* 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: Miami: America’s Next Great Architectural City?

Architecture: Miami: America’s Next Great Architectural City?: “..Miami, Florida is booming with new architectural projects by big names: everything from new condominums by BIG, to the restoration of the Saxony Hotel by Rem Koolhaas, to the new Miami Beach Convention Center. So why are so many big projects migrating to Miami Beach? The city is turning itself into an American cultural and civic center..Take, for example, the cultural institutions along Lincoln Road. The new addition of Herzog & de Meuron’s Parking Garage satisfies a necessity while also providing a rich, cultural gathering space, thanks to its designed social functions. The architecture breaks out from the anticipated form of the “concrete box for cars” and instead turns it into something that fits within the context of the neighborhood, physically and programmatically. The firm will also be expanding the Miami Art Museum, scheduled to reopen as the new Pérez Art Museum Miami (PAMM) in 2013..There are also many cultural restoration projects in the works. The Bacardi Building, a modernist tower designed by Enrique Gutierrez in 1969 will be restored by Frank Gehry to house studios, offices and housing for artists of the National Young Arts Foundation. The exterior, which features a rich mosaic, will remain untouched. The Saxony Hotel will be restored by developer Alan Faena in collaboration with Rem Koolhaas, situated across from a new Norman Foster tower in Miami Beach. The design is still under wraps, but it’s a highly anticipated addition to the urban fabric..What is it about Miami that is motivating developers to bring in renowned architects? In an article in Architect Magazine by Ian Volner, architects Herzog & de Meuron admit that the culture, weather, food and community are major attractions for Miami. But its history of Art Deco architecture and its obsession with air-conditioned, indoor spaces, are some of the negative characteristics that their new design for the Miami Art Museum hope to address. In their design, the heavy temple-like structure of the exterior is offset by the openness of the interior spaces, the abundance of hanging vegetation, and ample shaded outdoor spaces. Note those motifs, and recognize them even in the parking garage on 1111 Lincoln Road. Like the Miami Art Museum, Herzog & de Meuron’s design for the parking garage incorporates as much outdoor space as possible, shading, and vegetation..With the real estate market in Miami booming, the city has the opportunity to reinvent itself with a contemporary architecture, a refined sense of culture and community and with the assistance of talented and respected architects and designers.   We look forward to watching as these projects develop..”

See some of our posts on Miami:

• Architecture: 1111 Lincoln Road by Herzog & de Meuron
• Architecture + Design: Miami Beach Parking Garage by Zaha Hadid
• Architecture: Norman Foster & Buckminster Fuller: Architecting the Future at Miami Design District
• Genesis by David Adjaye at Design Miami/Basel
• Frank Gehry’s New World Symphony Center – Wonderful the Way it Should Be

And see some of our posts on BIG (Bjarke Ingels):

• Architecture: Natural History Museum Proposal by BIG Architects (Bjarke Ingels)
• Architecture: MECA by BIG (Bjarke Ingels Group) + FREAKS freearchitects
• Architecture: Cross # Towers by BIG Architects (Bjarke Ingels Group)
• Residential Architecture: Beach and Howe Mixed-Use Tower by BIG (Bjarke Ingels Group)
• Architecture: TLT Tilting Building by BIG (Bjarke Ingels Group)
• Architecture: St. Petersburg Pier (Florida) by BIG (Bjarke Ingels Group)
• Architecture: Chicago Navy Pier Proposal by BIG Architects (Bjarke Ingels) + AECOM
• Architecture: BIG (Bjarke Ingels) wins competition for the new Kimball Art Center
• Architecture: St. Petersburg Pier by BIG Architects (Bjarke Ingels)
• Architecture: Kimball Art Center by BIG (Bjarke Ingels)
• Architecture + Design: Koutalaki Ski Village by BIG (Bjarke Ingels)

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image: Coconut Grove Condo by BIG (Bjarke Ingels Group); Image via DesignBoom; article: Vinnitskaya , Irina. “Miami: America’s Next Great Architectural City?” 11 Dec 2012. ArchDaily. <http://www.archdaily.com/304460&gt;

* Architecture: The Dancing House by Frank O. Gehry

Architecture: The Dancing House by Frank O. Gehry: “..The Dancing House or Dancing Building or Ginger & Fred is the nickname given to the Nationale-Nederlanden building in downtown Prague, Czech Republic at Rašínovo Nábřeží 80, Praha 2. It was designed by Canadian-American architect Frank Gehry in co-operation with Croatian-Czech architect Vlado Milunić on a vacant riverfront plot (where the previous building had been destroyed during the Bombing of Prague in 1945). The building was designed in 1992 and completed in 1996. The very non-traditional design was controversial at the time. Czech president Václav Havel, who lived for decades next to the site, had supported it, hoping that the building would become a center of cultural activity. Originally named Fred and Ginger (after Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers – the house resembles a pair of dancers) the house stands out among the Baroque, Gothic and Art Nouveau buildings for which Prague is famous..Known as deconstructivist (“new-baroque” to the designers) architecture due to its unusual shape. The “dancing” shape is supported by 99 concrete panels, each a different shape and dimension. On the top of the building is a large twisted structure of metal nick named “Medusa”. “In the interior of a square of buildings in the eighteenth and nineteenth century, the Dancing House has two central bodies. The first is a tower of glass that is close to half height and is supported by curved pillars, the second runs parallel to the river, which is characterized by the moldings that follow a wavy motion and distributed through the windows so the non-aligned. This solution has been driven mainly by a kind of aesthetic consideration: the windows lined evidenciarían that the building has two windows, although they have the same height as the two adjacent buildings of the nineteenth century. They also don’t have to be perceived in the will of the designer, as simple forms on a flat surface, but must achieve the effect of three-dimensionality, hence the idea of frames as outgoing frames of paintings. Also the winding moldings on the facade make it more confusing perspective, diminishing the contrast with the buildings that surround it.””  Article includes a video..

See our posts on other work by Frank 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

image + video: Special thanks to Franco di Capua; article: Arthitectural

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* Architecture: Opus Hong Kong by Frank Gehry

Architecture: Opus Hong Kong by Frank Gehry: “..a residential property positioned on top of a winding hillside road in the metropolitan city. the tower is comprised of 12 residential units, two double-level garden suites with private swimming pools on the lower levels, and 10 custom apartments, each occupying an entire floor with unprecedented 360° views, ranging from 560 – 640 sqm in space. ‘I designed the building for hong kong, to respond to the unique conditions of the city. you wouldn’t build this anywhere else.’ - frank gehry..”  Ultralux, magnificent views, interesting conception and details..

See posts on other work by Frank Gehry: Gehry, Hadid, Foster, Ando, & Nouvel – All on One Small Island, New York by Gehry Now Complete, Frank Gehry’s New World Symphony Center – Wonderful the Way it Should Be and Frank Gehry’s Riotously Sculptural $100-million Cleveland Clinic Lou Ruvo Center for Brain Health in Las Vegas Opens.

image: © swire properties ltd.; article: Designboom

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