* Residential Architecture: Frank Gehry Designs Mixed-Use Tower for Downtown Santa Monica

Residential Architecture: Frank Gehry Designs Mixed-Use Tower for Downtown Santa Monica: “..Developers M. David Paul Associates and the Worthe Real Estate Group have commissioned Frank Gehry to design a mixed-use hotel and residential tower in his hometown of Santa Monica, California, USA. The 22-story “Ocean Avenue Project” aims to stimulate the coastal city’s economy with street-level restaurant and retail space below a 125-room hotel and 22-unit condominium tower topped with a rooftop observation deck. As for accommodating the car-centric lifestyle of the West Coast, resident and visitor parking will be available in a three-story subterranean garage beneath the tower. In addition, the developers plan to integrate a 36,000 square foot museum campus that will add a cultural perk to the development just North of its two-acre site..Although this project looks promising, the 244-foot, Gehry-esque tower is currently pending approval from the City. A vote by the end of March will decide its fate..”

See some of our other posts on work by Frank Gehry:

• Architecture: Miami: America’s Next Great Architectural City?
• Architecture: Gehry and Mirvish unveil Toronto ‘Sculptures’
• Architecture: Frank Gehry designs Facebook HQ Expansion
• Architecture: The French Cinematheque by Frank Gehry
• Residential Architecture: Duplex by Frank Gehry for Make it Right
• Architecture: The Dancing House by Frank O. Gehry
• Residential Architecture: Video: Gehry Residence by Frank Gehry, 2012 AIA Twenty-five Year Award Recipient
• Residential Architecture: Gehry Residence by Frank Gehry
• Architecture: Opus Hong Kong by Frank Gehry
• New York by Gehry Now Complete
• Frank Gehry-designed Abu Dhabi Guggenheim Faces Boycott
• “New York by Gehry” Now Renting
• Gehry, Hadid, Foster, Ando, & Nouvel – All on One Small Island
• Frank Gehry’s New World Symphony Center – Wonderful the Way it Should Be
• Frank Gehry Residential Tower Prepares for Renters
• Frank Gehry’s Riotously Sculptural $100-million Cleveland Clinic Lou Ruvo Center for Brain Health in Las Vegas Opens

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image: © Gehry Partners; article: Rosenfield , Karissa. “Gehry Designs Mixed-Use Tower for Downtown Santa Monica” 04 Mar 2013.ArchDaily

* Architecture: Gehry and Mirvish unveil Toronto ‘Sculptures’

Architecture: Gehry and Mirvish unveil Toronto ‘Sculptures’: “..David Mirvish, founder of Mirvish Productions, and Toronto-born starchitect Frank Gehry have officially unveiled a massive, mixed-use project that will transform Toronto’s downtown arts and entertainment district. The multi-phase project will significantly alter the city’s skyline with three, “sculptural” residential towers perched atop two, six story podiums..Mirvish describes, “I am not building three towers, I am building three sculptures that people can live in.”..The towers are inspired by Mirvish’s family history, as he describes, “This area was transformed 50 years ago after my father purchased the Royal Alexandra Theatre, and this project will continue the theatre’s future and transform the neighborhood again for the next 50 years. I am proud that we can continue this legacy that my father began.”..“It is very special for me to be able to work in Toronto where I was born and to engage the neighborhoods where I grew up,” added Gehry, as reported on Dexigner. “It’s especially interesting that this project involves the arts. That is always meaningful to me. With this project, I wanted to create buildings that were good neighbors to the surrounding buildings and that respected the rich and diverse history of the area. I also wanted to make nice places for the people who live in and visit the buildings. David has an exciting vision, and I am thrilled to be a part of it.”..The Mirvish/Gehry proposal will transform a significant stretch of King West between the Royal Alex Theater and John Street. Two, stepped podiums, relating to the scale of the surrounding context, will serve as a pedestal for the  80+ storey, “iconic” towers. They will house a 60,000-square-foot, non profit gallery that showcases Mirvish’s personal contemporary art collection, along with a new OCAD University facility that will front King Street West..The casualty of the proposal is the existing, 1993 Princess of Wales Theatre..Mirvish explained, “If there were a way of completing this project without removing the Princess of Wales Theatre, we would have followed it. But after careful consideration and many different plans, I decided not giving Gehry a full canvas on which to work would have meant compromises that would have lessened the power of the project.”..Both Mirvish and Gehry readily pointed out that the conceptual models do not necessarily represent the final project as it will eventually be built..Mirvish and Gehry’s next step depends on City approval..”

