What if you could walk from Church Street across from Le Patisserie onto the commuter rail tracks?

Or what if Waterfield Road along the Town Common had a winding cobbled-stone path that passed by townhouses, storefronts and sidewalk cafes then ended at the train platform?

These are just some of the possibilities that architects have been asked to imagine this fall for the Waterfield Road parking lot adjacent to Town Common. The town hired the design firms to suggest possibilities about how the town-owned lot could better fit in with the rest of the town and add vitalize the area between downtown and Church Street.

The firms will present their designs to the Winchester Planning Board on Sept. 13.

Its a very interesting opportunity because not many towns are clear in wanting to have visions for their towns, said Peter Nobile, of LDa Architects. They might do some internal planning, but they rarely ask outside designers. This tends to happen in big cities.

For example, Nobile cited Cornell Universitys soliciting proposals from international design firms for the redesign of Roosevelt Island, in New York City.

Whats interesting [about the towns process] is that youll get several really interesting and compelling possibilities, Nobile said.

MBTA plans

The plan to invite outside designers came about, in part, because of the MBTAs $15 million plans to renovate Winchester Station over the next five years, Town Planner Betsy Ware said.

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Architects asked to imagine redesigns to Winchester's Waterfield commuter rail lot

July 29th, 2012 By Amber Daugherty // No Comments

Theres a new group of architects looking up at our city with fresh, bright eyes. Theyre interested in changing the way people move through the streets, the way new buildings go up, and the way people get around. Theyve got hundreds of new ideas, and theyre ambitious as ever. Oh, and theyre between the ages of eight to 12.

Welcome to Harbourfront Centres architecture camp, a place for the curious, urban interested kids to explore city designs and systems. The camp teaches children about the structure of cities and the reasons behind the way theyre built, before encouraging them to build their own. Ten-year-old Paola says she was interested in the camp because shes interested in new houses that are going up around the city.

I like designing houses and streets and where everything goes, she says. And its just a lot of fun to build your own city and be like This is my city, this is where City Hall goes.

The children had the opportunity to build an entire metropolis out of found and supplied materials (cardboard boxes, Lego, wooden sticks, etc.) that sprawled over pushed-together tables. It included everything from government buildings to a water system to a tourist destination circus. Streets were created using different colours of painters tape. Spacing popped in one afternoon to give the kids a lesson in wayfinding, getting the group to think of the most creative way to guide people around their city. Ideas were fantastic, ranging from large, colourful balloons leading the way to the museum to universal signs as simple as arrows, to touch-screens projected on to the ground where tapping your foot on the desired "button" would show you the path to your destination. There was an unlimited budget, and definitely unlimited imagination.

The camp is for children specifically interested in the way their cities are built. With field trips to places such as the University of Toronto, the kids get the chance to see examples of designs they're implementing in their own city. The camp focuses on decision making and problem solving as well as design. This year, two camps are being done in two-week stints, allowing time for creative thinking as well as workshops on architectural styles and materials. And, of course, there's even time for guest appearances.

Ten-year-old Graydon says he learned a lot from Spacings wayfinding lesson.

Its important because without it you cant get around the city, he says. And if youre visiting here, youll get lost and never be able to get home.

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Toronto’s next generation of architects

LONDON, July 25, 2012 /PRNewswire/ --

KnowledgeView, of London and Beirut, has introduced a state of the art iPad App that allows architects, interior designers, project developers, systems integrators and others to publish their complete portfolio with photos and video galleries on the Apple iPad, with geo-information and related Web-mobile views. KnowledgeView will customize the App according to clients' brand and host it. As part of the package, the 'EasyPublish' authoring tool allows these companies to communicate with their target audience, publish content to the iPad as well as to Twitter and Facebook, all linked together with one click.

The 'Portfolio App' helps companies with projects maximize visibility, engage their target audience. The iPad app enables companies' audience base to browse through the cached portfolio of projects and brochures offline. In addition, the geo-information on Google map for each showcased project will have a description, making a vast majority of information available at hand.

KnowledgeView has gained a thorough experience of the project based industry objectives and requirements through a close collaboration with the 'Dewan Architects and Engineers', UAE-based Architecture firm, to deliver a powerful, feature-rich iPad app with customized friendly user interfaces.

