06 2004

$ 9 .7 5
A P U B L I C AT I O N O F T H E M C G R A W - H I L L C O M PA N I E S

The Legacy Continues

Samuel
MOCKBEE
w w w. a rc h it e ct u ra l re c o rd . c o m

GOLD M EDALIST

Presenting AIA HONORS&AWARDS

also in this issue
25 Year Award: A Conversation With I.M. Pei

plus OFFICE INTERIORS

 Snapshot

By Phyllis Richardson

It has been compared to a glowing hedgehog, a spacecraft, and in the Sitooterie: sculptural folly
designer’s own words, “a fakir’s bed of nails,” yet it is one of the most
in the English countryside
P H OTO G R A P H Y : © S T E V E S P E L L E R

delightfully inventive follies ever to grace the English countryside. Now sited
on Barnard’s Farm, a privately owned sculpture garden in Essex, Thomas
Heatherwick’s anemonelike aluminum form is, he says, “an experiment in
texture and in using many thin pieces to make something strong that could be placed any way up.”
Some of the quirkiness is perhaps explained in the origins of the commission, a competition sponsored by
English Heritage in 2000 to create a gazebolike structure known in Scottish parlance as a sitooterie, or a place to
“sit oot” in. The winning designs were constructed as temporary buildings in the wooded landscape of Belsay House
in Northumberland. One of the most remarkable to spring, almost literally, from that competition was the fantastical
scheme wrought by the young, London-based Heatherwick and dubbed “The Hairy House”: a wooden cube perfo-
rated by 5,000 slender oak staves that lifted the structure off the ground, surrounded it in a prickly shroud, and in

06.04 Architectural Record 131

 Snapshot Capped with translucent colored
acrylic, the Sitooterie’s tubes create
an orangey glow in daylight and are lit
from within at night by a single bulb.

some cases penetrated to the interior to provide wall texture and

support for furnishings. It was this toothpick-style version that
inspired the owner of Barnard’s Farm to commission the permanent
structure that now graces his farmland garden.
Wood turned to aluminum, and production moved from timber-
milling techniques to metal-fabrication technology. The essential cubic
core, with thousands of predrilled holes and a mass supported on a
brushlike agglomeration of extruding members, remains. However, the
staves have been replaced by long, thin, hollow rectangular pieces that
had to be individually machined by an aeronautical engineering com-
pany in Southampton before being assembled on-site. The tubes are
of different lengths and all point to the center of the cube. Capped with
translucent colored acrylic, they effect an orangey glow in daylight and
are lit from within at night by a single bulb. The designer admits, “The
lighting is very low-tech.” However, precision was essential. The alu-
minum skin is 0.6 inches thick and is pierced by 4,704 tubes adhered to
the central 8-foot cube (which can hold about half a dozen adults)
through finger joints that are formed at the end of each piece. With each
tube having a hollow area of a mere 0.7 inches square, the designer ensured that the overall impression would be of a
fuzzy, though tactile-seeming solidity that, on closer inspection, reveals an even more tactile multiplicity. Heatherwick,
who is in the process of building the U.K.’s tallest sculpture in Manchester, has not just achieved a tale of design virtuosity.
The Sitooterie is a demonstration of skilled, cutting-edge craftwork—the artful marriage of imagination and technology. ■

132 Architectural Record 06.04

HONOR AWARDS

URBAN DESIGN

P
erhaps the least glamorous of the AIA Honor Award–winning projects are those for urban
design. But what they lack in swagger, they possess in importance—without planning,
architecture becomes vacant of contextual meaning. The jury sought and found projects
combining practicality and invention; restraint and proactivity. The winning plans all demonstrate
the possibility of creating compact, pedestrian-friendly, sustainable communities. Transportation
also plays an important role in each of the projects, encouraging architects, clients, and communities
to consider the automobile as less central to the planning effort. Jane. F. Kolleeny

1. Chicago Central Area Plan

Chicago
“This project reveals an understanding of
Architect: Skidmore, Owings the city as a growing organism.”
& Merrill

Chicago’s downtown area experi-

enced tremendous growth in the
1990s, with businesses prosper-
ing, residential neighborhoods
emerging, and tourism flourish-
ing. Along with success comes
the need to ask new questions
about density, amenities, trans-
portation, buildings, and jobs.
SOM’s plan addresses these
issues, strengthening the down-
town economy, improving and
extending the transit systems,
increasing open spaces and parks,

I M A G E S : C O U R T E SY T H E A R C H I T E CT S
creating new waterfronts areas,
and encouraging new mixed-use
neighborhoods.

“Urbanistically, the plan relates to the

city as a whole, establishing it’s own
grid and carrying it forward clearly.”

2. Mission Bay Redevelopment Plan of this one is that it incorporates

San Francisco Mission Bay into the structure of
Architect: Johnson Fain San Francisco, seamlessly extend-
ing its physical, economic,
This 303-acre area, the largest aesthetic, and cultural life. Creating
undeveloped site in the city, estab- a mixed-use neighborhood of
lishes a new neighborhood along housing, retail, entertainment, and
the bay adjacent to downtown. commercial-industrial properties,
Former plans failed to address the the plan integrates the site into the
real needs of the city. The beauty historic fabric of the city.

168 Architectural Record 06.04

HONOR AWARDS URBAN DESIGN

3. UrbanRiver Vision front planning, with the input

Worcester, Mass. of key federal, state, and local
Architect: Goody, Clancy & agencies. This project addresses
Associates environmental, economic, resi-
dential, transportation, and
In an attempt to respond to the preservation issues, so all the
decaying waterfronts in many of cities have the tools they need to
the cities of Massachusetts, a address their historic waterfronts
state agency created and funded and the adjacent downtown
a program to provide local river- development areas.

“Fifty years ago, the river was viewed

as undesirable, but now it’s seen
as the center of the community.”

4. Getting It Right: Preventing commercial and residential

Sprawl in Coyote Valley development. An environmental
San Jose, Calif. advocacy group contracted this
Architect: WRT/Solomon E.T.C.
plan to show how the city can
accommodate projected growth
Coyote Valley consists of 6,800 in a manner that sustains its
acres of prime farmland and urban economy, community,
watershed on the southern edge and infrastructure, promoting
of San Jose targeted for future an alternative to sprawl.

“They took a complex problem, disassembled

it, and then reassembled it with great results.”

5. The Confluence: A Conservation,

Heritage, and Recreation Corridor
“A nationally significant
St. Louis park will serve as a lasting
Architect: HOK Planning Group
legacy to the region
This plan creates a 40-mile-long
conservation and recreation corri-
and to Lewis and Clark.”
dor that reinforces the confluence
of the Missouri and Mississippi
Rivers, one of the world’s largest
systems. It links St. Louis and
other nearby communities to
the rivers from which they rose,
creating an industry of sustain-
able ecotourism and providing
a plan for comprehensive growth
in the future.

170 Architectural Record

HONOR AWARDS

25 YEAR AWARD

Modern masterpiece on the Mall

It’s not easy being Modern on the In the 26 years since President recognition, with its tetrahedron sky-
National Mall, especially next to Jimmy Carter dedicated it, the East lights that echo the geometry of the

( L E F T ) ; A L L E N F R E E M A N ( O P P O S I T E , L E F T ) ; C O U RT E SY
O P P O S I T E , TO P ) ; R O B E RT C . L AU T M A N P H OTO G RA P H Y
John Russell Pope’s 1941 West Building has thrived as an art architecture, as well as Alexander

P E I C O B B F R E E D & PA RT N E R S ( O P P O S I T E , R I G H T )
P H OTO G RA P H Y : © E Z RA STO L L E R / E STO ( TO P A N D
Building of the National Gallery of museum while growing into eminence Calder’s colorful mobile spinning
Art—considered by I.M. Pei to be as an elegant, refined example of slowly overhead.
an exemplar of Neoclassicism. Modernism. The dual triangles, Sometimes a blemish con-
Transforming its proportions and nestled within the trapezoidal site, notes reverence. The permanent
materials into a contemporary idiom remain programmatically intact—one ring of discoloration surrounding
for an expansion was a stunning for exhibitions, one for administration Pei’s name on a marble wall in
achievement for Pei and a gift to and research—and, unlike critics ini- the atrium owes its existence to
Washington and the nation. Ada tially feared, the gallery spaces have the millions of visitors who have
Louise Huxtable cried “elitist” when proved highly flexible, says Victoria touched the inscription, says the
the East Building opened, but she Newhouse, author of the forthcoming NGA’s director, Earl A. Powell III.
got it wrong. It’s our capital city’s Art/Power/Placement (Monacelli The tinged stone makes explicit
Modern masterpiece—as powerful Press). The airy atrium (“one of the how indelibly Pei’s identity is
an achievement of the 20th century most resplendent rooms of all time,” entwined with this well-loved
as the artwork it celebrates. RECORD noted in 1978) enjoys instant project. Deborah Snoonian, P.E.
 HONOR AWARDS 25 YEAR

“This icon of contemporary architecture in a city of traditional monuments

continues to delight and impress visitors from all over the world.”

06.04 Architectural Record 173

AIA HONOR AWARDS 2004

American Institute of Architects

Winners
andJurors 2004
WINNERS New York City Public School 42, Queens, Gold Medal (page 184)
Library: Weiss/Manfredi Architects; First Samuel Mockbee, FAIA
Architecture (page 140) Presbyterian Church of Encino: Trevor
Seaside Interfaith Chapel: Merrill and Pastor Abramson, Abramson Teiger Architects; NAI
Architects; The Brain: Olson Sundberg Kundig Exhibition - Silent Collisions: Morphosis JURORS
Allen Architects; The Point House: Bohlin Retrospective: Morphosis; Academic Center
Cywinski Jackson; Chicken Point Cabin: for Student Athletes at Louisiana State Architecture
Olson Sundberg Kundig Allen Architects; University: Trahan Architects; American Adrian Smith, FAIA (Chair), Chicago; Seth N.
Center of Gravity Foundation Hall: Meteorological Society Editorial Offices: Cohen, Assoc. AIA, Philadelphia; Steve Dumez,
Predock_Frane Architects; Northeastern Anmahian Winton Architects; COop Editorial: AIA, New Orleans; Rand Elliott, FAIA,
University West Campus Residence Halls: Pugh + Scarpa Oklahoma City; Roberta W. Jorgensen, FAIA,
William Rawn Associates; Steelcase - Project Newport Beach, Calif.; Robert D. Loversidge,
MAC: Thomas Phifer and Partners; Salt Lake Urban Design (page 168) Jr., FAIA, Columbus, Ohio; Cheryl McAfee, FAIA,
City Public Library: Moshe Safdie and Chicago Central Area Plan: Skidmore, Owings Fayetteville, Ga.; Sarah Peden, Washington,
Associates; DoMa Gallery: W Architecture & Merrill; Mission Bay Redevelopment Plan: D.C.; David Thurm, New York City
and Landscape Architecture; Taghkanic Johnson Fain; UrbanRiver Vision: Goody,
House: Thomas Phifer and Partners; Los Clancy & Associates; Getting It Right: Interiors
Angeles Design Center and Cisco Brothers Preventing Sprawl in Coyote Valley: Lee Mindel, FAIA (Chair), New York City;
Showroom: John Friedman Alice Kimm WRT/Solomon E.T.C.; The Confluence: Annie Chu, AIA, Los Angeles; Sarah Grant-
Architects; Deutsche Post: Murphy/Jahn; A Conservation, Heritage, and Recreation Hutchison, Des Moines; Mary L. Oehrlein,
Telenor Headquarters: NBBJ/HUS/PKA; Corridor: HOK Planning Group FAIA, Washington, D.C.; Arthur Smith, FAIA,
Skybridge at One North Halsted: Perkins & Southfield, Mich.
Will; State Street Village, ITT: Murphy/Jahn; 25-Year Award (page 172)
Bayer: Murphy/Jahn National Gallery of Art - East Building, Regional and Urban Design
Washington, D.C.: I.M. Pei Ray L. Gindroz, FAIA (Chair), Pittsburgh;
Interiors (page 160) George Crandall, FAIA, Portland, Ore.; Wendy
Carol and Carl Montante Cultural Center: Firm of the Year (page 176) Evans Joseph, FAIA, New York City; Elizabeth
Cannon Design; Pallotta TeamWorks New Lake/Flato Architects: David Lake, FAIA, Chu Richter, AIA, Corpus Christi, Tex.; Susan
Headquarters: Clive Wilkinson Architects; and Ted Flato, FAIA Williams, Indianapolis

174 Architectural Record 06.04

HONOR AWARDS

ARCHITECTURE FIRM AWARD

LAKE FLATO’S
desert architecture partners
seamlessly with nature
This Texas firm blends Modernism, regionalism, and sustainability
to create architecture that responds to the sun, the shade, and the
breezes, collaborating successfully among themselves in the process.
By David Dillon

D
avid Lake, FAIA, once described himself as a romantic
and his partner, Ted Flato, FAIA, as a rationalist.
“I prefer eccentricity, and he doesn’t,” he explained, to
which Flato replied that he had “a great fear of doing some-
thing trendy that I won’t like after 10 years.”
Lake/Flato Architects of San Antonio, winner of
this year’s American Institute of Architects Firm Award,
celebrates its 20th year. That delicate balance between rea-
son and romance, tradition and invention is intact.
The architects remain physically and imaginatively
attached to Texas by virtue of what the late William Turnbull
called their “specifically Texas insights,” meaning responsive-
ness to the imperatives of sun, heat, and wind, the challenges of

P H OTO G R A P H Y : © B O B M A X H A M ( T H I S PA G E ) ; B L A C K M O N W I N T E R S
a vast landscape, and the richness of local building traditions.
“We believe in an organic architecture that springs

( O P P O S I T E , TO P ) ; H E S T E R + H A R DAWAY ( O P P O S I T E , B OT TO M )
from its place,” says Lake, “one that acknowledges precedent
and that solves basic problems simply and elegantly. I think
that’s what Bill was getting at. Architecture should be com-
fortable and easy to live with, rather than just eye candy.”
From a familiar and unapologetically romantic
base of barns, silos, stone walls, and metal roofs, their work
has grown steadily more refined and abstract in ways that
show how to make Modernism come to terms with history
without lapsing into empty nostalgia.
In the late 1970s, Lake and Flato went to work for
O’Neil Ford, the master of midcentury Texas Modernism, who
taught them the importance of materials and construction, of
knowing how things go together instead of how to make arbi-
trary shapes. “Architecture isn’t sculpture,” he’d preach.
From left: Ted Flato, David Lake (seated); Kim Monroe,
Greg Papay, John Grable, Karla Greer, Bob Harris, and Contributing editor David Dillon is the architecture critic for
Matt Morris (standing). The Dallas Morning News.

176 Architectural Record 06.04

 HONOR AWARDS ARCHITECTURE FIRM AWARD

La Estrella Ranch House,

Roma, Texas, 1989

Carraro Residence
Kyle, Texas, 1990

06.04 Architectural Record 177

HONOR AWARDS ARCHITECTURE FIRM AWARD

Consequently, instead of theorizing, Lake/Flato

builds, or perhaps one could say they build based on theories
about earth instead of air. Like their mentor’s, their houses,
schools, and churches are intensely sensory and tactile; the
first impulse on entering them is to run your hands across
walls and doors, to read the architecture through the pores.
Lake started out designing Modern sodbuster
houses in the Texas Panhandle, followed by adobe houses in
northern New Mexico that evoke dense historic prototypes
while remaining remarkably open and bright. In the 1980s,
he and Flato teamed up on a series of evocative ranch
houses, mostly in South Texas, that combine simple forms
and homely materials—corrugated metal, oil-field pipe,
cattle fencing—to create culturally and climatically appro-
priate designs. The individual pieces typically form
courtyards with big porches and deep overhangs that offer
protection from parching Texas sun and wind.
Attractive, appropriate, skillfully detailed, yet not
enough to justify the Architecture Firm Award. The break-
through came in 1990 with the Carraro residence outside
Austin, an abstracted, almost skeletal version of a Texas
farmhouse that uses steel salvaged from an abandoned
cement plant to create a series of light, airy pavilions for Lasater Residence

PHOTOGRAPHY: © MICHAEL LYON (TOP); HESTER + HARDAWAY (MIDDLE);

living and entertaining. Fort Worth, 1994
“The client had this very romantic notion of a stone

COURTESY BURLINGTON NORTHERN SANTA FE RAILROAD (BOT TOM)

barn out in a field, with an old Butler building as the frame,”

L AKE FL ATO PROJE CTS

Great Northwest Branch

Museums and Visitor Centers 35% Library
Higher Education 10% San Antonio, 1994
K-12 Independent Schools 20%
Civic and Commercial 10%
Residential 25%

recalls Flato. “We didn’t want to get involved with that, so we

convinced them to buy this 40-by-180-foot shed and break it
into three pieces, with a little stone cube in one for the living
quarters. It was a case of using the limitations of budget and
the original idea to create a more interesting project.”
This combination of light steel frame and heavy Burlington Northern
stone appears frequently in Lake/Flato’s later work, giving the Santa Fe Railroad
reason/romance paradigm a new tension and edginess. The Headquarters
Carraro house won an AIA National Honor Award, the first (with KVG Gideon Toal)
of three, and dramatically elevated the firm’s profile. Fort Worth, 1996
178 Architectural Record 06.04
 HONOR AWARDS ARCHITECTURE FIRM AWARD

Burlington Northern Santa Fe

Railroad Headquarters
Fort Worth, 1996 Air Barns
San Saba, Texas, 1999
P H OTO G R A P H Y : © H E S T E R + H A R DAWAY ( TO P A N D B OT TO M L E F T ) ;
C O U R T E SY L A K E / F L ATO A R C H I T E CT S ( B OT TO M R I G H T )

Texas State Cemetery

Austin, Texas, 1997
06.04 Architectural Record 179
HONOR AWARDS ARCHITECTURE FIRM AWARD

Lake/Flato now employs 45 people, half of them

architects, who collaborate as a matter of course. This is
another gift from Ford, who gave young designers extraor-
dinary freedom and also surrounded them with a repertory
company of craftsmen—masons, weavers, furniture mak-
ers, ceramicists—who softened and enriched his special
brand of Modernism. The difference between real collabo-
ration and a facsimile is the difference between bringing a
covered dish to the supper and cooking together. Lake/Flato
cook together.
They also get out of the studio to teach, lecture,
and serve on design juries. They sponsor a residency pro-
gram at the University of Texas at San Antonio and have
helped the city’s mayor come up with a Smart Growth
Plan. A belief in good design as a public responsibility as
well as a private passion lies at the heart of their practice. As
the firm has expanded, so has the range and complexity of

“THE FIRST IMPULSE ON ENTERING

THEIR HOUSES, SCHOOLS, AND
CHURCHES IS TO RUN YOUR HANDS
ACROSS WALLS AND DOORS.”
its projects. In the past decade, Lake/Flato has designed
museums, churches, libraries, and corporate headquarters,
along with a cemetery, a botanical garden, and a school
of nursing.
Scale remains their ally and occasionally their
albatross. The sprawling Burlington Northern Santa Fe
headquarters in Fort Worth (with KVG Gideon Toal), for
example, gets a bit heavy-handed in its evocation of the
railroad vernacular. Likewise, the SBC Center, home of
the San Antonio Spurs basketball team, is festooned with
structural Texana that comes across as forced rather than
inevitable. Understatement is their game. Hotel San Jose
Considerably more successful is the Trammell Austin, Texas, 2000
Crow Visitor Pavilion at the Dallas Arboretum, which

