Awarded Projects Prove that Great Architecture Performs as well as Inspires.

At a sold-out event Monday night, the American Institute of Architects (AIA) Seattle chapter honored architects from across Washington State for innovative, and in some cases, groundbreaking projects exemplifying best examples in a broad array of settings from single- and multi-family residential, to health care, to civic, to commercial.

Award-winning projects served as powerful demonstrations of how architecture can perform financially, sustainably and humanistically, as well as positively transform our social and urban landscape.
 
“This is an awards program that is moving away from focusing on “the money shot” in terms of measuring excellence in architecture,” said David Baker FAIA of San Francisco, one of the AIA Honor Awards jurors.  “It was great to see the high degree of sustainable design. The Pacific Northwest is clearly a leader in this area.”

Stanford Hospital & Clinics and Rafael Viñoly Architects presented their vision for the development of the new Stanford Hospital on Monday. 

The unveiling marks an exciting milestone in advancing the hospital's plans to build for the future, increase capacity to meet the healthcare needs of the community, and design with earthquake safety standards in mind.

Rather than creating the typical base-and-tower hospital building, the firm has proposed a modular plan that can be easily adapted for different uses, allowing for both incremental expansion of the hospital building and a horizontal massing strategy that matches the low-rise campus context of Stanford University and the Stanford Hospital & Clinics.  


0300TV produced this movie featuring words and works by Ai Weiwei (FAKE Design, Beijing), Jiang Jun (Urban China Magazine), Wang Shu (Amateur Architecture Studio, Hangzhou), Yu Kongjian (Turenscape, Beijing) and Ma Qingyun (SPAMAPS, Shanghai).

Olson Sundberg Kundig Allen Architects have designed the new Wing Luke Asian Museum. The firm’s design preserves and restores the historic fabric of the East Kong Yick Building and offers new and expanded space to the Wing Luke Asian Museum, a Smithsonian Institution affiliate and America’s premier pan-Asian Pacific American museum. Rick Sundberg, principal of Olson Sundberg Kundig Allen, led the design.
 
The new Wing Luke Asian Museum, in Seattle’s Chinatown International District, offers space for community meetings and events, public space for the neighborhood, theatre space for performances and presentations, exhibit spaces for community art and emerging Asian Pacific American artists, family-centered learning environments and leadership development for neighborhood youth.

Ambitious hotel marks Copenhagen on the international conference scene.

 
Recently proclaimed best city in the world to live in by Monocle, a leading lifestyle magazine, and hosting the upcoming COP15, United Nations Climate Change Conference 2009, Copenhagen insists on challenging much bigger world cities on the metropolis turf.
 

The ambitious and spectacular Bella Hotel will cement Copenhagen’s dawning position as a natural centre of international events.

Construction is under way on a new early childhood center (ECC) at the site of PS 94X, 3530 Kings College Place in the Bronx.

The project was designed by Gran Kriegel Associates on behalf of the New York City School Construction Authority. Citnalta Construction Corp. of Bohemia, New York is serving as the general contractor.

The Bronx center is among the first schools in New York City to have been designed in compliance with Local Law 86, following the NYC Green Schools Guide and Rating System. This system is based on the LEED Green Building Rating System, and was deemed equivalent for the purposes of Local Law 86. The new ECC, which will serve pre-K through 3rd grade students, will be the equivalent of a LEED silver facility.