São Paulo Corporate Towers

2017 - São Paulo, Brazil

São Paulo Corporate Towers

São Paulo, Brazil

STATUS Completed 2017 / DESIGN TEAM Balmori Associates / Pelli Clarke Pelli Architects / Atelier 10 / PHOTO CREDIT Pelli Clark Pelli Architects

The landscape design for the project is driven by the character of the Mata Atlantica Forest found on the site. Only 9% of this Brazilian ecosystem remains in the world and a few disconnected patches of this forest exists in São Paulo. Our project celebrates its biodiversity and spatial richness in the urban landscape of São Paulo.

São Paulo Corporate Towers’ landscape follows the spatial rhythm, heights and patterns of the forest as it weaves across the site and through the two towers of the architectural program.  Tree canopies of various heights create magical outdoor spaces of dappled sunlight and shade, providing a cooler environment. Landforms accentuate the display of the vegetation in their multiple canopy layers. A large green roof accessible by a series of ramps becomes a link between the two towers and integrates the amenity building. An elevated metal path weaving through the site and becoming a public sidewalk on the street offers a unique experience of walking in the canopies of trees. The collection of rain water on site and the selection of native species with lower water demand, allows for minimum irrigation.

Ciudad Empresarial Sarmiento Angulo

Bogota, Colombia

Ciudad Empresarial Sarmiento Angulo

Bogota, Colombia

CLIENT Sarmiento Angulo / STATUS Under Construction / SIZE 18.53 acres / 75,000 m2 / DESIGN TEAM Balmori Associates, Construcciones Planificadas

Ciudad Empresarial Sarmiento Angulo is an urban project in the heart of Bogota, Colombia that marks the midpoint between Bogota’s historic downtown and the international airport. As Bogota has rapidly developed along Calle 26, the city’s most important axis, Ciudad Empresarial Sarmiento Angulo will emerge as Bogota’s prominent cultural and commercial center.

The master plan for Ciudad Empresarial Sarmiento Angulo spans three blocks creating an integrated system of public space that will serve as a critical junction between three distinct areas of the city: Parque Simon Bolivar to the north, Centro Administrativo Nacional to the east, and a residential neighborhood to the west. A public pedestrian spine connects all three blocks with a series of bridges over vehicular cross streets. The center piece of this mixed use development is a public square that contains a new performing arts center and hotel. The square fuses the existing open space together, creating a new public center for the city.

The landscape expresses the diverse ecology found in Colombia with each block containing a distinct botanical environment and color palette comprised of indigenous Colombian plants. The blocks are connected through water elements that fluctuate in level depending on water availability, accommodating a variety of social and ecological programs. Vibrant colors are found in both the paving and vegetation, creating a link to the city’s colorful historic district, La Candelaria, and regional ecological events like the algae blooms of the Cano Cristales. Topographic undulations in the surface of the landscape create depth for large planting areas above the underground parking structure and provide lush enclaves for people to enjoy in an urban setting.

Plaza Euskadi

2012 - BILBAO, SPAIN

PLAZA EUSKADI

BILBAO, SPAIN

CLIENT Sociedad Bilbao Ria 2000 / SIZE 2.5 acres / 10,117 m2 / STATUS Completed 2012 / DESIGN TEAM Balmori Associates / LANTEC (Local Partner) / PHOTO CREDIT Iwan Baan / Borja Gomez / Efrain Mendez

Plaza Euskadi connects the nineteenth century section of the city called “El Ensanche” to the new section of Bilbao, Deusto university campus, the Guggenheim Museum, and the Nervión River. The Plaza is a pivot, unifying diverse elements of the city.  Apart from the Museum of Fine Arts and historic residential buildings, the plaza is surrounded by contemporary buildings such as university and library buildings, a shopping mall, a subway station, hotels, residential buildings, an office skyscraper, designed by different architects including Gehry, Moneo, Pelli, Siza, Krier, Legorreta, and Stern.

Oval in form, the plaza has two forms of circulation: a tree-lined perimeter path for leisurely walks and sitting, and a dominant central path which brings the people from downtown to Abandoibarra to the Campa de los Ingleses Park, The Rivers, and the pedestrian bridge crossing the river to Deusto University and its neighborhoods.