P H OTO G R A P H Y : © PAU L B A R DA G J Y ( TO P ) ; PAU L R O C H E L E AU ( B OT TO M )

opened in 2003 and in many respects epitomizes their earlier
work. Here, rugged Texas limestone walls meet light steel and Agudas Achim Synagogue
glass pavilions to form a small village with an open central Austin, Texas, 2001
plaza. The pavilions are contemporary abstractions of tradi-
tional barns and sheds, their appeal residing in the intimate
scale and honest craftsmanship, rather than in bold archi-
tectural gestures. And the entire project blends seamlessly
with its natural surroundings, enhancing rather than over-
whelming them.
The new University of Texas School of Nursing
in Houston is Lake/Flato’s most ambitious exercise yet in
sustainable design. Using 50 percent recycled materials and
consuming 40 percent less energy, the building attains a
LEED Gold rating without compromising architectural
integrity or turning technology into a fetish.
Economy, pragmatism, simplicity, comfort without
pretension, elegance without irony, these features distinguish
Lake/Flato’s best work. Their architecture shows respect for
materials and construction, for the values of place and prece-
dent and the needs and aspirations of its users. ■

180 Architectural Record 06.04

 HONOR AWARDS ARCHITECTURE FIRM AWARD

Harry Ransom Center

Austin, Texas, 2003

University of Texas School

of Nursing and Student
Community Center
Houston, 2004
P H OTO G R A P H Y : © H E S T E R + H A R DAWAY ( TO P L E F T ) ; G E R A L D
M O O R H E A D , FA I A ( TO P R I G H T ) ; T I M OT H Y H U R S L E Y ( B OT TO M )

Trammell Crow Visitor

Education Pavilion at the
Dallas Arboretum and
Botanical Society
Dallas, 2000
 Samuel
Mockbee:
A life’s work
AIA GOLD
MEDAL WINNER

B
efore there was a Rural Studio, there was an architect
named Sambo. He grew up in the heady milieu of
Mississippi, a place redolent of earth and growing
things, of social disparity, and great literature.
Coming of age during the contentious 1960s, Sambo absorbed
the world surrounding Meridian, Mississippi, played football,
attended Auburn University, and joined the army. Then his
worldview shifted.
After a stint working in Georgia, he returned to
Mississippi, where, in conjunction with a series of partners, he
began to make architecture suited to the geography and culture of
the nation’s poorest state. Using the simplest materials and famil-
P H OTO G R A P H Y : M O C K B E E P O R T R A I T S C O U R T E SY J E F F E T H E R I D G E

iar forms, he wrested newness from a people struggling to emerge

from a rich but historically oppressive past. Great writers from
William Faulkner to Walker Percy had succeeded in moving on;
uniquely, Sambo took architecture to a new Southern frontier.
While early projects smacked of Postmodernism, very
quickly a bevy of buildings, from houses to simple chapels, pro-
claimed a refreshed, empathetic sensibility. Soon Sambo &
Company were redefining what it meant to live and work in the
South. Publications took notice, as did the universities.
Ultimately, he found his full voice through other
people, particularly at Auburn’s Rural Studio, where he and
collaborator D.K. Ruth cofounded a residential architectural
program that offered a total immersion in the art of building,
engaging all of the arts in the service of a specific community.
That work continues to flourish to this day.
In naming Mockbee as the 2004 Gold Medalist, the
American Institute of Architects not only recognized his gifts,
but also espoused Sambo’s values, which fiercely and unsenti-
mentally addressed basic human needs. Robert Ivy, FAIA

06.04 Architectural Record 185

 By Andrea Oppenheimer Dean

B
oth Samuel Mockbee and Frank sleeve.” Mockbee told his students at the
Lloyd Wright often tongue- Rural Studio in southwest Alabama—
lashed their profession. Wright often called Redneck Taliesin—“screw the
once called architects “high- theory; choose the more beautiful.”
grade salesmen”; Mockbee labeled them But the comparison pretty much
“house pets to the rich.” Yet the American ends there. Wright, a surpassing egotist,
architectural establishment conferred its saw himself as the Welch magician and
highest honor, the AIA Gold Medal, on bard Taliesin and gathered apprentices in
both Wright and Mockbee. That’s not all rural Wisconsin for his own greater good.
they had in common: Both were charis- Mockbee, humble and unassuming,
matic teachers who pried open the minds wanted to do good for others. Wright was
A 1927 Neoclassical service station of their students with evocative stories and domineering, while Mockbee applied a
called the Shady Nook, in Jackson, practical lessons instead of dry theory. light touch, cautioning students that
Miss., became the first office of Wright spoke of Taliesin in Wisconsin as goodness was more important than great-
Goodman and Mockbee, 1979. having “simply shaken itself out of my ness, compassion more eventful than
FEATURES

Mockbee is pictured with contractors; passion. Wright was the elegant, autocratic
he’s in the middle in a sports jacket. Andrea Oppenheimer Dean is a record Mr. Wright. Mockbee, a bearish, bearded,
contributing editor and author with Timothy sixth-generation Mississippian, was an
Hursley of Rural Studio: Samuel Mockbee egalitarian and a populist who preferred
and an Architecture of Decency (2002). being called Sambo and drove around Hale

THE EARLY WORK 1970–1980s

1. Christ Community Church, Clinton,
Miss., Goodman and Mockbee, 1979.

2. Presidential Hills Presbyterian

Church, Jackson, Miss., Goodman
and Mockbee, 1980.

3. Model of Charity Houses, Madison

County, Miss., P/A Award submission,

P H OTO G R A P H Y : © TO M M Y G O O D M A N ( TO P ) ; TO M J OY N T ( 1 , 2 ) ; B R U C E O ' H A R A ( 3, 4 )
Mockbee Coker Howorth Architects,
1986–87 (not built).

4. Model of the Flautt House,

Greenwood, Miss., Mockbee Coker
Howorth Architects, 1987 (not built).

1 2
3 4

186 Architectural Record 06.04

 County, the Rural Studio’s home, in a beat- making responsible changes, it will take the
up red pickup, wearing old clothes and an subversive leadership of academics and
Auburn University baseball cap. He viewed practitioners who keep reminding students
himself as an iconoclast and a subversive. of the profession’s responsibilities,” he
The same, of course, was true of Wright. said. He wanted to get students away from
Mockbee was convinced that the academic classroom into what he
“everyone, rich or poor, deserves a shelter called the classroom of the community.
for the soul” and that architects should In a letter nominating Mockbee
lead in procuring social and environmen- for the 2004 Gold Medal, Frank Gehry,
tal change. But he believed they had lost FAIA, wrote, “There have been few pro-
their moral compass. The profession grams as radical as the Rural Studio in
helping students to
MOCKBEE OFTEN TONGUE-LASHED believe in their role
THE PROFESSION, LABELING ARCHI- for the future.” Peter
Eisenman, FAIA, com- Sambo teaching at the Rural Studio
TECTS “HOUSE PETS TO THE RICH.” mended the studio for in Greensboro, Ala., 2000.
needed reform, he believed, and education stressing “the ethical dimension of build-
was the place to start. “If architecture is ing.” Michael Rotondi, FAIA, wrote,
going to nudge, cajole, and inspire a com- “Mockbee represents all that we aspire to
munity to challenge the status quo into be as individuals and as a profession.”

5. Tractor shed at Flautt House,

Greenwood, Miss., Mockbee Coker
Howorth Architects, 1988.

6. McGee Church, McGee, Miss.,

P H OTO G R A P H Y : © J E F F R E Y E L D R I D G E ( TO P ) ; T I M OT H Y H U R S L E Y ( 5, 6 , 7 )

Mockbee Coker Howorth Architects,

1989.

7. National Center for Physical

Acoustics, University of Mississippi,
Ole, Miss., Mockbee Coker Howorth
5 Architects, with HLW, 1989.

06.04 Architectural Record 187

 Mockbee’s ideas and his aes- Mississippi, Barton House (a 1992 Record
thetic evolved while he was in private Houses Award winner) and his Oxford,
practice, first in a partnership he formed Mississippi, Cook House (a 1995 AIA
with Thomas Goodman in 1977, then National Honor Award winner).
with Coleman Coker in 1983. He By the early 1980s, convinced
described his architecture as contempo- that addressing problems and trying to
rary Modernism grounded in Southern correct them is “the role an artist or archi-
culture and drew inspiration from such tect should play,” Mockbee sought
vernacular sources as overhanging galva- opportunities to follow Leon Battista
Alberti’s injunction that the
MOCKBEE, A BEARISH, BEARDED, architect must “choose
SIXTH-GENERATION MISSISSIPPIAN, between fortune and virtue.”
Traveling exhibition, Soviet Union,
DROVE IN A BEAT-UP RED PICKUP. In 1982, he helped a Catholic
nun move and renovate con-
joint venture of Mockbee Coker nized roofs, rusting metal trailers, dogtrot demned houses in Madison County,
Howorth Architects and forms, and porches. “I’m drawn to any- Mississippi, and then built his first “charity
Communication Arts, 1988–1991. thing that has a quirkiness to it, a mystery house” there for $7,000, using donated
to it,” Mockbee said. His designs tended and salvaged materials and volunteer
toward asymmetry and idiosyncrasy, as labor—a model for the Rural Studio. In
seen, for example, in his Madison County, 1987, his firm won a 1982 P/A Award for

1988–1991
8. Cook House, Oxford, Miss.,
Mockbee Coker Howorth Architects,
1991.

9. Barton House, Mockbee Coker

Howorth Architects, Madison County,
Miss., 1991.

P H OTO G R A P H Y : © H A P O W E N ( TO P ) ; M O C K B E E C O K E R H O W O R T H ( O P P O S I T E , TO P ) ;
8

T I M OT H Y H U R S L E Y ( 8 , 9, 10 )

188 Architectural Record 06.04

three prototype dogtrot-type charity of the poverty: The residents obviously
houses but was unable to get a construc- needed help, and coming to Hale would
tion grant to build them. Hoping to force students to test their abstract notions
convey to possible patrons the reality of about poverty by “crossing over into that
poor people (“like you and me, only other world, smelling it, feeling it, experi-
poor”), Mockbee painted strong portraits encing it,” he said. He was also attracted by
in oil of some of his indigent clients. The the isolation, which, combined with
final piece for the Rural Studio fell into Mockbee’s prohibition of television,
place in 1990 when Mockbee visited would concentrate students’ minds on
Clemson University’s architecture pro- their building projects. Students would
gram in Genoa, Italy. also be exposed to the region’s architec-
In 1992, Mockbee, together with tural history, read its literary giants, and
Auburn architecture professor D.K. Ruth, absorb Mockbee’s lectures on responsibil-
founded the Rural Studio, which Mockbee ity, fairness, and decency.
directed until his death in late 2001. But Each semester, the Rural Studio Sambo working on the tractor
instead of planting Auburn’s study-abroad brought about 15 second-year students shed, Flautt House, Greenwood,
program in a foreign country, they rooted to Hale County to help design and build Miss., Mockbee Coker Howorth
it in the hollows and flat fields of a house. Fifth-year students stayed for a Architects, 1988.
Alabama’s second-poorest county, Hale. year, working on a community building,
Mockbee was drawn there partly because their thesis project. Two years before

10

10. Bryant (Hay Bale) House,

Mason’s Bend, Ala., Rural Studio, 1994.

06.04 Architectural Record 189

 Mockbee’s death, the studio launched an extraordinary objects, the studio’s build-
outreach program, accepting a handful of ings were obvious relatives of those
students from other universities and Mockbee designed for his private clients.
other disciplines to undertake a variety of For his work at the Rural Studio,
design and social-work assignments. Sambo Mockbee was awarded the
Mockbee’s Rural Studio repre- National Building Museum’s first Apgar
sented a vision of architecture that Award for Excellence in 1998, and in 2000,
embraced not only practical architectural he won a MacArthur “genius” grant.
education and social welfare but also the The influence of the Rural
use of salvaged, recycled, and curious Studio is hard to quantify. Daniel
materials and an aesthetics of place. “I Friedman, FAIA, dean of the University of
want to be over the edge, environmentally, Illinois, Chicago’s architecture program,
aesthetically, and technically,” Mockbee says it has changed architectural educa-
said. His students used hay bales to build tion. Bill Carpenter, author of Learning by
Sambo with the Harris family, Mason’s walls for the studio’s first house, worn-out Building: Design and Construction in
Bend, Ala., Rural Studio, 1997. tires for the walls of a chapel, salvaged Architectural Education, observes that in
Chevy Caprice windshields for the roof of 1992 there were eight or 10 university-
a community center, and waste corrugated based design-build programs, while today
cardboard for a one-room dwelling. there are 30 or 40. He says, “a lot of it [the
Transmuting ordinary materials into increase] had to do with Sambo.” The

1990–2001

P H OTO G R A P H Y : © T I M OT H Y H U R S L E Y ( TO P A N D O P P O S I T E , TO P ; 1 1 , 1 2 , 1 3, 14 )
11

11. Yancey Chapel, Sawyerville, Hale

County, Ala., Rural Studio, 1995.

12. House on Tennessee River,

Shiloh Falls, Tenn., Mockbee/Coker
Architects, 1997.

12

190 Architectural Record 06.04

charismatic Mockbee and his Rural ideas. The studio isn’t quite the same and
Studio were featured on network televi- isn’t without criticism, including from
sion, including CBS This Morning and in within. “I suspect Sambo would just think
numerous national magazines. “It was the it was different and regret being dead and
first time the public was captivated by an not being there,” David Buege, a profes-
architectural model,” Carpenter says. sor of architecture at Mississippi State
University and a friend of
MOCKBEE TOLD HIS STUDENTS, Mockbee’s, told me. Mockbee
“SCREW THE THEORY; understood change and wel-
CHOOSE THE MORE BEAUTIFUL.” comed it. He created the
studio as a moving target.
Another influence, he says, is gradu- There was almost no transition
ates—about 450 by now. Many become period, Buege recalls, and there was never
purveyors of the Rural Studio’s approach. a doubt about who should succeed
After a founder’s death, ven- Mockbee. At the time of Mockbee’s death,
tures like the Rural Studio rarely flourish. 34-year-old Andrew Freear, a native of Interior of Harris (Butterfly) House,
Much of Taliesin’s vitality and creativity, Yorkshire, England, and a product of Mason’s Bend, Ala., Rural Studio 1997.
for instance, died with Wright. London’s Architectural Association, taught
I am pleased to report, however, the fifth-year program. “Sambo and I
that Mockbee’s baby thrives, a tribute to his were good together,” Freear says. “I was a

13

14

13. Harris (Butterfly) House, Mason’s

Bend, Ala., Rural Studio, 1997.

14. Hero Children’s Center,

Greensboro, Hale County, Ala.,
Rural Studio, 1999.

06.04 Architectural Record 191

 sort of utilitarian socialist and he was the
assertive about not being Sambo and the
artist who said make it pretty.” Rural Studio being more than Sambo.”
Freear was the obvious succes- David Hinson, an Auburn asso-
sor—the only person, really, who could ciate professor of architecture, adds that
take over. The studio formed ranks Freear has many of the same strengths as
behind him, and Freear carried on, Mockbee: Freear lets students realize
adopting one of Mockbee’s slogans, themselves, has a pragmatism combined
“Proceed and Be Bold.” with poetry, doesn’t entertain long dis-
Freear is “a bulldog,” says Buege.
cussions grounded in abstractions, is
“Andrew is smart, brash, ambitious, kind, and has a penchant for the outra-
always on the edge, often over-the-top, geous. Shortly after Mockbee’s death,
Auburn committed $400,000 a
THE INFLUENCE OF THE RURAL year to the studio, endowing it
STUDIO HAS CHANGED with stability for the first time,
and in 2002, Freear was
ARCHITECTURAL EDUCATION. appointed codirector of the stu-
Detail of one of the Pods (note wall disciplined, deeply committed, self-confi- dio, with Bruce Lindsey, head of Auburn’s
made of license plates), Newbern, dent. Someone without that confidence School of Architecture. Freear, however,
Ala., Rural Studio. 1997–2001. might well have failed. He’s very respect- continues a laser concentration on fifth-
ful of Sambo and his legacy, but he’s year projects, and during his watch

1997–2002

15

15. Mason’s Bend Community

Center, Mason’s Bend, Ala.,

P H OTO G R A P H Y : © T I M OT H Y H U R S L E Y ( TO P ; 1 5, 16 )
Rural Studio, 2000.

16. Supershed and Pods (left,

interior of Cardboard House),
Newbern, Ala., Rural Studio,
1997–2001.

16

192 Architectural Record 06.04

 the studio’s focus has shifted more community projects: the Antioch Baptist
emphatically from the rural house to Church in the countryside about 25 miles
community-oriented buildings. northeast of Newbern, the studio’s base; a
At the same time, the Rural senior center in Akron, 25 miles west of
Studio’s community buildings have Newbern; a storefront in downtown
grown larger, more complex, more Greensboro, the county seat; and in Perry
socially significant, and more numerous. County, Hale’s neighbor to the west, the
During the early years, students built one studio completed a pavilion in the newly
house and, at most, two modest commu- reopened Perry Lakes Park. In addition, a
nity buildings a year. In the two years group of outreach students reinterpreted
following Mockbee’s death, the studio and built one of Mockbee’s last designs,
completed 17 projects. Lindsey thinks called Lucy’s House for its owner.
that tackling so many assignments at Freear says that if the Rural
once might have been “a bit of therapy Studio has changed, “it’s because I said Lucy and Anderson Harris (stand-
for dealing with the loss of Sambo.” we can make the craft better. I want to ing) and son A.J. (seated) at Lucy’s
Perhaps Freear, new and young, needed have high expectations for the students House, Mason’s Bend, Ala., Rural
to prove something about the studio and the client. If we’re going to make a Studio, 2002.
without Mockbee, and about himself. glass box [as at the Thomaston Rural
The year Mockbee died, the Heritage Center], the finish is going to be
studio was working on a house plus five fantastic.” Freear has also honed the
P H OTO G R A P H Y : © T I M OT H Y H U R S L E Y ( 1 7 )

17

17. Lucy’s House, Mason’s Bend, Ala.

(note walls made of carpet samples),
Rural Studio, designed 2001, com-
pleted in 2002 (after Mockbee’s death).
 programming of buildings and has Drawing, he says, saves time on-site and
encouraged communities to find their creates better communication among team
own funding, believing that if they pro- members and between the team and the
vide payment they are more likely to take client.“Design-build should not be a series
ownership. Fifth-year students once of responses to screwups made earlier in
the project,” he says.“I believe
“I’M DRAWN TO ANYTHING THAT in precision, not artfully
HAS A QUIRKINESS TO IT, A camouflaged sloppiness.” But
MYSTERY TO IT,” MOCKBEE SAID. ratcheting up the level of
craft has stretched out sched-
chose their own projects, but now com- ules. At the end of the academic year
munity leaders come to the studio 2002–2003, three of four thesis projects
seeking design and construction help. As remained unfinished; that summer and
a result, students have become more fall graduates returned to finish their
engaged with town and county leaders. work, on their own penny.
Freear’s stress on craftsmanship Another change, since 2001,
Mockbee in his painting studio in has led him away from Mockbee’s ten- has been increased use of steel in con-
Newbern in the summer of 2001 seated dency toward improvisation and letting struction. John Forney, the outreach
before The Children of Eutaw Pose design evolve during construction. Freear program professor, worries that the stu-
Before Their Ancient Cabins, 1992. insists on getting things right first. dents may lose out, because steel requires

2002–Present

P H OTO G R A P H Y : © T I M OT H Y H U R S L E Y ( TO P ; 1 8 )
18

18. Music Man’s House (Jimmy Lee

Matthews), Greensboro, Hale County,
Ala., 2002–2003.

