This 26,800 sq.ft. home not only merges with its remarkable environment, but virtually disappears. Except for a few deft lines and angles – such as the ordered rows of the surrounding vineyard – there is very little perceivable ‘built’ presence. The entrance is marked by a single low wall, delicately cut into the land while sheltering a stairway that immediately begins the descent into the home.
Recent update: Bernard J. Cywinski, dies at age 70 on March 2, 2011
The City of Newport Beach has charged Bohlin Cywinski Jackson and team with designing a forward-looking, iconic new Civic Center and Park, consisting of a City Hall, 450 space parking garage and addition to the existing library, all set within a new 17 acre park.
vortex n, a mass of fluid (as a liquid) with a whirling or circular motion that tends to form a cavity in the center, and to draw toward this cavity bodies subject to its action.
The project’s ambition lies in its dramatic spatial and climatic modulation and the saturation of its interior with visual and physical material of the surrounding site. The surrounding geometric and topographic features, and the air currents these features produce, are drawn into the interior to condition its atmosphere. The man-made and the natural are characterized as of the same fluid medium, and the house is a vortex into which this material is drawn. This ambition informs each part of the house’s organization: its five-sided sculpted form, environmental control system, folded roofscape, exterior wrapper and involuted covered patios.
The Freight & Salvage (whose non-profit organization is incorporated as the Berkeley Society for the Preservation of Traditional Music) has long been the most venerable institution dedicated to presenting the best in folk and traditional music west of the Mississippi.The organization was started in 1968, where despite the small size and grittiness of the initial barn-like urban warehouse venues, “The Freight” became known for top quality performers and for its welcoming, down-home environment.
The clients, a composer and a photographer, wanted a small house to replace a dilapidated shack on their secluded property.Due to the pace of their careers and travel schedules, they wanted the house to be a refuge that drew from and was connected to the land.The clients view of their role as custodians of this beautiful site bolstered their motivation to design and build as sustainability as possible – an objective shared by the architects as well.The surrounding vistas consist of rolling hills with dense covers of various species of native California trees.This context in concert with the owners’ and designers’ principles of environmental stewardship, were the guiding inspirations for the placement, form, and materials of the house.
The design strategy for this office headquarters project for a solar power company in an historic Ford auto factory grew out of the multiple objectives of the client and architect: aesthetics, function, and sustainability:
The Napa River House is located on a site with mature oak trees and stone pathways winding down a gently sloping hill. To avoid disturbing the paths and root structure of the trees, a single footing and tube frame (inspired by a chairlift tower) will float the main living area in the oak canopy.
Jeremy Levine architected a new two-story addition of 700 sq.ft. to a existing 1,100 sq.ft. home. The project utilizes passive and active green technology to integrate the house with its environment.
LG Architects designed Western Center for Archeology and Paleontology + Center for Water Education at Hemet, California in 2007. This center has won many awards.
The entire rooftop is covered with efficient solar array
Philanthropists Eli and Edythe Broad and architect Elizabeth Diller today unveiled the designs of The Broad Art Foundation, a contemporary art museum on Grand Avenue in downtown Los Angeles. Designed by world-renowned architects Diller, Scofidio and Renfro, the three-story museum features a unique porous honeycomb “veil” that wraps around the building and is visible through an expansive, top floor, sky-lit gallery that will be home to great works of contemporary art drawn from the 2,000-piece Broad Collections.
Exterior perspective from 2nd Street and Grand Avenue
The Broads also announced a 12-member board of governors and the inaugural programming for the contemporary art museum, to be called “The Broad.”