SWA | IDEAS | Page 24

While agriculture seems to be trendier than ever before, the US is still losing 2 acres of farmland to development every minute. Some estimate that by 2050 we’ll have only .6 acres of farmland per person, even though our current diets require 2.6 acres. SWA is an advocate for the integration and inclusion of food-producing… Read more »

Posted by JoeRunco
in Urban Agriculture
on 21 January, 2012

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Opportunities abound for engineering encounters between guests and their food in the landscape – a breakfast orangerie where fruit is freshly plucked for juice, courtyard gardens planted in orchards of nuts and fruits, herbal lawns at the spa, a poolside planted with date palms. Many hotels are integrating local and on-site food production in a… Read more »

Many hotels are integrating local and on-site food production in a range of innovative ways, to draw in guests and enrich their experience. From roof-top vegetable gardens to bee-keeping, on-site goats, curing meats and homemade wine, these hotels are fully explore the relationship between local food production and hospitality.

Articles such as this one in the New York Times feature urban hotels that make more of the produce than just an ingredient. Some of the most intriguing strategies include the Elysian Hotel in Chicago that not only serves a local farm-based menu created around available produce, but also leases land at the Heritage Prairie Farm to grow specialty vegetables and keep bees.

Such a partnership benefits the hotel (chefs and bartenders request heirloom vegetables for signature menu items) but also, presumably, the farm which has a guaranteed income from the hotel while keeping the land in production. In this way the hotel’s buying practices become a form of activism that conserves working farmlands near urban areas.

Another partnership worth noting also takes place in Chicago, where the Marriott Downtown uses honey from their rooftop hives to create a special beer, made in partnership with a local brewer. Again, while the hotel gets a unique item to market, the brewery might benefit from a dedicated revenue stream.

One hospitality/agricultural project on the boards at SWA is the St. Regis Napa Valley. Tucked behind rolling hills, the resort – a combination of 175 hotel rooms, cottages, hillside units and 70 estate dwellings, will blend seamlessly into the landscape on a small portion of the Stanly Ranch winery. The masterplan calls for 50% of the site to remain in open space, 40% of that in working agriculture.

This is a slightly modified version of a post originally published on GrowCity, November 1, 2010.

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Posted by EllenBurke
in Arts and Culture, Urban Agriculture
on 21 January, 2012

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The 2008 SWA Fellowship project urban agriculture – Farm Plus: Hybrid Agricultural Landscapes – has been published in a collection of essays entitled ‘On Farming’. The volume of essays, curated by Charles Waldheim and Fritz Haeg, address ways that agriculture and architecture intesect across a spectrum from purely speculative to documenting built projects. Published by… Read more »

Posted by EllenBurke
in Urban Agriculture
on 20 January, 2012

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Piercing the sky at 2,717 feet tall, the Burj Khalifa is the tallest tower in the world, reaching upwards of a half a mile into the clouds. Designed by Adrian Smith of Skidmore, Owings and Merrill (now of Adrian Smith + Gordon Gill Architects), tall buildings are an engineering feat of wonder as people collaborate… Read more »

Piercing the sky at 2,717 feet tall, the Burj Khalifa is the tallest tower in the world, reaching upwards of a half a mile into the clouds.

Designed by Adrian Smith of Skidmore, Owings and Merrill (now of Adrian Smith + Gordon Gill Architects), tall buildings are an engineering feat of wonder as people collaborate to ascend to new heights not previously possible.

A perfect setting for the fourth iteration of the Mission: Impossible series. The Burj Khalifa is the backdrop for the latest Tom Cruise film. “The creation of the tallest man-made structure in the world with a groundscape that has an iconic setting makes this a sought-after movie set,” John Wong said to Architect and Artisans in a recent post about the forthcoming film. “Here, the big idea was to connect the world’s tallest structure to its site and to its city, via a 27-acre Tower Park that’s a green oasis.”

Michael Welton agrees that Dubai is a stunning location for the latest iteration of the Tom Cruise movies: “Sheer height from the building, an unusual series of view angles and exhilarating groundscapes made the setting a visual delight for the film.” The film has been well-received and will open this weekend in theaters.

The Burj Khalifa opened a little over a year ago in Dubai. Often overlooked is the stunning ground scape design creating the entrance, arrival and park setting for the tower. On the ground, the geometric and intricately patterned landscape is the work of John Wong and the SWA team of designers. The Burj Khalifa is an oasis in a desert; an aspiration to create a livable landscape in the midst of harsh, hot, nearly inhospitable conditions. The design is a feat of human engineering and complexity, weaving together the latest in construction and sustainability techniques to mitigate environmental impacts while creating livable human conditions. Building on the culture and history of geometric patterns in design, the landscape is both an art piece on the ground as well as viewed from above.

CAPTION CONTEST: Have a good caption for the image, above? Join us on our Facebook page and come up with a caption for the image, above. The person with the most “likes” on their caption will win tickets to see the new movie!

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Posted by Sarah Peck
in Tall Building Groundscapes
on 20 January, 2012

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Groundscapes for tall buildings cannot be after thoughts, secondary to the design of the tower itself. Planning the uses of the groundscape should be considered in the earliest stages of design so that the way the building is situated on the site doesn’t create undesirable environments due to high winds, harsh sun, or unbearable noise… Read more »

Posted by JohnWong
in Tall Building Groundscapes
on 20 January, 2012

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I had the opportunity to speak with Mike Welton, a writer for the Huffington Post, about the Burj Khalifa and the ground plane design by SWA Group. Here is an excerpt from his article: “When the Burj Khalifa opened a little more than a year ago, international attention focused, laser-like and rightly so, on this neo-Emerald… Read more »

Posted by JohnWong
in Tall Building Groundscapes
on 20 January, 2012

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Posts Tagged: SWA

Agriculture: Losing Farmland to Urban Development

Edible Hotel Landscapes

‘On Farming’

Mission: Possible? Burj Khalifa as the cinematic backdrop of the latest Tom Cruise film

Thoughts on Tall Building Groundscapes

Burj Khalifa Interview-feature on Huffington Post