Three public park “pockets” hook onto the sides of the central path, which provide colorful and playful seating made from recycled rubber. Each pocket has a different character: an amphitheater section with reflection puddles, an ottoman seating section, and a “garden” section of flowering shrubs with a 100 year old Laegostremia tree.

In 2008 the construction of the plaza was impacted by the economic downturn in Spain leading to a complete re-design. The final design cost was half of the original construction budget which required the removal of fountains, a more modest planting and grading scheme, and a shift in materials. 

11th Street Bridge Park

2014 - WASHINGTON DC, USA

11TH STREET BRIDGE PARK

WASHINGTON DC, USA

CLIENT District of Columbia / THEARC (Town Hall Education Arts Recreation Campus) / STATUS Competition Finalist, 2014 / SIZE 50,000 SF / 4,645 m2 / DESIGN TEAM Balmori Associates / Cooper, Robertson + Partners / Guy Nordenson Associates / Johnson, Mirmiran & Thompson / Fisher Marantz Stone / Jones Lang LaSalle / City Activators / Dr Mindy Thompson Fullilove / Mark Dion / Dr. Kimberly Sebek / ARUP Acoustic / ETM Associates

The 11th Street Bridge Park competition was a design effort to integrate the forces of gentrification that its development would unleash into an overall design approach ruled by protective policies. The 11th Street Bridge Park design encourages the economic development of local enterprises, introduces cultural elements that the Anacostia and D.C. communities are lacking, and incorporates aspects of local history, kicking off a new era of urban development through policies that protect the local population from gentrification while strengthening the community. The integration of economic, social and cultural policies would make this a resilient urban planning. The design approach and the community programs proposed for the bridge park reinforced one another through the creation of hybrid programmatic spaces.

The design of the bridge creates a space for diverse communities to come together on this neglected Anacostia. It provides a vehicle for very separate communities to communicate.

Cutsheet USA, Washington, DC, Bridge Park

Civic Center

2018 - SAN MIGUEL DE TUCUMÁN, ARGENTINA

CIVIC CENTER

SAN MIGUEL DE TUCUMÁN, ARGENTINA

CLIENT Local Government of Tucumán / STATUS Under Design 2018 / SIZE 17.5 ha / 43 acres / TEAM Balmori Associates / Pelli Clarke Pelli Architects / BuroHappold Engineering

The site for the new San Miguel de Tucumán Civic Center is located on a 17.5 hectare property, 3.8km away from San Miguel de Tucumán. The new campus will bring together seven ministries and six secretariats of the region’s executive power along with all the local public administration services and its 4,700 employees which are now dispersed across the region.

Five buildings will make the new Civic Center campus, with a total of 60,000 square meters built that will be developed in three phases. The new buildings will include local governmental and administrative offices, auditoriums, coffee shops and commercial spaces.

The Landscape complements the buildings with public spaces, exterior circulations, entrance plazas and public parking (1,150 parking places). The landscape mediates the 15 meter elevation difference across the site through a series of terraces and ramps. The landscape bands stitch the building’s ground floors into a seamless continuous circulation with stairs and ramps.

The landscape proposal incorporates sustainable design practices, such as water management and the incorporation of native species in the design. The planting strategy seeks to feature and recover the native flora of the Yungas by proposing the following trees: Jacaranda mimosifolia, Ceiba insignis (white floss silk tree), Schinus molle (Paeruvian pepper), Tipuana tipu (tipa), among others.  Rain water is captured on all impervious surfaces (parking and roofs) during the rainy season and stored in a reservoir for re-use during the drought period.

Silvercup Studios

2005 - NEW YORK, NY, USA

SILVERCUP STUDIOS

NEW YORK, NY, USA

CLIENT Silvercup Studios  / FUNDER Clean Air Communities / SIZE 35,000 ft2 / 3,251 m2 / STATUS Completed 2005 / DESIGN TEAM Balmori Associates / Shalat Architects, P.C. / Greener by Design / PHOTO CREDIT Mark J. Dye / Joseph Maida

New York City's largest monitored green roof, Silvercup, was designed by Balmori Associates as the first of a series of green roofs planned for Long Island City, dubbed “Long Island (Green) City.” 

