Guests coming up the front steps of this hilltop home are met with a Carrera marble sculpture by Richard Erdman, titled Serenade, selected by our clients, whose devotion to the process made this an especially joyful collaboration. Also part of the team were Robert Wright and Jason York of McCormick and Wright, who did the interior design and were a distinct pleasure to work with. There are a lot of details and non-standard finishes in this house – personal taste, not trendy taste.
Living by the sea has been a habit experienced by generations of Brazilians. Overlooking miles of coast and seas of green has always seemed natural to life “on the shore”. What is not always obvious, however, is that each home built by the sea keeps its own characteristics and mood.
It is always our ambition for our clients to experience an emotional and sensory reaction upon entering a house of our design. “Ahh” and “Wow,” mean we’ve succeeded. Usually this initial response comes passing through the entry, or looking out to the horizon from inside the central living area. But for this project, located in the Outpost Estates area of the Hollywood Hills, the thrill begins while still in your car. “The property is situated at the end of a cul-de-sac, and we pushed the site out as far as possible on the slope, so the house is well below street level,” Marc Whipple explains. “This allowed us to do an upside down house; the approach is a curvy elevated driveway that’s pretty steep, as you go down the views just get better and better, the gates open and you are onto the roof of the house completely surrounded by south-facing “jetliner” views. So, the whole experience for the homeowner or a guest, just getting to the house, is very dramatic.”
At The Rheingold the streetscape is brought all the way up to the exterior and creates an inhabited facade on all four sides of the block. The building invites residents into an environment of accessibility and connectivity, one that celebrates user experience and champions shared perspective. Encapsulating one full block, this seven-story, mixed-use building contains inner and outer courtyards, and most notably an expansive and distinctive green rooftop. The sloping angles create a more organic terrain with longer sun exposure for the courtyards and allow for direct horizontal connections from the upper four floors. In this way, living space extends beyond each apartment’s four walls with ample outdoor space. Making full use of this often-neglected available space, the design was created with the goal of providing residents many of the urban elements that the area is currently lacking. Nestled in the center will be an interior courtyard that serves as a visual and physical connector, providing an additional 19,000 square feet of outdoor recreational space. On the roof, a 100’ truss bridges between the open courtyard, creating a view deck with incomparable views to Manhattan.
A housing community is the latest reincarnation of this one hundred and ten-year-old structure. Built by Edward Chapman in 1908 over the remnants of his horse stable destroyed by fire and his old coal yard sales shed, Chapman Coal Company Garage and Stables represents a significant contribution to the broad patterns of history and embodies distinctive characteristics of early twentieth century life in Washington, DC. For these reasons the building and site are listed on the National Register of Historic Places. The identity of the new housing community is derived from this rich history.
“The concept was a farmhouse compound with a series of buildings attached by walkways. In that regard, it had to feel like it fit into the farmland vernacular of upstate New York, but with a modern architectural language.” Tom Kundig, FAIA, RIBA, Design Principal
Located on 25 acres of farmland in upstate New York, this family retreat is a modern take on the traditional farmhouse. The home combines contemporary detailing and materials such as blackened steel and concrete with vernacular agricultural building forms. A careful attention to spatial and volumetric relationships allows the home to feel both modern and contextually appropriate for its rural farmland setting.
On the waterfront site that was the port of arrival for nearly half of all enslaved Africans brought to North America in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, a long-anticipated museum dedicated to telling their stories and celebrating the contributions of their descendants has at last broken ground. Proposed in 2000 by Charleston’s longtime mayor Joseph P. Riley Jr., the International African American Museum (IAAM), designed by New York–based architectural firm Pei Cobb Freed & Partners, is now under way. Moody Nolan, the largest African-American-owned design firm in the United States, is architect of record.
Tags: Charleston, South Carolina Comments Off on International African American Museum in Charleston, South Carolina by PEI COBB FREED & PARTNERS Architects LLP
FR-EE designed the Holon Temple concept for Burning Man, the annual event that brings tens of thousands of people—known as Burners—to Nevada’s Black Rock Desert for a week-long experiment in communal living. Each year the event—underpinned by the principles of civic participation, spiritual reflection, and self-expression—invites a team of architects and artists to design a temple proposal where Burners can gather, meditate, and reflect.
FR-EE’s proposal for the temple takes its inspiration from the Ancient Greek word holon, denoting an object that is both complete unto itself and an integral part of a larger system. Guided by this concept, the temple takes the form of an oblong wooden ellipsoid housing a smaller version of itself that serves as an altar. The altar itself contains a yet-smaller replica of, creating a nested system of objects that invites contemplation and embodies the idea of a holon.
Sited in the foothills of the Mayacamas Mountains in Sonoma California, this single-family residence floats over the hillside with commanding views of Sonoma Valley.
The intent was to design an extremely restrained home both in scale and cost, that intimately embraces the terrain both near and far. The homeowners requested a home that effortlessly links the indoor experience to the surrounding landscape. The tripartite diagram is quite simple: two masses, clad in standing seam black zinc, rise up out of the earth and support a third floating glass pavilion that performs as a bridge connecting the two solid volumes. The first two masses, housing the guest bedrooms, a kitchen, and the entry are positioned on the crest of the hillside, while the master suite, library, living room, and dining rooms embrace the panoramic valley views to the West. A circulation spine running through the center of the home connects all three wings, creating a highly efficient plan.
For the San Francisco offices of Publicis Groupe, Blitz employed its new workplace design approach to create a space that promotes a culture of connection, inclusivity, and agility. The offices were designed with the aim to colocate and consolidate the firm’s 11 national and international brands in San Francisco, which employ 550 people previously spread across 120,000 square feet in multiple locations. The result is a dynamic and energetic workspace that reflects the Groupe’s mantra, the Power of One, which served as the key driver for the decision to move all brand agencies under one roof.
Expanding upon the principles of activity‐based workplace design, Blitz provided agile spaces for teams and individuals, while acknowledging the needs of a new mobile workforce. Diverse workstations empower team members to be more effective and engaged than at a traditional assigned desk. Flexible spaces, both open and enclosed, seamlessly integrate access to data, AV, and video conferencing to support a variety of activities throughout the day and encourage crosspollination among brands.
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