Magazine

Mid-20th-century modern architecture is old enough that the question of demolition versus preservation comes to fore. In many cases the choice of preserving modern architecture involves renovations and additions, so particular buildings continue their usefulness over becoming museum pieces....

In an effort to recede from the suburban context of Syracuse, New York, Jon Lott of PARA-Project opted to wrap the three-story writing studio in a material more commonly used for roofs and canopies: silicon-impregnated fiberglass fabric. The orthogonal exterior belies the curved ceiling of...

Shou Sugi Ban is an old Japanese technique for charring wood to make it insect resistant and weatherproof it on the outside of buildings. The technique, which creates a wildfire-resistant shell, is one way that this retreat on a cattle ranch between...

In the United States battlefields from the American Revolution and Civil War are considered sacred ground, preserved as open space and used as sites for education and interpretation. The American Revolution's Battle of Monmouth took place on a hot day in June 1778 in central New Jersey....

Even as college tuitions rise faster than overall inflation, universities are booming. The University of New Hampshire is projecting a 30% increase in the undergraduate and graduate populations in the next two decades. In anticipation, UNH is building more, including a new building for the...

The harsh sun of America's Desert Southwest leads architects to varying design responses, from the vernacular use of mass that absorbs the sun's heat and radiates it during the cool nights to elements that filter the sunlight. Eric Strain of assemblageSTUDIO has combined these two...

Aksarben Village is a mix of apartments, shopping, restaurants, entertainment, recreation and offices that bills itself as "Omaha's all-weather destination" about five miles west of downtown. The office spaces are particularly important for giving the new development some...

Site often determines a building's form, be it orientation, size, views, or materiality, among numerous characteristics. This cabin on the edge of Flathead Lake in western Montana finds inspiration in its site accordingly, also going so far as to echo the slope of the land in the green...

The state of Missouri is crisscrossed by a number of rivers making their way to the Mississippi, a few that have been dammed to create reservoirs and lakes that are also popular vacation spots. The snaking Table Rock Lake, formed by damming the White River, is an especially popular area near...

The U.S. General Service Administration's Design Excellence Program celebrates its 20th anniversary this year. Since 1994 the program has streamlined the selection of quality architects and led to notable office buildings, courthouses and other facilities. One building that predates the...

City living no longer means just an apartment and a laundry room in the building. As people move back into American downtowns, they want fitness centers, social areas, outdoor space, bike storeage, even urban farming. Brunsfield America's new apartment building in the North Loop...

As local pharmacies across the United States fall to ubiquitous chains like CVS, it's refreshing to see this nearly 70-year-old pharmacy in suburban Detroit thrive and reinvent itself. Architecture is an important element in the latter, from the façade to the layout and the...

Think of the areas in and around Boston and most likely institutions of higher education come to mind: Harvard University, MIT, Boston University, to name a few. Massachusetts College of Art and Design (MassArt) is relatively small in comparison but a new 20-story tower gives the college...

Baltimore has a reputation for crime, poverty and drugs, thanks to statistically high rates of each but also the city's portrayal in popular culture, most notably the television show The Wire. A major redevelopment area in East Baltimore attempts to address these concerns, and a...

Mount Desert Island is the largest island on Maine's Atlantic shore – the second largest island on the American eastern seaboard, after Long Island, New York. The natural beauty of Mount Desert Island is conserved through Acadia National Park, which covers about half of the island....

Sports and history may seem like two areas that don't mix, but the memorabilia of the Louisiana Sports Hall of Fame and the displays of the Northwest Louisiana History Museum come together in the fluid interiors of Trahan Architects' new building in Natchitoches. Likewise, old and new...

Being an architect means acknowledging that even the smallest things are important. This position comes to mind when considering Architectural Artisans' design of a new accessible entry at the side of the Third Lutheran Church in Louisville. The small limestone portal invites visitors...

Manhattan is a small city in northeast Kansas that is affectionately called "The Little Apple" and is home to Kansas State University. While the K-State campus is predominantly limestone, buildings off campus are a more varied lot, such as the existing orange-brick Manhattan High...

