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A New York architectural firm was selected yesterday to design an underground exhibit center at the Vietnam Veterans Memorial that is to be one of the last projects built on the Mall.
Polshek Partnership Architects, selected from four finalists culled from a field of 39 entrants, was asked to design a building that would offer a one-of-a-kind educational experience yet not compete with the emotional impact of the memorial's iconic black wall of names.
The $40 million center, to include 10,000 to 12,000 square feet of exhibit space, is expected to take three to five years to construct. It will be built with private money, and cost estimates have quadrupled since it was proposed four years ago.
President Bush signed a bill authorizing its construction in November. The bill also banned future construction of memorials, monuments and interpretive centers not already approved.
The Vietnam Veterans Memorial Fund, the private group sponsoring the center, would not release details of the winning entry, saying it is only conceptual in scope. But Jan C. Scruggs, fund founder and president, described the ideas of the Polshek firm and its exhibition designer, Ralph Applebaum Associates of New York, as "brilliant."
"I wanted to do this very much," James S. Polshek, the firm's founding partner, said in a phone interview. "
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Legislation and corporate aspirations are two major influences on modern offices, impacting on design, specification and occupational costs says Paul Nicholson, director of business space at Chesterton's Newcastle office.
The Disability Discrimination Act (DDA) - which becomes law next month after a long lead-in - has had an impact on access to all types of property, especially those buildings welcoming members of the public.
Clearly, office buildings have had to be modified or purpose-built to comply with the legislation, not just to cater for wheelchair users but also other disabled people, such as the partially-sighted, with, for example, braille used on light switches or lift-operating systems.
The DDA has led the office-occupier market to think carefully about occupying period buildings which often have steep steps to their front doors.
The resurgence in urban living has seen surplus office stock often returning to residential use, as office occupiers move to more DDA-friendly premises.
Increasingly, occupiers are looking for higher levels of sophistication. A decade or more ago, air-conditioning was often a case of opening the window. Now it is almost mandatory to work in a temperature-contro lled environment.
Information technology has been a significant driver here as a result of the heat generated by c
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Architects on Tuesday laid out a glassy vision for downtown Raleigh's mammoth new convention center but called it a work in progress one month from a final decision about its appearance.
Gone from earlier versions is a large free-standing tower at one front corner of the building and an ivy-covered porch at the other.
Designers now are featuring a large glassed-in central entrance that resembles a traditional portico and a plaza that connects the center to Fayetteville Street Mall a block away. They are showing cream-colored stone and bricks, avoiding red as too pedestrian.
And they are looking at hanging in a large hallway 50 to 100 pieces of funky colored glass, made for the center by artists in Western North Carolina.
Views were mixed Tuesday about the most current drawings as elected officials and others took their first looks at them.
Many said they were not yet satisfied that the center would become a well-received building in the city.
"I think they're still trying to figure out what it is about this that will say 'Raleigh, North Carolina,' " said Kenn Gardner, an architect who is chairman of the Wake County commissioners.
"Right now," he added, "we're seeing the five or six special things that could be on the front of this building. When you have that, none become special things. I think it needs to
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Call it the urban-design edition of the "Extreme Makeover" television show.
Sixty architects and designers fanned out through downtown Bellevue yesterday, looking for nips, tucks or face-lifts that could improve the visage of a place developer Kemper Freeman has likened to a pimply faced teenager.
Like the plastic surgeons who ply their trade on willing participants in the television show, the architects shared their insights at the invitation of city officials and downtown boosters. The city is looking for fresh ideas as it prepares to consider regulatory changes aimed at making downtown a more appealing place for visitors and residents.
They got plenty of frank assessments.
Following a one-hour walk through the heart of downtown, one group of seven architects and a lighting designer found room for improvement. One suggested downtown landscaping was poorly placed to give pedestrians any sense of refuge from the urban environment. Another said the pedestrian corridor running east and west through the center of downtown was finished only in bits and pieces, giving it little coherence.
Sidewalks in some areas remain narrow and skirt fast-moving traffic and parking lots. A female architect said she wouldn't feel safe walking across downtown at night because it probably would be too deserted. While some places —
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The differences between the old and the new - the Oil City and Franklin hospital buildings and the new UPMC Northwest in Cranberry Township - are dramatic.
The crisp new hospital, due to open Friday, Oct. 8, is dazzling in its high-tech, gleaming and efficient design.
"You can't go into a new hospital building and do things the way you did before. This is a 21st century hospital replacing two older hospitals. There are a lot of differences," said Pam Niederriter, manager of community relations for UPMC Northwest.
The $70-plus million health center, Pennsylvania's newest hospital, was designed and built by Hospital Building and Equipment Co. of St. Louis. The company, one of the nation's leading design-build firms for health care and financial institution facilities, was founded by Fred S. Kummer, whose grandparents, Harriet and Edgar Tolles, lived in Siverly.
Outside, the four-level hospital occupies one-fifth of a 165-acre tract off Route 257. The first floor, perched atop the ground floor, is the largest section of the building. The smaller second and third floors are t-shaped and set astride the larger first floor. A profusion of windows and doorways accentuates the sandy-colored building exterior.
A ring-shaped road circles the new hospital, surrounded by parking lots. There are more than 950 parking spo
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