Magazin

The state of Missouri is crisscrossed by a number of rivers making their way to the Mississippi, a few that have been dammed to create reservoirs and lakes that are also popular vacation spots. The snaking Table Rock Lake, formed by damming the White River, is an especially popular area near...

The U.S. General Service Administration's Design Excellence Program celebrates its 20th anniversary this year. Since 1994 the program has streamlined the selection of quality architects and led to notable office buildings, courthouses and other facilities. One building that predates the...

As local pharmacies across the United States fall to ubiquitous chains like CVS, it's refreshing to see this nearly 70-year-old pharmacy in suburban Detroit thrive and reinvent itself. Architecture is an important element in the latter, from the façade to the layout and the...

This head office for a human resource development and networking company was designed by Akitoshi Ukai of Aichi-based architecture firm AUAU. When the company decided to move the center of its operations to a site surrounded by paddy fields in Toyota City, client and architect seized the...

Think of the areas in and around Boston and most likely institutions of higher education come to mind: Harvard University, MIT, Boston University, to name a few. Massachusetts College of Art and Design (MassArt) is relatively small in comparison but a new 20-story tower gives the college...

Baltimore has a reputation for crime, poverty and drugs, thanks to statistically high rates of each but also the city's portrayal in popular culture, most notably the television show The Wire. A major redevelopment area in East Baltimore attempts to address these concerns, and a...

Being an architect means acknowledging that even the smallest things are important. This position comes to mind when considering Architectural Artisans' design of a new accessible entry at the side of the Third Lutheran Church in Louisville. The small limestone portal invites visitors...

Manhattan is a small city in northeast Kansas that is affectionately called "The Little Apple" and is home to Kansas State University. While the K-State campus is predominantly limestone, buildings off campus are a more varied lot, such as the existing orange-brick Manhattan High...

In honor of its 125th anniversary, the Principal Financial Group helped create the Principal Riverwalk in its hometown of Des Moines, Iowa. The 1.2-mile (2-km) path uses landscapes, pedestrian bridges and public art to connect the east and west sides of the Des Moines River in the city's...

This home for a family of five is located on Amami Oshima Island, midway between Kyushu and Okinawa in southern Japan. Although the lot is close to both ocean and mountains, its immediate neighborhood is built up with three-story apartments. Architect

Pro bono, which literally means "for the good," is increasingly seen in the world of architecture as a source of excellent design. Many firms accept pro bono commissions as a means of expanding their creativity, recruiting and retaining employees, and creating strong ties with a...

Reusing old buildings for new uses is one of the most environmentally responsible practices for architecture this century. A building need not be architecturally or culturally significant to be saved, and Congregation Or Hadash Synagogue in suburban Atlanta is a case in point. The setting...

How a building expresses the functions that it houses is just one of the many considerations architects need to take into account in the design process. Very few contemporary buildings make bold statements derived from function, but Arquitectonica's design for FIU's School of...

Designed to serve as both studio and residence for ceramics artist Koichiro Isezaki, architect Tamotsu Teshima’s House in Inbe blends quietly into its surroundings in the city of Bizen, Okayama Prefecture. Teshima’s work is characterized by attractive designs that draw their power...

Historic structures provide continuity with the past while providing canvases for contemporary interventions. In the restoration and expansion of an early-19th-century house in Lewes, Delaware, architect Robert M. Gurney echoed the three-story gable form of the original in the four...

A large part of incorporating sustainability into architecture is setting goals, many of them tied to carbon neutrality and looking decades in the future – 2030 is probably the most popular target year. At The Hotchkiss School in Connecticut, 2020 is the year for achieving a carbon...

Boulder is about 30 miles north and west of Denver, situated right at the edge of the Rocky Mountains. This proximity to the Rockies makes the natural peaks a desirable place for recreation but also something to appreciate and even emulate through architecture. Framing views of the mountains...

Santa Monica, California's Brooks + Scarpa Architects is known for a strong commitment to sustainable architecture that is often expressed on the outside of their buildings. Colorado Court, an apartment building from 2002, is an early example, covered in solar panels and 100% energy...

