RSS
Password?  |  Sign Up

  • Technology
  • Design
  • Ethonomics
  • Leadership
Magazine Community Jobs

The Most Innovative Companies in Architecture

By: Linda TischlerWed Feb 11, 2009 at 3:56 PM

  1. Skidmore, Owings & Merrill: The world's tallest building, the world's greenest high-rise, and dozens of other superlatives make SOM a massive -- and dynamically creative -- commercial force.
  2. Herzog & de Meuron: The Beijing Olympics made this firm's "Birds' Nest" stadium an instant icon; its "Hanging Gardens of Babylon" design for the Miami Art Museum shows range.
  3. Zaha Hadid: A sexy little pop-up pavilion for Chanel. An ice-sculpture-like design for the Nordpark Cable Railway. A trippy design for the Guggenheim Hermitage in Vilnius. Hadid's work is consistently jaw-dropping.
  4. Rem Koolhaas's OMA: You have to love a guy who can design both a giant headquarters building for China's CCTV and catwalks for Prada.
  5. Steven Holl: His "Linked Hybrid" complex in Beijing, which opened last fall, shows genius and technological virtuosity. Even Holl's smaller projects -- say, Kansas City's Nelson Atkins Museum of Art -- can be breathtaking in their simple majesty.
  6. Foster + Partners: A double-decker bus for London, an ethereal bridge in France, and the world's most advanced airport terminal in Beijing show the range and global fluency of this British stalwart.
  7. Renzo Piano: The firm's plan for the California Academy of Sciences, with its undulating roof, is a triumph of green design. Another contribution: The New York Times' new headquarters, which the paper is hoping to mortgage for a $400 million spring debt payment.
  8. Christian de Portzamparc: Little known in the U.S. outside architecture devotees, de Portzamparc is notable for the LVMH Tower in New York and the breathtaking concert hall for the Luxembourg Philharmonic. His design for the opera house in Rio de Janeiro will be an instant landmark.
  9. KieranTimberlake: The firm's "Cellophane House" was the hit of MoMA's prefab home show last summer.
  10. Olsen Sundberg Kundig Allen: This Seattle firm boasts a dossier of important public buildings, but what we love most: a skillful hand with -residences framing sub-lime natural vistas.

 

< Back to Fast Company 50 Home

 

 

 

Topics:

Innovation, Design, Rem Koolhaas, Renzo Piano, KieranTimberlake, Steven Holl, Christian de Portzamparc, Zaha Hadid, Herzog & de Meuron, 2009 Fast 50, Foster + Partners, Skidmore Owings & Merrill, Olsen Sundberg Kundig Allen, Beijing, Zaha Hadid, Steven Holl, Christian de Portzamparc, Fast Company Magazine

February 2009

Sign in or register to comment.
or

Recent Comments | 6 Total

February 28, 2009 at 3:16pm by Iman Ansari

interesting!

Report Content

August 15, 2009 at 10:31am by Sergio Mokko

California Academy of Sciences - is truly an architectural masterpiece! By Sergio

Report Content

September 20, 2009 at 4:57am by dui indiana

This is great!
I was wondering whether you can get a scholarship to learn drupal?
There are these free scholarship web sites. But I do not know whether the actually get you a scholarship or not. Maybe I really need to make money with apps and then I can afford a school. If everything else fails, I can always hit the jackpot mega millions and then everything will be fine.
In the mean time I wan contemplating starting a cake business. Then I got the itching and think I have to treat yeast infection now.
Aside from that I want to know the truth about life insurance premiums. Whole Life vs. Term Life Insurance what is better. But maybe that has nothing to do with the price of fish. I should read some term life insurance comparisons and then get cheap car insurance. I know that it is possible to find really cheap car insurance. And it is well worth it. You can ask dui defense indiana and they will tell the same. If you want someting for your kids, you should try bendaroos or bendaroos.

Report Content

September 24, 2009 at 1:00am by Aaron Langston

Very interesting list. Thanks!
How To Sell Gold | Outdoor Grills Reviews | Solar Lights | Super Pocket Bikes | Outdoor Lighting | nintendo ds skins

Report Content