CENTRE POINTE
LOCATION Lexington, Kentucky
CLIENT University of Kentucky
PROGRAM Hotel, Hotel Condo, Office, Retail, Parking, Art Center, Ballet Rehersal, Farmers Market, Plaza
AREA 1.25M SF
STATUS Design 2008

DESIGN PAUL PREISSNER ARCHITECTS LIMITED

Organized by the University of Kentucky College of Design, a two day charrette produced this alternate proposal for the CenterPointe development project in downtown Lexington, Kentucky. It decidedly creates a new form of public engagement and civic interactivity through the imposition of a massive volume of program which reframe the views to its context (instead of focusing attention inwards, the project assists with the outward observation of Lexington). This situation creates a new constellation of downtown vibrancy which would otherwise not be possible due to the projects elevation off the plaza level to offer a nearly open ground plan, with a network of public and private program weaving in and out of the atmosphere. The project provides a new way to behave in plan, which delivers a heretofore un-experienced public space for a metropolitan culture.

CITY TOWER
LOCATION Incheon, South Korea
CLIENT Korea Land Corporation
PROGRAM Observation Tower (450m), Dining, Entertainment, Hotel/Hospitality, Observatory, Education
AREA 25,000SM
STATUS Design 2008

DESIGN PAUL PREISSNER ARCHITECTS LIMITED
ENGINEER Buro Happold

To develop a space for public identity and communality offers the opportunity to reconsider the formal manner in which tall structures are designed and deployed within culture. The contemporary solution to this problem is largely deference to the mechanics of height as the author for its outward expression. The result is often a project which can be looked at and appreciated for its engineering heroism, but rarely offers any enjoyable type of civic dialogue. This continued habit has developed a cynicism in people about the capability of any architectural project to produce new feelings and sensibilities in its atmosphere.

Our proposal for the CITY TOWER offers a project which situates itself within the city as a communicative participant in a democratic population, instead of an object to be looked at. The proposal suggests that as a central part of the new community, the CITY TOWER softly delivers its visual affection in a manner enabling its attraction to be felt by all.

As architectural responses for tall projects routinely offer technical achievements as the basis for its appreciation, our proposal liberates its audience from pre-required expertise to enjoy an atmospheric experience. This ability to create new audiences for the project enables a new form of cultural activity and community to develop.

In the warm shadow of the CITY TOWER, people will feel the desire to hug their new neighbor.

[Project Booklet]

300_MAIN
LOCATION Louisville, Kentucky
CLIENT Cobalt Ventures, LLP
PROGRAM Corporate Office, Ground Level Retail, Rooftop Fitness Facility, Dining Facility, Parking
AREA 500,000SF
COST US$65.2MM (137$/SF)
STATUS Design 2007

DESIGN ARCHITECT PAUL PREISSNER ARCHITECTS LIMITED
EXECUTIVE ARCHITECT Luckett & Farley
CONSTRUCTION Gates Precast, Messer Construction

300MAIN, designed for a downtown parcel in Louisville, Kentucky, develops the exterior personality of the office template to present a new model of civic interaction with its surrounding. Normalized in its plan, with the retail base receding from the street, the project organizes a sidewalk environment to create a new region of civic culture within Kentucky. The precast concrete spandrels allow for an alien exterior that effortlessly welcomes attention in distraction. Ribbon windows slip behind the concrete tendrils which diagonally migrate up and down the façade. The project provides a contemporary approach towards office exteriors within a metropolitan environment.

VILLA_OR
LOCATION Lemont, Illinois
PROGRAM Private Residence, Entertaining
AREA 8,000SF
COST US$1.25MM
STATUS Design 2006-2007

DESIGN ARCHITECT PAUL PREISSNER ARCHITECTS LIMITED
STRUCTURAL ENGINEERS Skidmore, Owings and Merill, LLP
GEOTECHNICAL/SITE ENGINEERS Cemcon, Inc.

Villa_OR, designed for a wooded lot 50 miles west of Chicago, participates with its environment to produce a new way to feel the forest. Shaped in its plan and hugging the terrain in section, the house assembles an open living experience. Each room is conceived of as sequential moments framed by an open exterior and disciplined by the massive bearing wall partitions on the interior. Sliding exterior glass walls further eliminate the separation between the contexts, developing a new variation on private villa architecture. The diminutive southern entry facade serves in direct contrast to the aggressive north terminus resulting in a dynamic exterior choreography of nature, both constructed and existing.