Benefits monitored on its green roof: absorption of air pollutants and carbon dioxide; improved outdoor air quality; increased energy efficiency and storm water run-off reduction (a particular burden to the sewer infrastructure of Long Island City). EarthPledge, a non-profit organization promoting technologies for sustainability, installed the Silvercup roof research station. 

Tucumán Airport

SAN MIGUEL DE TUCUMÁN, ARGENTINA

TUCUMÁN AIRPORT

SAN MIGUEL DE TUCUMÁN, ARGENTINA

CLIENT Aeropuertos Argentina 2000 S.A. /  STATUS  Under construction / SIZE 16 ha / 40 acres  / TEAM Balmori Associates / Pelli Clarke Pelli Architects / BuroHappold Engineering

Benjamín Matienzo Airport (or TUC for Tucuman Airport) is to become the third most important air terminal in Argentina for passenger travel and freight.

The regional landscape experience starts along the 200m long boulevard that cuts through a restored dense native forest. As the terminal comes into sight the boulevard merges with the Ceiba speciose, Silk floss trees loop, which leads to the plaza in front of the terminal. The plaza is a perforated plane with a lush garden shaded with Jacaranda trees.

Circulation, safety, and efficiency is key in the design of drop offs and parking at an airport. With multiple raised pedestrian crossings to reach the Ceiba speciose loop it is as if the plaza spilled over towards the (park)ing. 11 raingardens run through the 600 vehicles parking creating an heavily shaded and pleasant space planted with tall grasses an trees.

The oval-shaped three main buildings (departure hall, arrivals, and concessions) are linked together by a green roof, below which the operational, pre-boarding and baggage handling areas will be built. The strong geometries are intended for visitors to Tucuman approaching by plane.

Beale Street Landing

2015 - MEMPHIS, TN, USA

BEALE STREET LANDING

MEMPHIS, TN, USA

CLIENT Riverfront Development Corp / SIZE 5 acres / 20,235 m2 / STATUS Completed 2015 / DESIGN TEAM Balmori Associates / RTN Architects / Bounds & Gillepsie Architects / Consulmar / L'Observatoire International PHOTO CREDIT Aeria Innovation

A twenty-five-foot bluff rises from a once busy commercial harbor in Memphis' old downtown, which, like many American waterfront cities, historically turned its back on the river that was once its lifeblood. 

Balmori Associate’s design consists of a series of level, landscaped islands formed in the terraced slope of the river’s edge, highlighting the tidal changes at the river’s edge, which can exceed forty feet. The intent of the design was for public space to interact with the changing levels of the river. The islands are each planted with a distinct native plant community of Western Tennessee, strategically corresponding to the fluctuating levels of water inundation.   Water collected on site is filtered and cleaned through vegetated terraces and then stored in a cistern for reuse in irrigation.  Each island creates a unique public space, including a river overlook, a children’s play area, a performance space and wetland gardens, choreographed with the changes in The Mississippi River.  

The five-acre riverfront park is the departure and arrival point for thousands of river travelers and will provide a destination point for individuals and groups to celebrate the spot where the world’s most powerful river engages the home of the blues.

West 53rd Street

2017 - NEW YORK, NY, USA

WEST 53RD STREET

NEW YORK, NY, USA

CLIENT Algin Management / SIZE 15,000 sq ft / STATUS Under Construction / DESIGN TEAM Balmori Associates / CetraRuddy

The organization of West 53rd Street was generated by an urgent need for programmatic flexibility in limited outdoor terrace spaces. Interior green spaces and terraces were carefully planned and designed to accommodate a multitude of activities from the more private garden use to large scale communal events. 

This project started with a research into the various types of activities that a residential complex could accommodate in terraces of various light, wind and noise characteristics. By analyzing and fully understanding the nuances and intricacies of how residents might use their outdoor spaces over time, we were able to create spaces that are responsive to the various user types throughout the day in four different seasons.

West 53rd Street Blue Roof

NTT Shinjuku Headquarters Building

1995 - TOYKO, JAPAN

NTT SHINJUKU HEADQUARTERS BUILDING

TOYKO, JAPAN

CLIENT Nippon Telephone, Telegraph Headquarters / STATUS Completed 1995 / SIZE 78,899 SF / DESIGN TEAM Balmori Associates / Pelli Clarke Pelli Architects

This design of this project is all about the relationship between nature and artifice. This is sought through the use of different materials. The plaza, bisected by a fence, is completely public except for a few occasional private fairs hosted on a monthly basis when the fence is closed off. The fence dividing the plaza begins as a wooden structure; gradually stainless steel members are added, mingling with the wood, increasing in number until the fence is entirely of stainless steel, moving from natural to more artificial materials.

