Winning Design by Imrey Culbert and Sanaa Will Be Realized By 2012

The highly anticipated ground breaking for the Louvre LENS recently took place on December 4, 2009 atop an abandoned mine field near the city of Lille in Northern France. Co-designed by New York-based Imrey Culbert, Tokyo-based Sanaa, and Paris-based Mosbach Paysagistes, the new branch of the Louvre will span 300,000 square feet of new construction, devoting over 75,000 square feet of galleries and visitable storage areas for hundreds of treasures from the Louvre’s collection.
“To be a part of the laying of the first stone ceremony, with my co-designers, France’s Culture Minister Frederic Mitterand, officials from the Louvre and former mine workers,” says Celia Imrey, a principal of Imrey Culbert, “Gave me a sense of how important this new museum is, not only as a cultural destination, but also as a key factor in the renaissance of a town that has seen much suffering from mining and war.”

The Rolex Learning Center, one of Europe’s most ambitious new buildings for learning, designed by Japanese architectural practice, SANAA, will open at Ecole Polytechnique Fédérale in Lausanne on February 22, 2010.


The Ecole Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne, known by its French acronym EPFL, is one of Europe’s important centers for study and research in science, technology, engineering and architecture. The campus brings together over 10,000 students, professors, researchers, and entrepreneurs on a landmark site on Lake Geneva in Switzerland. EPFL is currently ranked number one in Europe in the international university rankings, alongside Cambridge, in the fields of Engineering, Technology and Computer Sciences.

Schmidt hammer lassen architects have just won the competition for a new zero-energy administration building of the Municipality of Aarhus. The competition, involving six architecture firms, was won in collaboration with the contractor E. Pihl & Son, Engineers Grontmij / Carl Bro and GHB Landscape Architects.
Schmidt hammer lassen architects has taken the environmental ambitions of the municipality of Aarhus as a key driver for the project and created a zero-energy office building, the first of its kind in Denmark. The building has 1,100 m2 of solar cells for the production of electricity, 420 m2 of solar thermal panels for absorption cooling and heating water, and rainwater harvesting for reuse in lavatories and for watering.

The Wright at the Guggenheim is designed by Andre Kikoski Architect, an imaginative Manhattan-based architecture and design firm.

“It was both an incredible honor and an exhilarating challenge to work within Wright’s iconic building,” says Kikoski, adding “every time we visit, we see a new subtlety in it that deepens our appreciation of its sophistication. We sought to create a work that is both contemporary and complementary.”

- Biomedical Research and Educational Facility Slated for High LEED Certification -



Rafael Viñoly Architects have been quite prolific in recent months. After the recent completion of the Carrasco International Airport, as well as the Vdara Hotel & Spa in Las Vegas, they have have just announced the completion of Phase II of the Van Andel Institute Education and Medical Research Center in Grand Rapids, Michigan.


A major fixture of Grand Rapid’s “Medical Mile”, the Institute was designed by Viñoly in 1997 as a phased-growth facility, expandable and adaptable to meet the changing needs of its team of elite researchers. Phase II adds 240,000 square feet of new laboratory space as well as innovative environmental and service features that bring the building to the forefront of the health sciences in the 21st century.

RV Architecture LLC, lead by Rafael Viñoly, have announced the completion and the December 1st opening of Vdara Hotel & Spa in CityCenter, urban resort in Las Vegas.


The 1.6 million-square-foot, 57-story Vdara is distinguished by its slender profile and curvature, which respond to Harmon Circle and the interlocking arcs of ARIA Resort & Casino located across the shared circular drive.

Photographs by Brad Feinknopf