194 Architectural Record 06.04

 fabrication by professionals. The problem scrappy materials would seem to go
solved itself: In 2004, students rejected hand-in-hand with raising the bar.
the steel and glass of the past two years. As materials have changed, so
“The students don’t want to do some- has appearance. The Rural Studio’s
thing that’s already been done, and they buildings under Mockbee were known
saw how much of the construction for their striking angles, winged roofs,
and wacky details. The
THE STUDENTS CROSSED A new thesis projects, some
THRESHOLD TO A PREVIOUSLY of which are stunning,
FEARED AND UNFAMILIAR WORLD. tend toward a more neu-
tral, Minimal Modernism,
process was taken out of their hands last a vocabulary that wasn’t Mockbee’s.
Red Barn, Newbern Design Studio, year and the year before,” Freear says. Remember, however, these are
where Rural Studio currently works, The thesis projects completed not Freear’s buildings. The students react
Newbern, Ala., Rural Studio, 2004. under Freear use some recycled materi- to Freear’s critiques and may uncon-
als, but you’ll find no hay bales, no waste sciously absorb his preferences, but the
corrugated cardboard, no windshields. students were always the authors, and
He is more interested in durable build- that’s still the case. Freear says he and his
ings that require minimal maintenance. students engage in few conversations
A decline in the use of unconventional, about how things look. “We talk about

2002–Present

P H OTO G R A P H Y : © T I M OT H Y H U R S L E Y ( TO P ) ; E L L I OT T K AU F M A N ( 19 )

19

19. Antioch Baptist Church, Perry

County, Ala., Rural Studio, 2002.

196 Architectural Record 06.04

 materials and the sustainability of materi-what he characterizes as the “death march
als, that our clients have no money or timestruggles” of the fifth-year projects.
to paint, that we shouldn’t use a metal Mockbee’s expressive yet relaxed
that’s going to rust.” approach also lives on in the houses
Unlike the community build- designed and built by the second-year pro-
ings, which show an ever-increasing level gram, which has changed much less than
of sophistication, the outreach program the fifth-year program. The first house
still produces projects with Mockbee-era completed since Mockbee’s death, Tracy
quirkiness. One example is Cynthia Shiles’s house of 2002, suffers from an
overabundance of ideas, forms,
FREEAR CARRIED 0N WITH materials, and finishes, but the
THE RURAL STUDIO, ADOPTING second, completed in 2003, for
ONE OF MOCKBEE’S SLOGANS, Jimmy Lee Matthews, aka Music
Man, returned the studio to its
Andrew Freer (seated) with Rural
“PROCEED AND BE BOLD.” roots. As with the studio’s first
Studio thesis students. Red Barn, Connolly’s organic vegetable stand of house for Shepard and Alberta Bryant,
Newbern Design Studio, Newbern 2003, which has movable walls of hog- middle-class white students and an impov-
Ala., 2004. wire, a patchwork of chicken wire and erished black client worked closely
assorted metal leftovers. John Forney, the together. They bonded, and the students
program’s instructor, has tried to avoid crossed a threshold to enter a previously

2002–Present

20

20. Newbern Little League Field,

Newbern, Hale County, Ala., Rural

P H OTO G R A P H Y : © T I M OT H Y H U R S L E Y ( TO P ; 2 0, 2 1 )
Studio, 2002–2003.

21. Boardwalk and Restroom

Facilities, Perry Lakes Park,
Perry County, Ala., Rural Studio,
2002–2003.

21

198 Architectural Record 06.04

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 feared and unfamiliar world. The students balance its more ambitious, big-time
found many of the materials—timber, buildings against a wish to remain
chicken wire, colored bottles—for the tall, intimate and retain its rural soul? How
narrow, house with the big tin roof on can it maintain Sambo Mockbee’s child-
like sense of fun and
MOCKBEE PAINTED PORTRAITS OF adventure while laboring
SOME OF HIS INDIGENT CLIENTS on more adult, multiyear,
(“LIKE YOU AND ME, ONLY POOR”). high-pressure projects?
Jay Sanders, the
Music Man’s property. Boochie Patrick’s second-year instructor from 2002–2004,
1,000-square-foot, modular house of 2004 observes that “Sambo never had a master
Preliminary sketch: Fabrications, was conceived as a possible replacement plan for this place. Maybe his legacy is that
Hale County, Ala., 1997. for the region’s omnipresent housing form, it will live on without him, without me,
the trailer. It has a steel frame with bays without Andrew, without the students
that can be enclosed with any material at that knew him. If it continues to move for-
hand, and, as at the Patrick’s, can be tai- ward, in 10 years it may not feel anything
lored to a family’s needs and the site. like it does today.”
The Rural Studio’s accomplish- For now, Freear and his gang
ments pose questions: How can the studio proceed boldly. Sambo would love it. ■

MOCKBEE THE ARTIST

Clockwise, from right: Portrait of Gayle,
1989; The Children of Eutaw Pose
Before Their Ancient Cabins, 1992; The
Coronation of the Virgin—1730 and
2001, 2001; Julius and His Mother

I M A G E S : P O R T R A I T O F G AY L E , C O U R T E SY G AY L E F L AU T T ; OT H E R S : C O U R T E SY M A X P R OT E TC H G A L L E R Y
Pose Before Their Ancient Cabin, 1990.

“There are thousands of dream places in the old South. You can sit on a bench in a tiny Confederate Park or fling yourself on
the banks of a levee or stand on a bluff overlooking an Indian settlement, the air soft, still, fragrant, the world asleep seemingly, but
the atmosphere is charged with magical names, epoch-making events, inventions, explorations, discoveries.…It is all over now. The old
South was ploughed under.”—Henry Miller, 1941, from The Air-Conditioned Nightmare. (Sambo attributed these words to this collage.)

200 Architectural Record 06.04

At the twilight of his career,
I.M. Pei shows few signs
of slowing down
Modernism’s elder statesman looks back
over 50 years—and forward to
finishing new museums on three continents
 At dusk, the transpar-
ent helical staircase
glows in the new
wing (known as the
Schauhaus) of the
German Historical
Museum in Berlin.
Pei’s addition provides
some 29,000 square
feet of space for tem-
porary exhibitions.

FEATURES
By Robert Ivy, FAIA

I.M. Pei’s agility with the Modern form has garnered him prestigious com-
missions for museums and cultural institutions throughout his career, from
the East Building of the National Gallery of Art (winner of this year’s AIA
25 Year Award, page 172) to an addition and renovation of the centuries-old
Louvre to a new wing for temporary exhibitions at the German Historical
Museum in Berlin (pictured at left). Although he’s been “officially” retired for
more than a decade, Pei still has projects on his plate and a twice-a-week-at-
the-office habit. Shortly after the AIA Accent on Architecture dinner on
March 3 in Washington, D.C., editor in chief Robert Ivy visited Pei at his
office in Lower Manhattan, where they discussed the evolution of Pei’s design
thinking, the importance of working abroad, and his current slate of projects.

AR: You say you have retired, but you continue to be involved in projects.
What are you working on right now?

IMP: I haven’t taken any new projects in the past three years—I told myself,
if I cannot live long enough to finish it, I don’t want it. So I have three projects
now. The first one is the Musée d’Arte Moderne in Luxembourg, which is under
construction right now. The museum will be located on top of an old, old
fortress, Fort Tüngen, which the Austrians built in the 1800s. The client is the
State of Luxembourg. I accepted the commission for the project in 1990 or
1991, after I retired, but it began only six months ago—it was stopped alto-
gether five or six years for various reasons. The second project is a museum

06.04 Architectural Record 205

 in my hometown of Suzhou, China. And I am also designing the
FEATURES

Museum of Islamic Art in the Middle East, in Qatar.

AR: So do these projects involve design work, or development work

and decisions about construction?

1
IMP: It’s a little bit of each. I just completed
the design for the museum in Qatar, which I
accepted about two and a half years ago. It’s
now under construction, but that’s an excep-
tional one, because usually it takes longer
than that. I’m doing most of the work on the
Suzhou Museum on my own.

AR: That’s a very active, demanding schedule.

IMP: I’ve been active all my life. In 1990 I

retired from my firm, I.M. Pei & Partners, and
for two years I didn’t do much. Then I started
to get kind of antsy, so I decided, I’m going to
3
do some more work. And I chose to do work outside 3. Visitors walk next to the heli-
the U.S. because I’ve spent 45 years here and I cal staircase at the Schauhaus.
1. Walkways and openings wanted to learn more about what’s happening in the rest of the world. So I
define space at the new wing travel to the Middle East, I travel to China, I travel to Europe. It’s all very
(Schauhaus) of the German rewarding—the only problem is the travel is getting more and more difficult for
Historical Museum, Berlin, me now. Ten years ago I would have enjoyed it a lot more.
2003. And my projects have typically taken a long time to complete. Buildings
might take on average about five to seven years to finish, but in my case it’s
2. The sun throws a lattice of been longer, because the projects I have accepted within the past 15 years

P H OTO G R A P H Y : © W E R N E R H U T H M A C H E R ( P R E V I O U S S P R E A D A N D T H I S S P R E A D ) , E XC E P T P E T E R C O O K ( 3 )
shadows from a skylight at the have been mostly government projects, and those involve some politics and
Schauhaus. funding issues, and approvals and so forth. So they’re slower.
2
AR: Tell me about the museum you’re designing in your
hometown in China.

IMP: When this commission came, it was very special. I

was born in Suzhou, a city not very far from Shanghai. It’s a
very interesting town—there is a long artist’s tradition
there, especially during the Ming and Ching dynasties,
which produced many, many scholars and painters and so
forth. That’s where my family lived for 600, 700 years.
When the mayor first came to me about designing a
museum, I said no, it’s too far away. They invited me to go
back six or seven years ago, and I always tried to say no.
But finally, a couple of years ago I accepted it. The location
could not be more exciting. It’s a very special site, sur-
rounded by a wonderful garden. I thought the project would
touch on my relationship with my past, my ancestors, my
old home. The building is now under construction. It has two
more years to go before it’s complete.

AR: How about your other projects? Say, the museum in

Luxembourg?

IMP: That project came to me after I had completed the

Louvre. I was approached by the prime minister of
Luxembourg and asked to design a museum for modern
art, near the fortress [Fort Thüngen], which is being turned
into a museum as well. It wasn’t as big of a challenge as
 the Louvre, but I was very interested in it. For instance, I wanted to know
why the building would be located on top of a fortress. Luxembourg was and
still is today a crossroads, the place where Germany meets the rest of
Europe. The country lost part of its territory to Belgium in the 1800s, and
during World Wars I and II the German military overran it. The fortress was
the natural symbol, the physical symbol of the country. Very few people
have visited Luxembourg—when I went there and looked at it, I said, my
God, it’s built on a rock. And within the rock they had a castle, and within
4 the city there’s a network of tunnels so the residents could move
around and defend themselves. That was of great interest to me. I
was curious to know how Luxembourg remained an independent
country—that’s why I accepted the commission.

AR: Let’s go back and talk about a few of your past projects. Your
work at the Louvre represented one of the first instances of an
architect being employed by a major government agency in a way
that gave you a prominent role in the country’s self-image. Could
you talk about that? Were you consciously aware of how important
the Louvre was to them at that time?
5
IMP: It was a total surprise that they approached me to do the proj- 5. Generous glazing at the
ect. You know the French, not to mention the Parisians—they see the Schauhaus signifies democ-
Louvre as their monument, so to come to an American for a project racy and the joining of East and
like that is something I never expected. I thought perhaps they were West Germany that enabled the
just trying to show interest in different architects to try out the idea. founding of the museum.
But when President Mitterand asked me to see him, I knew that it was
serious. Mitterand was a student of architecture, he had done a lot of 6. A new glass roof topping a
research before he called me. He said, “You did something special at portion of the Zeughaus com-
the National Gallery of Art in Washington—you brought the new and plements the glazing of the
the old together.” But John Russell Pope finished the West Building in new wing.
1941, so when the East Building opened it was only about 40 years
old. But the Louvre is 800 years old! A much bigger design challenge.
I didn’t accept the project right away, excited though I was.
Instead, I told Mitterand that I needed four months to explore the proj-
ect before I could accept it. I wanted that time so I could study the
history of France, because what is the Louvre? The first portions were
built in the 12th century, and a succession of rulers came, added on,
built something, demolished something else. For 800 years the Louvre
has been a monument for the French—the building mirrors their his-
tory. I thought by asking him for this time it might make him say no,
thank you very much, because he was in a hurry—he’d been elected
4. Pei likes to play with geome- in 1981 and his term would last only seven years, and this was 1983—so
try. A sharp angle within the there was some pressure for him to accomplish something.
Schauhaus beckons visitors In those four months, I studied. I asked for four visits to the Louvre, one
6
with its vista to the Zeughaus, visit each month. And I asked the
a former military depot and Louvre to keep things confidential at
museum that is undergoing first, without revealing the fact that I
renovation to house the was asked by the president to be
German Historical Museum’s involved, so that I could go to France
permanent collection. unencumbered and visit the Louvre,
assess what’s wrong with it, what’s
right about it, what had to be
destroyed or must be saved, that sort
of thing. Mitterand agreed to all this.
You cannot defend your design with-
out knowing what you’re designing for.
When I was being questioned by the
press about the design later on, all
this preparation was very useful.
 7
AR: The scope of the Louvre was so vast. You literally went through lay-
FEATURES

ers of history as you exposed and joined its lower levels, as well as
designing an immense addition, and all with as little disruption as pos-
sible to the institution. No one ever focused on that—everyone just
talked about the glass pyramid.

IMP: You’re absolutely right. Everybody points to the pyramid, but the
total reorganization of the museum was the real challenge. Mitterand
8 understood that. Few people know, for instance, that
the French Ministry of Finance used to occupy the
Richelieu Wing [north wing] of the Louvre. Mitterand
was very aware of the importance of the Richelieu
Wing, because without it, the Louvre is just a long
L-shaped building instead of a U-shaped building. Soon
after he became president in 1981, Mitterand com-
missioned a competition for a new building for the Ministry of 11. Interior court with glass
Finance in Paris. That gave him justification to move the roof, Louvre, Paris.
agency to a new location, and therefore enabled us to claim
that space. Without it, I would not have been able to do the 12. A gallery, Louvre, Paris.
project. I probably would not have accepted the commis-
sion—I could not have done anything for the museum. 13. More drama in glass at the
And the biggest challenge of the Louvre was beyond Louvre, Paris.
7. An early sketch of Pei’s re- merely architecture. When I first went there in 1983, it was divided into seven
imagining of the Louvre’s entry departments, and each was totally autonomous. The department directors would
(Grand Louvre project, Phase I), not even talk to each other. They were very competitive for space and money.
Paris, France, 1989. So, architecturally we had to change this situation—make seven departments
into one and unify them as a single institution. I’m not so sure Mitterand realized
8. Section drawing of the how big a challenge this was; I certainly didn’t. But the result worked out. Today
Richelieu addition to the the departments are all unified under one president, and they’re also unified
Louvre, which Pei reorganized architecturally. The fact that people don’t realize this huge challenge of the

I M A G E S : C O U R T E SY P E I C O B B F R E E D & PA R T N E R S ( 7, 8 ) ; P H OTO G R A P H Y © D I E D E V O N S C H A E W E N ( 9 ) ;
during Phase II of the project, Louvre is totally mind-boggling to me.
completed in 1993. 12, 13
AR: Let’s discuss form for a minute. We talk a lot about form—it dominates
9. Spiral staircase at the discussion of architecture in the media these days. You yourself are a mas-
the Louvre, Paris. ter of form—the East Building of the National Gallery, for instance, is a
superior example of your skills, as the AIA recognized this year. But every-
10. The pyramid topping the thing you’ve talked about so far is about the programmatic, complex, deeper
Louvre’s entry got all the head- issues that reside within projects. How do your formal skills interplay with

S E R G E H A M B O U R G ( 10 ) ; S T E P H A N E C O U T U R I E R ( 1 1 , 1 2 ) ; L U C B O E G LY ( 1 3 )
lines, overshadowing Pei’s this programmatic thinking?
complex program of integrating
a museum staff divided into IMP: Ever since 1990, I haven’t been all that interested in form, not at all. To
seven fractious departments. create a work of architecture that looks exciting and different is not the chal-
9
lenge for me anymore. The challenge is for me to learn
something about what I’m doing. I’ve been more interested
recently in learning about civilization. I know something about
the civilization of China, with my background, obvi-
ously, and I think I know something about American
history. But that’s about all. And I’ve traveled all over
the world, and for a long time I didn’t know very
much about it, really. When I got the opportunity to
do the new wing [the Schauhaus] for the German
Historical Museum, for instance, I didn’t see it as an
10
opportunity for my own ego, to do some-
thing so exciting that every architectural
publication would want to put it on the
cover. I accepted it because I knew it was
going to be a very difficult project, and I
wasn’t sure I could do something exciting
there. Originally the building was to have
 been located near the Reichstag, a very prominent site. But ulti-
FEATURES

mately they decided to site this tiny little building behind an

18
enormous military museum [the Zeughaus] dating
from the early 18th century, which is very
Prussian. I visited that museum, and you’d think
that any collection of military artifacts would be all
guns and cannons and whatnot, but there’s a lot
more than you’d expect there—a lot about
Prussian history, which of course is the foundation
of Germany. [The Zeughaus, a weapons depot
before becoming a museum, is now undergoing
renovation to house the permanent collection of
the German Historical Museum]. This location has
much less visibility. I had the idea to do something
helical and transparent with the new wing, some-
thing that would be symbolic of the unification of
14, 15 East and West Germany. The prime minister per-
sonally asked to see some sign of this in the building. When you’re
14. A sketch of the Miho asked that by a client, it’s an opportunity you just don’t waste. So,
Museum, nestled in the while it was an exciting challenge, form-making is not the reason
Shigaraki Mountains in I’m still engaged in projects. One of the reasons I took this on was
rural Japan. that I wanted to find out as much as I could about Germany’s
architectural history. The name that kept popping up was Karl
15. Pine trees line the exterior Friedrich Schinkel. I’ve seen his museum, the Altes Museum in
of the Miho Museum, but 80 Berlin, but I hadn’t visited any of his other work until I began
percent of its structure is sub- designing the new wing. I think his greatest skill was the diversity
terranean, as a bow to nature. of projects he achieved, from the very monumental, like the colon-

S H I N K E N C H I K U - S H A / T H E J A PA N A R C H I T E CT C O . ( 16 ) ; D E N N I S B R A C K / B L A C K S TA R ( 19 ) ; E Z R A S TO L L E R / E S TO ( 2 0 )
nade at the Altes Museum, to the small, domestic skills he 19
16. The bridge and tunnel that brought to the villas he designed in Berlin and elsewhere.
guide visitors to the museum 18. The famed triangles-within-
span two mountain ridges. AR: How did your museum project in the Middle East come about? the-trapezoid sketch of the East
Building of the National Gallery

I M A G E S : C O U R T E SY I . M . P E I , A R C H I T E CT ( 14, 1 7, 1 8 ) ; P H OTO G R A P H Y © T I M OT H Y H U R S L E Y ( 1 5 ) ;
17. Louvered space frames IMP: How do I begin? Qatar does not have much history, it’s a new emirate. So of Art, Washington, D.C., 1968.
at the Miho Museum, near I couldn’t draw on the history of the country; its history is really just being a
Shigaraki, Japan, 1996. desert. But I thought, the one thing I must learn about for this project is the 19. Paul Mellon, J. Carter
Islamic faith. So I read about Islam and Islamic architecture, and the more I Brown, and I.M. Pei stand in the
studied the more I realized where the best Islamic buildings were. At the begin- nearly-complete atrium of the
ning, I thought the best Islamic work was in Spain—the mosque in Cordoba, East Building, January 1978.
the Alhambra in Granada. But as I learned more, my ideas shifted. To begin
with, the climate of southern Spain is not at all like desert, where most Islamic 20. The library and research
architecture is built. I kept searching. I traveled to Egypt, and to the Middle East area at the East Building has
many times. I saw early Islamic architecture in Damascus, Syria, where they windows on the National Mall
took some early Christian churches and transformed them into mosques, so and the U.S. Capitol Building.
16 they were not pure Islamic—just as in southern Spain, it’s no longer pure
Islamic architecture either, because it gets mingled with 20
Christianity. Or in Turkey, where the Ottoman influence
is felt, too—it’s Islamic but not pure Islamic.
I found the most wonderful examples of Islamic
work in Cairo, it turns out. I’d visited mosques there
before, but I didn’t see them with the same eye as I did
this time. They truly said something to me about
Islamic architecture. The museum I’m designing is more
influenced by the Mosque of Ibn Tulun than any other
building. This mosque is very austere and beautiful, its
geometry is most refined. You think of Gothic architec-
ture, it’s so elaborate. This is the opposite—so simple.

