DEPAUL UNIVERSITY BASKETBALL ARENA BY CESAR PELLI

Architecture firm Pelli Clarke Pelli was selected to design the new $195 million DePaul University basketball arena in Chicago. Pelli Clarke Pelli designed the newly opened Theater School at DePaul University (see project) and the planned Wolf Point redevelopment along the Chicago River.

The design, a structure with a glass-walled topped with an undulating roof for 10,000-seat with spaces for restaurants, coffeehouses and retail shops along its perimeter, was recommended by a nine-person advisory board that included three representatives each from the authority, the city and DePaul. It was guided by three design experts.

The arena, also expected to host concerts, graduations and assemblies for conventions, will front on Cermak Road to give easy access to fans who choose to walk from a CTA Green Line station expected to open a couple of blocks to the west in late 2014.

City officials want to build the arena by late 2016 as the centerpiece of a planned McCormick Place entertainment district envisioned as having two additional hotels, restaurants and bars.

The design aims to dispel neighbors' concerns that the arena would be a nondescript concrete box that does little to enliven the area, except for creating traffic jams and rowdiness on game days.

THEATRE SCHOOL OF DEPAUL UNIVERSITY BY CÉSAR PELLI

The Theatre School celebrates the formal opening and dedication of our new artistic home at 2350 N Racine Avenue.  Designed by renowned architecht César Pelli and his ­firm Pelli Clarke Pelli Architects, the design of the building was informed by its dual function: to be a performance and public space, as well as a conservatory of all theatrical disciplines.

"Emphasizing openness and transparency, the building puts the excitement of a theater education on view for the neighborhood. The five-​story building is a composition of rectangular forms clad in limestone, translucent glass and transparent glass. Projecting from the building at the corner of Racine and Fullerton is the flexible theater, serving as a sign for the university.

The north façade softly glows at night, a beacon for the Theatre School. Similar to a scrim, the translucent glass wall can reveal the 100-​seat theater behind it. Behind-​the-​scenes activity will be visible to both theatergoers and passersby. Floor-​to-​ceiling glass on the ground floor will place the scene shop, metal shop and paint shops on display for the Lincoln Park neighborhood.

Theatergoers gathering in the glass-​enclosed lobby for the 250-​seat thrust theater will also be visible from the street. Visitors coming to a show on the fourth-​floor theater will pass classrooms and rehearsal rooms, further minimizing distinctions between performance and work spaces.

To engage pedestrians, façades are composed of vertical bands of glass and limestone that vary in width. The building mass will step back at both Fullerton and Racine to make the building appear smaller in scale.

Students and faculty will enter the building midblock at Racine, which connects with paths to the heart of the DePaul campus. The school entrance opens into a lobby, lounge and concessions space shared with the public entrance at the corner of Fullerton and Racine.

The thrust theater lobby is the “living room” of the building, where theater patrons and students will congregate. Throughout the building, wide corridors, open lounges and rooftop courtyards will encourage interaction between students and faculty and among theatergoers.

An interior courtyard will bring light, views and air to offices and design studios. Rooftop courtyards will be surrounded by all elements of the Theatre School — administration, classroom and rehearsal spaces, public lobbies, faculty spaces, and the script library. 

The building is being designed for LEED certification. Strategies to reduce energy consumption include frit glass throughout the building, daylighting for offices, design studios, and classrooms, and a green roof." Description from the architects.

“This building will be delightful to use, not only for the Theatre School, but for audiences,” said Cesar Pelli, FAIA, senior principal of Pelli Clarke Pelli Architects. “We wanted everyone to be able to see the excitement of a theater education.”

Location: Chicago, USA

Architects: Pelli Clarke Pelli Architects

Partner: Cannon Design

Theatre Planning Consultant: Schuler Shook

Acoustics Consultant: Kirkegaard Associates

Area: 165,000 square foot

Cost: $72 million

Year: 2013

Client: DePaul University

ABSOLUTE WORLD TOWERS WINS EMPORIS SKYSCRAPER AWARD 2012

The world's most renowned architecture prize for skyscrapers, the Emporis Skyscraper Award, goes this year to the Absolute World Towersin Mississauga, Canada, (see project). The two towers were selected by an international jury of experts from over 300 skyscrapers at least 100 meters tall completed last year. The award, given by Emporis, is being presented for the thirteenth time this year.

Absolute WorldTowers, which form part of a five-building complex and were designed by the architectural practices MAD and Burka Architects, won over the jury primarily through their unmistakable design: "The way the two structures twist organically by up to 8 degrees per floor is not just a superb technical achievement, but also a refreshing change to the set forms of high-rise routine," stated the panel of experts in explaining the choice of the pair of towers, 176 and 158 meters tall, as the winner.

The second-placed project is Al Bahr Towers in Abu Dhabi, designed by Aedas Architects. Due to its innovative facade, the skyscraper complex convinces in terms of both climate and design criteria. The outer skin of the facades is rotated by computer in response to the sun's position, leading to a substantial reduction in thermal energy inside the buildings. In designing the towers, the architects drew inspiration from Arab mashrabiya windows – sun and privacy screens found in traditional Islamic architecture.

The expert jury voted Burj Qatar, a 238 meter tall skyscraper in Doha, into third place. Designed by Ateliers Jean Nouvel, it is the building's exceptional facade design that stands out. The metal mesh facade, whose design – as with Al Bahr Towers – draws on traditional mashrabiya windows and is intended to contribute to protection from the sun, reveals a complex pattern at close quarters. The imposing effect of the ornamental facade reaches its full expression under the dome that tops the cylinder-shaped skyscraper.

The eighth-placed project is Unicredit Tower, designed by Cesar Pelli of Pelli Clarke Pelli Architects. The tower include Italy’s tallest building, visible from more than six miles away. Spiraling upward, the 31- ​story asymmetrical tower culminates in a sculptural stainless steel spire. The building is clad in reflective glass. Its narrow, curved forms enclose a circular piazza, a new public space that links the buildings to their surroundings.

Facing the piazza, the facades incorporate sunshades, emphasizing the buildings’ fluid shape. At the street level, the tower is clad in stone. The tower is part of complex of three office towers “and their podium are the largest components of Porta Nuova Garibaldi, a mixed-​use development north of Milan’s city center. Pelli Clarke Pelli Architects designed the master plan for the 7-​hectare development, which creates a new and grand gateway to the city” says Cesar Pelli.

TRANSBAY TRANSIT TOWER BY CESAR PELLI

Designed by renowned architect Cesar Pelli, construction of San Francisco’s Transbay Transit Tower is now officially underway.

 

A mixed use skyscraper that will reside atop the Transbay Terminal — a future rail hub that developers are billing as the west coast equivalent to Grand Central Station — Pelli’s sleek tower will reach 61 stories, 1070 feet into the sky, making it the tallest building west of the Mississippi River.

“The Transbay Transit Tower and neighboring Transbay Transit Center are powerful individual buildings designed with a common civic purpose—to create the 21st century gateway to San Francisco and a state-of-the-art place marker on its skyline,” said Fred Clarke, senior principal of Pelli Clarke Pelli Architects. “Embodying sustainable, transit-based development, the tower combined with the transit center  is a model for the future of our cities.”

The tower takes the timeless form of the obelisk and has a slender, tapering silhouette. The walls are composed of clear glass with pearlescent white, metal accents. These horizontal and vertical accents gradually taper in depth to accentuate the curved glass corners. The walls rise past the top floor to form a transparent crown that appears to dissolve into the sky. Carved into the tower top is a vertical facet that will be lit at night. Like the transit center, the design for the tower emphasizes sustainability and has a LEED Gold objective.