Tulsa, OK (PRWEB) January 01, 2014

A new residence hall designed by KSQ Architects recently opened on the campus of Texas Christian University. Known as Marion and Clark Halls, the two-building residence hall offers 400 suite-style student beds designed for sophomores. Common areas, study lounges and baking kitchens are included to build community within the space. The buildings are LEED Gold certified.

A dramatic barrel-vault archway is the signature design element of the building, serving as both a figurative and literal connector to the surrounding TCU campus. Marion and Clark Halls is the first of three phases planned for the Worth Hills Village development, which will eventually include a third residence hall, a parking structure, a dining/multipurpose building and Greek Village. In total, the development will house 1,800 students.

"We are so pleased to offer our students another beautiful place to call home on the TCU campus, said Kathy Cavins-Tull, TCU Vice Chancellor for Student Affairs. Marion and Clark Halls create a gateway to our developing residential community and connects the Worth Hills community to the Campus Commons. It is the result of effective planning and programming, brilliant architectural design and quality construction.

KSQ Architects has provided architectural services for more than 16 new or renovated residence halls on the TCU campus since 1995. To date, the number of student beds provided in these projects is more than 3,000.

Marion and Clark Halls employ the existing TCU palette of building materials, including buff-colored brick, Ludowici tile roof and limestone accents. For the interior, wood-look floors, porcelain tile accents, granite counters and a youthful color palette keep it fresh yet sophisticated for student living.

Our team is extremely proud of the work we provided on Marion-Clark Halls, said David Short, KSQ principal and president. We listened to what the TCU team wanted to achieve and that comes through in the design. The halls are a perfect blend of beauty and functionality for how students live today, he said.

ABOUT KSQ ARCHITECTS With offices in offices in Colorado, New York, Oklahoma, and Texas, KSQ Architects is a full-service architectural firm providing programming, planning, architectural and interior design services. The firm specializes in collegiate life, K-12 and multi-family housing facilities throughout the United States. A hands-on, environmentally sensitive approach is fundamental to each KSQ project, and ensures a rare level of personalized attention and sustainable methodology. KSQ has completed projects nationwide on more than 50 campuses totaling $1 billion in construction. For more information, contact Monica Roberts, Communications Manager, 918-592-0622 or mroberts(at)ksqarchitects(dot)com.

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New Student Residence Designed by KSQ Architects Opens at TCU

Spar supermarket flagship store by LAB5 architects, Budapest, Hungary
The latest store format innovations, store design trends and visual merchandising, including the latest store image galleries. Classic modern and cutting edg...

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Another buyer might not have flinched at the idea of demolishing the tiny 1920s house in Lyon Park, with its two bedrooms, single bathroom and basement built for dwarves.

Far larger houses are routinely torn down across Arlington to make way for six-bedroom, five-bathroom abodes that are four or five times the size.

But the new homeowner and her architects, Paola Lugli and Paola Amodeo, could not bear to tear down the house, a Sears kit home built in 1926, as part of the original subdivision. It was well cared for, with the original door frames and wooden shingles. The house, with about 960 square feet of living space, just wasnt big enough for the new owner and her two children.

There was space in the yard to build up and out. But the architects wanted to avoid the sort of oversized additions that have become commonplace in Arlington County, where, Lugli said, it looks like the house ate the house.

So she and Amodeo came up with another idea: give the Sears house away to someone who is willing to preserve it and move it to a new location.

We need someone with an adventurous spirit, Amodeo said. Someone who can appreciate the project.

But giving away a house, it turns out, is not as easy as it sounds. This one comes with strings attached hauling away the nearly 88-year-old home could run as much as $50,000, Lugli estimated.

The fact the owner is willing to pursue alternatives is great, said Cynthia Liccese-Torres, the countys preservation program coordinator. But I I dont know if they will succeed.

Moving a house is quite a project. Utilities have to be disconnected. The front and back porches need to be removed. Only then can the house be hoisted from its foundations and placed on a truck that can take it to its new location. The new site has to be prepared, too, with a basement, a foundation and utilities in place, ready to go.

