The Petit Palau respectfully expands Barcelona’s Palau de la Música Catalana—a UNESCO World Heritage site and one of the best preserved and most used art nouveau buildings in the world, as well as one of the world’s leading concert halls—with a new service building and underground performance space. The expansion exposes the original Palau structure on all sides as had been originally intended. The new 538-seat auditorium contains state-of-the-art features that could not be retrofitted into the Palau’s main concert hall. The small—only 2,100 square meters (22,600 sf)—site on which the building was constructed between 1905 and 1908 posed numerous challenges to its execution. Architects Oscar Tusquets and Carles Díaz worked on this and previous Palau projects for more than two decades, accomplishing a major renovation and expansion effort that addressed numerous challenges while honoring architect Lluís Domènech i Muntaner’s original vision for the Palau.
Transforming the historic Portland Armory into a performing arts center required a thoughtful approach as well as creative financing and design. Built in 1891, the armory stood for many years as one of its neighborhood’s defining elements, but by the turn of the 21st century it was in dire need of repair. Armed with a sales pitch for his partners and a plan for Portland Center Stage (PCS)—the city’s premier theater company—to raise funds to buy the armory, local developer Robert Gerding set out to convert the former fortress into a permanent home for PCS by reconstructing its distinctive facade and installing a state-of-the-art theater within. The redeveloped Gerding Theater achieved LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) certification at the Platinum level, becoming the first building on the National Register of Historic Places, as well as the first performing arts center, to do so.
Although it is the second-largest 19th-century building in Portland, the armory has a footprint of only 20,000 square feet (1,858 m2). And the theater required 55,000 square feet (5,110 m2). The solution was to excavate 30 feet (9 m) below street level—requiring extensive shoring—to create enough volume to fit a 200-seat “black box” theater (placed underground), a 599-seat main theater, rehearsal spaces, and administrative offices.
Storrs Center created a new, mixed-use downtown for the town of Mansfield, Connecticut, replacing a small shopping center adjacent to the University of Connecticut. Its 11 mixed-use buildings house 626 rental apartments and 139,707 square feet of retail and office; 42 for-sale townhouses and condominiums are also on the site. New retailers, such as a supermarket, restaurants, medical center, and bookstore, create an eclectic college-town atmosphere, while a half-acre town square and 20 acres of nature preserves provide places for gathering and recreation.
The project was initiated by a partnership between the town, the university, and local business leaders. Master developer LeylandAlliance, together with apartment developer Education Realty Trust (EdR), built the $169 million retail and residential development, while the town used over $25 million in grants for on-site infrastructure and planning. Storrs Center was a finalist for the ULI Global Awards for Excellence in 2015.
One North comprises three architecturally distinctive, energy-efficient buildings, with a total of 88,857 square feet of office space and 15,712 square feet of retail space, surrounding a 14,000-square-foot common courtyard. Developed collaboratively by two developers on three parcels, One North brings a new public square and new jobs to a historically disadvantaged urban neighborhood in Portland, Oregon.
The well-insulated buildings at One North use less than half the energy of a typical new office building but were built at a comparable cost per square foot. They feature timber construction for its structural, environmental, and aesthetic qualities; the resulting office interiors have proved alluring for fast-growing creative firms.
Originally envisaged as purely a conservation and ecological mitigation initiative, the concept of the Hong Kong Wetland Park was expanded to encompass a world-class tourist attraction as well as a major conservation, educational, and recreational resource. A substantial wetlands mitigation initiative has been combined with exhibition and educational facilities on the theme of sustainable development—and all of it within a context of best sustainable building practices.
In 2004, the small fishing village of Kirinda, located on the southeast tip of Sri Lanka, was ravaged by the great Asian tsunami that killed more than 225,000 people in 11 countries. The community was devastated: hundreds of villagers were killed or left homeless, and over 90 percent of the village’s fishermen lost their livelihood in a single wave. After hearing of and viewing the effects of the tsunami, Philip Bay, the regional director of Colliers Southeast Europe, was compelled to act. Identifying Sri Lanka as one of the hardest-hit regions, Colliers International commenced discussions with the Sri Lankan government, offering to contribute its real estate expertise to the relief effort. Kirinda—one of the most thoroughly devastated communities of the island nation— was identified, and Colliers was asked to lead the reconstruction initiative. Colliers International used its expertise to finance and coordinate the effort to rebuild destroyed homes in Kirinda.
Because investing posed a high risk for private developers in this Pittsburgh neighborhood, local government played a pivotal role in early revitalization efforts. Located near downtown, East Liberty borders both a more affluent community and a lower-income community. A key first project, a home-improvement center brought residents together and kicked off two decades of revitalization. As the neighborhood transformed, perceptions of the market changed, and private developers gained the confidence to invest more heavily. The proportion of government subsidies declined, housing values rose dramatically, and crime fell by half.
In the 1990s, analysts for Aeropuerto Españoles y Navegación Aérea (AENA), the Spanish airport authority, decided that southern Europe needed a hub airport, one that would enable airlines to offer connections among continental and transatlantic flights. The idea was to develop a facility that would become a new connecting point between the Americas and Europe, one that could accommodate between 65 million and 70 million passengers annually. The new Terminal 4 at the Madrid-Barajas International Airport, completed and opened in February 2006, makes Madrid-Barajas the second-largest airport in Europe and the tenth largest in the world.
South Bank occupies a 47-hectare (116 acre), 1.2-kilometer-long (0.7 mi.) riverfront site, former home to World Expo 88, across the Brisbane River from Brisbane’s central business district. The mixed-use precinct features riverside parkland, cultural and educational facilities, 383 residences, 469 hotel rooms, 64,000 square meters (688,890 sq. ft.) of offices, and 43,200 square meters (465,000 sq. ft.) of retail, restaurant, and entertainment facilities. It attracts more than 11 million visitors a year.
The 34th Street district takes in the southern parts of Hell’s Kitchen and the Garment District and the northern part of Chelsea, and includes the Empire State Building to the east and Penn Station/Madison Square Garden to the west—in all, approximately 36 million square feet (3.4 million m2) of commercial space. At its decades-long peak, the area was famed as a shopping destination for New Yorkers and visitors. For much of the 20th century, however, it was Manhattan’s backyard, where land uses that New Yorkers would not countenance in their frontyard were allowed. Even as the city rebounded from near bankruptcy and the garbage strikes of the early 1980s, the blocks west of Seventh Avenue, beset by the familiar cycle of retail flight and urban decline, lagged behind. People still came to the area—midtown workers arriving at Penn Station, drivers using Lincoln Tunnel, tourists visiting the Empire State Building, people attending events at Madison Square Garden—but most left as fast as they could.
