Owens Corning World Headquarters

1997 - Toledo, OH, USA

Owens Corning World Headquarters

Toledo, OH, USA

CLIENT Owens Corning / STATUS Completed 1997 / SIZE 35 acres / DESIGN TEAM Balmori Associates

A historic regional form of landscape is restored as a way to link a building to its surroundings. Known as 'oak openings' in prairie planting, this form of landscape was present in Ohio before the arrival of Columbus. Balmori Associates' design scheme conceived of the Owens Corning World Headquarters project as an opportunity to restore this landscape form the area, an island in the Maumee River which was formerly a railroad site and then a dump site. The headquarters is sited on this island, in the heart of downtown Toledo. The oak opening landscape surrounds the whole complex; an intersecting trail for joggers and sightseers runs by the river's edge and through this landscape.

A secluded gated courtyard nestled among the main buildings offers a garden landscape as a contrast to the oak opening prairie outside and provides protected seating during severe seasons.

The meandering willow and dogwood hedge provides enclosure for each individual garden. The arching brick path and parallel row of oak trees define the edge between the courtyard gardens and the great lawn. Outdoor summer concerts are one of the several types of events taking place on the landscape's great lawn.

The oak openings prairie is now established. One section has been geometrically planted with beds of wildflowers, which will eventually disperse their seeds over the whole site

University of California at Riverside

2006 - Riverside, CA, USA

University of California at Riverside

Riverside, CA, USA

CLIENT University of California Riverside / STATUS Completed 2006 / SIZE 145,000 SF / DESIGN TEAM Balmori Associates

Citrus trees flank an inlaid path that winds through a new courtyard for the arts, unifying the campus buildings, carving out a space for respite, and creating a historical link in a campus originally dedicated to agricultural research on oranges and grapefruits for the California citrus industry. Historical citruses were grown specifically for the project. The path is inscribed with lines of poetry that carry special significance for landscape and the site: Marilou Awiakta's Motheroot, and an excerpt from Virgil's Georgics.

Ronald Reagan Washington Airport

1999 - Washington, DC, USA

Ronald Reagan Washington Airport

Washington, DC, USA

CLIENT Metropolitan Washington Airports / STATUS Completed 1999 / DESIGN TEAM Balmori Associates/ Pelli Clarke Pelli/ Leo A. Daly Engineers

A landscape masterplan, terminal landscape and terraces, and roadway landscape were all implemented at the Washington National Airport simultaneously with the construction of a new million square foot terminal and original Main Terminal renovation.  Balmori's design addresses the varying site and programmatic conditions of the individual terminals and their connecting roadway while unifying the entire airport facility. 

A linear landscape fronts the new terminal building with a trellised serpentine concrete wall and planted slope. Terraced plantings of evergreen hollies, magnolias, weeping forsythia and wisteria provide green scenery for waiting passengers in the baggage claim area. Passengers waiting for flights can rest in the landscaped rooms provided by two outdoor terraces shaded by wisteria in the trellises overhead.  Linkages between the GW Parkway and airport parking facilities are improved and a direct link to the Washington Metro is provided.

Cedar Lake Park

1995 - Minneapolis, MN, USA

Cedar Lake Park

Minneapolis, MN, USA

CLIENT Cedar Lake Park Association / STATUS Completed 1995 / SIZE 133 acres / DESIGN TEAM Balmori Associates

Site-specific interventions occur throughout the length of a linear park, functioning as special connectors and markers, their forms using the iconography of threads and spirals.

Balmori Associates was asked to work with the Cedar Lake Trail's community group to select sites of special significance along the six-mile long path that traverses the Minneapolis suburbs, city center and Mississippi River. 

The first intervention is a spiral of trees in the triangle formed by the intersection of several paths.  Considered to be the heart of the linear park, this quiet space is to be memorialized by the active participation of the trail patrons, who will plant and commemorate the trees with plaques.

In the second intervention, an existing mound adjacent to Cedar Lake is slightly modified into a truncated cone. Two interlacing paths are inscribed into its surface, weaving up the landform.  A concave peak accommodates gnomons to indicate the path of the sun and its solstices.

A third intervention includes the creation of a mound that negotiates and crosses the railroad tracks by way of a spiral pathway that descends the earthwork and wraps around Spring Lake, bringing trail users into the city.

