October 2, 2018 – Michael Bierut of Pentagram will present "Graphic Design and the Third Dimension" on Thursday, October 4 at Kane Hall at the University of Washington campus at 7:00pm. The world of the graphic designer is often confined to the flat realms of paper and screens. Michael Bierut will discuss what happens when the discipline engages with architecture, both as a subject, as a context, and as a challenge.
The lecture, which is free and open to the public, is part of the year-long "Drawing in Design: Exploring the Hand" lecture and workshop series that GGN launched and sponsors at the University of Washington College of Built Environments. The lecture is followed by a weekend workshop with registered UW architecture and landscape architecture students and design professionals that includes opportunities for discussions, exercises, and crits to explore the role of hand-drawing in design and development.
“We’ve enjoyed working with the College of Built Environments and Dr. Thaisa Way to create a special workshop and lecture series at the University of Washington that focuses completely on drawing – not as rendering or an art form but as an essential design tool,” said Shannon Nichol. “The series’ guest designers come from a diverse range of fields but all use drawing – for most of them, hand-drawing – to create their design strategies and to thoroughly refine their work through to the fine detail. We are not focused in this series on renderings or on field sketching – not on those drawings that record things, however beautiful those recordings can be. We are focused on the internal, working drawings that make the new things that you can’t see yet but are charged with designing.”
September 10, 2018 – Osaka Mayor Hirofumi Yoshimura has confirmed that the team led by Mitsubishi Estate Co., Ltd. (MEC) will design the Umekita Second Development Zone, considered the last prime real estate in Osaka. Osaka is the second-largest metropolitan area in Japan, and the 59-acre (24 ha) Umekita site is located in front of the Osaka rail station, part of a five-station major transit hub, adjacent to the internationally known Umeda Sky Building by Hiroshi Hara. The team, led by MEC, is composed of nine developers and six design and operation firms, including Gustafson Guthrie Nichol (GGN). The team was selected after a six-month long competition run by the Urban Renaissance Agency with a jury that included Tadao Ando.
In speaking to the media, Mayor Yoshimura noted, “This site has been described as the last prime real estate at the center of Osaka and the Kansai region. The Umekita Second Phase Development is an extremely important project for City of Osaka.”
June 11, 2018 -- Hazelwood Green, a former steel mill site that is the City of Pittsburgh’s largest riverfront redevelopment project, today announced GGN has been selected to create the first public plaza at the 178-acre site. The plaza is envisioned as an adaptable and innovative gathering and event space for those who work, reside in, or visit Hazelwood Green and its neighborhood of Hazelwood. Elements of the new Hazelwood Green Plaza may include benches and seating, green space and native plantings, lighting, public art, and space for seasonal events.
“We received an outstanding mix of proposals, but were most impressed by GGN and their understanding of the role of this first public space in shaping Hazelwood Green as a place and for its important role within a larger system of well-loved civic centers in the City of Pittsburgh,” says Hazelwood Green Project Director Rebecca Flora. “GGN’s portfolio reflects a high quality of design and aesthetic, as well as sensitivity and experience in the integration of sustainability with design elements, all of which align with the vision for Hazelwood Green. These attributes, together with their demonstrated ability and commitment to working within the constraints of the project’s budget and schedule, made GGN the clear choice among a team of highly qualified contenders.”
Read the full press release here.
Lower Rainier Vista & Pedestrian Land Bridge