SHENZHEN MUSEUM OF CONTEMPORARY ART / PLANNING EXHIBITION
LOCATION Shenzhen, Peoples Republic of China
CLIENT Shenzhen Municipal Culture Bureau, Shenzhen Municipal Planning Bureau
PROGRAM Art/Planning Exhibitions, Retail, Administrative Funtions, Educational, Recetpions, Restaurant, Observation
AREA 80,000SM
COST US$185MM / RMB 1,515.96MM
STATUS Design 2007 (Competition)

The design of the Museum of Contemporary Art and Planning Exhibition is believed to be an opportunity to propose both a new language for public architecture as well as a new curatorial strategy for the presentation of work. The project is developed as a fibrous collection of circulatory volumes and paths that sequence movement from the city street level, below the belly of the project and up into the museum itself.

The bulk of the exhibition space exists in the elegant mass of luminous curves which float eight meters from the level of the ground plane, with portions of its volume peeling away from the volume to connect itself structurally and formally into the curated landscape. Entry to the project is designed to be a processional event whethe sequencing into the public areas of the museum or the private areas of offices, receptions spaces, and event spaces.

The expressive formal identitly of the museum projects the cultural alienship of its contents, and encourage public curiosity towards its exhibitions. While most museums serve to "guard" culture, the MoCAPE is organized and designed to signify a new historical moment for the museum, public space, and the role of architecture within a city as a living and atmosphere shifting metropolitan presence.

CENTRAL OPEN SPACE
LOCATION Multi-Functional Adminisrative City (MAC), South Korea
CLIENT The Multi-Functional Adminisrative City Construction Agency
PROGRAM Cental Park, Recreational Activities, Museum, Performance Hall, River Catch Basin System
AREA 6.982SKM
STATUS Design 2007 (Competition)

INITIAL ASSUMPTIONS The contemporary solution to the problem of an urban park is to create a field of separate, (but sometimes inter-connected) follies, instrumentations, pavilions, prescribed sequences, and expositional arenas in which to capture and command the attention of the populace for the purpose of recreation, or respite from the city. We can see this strategy employed in Paris's Parc de la Villete, and Chicago's Millennium Park. Our project (COS) proposes a new model for central parkland by creating a mise en scene of muscular topography, dynamic vegetation and water-retention plazas that evolve a landscaped territory into a reversal of the typical relationship between the park and its city. The other conventional model of park serves to provide an historic replica of nature within the city as a place to escape for contemplation (ie, New York City's Central Park, London's Hyde Park). This model of development produces museum parks as relics of nature, instead of producing new engines of biological activity. COS emerges as a new form of life actively pushing the surrounding city to perform new models of public life, democracy and activity. Directly refuting the contemporary trend which develops parks into novel theme parks of recommended activities, and pre-arranged personal habits, COS believes that the minimum number of rules bring about the greatest freedoms. COS is not a destination, but an origin. The efforts of this project are intended to produce an orchestration on a massive scale of atmospheric material that develops into a new manner of public place behavior and consciousness.

MORALITY The park is a mise en scene of 4 separate, but interconnected characters: 1) vegetative personalities 2) topological attitudes 3) programmatic temperaments and 4) connective tissues. The four elements work together in a complex choreography in the understanding that for the park to be successful, it will need to be better than good. It needs to be alive like an animal.

As animals behave, change, develop, evolve, sleep, get moody, playful or vicious, so does the park need to develop a personality that allows all of these attributes to emerge. It is safe to predict that over the course of time the park, its internal interests, and program will undergo adjustments and evolution. The better the park is, the more active it is in becoming inseparable from its citizen partners. In doing suck, like culture, the park will be at its more engaging when in a state of revision and alteration.

Taking this animalistic position, the approach for the design of the field is less scripted, and more choreographed to provide a democratic palate on which countless private and public programmatic effects can develop constantly. This proposal is less a "scheme" and more an outline to help orchestrate and give birth to the evolutionary park scheme of the city itself. The proposal puts forth the 4 characters in an effort to provide some discipline, and direction, just like the grid serves as discipline-giving device for the city; allowing variations to occur without prescription within its confines, but providing a sorting order to encourage healthy growth.