Underline

2015 - Miami, FL, USA

Underline

Miami, FL, USA

CLIENT Friends of the Underline / STATUS 2nd Stage Finalist 2015 / DESIGN TEAM Balmori Associates, Interboro, NADAA, Cure&Penabad, R&R Studios, Mobility in Chain, Bruce Mau Design, Transsolar, HR&A, Lisa Hammer, Geomantic Design, David Plummer & Associates

IMAGINE A THICK TROPICAL GREEN LINE creating a shady arbor snaking its way through Miami city rising up to the Metro station in parts, sinking to canal level in others, weaving its path around and under the Metro line.

IMAGINE ITS CHANGING CHARACTER, as it crosses differentcommunities, bringing in their best feature and adding a vision of the future common to the whole, an artistic interpretationof Miami as city of the future

IMAGINE PUTTING FORTH ITS VISIONARY PAST, a city only a hundred years old, creating artificial islands off its coast when nobody had thought of them. Christo/Jeanne-Claude wrapping them in fuchsia to call attention to them. Inventing a tropical landscape with Asian trees and producingan extraordinary section of the city with them.

IMAGINE THIS LINE BECOMING PART OF THE EVERGLADES AT ONE END AND PART OF CALLE OCHO AND BRICKELL AT THE OTHER, AND CONNECTING TWO   NATIONAL PARKS.  A thick green line, a thin green line,a meandering green line, a straight green line picking up the strong COLORof Miami, itsARTistic side (Christo, Art Basel, Perez Museum, Design District.....) its   OUTDOORNESS, the INVENTIVENESS of its tropical landscapeand its NEWNESS as a city.

IMAGINE THIS NEWNESS TAKING HOLD OF MOBILITY IN A NEW MANNER, making a unit of metro, bikeway, pedestrian way and Dixie Highway through a system of the latest technology which sensors the movement of each and coordinates all their movements. And integrating health stations along the way that deal with highway pollution.

This is the city of the future. This is Miami.  

Vassar College Frances Lehman Art Center Courtyards & Sculpture Garden

1994 - Poughkeepsie, NY, USA

Vassar College FrancEs Lehman Art Center Courtyards & Sculpture Garden

Poughkeepsie, NY, USA

CLIENT Vassar College / STATUS Completed 1994 / SIZE 2,900 SF (entry & sculpture courtyards), 8,600 SF (sculpture garden) / DESIGN TEAM Balmori Associates / Pelli Clarke Pelli

At Vassar College, two courtyards and a sculpture garden connect a 1913 art center building to later additions. Voids play against built solids. Traditional and modern materials combine to integrate old and new.

A stone and aluminum bench in the entry court terminates the axis from the new entry pavilion that leads to a sculpture courtyard. This courtyard, an intimate, glass-enclosed space, was designed as a visual extension of the reception area within the art center. Its rotating sculptures sit on a bed of yellow gravel. In the sculpture garden, a large L-shaped area and paved sections intersects with a delicately planted space. Red-leafed plantings ring the garden's perimeter and were chosen as background color for the monochromatic metal sculptures that will be exhibited.

Vassar College Avery Hall

2003 - Poughkeepsie, NY, USA

Vassar College Avery Hall

Poughkeepsie, NY, USA

CLIENT Vassar College / STATUS Completed 2003 / SIZE 1.5 acres / DESIGN TEAM Balmori Associates / PHOTO CREDIT Mary Beth Meehan Photography 

This sunken courtyard was designed to serve as an accompaniment to the Avery Hall performing arts center and a Boyar dormitory. It is to be designed to hold outdoor performances, movie screenings and as an outdoor study space.

Two Lakes Park - Gwanggyo Trail

2008 - Gwanggyo, Korea

Two Lakes Park - Gwanggyo Trail

Gwanggyo, Korea

CLIENT International Design Competition for Gwanggyo / Lakeside Park / Gyeonggi Province, Suwon City, Yongin City, and Gyeonggi Urban Innovation Corporation / SIZE 1,828,836 m2 / STATUS Competition Entry 2008 / DESIGN TEAM Balmori Associates, Inc. / Heerim Architects & Planners / ARUP

Not long ago, the South Korean government began decentralizing its power with the aim to control urban planning of provincial governments. Subsequently, the development of new cities in South Korea is relatively unpredictable and uncertain. A relatively new competitor to the South Korean urban development market is the city of Gwanggyo. In order to thrive, Gwanggyo and its public amenities must be resilient.

