Displaying items by tag: concrete

At the 11th hour, a British heritage organization has renewed a bid to save a major Brutalist building from destruction. Twentieth Century Society filed a report with English Heritage last week arguing for the preservation of Robin Hood Gardens, Dezeen reported. The Alison and Peter Smithson–designed social housing project in East London is slated to be torn down and replaced by a new residential development.

Built in 1972, the prefabricated concrete building is considered one of the prime examples of Brutalist architecture in the UK.

More than $110-million will be poured into ‎a major “facelift” of Canada’s National Arts Centre, an iconic performing venue in the nation’s capital constructed half a century ago.

The renovation adds a 21st century twist to the 1969 building, known for its brutalist architectural style, which features exterior and interior walls clad with concrete.

A significant portion of this upgrade is installing a glass and metal enclosure on multiple floors around a significant portion of the existing building, creating new wings with views and greatly expanding the venue’s capacity for meetings and events.

Sometimes it's not the "what" that makes architecture such a challenge, it's the "where." And for Jeff Sheppard, location added monumental pressure to the task of designing the new Denver Art Museum Administration Building.

The Bannock Street lot was humble and squeezed right between the two highest-profile pieces of modern architecture in the city: DAM's $110 million Hamilton Building addition, designed by Daniel Libeskind in 2006, and the $29 million Clyfford Still Museum, a concrete wonder dreamed up by Brad Cloepfil in 2011.

How does a local guy — even, arguably, Denver's most creative, budget-conscious, building designer — compete with that? With an $11 million budget?

The Getty Conservation Institute in Los Angeles and the Salk Institute for Biological Studies in La Jolla are teaming up to develop careful approaches to help conserve one of Louis Kahn’s most iconic buildings -- the Salk Biological Institute campus plaza. Commissioned by Dr. Jonas Salk, inventor of the Polio vaccine, in 1959, the Salk Institute was completed in 1965 and remains one of the most celebrated pieces of modern architecture.

Constructed mainly of concrete and wood, the structure’s close proximity to the Pacific Ocean poses unique conservation challenges -- particularly for its unique teak “window walls,” one of the building’s defining architectural elements.

Christie’s will be holding an online-only auction of works by Andy Warhol (1928-1987) from February 26 through March 5, 2013. The sale, which aims to grant a broader audience the chance to own a Warhol original, will benefit the Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts.

125 paintings, drawings, photographs, and prints by Warhol, an art market powerhouse, will be available. The works feature a wide range of pre-sale estimates, spanning from $600 to $70,000. The online format allows interested buyers to browse available works, make bids, and receive notifications by phone or email about the sale and status of their bids.

Although this is Christie’s first online-only Warhol sale, the auction house will be hosting more throughout 2013 as part of an ongoing partnership with the Warhol Foundation. The weeklong digital sale marks the first time Christie’s has ever offered online-only Post War and Contemporary art sales.

Highlights from Christie’s online sale include one of Warhol’s famous Campbell’s soup cans filled with concrete (circa 1964), four gelatin silver prints of Steven Spielberg stitched together (circa 1976-1986), and a graphite on paper drawing titled Madonna and Child (circa 1981).