AR: It’s inspiring to see that you’re so engaged with these issues. You’re
17 still a student!

210 Architectural Record 06.04

 In a city averse to towers,
30 ST. MARY AXE, the
“towering innuendo” by
Foster and Partners,
is a big ecofriendly hit

By James S. Russell, AIA

L
ondoners were once skeptical of 30 St. Mary Axe, the tapered
PRO JECTS

bullet that has clambered into the skyline over the past two years.
It’s usually called the Gherkin, a title standing in for a variety of
unprintable descriptions, or the Towering Innuendo. But as its
sleek, now-complete form bobs and weaves into view around the city,
locals have reportedly developed a fondness for the first tall building to be
erected in the City of London (its financial district) in 25 years.
At 40 stories, it would not be regarded a large tower in most of
America’s downtowns, but in the low-rise, finely grained cityscape of
London, its 500,000 square feet look gargantuan. How could a tower so
unconventional in nearly every respect look like a big, friendly alien
rather than a menacing intruder?
This is no airplane-napkin sketch fast-tracked into reality.
Formerly, the site was filled by the Baltic Exchange, a low-rise pile that was
severely damaged in 1992 by a bomb planted by the Irish Republican
Army. A debate about whether the building could be saved went on for a
few years. Thanks to its client, Swiss Re, when Foster and Partners came
on the scene in 1997, both recognized that a replacement could be pro-
posed only if it was clearly superior. Extensive local consultation led to an
approval process that nevertheless consumed another two years.
The curving profiles that have become a signature of Foster’s
P H OTO G R A P H Y : © R I C H A R D B R YA N T / A R C A I D ( T H I S S P R E A D )

work in recent years, as in London’s City Hall [record, February 2003,

page 110], respond to local environmental conditions—and the ability of
the architect and its consultants to deploy sophisticated computer-aided

Project: 30 St. Mary Axe, London Thomas Brune, Robbie Turner,

Owner: Swiss Re Julian Cross, Neil Vandersteen, Joel
Architect: Foster and Partners— Davenport, John Walden, Ben
Norman Foster, Grant Brooker, Paul Dobbin, Tim Walpole-Walsh, Paul
Leadbeatter, Michael Gentz, Stuart Kalkhoven, Hugh Whitehead, Chris
Milne, Rob Harrison, Jacob Nørlov, Kallan, Richard Wotton, Jürgen
Robin Partington, Tim O’Rourke, Küpper, Helen Yabsley
Paul Scott, Ben Puddy, Ken Consultants: Arup (structural, fire
Shuttleworth, Jason Parker, Francis safety); Hilson Moran Partnership
Aish, Simon Reed, Gamma Basra, (mechanical and electrical); BDSP
Narinder Sagoo, Geoff Bee, Sebastian (environmental engineers)
Schoell, Aike Behrens, Michael General contractor: Skanska
Sehmsdorf, Ian Bogle, John Small, Construction UK

218 Architectural Record 06.04

Who could blame
London for resisting
tall towers, considering
the dourness of the
few that are there. Now
30 St. Mary Axe has
put a striking new
shape on the skyline,
portending many more,
pundits say.
 modeling and analytic tools. In this case, the Foster team, including Ken
Shuttleworth, who recently left the firm, came to the circular plan and
tapering section because it lets wind slip by, according to Rob Harrison,
an associate partner, which reduces lateral loads on the structure. More
important, the shape minimizes the tendency of tall buildings to focus
gale-force winds on unwitting pedestrians at street level. While the form
puts the largest floors above the prevailing 10-story-high norm, where
views open across the city in all directions, Foster slimmed the tower on
the lower floors as well, which opened the dim, surrounding streets to

HOW COULD SO UNCONVENTIONAL

A TOWER BOB AND WEAVE INTO VIEW
LIKE A BIG, FRIENDLY ALIEN?
daylight. The trim ground floor left space to carve out a handsomely pro-
portioned plaza, offering a shortcut through the City’s twisting blocks for
cell-phone wielding dealmakers headed to the Tube. Such sensitivity to

P H OTO G R A P H Y : © R I C H A R D B R YA N T / A R C A I D ( T H I S PA G E A N D O P P O S I T E )
the public realm helped the building survive the tough planning review.
The diagonally gridded exterior binds the building form visu-
ally. (Imagine the bulging-gut look it would have with vertical mullions.)
It actually emerged as Foster and his team worked out the most remark-
able feature of the building, the six-level light wells, six per floor, which
spiral continuously upward. According to John Brazier, the project direc-
tor at Arup, reconciling the 5-degree-per-floor rotation in the light wells
generated the diagonal grid of the structure and the cladding (see
“Building a Tower on the Bias,” page 222).
Foster has long designed to achieve a more humanely social
work environment. In the Commerzbank tower (record, January 1998,
page 69), he pioneered the use of skygardens—restful oases for informal
meetings, for sipping a coffee, or just thinking—hovering high above the
city. While conventional real estate wisdom might deem the light wells a
frill, they are integral, in Foster’s hands, to a strategy that addresses the
chief criticisms of tall buildings as work environments: that the big pan-
cakes of space neither offer the amenities highly valued staff want nor
encourage collaborative work. For Swiss Re, Foster offset each level of the
light wells to offer terrace overlooks. The advantage is simple, if a bit
abstract: If you see people on other floors of a tall building, you are much
more likely to feel they are part of your group, and that you are in this

220 Architectural Record 06.04

30 St. Mary Axe pops
into view from van-
tages all over London.
Its anomalous form
and intricate, beehive-
like skin change the
notion of skyscraper
scale. In coming years,
it may anchor a cluster
of new towers.
Light wells divide the
building vertically into
BUILDING A TOWER ON THE BIAS
six-story modules. To
suit tenants, individual The engineers devised a two-story-high triangular structural module
floors can be isolated. for the building: tubular columns running up the exterior that are fire-
proofed and clad in faceted, painted metal. (Because cross bars are
painted dark and diagonal members painted white, the structural grid
only looks like a four-story diamond when it can be seen through the
glass from outside.) Computer analysis helped to locate fixing points in
three dimensions (diagrams, bottom left). Special fittings at the diagrid
intersections align adjacent panels to follow the bidirectional faceted
geometry. The latticelike structure and curved surface efficiently resist
wind forces, which means that floor beams could be sized smaller and
the core did not need to be braced, freeing up interior space. (The
occupied area is column-free.)
The diamond-shaped glass lites look normally sized but are actu-
ally quite large, each spanning a full floor, top to bottom. The glazing
mullions are triangular in section as well, to reduce their visual bulk. The
structural diagrid ends at
floor 38; slim sections of
curtain-wall framing con-
tinue upward, arcing
delicately into a domed,
glazed roof at the top
(below), where the glass
units are both tinted (to
avoid glare) and argon-
filled (for insulation).
Inside the column
diagrid, an inner mem-
brane of glass leaves
an insulating air layer
between the outer
curtain wall and the
occupied space (heated
by building-exhaust air
as needed). A tapered,

P H OTO G R A P H Y : © R I C H A R D B R YA N T / A R C A I D ( B OT TO M R I G H T A N D O P P O S I T E ) ;
horizontal spandrel
divides floors. J.S.R.

G R A P H I C S : C O U R T E SY FO S T E R A N D PA R T N E R S

222 Architectural Record 06.04

Tinted glass cladding
the light wells forms
dark spiraling stripes
on the otherwise trans-
parent facade. White
metal clads the struc-
tural diagrid inside
the glass, traced by
external white-painted
mullion caps.
 P H OTO G R A P H Y : © N I G E L YO U N G / FO S T E R A N D PA R T N E R S ( T H I S PA G E ) ; R I C H A R D B R YA N T / A R C A I D ( O P P O S I T E )
business endeavor together. You’ll feel invited to move from floor to floor
rather than remaining psychologically sealed in your own area.
On this much tighter site, the social spaces are narrower, more inti-
mate than at Commerzbank. “Everyone’s conscious that the balcony edges
are the best spaces in the building, with great views up and down the light
wells,” said Sara Fox, who has directed the building project for four years,
after working to build the firm’s innovative American branch in Armonk,
New York [record, June 2000, page 144]. These areas are reserved for coffee
bars, copy centers, and other informal-gathering functions, rather than
devoted to departments.“We spent a lot of time with staff talking about the
interconnectivity this makes possible,” she said. As people move into the
building, she adds, “they come up to me and say, ‘Oh, now I get it.’”
Workplace quality and energy conservation are inextricably
woven together in the building. “We wanted an environmentally respon-
sible building,” explained Fox. “We didn’t have a checklist; we asked Foster
to explore what was possible.” The commitment was meaningful for the
company well beyond corporate altruism. “We are in the reinsurance
business,” Fox explained. “For us, sustainability makes excellent business
sense because we pay claims on behalf of clients for floods, heat waves,
droughts. To the extent that these claims are related to global climate
warming, it is only prudent of us to contribute as little to it as possible.”
The light wells bring daylight deep into the space, even to desks
positioned closest to the core. (“That’s a lifestyle issue—quality of work-
place for staff,” explained Fox.) The quality of daylight from the
floor-to-ceiling exterior windows is also high, because heat gain from the
sun is trapped in the space between the external curtain wall and a second
glass wall placed just inboard of the external column diagrid. The insu-

224 Architectural Record 06.04

1. Entry
2. Lobby
3. Retail
4. Core
5. Office modules
6. Light well
7. Private dining
8. Elevator/stair

The inward taper of

the tower brings sun
into a generous plaza
that opens up dark,
medieval streets
(opposite, top). The slim
curtain wall forms a
dome over a rooftop
restaurant nearing
completion at press
time (opposite, bot-
tom). The diagonal grid
of the structure opens
to form a recessed
entrance leading to
the lofty lobby (right).
 lating layer not only saves energy, it permitted the use of clear glass, pro-
tected by blinds in the thermal layer. By contrast, the glass in the light
wells needed to be deeply tinted (visible on the exterior as dark, spiraling
stripes). The triangular light wells divide the floors into six 2,500-square-
foot (on average) rectangular wedges, offering an efficient shape for laying
out offices or open-plan workstations.
With automatically opening windows, the light wells conduct
fresh air. The interior glass wall is left out at the balconies, so that fresh air
penetrates the entire floor (one much deeper than the naturally ventilated
norm) without mechanical assistance. Air warmed by occupants and
equipment rises up the chimneylike light wells, drawing in outside air.
The round floor plate aids airflow by molding a distinct zone of negative
air pressure on the leeward side, which draws in more windward-side air.
Although the building is mechanically heated and cooled, the natural-
ventilation scheme should leave the systems idle much of the time,
accounting (with the daylighting) for much of the building’s reduced
dependence on climate-altering fossil-fuel combustion. (Local air-

“IT’S ONLY PRUDENT OF US TO

CONTRIBUTE AS LITTLE AS POSSIBLE
TO GLOBAL WARMING.”—SARA FOX
handling units allow mixed-mode use by zone and by floor, as well.)
According to Brazier, current local guidelines for low-energy offices target
electricity use of 175 kilowatt hours per square meter (10.76 square feet).
He expects Swiss Re’s new building to knock up to 25 kwh off that.
Swiss Re occupies about half the building; the remainder has yet
to be tenanted in a moribund real estate market. Nevertheless, the com-
pletion of 30 St. Mary Axe—and its acceptance—portends a deluge of
new office buildings, according to pundits. As they vie for height, the
towers announced to date compete on the basis of amenity, energy
responsibility, and aesthetics (the designers are all household names:
Piano, Grimshaw, Kohn Pedersen Fox, Rogers, Wilkinson).
None of the long-announced towers has yet begun construc-
tion. Fox echoes their developers in claiming that more towers will get
built. “London is really the financial center of Europe. Most firms, par-
ticularly in financial services, want to be at the heart.”
London and Lower Manhattan, both seeking dominance of
global finance, now offer a study in contrasts. “Location is so much more
important in the U.K. than in New York,” explained Fox, noting that a
consensus has developed that London’s City must grow to remain vital.
New York, which perfected the skyscraper downtown, has ceded tall-
building innovation to Europe and Asia. It is far less sure that the

N I G E L YO U N G / FO ST E R A N D PA RT N E R S ( TO P A N D O P P O S I T E )
proximity enabled by tall buildings still pays off. Will tenants balk at inno-

P H OTO G RA P H Y : © R I C H A R D B R YA N T / A R C A I D ( B OT TO M ) ;
vations that raise rents? Is a horizontal, dispersed business model more
prudent in a world wracked by terrorism?
The next few years will tell which model comes out on top. The
stakes are certainly high. If a great number of American financial figures
start taking meals in Swiss Re’s “nose cone” restaurant (it’s private;
sorry), where breathtaking city panoramas open through the spidery
fretwork of the building’s diagrid crown, you can be sure London’s (and
Foster’s) lessons won’t be lost. ■

Sources Security gate: Marzorati Ronchetti;

Curtain wall: Schmidlin; Waagner Gunnebo Mayor
Biro
Glass: Eckelt; Okalux For more information on this project,
Acoustic wall panels: Decoustics go to Projects at
Lighting: Wila www.architecturalrecord.com.

226 Architectural Record 06.04

Swiss Re reserves the
terraces in its light
wells—and their dra-
matic views (looking
up, opposite; looking
down, this page)—for
functions that trigger
idea sharing. The
white-painted diago-
nals and dark-painted
horizontals both
enclose structural
members. Making
other floors visible
also breaks down
physical barriers to
collaboration. Ample
daylight for offices
(opposite, bottom)
comes both from the
curve of the exterior
and the wedge-shaped
light wells.
 Roger Duffy of SOM weaves together
art,architecture,and landscape in a crystalline new
upper school at GREENWICH ACADEMY

By Clifford A. Pearson

S
ome architects celebrate architecture as a provocative

PRO JECTS
The new building con-
act, forcing people to experience buildings in radically nects two landscapes
new ways. (Think Rem Koolhaas or Peter Eisenman (rendering, left): an
today or Adolf Loos 100 years ago.)
Roger Duffy, AIA, a design partner in the
New York office of Skidmore, Owings &
Merrill (SOM), has a very different way
of approaching his work, even though it entry level that is a
too pushes the boundaries of architec- green roof punctuated
ture. “A lot of my projects are about resolving by glass pavilions
differences,” he explains while touring his new upper (opposite, two) and the
school at Greenwich Academy. Instead of the shock of playing fields and pond
the new, he delivers bold architecture with manners. that sit 23 feet below.
Like a foreign-exchange student with great social
P H OTO G R A P H Y : © F LO R I A N H O L Z H E R R , E XC E P T A S N OT E D ; R E N D E R I N G : C O U R T E SY S O M

skills, his buildings stand out but earn high grades

for getting along well with others. created a grassy lawn on the building’s roof, which serves as the entry
A 45,000-square-foot addition to a private girls’ school in one of level. Glass pavilions (or “light chambers”) emerge from this artificial
the country’s most affluent communities, the new building at Greenwich landscape, bringing daylight into the building, which tumbles down the
Academy must fit between a nondescript middle and lower school from hillside. As visitors enter the upper school through the largest light cham-
the 1970s to the north, a 1990s performing arts center and gymnasium to ber, they see only grass, glass, and the woods beyond. Low stone walls,
the south, and a Georgian mansion to the east that originally housed the made from rock dug from the site, offer places to sit in good weather and
entire school but now serves as its administrative center. In addition to help connect the new building to the earth and the old mansion’s stone
this awkward mix of eras and structures, the new upper school had to base. The new snaps elegantly into place here.
negotiate a 23-foot drop from the campus’s entry level to that of its play- The light chambers—clear glass boxes supported by exposed
ing fields and pond to the west. “We decided to use our building to weave glue-laminated timbers 4 inches thick—organize the school into its four
together the two topographies,” explains Duffy. “We saw the project as a main components: math/sciences, art, humanities, and learning center
landscape connecting the campus.” (library). Classrooms, faculty offices, and other spaces for each disci-
Sharon Dietzel, the head of the upper school, admits that SOM pline cluster around their particular light chamber, creating a critical
was not an obvious choice to design the building, since the firm is better mass of activity and a sense of identity. But common spaces flow
known for its large commercial work. But when the school asked several
architects to propose ideas for renovating the existing upper school, SOM Project: Greenwich Academy Upper Bellon Manzi, Thibaut DeGryse,
recommended tearing it down and building from scratch. “Although it School, Greenwich, Connecticut Nayareen Chapra, Jon Mark Capps,
was probably more expensive, we all knew that was the right approach,” Architect: Skidmore, Owings & Javier Haddad Conde, project team
Dietzel notes. During initial conversations with the school’s faculty and Merrill/New York—Roger F. Duffy, AIA, Collaborating artist: James Turrell
staff, Duffy and his team helped the client envision a facility quite differ- design partner; Peter Magill, AIA, man- Engineers: DiBlasi (structural);
ent from anything already on the campus. “By talking about light and air, aging partner; Walter P. Smith, AIA, Atkinson Koven Feinberg (mechanical)
instead of square footage or style, they helped us think in a different way,” education specialist; Scott Kirkham, Landscape: Brown and Sardina
recalls Dietzel. senior designer; Christopher McCready, General contractor: Turner
Integrating landscape and architecture, Duffy and his team AIA, project manager; Marie-Christine Construction

06.04 Architectural Record 229

The entry pavilion
(above and opposite)
also serves as the hub
for the math/science
department. A translu-
cent glass floor around
the entry stairs brings

P H OTO G R A P H Y : © S O M ( B OT TO M T H R E E )
light to the level below.
An elegant curtain wall
rises above the green
roof to become a glass
balustrade (left).
Shades on the build-
ing’s perimeter walls
let users control the
amount of sun that
comes inside (far left
top and bottom).
smoothly into one another, so you get a sense of connections, not tack at Greenwich Academy, designing a building so light that it almost
boundaries, as you walk through the building. disappears in the landscape. To do this, the architects devised a steel-
During design development, Duffy invited artist James Turrell frame structure with a glazed curtain wall for the bulk of the building and
to collaborate on the light chambers. “It increased the level of difficulty glue-laminated timber frames for the light chambers. “The wooden mem-
logarithmically,” says the architect, “but was worth it.” Turrell turned the bers soften the sharp edges of the boxes,” says Duffy. “We didn’t want a
four glass containers into colored-light boxes using a combination of fiber hard Modernism.”
optics and light-emitting diodes (see sidebar, page 232). Turrell’s role was All classrooms enjoy floor-to-ceiling glazing on the outside and
much more than that of an artist adding an installation to a building pro- daylight coming in from the light chambers on the inside. A translucent
ject, states Duffy. “He was a true collaborator,” helping the architects shape
the glass pavilions and the experience of moving through the building. “THE LIGHT HAS A PHYSICAL AND
For example, the artist convinced the architects to torque the roof angle of PSYCHOLOGICAL AFFECT ON PEOPLE; IT
the two light chambers visitors see as they enter the first chamber. “This
way, you read the subsequent chambers as volumes, not just as planes,” RELAXES THEM,” SAYS THE SCHOOL’S HEAD.
says Duffy. glass floor on the upper level of the entry pavilion adds to the sense of
Beyond the pavilions, the architects carved a series of outdoor light everywhere. Interior and exterior shades allow people to control sun
rooms from the hillside site to bring daylight in from the north and coming in or views from interior common spaces.
south. The largest of these spaces—what Duffy calls the “learning center The building’s architecture has affected the way people behave in
courtyard”—acts as a kind of campus piazza linking the upper school to it, says Dietzel. “We have 150 adolescents here, but it’s always quiet. All the
the cafeteria and middle and lower schools to the north. “Before, we had light has a physical and psychological affect on people; it relaxes them.” At
a series of disconnected buildings,” explains Dietzel. “Now we have an the same time, the transparency of the architecture has made people less
academic village.” territorial, she notes. Teachers and students interact with each other all over
Once upon a time, school architects tried to impress on students the building, not just in the more formal settings of the classroom and
the importance of learning by designing buildings that harkened back to teacher’s office. She also reports that attendance is up, even for seniors who
bygone eras or used heavy materials rooted in historical associations have the option of spending some time off-campus. “This building cele-
(Harvard brick or Neoclassical stone, for example). SOM tried a different brates the potential of children, and so few schools ever do that.”
 T o show how art can be inte-
grated with a learning
environment, SOM collaborated
with James Turrell on the design of
the school’s light chambers, turning
them into glowing boxes whose
colors change slowly during a pro-
grammed time cycle. Fiber optics
set into channels at the threshold
of each chamber and the perimeter
of the floor create planes of colored
light, while bands of light-emitting
diodes (LEDs) on the walls and
timber purlins produce “clouds” of
color. Each of the four chambers
has a different colored frit on its
glass, providing a subtle range in
hues from pink to blue, green, and
white. A computer program controls
the changing colors, so light seems
to move from one chamber to
another. Due to budget constraints,
only two of the glass pavilions are
fully equipped with the fiber optics
and LEDs, though all have the chan-
nels needed to accommodate the
lighting. Photographs (left) show the
math/science light chamber, which
is the school’s main entry, during
phases of the color cycle. C.A.P.