We envision Two Lakes Park as an adaptable organism that can respond to a variety of cultural, societal, programmatic, economic and political circumstances. Our design concept embraces the future as a responsive pattern of cultivation that advances the evolution of the park’s landscape. We have intentionally abandoned the notion of a final, designed, object for Two Lakes Park and opted for the emergence of an evolving landscape.

Our design strategically places insertions in these areas not only to increase stability, but also to create an amenity out of existing physical conditions. For example, a water feature knows as the Ponds collects stormwater run-off at the base of a cliff. The cliff soil is reinforced with a retaining wall that also forms the walls for the retention pool. The hypothetical projection of park performance below charts an imaginary trajectory for park development. We envision a park where wildness and human activity are always in flux.

 

Newport Garden

2006 - Newport, RI, USA

Newport Garden

Newport, RI, USA

CLIENT Nicholas Scheetz / STATUS Completed 2006 / SIZE 1,460 SF / DESIGN TEAM Balmori Associates, Outerbridge Horsey Architects / PHOTO CREDIT Mary Beth Meehan Photography

(Post) Colonial Garden

This is a fresh look at the ‘colonial garden’ for a 18th C. home in Newport Rhode Island.  As a port city, Newport was a lively center for the import and exchange of exotic plants.  Historic records of the lot revealed the colonial practice of planting orchards and the experimental grafting of fruit trees.  Utilizing the time honored play of shifting perspectives and scale, this relatively small space for generous entertaining is transformed into a series of luxuriant garden rooms.  3-dimensional espaliered pears, bands of bluestone paving and gravel and plantings maximize diversity and provide the garden’s structure.

Two conceptual notions excavated from colonial garden history are exercised to inform the program and organization of the (Post) Colonial Garden.  SOCIAL GARDEN (PARTY) is the act of cultivating a garden for entertainment and enjoyment and harvested as gifts. Plants are planted in bands with a seasonal and color coded ‘companion.’ 3-D ESPALIER SCREENS employ techniques of espalier, which first became popular several hundred years ago in the walled medieval gardens of Europe.  Few or no fruit trees could be grown in these walled gardens because of the limited space available. Following finely crafted stone walls, the espalier screen creates a 3-dimensional version of the traditional espalier while providing depth and transparency in the garden.

National World War II Memorial

1996 - Washington, DC, USA

National World War II Memorial

Washington, DC, USA

CLIENT National Competition for Government Services Administration / STATUS Competition Finalist 1996 / SIZE 14 miles / DESIGN TEAM Balmori Associates

In 1996, an international competition for a national memorial to the Second World War garnered over 700 entries; five were selected as finalists. Ours was one of them. An alabaster island within a black granite pool is nestled in the axis of the National Mall between the Washington Monument and the Lincoln Memorial. The island glows at night, lit from below. A Hall of Honor lies beneath, the island’s surface also the ceiling of an alabaster cube with luminous walls, ceiling, and floor.

The project is comprised of symbolic built elements: the cube whose roof is the glowing island is intersected above and below ground by two axes. The east-west axis represents time, while the axis running north-south represents space; the two weave together the war’s space and time into one cloth.  Procession down this promenade turns Island, Cube, Space-Time axes into memory in motion:  walking across the island in time--1931, 36, 41, 45 marked along the path-- down the ramps inscribed with the spatial maps of the war --Europe, Asia, America--through the Hall of Monitors showing individual histories, pausing in the Hall of Honor, exiting up to the mall and the end.

By day the pool’s black granite disappears beneath jets of white water.  On special occasions, the pool is emptied, and its large granite surface is used as a ground for parades and other public events.  The glass star inserted at the center of the island refers to the star banner used by thousands of Americans during the war to indicate they had a family member at the front.  

Town Branch Commons

2012 - Lexington, KY, USA

Town Branch Commons

Lexington, KY, USA

CLIENT City of Lexington / STATUS Invited Competition, 2012 / SIZE 2500 acres / DESIGN TEAM Balmori Associates, JDS Architects, Atelier Ten, Nitsch Engineering, James Lima Planning, Creative Concern

The future of Downtown Lexington is as exciting as it is unknown. The daylighting of the Town Branch Commons Creek presents an opportunity to kick off a strategy of multiple developments for Downtown Lexington. We have orchestrated this strategy by organizing it in zones of intensity rather than strict and linear phasing. Those zones are understood as districts and can be put into full or partial development in a flexible way. Our strategy’s center of gravity will be the portion of Vine Street defined by the Rupp Arena on one side and Limestone Street on the other. This segment is significant as it plugs itself on two zones of already existing capacity: on one hand, Rupp and its square, electrified at times of games and events in or out of the Arena, and on the other hand, Limestone, the main artery connecting the two universities, along which a series of small cultural and commercial programs already activate the neighborhoods.