"The 'Dewan Architects and Engineers' iPad App is the newest platform launched by Dewan to help us communicate with our clients and partners globally by using the latest platforms linked to social media. The App is intuitive, aesthetically attractive and allows our visitors to store information about our projects onto their devices, locate our projects on Google map, and learn more about our corporate news as they occur. The great work done by the KnowledgeView team who developed the app has made the presentation of our architectural work appealing and helps us to further broaden our market reach.", Mohamemd Al Assam, Chairman and Managing Director, Dewan Architects and Engineers, said.

Having their iPad app available now on the Apple store, 'Dewan Architects and Engineers' will enjoy a consistency of its identity with the color and branding feature on the new digital destination. The company's content and projects will be organized in different categories and sub categories in various formats ranging from text to audio and video.

The full app is hosted on KnowledgeView servers so that the 'Dewan Architects and Engineers' and their peers are spared from investing in IT infrastructure.

-Ends-

About KnowledgeView

KnowledgeView Ltd is a UK-based company with headquarters in London and offices in the Middle East. The company was founded in 1995 to develop cross-media publishing, news management and editorial sharing systems.

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The 'Portfolio App' for Projects: Optimal Digital Platform to Engage With Your Clients

Landmarks Illinois, rendering from reuse proposal for Bertrand Goldberg's old Prentice Hospital, 2011.

Photo: Courtesy of Landmarks Illinois

Mayor Emanuel received a letter Wednesday from more than 60 architects, academics and historic preservationists urging him to grant the Prentice Womens Hospital landmark status. Northwestern University owns the Streeterville building and intends to tear it down to construct a new research facility. The signees, who include Jeanne Gang and Frank Gehry, stressed a report by the National Trust for Historic Preservation, which found that the building exceeds the criteria for Chicago landmark designation.

Bertrand Goldberg (19131997), the buildings architect and a Chicago native, is best known for Marina City. But Jonathan Fine, executive director of Preservation Chicago, says, The engineering significance of Prentice is far greater than Marina City. The building is designed like a tree, as seven concrete floors cantilever off the towers core like branches, hovering 45 feet above the towers base. This leaves the inside free of interior columns, which allowed Goldberg to avoid long hallways. Instead of being arrayed in rows, patient rooms are laid out in circular hubs centered on a nurses station. Fine says this approach represents the humanistic side of modernism and reflects Goldbergs desire to improve the hospital experience. Furthermore, Fine claims the lack of columns would make adapting the building to another use quite easy.

Besides drawing the attention of major Chicago and American architects, support for Prentices preservation came from around the world, with international signees from Europe, Australia and Asia. While the letter highlighted the global significance of Prentice, it also focused on the local risk posed by tearing down the tower. According to the letter, Chicagos global reputation as a nurturer of bold and innovative architecture will wither if the city cannot preserve its most important achievements.

Original post:
Architects call on Rahm to save Prentice

More than 60 architects, educators and historic preservationists are betting their famous names might help prevent demolition of the old Prentice Womens Hospital.

Northwestern University owns the building and plans to tear it down for a research facility. Prominent architects, like Jeanne Gang and Frank Gehry, intervened on Wednesday and submitted a letter to Mayor Rahm Emanuel.

The architects called the clover-shaped building by Bertrand Goldberg a breakthrough in structural engineering and asked for landmark status.

Goldberg is a Chicago native who spent much of his career here and is best known for his Marina City towers. He studied under Mies van der Rohe at the Bauhaus in Berlin.

The legacy of Bertrand Goldbergs Prentice Womens Hospital is unmistakable, the letter says. Chicagos reputation as a nurturer of bold innovation and architecture will wither if the city cannot preserve its most important achievements.

But on Thursday, Northwestern said it has not changed its plans to demolish the building. A spokesperson said that its unsuitable for the kind of modern biomedical research building the University needs to build on the site.

The university says a feasibility study showed the Prentice wouldnt be adequate as research space and would cost too much to convert.

One of the well-known architects who signed the letter asking for landmark status, Dirk Lohan, doesnt buy that argument.

