Akron Street has been selected to receive the 2011 Harleston Parker Medal
This annual honor is awarded by the BSA and the City of Boston. The award seeks to recognize "the single most beautiful building or other structure" built in the metropolitan area in the past 10 years.
Design Progress on New Dartmouth College Building
Schematic Design continues on the new 120,000sf building for Health Care Delivery and Social Sciences at Dartmouth College in Hanover, NH. The design aims to create an iconic complex that is focused on sustainability, encourages open collaboration, and establishes a dynamic hub at the northern edge of campus.
The building is scheduled for completion in 2015.
Asian Cultural Complex Taking Shape
Construction of the 140,000sm Asain Cultural Complex in Gwangju, Korea continues to make progress. It is scheduled for completion in 2014.
Accra Hotel Design Progress
Schematic Design continues on the new 5-star luxury hotel in Accra, Ghana. The hotel will have 261 rooms, including 50 luxury suites, and 10 apartments. Guest amenities include two restaurants, a casino, conference and lounge spaces, as well as a fitness center and spa with access to a rooftop pool. The design responds to the local climate through the use of an exterior wall system that integrates structure, mechanical systems, and deep recessed openings that provide sun protection.
KAIST IT Convergence Building Under Construction
The new IT Convergence Building for Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (KAIST) is under construction. Located in the city of Daejeon, the 26,000sm project focuses on bringing together the fields of computer science and electronics. Transparent labs and offices are designed around a central core of large multi-level, indoor and outdoor social spaces that enhance cross-discipline communication between both students and professors. The buildings lower levels house lecture and seminar rooms, along with a large conference hall and fitness center.
The building is scheduled for completion in 2013.
KSWA video featured on Architectural Record website
Putney Mountain House featured in Wall Street Journal's Weekend Journal
View the Wall Street Journal article and slideshow
Situated on the south and west facing slopes of Putney Mountain, Vermont this house engages the landscape and reinterprets the simple volumes of Vermont rural architecture. Three clearings in the forest punctuate the long gravel driveway and provide views of meadow, pond and house. In the final clearing, the house is broken into three volumes arrayed around a large rock outcropping with open spaces that frame vistas of the Green Mountains. Each volume has a distinct programmatic function: a shed volume serves as a workshop and storage outbuilding, and two connected volumes form the main living quarters of the house. The house provides a weekend gathering place for three generations of family from around the region.
The house is designed for maximum contact with the exterior while protecting the occupants from the harsh winters and hot summer days of southern Vermont. A series of outdoor spaces, each with a unique exposure, allow connection to the environment throughout the day. A south facing sliding glass wall extends the kitchen / dining space outdoors with an eighteen foot clear opening while narrow window openings on the north walls protect the house from winter winds and promote cross ventilation in the summer months.
The exterior reinterprets local building materials with stained Western Red Cedar siding and corrugated steel. The interior is minimally detailed with white plaster walls, local granite, maple and mahogany woods to impart a feeling of warmth. The building is framed entirely in dimensional lumber with a prefabricated wood truss providing a large span opening at the kitchen / dining area.
In keeping with the sensitive and isolated site, the house is off the grid with roof-mounted photovoltaic panels providing electricity. Large aluminum windows admit abundant natural light to counteract Vermont’s short winter days while overhangs provide summer shading. Wood stoves fueled with felled trees from the site are supplemented by radiant heat floors.