Even with those costs, the Lyon Park house still might be a bargain in pricey Arlington, where buyers regularly shell out upward of $600,000 just to buy a house they plan to tear down and replace.

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In Arlington, architects offer a free historic house — but only to go

National Centre for Contemporary Art: the design comprises a series of stacked gallery spaces

Dublin-based Heneghan Peng Architects have won an international competition to build Moscows super museum the new National Centre for Contemporary Art with a design that comprises a series of stacked gallery spaces.

The firm was selected from a shortlist of three that included Moscows MEL Space and Madrids Nieto Sobejano Arquitectos to design the centre, which will include spaces for exhibitions, lectures, conferences, concerts and performances.

The competition attracted more than 900 submissions, including entries from high-profile architects as Zaha Hadid, for the prestige of building a museum thats expected to draw around 500,000 visitors a year to a former airfield in Khodynskoye Pole.

Heneghan Pengs portfolio includes two London Olympic Park bridges, a library for the University of Greenwich, refurbishment of the National Gallery Ireland, the Giants Causeway Visitor Centre in Co Antrim and the yet-to-materialise Grand Egyptian Museum outside Cairo.

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Dublin architects win prize to design Moscow ‘super museum’

The firm of Rodriguez & Quiroga Architects, which is marking its 30th year, has long enjoyed a reputation as one of Miamis premier studios for its versatility and its technical and design chops.

The firms architects are now tackling what principal Raul Rodriguez says is easily the most complex building ever attempted in South Florida: the new Miami Science Museum, which is under construction in downtown Miamis Museum Park.

Rodriguez & Quiroga is associate architect to Britains Grimshaw, the design firm. That means the locals must sweat the nitty-gritty details of the high-tech, $275-million project, which includes a new planetarium, an aquarium and a panoply of built-in, eco-friendly elements.

Even before that, the Coral Gables-based firm had left an extensive imprint on South Florida, where its practice has focused on civic and collegiate buildings. Rodriguez has been its sole principal since co-founder Tony Quiroga retired a decade ago. Another original partner, Jorge Khuly, left in 1988 to go into practice with his wife, architect Maggie Khuly.

Equally conversant in traditional and modern styles, the firm has long been one of Miami-Dade Colleges go-to architects, responsible for numerous MDC academic and athletic facilities as well as two compact urban campuses Homestead and Interamerican in Little Havana. It also has designed buildings at Florida State, Florida International, Florida Atlantic and several private schools, including the University of Miami.

The firms range has extended from federal courthouses in Miami and Jacksonville to the main terminal at Miami International Airport, a 20-year improvement project that only recently wound up. Rodriguez & Quiroga also served as executive architect to Cesar Pellis firm at another highly complex project, the Arsht Center for the Performing Arts. It also developed a sideline in the restoration of historic buildings, including the Freedom Tower and Ponce de Leon Middle School in Coral Gables.

Two long-stalled Rodriguez & Quiroga designs may now be nearing realization: a classically inspired city hall for Homestead and the Cuban Museum just off Coral Way.

We sat with Rodriguez in the Le Corbusier LC-series chairs at his Coral Gables office, where he told us how the firm has thrived in a notoriously cyclical, fickle field, and why hes nowhere near ready for retirement.

Q: How did the firm get its start?

A. Tony and I were together at what was then Ferendino Grafton Spillis Candela. And the firm brought us in as partners when they changed to Spillis Candela and partners. I guess the easiest way to say it is that we didnt like the terms. We would have had to sign a long-term noncompete agreement. And I was 35. What I thought at the time was, we must all leave the nest sometime. So we decided to strike out on our own.

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Raul Rodriguez, principal of Rodriguez & Quiroga Architects, shares how his firm has endured and thrived.

Boston, MA (PRWEB) December 30, 2013

Based on a Fall, 2013 survey by Jeff Scott and Greg Suddreth of practicing Business Architects shows that business architecture is crossing the IT/business Rubicon to become a true business function.

