Pavilion, Chicago Millennium Park, Zaha Hadid and Ben Van Berkel
The long-awaited designs of two pavilions for Chicago’s Millennium park by Pritzker prize-winner Zaha Hadid and Dutch architect Ben Van Berkel have been unveiled in honour of the 100th anniversary of the Burnham Plan, the 1909 master plan for Chicago by Daniel Burnham.
Made from an aluminium frame and an elastic silver tent fabric, Hadid’s imaginative design reaches beyond its modest budget.
“You’re not confined to look at space in one given way. It gives freedom to your imagination — yet references Burnham’s ideas and the context of the city. I think, in terms of its scale to its surroundings, its context in the park and the skyline of Chicago, it will be very exciting,” she told the Chicago Tribune.
Millennium Park is quickly becoming known for architectural statements, including the Pritzker Pavilion and BP Bridge by Frank Gehry and a neighbouring Renzo Piano designed building for the Art Institute of Chicago. The park is also home to British artist Anish Kapoor’s Cloud Gate public sculpture, affectionately nicknamed The Bean because of its legume-like shape.
The pavilion opens on 19 June and will remain in place until 31 October.
Towner Gallery, Eastbourne, Rick Mather Architects
The British seaside, more famous for boules and bingo than cutting-edge building design, is enjoying an architectural renaissance.
Rick Mather’s seafront Towner Gallery opened this month to a crowd of more than 1,000 people. The $17.5 (£8.6) million contemporary art gallery is clad in a solid metal that reflects the neighbouring Grade II listed Congress Theatre, thereby emphasizing the theatre rather than detracting from it. The seaside heritage stakes its claim in the art-deco curves and sail-like forms of the design.
The buildings creates permanent storage for the Towner Gallery’s sizeable collection, the new space will allow the sizeable assortment of work to be on full view to the public for the very first time.
Mather’s design is “neither iconic, nor tricksily ironic”, the Independent says, but a restrained modernist statement that could help establish Eastbourne as a rival to St. Ives on the arts scene.
Coney Island amphitheatre, New York, Grimshaw Architects
Images of the $65 (£32) million amphitheatre for the Big Apple’s Coney Island have been released by the architects just weeks after it was announced that $20 (£10) million of the US government’s stimulus package will be invested in replacing parts of the Coney Island boardwalk. The 3.5ha project in Asser Levy Park is part of a large-scale renovation of the New York holiday haunt.
The design takes into account the seasonal use of the performance space, with 3,000 of the 8,000 seats designed to be removed during the winter months to create extra space for park use. The remaining 5,000 seats will be replaced by an ice rink.
The design has been nicknamed The Pringle by local residents after its sweeping roof that was inspired by a bicycle wheel.
A growing group of unhappy residents are reportedly trying to block the project in court, calling it a waste of tax-payers’ money in current financial times, and have appointed a well-known civil rights attorney, Normal Siegel, to fight the development.
