This week in architecture

Margaret Hill Hunt Bridge, Dallas, Texas
The city of Dallas is getting ready to celebrate the opening of the Margaret Hill Hunt Bridge. Designed by architect Santiago Calatrava, the bridge's parabolic arch stands some 400 feet high. It is Calatrava's first vehicular bridge in the U.S. and a handsome new landmark for a city that thinks big.


The National New Deal Preservation Association
I had never heard of the NNDPA until this article in the New York Times on African American artist Sargent Johnson alerted me to its mission. Johnson was a muralist for the Works Progress Administration during the 1930s. The WPA constructed hundreds of public buildings, bridges, tunnels, and highways across the country. Many of the buildings were enhanced by large-scale murals and other artwork. The most familiar examples of WPA art are, of course, the famous post-office murals. No one knows exactly how many WPA projects are still standing. Much of the research is conducted at the community level. The National New Deal Preservation Association is working to save an important part of America's architectural and social history. You can find at more at their website. If you want to learn about artists who worked for New Deal visit the National Archive's online exhibit, A New Deal for the Arts.

Imperfect Health: The Medicalization of Architecture
I recently came across this timely exhibit at the Canadian Centre for Architecture. Anyone who's ever worked or lived in a building with poor ventilation or one infested with mold knows just how "unhealthy" some architecture can be. The Centre addresses these and other issues, as well as initiatives to make cities and buildings safer, healthier places. A book will be published this spring.

Photo Credit: Trinity River Bridges Project, Dallas, TX

Aqua, Chicago, Illinois

Aqua, Chicago, IL.

Although, I'm usually drawn to older, historical buildings, I thought I'd start this blog with something contemporary, but also historical in its own right. Aqua, an almost brand new skyscraper in Chicago, has a lot going for it. Not surprisingly it gets its name from the rippling surface. How did architect Jeanne Gang do it? By using concrete plates of slightly different sizes for each floor. It's a simple concept with dramatic results.

The finished building stands 859 feet high. The 86 floors are topped by a "green" roof to tap solar energy and collect rain water. Upon it's completion in 2009, Aqua won the Emporis Skyscraper Award. What else makes it so special? As of 2012, Aqua is still the tallest building in the world designed by a woman architect. Skyscrapers often get a bum rap these days. They're dismissed as big glass and concrete boxes with nothing impressive about them except their height. In many cases, that's true. But Aqua proves that the skyscraper can still delight and amaze us, just as the first tall buildings did over a hundred years ago. It's fitting that Aqua was built for Chicago, home of some of the most well-known skyscrapers in America, including the Willis Tower (formerly known as the Sears Tower), and the Lake Shore Drive Apartments by architectural great, Mies van de Rohe.

Gang's talents haven't gone unnoticed. She's won a slew of awards, among them a MacArthur "genius" grant in 2011 for her innovative work in architecture. Aqua is one cool building designed by one of the coolest architects around.

Want find out more? Follow these links:
Aqua at Emporis for vital stats and more pics.
"Jeanne Gang: The Art of Nesting," a profile at Metropolitan Magazine by Stephen Zacks
Take a tour of Aqua at the Council on Tall Buildings and Urban Habitat.
If you want to learn more about the history of skyscrapers, past and present, read Skyscrapers: A History of the World's Most Extraordinary Buildings by Judith Dupre.

Photo Credits: Studio Gang Architects