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Colombo Residential Development

This new mixed-use development in the rapidly urbanizing city of Colombo is part of a larger plan by Sri Lanka's urban development agency to create a lakefront promenade. The 69-story development fronts Beira Lake, a manmade lake in the center of the city. The 400-unit residential complex takes full advantage of the relatively small site with a highly rationalized structure that affords every unit cross-ventilation and multiple exposures.

The building form is composed of two slender tower blocks, with one block leaning into the other vertical tower, which supports it. The overall form tapers elegantly toward the sky, maintaining a delicacy on the skyline and maximizing water views. The towers are oriented to the movement of the sun and to harness the tropical breezes, and the units offer 270-degree views of Beira Lake and the Indian Ocean. The staggered stepped form of the leaning tower allows for large terraces, which provide prime city and direct ocean views.

Community gardens and shared outdoor spaces within the building's upper levels feature native Sri Lankan materials and tropical plantings. Other common rooftop amenities at level five, above the retail podium, likewise express the guiding principles of for everyone a garden.

At the ground level, an arcade of retail outlets on the west side faces the lake and sets the stan¬dard for future development along the planned pedestrian promenade. Restaurants on a mezzanine level overlook the promenade and Beira Lake.

Safdie Architects

Chongqing Chaotianmen Center

Located on a prominent site at the confluence of the Jialing and Yangtze Rivers, this 9 million-square-foot mixed-use project has a strong presence as the apex of the city's peninsula. The Chaotian Gate ("gate to heaven"?), foremost of the traditional city gates, is a place of both ceremony and commerce. Recalling sailing ships on the river, the project symbolizes both Chongqing's noble trading past and its fast-growing future as one of China's largest modern cities. An ensemble of slender towers contains a mixture of office, residential, and hotel spaces. The towers, arranged in a prow-like arc, imply a great city surging forward. The outer curving glass facades, which face the water to the north, evoke an ancient sailing fleet. The south-facing facades of the interior towers center on the axis of Chaotianmen Plaza, forming stepped gardens that meet the ground. At the base of the towers, an expansive park knits together the greenery from the building facades with gardens, pools, and public circulation. This large landscaped park gently slopes to the north, offering dramatic tower-framed views of the water and more intimate views of the city to the south. Beneath the park level, a podium contains five levels of public space, including retail and cultural facilities as well as land and water transportation hubs. Bridging the center towers at level 45 is a 300-meter-long enclosed glass conservatory that contains hotel public areas and amenities, including an deck that can be enjoyed throughout all seasons of the year. Major thoroughfares feed urban activity from the south as retail streets and grand arcades, fusing the project to the city.

Safdie Architects

Columbus Center

  • CA CAC 58-1-400
  • Subseries
  • between 1985 and 1987
  • Part of Moshe Safdie

Columbus Center, a winning proposal for the redevelopment of the New York Coliseum site, is situated on four acres at Columbus Circle, adjacent to Central Park. The project incorporates offices, residences, a hotel, a retail center, and a cinema complex. The offices include the headquarters of Salomon Brothers and a sophisticated trading center.

The organization of the complex and its network of public spaces are designed to reinforce the civic image of Columbus Circle and to enhance the street's public life. Set back in a V-shape, two towers surround a 190-foot garden atrium. The towers' separation highlights the central axis of 59th Street and admits a generous amount of light into each floor. The two towers are structurally independent but share horizontal forces through regularly spaced five-story braces. The towers, one 62 and the other 69 stories in height, connect by a bridge at the 39th level and rest on a base that encloses a four-story garden atrium. A great public galleria follows the curve of Columbus Circle.

Secondary tower-like facets comparable in scale to the apartment towers along Central Park West form a transition between the urban scale of the Upper West Side and Midtown. Setbacks in the two main towers accommodate five-story greenhouses that provide an amenity for the office workers and create a strong visual connection with Central Park.

Work on the center was halted due to the financial downturn and the withdrawal of Salomon Brothers.
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Safdie Architects

Class of 1959 Chapel, Harvard Business School

  • CA CAC 58-1-366
  • Subseries
  • between 1984 and 1992
  • Part of Moshe Safdie

This nondenominational sacred and meditative building juxtaposes two very different spaces. A terraced garden rich in flowering trees offers a place for personal contemplation. Through its glazed, pyramidal roof visitors see the changing seasons of the campus outside. A 100-seat sanctuary contained by rounded, apselike concrete walls, rises to a height of 27 feet. For maximum flexibility this sanctuary room has no dominant axis; it frequently functions as a home for musical performances of varying sizes. Skylights flood the walls with light from above and large-scale prisms fixed in the skylights refract the sun's full spectrum. The exterior of the building is a cylindrical oxidized copper drum penetrated on the west by the garden space. A tower timepiece marks the entrance to the chapel.

Simple moves of form and orientation combine to create a unique place for contemplation and gathering in a busy campus setting. Skylights and prisms wash glowing patterns of light across the chapel walls throughout the course of the day.

