Build Magazine July 2015

Build Magazine 11 Whitney Museum gets in the Mood The new location for the museum will feature Mood Media’s specially engineered theatres and interac- tive audio-visual systems. The Whitney Museum, now located at the base of the High Line in Manhattan’s meatpacking district, incorporates the technology, which allows the museum to screen its extensive film and video collections. Mood Media’s innovation brand and specialists have engineered, procured and fabricated several theatres and interactive audio-visual systems throughout the museum. These installations create an engaging and immersive experience for visitors. Designed by architect Renzo Piano and built by Turner Construction, the new building includes approximately 50,000 square feet of indoor galleries and 13,000 square feet of outdoor exhibition space and terraces facing the High Line Park. Included in the new space is an expansive gallery for special exhibitions, approximately 18,000 square feet, making it the largest column-free museum gallery in New York City. The building includes an education centre offering state-of-the-art classrooms, a multi-use black box theatre for film, video and performance with an adjacent outdoor gallery, a 170-seat theatre with stunning views of the Hudson River, a Works on Paper Study Centre, Conservation Lab and Library Reading Room. The classrooms, theatre and study centre are all firsts for the Whitney. While the museum’s official ribbon cutting was performed by First Lady Michelle Obama in April, the official opening oc- curred on May 1, 2015. To-date, the museum has received more than twice the number of visitors than expected. Wimbledon Uncommon Architects given green light for new high quality eco housing scheme to take place of run-down car park. Feilden Clegg Bradley Studios have announced that their plans for an eco-friendly six storey housing development have been approved, with work due to start on site later this year with completion sched- uled for mid-2017. The building will take the place of a run-down car park at the junction of Milner Road and Morden Road, South Wimbledon, with the plans consisting of primarily residential dwellings in the form of fifteen apartments, three townhouses and a com- mercial unit at street level. Being so prominently situated on the corner and with a line of sight from the Kingston Road and Morden Road junctions, the architects have made every effort to ensure the building’s visage is both striking and memorable, and the firm has stressed that they want the design to ‘to respond to the surroundings; to enhance and to sustain and to improve the character and setting of the area, to complement but not necessarily replicate local architecture character.’ They also stated that the structure will be com- prised ‘simple palette of materials composed of glazed terracotta and timber cladding to interiors.’ The development will be ideal for residents, being situated 1.2km to the southeast of Wimbledon Town Centre and less than a minutes’ walk from South Wimbledon Station. The design has had to incorporate lightweight construction materials owing to a London Under- ground tunnel being located directly under the site. Therefore, the building will be constructed from CLT (Cross Laminated Timber) to lower the weight of the structure. The designs have been focused heavily on resident’s comfort, with all the apartments and houses due to have outdoor spaces in the form of balconies, terraces or winter gardens. News Lenscap Photography / Shutterstock.com