Penn State University, Millennium Science Complex Awarded LEED Gold

The U.S. Green Building Council awarded LEED Gold certification to Penn State University, Millennium Science Complex (MSC) – a 291,000 gross square-foot research facility integrating the university’s Life Sciences and Materials Sciences departments and completed in 2011 – for its green design and construction features that positively impact the project itself and the broader community.

“The success and importance of the Penn State University MSC is not a result of having achieved LEED Gold certification, rather it is a confirmation that the creation of a meaningful design holistically integrates sustainable technologies and environmental strategies,” said David Rolland, Partner of Rafael Viñoly Architects. ”The challenge was never the incorporation of sustainable features – as these were embedded and essential to the concept – but rather the optimization of the building systems in terms of performance, efficiency, and costs. We are proud to have been part of team that embraced the goals of sustainability and are honored by the USGBC’s recognition of the MSC for its responsible stewardship of the earth’s resources – a responsibility that helps to preserve our planet’s assets for future generations.”

More information on this project is available on rvapc.com.

121st Police Precinct Station House Wins Civic Excellence Award

Rafael Viñoly Architects is being honored with an award from the Society of American Architects, New York Council (SARA NY) – an Award of Excellence in Civic Architecture for the 121st Police Precinct Station House, located in Staten Island, New York. This award is bestowed annually to a project that makes and important contribution to the public realm of New York City.

“Sitting between a quiet residential district and a heavily commercial street – Richmond Avenue, the Committee (SARA NY) particularly impressed at how the project both responded to the neighborhood with extreme sensitivity while creating a remarkable architectural statement in the awe-inspiring 100′ cantilever,” said Keith Montgomery Lucas, President of SARA NY. “This along with the irregular site and requirements for sustainable design that were challenged in this project clarify that public works can and should set the standard for design in our City.”

More information on this project is available on rvapc.com.

Wallpaper features Rafael Viñoly on 432 Park Avenue

Wallpaper* Magazine – the celebrated global design magazine – recently released a short video featuring Rafael Viñoly on his thoughts behind the design of the new luxury residential tower 432 Park Avenue.

Offering a mix of high-end apartments, 432 Park Avenue will rise to an impressive 96-storey high slender structure, featuring elegant 10ft by 10ft square windows. The tower will be New York’s tallest skyscraper – as well as the tallest building in the Western Hemisphere.

Watch the video on wallpaper.com.

Shear Transparency: The Making of the Kravis Center Living Room

From June 13-15, Finland will play host to the 2013 Glass Performance Days (GPD) Conference – the largest international conference of architectural and solar glass. With new technology in glass constantly pressing forward, the conference provides a forum for specialists, individuals and corporations to discuss and explore cost-efficient innovations.

The GPD conference theme this year is: glass technology, design and sustainability. On June, 13th – the conference’s opening day – Charles Blomberg, Partner of Rafael Viñoly Architects, will be giving a presentation, ‘Shear Transparency: The Making of the Kravis Center Living Room,’ featuring the structurally glazed multi-use pavilion of the Claremont McKenna College project completed in 2011.

GPD Conference details and registration information available at gpd.fi

More information on Claremont McKenna College, Kravis Center project available at www.rvapc.com.

The New Stanford Hospital Groundbreaking

Rafael Viñoly Architects announces the official “Groundbreaking” of the New Stanford Hospital, as part of the Stanford University Medical Center: Project Renewal. This past Wednesday, May 1, University and medical center leadership gathered at an event to mark this milestone in the project’s construction and design, scheduled for completion in 2017. The new hospital will be open for patient care in early 2018.

Stanford Hospital & Clinics, requiring a new, state-of-the-art facility, selected Rafael Viñoly Architects for its unique approach to health-care design. Rather than creating the typical base-and-tower hospital building, the firm proposed a modular plan that can be easily adapted for a variety of uses, thus allowing both for incremental expansion of the hospital building and a horizontal development strategy that complements the low-rise, courtyard-oriented campus context of Stanford University and its Medical Center.

“This project represents an unprecedented endeavor in the hospital’s successful 50-year history of healing humanity. By reinterpreting and updating the Stanford campus and the original hospital through a modular plan, it is poised to adapt to evolving medical technology while continuing to provide advanced care and treatment – in a healing environment unique to Stanford – to patients from surrounding communities and beyond.” – Rafael Viñoly

More information on this project is available on ravpc.com.

Three Awards from The Society of American Registered Architects

Three Rafael Viñoly Architects projects were selected for awards in the Society of American Registered Architects (SARA), NY Council’s 2013 Professional Design Awards Program. In it’s 18th year, the awards celebrate meritorious architecture and design.