Safdie Architects

Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art

  • CA CAC 58-1-xx
  • Subseries
  • between 2005 and 2011
  • Part of Moshe Safdie

Crystal Bridges, both a museum and a cultural center, is located in a ravine with a creek fed by Crystal Springs. Two suspended-cable-and-wood buildings span the ravine, creating two ponds. These structures serve as dams as well as bridges.

The design protects the natural beauty of the site and emphasizes a strong sense of place, employing indigenous materials such as wood, fieldstone, and limestone aggregate. Building walls are concrete with wood inlays, and laminated wood beams compose the roofs. The liberal use of glass throughout the complex provides transparency and enhances views of the site.

The museum comprises a number of independent structures that form a series of pavilions over and alongside the ponds. The two bridge buildings are located at opposite ends of the north pond. The gallery bridge contains galleries while the entry bridge houses reception, dining, and hospitality facilities. The great hall, a multipurpose public space, is surrounded on three sides by the south pond. Additional structures, nestled into the sloping terrain on both sides of the ravine, contain galleries, function rooms, classrooms, a library, curatorial spaces, and administrative offices. In contrast to the convex roofs of the bridges, the concave roofs of these structures visually retain the steep slopes of the site.

Safdie Architects

Coldspring New Town

  • CA CAC 58-1-167
  • Subseries
  • between 1972 and 1981
  • Part of Moshe Safdie

Moshe Safdie developed a three-dimensional master plan for the newly proposed residential community of Coldspring. The master plan included a town center with retail and office space, two neighbourhood centers, three schools, over 3,000 dwelling units, three lakes, and an ecology center. Due to the topography of the site, three types of housing were designed: high rises, hillside clusters, and deck houses. The underlying concept of the deck house was to stack the community and residential spaces above the parking, enabling a higher building density to be achieved and therefore devoting more land to private or communal outdoor uses.

Safdie Architects

Chongqing Villas

Located on a broad hillside site adjacent to Chongqing’s well-known Eling Park, the design for the Eling Residences grows out of and echoes the dramatic natural topography of the site.

The buildings are organized with terracing villa units climbing the rock slopes and stepping up to the crest of the hill where, along the ridge line, two dome-shaped structures overlook the city. The location and organization of the low-rise terraced buildings endows each of the 126 apartments with natural daylight and affords uninterrupted views of the Yuzhong Peninsula and the Yangtze River. Interwoven with the buildings is a lush landscape comprised of cascading gardens, terraces, overlooks, stairs, and promenades for the residents to enjoy.

At the western edge of the site, a prominent 4-story clubhouse stands as a beacon for the project, signifying the entrance to both Eling Park and the development.

The terraces of the hilltop units provide uninterrupted views to the Yangtze River and city beyond. Each terrace serves as an extension of the apartment, maximizing residents’ access to light and air. Planters are integrated along the length of the terraces, and climbing plants will grow up the trellises to provide additional shading.

Safdie Architects

Cowansville Residence

Files for an unbuilt project in Cowansville, Québec, Canada.

Safdie Architects

Corrour Estate

  • CA CAC 58-1-524.5
  • Subseries
  • between 1998 and 2001
  • Part of Moshe Safdie

Corrour Estate evokes the tradition of great Scottish houses and weaves together remnants of the original Victorian-era great house on the site, destroyed by fire in 1940. A glass-vaulted Great Hall forms the center of the house and is flanked by two masonry volumes, one rectangular, the other cylindrical. These volumes are penetrated by glass structures that are, respectively, conical and pyramidal. Surviving original granite outbuildings accommodate kitchens and other back-of-house functions. The split-face granite surfaces of the new structure match those of the original. The hunting lodge is sited so that each of the eight guest suites have views of Loch Ossian, while walkways and terraces afford views of the surrounding Highlands. In approving the design, The Royal Fine Arts Commission of Scotland noted that the complex is 'destined to become one of the few examples of world-class 20th-century architecture in Scotland.'

Safdie Architects

Connecticut Center for Science and Exploration

Surrounded by relatively tall commercial buildings, the Connecticut Center must assert itself. Its image evokes the sciences; its geometries are reminiscent of great astronomical instruments, challenging our curiosity. Two nacelles, shaped as segments of two great toroids, are perched side by side atop a podium. The structure of the nacelles is made of laminated wood lattice - a diagrid - that rotates about their surface in an ordered and repetitive geometry. Uniting the nacelles is a great roof platform in the shape of the surface of a partial sphere - an inverted dome. The geometries of each part intersect to create a cohesive and ordered whole. The Connecticut Center is organized into six levels, the first of which is the entry at the street. The second level is a podium, which features three floors of parking as well as offices and the museum's back-of-the-house areas. The deck of the podium extends Hartford's series of piazza, which also connect to the river abutting the site - these are the city's upper platform. The third and fourth levels of the Center, within the nacelles, are an exhibition and theatre spaces; the fifth level, also within the nacelles, is the upper mezzanine; the top level is the sky garden.

Safdie Architects

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