Gannett/USA Today Headquarters, McLean, Virginia

This is another ASLA award winner by Michael Vergason Landscape Architects. Fascinating sketches that were presented, I wanted to share this, because this my one of my favourite design language that i would like to do in the future.

PROJECT STATEMENT:
The Gannett/USA Today Headquarters is an ecologically diverse refuge in the rapidly developing business and retail center of Tysons Corner, Virginia. The landscape architect developed a site strategy that seamlessly weaves the indoor and outdoor spaces into a campus of extensive roof gardens and terraces, riparian plantings and preserved woodlands. This project demonstrates the exceptional value of thoughtful site design and site repair for the creation of a distinctive corporate campus.

A comment from the ASLA Award 2008 Jury:
"A new approach to corporate typology that feels more natural and organic. The landscape architect tells a story about the site, integrating the existing stormwater system and creating interplay with the green roof, a rich palette of trees at varying levels, and other amenities."

To read the project narrative or view more photos, please click here.

Transformation of a Burned Down Building into Art space

This is something else... Burned building turned into a Art Space, Please click here to view what is it all about and tell me what you think...

This room of carefully stacked wood wasn’t built by creative urban beavers – it’s an art installation made up of the outer timber of the surrounding crumbling house. The site is one of many houses in Detroit slated for demolition, but once this house is torn down, the wood sculpture will remain. Designed by Catie Newell and The Imagination Station, the project aims to revitalize the area with creative assemblages like this one. Read on to learn more about these Rust Belt builders (who are decidedly human) . . .

The Imagination Station is a new nonprofit whose first job is to clean up 2230 and 2236 14th street, two blighted structures on Roosevelt Park facing the epic ruins of Michigan Central Station in Detroit’s Corktown neighborhood. The house on the right will be renovated into a community media center using sustainable green practices. The burned out shell of the house on the left will be disposed of and its boundaries used as a public art space. Through this process, the Imagination Station aims to create a replicable model of redevelopment fueled by traditional partnerships and grant practices, as well as new social media techniques for fund-raising, storytelling, and volunteerism.

Community engagement will be an essential element every step of the way as we reclaim these properties for the benefit of our neighborhood.

North burnham park Soldier Field, Chicago, Illinois

North Burnham Park, soldier field was design by Hoerr Schaudt landscape architects firm. The landscape design really impressed me when i visit Chicago in may 2009. This is an award winning ASLA project.

The sculpted landforms of North Burnham Park / Soldier Field conceal the 2,500 underground parking spaces. The project added 17 acres of new parkland surrounding the Chicago Bears’ Soldier Field and include a children’s playground, a winter sledding hill, the winding entrance to game day, and a vantage point for the city skyline.

During the trip with Mississippi state university, department of landscape architecture, the instructors have arranged a meeting with a few employees who worked at that firm, I really recommend visit their website. 

KZ Architecture: Boano-Lowenstein Residence

Located in Bay Harbor Island, Florida, this is luxury house was designed by KZ Architecture, the house has two balcony on front of house. Front area of house is divided into two parts, open pool and grass garden, walk way to the main door divides this two part.

The design team set goals that would be respectful of the context and the landscape, as well as conscious of resources and sustainability. Despite the quasi-urban setting, this effort resulted in a reduced footprint in the highly priced site and the adoption of the LEED for homes scale to ensure a sustainable path. The outside permeates the interior and the home is enveloped with natural light and views. Spacious and distinct exterior living spaces such as porches and balconies flow from within and reach out onto the landscape, providing environmentally sensitive solutions for a home in a tropical climate. Deeply rooted in its context, this project represents a milestone for residential sustainable design in South Florida, as the first home of its type to achieve silver LEED certification and Florida Green Building Coalition Gold Certification.

For more photos please click here.

Infill Community Development, Starkville, MS

This a project i have submited this semester, it's about planning a new community in Starkville. The following is statement from assistant professor, Taze Fulford, class instructor.

"You have been asked to help plan a new community for Starkville, Mississippi based upon New Urbanist principles as well as paying attention to the ecological footprint. Use your course readings to help you build a program for the community. You will be graded overall on how well you integrate sustainability concepts into the New Urbanist framework of design. All stormwater must be kept on site through innovative design techniques. " Taze Fulford, Class Instructor.

Basic Program Medium Density
Mixed, Multiple Use
Community Center
Common "Green"
High End, Well Designed
Custom Details
Public Art
Strawbale Garden Shed

Please feel free to make any comments or ask any questions...

Atlantic City Holocaust Memorial proposal

Architects Ariel Noyman and Ruth Kedar shared with us their proposal for the Atlantic City Holocaust Memorial Competition. The project is inspired by the European forest, which stood in the background as a witness to the devastating Holocaust.

The thicket of poles creates a gradual transition between the lively Atlantic City Boardwalk and the new Holocaust Memorial. The poles act as a screen without defining a clear visual or physical boundary.