The fountain rill, powered by a windmill, moves water over a patterned bed of concrete on one side to stainless steel on the other based on hydrological patterns from riverbeds. Two bridges are added to the design, one of steel, and one of wood. Stone-tile paths with planted and gravel surfaces let the rain seep in to ground water or to collection points for cleaning and reuse.

New Hancher Auditorium

2016 - Iowa City, IA, USA

NEW HANCHER AUDITORIUM

Iowa City, IA, USA

CLIENT University of Iowa / SIZE 7.6 acres / STATUS Completed 2016 / DESIGN TEAM Balmori Associates / Confluence / Pelli Clarke Pelli Architects PHOTO CREDIT Pelli Clarke Pelli

In 2008 a dramatic 500 year flood devastated a large portion of the Iowa University Art Campus. Balmori Associates’ set out to re-imagine the relationship between the Iowa River and its surrounding landscape where the Arts Campus resides.  Balmori's Master Plan for the Arts Campus that provides the river and university with new currents of connectivity, creativity, and environmental performance. 

Topographic depressions around the New Hancher Auditorium create spaces that are flexible and configured to embrace the variable character of the river. These depressions are designed to provide public space for large outdoor performances and social events, but also allow for the river to expand during large flood events. 

Considering the larger effects of the 2008 flood, Balmori’s strategy can be seen as a prototype for water management, that if replicated on a regional level would be capable of attenuating increased flooding threats brought about by the urbanization of the Iowa River Corridor. Additional areas of water treatment and infiltration serve to collect, clean and permeate storm water on site instead of piping it directly into the river. This decreases water flow and velocity of water in the Iowa River implementing a soft approach to flood prevention, a strategy that becomes a powerful flood management tool when repeated. 

Osaka National Museum of Art

2004 - OSAKA, JAPAN

OSAKA NATIONAL MUSEUM OF ART

OSAKA, JAPAN

CLIENT Ministry of Construction / Ministry of Culture / The Kin Ki Regional Bureau / SIZE 3,500 m2 / STATUS Completed 2004 / DESIGN TEAM Balmori Associates / Pelli Clarke Pelli Architects 

A new contemporary art museum in Osaka, Japan was constructed completely underground, adjacent to an existing science museum. The plaza above the museum ends on a pyramidal mountain form meant to invoke a mountain. This black granite pyramid is covered with a thin sheet of cascading water. Curvilinear stairs lead down to the ‘plain,’ where the stainless steel ribbons flow across the main plaza, leading toward the stainless steel sculpture that marks the new museum’s entrance. A large liquid arc at handrail height starts at the museum’s entrance sculpture. The water flows over small black river stones along the side of the staircase descending into the museum, ending in a cascade.

Shanghai Bund

2008 - SHANGHAI, CHINA

SHANGHAI BUND

SHANGHAI, CHINA

CLIENT Shanghai Urban Planning Administration Bureau / Shanghai Municipal Engineering Administration Bureau / Shanghai Municipal Committee for the Development of Huangpu River Corridor / The People’s Government of Huangpu District, Shanghai / SIZE  20 by 2.5 km, 12.3 acres / 50,000 m2 / STATUS Competition Finalist 2008 / DESIGN TEAM Balmori Associates / Beyer Blinder Belle / Yuliang Hong

Selected as one of the ten teams to compete for this project for the Shanghai Bund. We focused on a supremely ecological scheme and designed each ecological move into an aesthetic public experience (the Shanghai Bund attracts up to 100,000 visitors a day).

 In response to high pollution levels in the water and the river being prone to flooding, Balmori’s proposal restores the Bund as a continuous 2.5 Km/20 meter wide public promenade that connects river and city. The surface is a sculpted horizontal topography that mediates between access to the river and raised views across the city. It is an open and porous plan which allows for sustained movement of both people and water. 

