Articles by Eric Baldwin

Dutch practice MVRDV has broken ground on Radio Tower & Hotel, a 21,800-square-meter mixed-use high rise located in the Washington Heights area in northern Manhattan. The 22-storey building is MVRDV’s first major project in the United States and combines hotel, retail, and office functions in vibrantly stacked blocks. The project was designed to reflecte the vivacious character of the neighborhood and set a direction for future development.

Clouds Architecture Office have revealed a new design for a space research lab that floats above a crater in Oita, Japan. Called AVATAR X LAB, the design was made for ANA Holdings Inc. and the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency. The lab aims to be part of ANA’s AVATAR Vision, an endeavor to advance and pioneer real-world Avatar technologies, and JAXA’s new research and development program J-SPARC. The lab was designed to advance understanding of space exploration and development.

Dutch practice MVRDV have unveiled RED7, a housing project for Moscow and the firm’s first building in Russia. MVRDV won the competition to design RED7 for client GK Osnova in December 2017, and the project has been accepted by the architectural committee of Moscow. Designed with a Minecraft-like gradient of blocks, the project was inspired by its neighboring context. As a symbolic gateway into the city center, the design will include 289 apartments with external terraces and expansive views of Moscow’s skyline.

Amazon has selected New York City and Arlington for it’s next headquarters, set to become two of the biggest economic development projects in the United States. Instead of choosing one site, Amazon will spread over $5 billion in construction and investments across the two locations. The tech giant will house at least 25,000 employees in each city, and could receive more than $2 billion in tax incentives. The new announcement ends a 14-month competition among cities across the country.

Triptych, Duncan Lewis, Park, and OXO Architects reveal a design for Europe’s largest wooden construction in Arcueil, France. Called Ecotone, the project is sited in the Coteau Area of southern Paris as a multi-use space set to link city and landscape. The design takes the form of two hybrid hills with trees and a large staircase containing several terraces and patios. Ecotone aims to rethink the future of sustainable cities and timber construction.

Photographer Laurian Ghinitoiu has released new images of Heatherwick Studio’s Coal Drops Yard in London’s King’s Cross. Unveiled to the public last month, the project includes two heritage rail buildings from the 1850s brought together as a new shopping district. The design extends the inner gabled roofs of Victorian coal drops to link the two viaducts together around shopping and public space.

ZGF architects have completed Google‘s new L.A. office by transforming California’s landmark Spruce Goose Hangar. Designed as a building-within-a-building, the project was built inside the seven-story, 750-foot-long historic wooden structure. The 450,000 SF, four-level design is sited between two existing Google properties, and the project aimed to unify the Playa Vista campus while bringing a new perspective to workplace through adaptive reuse.

Swedish studio Urban Nouveau created a plan to save Stockholm’s Gamla Lidingöbron bridge by transforming it into a linear park and housing. After launching a petition to save the bridge and re-purpose it, ArchDaily followed up with Sara Göransson, founding partner at Urban Nouveau, to ask her about her background and how the studio approaches social integration, housing and the future of urban infrastructure.

Frank Gehry’s Grand Avenue towers are finally set to begin construction, over a decade after the project was initially proposed. Conceived as a public-private partnership, the towers are sited across from Gehry’s Walt Disney Concert Hall in downtown Los Angeles. The project was designed from a central retail core into the two terracing towers with a mix of retail, entertainment and residences. The $1 billion complex aims to turn Grand Avenue into a full entertainment district.

Wilkinson Eyre has revealed new images showing a plan to create a glass elevator in Battersea Power Station. The lift will travel 109 meters to the top of one of the building’s iconic chimneys. On opening, it will offer visitors views of the capital’s skyline from one of the most unique viewing platforms in London. The Chimney Lift is one of three new and exciting event/attraction spaces on offer inside the iconic Power Station. The station is working closely with a wide collection of heritage and emerging retail brands from the UK and across the globe to complement its vision for the 1930s and 1950s turbine halls.