1. Math/science light
chamber and entry
2. Math/science classrooms
3. Faculty offices
4. Art light chamber
5. Administration 10
6. Student commons 15 9
9
open to below
7. Humanities light chamber
8. Humanities classrooms 8 3 8
9. Library light chamber 10
3 8
10. Library 13 2 2 6 6 2 3 2
14 8
11. Sports terrace 7
12. Art classrooms 8 1 8 4 1
13. Media center 12 open
8 8
14. Lockers 12 2 2 5 5 2 2 2
3 12
15. Library courtyard 8 8 open

16. Science courtyard 8 8 12 12 16 8 11

N 0 20 FT.
LOWER LEVEL 6 M. UPPER LEVEL
 Duffy sees Greenwich Academy as “a The library’s light
beginning,” the first in a series of projects that chamber runs on axis
explore the nature of collaboration and draw a with the school’s origi-
sense of unity out of programs pulled in many nal mansion (above).
different directions by many different forces. The light chamber in
He and his studio at SOM are currently finish- the art department
ing work on a public elementary school in (right) leads out to the
Fairfield, Connecticut, that opens in August, playing fields.
and they are collaborating again with James
Turrell on a building at Deerfield Academy, which will be completed in
the summer of 2005. “Instead of bringing him in during design devel-
opment, we’ve been working together from the very beginning of the
project,” notes Duffy with pleasure. Other projects he sees as exploring
similar ideas include a performing arts school in Camden, New Jersey,
and the Skyscraper Museum, a small but dazzling interior space that
recently opened in New York’s Battery Park City.
Duffy talks about design that unifies different forces, bringing
old and new, upper and lower, indoors and out, into equilibrium and
harmony. When discussing collaboration with artists and other design-
ers, he speaks of “conciliation,” a word not found in many architects’
vocabularies. “The kind of work I’m interested in requires a level of
trust between collaborators and doesn’t involve the master stroke of the
great architect.” ■

Metal/glass curtain wall: Suntech of Interior ambient lighting: Zumtobel

Connecticut; Interpane Glass Staff
Skylights: Interpane Glass Reception furniture and library
Glue-laminated wood: Unadilla desk: Custom by Skidmore, Owings
Laminated Products & Merrill
Planted roof: American Hydrotech Metal doors: Suntech of Connecticut
Carpeting: Karatan; Mohawk Brick walls: Connecticut Mason/Joe
Commercial Capasso Mason

06.04 Architectural Record 233

A glittering counter-
point to the dour jumble
of Birmingham’s down-
town, Selfridges rises
voluptuously next to the
prim neo-Gothic form of
St. Martin’s Church.
 Future System’s curvaceous outpost in
Birmingham has helped turn the
dowdy SELFRIDGES department-store chain
into a must-shop destination
By James S. Russell, AIA

A
clay model in Future Systems’ London office could be titled industry, which had resigned itself to the inevitability of department-store

PRO JECTS
Reclining Woman’s Torso. It is rough and barely suggests archi- decline, it’s a sensation—compared often to the Bilbao Guggenheim. In
tecture. But it has come to life as the four levels and 240,000 London, Selfridges flagship store remains a columned, city-block-size
square feet of a Selfridges department store. Sensuously true to palace (designed by Daniel Burnham) on Oxford Street. But Birmingham
the early study, its rump gently swells outward and upward. And it looks is the crowning achievement in the transformation of a dowdy, middle-
just a bit squished at the bottom, creating the same effect the weight of of-the road chain to a hip, must-shop destination.
real flesh would. Vittorio Radice, an Italian retailer inevitably described as
The building has become an instant landmark since it opened “visionary,” refashioned the chain, focusing on younger shoppers who
last fall in Birmingham, the U.K.’s second-largest city. In the retailing had regarded Selfridges and many of its competitors as the kinds of places

06.04 Architectural Record 235

 P H OTO G R A P H Y : © S Ø R E N A A G A A R D ( P R I O R S P R E A D ) ; N I C H O L A S K A N E / A R C A I D ( T H I S PA G E A N D O P P O S I T E )
to be visited only with doting relatives determined to find something
practical. Radice brought back the theatricality that had historically
defined the department store, turning the London flagship into a shrine
to Bollywood, for example. “Body Craze,” another promotion, featured
600 nude volunteers riding up and down the escalators.
In the heyday of the department store, celebratory architecture
was part of the appeal. In Birmingham, Radice restored that tradition,
too. A developer offered him an à la carte package: a site in a new urban
mall at the center of Birmingham’s knot of twisting shopping streets,
including a ready-to-go design for a boxy volume wrapped in a queasy
mix of Tuscan stripes and Modernist steel beams. Like the rest of the mall,
it was a design intended to appeal to everyone by offending no one. It was

Project: Selfridges Department Store, Kaplicky, Amanda Levete, Iain MacKay,

Birmingham, U.K. Glenn Moorley, Andrea Morgante,
Architect: Future Systems—Søren Thorsten Overberg, Angus Pond, Jessica
Aagaard, Nerida Bergin, Sarah Jayne Salt, Severin Soder, project team
Bowen, Lida Caharsouli, Julian Engineer: Arup (structural, mechani-
Flannery, Harvinder Gabhari, Dominic cal, fire protection, facade engineering)
Harris, Nicola Hawkins, Matthew Project manager: Faithful + Gould
Heywood, Candas Jennings, Jan General contractor: Laing O’Rourke

236 Architectural Record 06.04

Attached to a generic footbridge (connecting
mall (visible at left in this the store to a parking
photo), the undulating structure) visually light
building form follows the in weight (opposite, top).
street pattern and a two- Cable stays suspend
level change in grade. it from the frame of a
Arup devised an under- flying-saucer oculus
floor box beam so that straight out of a comic
Kaplicky could keep a book (opposite, bottom).
 4

2
1
5

1 1

0 30 FT.
SECTION A-A
10 M.

1. Selling space exactly the retail image that Radice had spent years erasing. “He didn’t
2. Atrium think it was good enough,” explained Jan Kaplicky, a partner in Future
3. Secondary atrium Systems. “How would you get people there?”
4. Garden and gym Radice invited Future Systems and two other firms into a
(unbuilt) process that fit somewhere between an interview and a competition.
7
5. Bridge to parking Going in, Kaplicky and partner Amanda Levete were anything but a shoe-
1
structure A in. They had designed much, but built little, though their experience
6. Loading and service includes small designer boutiques in New York and London. They didn’t
1
7. Mall entry below have a “commercial” profile in a retailing industry ruled by last month’s
8. Selfridges
3
sales data. But they proved to have the shopping-culture gene. Levete and
9. Mall 2 Kaplicky prepared sketches and the evocative model to suggest possibili-
10. St. Martin’s Church ties for Radice. “He understood very well that the image could do what he
1
11. Parking structure wanted, which was to draw people from a 30-mile radius,” said Kaplicky.
A It wasn’t the building alone, he added, but the promise it signaled of what
would be found within.
The memorable exterior is not pure image. It works as well
5
because it follows the contours of the streets surrounding the site, which
dates from medieval times. “The challenge with the skin was to get the
curved profile done for a standard-cladding price,” explained Edward
Clark, the project manager for Arup. Since the exterior curved both ver-
N 0 30 FT. tically and horizontally, it couldn’t be conveniently broken down into
THIRD FLOOR 10 M. panels or “unscrolled” for conventional geometric engineering analysis.
The team eventually devised a means to spray concrete over metal lath in

P H OTO G R A P H Y : © N I C H O L A S K A N E / A R C A I D ( O P P O S I T E , TO P R I G H T ) ;
FUTURE SYSTEMS HAS BUILT AN

P E T E R D U R A N T / A R C B L U E ( O P P O S I T E , TO P L E F T A N D B OT TO M T W O )
ANATOMICAL TEASE: ARE THOSE
9 OPENINGS LIPS? IS THAT TRIM MASCARA?
one-story-high ribbons. The lath was framed to arms projecting from
9 scaffolding and hung permanently from brackets extending from beams
at the floor edge. Contractors sprayed waterproofing on top of the con-
crete, then attached an insulating layer, and a finish skin of synthetic
stucco painted what Kaplicky calls Yves Klein blue. The 15,000 anodized-
aluminum disks that cover the surface—giant sequins inspired by a
8 glittering, form-fitting Paco Rabanne dress—attach to fasteners anchored
in sockets cast into the sprayed-concrete substrate. Their shiny cheerful-
11
ness protects the painted surface and disguises substrate imperfections.
The curving shop windows and entrance openings at the base
also pose an anatomical tease: Are those openings lips? Eyes? Can that
10 trim be seen as lipstick? Mascara? The shopper doesn’t have to see the
spangled exterior as a female form or anything else. Its tactile appeal
N 0 50 FT.
SITE PLAN
bypasses the brain. From a distance, the fish-scaled skin looks as if it is
15 M.
stretched tautly over that swelling shape, rising tantalizingly out of the

238 Architectural Record 06.04

Selfridges may have norm. Instead, there
the massive and amor- is spatial fluidity, a
phous floor plates of techno-nightclub ambi-
the usual mall anchor ence dashed with color,
store (plans, opposite), and simple but artfully
but it eschews the rack- brash and ingratiating
choked, fluorescent-lit store fixtures.
city’s prosaic dirty-brick jumble. No sign screams Selfridges.
Conventional retailing wisdom deems daylight a no-no, since it
could lure buyers’ eyes away from the merchandise. But Kaplicky and
Levete proposed the skylighted, boomerang-shaped atrium from the
beginning, and Radice understood its significance: “Orientation,” said
Kaplicky. “It is a key aspect of the department store.” But also, “You see
other people shopping, and that’s important.”
While the firm designed layouts for the lowest-level interiors—
suspending molded-plastic space-age store fittings from the ceiling—most
of the interiors are by others: Eldridge Smerin, Stanton Williams, and Cibic
& Partners. Also, Selfridges rents a considerable amount of its store space to
brand concessionaires. It is a testament to the chain’s merchandising staff
that the store personality is so distinct and so consistent in spite of the
design diversity. It has traded in the conservative, polished-woodwork dig-
nity and the labyrinthine, rack-choked floors of the old-line department
store for a clean, crisp spaciousness. There’s an endless inventiveness in the
design of display racks and low tables, and in the theatrical use of lighting,

RADICE’S STRIPPED-DOWN DEPARTMENT

STORE APPEALS THROUGH ITS FRESH,
NERVY, INFORMAL YOUTHFULNESS.
which is far more appealing than the unvaried field of fluorescents that typ-
ifies the conventional department store. The large, unimpeded floor areas
tend to blur the borders between brand concessions.
Overall, the spirit is unabashedly contemporary. Radice stripped
down the department store to the degree that its appeal lies almost solely
in its fresh, nervy, informal youthfulness. There are lots of kicky blouses
and tons of T-shirts, but few ties and only name-brand business wear.
Even “classic” lines like Burberry and Ralph Lauren have gone light and
contemporary for this store. Furniture? Midcentury Modern, only. “It

P H OTO G R A P H Y : © N I C H O L A S K A N E / A R C A I D ( T H I S PA G E ) ; C O U R T E SY F U T U R E SYS T E M S ( O P P O S I T E )
interests the 18-year-old by not being stuffy,” says Kaplicky.
In the 19th century, department stores thrived as one of the few
destinations women were permitted to enter unaccompanied by a man.
Now men and women who work long hours have supplanted the ladies of
leisure, and they have short attention spans. Radice caters to these cus-
tomers by crafting the same kind of recognizable image that specialty
retailers have created. Those who strongly relate to the store’s contempo-
rary feel will probably find what they’re looking for. Radice’s scheme
leaves everyone else to competitors. That’s where the risk lies, and the
strategy—for all the hoopla—has yet to definitively succeed. In a tough
economy for retail, Selfridges was recently reported to outperform by
declining less than its competitors.
Radice himself has been lured to Marks & Spencer, where he is
expected to work his magic again. A John Pawson–designed furniture store
has opened. Other M&S projects are said to be in the works by Herzog & de
Meuron, Ian Ritchie, and John McAslan. The Selfridges chain was sold to
Wittington Investments of Canada, which cancelled Radice’s plans for a
store in Bristol by Toyo Ito and one by Terry Farrell in Newcastle. An exten-
sion of the London store by Foster and Partners is still planned, however.
There’s no major retail executive who has not paced Selfridges’ linoleum
floors, but the future of Radice’s trailblazing vision—and the role insightful
architecture can play in it—has yet to be assured. ■

Sources
Spray-on concrete: Shotcrete
Metal discs: James + Taylor For more information on this project,
Fiberglass, glass-reinforced go to Projects at
plaster: Diespeker www.architecturalrecord.com.
The theatrical heart of
the store is the atrium,
filled with the move-
ment of people (right)
and bathed in daylight
(opposite, top). The
atrium’s generous size
contravenes retail con-
vention by depriving
the store of selling
space, but it pays off by
offering unobstructed
views to other floors
(opposite, bottom),
where appealing dis-
plays can lure shoppers
onto the escalators.
The lacquered cladding
is fiberglass and glass-
fiber-reinforced plaster.
 PEDESTRIAN BRIDGES

Iconic Connections
ARCHITECTS ARE PRODUCING STUNNINGLY DESIGNED BRIDGES
WITH RADICALLY DIFFERENT SHAPES AND MATERIALS.

By Suzanne Stephens

O
ne of the most dazzling examples of architectural form-making

BU I LDING TYPES STUDY 834

today is without doubt the bridge. True, the bridges of Robert
Maillart have long been a staple of courses in the history of
Modern architecture, as has the Brooklyn Bridge, designed by
John and Washington Roebling—which Montgomery Schuyler praised in
record’s pages a hundred years ago. Yet those bridges so admired by
1. 2. architects were executed by engineers. Usually, when architects have been
involved in bridge design, their role has been to aestheticize the engineer-
ing, a tendency still current. However, many architects are often more
involved integrally in the design, bringing a sense of scale, proportion, and
elegance to spanning space. They collaborate closely with engineers or, in
the case of Santiago Calatrava, are engineers as well.
Pedestrian bridges in particular have lured the architect, as seven
ALJOSA BRA JDIC (4); NICK WOOD (5); JEFF GOLDBERG (6); NICK WOOD (7); ROBERT BARKER (8)
P H OTO G R A P H Y : © G O L L I N G S P H OTO G R A P H Y ( 1 ) ; T H O M A S J A N T S C H E R ( 2 ) ; A L A N K A R C H M E R ( 3 ) ;

of the eight bridges on the following pages attest. (The exception is a rail-
3. 4. road bridge.) As Hugh Pearman points out in the introduction to 30
Bridges, by Matthew Wells (Watson-Guptill, 2002), such bridges, intended
for people on foot, cycle, or wheelchair, are designed with an eye to the
particular experience of moving relatively slowly through space. This
kinesthetic experience makes the most of an architect’s contributions in
matters of detail, use of materials, and composition of elements.
The bridges shown here serve other functions, as well. In several
examples, bridges act as symbolic markers for an urban area undergoing
5. 6. rejuvenation or, in the case of Corning, as a gateway to a corporate complex.
In one case, in Rijeka, Croatia, the bridge plays a dual role as both a war
memorial and a link. Certain bridges, such as the Floral Street Bridge in
London, are almost hidden in their natural or urban contexts, which makes
their discovery all the more captivating.
Technical advances enable most of these bridges to be ever lighter
and more evanescent, notably those designed by Santiago Calatrava and
Wilkinson Eyre Architects. Others were assembled in unusual ways: The
7. 8. Webb Bridge in Melbourne, Australia, was floated on barges to its site, while
major portions of a bridge in Boudry, Switzerland, were flown in by heli-
1. Webb Bridge, Melbourne, Australia; 2. Passerelle on the Areuse, Boudry, copter. (For more on the arresting technical accomplishments of certain
Switzerland; 3. Puente de la Mujer, Puerto Madero, Buenos Aires; 4. Memorial bridges, see Building Science, page 279.)
Bridge, Rijeka, Croatia; 5. Floral Street Bridge, London, England; 6. Central This building type continues to proliferate, often resulting from
Street Bridge, Worcester, Massachusetts; 7. Sail Bridge, Swansea, Wales, United competitions, especially in Europe, and from an ever-increasing awareness
Kingdom; 8. Houghton Park Pedestrian Skyway, Corning, New York. of its power to attract attention to a site. After Calatrava’s first bridge in the
U.S. opens in Redding, California, in July, we will be able to see how suc-
For more information on these projects, go to Projects at cessfully this architectural form inspires additional arresting connections in
www.architecturalrecord.com. the American landscape. ■

06.04 Architectural Record 247

 Webb Bridge
Melbourne, Australia

1
DENTON CORKER MARSHALL AND ARTIST ROBERT OWEN SPARK UP THE
DOCKLANDS WITH A SERPENTINE PEDESTRIAN AND CYCLIST BRIDGE.
By Suzanne Stephens

Sometimes a bridge is as much a

Architect: Denton Corker Marshall destination as a passage. This seems
Architects (architects have policy of to be the case with the slinky, glim-
not naming team members) mering, steel-lattice Webb Bridge in
Artist: Robert Owen Melbourne, Australia. The pedestrian
Client: Mirvac Corporation/ bridge, designed by artist Robert
VicUrban (Melbourne’s urban Owen with architects Denton Corker
development agency) Marshall (DCM), obviously does not
Consultants: Arup—Peter Bowtell provide the most direct path from the
(structural); Arup Lighting––Paul Docklands on the north side of the
Beale (illumination) Yarra River to new residential devel-
opment taking shape on the south
Span: 361 feet side. But it enhances the transit
Cost: $1.75 million experience for bicyclists, pedestrians,
Completion date: November 2002 and the disabled.