Our winning projects include:

Carrasco International Airport, recipient of the Gold Award of Excellence

firstsite Contemporary Visual Arts, recipient of the Silver Award of Merit

Cleveland Museum of Art, recipient of Silver Award of Merit

Rafael Viñoly: Keynote Speaker at Height and Heritage Conference in London

This year, the Center for Tall Buildings and Urban Habitat (CTBUH) is holding its annual conference in London from June 11-13. In the midst of two decades of unprecedented tall building development globally, and Europe increasingly embracing the skyscraper - even in cities traditionally seen as ‘anti-tall’ – the conference will address the unique challenges of building tall in historic cities.

Rafael Viñoly will be giving a keynote speech for the June 12^th session, with a presentation entitled ‘Breaking the Mold while Embracing Context in Historic Cities.’ Mr. Viñoly will examine how 20 Fenchurch Street breaks with perceived boundaries of common architectural expression while respecting and embracing its context within the historic London environment.

More information and conference registration on ctbuh.org.

FitNation Exhibit at AIA New York to include Howard Hughes Medical Institute

This June, AIA New York is mounting an exhibition on active design in the United States in a range of scales to show how designers and architects in partnership with city and national governments are encouraging increased physical activity and greater attention to health in the built environment. The exhibition, entitled FitNation will include the Rafael Viñoly Architects designed Howard Hughes Medical Institute.

The exhibition opens June 13 at the AIA NY Center for Architecture and runs until September 17. More information available at AIANY.

Recent Speaking Engagements in New York and China

This past February, David Rolland, AIA/NCARB, partner at Rafael Viñoly Architects, participated in a panel discussion held at The Center for Architecture in New York City. The panel was sponsored and organized by New York City’s Department of Design and Construction, and focused on the use of geothermal heat pump systems in New York City building projects.

Citing the Brooklyn Children’s Museum, Mr. Rolland illustrated the challenges and benefits of incorporating an open loop geothermal system, and how it was successfully integrated as part of a sustainable building project.

And in China on March 27, Andrea Lamberti, AIA/NCARB, partner at Rafael Viñoly Architects, spoke in Tsinghua University’s lecture series in Beijing, and at the 6th annual Ultra High-rise Building Summit in Shanghai.

The Ultra High-rise Building Summit is an annual event that facilitates dialogue surrounding China’s rapid economic growth and dynamic urbanism, and how to best optimize building practices for its ever-increasing demand for new development. Ms. Lamberti spoke on the ‘Challenges of Building Tall,’ referencing one of the firm’s current works, 432 Park Avenue, which is currently under construction and when completed will be the tallest residential building in the United States.

Later that same day, Ms. Lamberti was received by an audience of students, faculty and professionals at Tsinghua University in Beijing. Ms. Lamberti’s talk, titled “Elevating the Public Realm,” highlighted the integration of new public spaces into three recent projects: the Cleveland Museum of Art Renovation and expansion, 20 Fenchurch Street and firstsite Contemporary Visual Arts.

Firstsite Contemporary Visual Arts Nominated for 2013 RIBA Regional Award: East

firstsite Contemporary Visual Arts joins a shortlist of 19 buildings in the running for the prestigious 2013 Royal Institute of British Architects (RIBA) Award: East.

The award program recognizes buildings that have high architectural standards, demonstrate sustainable credentials and make a substantial contribution to the local community and environment within the East of England region.

A regional jury will asses the shortlisted buildings with winners to be announced on June 12, 2013.

More information on firstsite available on rvapc.com.

Carrasco International Airport: Winner of 2013 Architizer A+ Awards

This year, Architizer.com broke away from traditional award programs by partnering with the renowned Webby Awards to showcase the world’s best buildings to a broader audience online. Winners were selected in a two-stage process, shortlisted first by a global jury of 200+ thought leaders and luminaries. Each category had two final winners – one selected by the jury and a second one selected by Architizer’s own 1,000,000+ strong community of users and fans.

Rafael Viñoly Architects received nominations in two categories: Ray and Dagmar Dolby Institute of Regeneration Medicine at UCSF, in San Francisco (Institutional category), and Carrasco International Airport, in Montevideo, Uruguay (Transportation Airport category).

We are pleased to announce that Carrasco International Airport received both the Typology and the Plus Awards – the pre-selected jury determines the former, while the latter is selected by Architizer’s user community.

We would like to take this opportunity to express a sincere thank you to everyone in our community who voted for our projects. Your vote led to the recognition of Carrasco International Airport as the best in its category.

More details on Architizer.com.

Milestone: UofSC’s Darla Moore School of Business Steel Structure Complete

We are pleased to announce that the University South Carolina celebrated the “Topping Out” of the new building for the Darla Moore School of Business in a ceremony held at the construction site on February 4, 2013.

