Shanghai Tower: The Curtain Wall

Photo credit: Gensler

The curtain wall is being installed on the Shanghai Tower, and so far I am very impressed with the way that fabrication and installation are progressing. The hard work of our project team, in particular Michael Peng and Ben Tranel, is the reason we have been able to streamline this complicated process. Ben and Michael have worked with Yuanda, the curtain wall contractor, to simplify the design and to ensure the integrity of construction.

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A Second Look at the Tower at PNC Plaza

Nicknamed the Urban Room, the lobby at the Tower at PNC Plaza is encased with transparent glass to create a transparent and welcoming environment.

It’s been almost a year since we checked in on progress of the Tower at PNC Plaza, and ground has already been broken on what is set to be one of America’s most sustainable high rises. Hao Ko, the project’s design director shares details with us on the building, its progress and how it is living up to its moniker of the World’s Greenest Skyscraper.

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Starting the Discourse: Emerging Trends in Higher Education

At the beginning of October, Gensler’s Chicago office hosted its second event of four in a panel series on emerging trends in higher education. To continue the momentum from the first, session, Leveraging the Loop, in June, which culminated with Chicago being designated as “America’s Urban Campus,” Chi-ollege Town: Place Matters set the stage for a collaborative effort between Chicago’s institutions, businesses, and the city itself to harness a new kind of urban campus community. The panelists–Gwen Drury from the University of Wisconsin, Anijo Punnen Mathew from the Institute of Design at IIT, and Julie Burros from the City of Chicago–explored the question of what makes a true ”college town,” a construct strategically important to Chicago and its surrounding region.

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東北被災地 （前編）

（写真）宮城県志津川病院跡

An English version of this post is available here.

今から１年近く前、日本は巨大な地震と津波に襲われ、甚大な被害を受けた。　損壊した福島原子力発電所の画像や、ユーチューブで繰り返し流された津波の映像、次々と更新される死傷者数や広範囲を襲った津波の破壊力に関するニュースはあらゆるメディアを通し、世界中の人々に伝えられた。　日本で一体何が起こったのか。　私は被害を受けた日本の状況を理解しているつもりでいた。　しかし、実は何一つ理解できていなかった事にすぐさま気がついた。　

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Education Research: How Do We Improve Libraries?

Designing college campuses that keep students happy and lead to better academic performance requires us to have a clear understanding of how students spend their time when they are on campus. It was this need that pushed Gensler to initiate a research project with the goal of mapping out the activities that constitute a typical student day. (Read/download a PDF of the final research report, "Changing Course: Connecting Campus Design to a New Kind of Student," here.) What we learned not only surprised us, but made it clear that it's time to rethink the design of college campuses and the buildings on them.

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