In this cover story for The Financial Times I try to explore whether the unprecedented building boom that gripped many parts of the industrialized world will come to be seen as architecture’s golden era – where higher levels of sustainability, innovation and excellence were achieved – 0r a period marked by bloated wealth and architectural egotism.
Above, a home in Japan designed by Shigeru Ban Architects.
Filed under Architecture & Design
The soaring art market is creating a new architectural niche: Private collectors are hiring noted museum and gallery architects to design homes to showcase their Damien Hirst sculptures and Matthew Barney installations.
In this feature article for the The Wall Street Journal, I profile projects that run the gamut from revamping existing spaces to building new residences from the ground up. Many of these projects include all of the trappings of professional-grade museums — soaring ceilings, high-tech temperature and humidity controls, and state-of-the-art lighting systems.
Left, a home designed by Olson Sundberg Kundig Allen Architects.
Filed under Architecture & Design
The building boom that engulfed Manhattan and other monied areas earlier this decade attracted high profile architects from Richard Meier to Daniel Libeskind who were commissioned to erect stylish, urban condos across the U.S. and Europe.
Yet as this piece I wrote for The Wall Street Journal makes clear, high-end developers who bankrolled these projects discovered that it takes more than a brand name architect to move the merchandise.
Above, a view from inside 173 Perry Street designed by Richard Meier.
Filed under Architecture & Design
Across Europe and around the world, soaring land prices and increasing demand for luxury living are fuelling a building boom in Red Light districts. As I reported in this cover article for The Financial Times, despite a global economic downturn that has pummelled many new condominium projects and erratic global financial markets that have spooked wealthy home buyers, developers’ appetites for building in areas long associated with adult entertainment have not waned. Left, a David Chipperfield designed hotel in Hamburg’s Red Light district.
Filed under Architecture & Design
In a weekly real estate column I wrote for The Wall Street Journal I got the opportunity to profile some spectacular residences. But this one was easily among the most interesting. The townhouse in the TriBeCa district a few blocks north of the World Trade Center site untilizes an unusual geothermal energy system that provides heating, cooling and hot water to the five-story residence.
Architect and developer John Petrarca designed the property and lived there with his wife, business-journalism professor Sarah Bartlett, until his death from lung cancer in 2003.
Filed under Architecture & Design
Nearly two decades after the fall of Communism, Russia’s rapidly expanding economy is transforming Moscow real estate. Construction cranes have joined the cupolas of Russian Orthodox churches and the spires of Stalinist-era edifices on the city’s skyline. The building boom may be good for Moscow’s swelling upper class, but it has endangered the city’s architectural heritage. As this report for Conde Nast Portfolio.com reveals, a number of landmarks, including important examples of Russian avant-garde and Constructivist design of the early 1920s are in danger of being wiped out.
Filed under Architecture & Design
It’s the convergence of two global obsessions: real estate and scandal. Property professionals call homes tainted by murder, sex scandals or messy divorce “stigmatized properties.” While they make up a sliver of the market, as I reported for The Wall Street Journal, they have been the subject of academic research, provided fodder for lawsuits and posed a challenge for brokers.
Above, a home in East Hampton, N.Y., where a murder took place in 1998.
Filed under Architecture & Design
With the real estate boom all but over and skittish property developers breaking ground on fewer glitzy projects, architects from Norman Foster to Frank Gehry are finding creative ways to stay in the spotlight and extend their brands. As I reported in this piece for Conde Nast Portfolio.com, the creative outlets of today’s star designers include everything from yachts to jewelry.
Above, a yacht designed by Norman Foster that’s part of a fleet of $40 million luxury superyachts for the British firm YachtPlus.
Filed under Architecture & Design
Architects such as Rem Koolhaas and Zaha Hadid soared to fame by designing beautifully modern cultural institutions and soaring skyscrapers, but a growing number is now accepting more residential commissions. As I reported for The Financial Times, they’re being persuaded to accept such projects by an expanding set of the global wealthy that increasingly sees great architecture as a collectable art similar to painting and sculpture.
A home designed by Richard Meier.
Filed under Architecture & Design
Troy McMullen | Journalist 