SAN JOSE, Calif., Aug. 1, 2012 /PRNewswire/ -- Silicon Valley/San Jose Business Journal, a leading regional business weekly, listed BCA Architects among its top 25 architecture firms in the Silicon Valley and San Jose business community in 2012. BCA Architects ranked number 10 on the list this year, marking the fourth consecutive year the firm has been recognized by the business publication which focuses on news and key trends in various industries, including real estate, engineering, architecture, construction, technology, and retail.

"We are very proud that as with previous years BCA Architects is on the list of top architecture firms in the region because they really are among the best firms we have worked with," said Ron Galatolo, Chancellor of San Mateo County Community College District. "They consistently provide first-rate service; create designs that are visionary; and deliver innovation to their clients that help transform communities."

Since 1981, Silicon Valley/San Jose Business Journal has identified and ranked the top architecture firms in the region according to revenue and data for the previous fiscal year. This year's top architecture firms list will be added into the publication's Book of Lists which ranks the most dynamic companies in the area across various fields.

"We are thrilled to be ranked so highly by such a reputable media source. Our headquarters strength in San Jose reflects the strength of all of our offices in California," said Paul Bunton, AIA, president of BCA Architects. "Our clients can depend on consistently receiving the highest quality of design work from us regardless of the requirements, the economy or other challenges," Bunton added.

BCA Architects partners with clients on a mission to achieve excellence in design. Since 1989, BCA strives to strengthen communities through projects to design facilities, help define partnerships, locate financing, and save energy or present alternate delivery methods. BCA goes above and beyond the task at hand to ensure their clients succeed. Visit http://www.bcaarchitects.com.

Media Contact: Rachel Del Fierro, (925) 785-1435 or RachelD@bcaarchitects.com

This press release was issued through eReleases Press Release Distribution. For more information, visit http://www.ereleases.com.

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Silicon Valley/San Jose Business Journal Recognized BCA Architects in 2012 Ranking of Top Architecture Firms

LOS ANGELES, Aug. 1, 2012 /PRNewswire/ --Of the multitude of architects the Venice Biennale has honored, only a handful have done traditional architecture, and of those few the firm Michael Burch Architects is the first specializing in the Spanish Colonial/Mediterranean Revival Style. The husband and wife firm, comprising principals Michael Burch and Diane Wilk, is one of five American firms selected to exhibit in the Palazzo Bembo at the 13th International Venice Architectural Biennale. This prestigious fall exhibition, which runs from August 29-November 25, presents 60 architects from six continents, representing 26 countries from around the world.

L A Times architectural critic, Christopher Hawthorne, has called the Biennalea cultural institution since 1895"...the most anticipated and ambitious design show in the world, not to mention the only one featuring cocktail parties in canal-side palazzi..." The exhibition at the Palazzo Bembo is entitled, "Traces of the Past and Future Steps" and the firm was selected as the premier practitioner of the Spanish Colonial/Mediterranean Revival Style.

This historical architectural thread that began in the Mediterranean and traveled across the Atlantic to the US now returns to the Mediterranean from the Pacific coast where, over two centuries ago, Spanish Colonial Architecture was introduced to Southern California. The firm will present a multi-media exhibit "California's Spanish Architecture: Yesterday and Today", which weaves the story of how the Style emigrated and evolved into the quintessential Californian buildings seen today. Selections from the firm's portfolio of recent projects are also showcased. The exhibit includes a model, generated using satellite imagery, which shows the pervasiveness of the Style, both vintage and modern, in the Greater Los Angeles area.

Michael Burch Architects, refers to its work as "Returning to Authenticity" because the more modern versions of the style have, "devolved into kitsch," said Michael Burch. Their work clearly embodies those aspects of the Style as it was practiced in the 1920s and 30s. As leading experts in the Spanish Colonial/Mediterranean Revival style, Michael Burch Architects is acknowledged for both historically accurate restoration and renovation work. The widely published firm is also creating exciting 21st century estates and houses in the traditional vernacular which Burch and Wilk said they are proud to be able to share in such prestigious company.

Visit http://www.michaelburcharchitects.com to find out more about the firm and click on the link to see the video, "California's Spanish Architecture: Yesterday and Today"

Media Contact Diane Y. Welch BBCBusiness Bloom Communications Dianewelch@dianewelch.com

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A Venice Biennale First: Authentic Spanish Colonial/Mediterranean Revival US Architects Exhibit

Architects line up to design first East Croydon Gateway building

10:40am Wednesday 1st August 2012 in News By Nick Hitchens

Architects line up to design first East Croydon Gateway building

Architects have been commissioned to design the first office building of the 500m Ruskin Square development.

