by: Linda G. Miller
Diller Scofidio + Renfro’s Canal Café at Venice Biennale Turns Lagoon Water into Espresso
At this year’s Venice Architecture Biennale, Diller Scofidio + Renfro (DS+R) was awarded a 2025 Golden Lion for Best Participation for its Canal Café, a site-specific installation that is part espresso bar, part laboratory. The canals and lagoons which are the source of the city’s historical wealth and beauty also elicit fears of contamination and flooding. By reaching beneath the photogenic surface of the city, the project converts these brackish waters into the scent and taste of espresso. Sited at the Arsenale Lagoon the natural-artificial purification system accelerates the cleansing effects of tidal wetlands, rendering canal water potable. A transparent pipe draws water from the lagoon, channeling it through a bio-filtration system that removes sludge and toxins. The water is split into two interdependent streams: one flows through a natural membrane bioreactor, a “micro-wetland” where salt-tolerant halophytes facilitate purification but retain minerals; and the other undergoes artificial filtration, reverse osmosis, and UV disinfection to produce distilled water. The streams are then mixed, steamed, and forced through coffee grounds to produce espresso. Unused purified water irrigates an adjacent landscape installation. The project won in its exhibition category, “Intelligens. Natural. Artificial. Collective.” DS+R worked in collaboration with US-based water systems engineers Natural Systems Utilities, and the Italy-based environmental engineering and water engineering company Sodai, collaborating curator Aaron Betsky, and chef Davide Oldani. The project was supported by WeBuild.
16 Tech Bridge Opens in Indianapolis’ Research and Medical Corridor
As the design lead and structural engineer for the 16 Tech Innovation District Bridge in Indianapolis, IN, schlaich bergermann partner (sbp) in collaboration with the architects at Practice for Architecture and Urbanism (PAU), has reinterpreted the principles of a classic suspension bridge to create an entirely new form. The multi-modal bridge connects the city’s Innovation District with its research/medical corridor and downtown community. Spanning 342 feet, the bridge prioritizes pedestrian and cyclist access with protected pathways separated from vehicular traffic with more than half of the square footage of its 65-foot-wide deck devoted to non-vehicular use. Pedestrians are encouraged to pause and enjoy the views along the span of the bridge. A gathering space cantilevers over the water, creating opportunities for public programming. Seating is crafted from trees harvested from the site and designed by 16 Tech’s Machyne Makerspace. Drawing inspiration from its setting above a creek, the design creates tree-like vertical supports that mimic a trunk and branches and the bridge’s undulating steel ribbon mirrors the profile of the creek itself. The design interprets the principles of a classic suspension bridge structure, accomplished by replacing the large vertical masts found on a typical suspension bridge with a fan-type arrangement of multiple smaller masts. Flat two-inch steel plates replace the traditional suspension cables as the main supports. The bridge’s tension element is allowed to follow the new mast arrangement, creating its signature wave-like form. Through advanced digital modeling and close collaboration between engineers and fabricators, the design team optimized fabrication and assembly processes to streamline construction while maintaining the bridge’s expressive form. The modular approach allowed for efficient use of materials and labor, reducing waste and ensuring economic feasibility. The sbp and PAU team, which includes landscape designer Martha Schwartz Partners (MSP), was selected from a field of 33 international design teams that responded to a public Request for Qualifications (RFQ).
MBB Converts Paramount Theater Space into New Martha Graham Center
The new home for the Martha Graham Dance Center, designed by MBB Architects, is currently in construction in what was originally the rehearsal space for the historic Paramount Theater located at 1501 Broadway at West 43rd Street in Times Square. The approximately 21,700-square-foot space more than doubles the organization’s current headquarters at the Westbeth Artists Housing Complex and the basement of the nearby St. Veronica’s Church, allowing the Center to expand its educational programs. The new space will serve as the permanent home of the Martha Graham Center, which encompasses the Graham Company, the oldest modern dance troupe in the city, the School, Offices, and Resources, the latter of which oversees archiving and licensing, including choreography, costume designs, and audiovisual recordings. The facility will include six flexible studios, a reception area, public gathering spaces, dressing rooms, and administrative and archival support spaces, which can accommodate the interests of researchers and fans alike. The renovation focuses on the uppermost floors of the building starting from the 11th floor on up and removes non-original floors and partitions to restore its soaring proportions. In sequencing the rhythm of the new space, the designers were inspired by a core principle of the Graham technique known as “contraction and release. This refers to the fundamental movement cycle where the dancer contracts their core muscles and pulls the spine into an arc, then releases these muscles, allowing the body to extend and lengthen. This translates into positioning the more intimate program areas within the soaring three story high white box studios. To create the three-story studio spaces, portions of the existing 12th floor were removed. This will allow daylight from the building’s original sawtooth skylights to reach the 11th floor rehearsal and performance spaces, where the company hosts its in-house monthly Studio Series. The organization is expected to move into their new headquarters by January 2026, in time to celebrate its 100th anniversary.