By converting this key section of Downtown to public and smaller scale activities we will create a pocket of protected pedestrian life immediately adjacent to the surrounding buildings, transforming their relationship to the street into an active one. Main and High street will be changed to two-way traffic to provide a more fluid loop of car accessibility for downtown while narrowing car traffic on Vine street to a strict minimum of a single service lane on its South side. In time, the ground-floor of the surrounding facilities could be converted to more commercial activities as the neighborhood’s life develops. From this central node new intensity can radiate the adjacent districts in an almost random sequence. The most likely development to follow up or even be concomitant could be the Rupp Plaza, but also the residential and mix program (including parking) structure of Rupptown immediately South of the Arena.

Urban Meadow BKYLN

2003 - Brooklyn, NY, USA

Urban Meadow BKLYN

Brooklyn, NY, USA

CLIENT Clean Air Communities, Con Edison, New York State Council on the Arts (NYSCA), The lily Auchincloss Foundation, American Stevedoring Inc., The Independence Community Foundation and The Architectural League / STATUS Completed 2003 / SIZE 8,000 SF / DESIGN TEAM Balmori Associate, XS Space, The New York City Department of Parks and Recreation+Greenthumb, Office of the Brooklyn Borough, Center for Climate Studies – Columbia, University, Alan Dye Graphic Design

New York City-based landscape design firms XS Space and Balmori Associates have transformed an 8,000 square foot vacant lot owned by The New York City Department of Parks and Recreation into a verdant meadow with gently rolling hills of grasses, wildflowers, and flowering trees in downtown Brooklyn, NY. Initially conceived as a temporary landscape, this project received such overwhelming support by the local community that the New York City Parks Department adopted it under the auspices of its Community Garden “Greenthumb” program. Since the completion of the design and installation by Balmori Associates and XS Space this summer, this new park will be maintained by local residents.

Two large signs posted at the entrance to the park enumerate the environmental benefits of this newly vegetated site’s footprint on the environment. Scientists from Columbia University’s Center for Climate Studies were asked by the designers to study the impact of this site on surrounding air and water pollution, the Urban Heat Island Effect, and resulting health problems for NYC residents. The scientific data they collected quantifies the site’s increased capacity to absorb storm water run-off, offset carbon emissions, and create a cooler microclimate.

Urban Meadow BKLYN marks the launch of an ongoing collaboration between XS Space and Balmori Associates exploring innovative ways to temporarily transform vacant urban lots into productive green spaces. The landscape design firms are currently pursuing a proposal 5 LANDSCAPES / 5 BOROUGHS proposing a landscape project in each of New York City’s five boroughs. This proposal directly addresses Mayor Bloomberg’s PLANYC 2030 to reduce global warming emissions and provide easily accessible green space to every NYC resident. The designers are currently meeting with Community Boards throughout New York City to develop a list of potential sites for these landscapes. The design team is seeking sponsorship by various foundations, non-profit organizations, private corporations and developers.

Old Detroit, New Scale

2010 - Detroit, MI, USA

Old Detroit, New Scale

Detroit, MI, USA

CLIENT TIME Magazine / STATUS Written & Designed 2010 / DESIGN TEAM  Balmori Associates

Industrial cities reaching the end of an industry on which they were based, unable to stem the loss of jobs, the loss of capital and of people has become familiar to us since the 20th century.  In the US perhaps there is no example as stark as that of Detroit, though Manchester in England, Essen in Germany are equally dire European examples.

Four points can serve as start-ups:

·  To address the city’s issues not in physical layout terms of master plans.

·   To address population needs in terms of developing transformations of the base industry and conserving its knowledge base at all costs.

·  Any new venture which wishes to build a new urban nucleus needs to look at broader parameters e.g. not look at a map of the city, but also at its suficial geology, its position on the planet climatically, at its life history and not only of human life but of that of plants and animals, and of rivers and streams.  New spots of growth will grow then from a different model of a city.