Sources Program
Steel: Geelong Fabrications As part of the redevelopment of
Yarra’s Edge, former wharves and
docks near Melbourne’s central busi-
ness district, the Docklands Authority
required the developer of the resi-
dential complex, Mirvac, to contribute
1 percent of the budget to public art.
In this case, the money went for the
bridge. Robert Owen, an Australian
artist known for his mixed-media
installations, and Denton Corker
Marshall, architects of the Melbourne
Museum (RECORD, January 2001,
page 70), won a competition with a
writhing, tubular structure that incor-
porates two segments of the former
Webb Railroad Bridge. In addition, the
design offers access to the disabled
via a ramp linking higher and lower
elevations without a steep incline.
For more information on this project,
go to Projects at Solution
www.architecturalrecord.com. Owen’s and Denton Corker Marshall’s

248 Architectural Record 06.04

It doesn’t breathe, but the Webb
Bridge does come alive by night and
day, when its yawning mouth dis-
gorges visitors from the north side
of the Docklands to the south side.
From afar, the elliptical hoop-frame
bridge glints by day and glows by night;
the tubular web takes visitors from the
south entrance (opposite, top) to the
north side of the Yarra River.

design recalls an aboriginal eel trap,

except that it is fabricated with a
hooped steel frame tied by flat,
laser-cut steel straps rather than
woven sticks. DCM used computer-
aided three-dimensional modeling to
arrive at the 20-foot-high hoops of
various sizes and spacing, while the
Melbourne office of Arup engineers
came up with a structural solution
of steel box girders, cranked to allow
a curved form to take shape. The
box beams, covered with a concrete
slab and encased in perforated-
steel cladding, and the loopy,
weblike casing were fabricated on
two barges in Victoria Harbor, then
floated up the river and dropped
into place during a low tide. The
new structure was then linked with
the remaining concrete box girders
of the old railroad segments.
By day, the coiled bridge glints
in a reptilian fashion against the
Yarra River; by night, illumination
conceived by Arup Lighting causes
it to glitter like a silvery roped neck-
lace reflected against a dark mirror.
To create an eerily glowing atmos-
phere within the walkway, Arup

P H OTO G R A P H Y : © S H A N N O N M C G R AT H ( P R E V I O U S S P R E A D A N D T H I S PA G E , TO P ) ;
backlighted the floor with white
cold-cathode lights mounted under
the side edges. To keep the light
from being cast too high in the sky,
it installed pairs of 35-watt, PAR30,
metal-halide lights at the handrail
level that bounce up against the

G O L L I N G S P H OTO G R A P H Y ( B OT TO M A N D O P P O S I T E , T W O )
inner surface of the arches.

Commentary
A curving bridge shared by both
pedestrians and bicyclists suggests
that bicyclists may have to move
more slowly than they may like.
Nevertheless, the biomorphic shape
presents a symbolic marker for the
Docklands area, as well as a meeting
place, and a memorable connection
from one area to another. The col-
laboration between artist, architect,
and engineer clearly demonstrates
the vital public contribution of such
arranged marriages. ■
 Passerelle on the Areuse
Boudry, Switzerland

2
GD ARCHITECTES CREATES A SINUOUS LINK IN SECTION AND PLAN TO
SPAN A SMALL RIVER.
By Sarah Amelar

Architect: GD Architectes—Laurent This heavily wooded site in western

Geninasca, Bernard Delefortrie, Switzerland lies so far from paved
partners; Christine Perla, collaborator roads that architects Laurent
Consultants: Chablais et Poffet Geninasca and Bernard Delefortrie
(civil engineers) had to prefabricate the main compo-
nents of their footbridge and fly them
Span: 90 feet in by helicopter. Yet the gorge’s wild
Cost: $117,000 and remote character was exactly
Completion date: April 2002 what their firm, GD Architectes of
Neuchâtel, sought to maintain.
Sources
Metal fabrication: Steiner Program
Wood fabrication: Tschäppät Having won an invited competition
for the commission, GD Architectes
had to reconcile two very different
banks along the Areuse River in
Boudry: one formed by steep, craggy
rocks, and the other by a low, open
field. The hikers’ footbridge needed
to span about 90 feet and arc high
enough to accommodate rising water.

Solution
Working with engineer Laurent
Chablais of Chablais et Poffet, the
architects created a sinuous span
that narrows in width, from 11.5 to
3.8 feet, and constricts sectionally as
it approaches the more vertical bank.
The structure, a gentle S-curve in plan
and elevation, appears to emerge
organically from the forest. Finely slat-
ted with blades of dark-stained fir, the
bridge’s sides and top transparently
screen views, rather than obstruct
them. The parallel boards filter the
sun’s rays, much as the branches of
For more information on this project, trees cast dappled light. With the
go to Projects at delicacy of a cricket cage, the thin
www.architecturalrecord.com. wooden blades converge toward the

252 Architectural Record 06.04

 The curving form and converging
slats, accentuated by the effects of
perspective, give the bridge a gentle
dynamism that remains compatible
with the woodland setting and rush-
ing water below.

0 10 FT.
N
3 M.

narrower end, intensifying the sense

of curving momentum.
Deceptively simple, light, and
graceful in appearance, the load-
bearing, steel-framed structure—
essentially a square tube—performs
as a box girder, distributing bending
and torsion loads through a triangu-
lated system of wood and steel slats
on all four sides, ultimately transmit-
ting the forces to the ground at either
end. To accommodate temperature
variations affecting bridge length, the
span’s support remains fixed at its
wider end and mobile at the other,
where the loads would be lighter.
Given the variable section,
the footbridge was designed, says
Chablais, with “no two identical
pieces.” The act of assembling it—a
logistical challenge in itself—required
precise choreography. As the engi-
neer recalls, the process started with
moving two electrical lines out of the
way, followed by a Tamov Russian
helicopter delivering the structure’s
three major components on provi-
sional scaffolding. Then, miraculously,
the prefabricated footbridge was
P H OTO G R A P H Y : © T H O M A S J A N T S C H E R

assembled in a single day.

Commentary
The exacting calculations yielded a
structure remarkably harmonious
with the woodland gorge. Geninasca
and Delefortrie, who speak of “listen-
ing to a place,” joined forces with
Chablais to produce a bridge that
appears both surprising and com-
pletely integral to its natural setting. ■
 Puente de la Mujer
Puerto Madero, Buenos Aires

3
IN ARGENTINA’S CAPITAL, SANTIAGO CALATRAVA GRACEFULLY COMBINES A
PIVOTING SPAN WITH A SINGLE-PYLON SUSPENSION SYSTEM.
By Sarah Amelar

Architect/Engineer: Santiago Though many of Santiago

Calatrava Calatrava’s bridges—nearly 40 built
Client: Grupo González so far—feature inclined pylons or
Lighting: Santiago Calatrava arched forms, each example pushes
the limits of structural ingenuity and
Span: 525 feet (overall); sculptural grace in a different
335 feet (rotating section) way. Following his innovative,
Cost: $5 million harplike 1992 Alamillo Bridge in
Completion date: December 2001 Seville, Spain, for example, this
architect/engineer has repeatedly
Sources reinvented the possibilities for
Reinforced concrete: Galtieri asymmetrical, single-pylon, cable-
Constructions stayed suspension systems—most
Steel contractor: URSSA, Spain recently with his Sundial footbridge,
Mechanical tower: DEMAG/ under construction in Redding,
Mannesmann, Spain (supplier) California, and the pivoting Puente
de la Mujer at Puerto Madero in
Buenos Aires.

Program
In 1992, Buenos Aires launched
an ambitious and strategic city-
planning initiative to reclaim its
neglected waterfront—focusing
in part on the late-19th-century
port of Puerto Madero. The city’s
phased plan for this district encom-
passes the preservation of existing
warehouses and wharves; the cre-
ation of a mixed-use complex with
P H OTO G R A P H Y : © A L A N K A R C H M E R
museums, art galleries, and univer-
sity facilities; and the erection of
five new bridges, including the
Puente de la Mujer by Calatrava.
Here, he needed to span 525 feet Solution [RECORD, March 2002, page 92]—
across the Rio de la Plata, providing Although Calatrava has designed a the Puente de la Mujer marks his
a pedestrian crossing and linking wide range of kinetic structures in first integration of a rotating span
For more information on this project, plazas on either embankment while the past—including the Médoc with an inclined, singe-pylon sus-
go to Projects at retaining full access by water to a Swingbridge in Bordeaux, France, pension system. Set between fixed
www.architecturalrecord.com. nearby dock. and the Milwaukee Art Museum segments, the 335-foot-long cen-

254 Architectural Record 06.04

Time-lapse photography (this page)
shows the bridge’s potential for
multiple positions as it swings open.
The span provides a wood-planked
crossing for pedestrians (opposite).
 tral span of the Buenos Aires bridge
Steel pylon
can turn 90 degrees to allow tall
boat traffic to flow freely. Though
Galvanized cables Rotation mechanism
(built into concrete pier) it’s rarely necessary to open this
bridge—“maybe several times a
Steel approach span Steel deck Steel approach span
year,” according to the architect—
he says he designed the structure
“to rotate whenever it’s needed,
even every day.”
Dynamic in its sharp, arrowlike
precision, the pylon, holding taut
ELEVATION WITH BRIDGE CLOSED Cast-concrete elements
rungs of cables, reaches a height of
128 feet. Its great triangulating V-
form leads with a crescendo from
Steel pylon the axis of a major avenue, gestur-
ing toward the new, higher part of
the city on the opposite bank. In
Steel approach span Rotation mechanism Steel approach span contrast to Seville’s Alamillo Bridge,
(built into concrete pier)
where a stationary, canted-steel
vertical element contains concrete
to counterbalance the weight of
the deck (and eliminate the need for
a second set of stay cables), here,
0 30 FT. the steel pylon remains hollow,
ELEVATION WITH BRIDGE OPEN 10 M.
keeping it relatively light. Whereas
the cable-strung V creates an
obtuse angle in Seville, it forms an
acute angle in the Buenos Aires
structure, with concrete inserted as
counterweight just behind its apex.
The resulting silhouette, supporting
a wood-planked pedestrian walk-
way, appears remarkably minimal
and deceptively simple.

Commentary
Occupying a rare position in the
architectural world, Calatrava has
simultaneously performed as an
engineer who is enlightened and
an architect who builds bridges
(among other structures) prolifically.
In the process of revisiting this
spanning form, he has managed to
distill its essence, providing a clear
and poetic—yet fully functional—
essay on the meeting of static and
dynamic forces. ■

The bridge rests on cast-concrete

supports with a rotating mechanism
directly below the pylon’s base
(left). The V-form widens toward the
newer, higher part of the city (oppo-
site, bottom and top left). The span’s
completely open position (opposite,
top right) allows all river traffic—
including tall ships—to flow freely.
 Memorial Bridge
Rijeka, Croatia

4
3LHD ARCHITECTS CREATE A FORCEFULLY MINIMAL MONUMENT THAT
ALSO SERVES AS A FOOTBRIDGE.
By Sarah Amelar

Architect: 3LHD—Sasa Begovic, After violent conflict in the Balkans, tall, geometrically pure wall con- 1. Teak handrail
Marko Dabrovic, Silvije Novak, Tanja the Croatian town of Rijeka, some 30 fronts you, demanding that you 2. LED lighting
Grozdanic, principals in charge; Sinisa miles south of Trieste, held a competi- sidestep or penetrate it, single 1
3. Safety glass
4
Glusica, project architect; Koraljka tion for a structure both symbolically file. Boldly blocking views, the 2 4. Aluminum alloy
6
Brebric, Milan Strbac, designers charged and functionally efficient: slab prompts reflection on the 5. Steel
Client: City of Rijeka a monument to Croatian defenders, nature of a place psychologically 3 6. Rubber
Consultants: Jean Wolf, Zoran a memorial to an era of death and transformed. Visually, the monu- 7. Tar epoxy
Novacki, Dusan Srejic, Berislav Medic destruction that would also serve as ment’s stripped-down
(structural engineers); Osram— a footbridge. With a strikingly abstract Minimalism plays starkly against
4
Aljosa Sribar (lighting) yet contemplative scheme, the the backdrop of the old city.
4
Zagreb firm 3LHD won first prize. 3DLH gave the L-form
Span: 123 feet strong continuity by covering 7
Cost: $1.8 million Program both its legs in aluminum-alloy
4
Completion date: December 2001 As the city continues to evolve, this planks, offering a relatively non-
pedestrian bridge/memorial will skid surface with corrosion 5
4
Sources occupy an increasingly important resistance. The horizontal com- 4
Aluminum planks: Sapa, Sweden position, connecting Rijeka’s historic ponent, measuring 154 by 16 5
(decking) center with its former port, an area to feet and a mere 21.6 inches
Cast glass: Ciril Zlobec (prisms) the east slated to become a public thick, features a steel girder
park. The structure needed to span structure, while the vertical ele-
at least 123 feet across a canal. And ment relies on reinforced
a small plaza, or gathering area with concrete. Pilotis, also of reinforced echo the bridge form, while a scar-
benches, at the bridge’s east end also concrete, support the walkway, like strip of crushed brick and epoxy
comprised part of the program. But edged by panels of safety glass with resin, incised in the ground, extends
the greatest challenge lay in main- teak handrails. from the wall slot—symbolizing
taining a balance between the form’s The steel girder, fabricated in a Croatia’s blood-soaked earth.
utilitarian role as bridge and its com- local shipyard, arrived as a single
memorative qualities as monument. 150-ton piece on a barge especially Commentary
designed to sink down and release its While serving as a footbridge, this
Solution cargo with changing tides. So the very span is hardly one to hurry across. P H OTO G R A P H Y : © A L J O S A B R A J D I C

The architects devised an elegantly act of erecting the Memorial Bridge With its tall, imposing end wall, the
thin and distinctive L-configuration became a major event. structure encourages slow walks,
that equates the horizontal walking The architects enhanced the contemplative lingering and gather-
surface with the vertical slab (or structure’s floating effects and ings, day and night. 3LHD expanded
memorial) in both importance and created a mystical glow at night by the project’s scope by inviting artists
materials. The upright leg, rising 29.5 inserting LEDs under the handrails from other disciplines to continue
feet on the east bank of the canal, and behind cast-glass prisms in the exploring concepts of memorial,
For more information on this project, forms a wall with a slot just wide edges of the upright slab. patriotism, and war. From this bridge,
go to Projects at enough for the passage of one per- In the plaza, cantilevered, L- participating artists have already
www.architecturalrecord.com. son. Reminiscent of a tombstone, the shaped benches of steel and teak launched three films and a book. ■

258 Architectural Record 06.04

With abstract geometry and inven-
tive use of LED lighting, the bridge’s
character evolves over the day
(below) and into the night (above).
 Floral Street Bridge
London, England

5
WILKINSON EYRE HAS GIVEN COVENT GARDEN A SYMBOL OF ARTISTIC
ASPIRATION LINKING THE ROYAL BALLET SCHOOL AND THE ROYAL OPERA.
By Sara Hart

Architect: Wilkinson Eyre In spite of its diverse practice,

Architects—Jim Eyre (director in London-based Wilkinson Eyre
charge); Annette von Hagen (project Architects has solidified its reputa-
architect); Martin Knight tion internationally as a designer
Client: The Royal Ballet School of spectacular bridges. Its Floral
Engineers: Flint & Neill Partnership Street Bridge at Covent Garden is
(structural); Buro Happold (environ- a fraction of the scale of its award-
mental) winning Gateshead Millennium
Consultants: Speirs and Major Bridge spanning the Tyne River, but
(lighting); GIG Fassadenbau GmbH just as powerful.
(bridge subcontractor)
General contractor: Benson Limited Program
Because the bridge spans a mere
Span: 31 feet 30 feet across an unassuming
Cost: $1.42 million street in London’s Covent Garden,
Completion date: March 2003 one would assume that the pro-
gram would call for a modest
Sources functional footbridge connecting
Lighting: AcDc Lighting (LED units); the back sides of two buildings.
Design Architectural Lighting (low- But these aren’t just any buildings.
voltage downlights) Floral Street separates the Royal
Ballet School from the landmark
Royal Opera House. Ballet stu-
dents, faculty, and staff of the
school needed a direct link to the
stage of the opera house. The
client wanted a strong architectural
statement—one that would provide
an integrated link between the
buildings while giving Floral Street
a prominent identity. 1. Timber deck
P H OTO G R A P H Y : © N I C K W O O D

2. Aluminum sections
Solution 3. Structural spine
The openings between the buildings 4. Opaque glazing
are not aligned, making a straightfor-
ward orthogonal resolution seem like
4 1
a jerry-rigged collision between two
For more information on this project, architecturally distinct structures. 2 3
go to Projects at To avoid that trap, Wilkinson Eyre
www.architecturalrecord.com. conceived a deceptively simple, yet

260 Architectural Record 06.04

Created out of aluminum, glass,
and wood, the footbridge, in the
form of a concertina, twists from
one facade to the other, becoming
more sculpture than architecture.

immediately legible design. An alu-

minum spine beam supports a
timber deck and a series of square
aluminum hoops. Between the open-
ings, each hoop rotates 4 degrees
relative to its neighbor and shifts in
plan to accommodate the skewed
alignment of the facade openings.
The whole structure twists a quarter
turn from one end to the other.
A structure as pure as this
one created a challenge for the
lighting designers. With no soffit in
which fixtures could be mounted,
the lighting team had to find other
locations. The solution incorporates
LEDs in an L-shaped form attached
to the top corners of the hoops. As
a result, the bridge glows gently in
the darkness without blurring the
details of the delicate spiral.