Hes the grandson of Mies van der Rohe. Lohans legacy in Chicago involves the restructuring of classic old buildings like Adler Planetarium, Shedd Aquarium and his controversial addition to Soldier Field. Hes a fan of Goldbergs building.

These are the kinds of things that I think our city needs to think about, to rejuvenate older buildings that may not meet their original functions exactly the way they were meant to be, Lohan said. And I have a hard time believing that another use cannot be found to work within that structure.

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Famous architects step in to save the Prentice building

Edmund Sumner

Architects: Wilkinson Eyre Architects Location: Olympic Park North (Stop M), London Borough of Hackney, London E9, UK Project Team: SKM with Wilkinson Eyre Architects and KSS Project Year: 2011 Project Area: 11500.0 sqm Photographs: Edmund Sumner

The Basketball Arena by Wilkinson Eyre Architects is one of the biggest temporary venues ever erected for any Olympic and Paralympic Games and the third largest venue in the Olympic Park. Located on high ground at the north end of the site, and clearly visible from various vantage points in the Olympic Park, the Arena will provide 12,000 seats for the basketball heats and handball finals, as well as 10,000 seats for the wheelchair basketball and wheelchair rugby competitions. Despite a tight budget, the Arena is set to be one of the most iconic and visually dramatic buildings of the 2012 Games.

Edmund Sumner

The brief called for a structure that was simple to erect but also provided a worldclass sporting venue for some of the most popular Olympic events. Alongside these factors, sustainability was a key driver in the buildings design: the arena has been made out of robust individual components that can be easily dismantled and subdivided for reuse, with over twothirds of the materials and components used on the project identified for reuse or for recycle.

Section 03

Wilkinson Eyre has used an architectural language that remains distinct from the surrounding permanent venues, overtly celebrating both the best of British engineering and the temporary nature of the structure through innovative and economic structural and cladding solutions. Lightweight, simple building components have been used instead of a concrete structure usually found in stadia architecture, allowing the Basketball Arenas steel frame and cladding to be constructed in just six weeks.

Edmund Sumner

The 30mhigh rectangular volume (the equivalent of a sevenstorey building) is made out of a steel portal frame and wrapped in 20,000 sqm of lightweight phthalatefree and recyclable PVC. This translucent bespoke cladding is stretched across minimal steel framing modules that push the fabric out and create an elegant and threedimensional undulating pattern across the facades.

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London 2012 Basketball Arena / Wilkinson Eyre Architects

Construction is under way on the new James Cancer Center and Solove Research Institute at the Ohio State University Wexner Medical Center, a 1.2 million-square-foot project in Columbus, Ohio, designed by HOK and Moody/Nolan.

The Supreme Court issued its landmark ruling last Thursday on the Affordable Care Act, essentially upholding the law. Following up on a story we published last week, we checked in with architects and industry experts around the country to hear their thoughts on the decision and how it might affect health care architecture. Share your own opinions in our reader survey.

Jennifer Coskren, senior economist with McGraw-Hill Construction

Health care construction starts have dropped in recent yearsand the decline persists. Through May of this year, total starts (in square footage terms) were down 24 percent. Coskren says the ruling should help jump-start projects, even while the economy continues to limp along. Now that the uncertainty is gone thanks to the Supreme Court upholding the constitutionality of the law, we feel that the industry will be able to move more confidently ahead with capital expenditure plans, she says. Demand for health care services are expected to increase, thanks to the over 30 million people who now will have access to health care insurance.

John Schneidawind, based in Washington, D.C., AIA media spokesman

The AIA didnt take a stance on the health care reform law. Now that the Court has upheld it, Schneidawind says the AIA will continue to educate its members on how the law affects them and what they need to do in order to prepare for its implementation. He adds: At the same time, we are continuing to monitor legislative action on health care and other issues that affect the practice of architecture.

Mary-Jean Eastman, based in NYC, founding principal of Perkins Eastman

I think our clients are taking a big collective sigh of relief, says Eastman. They have some sense of where things are going and are able to plan for the future.

