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Join us every second Tuesday of the month for a dose of optimism with thought-provoking guests who are revolutionizing their fields. Innovators will lead virtual workshops for an hour of discovery, inspiration, and community. Led by editor in chief, Avinash Rajagopal, these workshops will be guided by our audience, where questions are not only welcome but encouraged.

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Metropolis Editors, Natural Habitat, sustainability, sustainable architecture

METROPOLIS Introduces Natural Habitat, a Sustainable Homes Video Series

The series debuts with a tour of a tranquil upstate New York retreat designed with Passive House principles.

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SOM (6966)

  • Projects

    A SOM-Designed Bank in China Provides Fresh Air During Mild Months

    … minimizing its framework and creating column-free interior spaces. Chuck Besjak, SOM’s structural engineer for the project, says the diagrid is nearly 15 percent more efficient than a conventional tower frame. Clad in white panels to provide a consistent aesthetic, the diagrid plays multiple roles. Primarily, it addresses gravity and lateral loads for …

  • Viewpoints

    Preservationists Are Investigating the Historical Significance of SOM's Westinghouse Research Center

    … tags selected LatestProfilesWoodward Throwbacks Transforms Landfill-Bound Goods into Modern FurnitureThe Detroit-based manufacturer is one of several groups drawing on breakthrough research, tools, and sourcing systems to change building-material reuse.Products10 Architecture and Design Books Worth Adding to Your Reading ListMETROPOLIS rounds up the best new books on architecture, urbanism, design, and …

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    Programs

    SOM Thinks Autonomous Vehicles Could Rapidly Change How Cities Grow and Develop

    … Metropolis Think Tank panel, "Autonomous in Chicago: Transit Beyond the Grid," was hosted at Chicago’s UI Labs, a high-tech makerspace and fabrication lab. Courtesy Evan Jenkins Of course, it’s possible that the ability of AV technology to extend equitable investment to underserved areas will be offset by its potential to further …

  • Viewpoints

    You Can't Spell SOM Without Gordon Bunshaft

    … integral to architecture throughout history; good solutions are reused.” This is the source of both good and lamentable things. Bunshaft-like elements can be found in many SOM buildings beyond the canonical 38. Not all of these matched Bunshaft’s best, but some—the 1963 Air Force Academy in Colorado Springs and the 1958 Inland …

  • Programs

    SOM Chicago: Collaborative Partnerships Bring About Lasting Change

    … building, you might have some motion-perception issues, you might get seasick. By having smart data, you can potentially link your structure to weather and seismic data. So the question is “Can a structure somehow adapt itself as a result?” A lot of times, we’ll put dampers in buildings to make them more …

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    Projects

    SOM Designs a Citadel for the National Museum of the US Army

    … Thursdays and hear what leading firms across North America are thinking and working on today.

  • Projects

    SOM Explains Exactly How a Raccoon Scaled Its St. Paul Skyscraper

    … within the podium and riding a historic carousel there. However, “Sometimes in the ‘90s they gut renovated the building, so all of that architecture on the inside is long gone,” he says. “But its exterior is more or less like it’s always been.” The rough, exposed aggregate concrete facade allowed the raccoon to …

  • Projects

    The Team Maintaining SOM's Legacy of Engineering Greatness

    … invent a new architecture every Monday morning,” Mies once famously said—and certainly what Baker and company appear to be doing isn’t that. As compared to sometime architect collaborators like Frank Gehry and artists like James Turrell, SOM seems content not to develop too definite a set of formal or conceptual signatures, even if …

  • Projects

    With New Zhengzhou Tower, SOM Looked to Early 20th-Century Solar Technology

    … several Chinese occupy protests). A heliostat used in this Japanese "depthscraper" concept. Image from blog.modermechanix.com The interior of Foster + Partners' HSBC headquarters. Image from arup.com SOM’s most recent foray into the realm of heliostat use, while not radically innovative, is the latest example of this technology being applied to light …

  • Projects

    SOM's Great Lakes Century Project Wins New Accolades

    … collaboration with its neighbor. As Enquist told Steven Litt, the author of the Metropolis story, “It is frustrating to go to China and see a national infrastructure investment that takes your breath away. We’ve got to have a revved-up view of the future.” And that’s exactly what Burnham’s distant voice …