Hearst Tower, New York, US

Hearst Tower in New York City, New York, US is located at 300 West 57th Street, 959 8th Avenue, near Columbus Circle. It is the world headquarters of the Hearst Corporation, bringing together for the first time their numerous publications and communications companies under one roof, including among others Cosmopolitan, Esquire and the San Francisco Chronicle.

The former six-story headquarters building was commissioned by the founder, William Randolph Hearst and awarded to the architect Joseph Urban. The building was completed in 1928 at a cost of $2 million and contained 40,000 sq ft (3,700 m2). The original cast stone facade has been preserved in the new design as a designated Landmark site. Originally built as the base for a proposed skyscraper, the construction of the tower was postponed due to the Great Depression. The new tower addition was completed nearly eighty years later, and 2000 Hearst employees moved in on 4 May 2006.

The tower, structural engineered by WSP Cantor Seinuk, and constructed by Turner construction is 46 stories tall, standing 182 m (597 ft) with 80,000 m² (856,000 ft²) of office space. The uncommon triangular framing pattern (also known as a diagrid) required 9,500 metric tons (10,480 tons) of structural steel – reportedly about 20% less than a conventional steel frame. Hearst Tower was the first skyscraper to break ground in New York City after September 11, 2001. The building received the 2006 Emporis Skyscraper Award,[2] citing it as the best skyscraper in the world completed that year.

Hearst Tower is the first "green" high rise office building completed in New York City, with a number of environmental considerations built into the plan. The floor of the atrium is paved with heat conductive limestone. Polyethylene tubing is embedded under the floor and filled with circulating water for cooling in the summer and heating in the winter. Rain collected on the roof is stored in a tank in the basement for use in the cooling system, to irrigate plants and for the water sculpture in the main lobby. The building was constructed using 80% recycled steel. Overall, the building has been designed to use 26% less energy than the minimum requirements for the city of New York, and earned a gold designation from the United States Green Building Council’s LEED certification program.

The atrium features escalators which run through a 3-story water sculpture titled Icefall, a wide waterfall built with thousands of glass panels, which cools and humidifies the lobby air.

Architect : Norman Foster

Habitat 67, Montreal, Canada

Habitat 67 is a housing complex and landmark located on the Marc-Drouin Quay on the Saint Lawrence River at 2600, Pierre Dupuy Avenue in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. It was competed in 1967 as a part of Expo 67, the International Exhibition at Montreal.
The development consists of 158 apartments with from one to four bedrooms, altogether, there are 15 different plans. The apartments are constructed from 354 individual prefabricated concrete units, stacked in a "confused order" and connected by internal steel cables.

Architect : Moshe Safdie

National Centre for the Performing Arts, Beijing, China

The National Centre for the Performing Arts and colloquially described as The Egg, is an opera house in Beijing, People's Republic of China. The Centre, an ellipsoid dome of titanium and glass surrounded by an artificial lake, seats 5,452 people in three halls and is almost 12,000 m² in size. Construction started in December 2001 and the inaugural concert was held in December 2007.

The exterior of the theater is a titanium accented glass dome that is completely surrounded by a man-made lake. It is said to look like an egg floating on water. It was designed as an iconic feature, something that would be immediately recognizable.

The dome measures 212 meters in east-west direction, 144 meters in north-south direction, and is 46 meters high. The main entrance is at the north side. Guests arrive in the building after walking through a hallway that goes underneath the lake. The titanium shell is broken by a glass curtain in north-south direction that gradually widens from top to bottom. Internally, there are three major performance halls.

Architect: Paul Andreu

Experience Music Project and Science Fiction Museum and Hall of Fame, Washington, US

The Experience Music Project and Science Fiction Museum and Hall of Fame (abbreviation EMP|SFM) is a museum dedicated to the history and exploration of both popular music and science fiction located in Seattle, Washington. The museum building is located on the campus of the Seattle Center, adjacent to the Space Needle and the Seattle Center Monorail, which runs through the building.

Experience Music Project (EMP) was founded by Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen, and opened its doors in 2000.

Much of the building material is exposed in the building's interior. The building contains 140,000 square feet (13,000 m2), with a 35,000-square-foot (3,300 m2) footprint. The central "Sky Church" room pays homage to Jimi Hendrix and other rock 'n' roll icons using a 40-foot (12 m) high, 70-foot (21 m) wide video screen and an 18-panel montage of images. The last structural steel beam to be put in place bears the signatures of all construction workers who were on site on the day it was erected.

Architect: Frank O. Gehry

Frederick R. Weisman Museum of Art, Minneapolis, US

The Frederick R. Weisman Art Museum located on the University of Minnesota Twin Cities campus in Minneapolis, Minnesota has been a teaching museum for the university since 1934. The museum's current building was completed in 1993.
It is one of the major landmarks on campus, situated on a bluff overlooking the Mississippi River at the east end of the Washington Avenue Bridge. The building presents two faces, depending on which side it is viewed from. From the campus side, it presents a brick facade that blends with the existing brick and sandstone buildings. On the opposite side, the museum is a playground of curving and angular brushed steel sheets as featured in pictures below. This side is an abstraction of a waterfall and a fish.
The most stunning views of the building are from the pedestrian and highway decks of the adjacent Washington Avenue Bridge. Some locals critical of the radical architectural style frequently point out that the building's design could unexpectedly reflect the light of the sun into the eyes of motorists on the bridge. Studies commissioned by MNDOT have found that the museum is not hazardous to motorists.

Architect: Frank O. Gehry