Developers Stanhope Schroders have asked four architects to design the first section of a project neighbouring East Croydon which has seen the site lay empty for almost a decade.

The preferred bidder is expected to be chosen before the end of the year, and a detailed planning application submitted to Croydon Council in 2013.

A spokesman for Stanhope Schroder said: "We have asked four architects to give us an idea of how they would design an office space as part of our masterplan. They have not been given any specifications and we are waiting to see what they will come back with."

A 4m grant from the Local Enterprise Partnership allocated in May will be used to fund the power infrastructure on the site.

The developers have outline planning permission for the site, which included providing 3m towards a new 200 seat theatre to replace the Warehouse Theatre on Dingwall Road.

The Warehouse went into administration in May and the developers have issued them a notice to vacate by November Administrator Jeremy Frost stated Stanhope Schroder have refused to meet him to discuss options.

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Architects line up to design first East Croydon Gateway building

My personal opinion-project Promenade is quite interesting in Europe, 31 July, said at a press conference the new elected President of the St. Petersburg Union of architects Oleg Romanov, evaluating used a construction project in the historic centre of Saint Petersburgs multipurpose complex residential and social and business purpose (area-10 ha). Some officials have suggested instead building the Smolny do Park at this place, but as a reporter BakuToday, oleg Romanov stated that the structure of this Saint Petersburg project.

The only thing that upset the new President of the Union, is the architects-designers of homes in Promenade of Europe: when I was in the jury of the architectural competition, then mesmerized me with promises that the houses will be designed by different architects. This is done as promised, but not domestic architects, and the Italians or the poles .

Honorary President of the St. Petersburg Union of architects Vladimir Popov recalled that the master planners project-Evgenij Gerasimov and partners LLC and architectural Bureau Sergei Tchoban & partners were selected during the international competition, in which the jury were presented to the specialists of the architectural profession. As noted by the representatives of the Union, this architectural competitions-a rare occurrence in St. Petersburg, because often the winners of contests choose not professionals.

We remind that the project Promenade of Europe is a construction on a 10 ha in Petrogradsky district of Saint Petersburg (near Petrovsky Stadium between dobrolyubova, embankment of the River Neva Small, borderes and the western border area of academician of Likhachev) several quarters of elite residential real estate as well as office buildings and shopping centers, five tgostinicy and the dance Palace of Boris Eifman. The project is financed by OJSC VTB Bank, received the rights to its implementation in the year 2006. At the moment, the project manager-VTB-development began releasing land from old buildings and rehabilitation of liberated land. The project cost is estimated at $ 47 billion rubles. Project realization terms-the year 2017. Land is the property of the Russian Federation (before there was Federal Institute of applied chemistry).

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President of the St. Petersburg Union of architects believes “Promenade of Europe” an interesting project

A Laketown Township home designed by a West Michigan firm is generating attention from architects on a national level.

The 2,000-square-foot, two-story home overlooks Lake Michigan. It features a walk-out basement and a variety of green features, including wood steps reclaimed from a 1800s-era blacksmith shop in Indiana. The home met the Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design's (LEED) Platinum standard the group's highest designation for green buildings.

"We're very pleased," said the home's architect, John Allegretti. "One of the things we gained a number of points for was we had a limited footprint we only took out a few trees."

In addition to being environmentally-friendly, the home looks good, too, and was recently featured in a photo slide show on the website of Architectural Record Magazine.

The building received several design awards, including one from the University of Arkansas Fay Jones School of Architecture.

Allegretti wouldn't say exactly how much the project cost to complete but said it came out to about $250 per square foot roughly $500,000, based on the home's size.

The home was designed by the Allegretti Architects, Inc. of St. Joesph. starting in 2008. Construction wrapped up 2010. The main contractor for the building was the Hudsonville-based Lamar Construction, with some work subcontracted from Holland, Allegretti said.

The client is an artist from the Kalamazoo area who will use it as a summer home for her family, Allegretti said.

"She had grown up in Muskegon ... and really wanted a place close to the lake," he said.

Follow this reporter on Facebook and on Twitter, @BizHolland.