Sugamo Shinkin Bank is a credit union that strives to provide first-rate hospitality to its customers in accordance with its motto: “We take pleasure in serving happy customers.” The unfortunate fact of the matter, however, is that most people feel more tension than joy when they walk...

As we've explored elsewhere, architecture students learn as much from the environments they work in as from their professors, so its no wonder that architecture schools pay attention to their "spaces for...

If one thing will shape the course of the 21st century it is water, which will rise along coastlines but become scarce in other parts of the world. One area that is used to the scarcity of water is the American Southwest, particularly Arizona. With such little rainfall and a straining on...

Californian architect duo Sharon Johnston and Mark Lee are one of the few studios that, though modest in size, manages to survive in a field dominated by the large American offices. Since being founded in 1998, Johnston Marklee has undertaken small commissions that combine the best of...

All states are at the mercy of natural elements to some degree, but none as much as Alaska, the 49th state and the only one entirely north of the 49th parallel, which forms the U.S. border with Canada. The harsh and sometimes dramatic effects of Mother Nature were the inspiration for...

What looks like a traditional, yet pint-sized house on Main Street in York, Alabama, turns out to be a transformable theater for the local residents, a public space where an abandoned house once stood. Artist Matthew Mazzotta's "Open House" taps into the country's housing...

The architects at Case Real turned a long-abandoned kominka, or traditional-style house, into a modern dormitory in this project on the island of Teshima in the Seto Inland Sea. The dormitory is used by the staff at Café Restaurant Il Vento, which itself was presented as a work of art by...

The last project in our 50-state, A-to-Z (make that A-to-W – Alabama to Wyoming) tour of architecture in the United States is a modern residence in Jackson, Wyoming, designed by Carney Logan Burke Architects. The residence sits on a butte above the town, a site that gives the residents...

A site determines much of a building's form and orientation, and such is clearly the case with the aptly named Ridge House in Berkeley Springs, West Virginia. GriD architects' design features two intersecting linear bars, one positioned to strategically frame views of the river and...

This month’s Building Review takes a closer look at Kyushu Sangyo University’s campus landscaping, by Fukuoka-based landscaping company Design Network. The park-like campus is designed to provide a diversity of relaxed spaces that students move through and spend time...

Immediately adjacent to last year's Building of the Year-winning Masonic Amphitheatre is the Smith...

Utah is easily one of the most beautiful states in America, thanks to its diversity of natural features—from the Bonneville Salt Flats and Great Salt Lake to Canyonlands National Park and Rocky Mountains Basin. The latter provides the gorgeous setting for Adobe's campus in the Utah...

JUUL House, a two-generation residence designed by NKS Architects, sits adjacent to a river running through the suburbs of a small city in Fukuoka Prefecture. The client, a musician involved with music education in the local community, wanted a home that could also function as a small music hall....

As concrete buildings in the United States from the 1960s and 70s are faced with either demolition or renovation, hopefully projects like the Blaffer Art Museum at the University of Houston point the way to the latter. WORKac's small yet dramatic addition and renovation gives the museum a...

The small market town of Baumgartenberg in the Machland in Upper Austria is a fine example of maximum ambivalence: due to the economic price of land and the good transport connections to the conurbation around Linz a number of industries and businesses of considerable size have settled here, the...

Tennessee is a state with diverse natural features as—from west to east—fertile plantations give way to rolling hills and then the rugged landscape of the Appalachian Mountains. Sanders Pace Architecture designed a house within the latter for a young couple's first home. The...

Modern architecture is a rarity in what Knowles Blunck Architecture describes as the "McMansions, strip malls, and the occasional ‘western’ themed buildings" of South Dakota. The development where this house sits even has a form-based code that prefers...

Rhode Island, tucked between Connecticut and Massachusetts on the Atlantic Ocean, is easily the smallest state in the United States, with only 1,000 square miles of land. Its proximity to New York City makes it a desirable location for weekend houses, such as the Watch Hill House for a family...