·  To select the scale of the intervention, a critical element. In these circumstances, master plans for whole cities are the wrong instrument, at the wrong scale.  Infrastructure set up in the nineteenth century has made us think that we must do things at the same scale e.g. whole city, all at once, which a decaying city can never afford.

Given our new technologies we can create smaller units with local control – that can eventually hook up with each other is so desired, in other words, a web of systems.  It allows for modest regeneration where needed.  Water systems can be treated this way, electrical, sewage, etc…

"NOOKS" for Dome Colony X

2009 - New York, NY, USA

"NOOKS" for Dome Colony X

New York, NY, USA

CLIENT Fritz Heag, Dome Colony X at San Gabriels at X INITIATIVE / STATUS On Exhibit 2009 / DESIGN TEAM Balmori Associates

Two critical parts of public space use need a fresh look: the places and ways of sitting in it, and the places and ways of walking on it. We have become very interested in playing with these elements and the piece that we produced for the “Dome Colony in the San Gabriel’s“, for Fritz Haeg’s two month long exhibition at the X Initiative Art Space was a way of playing with seating and planting. Envisioned as dynamic space and furniture piece; in form, it is a garden that engages the Colony. It is not only designed for visitors to move and play with, it is a social community space that invites them to linger, and just be. Can you work with some units for seating which people can assemble themselves (varying the height closeness to others etc.)? Using this as a premise the units allow you to make nooks where one person can be alone, or some can be for two or a large group. We named the experiment “nooks” for this reason.

The secondary idea grafted on this was if plants could be incorporated into the system. This time they are shown conceptually by providing paper flowers that people can plant in the space. The Garden narrates a story of landscape taking over and expanding over the Public Space, therefore changing the way that the space is perceived and read by the user. The users that “plant” flowers in it, transform it with time.

The 21st Century Park

2003 - Chicago, IL, USA

The 21st Century Park

Chicago, IL, USA

CLIENT The Graham Foundation / STATUS Competition 2003 / SIZE 1.5 acres / DESIGN TEAM Balmori Associates, Artist Brian Tolle

 The 21st Century Park is a backbone threaded into the city – not an isolated mass serving one area.

The 21st Century Park is a way to flow through the city – not just a destination.

The 21st Century Park is a filter, healing, cleaning, purifying air/water, an active environmental engine.

The 21st Century Park is a spine threaded through the city which gives you a way to flow through it. It creates oases along its length. The aesthetics are drawn from how the parts are organized in space.

The 21st Century Park engages streets – doesn’t leave them out.

The 21st Century Park is a tool for intervening in the City.

I got up this morning, it’s Saturday, and decided to go for a run in that new park they just finished.  A piece of it runs three blocks from my house but you can go all the way downtown on it.

The 21st Century Park is a spine threaded through the city which gives you a way to flow through it.

Took the street down from my stop on the EL. It is nice and narrow, full of crabs and haws with chunks of prairie on the sidewalks.

The 21st Century Park engages streets – Doesn’t leave them out.

As I am coming towards the shore between the trees and shrubs I find myself on the water on a boardwalk with green islands on each side. There is such a great view out here.  I see water forever on one side, the shore on the other, lots of birds singing as I run along it.

The 21st Century Park is a filter of healing, cleaning, and purifying the air and the water along it.

Went down towards Hollywood Beach, by way of the new walk in front of the towers, to get a friend of mine to go running with me.  His apartment is on the 12th floor and it is great to look down and see all the green islands.

 The 21st Century Park is a tool for intervening in the City.

 Let’s go swimming, my friend said, so we changed, took along some towels, went out to the curving pier and dove into the water.  We took a kayak out after that and had fun going in and out of the water lagoons created by the boardwalks, where the water was clear and calm, and then in the choppy waters outside.

The 21st Century Park is a spine which creates oases along its length. The aesthetics are drawn from how the parts are organized in space.

