Riverside Park South

Architecture Landscape: Riverside Park South. Thomas Balsley Associates led the design for this twenty-three acre park as part of a collaborative effort with Skidmore, Owings and Merrill for a sixty-five acre redevelopment parcel along the Hudson River in Manhattan. The process involved working with local and state government agencies, community groups, stakeholders and the client to create a vibrant new public space that reintroduced the community to the water’s edge and responded to the unique industrial history and riparian ecology of the site.

Riverside Park South features a series of special architectural structures and landscape spaces that vary in scale and highlight the experiential qualities of the park. Terraces, expansive lawns, architectural shade structures, recreation areas, lawn mounds, and intimate tree groves create viewing areas, spaces for play, and draw one down to the water’s edge or along the coastline. A circulation system of esplanades, boardwalks, footpaths, and bike paths tie the individual places together. A new esplanade bridge sweeps out across the water and encircles a reconstructed wetland planted with native grasses. 

Riverside Park South

Riverside Park South

Riverside Park South

Type                 : Public - Park

Location          : Hudson River, 59th Street-72nd Street
                           New York, New York
                           United States

Building status: built

Site type          : urban

Site size          : 93077 m2

A project by     : Thomas Balsley Associates

                           Architecture, Landscape, Masterplan

Car Park & Terminus Hoenheim-Nord

Car Park & Terminus Hoenheim-Nord. In a project designed to increase the use of public transportation, Strasbourg developed a new tramline service. The first part of the project was a Line ‘A’ that runs from east to west across the city. For the second part of the project, a line that stretches from north to south, Hadid designed the tram station and the car park for 700 cars at the northern apex of the line.

Car Park & Terminus Hoenheim-Nord (Photography © Hélène Binet)

 Car Park & Terminus Hoenheim-Nord Concept

The city of Strasbourg has been developing a new tramline to encourage people to leave their cars outside the city in specially designed car parks, and then take a tram to the more inner parts of the city.
Part of this initiative was the development Line, ‘B’, that will run north to south. Zaha Hadid has been invited as part of the new artist’s interventions, to design the tram-station and a car park for 800 cars at the northern apex of the line. The overall concept is based on overlapping fields and lines that knit together to form a constantly shifting whole. Those ‘fields’ are the patterns of movement engendered by cars, trams, bicycles and pedestrians. Each has a trajectory and a trace, as well as a static fixture. It is as though the transition between transport types (car to tram, train to tram) is rendered as the material and spatial transitions of the station, the landscaping and the context.

Car Park & Terminus Hoenheim-Nord (Photography © Hélène Binet)

 The Station contains a basic program of waiting space, bicycle storage, toilets and shop. This sense of three dimensional vectors is enhanced in the treatment of space: the play of lines continues as light lines in the floor, or furniture pieces or strip-lights in the ceiling. The idea is to create an energetic and attractive space that is clearly defined in terms of function and circulation. The car park is divided into two parts to cater for 800 cars. The notion of the cars as being ephemeral and constantly changing elements on the site is manifested as a ‘magnetic field’ of white lines on the black tarmac. These delineate each parking space and start off aligned north/south at the lowest part of the site, then gently rotate according to the curvature of the site boundaries. Overall, the ‘field’ of the light posts maintains a constant datum height that combines with the gradient of the floor slope. Again, the intention is to reciprocate between static and dynamic elements at all scales. By articulating the moments of transition between open landscape space and public interior space, it is hoped that a new notion of an ‘artificial nature’ is offered, one that blurs the boundaries between natural and the artificial environments towards the improving of civic life for Strasbourg.