See some of our previous posts on work by Frank Gehry:

• Architecture: Frank Gehry designs Facebook HQ Expansion
• Architecture: The French Cinematheque by Frank Gehry
• Residential Architecture: Duplex by Frank Gehry for Make it Right
• Architecture: The Dancing House by Frank O. Gehry
• Residential Architecture: Video: Gehry Residence by Frank Gehry, 2012 AIA Twenty-five Year Award Recipient
• Residential Architecture: Gehry Residence by Frank Gehry
• Architecture: Opus Hong Kong by Frank Gehry
• New York by Gehry Now Complete
• Frank Gehry-designed Abu Dhabi Guggenheim Faces Boycott

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image: © Gehry International Inc.; article: Rosenfield , Karissa . “Gehry and Mirvish unveil Toronto ‘Sculptures’” 02 Oct 2012. ArchDaily. <http://www.archdaily.com/278586&gt;

* Architecture: Frank Gehry designs Facebook HQ Expansion

Architecture: Frank Gehry designs Facebook HQ Expansion: “..Mark Zuckerberg, the 28-year-old co-founder of Facebook, has commissioned Frank Gehry to design a new campus headquarters on the outskirts of San Francisco Bay, California. Located across the highway from Facebook East, the company’s current headquarters, Facebook West will provide every luxury expected from a modern office space, from a flexible open floor plan, to arcade-filled lounge areas and a massive roof garden..The enormous, ten acre “room” breaks away from Gehry’s signature curves, and aims to provide a “system that’s not precious, that they [Facebook] can manipulate.” Work benches “line up in curving arcs like swarming fish”, organizing the 420,000 square foot facility into “neighborhoods” that softly flow into each other in an attempt to foster a collaborative, community-like environment..When Facebook employees need a break, they can retreat to outdoor-terraced cafes for some sushi and barbecue, play arcade games in the lounge with their co-workers, or escape up a “twisting wooden stair” to the lush roof garden..Construction is scheduled to begin in Spring 2013..For more information, check out Bloomberg’s exclusive coverage here..”

See some of our posts on other work by Frank Gehry:

• Architecture: The French Cinematheque by Frank Gehry
• Residential Architecture: Duplex by Frank Gehry for Make it Right
• Architecture: The Dancing House by Frank O. Gehry
• Residential Architecture: Video: Gehry Residence by Frank Gehry, 2012 AIA Twenty-five Year Award Recipient
• Residential Architecture: Gehry Residence by Frank Gehry
• Architecture: Opus Hong Kong by Frank Gehry

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image: Photo: Frank Gehry/Gehry Partners via Bloomberg; article: Rosenfield , Karissa . “Frank Gehry designs Facebook HQ Expansion” 25 Aug 2012. ArchDaily.<http://www.archdaily.com/266898&gt;

* Residential Architecture: The FLOAT House – Make it Right by Morphosis Architects