The ecological features: a) floating vegetated islands engineered to clean the river water with native riparian plant species. These islands are also designed to generate their own electricity with underwater turbines. These vegetated islands float on the river, rising and falling with the changing tides, and form a river edge that is aesthetic and functional, as well as fixed and adaptive.  b) Photovoltaic panels along the sea wall produce energy for street lights. c) Hard surfaces are coated with titanium dioxide that transforms air pollution into harmless, inert compounds that wash away in the rain. d) Stormwater filtration is provided by a series of submerged sand filters and UV disinfection units beneath the walkways. Once the water is cleaned it is then reused on site in fountains and ponds.

The Bund, continuing the tradition of innovation in China, and the SEZs (special economic zones) are imagined as a SECOZ (Special Ecology Zone).

Bedford House

2011 - BEDFORD, NY, USA

BEDFORD  HOUSE

BEDFORD, NY, USA

CLIENT  Confidential / SIZE 3200 ft2 / STATUS Completed 2011 / DESIGN TEAM Balmori Associates / Joel Sanders Architect

This project was generated as one of integrating landscape and architecture. Cascading down the hillside of a woodland sanctuary, Bedford House is a renovation of a 1950s weekend home on a 4-acre site that abuts a 225-acre nature conservancy. Organic and synthetic materials - wood, stone, concrete and plants - link interior and exterior, interweaving  landscape, pool, and main house.

Materials are the connective tissue. The white concrete surface continues from inside the house to outdoors, interlocking with bluestone pavers and creating a path that leads down to the pool terrace. The white concrete surface folds up and cantilevers over the pool terrace to form the pool house, while field stone retaining walls dynamically wrap the pool house and make the pool into a sculpture.

Bands of vegetation undulate across the front and rear of the property, unifying the site before dispersing into the forest, in a composition that changes color with the seasons.

Making Circles in the Water

2015 - METIS, CANADA

MAKING CIRCLES IN THE WATER/ FAIRE DES RONDES DANS L'EAU

METIS, CANADA

CLIENT Metis International Garden Festival, Reford Gardens / SIZE 150 m2 /STATUS Completed, 2011 /DESIGN TEAM Balmori Associates / Denis Pelli: Professor of Psychology and Neural Science, New York University / Carlos M. Brañas: Marine engineer, Consulmar S.R.L

Waterscapes allow for powerful horizontal views that let the eye to extend far along the horizon, providing a pleasurable experience which is a unique and an inseparable condition of landscape. Balmori Associates studied forms that are capable of shaping the way one apprehends space in order to make the viewer more conscious of the act of seeing. The viewing device chosen for this demonstration was a truncated cone with openings on either end. 

These vision cones were then implemented within a series of large planes with circular openings, scaled to allow humans to pass through the space.  The voids created by the circular openings gradually rose from the ground, shifting your view and relationship to the landscape as you transcended the space. By progressing through the frames towards the water the field of view incrementally opened up, allowing the horizon to gradually reveal itself.

Arc Wildlife Crossing

2010 - DENVER, CO, USA

ARC WILDLIFE CROSSING

DENVER, CO, USA

CLIENT US Department of Transportation / SIZE 1.5 acres / 0.6 hectares / STATUS Competition Finalist 2010 / DESIGN TEAM Balmori Associates / Studio MDA / Knippers Helbig Inc / David Skelly / CITA / Bluegreen / Davis Langdon

The United States has one of the most extensive road transportation networks in the world. The system of roads that facilitates so well the movement of people and goods imposes substantial obstacles to the other species sharing our environment. Animals cross roads because their lifestyles depend on the use of resources that are distributed in space. 

Whether we provide the means to ease these movements or not, they occur with great frequency. Resulting collisions with vehicles represent a safety hazard for travelers, a significant financial burden, and a threat to the viability of species populations located in landscapes dissected by roads.

The Modular Crossing System utilizes the surrounding landscape in order to create a new shape inspired by nature. The design uses a low tech system of layering wood planes to create an easily modifiable shape. The main design intent of the crossings is a structure derived from the abstraction of the topographical layers in the landscape above. The wood for this system suggests the utilization of local trees felled or weakened by disease e.g. red pine in Colorado.

