Art Gallery Design | Firstsite Contemporary Art | Colchester | United Kingdom |

As the first effort in the revitalization of Colchester’s historic St. Botolph’s Quarter, firstsite:newsite anchors the long-term development plan of an under-utilized district. Rafael Viñoly Architects won the design competition for this new visual arts facility by expanding on the project brief, which would have destroyed the historic character of St. Anne’s Church. Once the construction site was moved eastward, the new museum was designed to create extra public space and parkland and to maintain and showcase local heritage sites, including early Roman ruins, while making a visually striking architectural statement.

To the north, a crescent-shaped building wraps around an eighteenth-century Victorian garden. The building roof, which slopes slightly upward in line with the site topography, culminates in a monumental portico that frames the lobby with full-height glazing. To the south, the outside arc of the crescent faces a small Victorian garden and an intact Roman wall that defines the site boundary. Modern in both form and cladding (the exterior consists of a distinctive gold-hued skin of copper-and-aluminum alloy panels), the building adopts the site’s axial geometry and the approximate height of the neighboring buildings. A concrete raft foundation allows the structure to rest on the ground and leave buried archaeological remains undisturbed, with no deep excavation required......more

Rafael Viñoly | Kennedy Institute | Boston

By C. J. Hughes

Construction is scheduled to begin this fall on a center conceived by the late Senator Edward Kennedy to teach students about the inner workings of government.
On July 28, the Edward M. Kennedy Institute for the United States Senate finally unveiled the design of its forthcoming home, to be built on the Boston waterfront alongside the John F. Kennedy Presidential Library and Museum.

The $60 million project, designed by Rafael Viñoly Architects, is slated to be finished in 2013.
Viñoly won a competition to design the building last year.
Although the firm’s selection wasn’t publicly announced, Senator Kennedy was apprised of the decision before he died on August 25, 2009, from brain cancer, at the age of 77, according to an institute spokesman. While its exact size is not yet final, the building will include 40,000 square feet of public space, says Viñoly architect Martin Hopp, the project’s director.

A replica of Kennedy’s Capitol Hill office, with his desk and framed pictures, will be featured inside. The facility will also contain classrooms, galleries, and a scaled-down replica of the Senate chamber. These elements elevate the project beyond mere memorial status, says Hopp, adding, “we’re excited about the civic role this building will play.” The selection of Viñoly was made by the University of Massachusetts, which owns the institute’s two-acre site. With large basic geometric forms and cast-concrete walls, the building will strongly echo its next-door neighbor, the Kennedy library, whose cylinder-and-wedge contours were created by I.M. Pei in 1979. Also near the site are a handful of mostly brick buildings that are part of the university’s 160-acre campus.......Archrecord

Curve - Leicester Theatre & Performing Arts Centre | Rafael Vinoly

Architects : Rafael Vinoly
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