Midtown Blogger/Manhattan Valley Follies: Arch Daily- Accent on Rafael Vinoly

Rafael Viñoly’s Structural Experiment at Park Avenue Armory

Courtesy of Artvest Partners / Rafael Viñoly Architects

New York’s Park Avenue Armory, originally built in 1861 for the Seventh Regiment of the National Guard and restored by Herzog & de Meuron in 2007, is about to be temporarily taken over by Rafael Viñoly. On April 30th 2014 Artvest Partners will launch Spring Masters New York, “a fair for art produced between antiquity and the 20th century, which corresponds with Christie’s and Sotheby’s signature Impressionism and modern art auctions”. Viñoly’s hexagonal grid of exhibition rooms will fill the 55,000 square foot Drill Hall in an attempt to break with the monotony of the rectangular grid format.

Five Fantastic Façades

In case you missed it, we’re re-publishing this popular post for your material pleasure. Enjoy!
To celebrate the recent launch of ArchDaily Materials we’ve brought together five projects with fantastic façades, from Viñoly’s Dolby Regeneration Medicine Building in San Francisco to Holzer Kobler’s PALÄON in Schöningen, Germany. A building’s envelope is often people’s first impression and, in recent years, have been one of the focuses of innovation in the design and construction industry. The projects we’ve collated show a glimpse at what’s possible with façades and wall finishings.

Seven Architectural Sins Committed Around the World

20 Fenchurch Street, or the “Walkie Talkie” / Rafael Viñoly Architects.. Image © Flickr User pembridge2

With the recent news that Rafael Viñoly Architects’ 20 Fenchurch Street (or the “Walkie Talkie“) in London has been producing an unusually hot solar reflection, dubbed the “Death Ray,” we’ve put together a list of seven architectural blunders around the world – from the worrying to the downright absurd.

Reflection from the “Walkie Talkie” Making Cars Melt

The big story today is about a new development in London’s financial district dubbed The Walkie Talkie due to its unusual shape.
The combination of its shape (which is curved), its placement, and its height has apparently created a tremendously intense reflection and beam of light that creates extraordinary heat on a nearby block, and one Jaguar owner says his car literally suffered melting damage from having been parked in that spot.

Ray and Dagmar Dolby Regeneration Medicine Building / Rafael Viñoly Architects

Architects: Rafael Viñoly Architects
Location: 505 Parnassus Avenue, University of California San Francisco Medical Center : Dentistry, San Francisco, CA 94131, USA
Architect In Charge: Rafael Viñoly
Electrical Engineer : Cupertino Electric, Inc
Landscape Architect : Carducci & Associates, Inc
Civil Engineer: Sandis  Cahd Browning
Structural Engineer (Design): Nabih Youssef Associates Michael Gemmill
Structural Engineer (Of Record): Forell/Elsesser Engineers, Inc
Area: 6364.0 sqm
Year: 2010
Photographs: Bruce Damonte

Center for Care and Discovery, University of Chicago Medicine / Rafael Viñoly Architects

Architects: Rafael Viñoly Architects
Location: South Maryland Avenue, Chicago, IL, USA
Consulting Architects: Cannon Design
Mep/Fp Engineers: Affiliated Engineers and Primera Engineers
Structural Engineer: Thornton Tomasetti
Area: 111484.0 sqm
Year: 2013
Photographs: Tom Rossiter

firstsite / Rafael Viñoly Architects

Architect: Rafael Viñoly Architects
Location: Colchester, England
Project Director: Jackson Coles
Construction and Cost Management: Mace, London
Structural Engineer: Adams Kara Taylor, London
Mechanical/HVAC/Electrical Engineer: Arup, London
Project Area: 40,900 sqm
Project Year: 2011
Photographs: Will Pryce

University of Oxford Mathematical Institute / RVA

: RVA

Rafael Viñoly Architects have just announced the official groundbreaking of their Math Institute at the University of Oxford. Prior to the project, Oxford’s mathematics department was scattered across the University in different locations. RVA was commissioned to provide a design solution that provided a centralized building for the entire department, to create a balanced environment for academics’ need for privacy with the increasing importance of interdisciplinary collaboration.

More about the design after the break.

Clyde F. Barker Penn Transplant House / Rafael Viñoly Architects

The Clyde F. Barker Penn Transplant House designed by Rafael Vinoly Architects is the latest project in the ongoing partnership between PENN Medicine and Rafael Vinoly Architects. Today officially marks the completion of the transplant house, which is named after the physician who performed the first kidney transplant at the University of Pennsylvania in 1966. The building will offer comfortable, convenient accommodations in a supportive community setting and at a nominal cost.
Architects: Rafael Vinoly Architects
Location: Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA
Renderings: Courtesy of RVA
Photographs: Ty Cole

What Comes After Postmodern Architecture? A Conversation with Rafael Viñoly

1280758394-domino-night-mod05-999x401 — The New Domino / Rafael Viñoly Architects

The recent building boom in New York City has radically altered the look and feel of the city and added considerably to the list of starchitects currently reshaping New York’s iconic skyline. It has also helped redefine boundaries of the eclectic pluralism of postmodern architecture.
How do we label the current architectural style of the last decade? Is there a post-postmodern? Join architect Rafael Viñoly and Julie Iovine, executive editor of The Architect’s Newspaper, for a conversation about the present and future of architecture in New York.
The conversation will take place Tuesday, April 5 at 6:30 pm. Reservations required: 917-492-3395 or e-mail programs@mcny.org. The price is $6 for museum members; $8 seniors and students; $12 non-members. Thanks to the Museum of the City of New York, the price will also be $6 when you mention ArchDaily! For more information, click here.

The New Domino / Rafael Viñoly Architects

Aug 2 -
Karen Cilento -
Architecture News Residential Urban Planning

Domino_Night_Mod05 — © Rafael Vinoly Architects

Earlier last week, the City Council of New York City decided to move forward with Rafael Viñoly Architects’ master plan for the New Domino in Brooklyn. While the historic sugar refinery complex, with its familiar yellow signage, has achieved landmark status and will be preserved, the 11.2 acre-site will be outfitted with 2,200 new apartments – 660 of which are affordable housing – and four acres of public park space including a riverfront esplanade along the East River in Brooklyn.
More about the master plan after the break.

City Center Las Vegas: 6 LEED Gold certifications

CityCenter Crystals Veer Aria and Harmon

With over 16,797,000 square feet (1,560,500 m2), the recently opened City Center Las Vegas has become one of the largest LEED certified projects in the world. The project included some of the world’s largest firms: Pelli Clarke Pelli, Kohn Pedersen Fox, Helmut Jahn, RV Architecture LLC led by Rafael Viñoly, Foster + Partners, Studio Daniel Libeskind, David Rockwell and Rockwell Group, and Gensler.

Inside the complex we find several towers, with hotels, casino and residences, from which the Mandarin Oriental, ARIA Resort’s hotel tower, ARIA’s convention center and theater, Vdara Hotel & Spa, Crystals and Veer towers have received LEED Gold certification.
More photos and information about each building after the break.

East Wing for Cleveland Musuem of Art / RVA

Critically acclaimed international practice Rafael Vinoly Architects recently announced their addition to the Cleveland Musuem of Art (CMA) in Ohio. The museum is currently undergoing a multi-phase renovation and expansion project. RVA’s 139,200 sq foot East Wing addition, which unites the historic 1916 Beaux-Arts building and the 1971 Marcel Breuer addition, is the first of three planned wings.
More about the expansion after the break.