Lincoln Center Unveils Outdoor Venue by Hood Design Studio, Weiss/Manfredi
Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts (LCPA) today unveiled the preliminary design for the Amsterdam Avenue side of its campus. Designed by Hood Design Studio (Landscape Architect), WEISS/MANFREDI Architecture/Landscape/Urbanism (Design Architect) and Moody Nolan (Architect of Record), and led by the Stavros Niarchos Foundation (SNF) Lincoln Center West Initiative. The new design incorporates extensive community feedback from an ongoing participatory process that began in 2023, and creates a new, world-class outdoor performance venue with community park spaces, removing the wall that has separated Lincoln Center from Amsterdam Avenue at West 62nd Street. Long advocated for by the community, this eliminates the visual and physical barrier wall at Damrosch Park to create a more welcoming edge to the campus, better serving close neighbors. The design balances the interventions made to the east side of Lincoln Center’s campus more than a decade ago, which created more welcoming outdoor spaces on the north and east of campus needed to deliver on its founding mission of the arts for all. The proposal includes: a welcoming entrance that dramatically opens up Lincoln Center’s Amsterdam Avenue face to neighbors approaching from the west; a community park featuring a lawn, water feature, tree groves, and garden for public enjoyment; and a new performance venue which includes a permanent theater structure and an open plaza for audience seating of up to approx. 2,000 which will anchor the improved, world-class performance park to meet artistic and community needs. The venue realizes the original intent of a theater in a park, by surrounding the new architecture with a veil of trees following the original grid design of the park. This project is being undertaken in coordination with NYC Parks and NYC Department of Transportation. Damrosch Park is mapped city parkland maintained and operated by LCPA.
Temple University and SOM Break Ground on Caroline Kimmel Pavilion for Arts and Communication
Temple University in Philadelphia has broken ground on the Skidmore, Owings & Merrill (SOM)-designed Caroline Kimmel Pavilion for Arts and Communication. The 200,000-square-foot media hub and performance venue brings together the Klein College of Media and Communications and the Center for Performing and Cinematic Arts (CPCA), previously housed in multiple buildings, and now under one roof. Located at the western edge of campus, the Caroline Kimmel Pavilion is conceived as a new gateway to the university. The building frames the main pedestrian axis on campus to create a portico-like structure that invites the public to pass directly through it. This path is lined with a series of outdoor amenities, from revitalized green spaces to a new outside amphitheater for performances and gatherings. Large glass apertures along the façade reveal the activity within, exhibiting a range of creative spaces and learning environments. Studios, post-production spaces, and screening rooms are located within these apertures. Classrooms and faculty offices lie further inside, and a series of performance and entertainment venues include a 375-seat proscenium, a 180-seat cinema, 140-seat black box theater, and a 63-seat screening room provide space for students to showcase their work. To highlight these specialty performance and studio spaces and enhance wayfinding, SOM’s Graphics + Brand Studio developed a visual approach using a graduated palette from red to blue with several shades in between to reflect both distinction and unity between the two schools. Sustainability features include a large green roof, native plantings, bird-friendly glass, and an overall window-to-wall ratio of 30% to further contribute to the project’s LEED Silver target. The building is scheduled to be completed in Fall 2027.
