known for winning international architectural competitions, got this commission unexpectedly in 2005. They had entered a competition for another site in the Business Bay district, held by Dubai Properties. While they lost the project to Zaha Hadid (still unrealized), their scheme piqued the interest of one of the developers, Shahab Lutfi, who was about to open his own office. By coincidence Lutfi was working with a Dubai architect, Khalid Alnajjar, who had studied under Reiser at Columbia University's architecture school, and highly recommended the team.

In an early version, the architects conceived the 0-14 building as an amorphous shape with glazed apertures. But the problems of placing gaskets around the glass and connecting the shaft to the concrete floors convinced the firm to develop a double-layered structure. By separating a concrete exoskeleton from a glazed concrete deck and core tower by 3 or more feet, the architects found the residual space would create a stack effect that takes hot air out of the building. Furthermore, the solar protection afforded by the curvilinear outer cylinder reduced cooling expenses by about 30 percent. Since the glass is shielded, it didn't need to be high-performance, although the team specified tinted glazing that would appear to recede farther behind the facade.

The master plan for Business Bay calls for towers on a podium that contain parking, with street-level arcades linking to retail shops and building lobbies. Reiser + Umemoto convinced the developer to place parking underground on this 34,000-square-foot site and have a two-story elevated podium wrap the tower on three sides to accommodate more office space and a restaurant. The revision meant the front facade could still be read as monolithic and scaleless, while elevating the podium allows pedestrians access to a plaza at the back overlooking the bay. A truss spans the rear of the podium to keep the ground less cluttered by columns, and bridges on two levels link the podium to the tower.

Business Bay, Dubai, UAE

Article  by: By Suzanne Stephens

Link:

http://archrecord.construction.com/projects/portfolio/2011/08/0-14-Tower.asp

A London Bridge...

Happy FRIDAY!!

 

Thank you Amir for today’s YEOW suggestion!

[If anyone else has any YEOW’s they’d like to share, please feel free to let me know! Thx]

Do Enjoy! Y.our E.nvironment O.f the W.eek

The Covent Garden's Bridge of Aspirations connects the Royal Ballet School with the Royal Opera House on Floral Street in London England. Wilkinson Eyre Architects designed the pedestrian bridge, and it opened in 2002.

An aluminum structure supports 23 square portals which contort as they shift to a new plane and building height. -Ben

^markhillary- flickr/cc license

^joevare- flickr/cc license

^joevare- flickr/cc license

http://architecturerevived.blogspot.com/2010/01/bridge-of-aspirations-london-royal.html

Musée de l'Institut du Monde Arabe

Good Morning Everyone!

TGIF!

The Arab Institute, Paris,  

is a great museum just across the river from Notre Dame.  

Designed by the French Architect,  Jean Nouvel

 

“My wife and kids went to see this building in Paris when we were there a few years ago
and while it was a very interesting combination of architecture and engineering,
the maintenance program seemed to have a distinctly French relaxed attitude”  -Eric Snellings

 

 

 

Address: 1 rue des Fossés St-Bernard, 5e Phone: 01-40-51-38-38

Metro: Jussieu

Hours: Tues-Sun 10am-6pm

Cost: Permanent exhibitions: 4€ adults, 3€ students, free for children under 12.

Temporary exhibits: 7€ adults, 5€ students, free for children under 12.

http://www.virtualtourist.com/travel/Europe/France/Ile_de_France/Paris-99080/Things_To_Do-Paris-Institut_du_Monde_Arabe-BR-1.html

 

Perhaps best of all his works, Nouvel’s Arab World Institute most clearly and literally demonstrates the common thread through his works: skillful coaxing of light to enter and play in his buildings. The building’s south-facing façade is constructed entirely of mechanical oculi operated by photoelectric cells that automatically open and close in response to light levels. It also beckons images of latticework screens iconic to the Mid-East and as such reveals another common thread of Nouvel’s works: deferential reference to historic and physical surround.

This strong response to context means that Nouvel’s oeuvre does not impose the burden of a signature starchitect style on individual projects. “We, as a jury, recognize that architecture is a field of many challenges and complexities and that the career of an architect does not always follow a linear path,” noted the Pritzker jury in their release statement. “In the case of Jean Nouvel, we particularly admire the spirit of the journey—persistence, imagination, exuberance, and, above all, an insatiable urge for creative experimentation—qualities that are abundant in the work of the 2008 Pritzker Architecture Prize Laureate.”