Passing through the thicket, one reaches a clearing in the forest, dotted by tree stumps. The tree stumps symbolize the aggressive destruction and the massive murder of the Jewish people along with other communities; the abrupt stop of life.

The field of stumps is a direct material continuation of its site, the boardwalk. Together with the field of glowing poles, the intervention gives a new interpretation to the boardwalk’s characteristic elements.

The poles gain energy from the sun during daytime and glow at night. This self‐sufficient cycle is an expression of both hope and alert caused by unstoppable processes; it stands as a reminder of the repetitive pulse of history and of the human spirit.

The new memorial is self‐sufficient, accessible and robust. It results in a new environment, which will accommodate diverse scales and types of gatherings and experiences.

Samitaur Tower, Culver City, California

The Samitaur Tower is an information tower, constructed at the corner of Hayden Avenue and National Boulevard immediately across from the new Expo light rail line arriving from downtown Los Angeles in June, 2011. That intersection is the primary entry point into the re-developed zone of Culver City.

Conceptually, the tower has both introverted and extroverted planning objectives. Internal to the burgeoning site area of new media companies, graphic designers, and general office tenants, the tower symbolizes' the advent of this important new urban development, provide a changing art display for local viewing, and offer a variety of graphic content and data on its five screens concerning coming events and current achievements of the tenants who occupy that part of the city.

Externally, the tower displays culturally significant content and local event information, along with art and graphic presentations of all sorts available to in-car audiences who pass the site area, traveling on a number of local thoroughfares in the Culver City / West Los Angeles area. In addition to the large number of cars passing the site, the Expo Line has an estimated ridership of 30,000 passengers per day with two local stops several blocks east and west of the site. The presence of the train riders guarantees an enormous daily audience of Tower art viewers, as well as an increase in pedestrians in the area, who will walk past the Tower from the train stops to local businesses.

Great design by Eric, bringing focal element, that people get really interested what is it about, I really recommend anyone who is interested in this kind of design form to check his website.

Changi Airport Terminal 3 Interior Landscape, Singapore

The site of Changi Airport, one of the busiest hubs in Asia is reclaimed from the sea. The interior space is a ten-story volume, with four functional levels arranged around a huge sky lighted atrium, the base of which is the arrival hall. The roof concept of ‘butterfly-winged’ skylights is a spectacular and dramatic architectural statement, flooding the interior with diffused light, regulated by sensors to control the heat load and ventilation of the immense space. The building is a conservatory for plants.

The Airport's Master Plan envisioned the Terminal 3’s interior space as a continuation of the overall exterior airport gardens, drive and walkways, which are visible through the wide and tall glass 'skin' of the building. The green wall is a perfect example of how vertical planting could significantly affect overall interior ambiance with a small footprint in plan.

This is an awards wining project by Tierra Design. For more information at the ASLA website, please click here.

Multi-Family Dwellings: Safari Drive Condominiums

Jenny Sullivan wrote an article about Safari Drive Condominiums, she stated "Americans often dismiss the idea of downtown living because they assume it means giving up certain benefits of suburban life, such as yards, garages, and swimming pools."

I read her article and started reading more about the project and i find it interesting that the characteristic of this design illustrates such an inviting place to live in.



 Safari Drive reinvents the suburban form. The barrier of distance between the exclusively residential and commercial zones is compressed to a livable dimension. Potentially daunting in the context of low-lying suburbia, the massing of five story buildings is modulated to a human scale, graciously introducing a viable level of density in the midst of consumptive sprawl. Within its own bounds, the project is a self-sustaining, vibrant mixed-use urban neighborhood. Small commercial functions—live/work lofts and ground floor retail spaces—are mixed among the residential units, contributing a shared energy to the public spaces.

Outdoor rooms, shaped and shaded by the enclosing buildings, are the organizing framework for the project. The experience of walking from home to shopping and beyond is not only protected from the intense desert elements, but enriched by a varied sequence of exterior spaces. Circulation is organized within a traditional urban grid, culminating at the heart of the site in a circular court shared by cars, pedestrians and outdoor dining. This deliberate blending of disparate activities fosters spontaneity and a rich public life.

Design response to the desert climate relies on the judicious use of thermal mass, deep overhangs, a high-performance thermal envelope, and naturally weathering, locally manufactured materials. Native, drought-tolerant landscaping is provided throughout the development. A “cool tower” passively cools a public courtyard with a simple, wind-driven technology borrowed from middle-eastern desert vernacular, and provides prospect and visual focus for the project.

Project Size: 165 condominium units and amenities totaling approximately 325,000 gross square-feet of building area (Phase 1 and 2 combined) on a 4.81 acre site (34 units/acre). Completed Phase 1: 5 buildings; 95 condominium units (ranging from 800 square-feet to 2300 square-feet each), 17,000 square-feet of live work lofts and 10,000 square-feet of retail space.

Safari Drive has been certified by Scottsdale's Green Building Program for Multi-Family Dwellings.

I recommend to review the miller hull partnership website for more architecture and landscape architecture project.