NASA’s Glenn Research Center in Cleveland, Ohio consists primarily of a constellation of World War II-era brick buildings that lacked a central focus. The new Research Support Building (RSB), designed by TEN Arquitectos, will rectify this and create a nexus for the campus.
The two-story, 60,000-sf facility will rise on the main artery of Lewis Field. The design consists of rectilinear massings (airy volumes of glass and corrugated metal) meant to optimize program adjacencies and creative interactions, and allow for the creation of indoor and outdoor public green spaces.
RSB’s north-south elevated and cantilevered axis provides an extended covered plaza that leads to the entrance and will house a communal dining area, collaborative work space, and a gallery. RSB will include a display of rotating items from NASA’s archives to showcase the many achievements of the Glenn Research Center. Exposed trusses reduce the need for support and create 270-degree views that flood the interior with light.
See Also: This space hotel design from MIT won NASA’s graduate design competition
The main building will comprise dedicated and fluid work areas, open and private offices, meeting rooms, conference rooms, and training rooms. Enclosed double height and landscaped internal courtyards will allow natural light to reach deep into the surrounding work spaces. Also included is an 86,000-sf landscaped lawn known as Wright Commons.
Research Support Building is currently under construction with a 2020 completion target.
Related Stories
| Aug 11, 2010
Goettsch Partners wins design competition for Soochow Securities HQ in China
Chicago-based Goettsch Partners has been selected to design the Soochow Securities Headquarters, the new office and stock exchange building for Soochow Securities Co. Ltd. The 21-story, 441,300-sf project includes 344,400 sf of office space, an 86,100-sf stock exchange, classrooms, and underground parking.
| Aug 11, 2010
Green HQ going up in Miami
Formgroup, Coral Gables, Fla., has been commissioned by communications company CIMA Telecom to design its 24,000-sf headquarters in Miami. The nine-story, LEED Gold pre-certified office building will get 25% of its power from solar panels and will minimize energy usage with the help of automated window shades and occupancy sensors.
| Aug 11, 2010
Manhattan's Pier 57 to be transformed into $210 million cultural center
LOT-EK, Beyer Blinder Belle, and West 8 have been selected as the design team for Hudson River Park's $210 million Pier 57 redevelopment, headed by local developer Young Woo & Associates. The 375,000-sf vacant passenger ship terminal will be transformed into a cultural center, small business incubator, and public park, including a rooftop venue for the Tribeca Film Festival.
| Aug 11, 2010
Manhattan's latest boutique hotel will be LEED Silver certified
New York-based developer Tribeca Associates has commissioned Brennan Beer Gorman Architects to design its latest mixed-use office and boutique hotel at 330 Hudson Street. Located in the downtown Hudson Square area of Manhattan, the LEED-Silver development will involve the redevelopment of a historic, eight-story warehouse building into 292,000 sf of office space, 15,000 sf of retail space, and ...
| Aug 11, 2010
NASA plans federal government's greenest building
NASA is set to break ground on what the agency expects to be the highest-performing building in the federal government's portfolio. Named Sustainability Base, the building at Ames Research Center in Sunnyvale, Calif., will be a showplace for sustainable technologies, featuring some of the agency's most advanced recycling and intelligent controls technologies originally developed to support NASA...
| Aug 11, 2010
U.S. firm designing massive Taiwan project
MulvannyG2 Architecture is designing one of Taipei, Taiwan's largest urban redevelopment projects. The Bellevue, Wash., firm is working with developer The Global Team Group to create Aquapearl, a mixed-use complex that's part of the Taipei government's "Good Looking Taipei 2010" initiative to spur redevelopment of the city's Songjian District.
| Aug 11, 2010
High-Performance Workplaces
Building Teams around the world are finding that the workplace is changing radically, leading owners and tenants to reinvent corporate office buildings to compete more effectively on a global scale. The good news is that this means more renovation and reconstruction work at a time when new construction has stalled to a dribble.
| Aug 11, 2010
Idea Center at Playhouse Square: A better idea
Through a unique partnership between a public media organization and a performing arts/education entity, a historic building in the heart of downtown Cleveland has been renovated as a model of sustainability and architectural innovation. Playhouse Square, which had been working for more than 30 years to revitalize the city's arts district, teamed up with ideastream, a newly formed media group t...
| Aug 11, 2010
200 East Brady
Until July 2004, 200 East Brady, a 40,000-sf, 1920s-era warehouse, had been an abandoned eyesore in Tulsa, Okla.'s Brady district. The building, which was once home to a grocery supplier, then a steel casting company, and finally a casket storage facility, was purchased by Tom Wallace, president and founder of Wallace Engineering, to be his firm's new headquarters.
| Aug 11, 2010
Two Rivers Marketing: Industrial connection
It was supposed to be the perfect new office. In July 2003, Two Rivers Marketing Group of Des Moines, Iowa, began working with Shiffler Associates Architects on a 14,000-sf building to house their rapidly growing marketing firm. Over the next six months they put together an innovative program that drew on unprecedented amounts of employee feedback.
