Frank Gehry’s first Florida building, a big bleached box in Miami Beach, looks more like a high-end department store than an eye-catching piece of “sculpitecture” by the architect of “swoopy.” But contained in the $160-million New World Symphony music academy and performance center—on schedule to open on Jan. 25 despite some last-minute hiccups—Gehry’s signature free-form rooms stand as tall as 80 ft, visible through a 180 x 80-ft picture window. Other than to say “we put all the juice inside,” the architect is mum on whether the music-box shape was selected for context, economy or constructibility. But Benton Delinger, director

The need to integrate resilience into building design has moved up the agenda this month among several federal authorities. On Dec. 1, President Obama declared December to be Critical Infrastructure Protection Month. The announce-ment was made as the Dept. of Homeland Security and the National Institute of Building Sciences hosted a summit in Washington, D.C., on high-performance, resilient buildings and related architecture. The summit included both public officials and private industry representatives as well as nine working group sessions. The results of the summit will be published in a report scheduled for release in January.

Architectural firm HKS Inc., Dallas, will join Germany-based Tilke Engineers and Architects in the design and construction of a $250-million Formula One racing complex in Austin, Texas. Tilke is leading the project; HKS will serve as the architect of record. The 3.4-mile track, with its 133 feet of elevation change and 20 turns, is slated to host the U.S. Grand Prix through at least 2021. Developers say work on the 900-acre complex is expected to start in December. The project includes a visitors’ driving/riding experience, a conference building, a motor sports club, go-kart track and a multipurpose fan area. HKS,

Rendering: Courtesy Goetsch Partners China is further securing its title as the hub of supertall building with the announcement of Goettsch Partners as architect for the Tianjin R&F Guangdong Tower. At a planned 439 m, the tower ranks 39 on the “100 tallest proposed buildings” list compiled by the Council on Tall Buildings and Urban Habitat. On the proposed list, there are 12 others in China taller than the Tianjin tower, designed to be from 450 to 628 m. China’s current tallest is the 492-m Shanghai World Financial Center. It ranks third in the world, after the 828-m Burj Khalifa

With the 6,350th glass pane hoisted into place on Sept. 15, the only visible sign of anything having been awry at Atlanta’s 723-ft-tall Westin Peachtree Plaza Hotel—the tallest hotel in the Western Hemisphere—is the exterior hoist, set to come down by mid-November. But for more than two years, there were pockmarks on the glass-clad facade, which was hit by flying debris during a freak tornado in March 2008. Photos Courtesy Of Skanska USA Tornado damage to the glass cladding of Atlanta’s Peachtree Plaza Hotel prompted a total face-lift. The 35-year-old hotel stayed open, minus damaged rooms, during the year-long, $22-million

The U.S. State Dept. has announced that architect HOK, St. Louis, will design a $192-million addition to the U.S. Embassy complex in Moscow. Construction of the 15,000-square-meter building is set for completion in 2015. It will achieve at least Silver LEED certification, according to the firm. HOK was one of 27 architects that submitted proposals to design the addition, the company says.

Many pavilion designers at Expo 2010 Shanghai, the World’s Fair currently under way in China, interpret its “Better City, Better Life” theme as a call for sustainable buildings. The Peru Pavilion is covered in “green” bamboo and clay, while the Japan Pavilion collects light, air and water in its “eco tubes.” But the developers of the Finland Pavilion interpret “sustainable” not only in terms of the materials and systems used in its construction, but also as an integrated process that begins in building information modeling and continues through adaptive reuse. Image: Courtesy Tekla Software Kirnu, Finnish for “giant’s kettle,” evokes

Photo: Courtesey Of Texas Christian University Texas Christian University, Forth Worth, said on Aug. 16 that a $105-million renovation of the 80-year-old Amon G. Carter football stadium, the first major overhaul in nearly 55 years, will start later this fall. The renovated stadium will have a seating capacity of 40,000 that can be expanded to more than 50,000 seats. HKS is the project’s designer, and Austin Commercial will serve as the project’s general contractor. Both are based in Dallas.

During a nine-course meal at a Chinese restaurant in New York City on July 10, Wang Da Sui, design master of China and part of a panel of experts approving the structural scheme for the 632-meter-tall Shanghai Tower, confirmed that the innovative architecture of the twisted and tapering skyscraper—sheathed in sheer glass like a Baccarat crystal—is a guinea pig for crafting China’s first supertall-building code. The code, for structures 300 m and taller with “serious irregularity,” requires performance-based design and extra-stiff frames and puts strict limits on building acceleration. Wang, who also heads the code committee, said the code will

New York City’s Urban Assembly School of Design and Construction, a public high school, hosted its first “Iron Designer” competition on June 18 on the roof of its midtown building. Photo: James Blum Team works to determine the best use of the secret material—glass tiles. Composed of students partnered with architectural and engineering firms professsionals, 10 teams competed to build the best safe house: a life-size emergency shelter. The organizers limited each team to a handful of common materials and a threehour deadline. The school envisions the challenge becoming an annual fund-raising event. On the day before the competition, the