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Laketown green home winning design awards

What if you could walk from Church Street across from Le Patisserie onto the commuter rail tracks?

Or what if Waterfield Road along the Town Common had a winding cobbled-stone path that passed by townhouses, storefronts and sidewalk cafes then ended at the train platform?

These are just some of the possibilities that architects have been asked to imagine this fall for the Waterfield Road parking lot adjacent to Town Common. The town hired the design firms to suggest possibilities about how the town-owned lot could better fit in with the rest of the town and add vitalize the area between downtown and Church Street.

The firms will present their designs to the Winchester Planning Board on Sept. 13.

Its a very interesting opportunity because not many towns are clear in wanting to have visions for their towns, said Peter Nobile, of LDa Architects. They might do some internal planning, but they rarely ask outside designers. This tends to happen in big cities.

For example, Nobile cited Cornell Universitys soliciting proposals from international design firms for the redesign of Roosevelt Island, in New York City.

Whats interesting [about the towns process] is that youll get several really interesting and compelling possibilities, Nobile said.

MBTA plans

The plan to invite outside designers came about, in part, because of the MBTAs $15 million plans to renovate Winchester Station over the next five years, Town Planner Betsy Ware said.

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Architects asked to imagine redesigns to Winchester's Waterfield commuter rail lot

July 29th, 2012 By Amber Daugherty // No Comments

Theres a new group of architects looking up at our city with fresh, bright eyes. Theyre interested in changing the way people move through the streets, the way new buildings go up, and the way people get around. Theyve got hundreds of new ideas, and theyre ambitious as ever. Oh, and theyre between the ages of eight to 12.

Welcome to Harbourfront Centres architecture camp, a place for the curious, urban interested kids to explore city designs and systems. The camp teaches children about the structure of cities and the reasons behind the way theyre built, before encouraging them to build their own. Ten-year-old Paola says she was interested in the camp because shes interested in new houses that are going up around the city.

I like designing houses and streets and where everything goes, she says. And its just a lot of fun to build your own city and be like This is my city, this is where City Hall goes.

The children had the opportunity to build an entire metropolis out of found and supplied materials (cardboard boxes, Lego, wooden sticks, etc.) that sprawled over pushed-together tables. It included everything from government buildings to a water system to a tourist destination circus. Streets were created using different colours of painters tape. Spacing popped in one afternoon to give the kids a lesson in wayfinding, getting the group to think of the most creative way to guide people around their city. Ideas were fantastic, ranging from large, colourful balloons leading the way to the museum to universal signs as simple as arrows, to touch-screens projected on to the ground where tapping your foot on the desired "button" would show you the path to your destination. There was an unlimited budget, and definitely unlimited imagination.

The camp is for children specifically interested in the way their cities are built. With field trips to places such as the University of Toronto, the kids get the chance to see examples of designs they're implementing in their own city. The camp focuses on decision making and problem solving as well as design. This year, two camps are being done in two-week stints, allowing time for creative thinking as well as workshops on architectural styles and materials. And, of course, there's even time for guest appearances.

Ten-year-old Graydon says he learned a lot from Spacings wayfinding lesson.

Its important because without it you cant get around the city, he says. And if youre visiting here, youll get lost and never be able to get home.

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Toronto’s next generation of architects

LONDON, July 25, 2012 /PRNewswire/ --

KnowledgeView, of London and Beirut, has introduced a state of the art iPad App that allows architects, interior designers, project developers, systems integrators and others to publish their complete portfolio with photos and video galleries on the Apple iPad, with geo-information and related Web-mobile views. KnowledgeView will customize the App according to clients' brand and host it. As part of the package, the 'EasyPublish' authoring tool allows these companies to communicate with their target audience, publish content to the iPad as well as to Twitter and Facebook, all linked together with one click.

The 'Portfolio App' helps companies with projects maximize visibility, engage their target audience. The iPad app enables companies' audience base to browse through the cached portfolio of projects and brochures offline. In addition, the geo-information on Google map for each showcased project will have a description, making a vast majority of information available at hand.

KnowledgeView has gained a thorough experience of the project based industry objectives and requirements through a close collaboration with the 'Dewan Architects and Engineers', UAE-based Architecture firm, to deliver a powerful, feature-rich iPad app with customized friendly user interfaces.