Govenors Island

2006 - New York, NY, USA

Govenors Island

New York, NY, USA

CLIENT Governors Island Preservation & Education Corporation / STATUS Competition 2006 / DESIGN TEAM Balmori Associates

Governors Island is at the southern tip of Manhattan, an island is one hundred and thirty -two acres, half of it a historic park with old military barracks and handsome buildings, which are scheduled to remain, the other half open for proposals. The island ‘s separation from Manhattan required stepping up it’s open space attraction, so we designed three glass structures, or biomes. You can enter one of these in winter and experience the warmth-and - light-rich atmosphere of a desert in a glassed-over desert landscape. Imagine New York city in the middle of winter, when the cold winds bite, our fingertips freeze and snow quickly turns to brown slush. Who would not welcome the opportunity to shed their layers of clothes and bask in the dry desert sun just 5 minutes away from the city. Now imagine New York City in the middle of summer, when the humidity is restless and the air stagnates. Would you not enjoy retreating to a dry climate where a breath of fresh air is only a short ferry ride away.

Another biome consists of a tropical lagoon, also for winter enjoyment. Some people call New York a concrete jungle, where the diversity of people, the constant flow of energy, and the variety of places compose an intricate network of life. Here in the rainforests on Governors Island, people can experience another kind of jungle, one of tropical delight. Here visitors will be enclosed in a temple of forest trees, draped with vines and exploding with tropical flowers. As you move from the smell of fertile on the ground through the warmth of the moist air to the canopy walkways, the layers of the rainforest each respond to different light conditions , from darkness on the forest floor, to the draped sunlight through the middle section , up to the bright and airy tops of the forest.

The last is an Ice house with icebergs and tundra vegetation, where you can go in summer. The arctic climate of the tundra recreated in New York’s backyard, will be the grounds for both curious scientist and tourist to commingle. Here visitors will be invited to explore the delicate lichens and mosses that cover the rocky landscapes and peer into the various pitcher plants of cold waters. The sculptural foundations of snow and ice will provide a sanctuary of light. In colder months, while you must keep your jacket on, the Tundra will offer a different winter experience from one we are normally exposed to. Park, beach, boating, farm and garden would fulfill other open spaces desires. But the biomes would ply a role of connectors, providing experiences much different from those offered by most city parks.

The Habitat Project will also celebrate the native and cultivated vegetation of the Hudson River valley by providing a special area for research and education. From sustainable technologies to urban agriculture, they are in the center of the island will be designated for agricultural development. The public will be able to take courses in organic farming as well as purchase some of the produce grown on the island. This area could also provide the restaurateurs, in the historical district, with fresh produce and herbs. 

Toronto Waterfront

2006 - Toronto, Canada

Toronto Waterfront

Toronto, Canada

CLIENT Toronto Waterfront Revitalization Corporation / SIZE 3.5km / STATUS Competition Finalist, 2nd Place, 2006 / DESIGN TEAM Balmori Associates / H3Architecture / Lobko Architect / NARCHITECTS / Weiz + Yoez / Halcrow / Sasaki Associates / Snohetta

The finalist scheme for the competition to redesign the Toronto Waterfront was inspired by the city of Toronto’s medley of thriving and lively neighborhoods and international population. Instead of a homogeneous master plan we assembled multiple ideas, inspirations, and visions, and crafted a unique waterfront. The design strategy was to reach into the city to connect the vital urban energy of its streets and neighborhoods to the waterfront, transporting Torontonians out onto the lake to be in it, on it and surrounded by it. Toronto Waterfront’s weather is cold and windy in winter, and hot and breezy in the summer. The public spaces we designed reflected and indicated the rhythms and measures of temperature, wind, light and shadow. This makes a vibrant and variable waterfront experience. We proposed a series of gestures that read at the scale of the entire harbor, at the neighborhood scale, and at the human scale. We conceived specific designs and programming ideas for heads of slip, new piers and a new Queens Quay boardwalk that give each place a unique and magnetic attraction and an iconic waterfront.

Saarinen Garden Cranbook Academy

1995 - Bloomfield Hills, MI, USA

Saarinen Garden Cranbook Academy

Bloomfield Hills, MI

CLIENT The Cranbrook Academy of Art / STATUS Completed 1995 / DESIGN TEAM Balmori Associates

The Cranbrook Academy of Art was established in the early part of this century as a complete artistic community embodying the ideals of the Arts and Crafts movement. Eliel Saarinen, the community's architect, designed a house and garden for his family on Academy Way. Both house and garden had fallen into disrepair and have been recently restored.

Balmori Associates, responsible for overseeing a full restoration of the garden, studied many historical sources to guide the restoration design including an early garden plan, most likely drawn by Saarinen; photographs of the academy from the 1930’s and later; and various archival films. In addition, the plant palette of C. DeForrest Platt was determined from his original planting plans and informed all planting decisions.

