A Weekly Dose of Architecture Books

Here are some photos of the Kagawa Prefectural Government Office (1958) in Kagawa, Japan, by Kenzo Tange. (Photos: Tatsuya Krause ) To contribute your Flickr images for consideration, just: :: Join and add photos to the  archidose pool To contribute your Instagram images for consideration, just: :: Tag your photos  #archidose

The last of the five buildings in Queens that I drove by a couple weeks ago is the Kew Gardens Hill Library, which was part of a "Queens Builds" blog post back in 2009. Seven years later, it is a construction site: What the building, designed by WORKac, should look like when done: [Rendering via WORKac ] The project is part renovation, part expansion, with an L-shaped volume of space wrapping around the existing library's rectangular plan. As can be glimpsed in the below photo, the existing has basically been gutted and turned into an open plan. WORKac's design is all about the rippling GFRC facade that is "lifted" at the corners for views into and out of the library. The facade is "dog-eared" to create a small awning at the entrance (visible below and in the rendering). The dip at the entrance promises to give a good look of the green roof once it's in place. The lifted facade ensures the small branch makes a strong neighborhood ...

The fourth of the five buildings I drove by in Queens last week is the Elmhurst Branch Library by Marpillero Pollak Architects . The library -- referred to as the second busiest branch in the Queens Library system -- is located at the intersection of Broadway and 51st Avenue in a bustling section of the Elmhurst neighborhood. The project was not without some controversy. The fairly large design replaces a more than 100-year-old Carnegie library -- one of a then handful in Queens -- that was demolished in 2012. The new library more than doubles the square footage of the old one. Further, the library was expected to open in 2014 after breaking ground in 2012, but a number of delays pushed the completion into the fall of 2016 ; though no opening date is set. Setting aside the orange construction fencing, the library looks done from the outside, even down to the landscaping. It's so done-looking, there's a hand-painted "Closed" sign in front of the entrance doors (p...

Here are some of my photos of a new Columbarium at Center Cemetery in Norfolk, Connecticut, by RKLA | Robin Key Landscape Architecture with stone artist Dan Snow . The 100-foot-long dry stone wall with 50 columbarium niches weaves between four mature trees at the far end of the 250-year-old cemetery. To contribute your Flickr images for consideration, just: :: Join and add photos to the  archidose pool To contribute your Instagram images for consideration, just: :: Tag your photos  #archidose

Here are some photos of Coffee Shop at West Bund, Shanghai, by Scenic Architecture Office . (Photos: LC_YIP ) To contribute your Flickr images for consideration, just: :: Join and add photos to the  archidose pool To contribute your Instagram images for consideration, just: :: Tag your photos  #archidose

Three of the buildings in Queens I drove by last week are libraries, with only one of them completed and occupied: the Glen Oaks branch  near the borough's eastern edge. Designed by Marble Fairbanks  (which has a thorough and informative  journal on the project ), the library was voted Building of the Year at American-Architects in 2013, they year it opened. Although I curated that feature and found the project to deserve its winning status, last week was the first time I had the chance to visit the library, even though I live in the borough. The building is located on the south side of busy Union Turnpike, and the library's north-facing elevation is all glass and signage. There are actually two signs: one geared to pedestrians and one to motorists; the latter is the word "SEARCH" written in light across the upper panes of glass. The effect is created by a parapet with the back surface etched with the word on a layer of film; the sun projects the word onto the cu...

The second of the five projects I drove by yesterday morning in Queens is EMS Station 50, which opened last month in Jamaica. The building was designed by Dean/Wolf Architects , which calls it the "Restless Response Station" on their website and states: The Queens Hospital Emergency Medical Services Station reverses the entropy of the existing site and releases the restless response latent in the program. The double bar structure rises up and out of the site countering the downward slope of the topography. The diagonal form pulses with the anticipation of movement, embodying the programmatic need for immediate action, and energizing the community with a sense of engagement. The tension created by the double mirror of the sloping situation paired with the programmatic need for immediate action gives the building its name, restless response. Setting aside this reaching description, I'll admit it's an attention-getting design and a great addition to the neighborhood:...

This morning I borrowed a friend's car and drove around Queens, checking out a handful of buildings that have been recently completed or are under construction. First in this short "Queens Builds" series is Perkins+Will's New York City Police Academy in College Point. College Point sits on an peninsula of sorts east of LaGuardia Airport and cut off from Flushing and other parts to the south and east by the Whitestone Expressway. The neighborhood's northern half is mainly residential, but to the south, toward the once-notorious Willets Point, it is primarily industrial. Until the Police Academy, College Point's most architecturally significant building was the New York Times Printing Plant by Polshek/Ennead. The 730,000-sf first phase of the New York City Police Academy – designed by Perkins+Will with Michael Fieldman Architects and completed last year – sits on a large, 35-acre triangular parcel at area's southern tip. [ Map ] The building fronts...

Here are a few photos of the Vienna DC Towers in Vienna, Austria, by Dominique Perrault Architecture . (Photos: Martin Krause ) To contribute your Flickr images for consideration, just: :: Join and add photos to the  archidose pool To contribute your Instagram images for consideration, just: :: Tag your photos  #archidose