"The 'Dewan Architects and Engineers' iPad App is the newest platform launched by Dewan to help us communicate with our clients and partners globally by using the latest platforms linked to social media. The App is intuitive, aesthetically attractive and allows our visitors to store information about our projects onto their devices, locate our projects on Google map, and learn more about our corporate news as they occur. The great work done by the KnowledgeView team who developed the app has made the presentation of our architectural work appealing and helps us to further broaden our market reach.", Mohamemd Al Assam, Chairman and Managing Director, Dewan Architects and Engineers, said.

Having their iPad app available now on the Apple store, 'Dewan Architects and Engineers' will enjoy a consistency of its identity with the color and branding feature on the new digital destination. The company's content and projects will be organized in different categories and sub categories in various formats ranging from text to audio and video.

The full app is hosted on KnowledgeView servers so that the 'Dewan Architects and Engineers' and their peers are spared from investing in IT infrastructure.

-Ends-

About KnowledgeView

KnowledgeView Ltd is a UK-based company with headquarters in London and offices in the Middle East. The company was founded in 1995 to develop cross-media publishing, news management and editorial sharing systems.

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The 'Portfolio App' for Projects: Optimal Digital Platform to Engage With Your Clients

Landmarks Illinois, rendering from reuse proposal for Bertrand Goldberg's old Prentice Hospital, 2011.

Photo: Courtesy of Landmarks Illinois

Mayor Emanuel received a letter Wednesday from more than 60 architects, academics and historic preservationists urging him to grant the Prentice Womens Hospital landmark status. Northwestern University owns the Streeterville building and intends to tear it down to construct a new research facility. The signees, who include Jeanne Gang and Frank Gehry, stressed a report by the National Trust for Historic Preservation, which found that the building exceeds the criteria for Chicago landmark designation.

Bertrand Goldberg (19131997), the buildings architect and a Chicago native, is best known for Marina City. But Jonathan Fine, executive director of Preservation Chicago, says, The engineering significance of Prentice is far greater than Marina City. The building is designed like a tree, as seven concrete floors cantilever off the towers core like branches, hovering 45 feet above the towers base. This leaves the inside free of interior columns, which allowed Goldberg to avoid long hallways. Instead of being arrayed in rows, patient rooms are laid out in circular hubs centered on a nurses station. Fine says this approach represents the humanistic side of modernism and reflects Goldbergs desire to improve the hospital experience. Furthermore, Fine claims the lack of columns would make adapting the building to another use quite easy.

Besides drawing the attention of major Chicago and American architects, support for Prentices preservation came from around the world, with international signees from Europe, Australia and Asia. While the letter highlighted the global significance of Prentice, it also focused on the local risk posed by tearing down the tower. According to the letter, Chicagos global reputation as a nurturer of bold and innovative architecture will wither if the city cannot preserve its most important achievements.

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Architects call on Rahm to save Prentice

More than 60 architects, educators and historic preservationists are betting their famous names might help prevent demolition of the old Prentice Womens Hospital.

Northwestern University owns the building and plans to tear it down for a research facility. Prominent architects, like Jeanne Gang and Frank Gehry, intervened on Wednesday and submitted a letter to Mayor Rahm Emanuel.

The architects called the clover-shaped building by Bertrand Goldberg a breakthrough in structural engineering and asked for landmark status.

Goldberg is a Chicago native who spent much of his career here and is best known for his Marina City towers. He studied under Mies van der Rohe at the Bauhaus in Berlin.

The legacy of Bertrand Goldbergs Prentice Womens Hospital is unmistakable, the letter says. Chicagos reputation as a nurturer of bold innovation and architecture will wither if the city cannot preserve its most important achievements.

But on Thursday, Northwestern said it has not changed its plans to demolish the building. A spokesperson said that its unsuitable for the kind of modern biomedical research building the University needs to build on the site.

The university says a feasibility study showed the Prentice wouldnt be adequate as research space and would cost too much to convert.

One of the well-known architects who signed the letter asking for landmark status, Dirk Lohan, doesnt buy that argument.

Hes the grandson of Mies van der Rohe. Lohans legacy in Chicago involves the restructuring of classic old buildings like Adler Planetarium, Shedd Aquarium and his controversial addition to Soldier Field. Hes a fan of Goldbergs building.

These are the kinds of things that I think our city needs to think about, to rejuvenate older buildings that may not meet their original functions exactly the way they were meant to be, Lohan said. And I have a hard time believing that another use cannot be found to work within that structure.

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Famous architects step in to save the Prentice building