On Thursday June 9th, an SOM team competed in the 2016 Iron Designer Challenge, a fundraising event for the Urban Assembly School of Design and Construction in New York City to support its design program. Taking place on the school’s roof deck, the event saw architectural and engineering professionals teaming up with UASDC students to construct life-size … Continued
The designers of record-breaking and jaw-dropping infrastructure from around the world are to be featured on The Engineers, a special programme on the BBC World Service to be broadcast later this month. Recording for the programme took place this week at the Victoria and Albert Museum where a capacity audience turned up to hear William Baker, Michel … Continued
BOFFO honored SOM at its annual Spring Benefit, which was held at the Honorable William Wall Floating Clubhouse in New York Harbor. A New York-based arts organization, BOFFO supports and presents innovative and experimental art, architecture, and design. Attendees included SOM Managing Partners Ken Lewis and Anthony Vacchione, and Associate Director Waldo Maffei. Other honorees … Continued
The grade-separated pedestrian systems built in the 20th century have a variety of names: skyways, skywalks, pedways, footbridges, the +15, and the Ville Souteraine. But they have one thing in common — they have radically altered the form and spatial logic of cities around the world… However, recent proposals suggest that a synthesis of those three epochs … Continued
In an achievement that took a rare degree of agreement among eight government bodies and a private corporation, three-county commuter rail service seems destined to roll into downtown Miami within 18 months… Restoring a rail complex to the center of Miami is a huge mobility gain, with All Aboard’s Brightline trains offering rapid runs to … Continued
One of Chicago’s most significant architectural additions in 2015 was not a booming high-rise at the center of the Loop or a grand new park along the lakefront. It was a small, pebble-shaped, glass-and-steel library that serves as the new beating heart of two neighborhoods on the city’s South Side. The Building Team Awards judges … Continued
SOM’s JTI Headquarters, The Strand – American Conservatory Theater (A.C.T.), and BBVA Bancomer Operations Center have been recognized as finalists in the Urban Land Institute’s 2016 Global Awards for Excellence. Established in 1979, the program celebrates projects that uphold highest standards of design, based on criteria ranging from sustainability to community impact. These qualifications concern not … Continued
A city on an island, teeming with cash and ego, has nowhere to go but up. And up. And up. Imagine the Manhattan skyline in a time-lapse filmstrip, starting around 1890 — when the New York World Building crested above the 284-foot spire of Trinity Church — and culminating in the present day: it is … Continued
The City Council of Asheville, North Carolina announced that it has selected Skidmore, Owings & Merrill, LLP (SOM), one of the world’s leading architecture and urban planning firms, to update the city’s comprehensive plan. The existing planning document, adopted in 2003, establishes policies for Asheville’s long term development. As this city of 89,000 residents confronts … Continued
The Chicago chapter of the Urban Land Institute has recognized two SOM projects with 2016 Vision Awards, the organization’s highest honor. The Chinatown Branch of the Chicago Public Library was honored with the Public Investment Award in the Project Category, while UI Labs Digital Manufacturing and Design Innovation Institute won in the Program Category. The awards recognize the best in innovation and … Continued