Car Park & Terminus Hoenheim-Nord (Aerial Photography © R Rothan)

PROGRAM         : Station for trams and buses
                            Car-Park for 700 cars
                            Various functions (ticket offices, shop, bikes racks, public toilets)

CLIENT              : Communaute Urbaine de Strasbourg (C.U.S)
                           Compagnie des Transports Strasbourgeois (C.T.S)
                           14 place de la gare aux marchandises
                           Strasbourg F-67200
                            FRANCE

SIZE                  : Parking / VRD 25000 m²
                           Station 3000 m²

ARCHITECT       : ZAHA HADID ARCHITECTS

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Source: http://www.zaha-hadid.com/transport/car-park-terminus-hoenheim-nord 

Interior: BMW Central Building

Interior: BMW Central Building. From a pool of 25 international architects, the BMW jury chose the very innovative design of Zaha Hadid for the final piece of the BMW plant in Leipzig Germany. The BMW Central building is a 270,000 square feet (25,000 m²) foot facility that makes up only 250,000 square feet (23,000 m²)of the 540-acre (2.2 km²) campus. Serving 5,500 employees, the building functions as the most important piece of the factory as it connects the three production sheds.

Interior: BMW Central Building (Photography © Hélène Binet)

The offices, meeting rooms, and public relations facilities are all inhabited by these elevated conveyors, which creates an interesting relationship between the employees, the cars and the public. Not only is the Central Building an office building and public relations epicenter for the factory, it is also a very important piece of the production process at the factory. The facade is clad in the simple materials of corregated metal, channel glass, and glass curtain walls.

BMW Central Building Concept

The organisation of the building exploits the obvious sequence of front to back for the phasing of public/busy to more withdrawn/quiet activities. The façade envelope is pulled in under a large diagonally projecting top floor. Here the car drop-off swoops underneath letting off visitors into the glazed public lobby.

Interior: BMW Central Building (Photography © Roland Halbe)

The primary organising strategy is the scissor-section that connects ground floor and first floor into a continuous field. Two sequences of terraced plates – like giant staircases – step up from north to south and from south to north. One commences close to the public lobby passing by/overlooking the forum to reach the first floor in the middle of the building.

Interior: BMW Central Building (Photography © Roland Halbe)

The other cascade starts with the cafeteria at the south end moving up to meet the first cascade then moving all the way up to the space projecting over the entrance. The two cascading sequences capture a long connective void between them. At the bottom of this void is the auditing area as a central focus of everybody’s attention. Above the void the half-finished cars are moving along their tracks between the various surrounding production units open to view.

Interior: BMW Central Building (Photography © Werner Huthmacher)

PROGRAM         : Offices and technical spaces for car manufacturing plant

CLIENT               : BMW AG
                                 Triebstrasse 14
                                 80993 München
                                 Germany

SIZE                      : 25000 m²

ARCHITECT       : ZAHA HADID ARCHITECTS

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Source: http://www.zaha-hadid.com/offices-and-towers/bmw-central-building

BMW Central Building

BMW Central Building. The organisation of the building exploits the obvious sequence of front to back for the phasing of public/busy to more withdrawn/quiet activities. The façade envelope is pulled in under a large diagonally projecting top floor. Here the car drop-off swoops underneath letting off visitors into the glazed public lobby.

BMW Central Building (Photography © Hélène Binet)

The primary organising strategy is the scissor-section that connects ground floor and first floor into a continuous field. Two sequences of terraced plates – like giant staircases – step up from north to south and from south to north. One commences close to the public lobby passing by/overlooking the forum to reach the first floor in the middle of the building.

BMW Central Building (Model Photography © Zaha Hadid Architects)

The other cascade starts with the cafeteria at the south end moving up to meet the first cascade then moving all the way up to the space projecting over the entrance. The two cascading sequences capture a long connective void between them. At the bottom of this void is the auditing area as a central focus of everybody’s attention. Above the void the half-finished cars are moving along their tracks between the various surrounding production units open to view.

BMW Central Building (Photography © Werner Huthmacher)

PROGRAM         : Offices and technical spaces for car manufacturing plant

CLIENT               : BMW AG
                                 Triebstrasse 14
                                 80993 München
                                 Germany

SIZE                      : 25000 m²

ARCHITECT       : ZAHA HADID ARCHITECTS

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Source: http://www.zaha-hadid.com/offices-and-towers/bmw-central-building

Zaha Hadid Biography

Zaha Hadid

Zaha Hadid was born in 1950 in Baghdad, Iraq. She received a degree in mathematics from the American University of Beirut before moving to study at the Architectural Association School of Architecture in London.

