Event: Columbia University invites Zaha Hadid

Columbia University is validating its name once more for being an incredible academic institution by offering lectures as this tonight to its students and guests... The Graduate School of Architecture, Planning and Preservation is hosting Zaha Hadid to discuss about her recent works and her thoughts about the future in architectural design in line of the recent economic events. Zaha has just launched her recent creation in New York, a Pavilion in Central Park that features objets de la Maison Chanel...  More on this... soon!  

Architecture: The Dream House

This could easily be the definition of an oasis... the private house in Arizona designed by the owners themselves, Sarah Swartz Wessel and Ethan Wessel of Tennen Studio is sited on a rocky slope planted with agave, desert mikweed and night-blooming cacti. The 10,500 SF house carries a strong influence of Asian design that is eminent to all of the work of Tennen Studio. The house is projected out from the slope, taking advantage of the mountain views mostly rather than the valley near by. Its undeniable how this modern creation has a timeless element to it... With the use of natural materials, the house is perfectly embraced within the natural landscape. The art above, a Lucien Wercollier bronze sculpture, is just icing on the cake! 

via Architectural Digest 

Architecture: a Sheik's High-Tech McMansion...

While architecture and new developments have come to a halt, due to the current economic crisis, one place that is still keeping things busy is Qatar. This private villa was designed by Project A01 architects, based in Vienna, located in the West Bay Lagoon area in Doha.  The beach house, with a very Zaha Hadid air to it, has blended modernism and heritage perfectly, by embedding local ornamental and traditional patterns in its context. 

Architecture: The Green House

We love when New York gets greener and especially it's rooftops... Above is real estate developer Matthew Blesso's 3,000 SF penthouse in Lower Manhattan, a New York heaven, that cost over $1 Million in renovation. The house now includes a herb garden, full of peppermint and spearmints, and wooden floors. 

Architecture: Minimal wonder...

...is what architect Len Marmol and partner Ron Radzinger created by renovating and expanding interior designer Carole Katleman's 1963 Beverly Hills residence. "The modern character of the house had potential, but we simplified the plan and improved the disjointed circulation patterns", says Marmol. The designers cleared out the doors, in order to connect all units to create a more spacious living area. A Frank Gehry corrugated-cardboard chair is next to Valerie Jaudon's Mound Bayou, 1978. (May 2002 of Architectural Digest)

Development: Proyecto excelente

                                   

Sited within 28 acres of private beachfront on Riviera Maya, Nizuc entails the best of the best in its location, development, team and product. Nizuc, designed by Becker Arquitectos, includes a 45-room hotel and 160-room condos, including 16 penthouses, operated by the incredible Aman Resorts. The project includes 8 buildings that are facing a lagoon. Designer, Jean-Michel Gathy, has put touches of Mayan and Asian style to complement the units that are sold furnished and will feature patios or terraces with private plunge pools.  There will be an Espa and two restaurants, one with Peruvian cuisine and the other a Mexican bistro. The resort will have eight pools, and additional amenities will include boardwalks through the mangroves, a cigar lounge, a shaded jetty with daybeds and cabanas on the private beach. Prices start at $1.3 million and completion is scheduled in October 2009. The design is so earthy and minimal that it brings the whole concept of "less is more" to another level... Let's hope this project does not stall like so many others in today's market crisis! 

Architecture: Something to light up our moods...

... and make us jealous of this New York penthouse designed by Andrew Berman. The rooftop is transformed into a magnificent garden... all surrounded by incredible views of Midtown Manhattan.   

News: Development Doom

Black Sunday they called it... the day that two of the biggest American investment banks vanished from the market... following a crash on Wall Street similar to the point drop after 9/11. Everyone is holding their breath... anticipating the events to follow... but undeniably one thing is for sure, construction will get the first hit. Developers will have to shift gears... Does this mean that Manhattan will soon produce a new development product altogether? Are many of the new anticipated extraordinary projects come to a halt? We'll watch and learn... 

Development: Rem Koolhaas's first NYC building

Thirty years after the master of architecture published the infamous, "Delirious New York", Rem Koolhaas will soon bring his own design in Manhattanville. The design of the residential tower has been kept so well under wraps that it is creating quite the stress to its fellow condo, One Madison Park. Regardless, 23e22 will be one of the most talk about buildings of the century in the Big City.  

Development: SOMething special...

ia being created on the Second Avenue and 57th Street by The World-Wide Group developers. 250East57, a 1 million Sq Ft mixed-use project, designed by SOM architects, will include the New School of Art and Design and the PS 59 - an ingenious way to earn more air rights and create a unique project. The partnership with the New York City Educational Construction Fund has created a LEED Silver project that will consist of 300 units of affordable and market-rate housing and 170,000 Sq Ft. The biggest development in the area since... maybe... Times Warner?

Development: A developer's dream project

That's what development group Property O Collection is experiencing right now.... after breaking ground on the private island Dellis Cay in the Turks and Caicos islands. Dellis Cay project will make Turks and Caicos become the most luxurious destination of the Caribbean. A Mandarin Oriental hotel, 154 serviced residences and 124 private villas designed by star architects are all featured on a 560-acre island. A marina located on a 35-acre beachfront site and a 30,000 SF spa are just an understatement... As Dr. Cem Kinay, Chairman and CEO of the Property O Collection, says "I want it to be the sexiest island in the world", one cannot blame his aspirations.

Zaha Hadid (Recipient of the 2004 Pritzker Architecture Prize) has overseen the Dellis Cay Master Plan. It is also planned that Hadid will create luxury residences, beachfront villas, a commercial building with restaurants and boutiques, and a marina, where living spaces expand to become one with the landscape, optimizing their beachfront location.

The Mandarin Oriental (as seen above) is conceived by Pierro Lisoni and will offer a fine dining restaurant, the MO bar, a cinema, library, business centre, cigar room, boutique shop and a private dining room.


The spa is set in pavillions designed by Kengo Kuma and will include 17 private treatment rooms, luxurious salon facilities and committed personal trainers. Kuma blurs the relationship between what is built and what has always been there.

Apart from the hotel, Lissoni designs the Beach House Residences, the Ocean Villas and the Beach Villas.

Shigeru Ban transforms materiality into light and emotion in the Beach Villas. The over-the-water guesthouses by a wood-deck bridge are harmoniously balanced by his Japanese minimalism. Chad Oppenheim will create a collection of inspired homes that soar to tree top level and beyond.

Carl Ettensperger, the Singapore-based designer, creates a limited collection of over-the-sea villas that are characterized by understated luxury, elegance and unobstructed views of the sea.

David Chipperfield will design a collection of villas on the north shore that will project the perfect synthesis of form, balance and absolute proportion.

Residences range from $2 million to $20 million and are aimed at those looking to purchase their third and fourth houses. The development is slated for completion at the end of 2009. And you thought all stararchitects were busy with Dubai?

Architecture: The Kaufmann House on Sale

The historic Kaufmann House in Palm Springs, California, designed by Richard Neutra in 1946 will be auctioned in a month's time at Christie's. This landmark modernist house that helped to shape postwar Modernism is estimated from $15 to $25 million dollars on the presale. Check out a showcase of the house in Christie's video.