Smoothly bending to increase efficiency, wayfinding, and connectivity, the tripartite design merges terminal and concourse into a single building that is uniquely evocative of the city of Chicago. At the branches’ confluence, a dramatic Oculus welcomes visitors under a six-pointed glass skylight whose geometry references the Chicago flag.
Surrounding the Oculus is a rhythmic, pleated roof of long-span steel trusses. Clad in wood and emphasizing the building’s curving form, the pleats are spaced and oriented to maximize natural daylight and energy efficiency. From inside, their directionality gently guides passengers through the space. When seen from above, the building’s form greets passengers with an easily recognizable, distinctly Chicago icon: the city’s “Y symbol,” or Municipal Device, that represents the branching Chicago River.
The roof is supported by Y-shaped columns spaced over 100 feet apart that distribute the structural load, maximizing open circulation and ensuring flexibility to accommodate change over the terminal’s lifespan.
A light-filled Mezzanine above the concourse houses ticketing and security for departing passengers. Culminating in a dramatic Overlook, the Mezzanine offers expansive views of the airfield beyond and of the neighborhood and gates below.
Studio ORD is a joint venture comprised of the following firms: Corgan Associates, Inc., Milhouse Engineering and Construction, Inc., STL Architects, Inc., Solomon Cordwell Buenz & Associates, Inc., and Studio Gang Architects, Ltd.
Images from Studio ORD
The idea for an Esplanade des Particules came jointly from the République et Canton de Genève, CERN and the Commune de Meyrin. A competition was launched in 2011 for a redesign of the Route de Meyrin intended to showcase the public entrance to CERN. The landscape architects Studio Paolo Bürgi of Ticino won this international competition with their design for a large space dedicated to pedestrians and sustainable modes of transport, connecting CERN’s Reception to the Globe of Science and Innovation, a symbol of CERN and of sustainable development, donated to the Organization by the Swiss Confederation. A public space aimed at sharing CERN’s creative and dynamic atmosphere, with local and international visitors alike.
40% of the project is financed by the Swiss Confederation in the framework of the urban development project and the remaining 60% is split between the Canton de Genève, CERN and the Commune de Meyrin. Work started on April 2017 and will last for a period of 16 months.
PLANS & DRAWINGS © STUDIO BÜRGI
Location: Chicago, Illinois
Program: Joint Use Consolidated Rental Car, Public Parking, Bus + ATS Facility
Status: In Design, Expected Completion 2018
Collaborative Partners: Ross Barney Architects
Cost: $400,000,000
Size: 3,000,000 gsf
The consolidated car rental facility (CONRAC) and parking structure is a multimodal transportation center combining airline, light transit, rail, bus, shuttle as well as both rental and privately owned vehicles at one location to facilitate travel within the Chicago region and to destinations throughout the world. Three (3) floors are dedicated to rental car operations, three (3) floors to public parking, and additional floors of public parking in the future. At more than 3 million gross square feet, the facility will become one of the largest structures in the Midwest. The functional and visual focal point of the building is the Customer Service Center and the Airport Transit System station. The design combines these two operations into one space that creates another “terminal” for the airport.
At its core, O’Hare is about speed, movement, connections and transitions. The exterior is designed to exhibit these qualities with an envelope that responds and changes to the both the environment and as the person travels in relationship to the building. Functionally, the CONRAC and public parking needs to be a permeable container with natural ventilation to avoid expensive mechanical systems. The exterior will take advantage of daylighting but also reduce the light pollution from the artificial lighting and vehicle headlights. The exterior screening is a low cost solution that provides depth, shadow and movement meeting all the functional criteria while transforming a utilitarian structure into something beautiful and dynamic.
To humanize the structured parking, the facility features two (2) 60-foot wide courtyards planted with evergreen and deciduous trees. The courtyards’ many benefits include providing natural light, ventilation, and wayfinding. The openings aid in orienting the visitor by breaking-up each level of the floor plate into three (3) sections. They act as visual landmarks and an obvious circulation path to the CSC and ATS station. In addition, each courtyard is unique visually to cue individuals to which end of the facility they parked their car.