Commentary
By taking the form of a concertina
and twisting it, Wilkinson Eyre
blended structural and architectural
geometries into a single unit.
Motion appears to be frozen into an
abstract, yet palpable, symbol for
the ballet school. It literally marks
the passage from the practice stu-
dios and classrooms to the stage,
which is why it’s informally know as
the “Bridge of Aspiration.” ■
 Central Street Bridge
Worcester, Massachusetts

6
CENTERBROOK ARCHITECTS CONQUERS GRIDLOCK AND CAPTURES THE
SPIRIT OF INVENTION IN A NEW RAILROAD BRIDGE.
By Nick Olsen

Architect: Centerbrook Architects Home to Robert Goddard, the

and Planners—William H. Grover, inventor of the rocket, the city of
FAIA, James C. Childress, principals Worcester, Massachusetts, also lays
in charge; Padraic H. Ryan, Roger U. claim to breakthroughs as diverse
Williams, AIA, Michelle R. Lafoe, as the Valentine’s Day card and the
Jonathan G. Parks, project team birth control pill. When faced with a
Client: Worcester Redevelopment problematic railroad crossing on
Authority and the City of Worcester, Central Street, its main vehicular
Mass. artery, the city sought a solution that
Consultants: Maquire Group would reflect its inventive character.
Connecticut (engineering); Warfel
Schrager Architectural Lighting Program
(lighting) In recent years, new developments
along Central Street, including a
Span: 178 feet civic center and hospital, have
Cost: $4.5 million (bridge only) brought additional congestion to
Completion date: October 1999 this busy main corridor, which con-
nects to Interstate 290. The prior
Sources on-grade railroad crossing created a
Brick: Endicott Clay Products traffic nightmare, effectively blocking
Stainless steel: The Henry Group access to the city with each passing
train. Following a master plan by Alex
Krieger of Chan Krieger & Associates,
Cambridge, Massachusetts, city offi-
cials decided to lower the road, raise
the tracks, and erect a railroad over-
pass. This was to be no ordinary proposals, some appeasingly tradi- creates a graduated screen for the
work of infrastructure, however. On tional in style, and each reflecting city that contrasts sharply with the

P H OTO G R A P H Y : © J E F F G O L D B E R G / E S TO
Krieger’s recommendation, local offi- Worcester’s many inventions. brick-clad reinforced concrete piers
cials enlisted Centerbrook to stretch Ultimately, a modern expression of a and the abutments emerging from
a limited budget and make a state- historic novelty prevailed: The winning surrounding earth berms. The steel
ment about Wooster’s rich past and bridge design takes its inspiration railings feature three different levels
promising future. from the calliope, a steam pipe organ of polish to vary their reflective sheen.
developed in the city in the 1850s. At night, a kaleidoscopic play of stop-
Solution The bridge, which spans 178 feet, lights and signs against the metal
The formal expression of such a features broad arches of gleaming heightens the effect, hinting at the
statement sparked contention in the stainless steel with radial supports energy of the city ahead. In fact, the
For more information on this project, community. Centerbrook architects accompanying the traditional safety railing structure was constructed on
go to Projects at William H. Grover and James C. railings. The steel matrix imitates the the flat ground of Greenville, Texas,
www.architecturalrecord.com. Childress designed more than eighty alignment of the calliope’s pipes and disassembled, and shipped piece-

262 Architectural Record 06.04

 At night, traffic lights and signage
bring the polished stainless steel to
life (below). The new bridge elimi-
nates a difficult on-grade crossing.

meal to Worcester—ironic for a bridge

so emblematic of its setting. Polished stainless-steel Stainless-steel 1/8" thick
railings 1 /8" thick

Commentary
Structural steel bridge Ironspot brick on p.i.p. concrete
Going beyond their charge to “deco-
rate a railroad bridge,” Grover and
Childress mined Worcester’s history
for a distinctly forward-looking design.
Departing from the monolithic pres-
ence of most railroad overpasses, the
bridge’s glittering steel web alludes
to the speed of transportation and 0 10 FT.
ELEVATION 3 M.
offers an appropriate gateway to a
city of innovation. ■

06.04 Architectural Record 263

 Sail Bridge
Swansea, Wales, United Kingdom

7
WILKINSON EYRE’S SAIL BRIDGE SIGNALS TO ALL COMERS THAT THIS
PORT CITY IS IN THE MIDST OF AN ENERGETIC ECONOMIC REVIVAL.
By Charles Linn, FAIA

Architect: Wilkinson Eyre

Architects—Jim Eyre, Martin Knight,
Ben Addy
Client: Welsh Development Agency
Consultants: Flint & Neill
Partnership (structural engineering)
General contractor: Balfour Beatty
Construction

Span: 465 feet

Cost: $5,300,000

P H OTO G R A P H Y : © N I C K W O O D ; √ D R AW I N G S : C O U R T E SY W I L K I N S O N E Y R E / F L I N T & N E I L L PA R T N E R S H I P
Completion date: June 2003

Sources
Cable-stayed, steel superstructure:
Rowecord Engineering

Swansea’s Port Tawe industrial Program should include a grand gesture,

waterfront district is not unlike The purpose of the WDA’s redevelop- something to turn the heads of
those in countless port cities ment project at Swansea was to prospective tenants and investors
throughout the world. Over the attract businesses at a reasonable and distinguish a particular place
past century its shipping and heavy price. Yet considering that the area from all others. For a city like
industries became redundant and was in need of costly improvements Swansea, which has a notable past,
fell into obsolescence. But this city to its infrastructure, one might think such a focal point might display
on the Bristol Channel in southwest the $5 million spent on the bridge some element of that tradition while
Wales is in some ways more fortu- would have been better put into sew- still showing that progress is the rule
nate than many others. The British ers and power lines.
government’s Welsh Development But those work pretty
Agency (WDA) master planned the much the same way
area and invested millions of pounds everywhere—they
in its redevelopment. It commis- don’t give one city a
sioned the Sail Bridge, a pedestrian substantial advantage
link spanning the Tawe River and over the next. That
connecting the new Port Tawe demands marketing.
For more information on this project, Innovation Village with Swansea’s A marketing
go to Projects at business district, as a symbol of plan intended to show N 0 100 FT.
30 M.
www.architecturalrecord.com. the area’s revival. off a redevelopment

264 Architectural Record 06.04

Want to tell the entire world your city is
making a comeback? Build yourself a
fantastic bridge in a key location, and
the public will flock to your shores.
 Appearing to levitate, the curved
bridge deck never touches the cable-
stay mast. Tuned mass dampers
prevent it from vibrating.

of the day, and the future is bright.

Now, what if that symbol could itself
be a crucial piece of infrastructure?

Solution
In Swansea, the grand gesture is
the Sail Bridge. Wilkinson Eyre, a
London-based architecture firm, was
selected for the project based on the
strength of its preliminary design, a
cable-stayed bridge that departs
from conventional designs in several
ways. Instead of creating a straight
point-to-point span across the river,
the deck curves gently around the
mast (see plan, page 264). The 131-
foot-tall tower leans toward the water
at a significant angle, counterbalanc-
ing the deck in much the same way
that a sailboat in the wind is kept
from overturning by the weight in its
keel. The bridge’s sculptural shape,
along with its semiradially fanned
stay cables, gives it its distinctive
maritime character.
The aluminum-topped deck
sections are slender steel box gird-
ers designed to resist the torsional
forces that develop as a result of
the placement of the cables on only
one side of the deck. Tuned mass
dampers keep the deck from vibrat-
ing under repetitive impact loads,
such as those that might occur
when joggers cross the bridge.

Commentary
Architects often wish for an algo-
rithm that can show clients that the
return on investment for an excep-
Mast welded from tional, but perhaps costly, structure
flat steel plates
will be much greater than some-
Steel stay cables
thing plain that can perform the job
equally well. Unfortunately, though
Cast-in-place
concrete pier the power of certain objects to
attract people is very real, at the
Aluminum deck on
steel box beams moment their return on investment
can’t be quantified. Clients and the
public are extremely lucky when
exceptional architects can persuade
them that even if a job is only a
footbridge, it will be there a long
0 50 FT.
time—and that the grand gesture is
ELEVATION OF SAIL BRIDGE
15 M. worth the money. ■

266 Architectural Record 06.04

 Houghton Park
Pedestrian Skyway
Corning, New York

8
HASCUP/LORENZINI REVIVES THE SPIRIT OF THE BAUHAUS WITH AN ENCLOSED
GLASS BRIDGE AND VISITORS’ PAVILION FOR THE CORNING COMPANY.
By Suzanne Stephens

Architect: Hascup/Lorenzini
Associates––George Hascup, principal
in charge of design; David Lorenzini,
principal and project architect; Robert
Manchester, Edsel Ramirez, designers;
Jeremiah Fairbank, CADD designer
Client: Corning Incorporated
Consultants: Delta Engineers (m/e/p
for skyway); Thomas Associates
(m/e/p for visitor’s pavilion);
SureSpan Group (structural for bridge
truss); Greg Dende (structural for
visitors’ pavilion); Amy Nettleton
(landscape design for skyway);
Trowbridge & Wolf (landscape
architects for parking pavilion)

Span: 200 feet

Cost: $3.5 million (skyway);
$2.2 million (visitors’ pavilion)
Completion date: May 2003

Sources
Steel bridge truss: SureSpan Group One doesn’t usually expect a cov- (1993 and 1999). As the latest vision and information display. Only
Glass and metal curtain wall: ered bridge to be made of glass. installment, Hascup/Lorenzini Steuben, renowned for its hand-
Clayton B. Obersheimer Unless it belongs to Corning Associates (now George Hascup blown-glass luxury objects, still has
Metal roofing and stainless-steel Incorporated: Glass has been Associates and David Lorenzini a factory at this location.
perforated ceiling panels: AccuFab integral to the architectural identity Associates) designed a pedestrian
of this company, located in upstate bridge and a visitors’ pavilion as Program
New York, since Harrison & part of the 5-acre Houghton Park, Because of the influx of museum P H OTO G R A P H Y : © R O B E R T B A R K E R

Abramovitz designed the Corning adjacent to the original complex. visitors in addition to Corning per-
Glass Center and Administrative Ironically, however, the glass sonnel, the company needed a
Building in 1950–53. Then Corning used in the bridge is not made by 200-foot-long bridge to take pedes-
bolstered the image with a glass Corning. The company once known trians from a 700-car garage and a
museum by Gunnar Birkerts (1976), as Corning Glass Works no longer parking lot for a 1,000 cars across
plus additional expansions by Smith- produces architectural glass, having the main boulevard, Poulteney
Miller Hawkinson (1992–2001), directed its interests to high-tech Street, into the Corning campus.
For more information on this project, and even a headquarters complex areas such as telecommunications Cold, icy weather half the year
go to Projects at across the Chemung River by Kevin components, ophthalmic products, called for an enclosed bridge. In
www.architecturalrecord.com. Roche John Dinkeloo and Associates and high-performance glass for tele- addition, the company wanted to

268 Architectural Record 06.04

 6

3
1
2

2
1
1. Entry stair
2. Elevator
5
3. Pedestrian bridge
4. Poulteney Street
0 10 FT. 5. Parking
PLAN AT 14.5 FEET N
3 M.
6. Office building

The glass canopy of the visitors’

pavilion (above) shelters a triangu-
lar glass structure attached to a
round concrete bathroom core. The
skyway bridge (opposite) cantilevers
at the north end (below), next to the
parking garage.
 have a 4,500-square-foot visitors’
pavilion to provide orientation,
service facilities, and a shuttle stop
for the Roche Dinkeloo–designed
headquarters. It turned to George
Hascup, a professor of architecture
at Cornell University, to provide the
clean, modern lines displayed in his
firm’s Lake Source Cooling Pump
Facility for the university (2002).

Solution
The 3,600-square-foot elongated
structure is composed of an
11-foot-square Vierendeel truss,
the largest size that could accom-
modate pedestrians yet still be
trucked from the factory in West
Vancouver, Canada. Horizontal
mullions of the curtain wall further
reinforce the long linear thrust of
the bridge, which is cantilevered in
true Bauhaus fashion at one end.
The interior of the 200-foot-long
walkway is made more dramatic
through the installation of shimmering,
perforated-steel screens on the ceil-
ing. A spine of crystal louvers running
down the middle refracts the light and
emphasizes the sense of movement.
“When I apprenticed with Kevin
Roche and John Dinkeloo,” Hascup
says, “I worked on the TWA Terminal
renovations at Kennedy Airport. Eero
Saarinen’s beautifully curved soffit in
the tubular link at TWA fostered the
sense of dynamism that I hoped to
The ceiling (above), on which slightly recreate here.”
bowed, perforated-steel screens and Even though the bridge is
a spine of crystal louvers are cooled and heated, the ceiling
mounted, adds to the luminous screens reduce heat gain, as do the
effect of the elevated bridge. The side panels of pale green glass with
long stair (right), with well-propor- a low-e coefficient. “The light green
tioned pipe rails and flat balustrade relates the bridge to other Corning
rails, creates a grand entrance at the buildings,” Hascup says.
south end, where the bridge con-
nects to Corning’s office buildings. Commentary
While this bridge is not the awe-
inspiring engineering feat of, say,
long-span bridges held together
with threads of steel, the pristine
and elegant manipulation of glass
concealing the Vierendeel truss
for the bridge is impressive. The
architectural contribution is partic-
ularly notable for its balance of
proportions in such elements as
the truss chords, gusset plates,
and mullions. ■

270 Architectural Record 06.04

 Architects Discover Bridge Design Can Be
the Perfect Union of Art and Science
ARCHITECTS AND ENGINEERS ARE TRUE COLLABORATORS IN THIS SUBSET OF ARCHITECTURE

By Sara Hart

M
ost bridges are seen as utilitarian instruments

B U I LD ING SCI ENC E

built to traverse an irregular terrain in a regular
way. So logical is this process that most bridges
can be diagrammed as a straight line announc-
ing the shortest distance between two points. Bridges are all
structure—form following function in the most literal way.
And yet, despite the obvious connections to engineering,
there are numerous examples that suggest bridge design is a
minor subset within architectural building types, as well.
When architect and engineer enter into a true collaboration,
where there is design parity, the results are often stunning, as
evidenced by this issue’s collection of outstanding pedes-
trian bridges (page 247). Two of them are examined more
closely here in order to demonstrate the connection
between art and science.

Arrested movement
“An enduring quality of many bridges is their sense of
arrested movement,” writes Jim Eyre, partner at London-
based Wilkinson Eyre Architects, a firm renowned for its
elegant bridges. “What can imply more movement than the The Floral Street Bridge in Covent Garden is a “twisted concertina” joining the Royal Ballet
graduated curves of an arch or a suspension catenary? The School with the Royal Opera House.
form of the structure is obviously important in this regard,
but the sense that all of the various elements are juxtaposed in a where close to the limits—is crucial, too.”
dynamic counterpoise—where balance is only just maintained, some- Wilkinson Eyre arrested movement artfully with its Floral
Street Bridge in London’s Covent Garden district (page 260). The bridge
connects the Royal Ballet School with the Royal Opera House. Ballet stu-
CON T I N U I N G E DU CAT I ON
dents training to attain a certain dynamic counterpoise of their own will
Use the following learning objectives to focus your study
use this walkway four floors above the street to get from the practice
while reading this month’s ARCHITECTURAL RECORD/
studio in the school to center stage at the opera house.
AIA Continuing Education article. To receive credit, turn
The bridge spans 31 feet, which is not particularly formidable
to page 286 and follow the instructions. Other opportuni-
as spans go. However, engineering gets more complicated when the
ties to receive Continuing Education credits in this issue include the
architecture deviates from the orthogonal, as it does dramatically in
following sponsored sections: “Window Installation,” sponsored by JELD-
this case, prompting the figurative description of the structure as a
WEN, page 311; “Italian Tile,” sponsored by the Italian Trade Commission,
“twisted concertina.”
page 317; and “New Tools for Specifying Architecturally Exposed Structural
The single structural component that governs all other elements
P H OTO G R A P H Y : © P E T E R C O O K / V I E W

Steel,” sponsored by the American Institute of Steel Construction (AISC),

in its construction is the box beam, also called the spine, which runs the
page 323.
distance between the two buildings and supports the deck surface,
L E AR N I N G O B J ECT I VE S the secondary structure, and all other loads. Generally referred to as a
After reading this article, you should be able to: “simple” beam, the eccentricities of the bridge enclosure required com-
1. Discuss unusual artistic design of recent bridge projects. plex 3D modeling to solve the issue of both the slope (about 2 feet) and
2. Explain the concept of arrested movement. the rotation of the frames (about 13 feet over the span). In the final solu-
3. Describe the construction of the box beam used in these bridges. tion, the engineers ended up with a beam that is anything but simple. It is
defined by thin rectangles at each end, which morph into an equilateral
For this story and more continuing education, as well as links to sources, white triangle at the center (see section, page 280).
papers, and products, go to www.architecturalrecord.com. The beam is an aluminum box made up of flat plates welded

06.04 Architectural Record 279

 The 31-foot bridge was
carefully crafted in a
Opaque float glass Powder-coated factory and delivered
aluminum frames
to the site in one piece.
Each powder-coated
aluminum and wood
fin is rotated about 4
degrees from the one
next to it. The entire
bridge is supported by a
single box beam (shown
in section at left).
B U I LD ING SCI ENC E

Spine beam Low-iron

clear glass

SECTION

The bridge is lit from

within (far right) by
LEDs mounted on
brackets in the upper
corners of the portals.

G I G FA S S A D E N B AU G M B H ( O P P O S I T E , TO P ) ; © E D M U N D S U M N E R ( O P P O S I T E , B OT TO M L E F T )
P H OTO G R A P H Y : © N I C K W O O D ( T H I S PA G E A N D O P P O S I T E , M I D D L E L E F T ) ; C O U R T E SY
onto extruded sections of varying geometry, which are bolted together allow thermal expansion and contraction, as well as ventilation. The glass
to form the complete beam. Before settling on aluminum, which is panels are fixed between the frames using structural silicone.
lightweight and durable, the design team considered other materials. Maintenance issues were a large concern, especially considering
Ian Firth, partner at the London-based Flint & Neill Partnership, the how integrated all the components are. Because the spine supports all the
engineers for the project, explains, “The materials had to be lightweight, elements, none of the frames is dependent on the one adjacent for sup-
because there was a limit to the loads that could bear on either building.
We considered stainless steel, which could have been thinner, because of “MATERIALS HAD TO BE LIGHTWEIGHT,
its higher strength and stiffness, and, therefore, as light as aluminum.” In BECAUSE THERE WAS A LIMIT TO THE LOADS
the end, they rejected stainless steel along with glass-fiber-reinforced
polymer, because the cost of both was considerably more than the cost THAT COULD BEAR ON EITHER BUILDING.”
of aluminum. port or stiffness. This means that individual frames or their glass sections
The beam, fabricated in Austria, was shipped to a factory in can be replaced if necessary without compromising the overall structure.
West London, where it was clad with powder-coated aluminum and tim- Early on in the design process, the team realized that achieving this oper-
ber frames, also called portals or fins, and then glazed with either opaque ational objective, as well as ensuring stability within the frames, required
float glass or low-iron clear glass. The square frames are attached to the that the beam be engineered to absorb live-load deflections in order to
aluminum beam by pairs of simple brackets on each side of the beam. minimize movement in the frames.
These brackets secure the bottom corners of the frame and have slots to Factory prefabrication had two advantages. First of all, the

280 Architectural Record 06.04

The box beam was
fabricated in Austria,
then shipped to a
factory in West London,
where the aluminum
and wood fins, or por-
tals, were attached
(left and below), then
glazed.
B U I LD ING SCI ENC E

details and the connections have the craftsmanship of fine cabinetry. May 2002, page 267] or in experimental ones, such as the project at the
Secondly, the assembled bridge could be delivered to the site in one museum. At this stage, the idea is emerging as a matrix of cables and
piece and installed in 2 hours, limiting disruption of a busy site in cen- struts equipped with stress gauges, which will record live loads and send

R E N D E R I N G S : C O U R T E SY W I L K I N S O N E Y R E A R C H I T E CT S
tral London. the signals to a computer, which will turn them into a pedestrian-
Arrested movement continues to be a theme for Wilkinson generated light show.
Eyre. In a project currently in development, the architects are designing
Bridge over neglected waters
A STRUCTURE HAS TENSEGRITY IF ITS The Webb Bridge in the Melbourne Docklands (page 248) has a lot in
ELEMENTS ARE BALANCED IN TENSION AND common with the Floral Street Bridge a half a world away—complex
geometry, off-site fabrication, the same Austrian bridge subcontractor,
COMPRESSION AND RESISTANT TO TORQUE. and a continuous box-beam structural system. It also required a serious
a bridge to span 116 feet across the giant hall of the National Building collaboration between the architect, Denton Corker Marshall (DCM),
Museum in Washington, D.C. The Advanced Geometry unit at Arup’s and the engineer, Arup. Furthermore, the bridge was to incorporate frag-
London office is engineering the bridge as a “tensegrity” structure. ments of an old railway bridge, abandoned in the River Yarra and no
Buckminster Fuller invented the term tensegrity to describe the struc- longer attached to the shore.
tural principle behind his geodesic domes; it’s the contraction of The Melbourne team also included artist Robert Owen, whose
tensional integrity. A structure has tensegrity if its elements are balanced idea for the bridge was inspired by an eel-fishing trap, a reference to the
in tension and compression and resistant to torque. Tensegrity structures type used by Aboriginal people who lived at the site 200 years ago. As with
reappear from time to time, either in commercial applications [record, Floral Street, the design process began with 3D computer modeling of the

282 Architectural Record 06.04

 Wilkinson Eyre and stage, it will be a
Arup are developing a tensegrity structure,
pedestrian bridge to the physical embodi-
span the 116 feet ment of Buckminster
across the Great Hall Fuller’s theory of con-
at the National tinuous tension and
Building Museum in discontinuous com-
Washington, D.C. Still pression, which results
in the conceptual in tensional integrity.

basic concept—in this case, the artist’s sketch.