Vitra fire station, Weil am Rhein, Germany

After graduating she worked with her former teachers, Rem Koolhaas and Elia Zenghelis at the Office for Metropolitan Architecture, becoming a partner in 1977. During the 1980s she also taught at the Architectural Association. A winner of many international competitions, theoretically influential and groundbreaking, a number of Hadid's winning designs were initially never built: notably, The Peak Club in Hong Kong (1983) and the Cardiff Bay Opera House in Wales (1994). In 2002 Hadid won the international design competition to design Singapore's one-north masterplan. In 2005, her design won the competition for the new city casino of Basel, Switzerland. In 2004 Hadid became the first female recipient of the Pritzker Architecture Prize, architecture's equivalent of the Nobel Prize. Previously, she had been awarded a CBE for services to architecture. She is a member of the editorial board of the Encyclopædia Britannica. In 2006, Hadid was honored with a retrospective spanning her entire work at the Guggenheim Museum in New York. In that year she also received an Honorary Degree from the American University of Beirut.

BMW Central Building, Leipzig, Germany

Zaha Hadid's architectural design firm - Zaha Hadid Architects - is over 350 people strong, headquartered in a Victorian former school building in Clerkenwell, London.

In 2008, she ranked 69th on the Forbes list of "The World's 100 Most Powerful Women". On 2 January 2009, she was the guest editor of the BBC's flagship morning radio news programme, Today.

In 2010 she was named by Time magazine as influential thinker in the 2010 TIME 100 issue.  In September 2010, The British magazine New Statesman listed Zaha Hadid at number 42 in their annual survey of "The World's 50 Most Influential Figures 2010".

Maxxi, Rome

She won the 2010 Stirling Prize for one of her most celebrated work, the Maxxi in Rome.

Hadid is the designer of the Dongdaemun Design Plaza & Park in Seoul, South Korea, which is expected to be the centerpiece of the festivities for the city's designation as World Design Capital 2010. In 2009, she worked with the clothing brand Lacoste, to create a new, high fashion, and advanced boot. In the same year, she also collaborated with the brassware manufacturer Triflow Concepts to produce two new designs in her signature parametric architectural style. Her unique contributions to brassware design and other fields continue to push the boundaries of innovation.

In 2007, Zaha Hadid designed the Moon System Sofa for leading Italian furniture manufacturer B&B Italia.

Completed projects of Zaha Hadid

• Vitra Fire Station (1994), Weil am Rhein, Germany
• Hoenheim-North Terminus & Car Park (2001), Hoenheim, France. Project architect: Stephane Hof
• Bergisel Ski Jump (2002), Innsbruck, Austria
• Rosenthal Center for Contemporary Art (2003), Cincinnati, Ohio
• BMW Central Building (2005), Leipzig, Germany
• Ordrupgaard annexe (2005), Copenhagen, Denmark
• Phaeno Science Center (2005), Wolfsburg, Germany
• Maggie's Centres at the Victoria Hospital (2006), Kirkcaldy, Scotland
• Tondonia Winery Pavilion (2001–2006), Haro, Spain
• Eleftheria square redesign (2007), Nicosia, Cyprus
• Hungerburgbahn new stations (2007), Innsbruck, Austria
• Chanel Mobile Art Pavilion (Worldwide) Tokyo, Hong Kong, New York, London, Paris, Moscow, (2006–2008)
• Bridge Pavilion (2008), Zaragoza, Spain
• J. S. Bach Pavilion, Manchester International Festival (2009), Manchester, UK
• CMA CGM Tower (2007–2010), Marseille, France
• Pierres vives (2002–2012), Montpellier, France. Project architect: Stephane Hof
• MAXXI - National Museum of the 21st Century Arts (1998–2010), Rome, Italy. Stirling Prize 2010 winner.
• Guangzhou Opera House (2010), Guangzhou, People's Republic of China

Banq

Architecture Interior: Banq. Banq (also Banc, banc-corp, bancorp, or bancorporation) is an intentionally erroneous spelling of the word bank, but pronounced the same way. It has been adopted by companies which are not banks but wish to appear as such, and satisfy legal restrictions on the usage of the word bank.