Beyer Blinder Belle Unveils Redesign of Center for Jewish History
Known as one of the world’s foremost institutions dedicated to the preservation and study of Jewish culture, The Center for Jewish History, home to the American Jewish Historical Society, American Sephardi Federation, Leo Baeck Institute, Yeshiva University Museum, and YIVO Institute for Jewish Research, has unveiled a refreshed public face, designed by Beyer Blinder Belle Architects & Planners (BBB) 25 years after the Center first opened its doors. The new 2,200-square-foot project includes a redesigned entry lobby, the opening of Ruth’s Bookstore, and new interior and exterior graphic elements designed by LVCK, a Beyer Blinder Belle Studio. LVCK also designed a new entry kiosk that stands perpendicular to the building along 16th Street. Constructed of powder-coated aluminum, it is lit from within to draw attention to the relocated entry and to evoke the illumination that comes from scholarship. The Center’s main entrance was shifted to the western side of the 16th Street façade to accommodate the bookstore and improve security and check-in for exhibitions. A new stone and metal reception desk complements the space which features an existing black terrazzo flooring and Michele Oka Doner’s inlaid aluminum and bronze artwork Biblical Species, while a coffered ceiling of gray felt tiles adds a contemporary rhythm and enhances acoustic performance. Located at the eastern end of the lobby, Ruth’s Bookstore contains a collection of books contained in ash wood shelving and on display tables. In 1995, BBB was commissioned to create a permanent home for the Center near Union Square by unifying five contiguous lots that spanned 16th and 17th Streets. A four-story structure was inserted in the heart of the block, centered around the Paul S. and Sylvia Steinberg Great Hall and the Lillian Goldman Reading Room above. Taller buildings along 17th Street house classrooms, offices, and archives for the Center’s five partner institutions. In 2013, the firm completed the David Berg Rare Book Room which is a secure, visible space for rare books and manuscripts. BBB has also conducted envelope and systems assessments, to help maintain conservation standards while improving energy performance. Currently, the firm is designing a youth digital learning lab scheduled to open later this year.
In Case You Missed It…
Described as a “eyesore,” a 1970s building at 395 Flatbush in Downtown Brooklyn will be repurposed into the podium of a new 72-story tower designed by TenBerke. The seven-story building will offer 66,000 square feet of retail space on the first two floors and office space on levels three and four. The all-electric tower will yield approximately 1,200 mixed-income rental apartments, aligning with the goals of City of Yes for Housing Opportunity through the City’s MIH program. At the heart of the plan is a new 4,750-square-foot, privately maintained landscaped public plaza with plantings and seating, complementing the nearby Fulton Mall. Developed by Rabina and Park Tower Group in collaboration with the city’s Department of Housing Preservation & Development, the tower will become the second tallest in the borough.
The Jewish Museum will debut its renewed and reimagined collection galleries and learning center on October 24, 2025. Marking the most significant architectural upgrade to the Jewish Museum in over 30 years, the project transforms half of the public space within the Museum’s historic Warburg Mansion on Fifth Avenue at 92nd Street. The reimagined galleries will create expanded opportunities to engage with the Museum’s encyclopedic holdings. The project is led by United Network Studio (UNS), with Method Design as architect of record and New Affiliates Architecture as exhibition designers.
The U.S. Open’s Arthur Ashe Stadium in Flushing, Queens will be undergoing a revamp led by Rossetti, the architect of the original Arthur Ashe Stadium and the 2018 grounds renovation. The transformation will take shape over three phases and be completed by the 2027 US Open, without interrupting play or fan access for the 2025–26 events. The project will significantly enhance the world’s largest tennis stadium and elevate the fan experience; updates include a grand entrance designed by Studio Daniel Libeskind, expanded public space, and a new players-only building with state-of-the-art training facilities and premium accommodations.
The New York City Landmarks Preservation Commission (LPC) voted unanimously to designate the (former) Whitney Museum of American Art, located at 945 Madison Avenue at 75th Street, as both an individual and interior landmark. Designed by Marcel Breuer and Associates, the Brutalist-style building is an enduring emblem of modern urban architecture that served as home to the Whitney Museum of American Art from the time of its construction in 1966 until 2014. The Whitney Museum relocated in 2014, and the building temporarily housed collections from the nearby Metropolitan Museum of Art and in 2016, Beyer Blinder Belle guided the restoration of and helped transform it into the Met Breuer. The building also served as an interim site for the Frick Collection. In 2023, the building was acquired by Sotheby’s and it is currently undergoing renovations to restore and adapt the site for its new use as the auction house’s new global headquarters, work that was approved by LPC. The building was also designated as part of the Upper East Side Historic District in 1981.