The new bridge is constructed of a concrete ramp sitting atop a
steel box beam, which, in turn, rests over the existing railway bridge
remains. This main structure is then enclosed by an elaborate latticework
of curved, flat, laser-cut strips of steel. DCM developed the geometry
using parametric modeling to determine the size and spacing of the straps
and hoops that made up the open-weave design. Parametric base models
are defined by simple physical parameters; the designer can change the
parameters and the model updates itself automatically. This allowed the
architects to explore multiple iterations rapidly until the desired effect was
achieved. The data was simultaneously entered into a CAD model, which
was used to locate the hoops along the ramp’s path. This tool immediately
confirmed clearances both internally over the ramp and externally over
the high-tide water level.
The geometry of the bridge, a hairpin ramp of varying width
twisting and turning in three-dimensions, enclosed with steel hoops and
curved cladding of varying radii and spacings, meant that almost every
component was unique. The collaboration soon expanded to include a
shop-drawing specialist and a fabricator, as it became obvious that their

06.04 Architectural Record 283

 Mesh net made of hot-dip Metal-framed, aluminum-clad
galvanized hoops of varying size upstand 3 feet high

New concrete
surface on bridge

Existing bridge

New steel
B U I LD ING SCI ENC E

framing supported
by bridge structure

Existing

P H OTO G R A P H Y : © S H A N N O N M C G R AT H , E XC E P T G O L L I N G S P H OTO G R A P H Y ( A B O V E LO W E R R I G H T )
Freestanding circular steel hoops on existing bridge New
SECTION
Randomly laid steel straps
Perforated-steel-plate cladding around new steel box girder

The Webb Bridge is open-weave form of

constructed of a steel hoops connected
concrete ramp in an by flat steel straps.

expertise would be needed from the beginning.

All team members reviewed and developed the documents
through each stage, to ensure the scheme stayed within budget without
diluting the design objectives. In this way, the cost of what Australians call
“design-development risk” was eliminated from the process. At the same
time, the team made sure the steel supplier understood the design’s com-
plexity well enough to keep prices within an acceptable range.
The 3D CAD design model was developed by DCM and passed
to the fabricator and his shop-drawing specialist, Precision Design. With
the close involvement of Peter Bowtell, principal in Arup’s Melbourne
office, the structural components were developed in three dimensions.
These consisted of the large steel box girders and primary substructure,
and later the hoops, straps, and cladding supports. At all times, the com-
ponents were reviewed against the architect’s CAD model to ensure the
design envelope was not compromised and the design integrity was main-
tained. Individual shop drawings were created in 3D CAD and used to
drive CAD-based plasma cutters.
As with Floral Street, prefabrication was appealing. The steel

284 Architectural Record 06.04

 three-dimensional jigsaw puzzle on three con-
nected barges. Much of the straps and all of the
cladding sheets were left off at this stage.
Very early one morning during a
high spring tide, the barges were slowly
towed to the site by a tugboat. Because the
bridge weighed hundreds of tons, coordina-
tion and precision became imperative. The
barges were maneuvered into place, and as
the tide dropped, the bridge lowered into
position and rested on the end of the existing
bridge, pier, and quayside. The window of
The Webb Bridge was towed on a barge to the site on the River Yarra. opportunity was very small, with only a few
hours to complete the process. If they hadn’t
B U I LD ING SCI ENC E

fabricator suggested towing the completely assembled bridge into posi- secured the bridge in place that day or the next, the tides would be too
tion over water. This saved significant money on the anticipated low for the next several weeks. The extensive lighting facilities, steel
floating-cranage costs and site-assembly time. As the project architect cladding panels, handrails, concrete deck, and the remainder of the
recalls, “It was this joint sharing of ideas and approaches that meant that straps were subsequently installed in a few days.
everyone ‘won’ in the process.” Bridge design offers the architect a course in craftsmanship. As
Rather than ship the assembled bridge across Port Philip Bay shown here, detailing bridges involves risk. Expectations of accuracy are
from Geelong to Melbourne (47 miles), the design team, at the suggestion higher than in many building types, and as a result, commonly accepted
of the fabricator, decided to assemble the components at an empty quay tolerances shrink out of view. Technological and computational
within the Melbourne Docklands. The box girders, outrigger substruc- advances notwithstanding, bridges offer architects the experience of
ture, ramp deck, hoops, and cladding supports were assembled as a giant raw discipline. ■

A I A / ARCH I TECTURAL RECOR D a. high craftsmanship of the connections and details

CONT INU ING EDUCAT ION b. delivery to the site in one piece
c. less disruption if a busy site
d. avoid taxation by shipping from another country
INSTRUCTIONS
◆ Read the article “Architects Discover Bridge Design Can Be the Perfect 6. Buckminster Fuller’s term “tensegrity” is described as which?
Union of Art and Science” using the learning objectives provided. a. a combination of tension and integrity
b. elements balanced in tension and compression
◆ Complete the questions below, then fill in your answers (page 384).
c. resistance to torque and compression
◆ Fill out and submit the AIA/CES education reporting form (page d. elements balanced in tension and compression and resistant to torque
384) or download the form at www.architecturalrecord.com
to receive one AIA learning unit. 7. Which of these elements is true for the Webb Bridge, but not for the
Floral Street Bridge?
QUESTIONS a. it began with 3D computer modeling
1. Bridges are usually described in all of the following ways except which? b. it was prefabricated in Austria
a. function following form c. it incorporates fragments of an old abandoned bridge
b. a straight line between two points d. they had to wait several weeks to secure the bridge into place
c. a way to traverse an irregular terrain
8. What tool allowed the architect of the Webb Bridge to explore multiple
d. form following function
iterations rapidly?
2. Which is the best description of Wilkinson Eyre’s arrested movement? a. 3D CAD modeling
a. the graduated curves of an arch b. parametric modeling
b. balance that is only just maintained c. laser cutting
c. ballet students training to attain counterpoise d. CAD-based plasma cutters
d. a twisted concertina
9. The “design-development risk” factor was eliminated from the Webb Bridge
3. The deciding factor in selecting aluminum over stainless steel and glass- by what means?
fiber-reinforced polymer for the Floral Street Bridge box beam was which? a. a shop drawing specialist and a fabricator were added to the design team
a. light weight b. the team made sure the steel supplier understood the design’s complexity
P H OTO G R A P H Y : © S H A N N O N M C G R AT H
b. high strength c. all the team members reviewed and developed the documents through
c. thinness each stage
d. low cost d. shop drawings were created in 3D CAD
4. The aluminum beam was designed to absorb live-load deflections for which 10. After the Webb Bridge was towed to the site, which of the following
reasons? happened?
a. for easy replacement of the glass sections a. it was raised into place as the tide came in
b. to minimize movements in the frames b. it was lowered into place as the tide went out
c. to keep adjacent frames stiff c. the bridge was positioned onto a new bridge pier
d. to keep the glass sections from breaking d. they had to wait several weeks to secure the bridge into place
5. The advantages of prefabrication of the Floral Street Bridge are all of the
following except which?

286 Architectural Record 06.04

 A R C H I T E C T U R A L T E C H N O L O GY
Mass Transportation to Get Sleek and Daring
ARCHITECTS ARE BEING CHALLENGED TO PRODUCE TRANSIT SHELTERS AND STATIONS THAT ARE AS
INNOVATIVE AS THE NEW AND IMPROVED SYSTEMS OF MOVING PEOPLE AROUND THE COUNTRY

By Barbara Knecht

F E AT U R E
S
trangling traffic notwithstanding, cars are still the preferred commuters drive to work alone.
mode of transportation, especially in the U.S. And why not? Everyone is aware of the downside to this convenience.
Roadways are, for the most part, smooth and ubiquitous. Besides the rising cost of gasoline, traffic congestion is a huge drain on
Internet, telephone, and movies are available at the touch of a both productivity and energy conservation. The average urban rush-
button from the comfort of your zone-climate-controlled seat. Even for hour driver spends about 62 hours a year stuck in traffic, which
many commuters who take public transit from the suburbs into the city, translates to 5.7 billion gallons of wasted fuel and a cost to the economy
an automobile is required to deliver them to the bus or rail station. of $70 billion dollars annually.
Americans, among citizens of the car-dependent nations, are particu- And yet, innovative technology is emerging that promises to
larly wedded to the convenience of driving, as evidenced by U.S. make surface transport on roadways and railways more energy-efficient,
Department of Transportation statistics, which state that 89 percent of reliable, and comfortable—from smoother rides on faster trains to sleeker
buses with smart systems to keep them running on time, attractive alter-
Frequent architectural record contributor Barbara Knecht is an architect natives to automotive transportation. The architecture of shelters and
and writer based in New York and Boston. stations, which supports rail and road transit, is just starting to feed off
R E N D E R I N G : C O U R T E SY S A M Y N A N D PA R T N E R S

Belgian architects Samyn and Partners used a combination of fiberglass and steel fabrics to create canopies for the elevated Erasme Metro station in
Brussels, which opened in September 2003.

06.04 Architectural Record 289

 1. Louvers and glazing
2. Grate
3. Ductal rain trough
1
4. Ductal canopy
5. Glazing 2
6. Outriggers
7. Ductal brackets
8. Ductal column

3
4

5
6

CANOPY MODULE

The Calgary-based
CPV Group designed
a bold station for an
expanded light-rail sys-
tem in the Shawnessy
suburb of Calgary. A
series of concrete-
shell canopies provide
platform coverage.
Each canopy section is
naturally lit through the
louvered clerestories
and enhanced with
indirect lighting. The
modular forms respond
to the modest scale
and rhythm of the
nearby residential
neighborhoods.

290 Architectural Record 06.04

 A R C H I T E C T U R A L T E C H N O L O GY
F E AT U R E
The CPV Group chose a the high-tech momentum that seems to be driv- the train .39 to 3.93 inches above the guideway. Electric power supplied to
palette of highly durable ing the current surge in advanced applications. the coils alternates constantly, changing the polarity of the magnets, which
and maintenance-free pulls the front of the train and pushes it from the back along the guideway.
materials, including Riding (above) the rails The route between Pudong Airport and Shanghai opened for
stainless and Light- and heavy-rail transit remains tremen- commercial service in December 2003 and is the fastest railway system in
galvanized metals. dously effective for frequent service in heavily commercial operation in the world. Designed by Berlin-based Transrapid
traveled corridors. Intercity high-speed links International (www.transrapid.de), the train levitates 1⁄2 inch above its
have been contemplated in states as far-flung as California, Nevada, Florida, guideway, and at speeds typically reaching 267 mph, it makes the 19-mile
P H OTO G R A P H Y : © K E V I N N G U Y E N - C A O ( T H I S PA G E A N D O P P O S I T E ) ;

and Ohio, and are heavily used in Europe, China, and Japan. Denver and trip in 8 minutes. Unlike a conventional steel-wheeled train, a Maglev
Dallas, Sacramento and St. Louis, among others, have opened successful train doesn’t use fossil fuels. A Japanese system in development is
light-rail surface systems within the past 10 years. Houston opened one at designed to use super-cooled, super-conducting electromagnets, which
the beginning of this year. San Juan, Puerto Rico, will open a heavy-rail will save more energy than even the German system.
D R AW I N G S : C O U R T E SY T H E C P V G R O U P ( O P P O S I T E )

elevated and underground system this year, and upgrading and expansion New and expanding rail systems are offering architects an oppor-
continue on existing systems in New York, Chicago, and Boston. tunity to experiment with new materials in the design of stations and
However, current innovations in rail technology are focused on shelters. In Calgary, Canada, CPV Group architects designed a station with
speed. For instance, magnetic levitation, or Maglev, is a system in which thin-shell concrete canopies. Enzo Vicenzino, CPV principal, notes, “The
trains conquer friction’s drag with electromagnetic propulsion. The fre- community wanted a design that would announce the entrance to its
quency, intensity, and direction of the electric current controls the train’s neighborhood and be distinguishable from the more traditional LRT sta-
movement. One type of Maglev system, developed in Germany, is already tions. I was certain that the canopies needed to be a thin-shell concrete,
in use in Shanghai, China, and another version is in development in and the local supplier recommended a newly developed abrasion-resistant,
Japan. With a top speed of 300 miles per hour, these trains are terrific for high-performance concrete material called Ductal (www.ductal.com),
travel between neighboring cities, especially as an alternative to short- which has tensile as well as compressive strength.”
distance air travel. In Brussels, Samyn and Partners used a combination of fiber-
The three components of the system include magnetic coils, glass and steel fabrics for the equally dramatic elevated Erasme Metro
which line a guideway (comparable to a traditional track); guiding mag- station that opened in September 2003. “This is the new terminus station
nets on the undercarriage of the train; and an electric power source. The of a major light-rail system,” explained design partner Philippe Samyn.
magnetic coils along the guideway repel the train magnets and levitate “The client was eager to see this station serve as a city gate as well as

06.04 Architectural Record 291

A R C H I T E C T U R A L T E C H N O L O GY
F E AT U R E

The Erasme Metro formed into postten- heretofore used only

station in Brussels, by sioned “saddles” for sand separation in
Samyn and Partners, is attached to arched quarries. It is durable
a combination of fiber- steel frames. The archi- and provides natural
glass and steel fabrics. tects chose a ventilation.
The fiberglass fabric is stainless-steel mesh,

linking a major hospital to the city center. It also says, ‘Look at us! Use Where the rubber hits the road
public transport!’ ” Roads, too, are a fixed system that can carry individuals virtually any-
The pedestrian approach, entrance hall, and the central platform where. Believing we can pave our way out of the congestion and gridlock,
are covered by a series of posttensioned fabric “saddles” attached to arched we have developed a high tolerance for road expansion, one that is much
steel frames. The fabric was required to resist wind loads and shield pas- higher than our tolerance for rail expansion.

C O U R T E SY S A M Y N A N D PA R T N E R S ( TO P R I G H T ) ; © L A R R Y H A N N A P H OTO G R A P H Y ( B OT TO M L E F T )
sengers from the rain. The fiberglass fabric, with a life expectancy of 30 to Bus Rapid Transit (BRT), sometimes called a surface subway, is
40 years, provides a temperate light during the day and glows at night. The not new. From Curitiba, Brazil, to Ottawa, Canada, communities have
stainless-steel mesh of the side walls is a product employed for sand sepa- invested in highly successful roadway transit systems that use buses, sep-
ration in quarries. Used for the first time in an architectural application, it arated in dedicated lanes, which have limited stops at identifiable stations,
is extremely durable, breaks the wind, sheds rain, and provides natural where fare is collected prior to boarding and service is frequent. Often

P H OTO G R A P H Y : © M A R I E - F R A N Ç O I S E P L I S S A R T ( TO P L E F T A N D LO W E R R I G H T ) ;
ventilation. According to Samyn, the Ministry of the Brussels Capital cast as a substitute for light rail, it has characteristics of both bus and rail.
Region, Administration of Equipment and Transport, while understand- Although it has dedicated lanes, they may either be physically separate or
ably conservative, was very supportive of the use of fabric. instead may include right-turning or emergency or other buses for some
sections of the route. When the BRT bus shares the public road, it often
communicates directly with the traffic signal system to get priority at
intersections. Deviations from the route or changes are easier to imple-
ment with BRT than with fixed rails. New technology will further
distinguish it from its conventional rail and bus siblings.
This summer, Las Vegas will be the inaugural U.S. site for the
Civis bus rapid-transit vehicle manufactured by Irisbus of France. Called
MAX by its owner and operator, the Regional Transportation
Commission of Southern Nevada, it will have all the features of other
BRT systems except the driver is aided by an optical guidance system,
which uses cameras to follow painted lines in the road. For a vehicle in a
dedicated lane, the guidance system keeps the bus on its course. There is
a driver who can take over controls with the touch of the hand. Because
MAX will share the road with other vehicles, the optical guidance system
will be used for precise docking at each station. MAX will stop each time
at the same place in front of the whimsical new shelters designed by
Assemblage Studio Architects of Las Vegas.
Assemblage Studio Architects of Las Vegas designed a whimsical shelter for Looking more like a monorail or a bullet train than a workaday
a state-of-the-art bus system to be introduced this summer. bus, the Civis bus is typical of new-style buses that aim for sleeker looks

292 Architectural Record 06.04

 Zoom In
A R C H I T E C T U R A L T E C H N O L O GY

Bahá’í Mother Temple,

Santiago, Chile

By Deborah Snoonian, P.E.

When Toronto firm Hariri Pontarini Architects won a competi-

tion for a 21,000-square-foot place of worship in South
America, it turned to Gehry Technologies to help it achieve a Designers “panelized” the surface of each “leaf” to minimize the
form that was both highly organic and buildable. number of stone slabs that need to be cut to conform to its curves
Leaders of the Bahá’í Faith, which has five million mem- (above). Circular in plan, the temple will seat 600 people (below).
bers worldwide, wanted a nine-sided dome structure with
nine entrances to signify openness to all peoples, says prin-
cipal Siamak Hariri, himself a member of the faith. Hariri and

I M A G E S : C O U R T E SY H A R I R I P O N TA R I N I A R C H I T E CT S
his team developed what he calls “a glowing temple of light”
clad with nine graceful, draped “leaves” of translucent
alabaster. “We sought symmetry in the form,” notes Hariri,
not only to signify the faith’s ideals of equality and harmony,
but also for pragmatic reasons: Symmetrical structures are
generally cheaper to build and easier to reinforce structurally
(the temple is located in a seismic zone).
Achieving symmetry meant manipulating numerous physi-
cal and digital models. With engineers Carruthers and
Wallace, the designers used Maya software to model the
“leaves,” then spent a week with Gehry Technologies in
California refining them and analyzing the structure in CATIA.
“It was exciting. We came away with a richer understanding
of using technology to achieve design goals,” says Hariri of
working with the Gehry team. The temple will open in 2007. ■

A structural system that mimics Mother Nature

Nine identical curved
Roof tie ring panels, each anchored to
a reinforced-concrete
Steel perimeter base, enclose the Bahá’í
member
Temple. Structurally, they
are supported by central
Tapered vertical spines—like real
steel spine
leaves—from which
Mezzanine
tie ring branch the secondary
Secondary
bracing element steel supports that bear
the load of the stone exte-
Steel truss rior and wood interior. Tie
bracing element
rings at the roof, mezza-
nine, and foundation levels
Reinforced-
concrete base Foundation provide lateral stability.
tie ring