In Nouvel’s own words: “My interest has always been in an architecture which reflects the modernity of our epoch as opposed to the rethinking of historical references. My work deals with what is happening now—our techniques and materials, what we are capable of doing today.”

http://www.aia.org/aiarchitect/thisweek08/0404/0404n_pritzker.cfm

Foster + Partner’s Carbon-Neutral Eco City

Happy Friday!

Today’s Environment of the Week will be Foster + Partner’s Carbon-Neutral Eco City


“Oh Boy, look at what Dubai is up to now"

Thank you Ephraim Fermin for today’s YEOW suggestion!

[If anyone else has any YEOW’s they’d like to share, please feel free to let me know! Thx]

Do Enjoy! Y.our E.nvironment O.f the W.eek

 

Name project: Foster and Partner's Carbon-Neutral Eco City

Architects:Solomon, Cordwell, Buenz and Associates

Consultants: Urban West Associates

General contractor: Bovis Lend Lease

Cost: $300 Million

Total Height: 495 Ft.

Floor count: 106 Total between two towers.

Date of completion: 2009

Foster and Partner's carbon-neutral Masdar City is springing to life in Abu Dhabi. 

Breaking ground Feb,2008, the $22 billion self-contained city will be approximately 20 miles outside of Abu Dhabi city.

Aerial View

 

Read more: PHOTOS: A First Look Inside Foster + Partner's Carbon-Neutral Masdar City | Inhabitat - Green Design Will Save the World

http://www.greenarchitext.com/2008/02/

Musical Instrument....

Happy Friday Folks!

Your Environment Of the Week will be....(drum roll)....

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Chimecco by Mark Nixon.

Mark Nixon of London studio CZWG has turned a bridge in Aarhus, Denmark, into a musical instrument by hanging metal pipes from the underside.

Varying in length, the 600 gold-anodized aluminium pipes move freely in the breeze, sounding like a traditional wind chime when they collide.

People on the bridge can touch interactive nodes on its surface to activate the chimes in a controlled order, playing the instrument.

Named Chimecco, the sculpture forms part of this year’s Sculpture by the Sea exhibition, which takes place entirely outdoors.

Please click here for more info.

Dunescape, SHoP Architects

Happy Friday!



Continuing to discuss Dune Shaped Architecture. Today’s Environment of the Week will be "Dunescape" at P.S.1 in MoMA, Summer Court Yard Installation by SHoP Architects. For those that have been following the blog. Thanks. Thank you Kathleen Smith for today’s YEOW suggestion!

[If anyone else has any YEOW’s they’d like to share, please feel free to let me know! Thx J]



Young Architects competition Winner
Location: Long Island City, NY
Phase: Completed June 2000
Size: 12,000 sf

The first view upon entering the studio of SHoP Architects is a wall full of model airplanes. These airplanes visualize the firm’s overarching philosophy of “performance-based design”, in which form maximizes the capabilities of a building. While performance-based design is second-nature in the aviation and automotive industries, it is a rare stance amongst architecture firms.

Installation Mockup

MoMA PS1 is one of the oldest and largest nonprofit contemporary art institutions in the United States. An exhibition space rather than a collecting institution, MoMA PS1 devotes its energy and resources to displaying the most experimental art in the world. MoMA PS1 presents over 50 exhibitions each year, including artists' retrospectives, site-specific installations, historical surveys, arts from across the United States and the world, and a full schedule of music and performance programming.

Model to scale

Inside the Dunscape

Gregg Pasquarelli, SHoP/Sharples Holden Pasquarelli:
We had been experimenting with digital simulation and animation design techniques as well as really trying to push this idea of "performance-based design," but SHoP's main interest was translating the digital into the actual. How could an architect extract what was so provocative on the screen and retain this once it's built? How do you do that on a limited budget without making it look like a school project? We had to make that translation in six weeks! Back then the competition didn't seem like a big deal. For us it was more, "Let’s see if we can test these ideas out."

Ribbing on the Dunescape

Activating a non-activated space

Amazing eh.

Check out link below for more information.

Links: http://www.moma.org/interactives/exhibitions/yap/archive_city.html

       

        http://www.shoparc.com/#/projects/all