The objective of Raumzeit on creating the Architecture School for the University of Kassel is the facilitation of well-lit and naturally ventilated workplaces with low energy consumption and moderate investment costs. It is proposed for this purpose, to realize 22,600 sq/ft with direct outside air and high insulation facades optimizing the ratio of envelope area to volume. Through the use of ventilation systems with heat recovery, the ventilation losses are further reduced. By the selected building insulation German standards it could also be realized in the passive house standards. It remains important, despite supportive use of technology in temperate seasons, such as in spring and fall to ensure a purely natural function of the building. The reduced consumption can be met by means of ecological co-generation and the use of renewable energy.
Images and photos from Raumzeit Architekten
The CTA is planning to rehabilitate the Illinois Medical District (IMD) rail station into an architectural landmark. The Station spans between Damen Avenue and Paulina Street within the median of the Eisenhower Expressway (Interstate 290). The Station is a gateway to the Illinois Medical District and will serve as a focal point for the surrounding community and developments in the area.
The Station has a 600 foot long island platform with a continuous canopy above. The on-grade platform is accessed from three elevated entrances adjacent to IDOT bridges over Interstate 290.
TranSystems & Gensler competition project.
Breck School, an independent K through 12 private school of suburban Minneapolis, Minnesota commissioned Holabird & Root to perform master planning, a redesign of the overall site, renovation and expansion of existing buildings, and construction of new spaces, including playing fields and green spaces. The master plan included four phases of design. Phase one entailed the demolition and new construction of the Upper School (High School), Media Center, science facilities, and classrooms. Holabird & Root also analyzed the existing mechanical system and charted a plan for ongoing upgrades through the various phases of the work.
The new classrooms are designed in clusters to offer options for meeting in small and large groups and to provide spaces for individual learning with faculty members. Holabird & Root offered multiple design options through visual tools to ensure the site will be efficient for the school and able to accommodate additional growth in the future.
The Drachman Design-Build Coalition (DDBC) is a non-profit housing provider that links College of Architecture faculty and student technical expertise with the surrounding community to produce prototypes of energy-efficient, low cost dwellings. DDBC Residence 1 is a rammed earth and steel frame dwelling that houses a family with an annual income below 80% of the mean for Tucson, Arizona. This design was drawn and constructed by students of the School of Architecture at The University of Arizona and serves as an energy-conscious prototype for the long, narrow lots with predominantly east-west solar exposure so commonly found in Tucson.
The south and most of the east wall is rammed earth as well, with the protected north wall and east wall under the carport roof built as steel frame with operable windows or translucent polycarbonate sheathing. A large, sliding door panel opens the living room up to the carport space, which doubles the public space for the eight months of the year when it is pleasant to live outside in Tucson.
The construction materials were chosen for low maintenance as well as thermal properties. Rammed earth is sealed and never has to be painted, plastered, or patched. The steel roof and wall panels are warranted for 30 years, and the steel framing is termite-proof. The polycarbonate panels are stronger than glass and are warranted for ten years against UV discoloration.
In response to current economic and environmental issues the Department of Energy has sponsored the Solar Decathlon, a competition that tasks 20 successful international university teams to design and build a solar energy efficient dwelling.
In creating full scale prototypes there is an advancement in the state of solar technology by exploring methods such as: energy harvesting, adaptive building envelopes, automated control systems, integrated greenhouse, prefabrication and modularity.
The Center for Optical Realities (C.O.R.) is the product of a construction documents course utilizing three dimensional drawings for superior translation of idea to built form. The full CD set was drawn by a group of five; all work shown was completed using (BIM) Autodesk Revit.
The program for the 5,740 sf. C.O.R. is an adaptive re-use of the NuWay Market to provide an art gallery, that focused on photography that “layered” moments in time, in which visual and digital media artists can display exhibits focused on ideas of time and place, the permanent and ephemeral. In order to celebrate this theme a series of polycarbonate lenses filter light into the building.
In order to comply with a specific requirement or a direct request, architects and engineers often seek a design for their buildings or structures that complies with specific environmental performance factors: providing light, shade and shadows, in order to dilute the limits and conflicts between the exterior and the interior spaces.
Therefore, the main purpose of this project is to analyze the openings that can be created by cutting fabric. This research investigates textile material behavior for the design of an opening. Taking into consideration the quality of light, aesthetics and physical properties of the structure.
Through this research, Paulina has been chosen as the recipient of the 2010 Martin Roche Travel Scholarship from the AIA Chicago Foundation, to study technical textiles during the summer of 2010 under the supervision of Dr. Werner Sobek at the University of Stuttgart, Germany.
Patent: http://www.google.com/patents/US20130139976
