ALBERTA NORWEG: febrero 2011

lunes, 28 de febrero de 2011

Hall & Partners, Branding Research Agency / Fabrica 718 + Corey Yurkovich

28 de Febrero 2011

By Andrew Rosenberg — Filed under: Interiors ,Offices ,Refurbishment ,Selected , Concrete, Corey Yurkovich, Fabrica 718, New York, New York City, USA

Architects: Fabrica 718 + Corey Yurkovich

Location: 19th Floor, 711 Third Avenue, New York City, NY, USA

Project team: Cara Solomon, Mike Brehmer, Minyoung Song, Kim Letven, Natalya Egon

Architect of Record: Melissa Cicetti, AIA

Client: Hall & Partners

Graphic Designer: WSDIA

MEP Engineer: D’Antonio Consulting

Acoustic Engineer: Acoustic Dimensions

Expediter: Milrose Consulting

Project area: 15,000 sq. ft.

Project year: 2010

Photographs: Floto+Warner, Sean Hemmerle

This project is located on the 19th floor of a midtown 1959 modernist building. It includes the full renovation of 15,000sf for offices for a branding research and communication office. 711 Third Avenue, 19th Floor, Midtown, NYC / 15,000sf

The objectives for this young research communication agency moving from Soho, NYC was to create an identity for their new midtown offices. We demolished existing perimeter offices, wood paneling, soffits and finishes and created an open, clean work plan with meeting and breakout areas, a viewing facility, conference room, and flexible event space. The space needed to be conducive to idea sessions and also hosting clients and viewing facility users.

plan

model 01

The use of graphic custom-designed light fixtures at the low ceiling level creates a visual landscape in what would otherwise be a field of monotonous acoustic tile. Also custom graphic walls inspire and invigorate the space. The graphic design depicts the networking of the internet and speaks abstractly to the communication and interlinking of ideas, innovation, and global reach of the agency and its clients.

As the project had a tight budget, we experimented with custom designs that could be made locally by fabricators we work with frequently. We developed a colorful coat hook system along a back wall that is practical yet provides a graphic element when empty so is dual-purposed. A custom powder-coated mesh wall in the Event Space allows the staff to use magnets to hang posters, idea sessions and interoffice communication with ease. A favorite local nursery supplied 20 large tropical plants placed throughout the office—to add some nature to the high rise office space.

http://www.archdaily.com/114342/hall-partners-branding-research-agency-fabrica-718-corey-yurkovich/#more-114342

domingo, 27 de febrero de 2011

Schertz Public Library / Kell Muñoz Architects

27 de Febrero 2011

By Andrew Rosenberg — Filed under: Cultural ,Museums and Libraries ,Selected , Glass, Kell Muñoz Architects, Schertz, Steel, Texas, USA, Wood

Architects: Kell Muñoz Architects

Location: Schertz, Texas, USA

General contractor: O’Haver Contractors

MEP Engineer: DBR Engineering

Structural Engineer: Datum Engineers

Civil Engineer: Brioñes Consulting

Landscape Architect: Laffoon Associates

Project area: 30,600 sq. ft.

Project year: 2009

Photographs: Casey Dunn, Christopher Gutierrez

The Schertz Public Library is a new 30,000 s.f. facility that serves the largest suburban city in the San Antonio metropolitan area. The client desired a building that would reflect the spirit and character of this traditionally rooted but forward looking community.

The site, at a major intersection, shares space with a recreation center and a park area to create a new civic center at the heart of the community.

An elliptical glass-walled courtyard, anchored by a large red oak, divides the large volume into a main reading room and a children’s room.

The focus of the public areas is a north-facing glass wall that illuminates the space with indirect natural light and provides views to the library courtyard and the new park area beyond.

plan 02

Materials were selected that have traditionally been used on residential buildings in the community – limestone, wood siding, and galvanized metal roofing – and used in a contemporary way that speaks to the mission of the Library.

http://www.archdaily.com/112580/schertz-public-library-kell-munoz-architects/#more-112580

sábado, 26 de febrero de 2011

40 Room Boutique Hotel / Chris Briffa Architects

26 de Febrero 2011
By Andrew Rosenberg — Filed under: Hotels and Restaurants , Chris Briffa Architects, Malta, Valletta

© Courtesy of Chris Briffa Architects
Architects: Chris Briffa Architects
Location: Valletta, Malta
Design: Chris Briffa, Sandro Valentino, Eleonora Zinghini
Client: Valletta Local Council
Project situation: Awaiting Development Permission
Images: Courtesy of Chris Briffa Architects

© Courtesy of Chris Briffa Architects
Marsamxetto Harbour will site a new, sea-front hotel, integrating a contemporary building with a 16th century period house; believed to have been occupied by Valletta’s renowned artist Mattia Preti.

Perched on the edge of Salvatore Bastion, the project consists of two main interventions. Firstly it involves the restoration and conversion of the Mattia Preti House into the hotel’s common areas on the ground floor and four luxury suites on the first floor. Secondly, the two infill volumes – one adjacent to the house and one overlying it – will effectively harmonize Masamxetto’s skyline when viewed from across the harbour, whilst supplying the hotel with a further 35 guest rooms and a penthouse suite.

© Courtesy of Chris Briffa Architects
A pedestrian, stepped walkway will detach the new construction from the old, revealing the corner façade of the old house, while providing public access from Marsamxett Road to Old Theatre Lane. Glass bridges will link the two buildings above the public walkway, while a glazed façade on Old Theatre Lane will introduce the energy of a busy hotel atrium into an otherwise very narrow and dreary alleyway.

With the site lying directly above the Valletta-Sliema ferry dock, a proposed public lift (accessible from the street while lying in the hotel’s footprint) will connect Marsamxett Road to the seafront below. This will facilitate vertical access to guests, visitors and locals arriving from across the harbour. The adjacent and currently derelict water polo pitch will be converted into the hotel’s lido and beach facilities, possibly also reinstating the defunct Valletta water polo club.

© Courtesy of Chris Briffa Architects
The visual integration with the adjacent buildings and fortifications, particularly when viewed from across Marsamxetto Harbour, required an aesthetic that had to be primarily centred on the use of local limestone. Old and New are integrated in their materiality and separated by distinct voids. The new stepped walkway and a recessed floor will create this separation in the form of strong ‘shadow gaps’ in order that both remain clearly identifiable.

We wanted to ensure views from the rooms, and yet were preoccupied with antagonistic, large glazed apertures. This led to the creation of a delicate, sculptural skin; which satisfied both concerns.

© Courtesy of Chris Briffa Architects
Approaching the hotel from either side of Valletta’s peripheral road at first presents a façade built entirely out of stone. The façade’s tactile geometry, borrowed from the nearby bastions, reveals the apertures only when one stands directly in front of the building. From across the harbour, the prevailing areas of stone and the vertically proportioned openings merge happily with the surrounding windows and gallarija cityscape.

This new experience of the city, we are very hopeful, will promote Valletta as a top international destination, while restoring the sophistication and innovative motivations of its original enlightened architects and creators.