 

Tong-Shan Jie Residential Complex

2011 - Shanghai, China

Tong-Shan Jie Residential Complex

Shanghai, China

CLIENT China Vanke Co.Ltd / STATUS Under Construction / SIZE 18.5 acres / 7.49 hectares / DESIGN TEAM Balmori Associates / Pelli Clarke Pelli / CCDI 

Located in the heart of the Huangpu River Complex district of Pudong, Shanghai’s booming economic development zone, Tong Shan Jie Master Plan calls for eight residential towers, a hotel, and a clubhouse arranged around a figural open space. The Master Plan defines a new sustainable landscape, increases environmental awareness, and provides high quality urban living.

The design intention is to tie the architecture together through landscape and program while enhancing the individual character of each tower by creating unique gardens such as a moss garden, a trellis garden, and a rock garden. The main sunken garden features water cascades, a reflective koi pond and a floating tea pavilion within a lush landscape of cherry and magnolias trees. The necessary underground parking garage ventilations became an opportunity to establish visual and spatial connections through water, light, and vegetation. 

Balmori Associates collaborated with video artist Marina Zurkow and computer scientist Nikolaus Correll to develop interactive features. The pavilion, whose floor is made up of hundreds of LED “insects”, has the ability to detect touch, including footsteps. Dragonfly shaped LED lights interact with people as they enter the pavilion. The dragonflies might cluster around a single user’s feet, scatter if there is high foot traffic, or hover during low traffic. The dragonflies can also “travel” with a participant over the floor. Fast foot actions might startle them and cause them to move away quickly. They might act as individuals or with a swarm mentality. When the pavilion is unused the insects have sets of behaviors that are affected by the weather, becoming sluggish when the atmosphere is hot and wet  and speedy when crisp and dry. 

 

Tianjin Culture Park

2009 - Tianjin, China

Tianjin Culture Park

Tianjin, China

CLIENT Tianjin New Library / STATUS Invited Competition Entry 2009 / DESIGN TEAM Balmori Associates / Pelli Clarke Pelli Architects

The Tianjin Culture Park is both a centralized park that defines the heart of the cultural district and an extension of the surrounding city.  Sweeping arcs of pathways and landscape carve out a layered hierarchy of active public space and parks that unfold, weaving together the cultural, retail, and social architecture of the surrounding areas.  The architecture is embedded with this network of paths and park. Water features facilitate the flow of the landscape through the site while the spines of the adjacent pathways animate the flow of the city. The main promenade moves across the park from the city to the museum, library and performing arts core.  Secondary pathways connect the retail to the museum and the city.  Each of the pathways run parallel to water and defines a character of park.  The central plaza is a grand space for public spectacle and events.  Moving across the site a large canopy with a moon gate separates a market park for smaller scale gatherings and events.  The canopy is repeated 3 times as sculptural elements that both define the different spaces and provide shade and covered spaces for markets, cafes and site amenities.   They canopies are also iconic sculptural elements which frame the architecture and orient the site.  The next space is an entry plaza to the museum and library, with benches and gardens to relax and socialize.  

The water features serve a dual purpose to the park.  They are part of water collection and filtering system and have varying levels to allow for various uses and feeling and light reflection.  The first (starting from the west) is a naturalized pond with interpretations of traditional bridges traversing willow trees and gardens.  The next pool has a few steps that people can sit on and rent a model boat.  The pool leading up to the museums and library is also line with steps and is a shallow reflecting pool – then in times of low rainfall or for events can be drained as additional plaza space or ice skating in the winter.  The pools all engage the architecture, allowing the buildings to borrow the image and feeling of being near the water.  Waterfalls in front of the large iconic canopies feed the water in front of the performing arts center.  Finally, in front of the retail mall, floating decks sit in the water as people eat at cafes under the canopy.  The movement between the levels will be choreographed to provide a visual spectacle, and clean the water.

We propose to make Tianjin Culture Park a Special Ecology Zone or SECOZ: an area that encourages experimentation in groundbreaking ecological technologies, creating a space that demonstrates the leading edge in the transformation of public space into an active ecological engine.  The SECOZ transforms Tianjin Culture Park into a green connector; a continuous swath of green open space filters air and water and provides relief from urban congestion.