Riverfront District

PITTSBURGH, PA, USA

RIVERFRONT DISTRICT

PITTSBURGH, PA, usa

CLIENT Riverfront 47 / The Mosites Company / SIZE 32 ha / 80 acres / STATUS Under Design 2018 / DESIGN TEAM Balmori Associates / Sherwood Engineers / Stuart Lynn / 4Ward Planning

The development of the new 80 acre Riverfront District in Sharpsburg Borough, O’Hara Township and Aspinwall Borough, PA is the opportunity to reconnect people and other living communities to the Allegheny River and to one another.

The shared vision for the District is to create an extraordinary public park which invites both active and passive recreation, implement a portion of the Three Rivers Heritage Trail, a 1.5-mile missing piece of the 26-mile Three Rivers Heritage Trail that goes to Pittsburgh and beyond.

Most of the site is located on an elevated plateau, out of the flood zone, some 15 to 30 feet above the river level towards the south and Sharpsburg towards the north.  The northern boundary is an active railroad further dividing the site from the adjacent communities. From the large metal scrapyard that operated on the site remains to gigantic gantry cranes.

While the master plan sets the layout of the open space and overall sustainable strategies (such as water management, wildlife habitat), the trail design and the Pilot project will further establish an aesthetic vocabulary that illustrates the overall identity of the district.

Prairie Waterway Stormwater Park

1996 - Farmington, MN, USA

PRAIRIE WATERWAY STORMWATER PARK

FARMINGTON, MN, USA

CLIENT Sienna Corporation and City of Farmington, MN / AWARD League of Minnesota Cities Achievement Award / STATUS Completed 1996 / SIZE 200 acres / PHOTO CREDIT Bordner Aerial

For a new development in the suburb of Minneapolis, we proposed a drainage system with a dual purpose: provide drainage for the development of nearly 500 homes and create and function as a public space. Dubbed ‘Park Place’ by local residents, the 91-acre park has now become an integral part of the community, not only as a part of infrastructure, but also as a public amenity. 

A series of strategies are used to temporarily store excess water and mitigate the risks of flooding through a swale system, ponds and channels planted with grasses and sedges. It resolves environmentally the issue of frequent flooding in a flat plain-with a high water table and peak storm volumes-emptying in the Red River.

The designed riparian system consists of a civic lawn on axis with the downtown area, flanked by playing fields, bike paths and pedestrian paths; glimpses of wildlife are provided by the wetlands associated with this urban waterway.

Soho Tower

2017 - New York, NY, USA

Soho Tower

New York, NY, USA

CLIENT Bizzi & Partners Development / STATUS Design In Progress / DESIGN TEAM  Balmori Associates + Renzo Piano Building Workshop

A series of daylighting analyses determined the plant selection for Soho Tower. Climbers, understory trees, and mosses were selected for the drop off while at the terrace by the spa we designed a palette of prairie grasses that would allow for maximum privacy while framing the view from the indoor pool. Black olive trees and jasmine were selected for the atrium.

Farmington Canal Greenway

2011 - NEW HAVEN, CT, USA

Farmington Canal Greenway Master Plan and Yale Section 

NEW HAVEN, CT, USA

CLIENT Yale University Office of Facilities / SIZE 2.1 miles / STATUS Master Plan Completed 1995 / Engineering School Section Completed 2011 / DESIGN TEAM Balmori Associates / Pelli Clark Pelli

The Farmington Canal, a 2-mile-long section of railroad in eastern Connecticut, has been abandoned since 1982. A canal that ran three miles through the city of New Haven and six miles through Hamden, a New Haven suburb, preceded the railroad. The masterplan for the Farmington canal reuse was initiated as part of the federal Rails-to-Trails rehabilitation program. Developed by Balmori Associates it sought, through substantial research, to reactivate the canal and transform it into a recreational corridor that connects disparate parts of the city with its center. By modest moves, the canal corridor can eventually affect projects that occur along it, becoming a spine on which to hang other built development. 

The two mile long Yale owned section sits by the new Engineering Research Building of Yale University, located at the corner of Prospect Street and Trumbull Street. Working together with its design architects, civil and environmental engineers, Balmori Associates explored numerous sustainable design ideas. The porous paving used as part of a larger storm water management strategy reduces runoff's volume and velocity.

The section of abandoned railway is envisioned not simply as a trail but a new prototype of public open space, a linear park made up of discrete green segments that respond individually to their respective urban or suburban contexts.