[Project Booklet]

NATIONAL LIBRARY OF THE CZECH REPUBLIC
LOCATION Prague, Czech Republic
CLIENT Spier Holdings
PROGRAM Library, National Architves, Receptions, Cafe, Retail
AREA 50,000SM
COST $182.5MM
STATUS Design 2006/2007 (Competition: Jury Selection)

The concept for this national archive and library proposes the project as more than a secure warehouse of history, but as a central public figure in the affectation of cultural pride and advancement. Our design proposes an visually open and public form of library display, allowing for the building to be more than a repository and loan office for books, and to position itself as an important public commodity and civic destination, beyond the focus of research. This new form of curatorial framing allows the contents of the library to be constantly appreciated from every position, reinforcing the magnitude of historical artifacts contained within and the future potential of creativity.

The design scheme provides connectivity between the various research and public elements through the system of library volumes that grow out of one another to create a visual synchronization between the various parts. The access and network that supports these beautiful volumes comes through its sensual connection to the landscape and program located with the folds of the ground plan.

The library entry is accessed through a procession leading from the gardens through the topography that gradually descends below the main volumes to enter into main lobby and café section. After the sequence leading to the orienting lobby, the user may access all the aspects of the national library due to the central location (volume) of the lobby.

AFRICA CENTRE
LOCATION Southbank (Stellenbosch), South Africa
CLIENT Spier Holdings
PROGRAM Museums, Galleries, Performance Halls, Residential Dorms, Studios, Hotels
AREA 157,200SM Program / 1.1MM SM Site
STATUS Design 2006 (Competition)

The Southbank Site urban organization is an aggressive proposal for a new artistic and cultural center within South Africa. The plan is the new development and transformation of an agricultural site into a new an world class cultural community, complete with a central business district, high-end residential development, cultural facilities such as concert halls, museums, and theatres, and leisure programs including a proposed facility to accommodate FIFA World Cup 2010 matches and tourist hotels. The site lies at the confluence of several important infrastructure links, including the major highway and rail link.

JEONGOK MUSEUM of PRE-HISTORY
LOCATION Gyeonggi-Do, South Korea
CLIENT Gyeonggi-Do Prefecture
PROGRAM Archeological Exhibtion, Preservation, Education, Banquets
AREA 6,500SM
COST $24.5 million
STATUS Design 2006 (Competition: 2nd Prize)

The Gyeonggi-Do Jeongok Prehistory Museum is envisaged as an extension of the surrounding terrain and archival sites, and as a fibrous volume, which emerges from itself, expanding onto the site, ferociously changing from a soft and natural surface (terrain) into a strong and foreign material (building).

Using a policy to promote cultural and educational activities, our proposal performs as an central character in the play, not only for the users of the facility, but also for the entire culture of Korea; becoming a new Center for the discovery and empathetic learning of history.

2008
• Centre Pointe, Lexington, Kentucky
• Daalma, Sundsvall, Sweden (Competition)
• City Tower, Incheon, Korea (Competition)
• Gummo, Lincoln, Nebraska

2007
• 300, Louisville, Kentucky
• Museum of Contemporary Art/Planning Exhibition, Shenzhen, China (Competition)
• Central Open Space, MAC, South Korea (Competition)
• Toothe, Chicago, Illinois
• Villa OR, Lemont, Illinois

2006
• Southbank Urban Plan, Southbank, South Africa (Competition)
• National Library of the Czech Republic, Prague, Czech Republic (Competition, Jury Selection)
• Pedestrian Bridge, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania (Competition)
• Jeongok Pre-history Museum, Gyeonggi-do, South Korea (Competition, 2nd Prize)

2005
• Asian Cultural Center, Gwangju, South Korea (Competition)
• Jalisco State Public Library, Guadalajara, Mexico (Competition)
• SBR Shop, New York, New York
• AguaSal, Arlington Heights, Illinois

2004
• Lincoln Park Northern Expansion, Chicago, Illinois (Competition)
• Nakdong Eco-Center, Busan, South Korea (Competition)

2003
• NYC2012 Olympic Village Proposal, New York, New York (Competition)
• Perth Amboy High School, Perth Amboy, New Jersey (Competition)
• SCI-Arc Cafe Competition, Los Angeles, California (Competition)

2002
• CTA Platform Redesign, Chicago, Illinois