In honor of its 125th anniversary, the Principal Financial Group helped create the Principal Riverwalk in its hometown of Des Moines, Iowa. The 1.2-mile (2-km) path uses landscapes, pedestrian bridges and public art to connect the east and west sides of the Des Moines River in the city's...

Architectural inspiration can take many forms, but in the case of the University of Indiana Schools of Business and Engineering designed by HOK with Hafer Associates, it is the fact of two schools coming together into one building. Each has their own formal and material expression, but more...

Much of the work of MacArthur Fellow Jeanne Gang has focused on water, in particular the river and lake of her hometown of Chicago. Her 2011 book Reverse Effect explores the natural, social and recreational future of the Chicago River. An outcome of this research is...

Bellevue is a small town with a population just over 2,000 in the Wood River Vally of central Idaho. This location begs for a dramatic architecture that can contend with the surrounding mountains. Idaho architect Susan Desko has crafted such a design in this large, unfinished house whose prow...

Pro bono, which literally means "for the good," is increasingly seen in the world of architecture as a source of excellent design. Many firms accept pro bono commissions as a means of expanding their creativity, recruiting and retaining employees, and creating strong ties with a...

Reusing old buildings for new uses is one of the most environmentally responsible practices for architecture this century. A building need not be architecturally or culturally significant to be saved, and Congregation Or Hadash Synagogue in suburban Atlanta is a case in point. The setting...

How a building expresses the functions that it houses is just one of the many considerations architects need to take into account in the design process. Very few contemporary buildings make bold statements derived from function, but Arquitectonica's design for FIU's School of...

Historic structures provide continuity with the past while providing canvases for contemporary interventions. In the restoration and expansion of an early-19th-century house in Lewes, Delaware, architect Robert M. Gurney echoed the three-story gable form of the original in the four...

A large part of incorporating sustainability into architecture is setting goals, many of them tied to carbon neutrality and looking decades in the future – 2030 is probably the most popular target year. At The Hotchkiss School in Connecticut, 2020 is the year for achieving a carbon...

Boulder is about 30 miles north and west of Denver, situated right at the edge of the Rocky Mountains. This proximity to the Rockies makes the natural peaks a desirable place for recreation but also something to appreciate and even emulate through architecture. Framing views of the mountains...

Santa Monica, California's Brooks + Scarpa Architects is known for a strong commitment to sustainable architecture that is often expressed on the outside of their buildings. Colorado Court, an apartment building from 2002, is an early example, covered in solar panels and 100% energy...

As we've explored elsewhere, architecture students learn as much from the environments they work in as from their professors, so its no wonder that architecture schools pay attention to their "spaces for...

If one thing will shape the course of the 21st century it is water, which will rise along coastlines but become scarce in other parts of the world. One area that is used to the scarcity of water is the American Southwest, particularly Arizona. With such little rainfall and a straining on...

All states are at the mercy of natural elements to some degree, but none as much as Alaska, the 49th state and the only one entirely north of the 49th parallel, which forms the U.S. border with Canada. The harsh and sometimes dramatic effects of Mother Nature were the inspiration for...

What looks like a traditional, yet pint-sized house on Main Street in York, Alabama, turns out to be a transformable theater for the local residents, a public space where an abandoned house once stood. Artist Matthew Mazzotta's "Open House" taps into the country's housing...

The last project in our 50-state, A-to-Z (make that A-to-W – Alabama to Wyoming) tour of architecture in the United States is a modern residence in Jackson, Wyoming, designed by Carney Logan Burke Architects. The residence sits on a butte above the town, a site that gives the residents...

The Museum of Wisconsin Art (MOWA) started in 1961 as the West Bend Gallery of Fine Arts, focused on the collection and display of one local artist, Carl von Marr. Five decades and two name changes later (in between the institution was the West Bend Art Museum) MOWA has moved into...

A site determines much of a building's form and orientation, and such is clearly the case with the aptly named Ridge House in Berkeley Springs, West Virginia. GriD architects' design features two intersecting linear bars, one positioned to strategically frame views of the river and...