* Architecture: Cross # Towers by BIG Architects (Bjarke Ingels Group)

Architecture: Cross # Towers by BIG Architects (Bjarke Ingels Group): “..positioned next to the existing urban fabric of the future development zones of the yongsan master plan, designed by studio liebeskind for the korean development group dreamhub. the design includes two elegant towers with a height of 214 and 204m. to meet the vertical requirements of the site, the exceeding building mass is transformed into an upper and lower horizontal bar, which bridge the two structures at 140m and 70 m elevation. the two edifices are additionally connected through the arrival areas at the ground level and a courtyard below ground..‘the cross # towers constitute a three-dimensional urban community of interlocking horizontal and vertical towers. three public bridges connect two slender towers at different levels – underground, at the street and in the sky. catering to the demands and desires of different residents, age groups and cultures the bridges are landscaped and equipped for a variety of activities traditionally restricted to the ground. the resultant volume forms a distinct figure on the new skyline of seoul – a “#” that serves as a gateway to the new yongsan business district signaling a radical departure from the crude repetition of disconnected towers towards a new urban community that populates the three-dimensional space of the city.’  - bjarke ingels, founding partner, BIG..”  Big and intersectional..

See four of our other posts on projects by BIG: 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) and Architecture: BIG (Bjarke Ingels) wins competition for the new Kimball Art Center.

image: courtesy of BIG architects; article: Designboom

designalog: contact

* Architecture: Urban Design: It Riles a Village by Michael Kimmelman

Architecture: Urban Design: It Riles a Village by Michael Kimmelman:  ”..The storm over NYU 2031, as this latest expansion proposal is called, has escalated into one of the city’s most acrimonious land-use battles. No wonder. The plan is so clearly oversize that it’s hard not to see it as a stalking horse for what school officials figure they can get permission from the city to build. The proposal envisions constructing some 2.5 million square feet (the rough equivalent of the Empire State Building) over the next 20 years on a pair of superblocks owned by the university below Washington Square Park. The blocks are now dominated by midcentury tower-in-the-park faculty residences called Washington Square Village and University Village..”  Michael Kimmelman writes, in The New York Times, a well-meaning, and perhaps intelligent, article on New York University’s (over) ambitious development plans for New York City’s iconic Greenwich Village..

A slideshow accompanies Kimmelman’s article, here.

See our posts on other articles by Michael Kimmelman: Architecture + Design: Paved, but Still Alive by Michael Kimmelman – Urban + Suburban Design, Architecture + Urban Design: The Grid at 200: Lines That Shaped Manhattan by Michael Kimmelman, Treasuring Urban Oases – by Michael Kimmelman, and Imagining Housing for Today, by Michael Kimmelman – Models for Contemporary Urban Housing.

 

image: Jack Manning/The New York Times; article: Michael Kimmelman, The New York Times

 

* Architecture: High Line at the Rail Yards Design Unveiled

Architecture: High Line at the Rail Yards Design Unveiled: “..the project is expected to attract over 12 million square feet of new office, residential, retail and cultural structures, creating a new urban context with access to the landscaped park on the historic railway to the east and new walkway positioned over the western area. once complete, there will be an uninterrupted link between the meatpacking district, west chelsea and clinton/hell’s kitchen neighborhoods..”  Final section of the wonderful New York linear park, taking it all the way up to 34th street..

image: james corner field operations & diller scofidio + renfro; courtesy of the city of new york and friends of the high line; article: Designboom

designalog: contact

* Architecture: Chicago Navy Pier Proposal by BIG Architects (Bjarke Ingels) + AECOM

Architecture: Chicago Navy Pier Proposal by BIG Architects (Bjarke Ingels) + AECOM: “..considered to be one of the great living legacies of american architect and urban planner daniel burnham’s plan of chicago, the site’s grand public waterfront location lacks a physical and visual connection back to the city. the team of BIG and AECOM suggest to extend the existing pier upwards by elevating public life onto the rooftops of the structures, while restoring uninterrupted views of the windy city’s famous skyline. in addition, their proposal imagines a second destination within the pier at the east end park, where they envision the pier to take visitors both over and into the water..”  Oddly retro-neo-classical despite a few contemporary touches..

See our other posts on proposals for Chicago’s Navy Pier: Urban Design: PIERSCAPE by James Corner Field Operations, and  Urban Design: Great Pier by !melk + UrbanLab + HOK

image + article: Designboom

designalog@live.fr

* Urban Design: Great Pier by !melk + UrbanLab + HOK

Urban Design: Great Pier by !melk + UrbanLab + HOK: “..a series of “dramatic ideas to  reconceptualize Chicago’s preeminent exclamation point extending from the Great Lakes to the world”.  The intention behind this proposal is to provide a dynamic place in a historic area that provides a cultural landmark as well as a world-wide attraction that stems from the geological history of the site itself..”

See our post on the proposal for Chicago’s Navy Pier by James Corner Field Operations: PIERSCAPE by James Corner Field Operations.

image + article: ArchDaily

designalog@live.fr