Business architecture began its life as a core element of the enterprise architecture model. The early practitioners were largely IT enterprise architects. Today, business architecture is rapidly becoming a business focused and business managed initiative.

As a result, business architects have shifted their focus from technology and efficiency to strategy and business effectiveness. They are spending a significant amount of their time with business leaders and working on broad organization-spanning initiatives. Most encouraging of all, business architects see themselves in a more active role as change agents, not just designers of change. There are still significant challenges ahead but the direction seems clear and momentum is growing.

For a copy of the survey findings go to http://www.accelare.com.

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The Role of the Business Architect in 2013

Architects UK - These Colours Don #39;t Run (Guitar Cover HD)

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Ashes of Eden - Architects of Fear - Live at The Mix, Seattle, WA - Dec 7, 2013
http://www.facebook.com/AshesOfEdenOfficial http://www.aoeband.com Ashes of Eden performing our song Architects of Fear, live at The Mix in Seattle, Washingt...

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Why Use an Architect
Presentation by Jonathan Braddick Chartered Architect and the regional chair elect of the Royal Institute of British Architects, based near Exeter in Devon a...

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Two young minds decided to start a blog on architects and construction. Read on to know what became of it

David A. and David B. were in a bit of a tizzy. They had just realised that their hugely popular website for architects, http://www.archdaily.com, had generated clones in China. Their content was being lifted, translated, uploaded. They didnt know what to do. They lived literally at the other end of the world Santiago, Chile. So they sent mails: cease and desist, you will hear from our lawyers. It didnt make a difference.

Then came an invitation to the Pritzker Prize ceremony in China the Pritzker is the Nobel of architecture. Immediately they sent the main clone, http://www.archgo.com a mail saying they were coming. Sure, he responded, Id love to meet you. When they were fact to face, he said, Look, Chinese architects really need your information. And youre not giving the information in Chinese, so Im doing that job. I dont have a business model, Im not making money. I just want to help Chinese architects. The Davids were stunned. They understood.

What is it that was considered so important for Chinese architects? Lets rewind a little, to the story David Assael, 33, shared with this writer over breakfast in Moscow recently.

Discovering urbanism

When David discovered urbanism, or city studies, as a student of architecture in Chile, he felt a sense of belonging. With the same time and effort that you need to make a home for a single family, he says, you can make a park for a lot of people, or a city plan.

Later, when he began teaching, he realised that all the amazing projects his students did remained only on paper. On an exchange programme in Barcelona, Spain, he had seen an exhibition on the next 10 years of urban projects in that city. It was the first time I saw an exposition about cities for citizens, not urbanists, he says. Then he heard what ordinary people, such as his friends grandmas, had to say about a new building a French architect was doing there. It sort of resembled a cucumber and the elderly women were offended. It looks like a big dildo, they complained, it ruined the look of their city.

When he returned to Santiago, he started thinking about the relationship between cities and citizens, about how citizens had no clue what buildings and structures would do to their cities. Or even if they did, they didnt know what to do about it. And so, along with David Basulto (David A. and David B., isnt that funny?), a computer whiz from college, he started a website to give information about cities to Chilean citizens. They called it Urban Platform (Plataforma Urbana), and with the permission of the university, uploaded ideas that came from students.

It was 2006, about the time blogs were getting popular, and very soon, their platform with information from and about architects, became the most recognised blog in Chile! But they wanted something else a site where my grandmother could go and understand what was happening in her city. Thats when they started taking the work happening in private circles, mostly to do with homes for high income people because that was good work you dont see on the street, and loading it on the site. They hoped this way to raise the level of public works, and a new site was born, in 2007, called Plataforma Architectura.

Now, with the growing visibility of the site, it was time to get more professional. So they asked architects to send information about their projects. If youve done good work, you want everyone to see it, says David A. The projects began pouring in. Next, they approached companies to send information about products that would be useful to architects, and pay for it. The companies too saw something in this proposition. They complied.

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A window into the world of architecture