Banq Interior

In the United States, the commerce departments of state governments generally prohibit or restrict the use of certain words in the names of corporations unless those corporations are legitimate chartered banks. For example, words prohibited by the state of Louisiana include bank, banker, banking, savings, safe deposit, trust, trustee, and credit union.

Banq Interior

One notable example is a company called Cachet Banq, an ACH (automated clearing house) processing service that performs automated banking transactions for payroll processing. The company does not claim to offer any banking services, such as deposits or loans, and would only be able to legally include the word "bank" in its name in its home state of California with the approval of the California Department of Financial Institutions.

Banq Interior

Naming laws vary from jurisdiction to jurisdiction as well as their interpretations. Notable counter-examples include blood banks and sperm banks.

For instance, if the original company is known as Bank of America, then the new investment banking entity may be known as Banc of America Securities LLC. If the original company is known as Bank of Manhattan, then its insurance business might be known as "Banc of Manhattan Insurance" and its holding company might be called "Manhattan Bancorp". This practice originates from legal necessity: Under the laws of most states, a corporation may only use the word "bank" in its name if it has obtained a banking charter under state or federal banking laws.

Banq Interior

Located in the old Penny Savings Bank, Banq Restaurant capitalizes on the spatial and functional peculiarities of the space as a ground for speculation and invention. The wood slats are designed as a landscape, undulating in relation to the very equipment they conceal overhead, while encasing the columns in the main hall. The wine storage, in the middle of the hall, serves as another point of support for the ceiling, and acts as a monumental trunk, keeping the canopy aloft.

Type                  : Commercial - Restaurant

Location           : 1375 Washington St
                            Boston, 02138
                            United States

Building status : built in 2008

Site type           : urban

Building area    : 4800 sqft

A project by      : Office dA

                             Architecture, Interior

Zeche Zollverein Masterplan

Zeche Zollverein Masterplan. The former coal mine Zeche Zollverein, an area of 100 ha, was announced world heritage by UNESCO in 2002. OMA was commissioned to develop a master plan for the site with the goal to add a large quantity of program in order of Entwicklungs-Gesellschaft Zollverein mbH (EGZ) to reinforce the historical context and to re-use the area.

Zeche Zollverein Interior

The combined program of 12.000m2 for the Visitors Centre, the Ruhrmuseum and the Metaform will be accommodated in the most impressive building on site: the former factory for sorting coals (Kohlenwche).  Due to a careful analysis and a strategic development of the utterly complicated building, the bureaus have been successful in combining seemingly opposing interests. The result is an industrial monument that combines modern use with historic context. The once famous Ruhrgebiet lost the driving force behind its identity and its raison d'etre overnight. 

Zeche Zollverein Interior

 On the 12 December 2001, UNESCO added Zeche Zollverein to the list of world heritage industrial monuments, partly on the basis of the OMA masterplan, which respects the site's original identity. The masterplan consists of a band around the historic site. New roads and the extension of an existing highway through a tunnel servicing the site will allow for an easier access.

The allocation of new programs on the periphery allows the old buildings to maintain their grandeur and impact on the visitor. Inside the band of new program surrounding the Zeche Zollverein, new functions will be placed to guide, inform and attract visitors. The programming of the new buildings and re-programming of the existing buildings will contain many functions, most of which will be related to art and culture. Tri-annual and quintennial manifestations will attract visitors and generate an influx of events and ideas.

Zeche Zollverein Interior

Location          : Zollverein
                           Essen, 45309
                           Germany

Building status: built in 2005

Site size          : 10763910 sqft

Building area  : 129167 sqft

A project by     : OMA

                            Architecture, Interior