Have you met Columbus?  Check out the post on Great Spaces for more: http://bit.ly/Pm8e11

The design for Diller Scofido + Renfro’s new building at Columbia’s med school has been unveiled and it is impressive.  The building is scheduled to break ground early next year and be completed sometime in 2016.  Diller Scofido + Renfro is collaborating with Gensler on this, which is great.  Neither role (interiors and architects,) can really function without the other, so it’s always nice to see these designers working together to create great space.  

In the press statement, DS+R describe their strategy as the “Study Cascade.”  Each space functions as part of an enormous staircase, allowing a seamless flow between the various areas of study.  In their words, “the Study Cascade creates a single interconnected space the height of the building, stretching from the ground floor lobby to the top of the building, and conducive to collaborative, team-based learning and teaching.”  DEFINITELY sounds like a space that needs the help of some interior designers.

The most striking aspect of the building is the way that the facade has been pulled back to reveal all the spaces inside.  It has been described on various design blogs as having a dollhouse effect.  We love it because of the conceptual connection between physical transparency and educational spaces.  

http://bit.ly/PLTY3O

Architecture nerds, rejoice!  PS1’s summer pavilion is now open!   As many know, MoMA holds an annual competition for young architects to design a pavilion to be installed at PS1 every summer.  This year’s winner is HWKN (pronounced Haw-kin) the folks behind Architizer, and their beast, Wendy, is a champ.  Representing a storm of ideas and change, Wendy acts as a giant air filter.  Says HWKN,  “Wendy does not play the typical architecture game of ecological apology - instead, she is pro-active.”  Her blue fabric is treated with a titania nanoparticle spray, which neutralizes airborne pollutants, cleaning the air around her to the tune of absorbing the emissions of 260 cars during the exhibition.  Her arms also shoot mist, water and music into PS1’s courtyard.  She’s going to be up until September 8th, so make sure you head out to PS1 and meet Wendy!

I-Beam Architecture designed this awesome residence for two “creative professionals” in New York.  The architects maintained a minimal palette throughout most of the space to allow the clients’ creative impulses to really shine.  The space offers huge, 500 lb sliding walls so they can rearrange the space as they see fit and left them wide, and white with lots of blank space for one of the clients to make her drawings, which she likes to create directly on the walls.  Think of how amazing it’s going to look when they’ve lived there 20 years!  The biggest visual pop in the space though, is the staircase railing, made from over 20,000 Lego bricks.  This isn’t the first time we’ve all seen Legos being used in interiors, but I don’t think we’ll ever grow tired of them!

http://bit.ly/LIdXuP

Have you ever been to the Corning Glass Museum?  If not, it may be time to go soon.  They just unveiled the design for a stunning new addition appropriately built from - you guessed it - glass.


When the Corning Glass Museum in Corning, NY opens its new $64 million addition in 2014, it will become the largest space for contemporary glass art in the world.  The 26,000 sf addition will be daylit, promising a dazzling space to view and display glass artworks, and the fact that it will be constructed mostly from various types of glass means that it is practically a work of art on display in the museum itself.  We’re excited.  Are you?

Check it out on Great Spaces!  http://bit.ly/McgMmW

We’ve all seen this image of the girl reading in her awesome loft bed, but have you ever seen the rest of the apartment? Take a look at how the firm, Jordan Parnass Digital Architecture, took advantage of an existing roof popup to create a wildly spatially efficient live/work studio.  I love the use of congruent materials on the innermost side of the apartment, creating the feeling of an independent object existing within the space.  Diller Scofidio & Renfro created something similar when they renovated Alice Tully Hall.  I think it’s a really cool concept and I love how it works here.  See more: http://bit.ly/K4YcLN