Eastman believes the decision will spur design work, although architects likely will be focusing on primary-care facilities and optimizing efficiencies in existing hospitals. It will definitely affect the way we design the environments. It will be about quality, not quantity, which is probably a good thing, she says. In the Northeast, we dont need more beds. Its an issue of having the right beds.

Michael Pukszta, based in St. Louis, chair of Cannon Designs health care steering committee

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Architects, Industry Experts React to Supreme Court’s Ruling on Affordable Care Act

Artists impression of the eco villa which will built in Qatar designed by LSI architects

By annabelle dickson Sunday, July 22, 2012 9:00 AM

Norwich-based LSI Architects has broken into the Qatar market winning a major contract for an eco villa after years of research and training.

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The company has won a competition to design the countrys first eco villa.

It has been working with UKTI and the British Embassy in Qatar and also completed training in Qatars sustainability assessment system, which is considered to be the most comprehensive in the world.

LSI Architects partner Trevor Price, who is leading the Qatar project, said: We began researching The Gulf as a new market in response to the recession. I went on a UKTI trade mission to Abu Dhabi and Qatar in early 2010 and talked to packed meetings about LSIs expertise in sustainable design. The trade mission was followed by a series of one-to-one meetings in Qatar to establish our credentials and explore partnerships.

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Research pays off for Norwich-based LSI Architects as it clinches Qatar contract

The Irish Times - Monday, July 23, 2012

FRANK McDONALD, Environment Editor

A FIRM of Scottish architects has picked up the top prize in a competition for the design of a new 1,000-student post-primary school in Dublin, beating some of Irelands leading architects.

The contest, organised by the Royal Institute of the Architects of Ireland, attracted the highest number of entries for a design competition here, with 154 submissions including 43 international entries from 14 countries.

The winning scheme by Ayr-based ARPL Architects is to be developed on a site owned by the Department of Education in Kingswood, Tallaght.

The Scottish firm will manage its construction with a view to the school opening in late August 2017.

Minister for Education Ruair Quinn said the wide interest in the competition is a reflection of the importance of quality design of schools. But the high number of entries also reflects the desperate need of Irish architects for new work to keep going.

Joint second place was shared by Dublin-based de Blacam and Meagher Architects and the Coady Partnership.

It is expected that they will be commissioned to design other schools for sites owned by the department as funding becomes available.

Others shortlisted to take part in the second and final stage of the competition were all Dublin-based: Grafton Architects, Michael Kelly Architect and BDP.

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Scottish firm's design chosen for 1,000-pupil Tallaght school

The graceful, undulating design of London's Aquatic Center has a backbone of steel weighing more than 3,000 tons.

Zaha Hadid Architects

Inside, is a pool. *The* pool, really, the London Aquatic Center, where, beginning next Saturday, the best swimmers in the world will compete for those life-defining demarcations: gold, silver, and bronze.

Outside, it's an undulating wave of aluminum, supported by a structure of Red Lauro timber and more than 3,000 tons of steel. The shape -- "inspired by the fluid geometry of water in motion," according to Zaha Hadid Architects -- arches over three pools (one for diving, one for racing, and one for training) and some 2,500 seats. Two structural appendages will provide an additional 15,000 seats for the summer's games, and will then be dismantled, leaving behind the "legacy building" -- the permanent structure whose un-Olympic size should prove easier for London to maintain. It is the highest-capacity of the venues during the Olympics; it will reduce to the lowest.

The Olympic set-up:

Legacy mode:

The building's construction required the demolition of 11 industrial building and the removal of 160,000 metric tons of soil. (Also, strange but awesome factlet: According to ZHA, four skeletons from a pre-historical settlement were discovered during the excavation for the building's foundation.)

But what makes the building iconic is the roof, whose graceful, swooping curves belies the rugged interior, the massive frame of steel, held together with some 70,000 bolts. The whole thing is supported on only three points -- a wall at the south end and two concrete pillars at the north, and shaped by 10 north-south steel trusses. "The steelwork itself describes the architectural geometry -- loosely," Glenn Moorley, Zaha Hadid's project leader for the center explained to me.

Zaha Hadid Architects

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Smooth as Water, Strong as Steel: The Undulating Roof of London's Olympic Pool