Architect’s Newspaper Ι June 15, 2023 As a young architect with SOM in 1972, Richard Tomlinson saw something special in the Baxter International suburban office campus, which was already underway when he joined the firm. “It was conceived as a dynamic campus that made flexibility a fundamental principle,” he told AN. “What fascinated me about… Continue reading SOM’s Baxter International suburban office park is part of a vital but unheralded design legacy
Tag: SOM
Fazlur Khan Converged Engineering and Architecture at the Top of the World
Autodesk’s Redshift Ι April 7, 2020 Fazlur Khan’s achievements as a structural engineer will forever be tied to Chicago’s Sears Tower (now called the Willis Tower), the tallest building in the world for a quarter century. But that long reign wasn’t stunt-architecture: The building, completed in 1973, represented a synthesis among structural possibilities, aesthetic exploration,… Continue reading Fazlur Khan Converged Engineering and Architecture at the Top of the World
Curves and CO2 Reduction Coexist in Chicago’s Colossal Concrete Installation
Autodesk’s Redshift Ι Jan. 28, 2020 Musing on the spiritual and formal predilections of the building materials he used so masterfully, architect Louis Kahn once famously said: “You say to brick, ‘What do you want, brick?’ And brick says to you, ‘I like an arch.’ And you say to brick, ‘Look, I want one, too,… Continue reading Curves and CO2 Reduction Coexist in Chicago’s Colossal Concrete Installation
San Francisco’s Ambitious India Basin Development Project Is Wild at the Edges
Redshift Ι March 20, 2018 India Basin, on the southeast edge of San Francisco, was historically a neighborhood tied to the shipbuilding industry. An unassuming nub poking out into the San Francisco Bay, the 17-acre parcel at 700 Innes Avenue is something of a unicorn: It’s a rare example of undeveloped land (along the waterfront, no… Continue reading San Francisco’s Ambitious India Basin Development Project Is Wild at the Edges
From Filth to Fun: Big Designs for the Chicago River
CityLab Ι Sept. 29. 2017 Until its direction was reversed in 1900, the Chicago River was such a receptacle for effluent and filth that it poisoned Chicagoans’ beloved Lake Michigan (from which they drew their drinking water). Then it was channelized and entombed in concrete. The river has long been the city’s forgotten waterfront. But that’s… Continue reading From Filth to Fun: Big Designs for the Chicago River