The Darla Moore School of Business, globally renowned for its international business program, has until now been housed in a small, 1970s-era building located near the university’s historic Horseshoe, site of the original campus established in 1801. The new building—designed by Rafael Viñoly Architects and commissioned by alumna and namesake Darla Moore through a $70 million donation—will provide an environment well suited to answer the challenges of a 21st century business school.

The building program effectively provides the school’s curriculum and stimulates learning through the most up-to-date means of technology. The building also features a green rooftop terrace, which coupled with a courtyard and perimeter terraces areas, work to promote interaction and collaboration between faculty, students and community members.

More information on the project is available here.

How will tall buildings be different 20 years from now?

The Council on Tall Buildings and Urban Habitat (CTBUH) addresses key questions relating to the field of architecture. This month they asked Rafael Viñoly and other industry leaders the question: How will tall buildings be different 20 years from now? See the full video here.

Council on Tall Building and Urban Habitat, Shanghai Conference

Over the past decade, the tall building industry has seen incredible advance in the realms of design, technology, and construction allowing experimentation with new forms and ever greater heights. The result of these developments is particularly evident in terms of building height, as projects reach higher and higher into the sky.

Rafael Viñoly joins a panel discussion on the implications of the industry’s newfound freedom, along with questioning the theoretical limits of height today? And should we strive to achieve these heights, or be content to live and work below the atmosphere?

Video of the September 19, 2012 discussion held in Shanghai, China is now available on the Council of Tall Building and Urban Habitat’s website.

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Rafael Viñoly, man about t̶o̶w̶n̶ world

Rafael Viñoly’s already hectic travel schedule is made more so this fall with the following engagements planned across three continents. Here’s your chance to see and hear our visionary talk about a wide-range of topics relating to architecture. Check back for more information as we’ll be posting updates leading up to the events.

Shanghai, China – September 19, 2012

Host: Council of Tall Buildings and Urban Habitat (CTBUH) 2012 9th World Congress

Event: How High Can We Go (and Why Should We?), panel discussion chaired by Richard Tomasetti, featuring panelist Rafael Viñoly

Event Link

Hong Kong, China – September 24, 2012

Host: AIA Hong Kong

Event: 3rd Quarterly: Culture and the Public Client: The Development of Public Participation in the Design of Clutlural Infrastructure, featuring Rafael Viñoly as speaker

Event Link

London, U.K. – October 1, 2012

Host: World Architecture Day 2012

Event: Rafael Viñoly to serve as keynote speaker

Event Link

Chicago, U.S.A. – October 8, 2012

Host: The Frank Lloyd Wright Preservation Trust

Event: Thinking into the Future Lecture, featuring Rafael Viñoly as speaker

Event Link

Winner of the 2012 AIA Ohio Design Awards

The AIA Ohio Design Awards Program promotes those projects that have distinguished themselves, through attention to high quality design, performance, and commitment to AIA’s 10 principles of livable communities.

Rafael Viñoly Architects been awarded the program’s Honor Award for Newly Completed Additions for the Cleveland Museum of Art Expansion and Renovation project.

AIA Ohio will recognize its 2012 Design Award Winners on Friday, September 14, in Cleveland, OH, at the AIA Ohio Convention.

Additional details of the Cleveland Museum of Art project is available here: www.rvapc.com 

The 2012 Los Angeles Architectural Awards

The 42nd annual Architectural Awards, hosted by the Los Angeles Business Council, celebrated a diverse range of innovative architecture and design projects from throughout Los Angeles County that support a livable, beautiful, and economically vibrant region. 33 stand-out building projects were honored as premiere examples of the region’s cutting-edge design that help make Los Angeles an engine of creativity and dynamism on both the national and international stages.

Rafael Viñoly Architects was the recipient of the Education Award in the Private Education category for its design of Kravis Center, Claremont McKenna College. This project, also known as the “glass living room,” was deliberately designed without a central public space or lobby, but shares an outdoor, all-glass space with the rest of the west campus. A critical design component was the facility’s transparency, both as a way to use Southern California’s natural daylight to greatest advantage and to visually integrate indoor and outdoor activities. The building creates a prominent western gateway and expands the campus mall along its main axis, improving CMC both aesthetically and with regard to electricity use, earning the Center a LEED Silver rating.

We’re honored that our work is recognized by the Los Angeles Business Council and to be included in a group of such esteemed visionary thinkers.

More project details can be found on our site: www.rvapc.com

Object of the Month

The Smithsonian Cooper-Hewitt, National Design Museum highlights a drawing of the Kimmel Center for the Performing Arts by Rafael Viñoly.

See the full article by Gail Davidson at cooperhewitt.org

1stdibs’ Introspective Spotlight Magazine profiles Rafael Viñoly

Rafael Viñoly speaks to writer David D’Arcy about why his work has no signature styale and no artistic pretensions, but is still able to create artful structures that make grand gestures and lasting impressions.

Read the full article here: www.1stdibs.com/introspective