Edificio Aqua, Punta del Este, Uruguay

Luxury residential complex soon to open in Punta Del Este, Uruguay
Edificio Acqua, a six-story luxury residential complex located in beachfront resort of Punta del Este will be Raphael Vinoly’s first completed building in his home country of Uruguay. The project introduces an unprecedented level of construction quality and architectural refinement to the Uruguayan housing market.

The L-shaped 34-unit structure has a terraced elevation that dramatically steps back floor-by-floor to provide dramatic views and a high level of privacy among the units. The building contains a mix of units including four single floor manor residences, two penthouse apartments, five double height lofts and 24 single floor apartment units.

All units are organized with living and dining spaces typically facing the ocean while bedrooms, bathrooms and other private spaces are situated toward the rear and sides of the building offering views of the surrounding gardens and forests.

A fitness center, spa and outdoor pool complete the project. To be completed this year, the project has garnered the 2007 Real Estate Excellence Award from the Federación Internacional de Profesiones Inmobiliarias-Uruguay (FIABCI-Uruguay)
source : www.worldarchitecturenews.com
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WGBH Headquarters, Brighton, Massachusetts, United States

Polshek’s new WGBH headquarters building
Commuters on the Massachusetts Turnpike are in for a real treat. As they muscle their way in to Boston, they will be greeted each day with changing digital images projected from a 30 ft tall screen located at the terminus of a 480 ft long bridge-like structure dubbed “the beam”. The beam is part of the WGBH Public Television’s new Headquarters building in Brighton, Massachusetts designed by New York-based Polshek Partnership Architects.

The $85 million complex consists of a seven-storey office building and a two-storey technical operations building united by the creative content “beam” building. The project consolidates WGBH TV, radio, interactive and educational activities into a single efficient media complex. Major design elements include a 200-seat theatre, music performance spaces, and larger television and radio studios, which are visible from the street.

Sharon McHugh
US Correspondent
source : www.worldarchitecturenews.com
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HKS design opens in Maryland, US

The Naval Academy, Maryland's Midshipmen, faculty, staff and the design and construction team have celebrated the opening of the Wesley Brown Field House. The HKS-designed field house, used to support the physical development of the Brigade of Midshipmen and act as the competition and practice venue for indoor intercollegiate athletic events, is located on the banks of the Severn River overlooking the Chesapeake Bay.

Naval Facilities Engineering Command Washington selected Hensel Phelps Construction Company to lead the design-build team. HKS, Inc. and Shalom Baranes Associates, Architect served as sport facility design architect and exterior design architect, respectively.

The field house is named after Lt. Cmdr. Wesley Brown, USN (ret.), the first African American Midshipman to graduate from the United States Naval Academy.

During his remarks at the opening event, Brown issued a call to service. "I want you to help us in our efforts to recruit fine young men and women," he said. "We need the volunteers to carry out our foreign policy."

The Wesley Brown Field House is a 140,000 sq ft multi-function athletic facility provides state-of-the-art facilities for athletic competition – creating a showcase for televised Naval Academy-hosted athletic events.

The structure houses world-class facilities for men’s and women’s track and field programs, the women’s volleyball team and an indoor practice facility for the basketball and football teams. It boasts a unique combination of a composite surface track with hydraulically controlled banked curves and a 76,000 sq ft retractable Magic Carpet Astroturf system.

“The 200-meter track oval has hydraulically raised, banked turns that can be lowered for field events,” said Steve Terrill, AIA, senior designer for HKS, Inc. “For football and lacrosse practice, a full-sized turf carpet is mechanically rolled out over the track surface.”

The field house also includes a 6,000 sq ft weight training room and sports performance clinic as well as locker rooms and coaches’ offices.

“The Wesley Brown Field House is one of the most technologically unique indoor field houses in the country,” said Terrill. “The new facility will provide the Naval Academy with the type of training facility necessary to recruit the finest athletes and officer candidates.”
source : www.worldarchitecturenews.com
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Masdar Headquarters, Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates

Chicago firm wins global competition to design first ‘positive energy” building in Abu Dhabi
Adrian Smith+Gordon Gill Architecture (AS+GG) has won a global competition to design the Masdar Headquarters building in the emerging ecocity of Masdar, Abu Dhabi - the world’s first carbon neutral city. The building will be the first net positive energy building in Abu Dhabi, producing more energy than it uses. Smith and Gill, who formed a partnership in 2006 after years together at SOM, are no strangers when it comes to designing energy efficient towers. While at SOM the two collaborated on the design of the worlds first net zero energy tower in Guangzhou, China.

In line with Abu Dhabi’s 2030 development plan, Masdar is choosing to emphasize sustainability over height. In addition to being the first mixed use net energy project in the city, the new Masdar headquarters will be the lowest energy consumer per sq ft for a Class A office building in a desert climate. It will feature one of the world’s largest photovoltaic arrays, employ the largest solar thermal driven cooling and dehumidification system, and be the first building in history to generate power for its own construction.

Construction of Masdar City commenced in February 2008. The city will be constructed over seven phases and is due to be completed by 2016. Masdasr Headquarters is part of phase one and will be completed by the end of 2010.

Sharon McHugh
US Correspondent
source:www.worldarchitecturenews.com
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The Lincoln Centre, New York, United States

Doors stay open during huge revamp of major performing venue

Keeping the show on the road was a key part of the brief when New York architects Diller Scofidio + Refro Architects were commissioned to revamp the world leading Lincoln Centre in Manhattan. Liz Diller was in London this week talking to WAN’s Michael Hammond about the “evolution” of this major project.

Anyone who knows New York will know that the Lincoln Centre is many things to many people. In fact it is actually comprised of 12 resident companies, using 22 separate performing venues. These companies are totally autonomous, each having their own agendas, making life “interesting” for both the management of the centre and for the architect…

Liz, whose firm is working in conjunction with FXFowle said, “The project has grown significantly since we started, both in scope and complexity. It is now a really major undertaking. We also have to keep the centre open and you can imagine the challenges that creates with major construction work going on in the same building as performances.”

The project, (timed to coincide with the venue’s 50th anniversary) aims to address a sea of change in social and environmental conditions that have occurred since the centre was opened by President Dwight Eisenhower in 1959. The new Lincoln Centre was the first step in regenerating what was then, a run-down part of Manhattan and hence much of the architecture was designed to provide a safe-haven for theatre goers and present a fortress against the “hostile” street life outside.

Now of course all this has changed. The streets are safe and performing venues around the world are moving to break down these hard barriers to create transitional ‘public realm’ zones between the actual performance areas and the street. In the Lincoln’s case this includes removing much of the ground level concrete façade and replacing it with cafes, restaurants and public plazas, utilizing much more glass to allow glimpses of the inside from the street further increasing perceived (and real) accessibility. In its early days, visitors to the Lincoln were almost always delivered by car or taxi whereas now, people will often walk many blocks home after an evening performance. This change in visitor mode created an opportunity for the architects to add focus to the pedestrian access ways and add some drama. This is illustrated most clearly by the Grand Stairway at West 65th Street with its imposing 55 foot width and shallower, more regal gradient.

Liz stressed that it was not just the public accessibility issue that had to be addressed in the re-design but explained that, while that was the most visible element, “Virtually every aspect of the Lincoln is being improved and upgraded. For instance, acoustic technology has moved on a long way in the last 50 years as have the expectations of its visitors and the upgrade of the acoustic performance across all of the venues is an integral part of the new building.”

The building will be opened in phases until the final handover in 2010.
source : www.worldarchitecturenews.com
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