Residential Architecture: The FLOAT House – Make it Right by Morphosis Architects: “..The FLOAT House is a new kind of house: a house that can sustain its own water and power needs; a house that can survive the floodwaters generated by a storm the size of Hurricane Katrina; and perhaps most importantly, a house that can be manufactured cheaply enough to function as low-income housing..Make It: Affordable: A new approach to mass-producing low-cost homes that respond to local culture and climate..The FLOAT House optimizes the efficiency of mass-production, while respecting New Orleans’s unique culture and context. The Ninth Ward’s colorful vernacular houses, which local residents have traditionally modified and personalized over time, reflect the community’s vibrant culture. The FLOAT House grows out of the indigenous typology of the shotgun house, predominant throughout New Orleans and the Lower Ninth Ward. Like a typical shotgun house, the FLOAT House sits atop a raised base. This innovative base, or “chassis,” integrates all mechanical, electrical, plumbing and sustainable systems, and securely floats in case of flooding. Inspired by GM’s skateboard chassis, which is engineered to support several car body types, the FLOAT House’s chassis is designed to support a variety of customizable house configurations..Developed to meet the needs of families in New Orleans’s Lower Ninth Ward, the FLOAT House is a prototype for prefabricated, affordable housing that can be adapted to the needs of flood zones worldwide. The FLOAT House is assembled on-site from pre-fabricated components:

• The modular chassis is pre-fabricated as a single unit of expanded polystyrene foam coated in glass fiber reinforced concrete, with all required wall anchors, electrical, mechanical and plumbing systems pre-installed. The chassis module is shipped whole from factory to site, via standard flat bed trailer.
• The piers that anchor the house to the ground and the concrete pads on which the chassis sits are constructed on-site, using local labor and conventional construction techniques.
• The panelized walls, windows, interior finishes and kit-of parts roof are prefabricated, to be assembled on-site along with the installation of fixtures and appliances. This efficient approach integrates modern mass-production with traditional site construction to lower costs, guarantee quality, and reduce waste.

Make It: Float: A flood-safe house that securely floats with rising water levels..Global climate change is triggering ever-harsher floods and natural disasters. Nearly 200 million people worldwide live in high risk coastal flooding zones , and in the US alone, over 36 million people currently face the threat of flooding. The FLOAT House prototype proposes a sustainable way of living that adapts to this uncertain reality..To protect from flooding, the FLOAT House can rise vertically on guide posts, securely floating up to twelve feet as water levels rise. In the event of a flood, the house’s chassis acts as a raft, guided by steel masts, which are anchored to the ground by two concrete pile caps each with six 45-foot deep piles..Like the vernacular New Orleans shotgun house, the FLOAT House sits on a 4-foot base; rather than permanently raising the house on ten foot or higher stilts, the house only rises in case of severe flooding. This configuration accommodates a traditional front porch, preserving of the community’s vital porch culture and facilitating accessibility for elderly and disabled residents..While not designed for occupants to remain in the home during a hurricane, the FLOAT House aims to minimize catastrophic damage and preserve the homeowner’s investment in their property. This approach also allows for the early return of occupants in the aftermath of a hurricane or flood..Make It: Green: A high-performance house that generates and sustains its own water and power needs..On track for a LEED Platinum Rating, the FLOAT House is an innovative model for affordable, net-zero annual energy consumption housing. High-performance systems sustain the home’s power, air, and water needs, and minimize resource consumption:

• Solar Power Generation: The roof supports solar panels that generate all of the house’s power, resulting in net-zero annual energy consumption. The chassis incorporates electrical systems to store and convert solar power for daily use, and to give back to the electrical grid during the temperate fall and spring months.
• Rainwater Collection: The sloped concave roof collects rainwater, and funnels it to cisterns housed in the chassis, where it is filtered and stored for daily use.
• Efficient Systems—including low-flow plumbing fixtures, low-energy appliances, high performance windows, and highly insulated SIPs (Structural Insulated Panel) walls and roof—minimize water and power consumption, and lower the lifecycle cost for the home owner.
• High-grade energy efficient kitchen, appliances and fixtures maximize durability and reduce the need for replacement.
• Geothermal Heating and Cooling: A geothermal mechanical system heats and cools the air via a ground source heat pump, which naturally conditions the air, minimizing the energy required to cool the house in the harsh summer months and heat it in winter..

See our post on another home for Make It Right for post-Katrina New Orleans: Residential Architecture: Duplex by Frank Gehry for Make it Right.

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image: © Iwan Baan; article: ”The FLOAT House – Make it Right / Morphosis Architects” 02 Aug 2012. ArchDaily. <http://www.archdaily.com/259629&gt;