Category: Building Design

The opening of a new Mariinsky Theatre scheduled on 2-4 May, this year, is among the current projects of  Canadian architecture firm Diamond Schmitt Architects, known for its innovative design excellence in a wide range of building types and recognized as one of the Canada’s 50 Best Managed Companies, in collaboration with the Russian firm KB ViPS and acousticians Müller-BBM. Designed to complement St. Petersburg’s 19th-century outstanding architectural heritage, but in the same time to add a unique element to the region, the new opera house comes to join and transform a much larger cultural complex, which includes also other two venues like the legendary Mariinsky Theatre ( which dates from 1860) and the Mariinsky Concert Hall ( which was inaugurated in 2006) into one of the world’s premier centres for opera, ballet and classical music.

Marrinsky II Theatre is funded by the Russian Government and its contemporary design will be of course consistent with the international stature of the Marrinsky Theatre, Ballet and Orchestra as a centre of innovation and artistic excellence, creating one of the world’s largest, most dynamic and most acclaimed performing arts institutions. Situated on Dekabristov Street and connected to the legendary Theatre by a pedestrian bridge over the Kryukov Canal, the 851,580 sq ft new opera house aims to channel the tremendous creative spirit through state-of-the-art facilities that will allow the Mariinsky to show the most ambitious, technically-demanding art productions, beyond the current remarkable schedule of performances, recordings, tours and events on the historic stage.

It will have a 2000-seat opera and ballet house with six rehearsal rooms and six stages, dressing rooms as well as other support facilities. The auditorium is designed taking into account the acoustics, audience comfort and sight lines. Its exterior architecture will reveal a contemporary identity that fits perfectly with St. Petersburg’s historic settings. Form, material and color contrasts in an original manner highlighting a gently curved metal roof enlivened by a glass canopy and a fenestrated masonry base. The opening days will include a ballet and opera performances as well as a gala concert followed from 24 May by Mariinsky’s XXI ‘Stars of the White Nights’ Festival which will end on 14 July.

 Photos © Diamond Schmitt Architects

Project details:

Architecture company: Diamond Schmitt Architects
Project Team: A.J.Diamond, Gary McCluskie, Michael Treacy, Michael Lukasik, Mattew Lella
Location: St. Petersburg, Russia
Client: Ministry of Culture

Renowned architecture firm Foster + Partners revealed this month new images and details with the The New York Public Library’s plans, an amazing project which aims to preserve the 101-year-old landmark’s  original façade and interiors and restore it, whilst create  with 66% more public library space than it’s currently available in all three locations on 42nd Street. The construction is planned to begin in 2013 and is expected to be completed in 2018. Although it will take five years, all the locations will remain open and you can access its services.

Overlooking Bryant Park, the 160,000-square-foot iconic building will have a new dynamic circulating library, which will replace the huge existing area filled with outdated book stacks that has never been opened to the public because they didn’t meet the needs in terms of capacity, fire safety or preservation. The new modern storage beneath Bryant Park will house most research volumes from that area,  thanks to a generous gift from Library Trustee Abby S. Milstein and her husband, Howard P. Milstein. The original shelving are also reused in new spaces. In this way,  more New Yorkers will enjoy the Beaux-Arts treasure from the awe-inspiring historic rooms of this masterpiece reopened due to Pritzker Prize–winning architect Norman Foster’s Central Library Plan.

Some of the spectacular rooms like the centerpiece grand Rose Main Reading Room and majestic Astor Hall will be retained as they are today. Visitors will be able to see a more inviting and more permeable building, which will incorporate the services, programs and books now found at heavily used but seriously deteriorating Mid-Manhattan Library across Fifth Avenue and at the innovative Science, Industry and Business Library (SIBL) on 34th Street. New Yorkers will enjoy free access to quiet study zones, programs and events in different meeting spaces, books to browse and check out, new centers for children and teens, classrooms for ESOL, literacy, and many other services. It will be the most exciting library in the world, a centre of knowledge,  scholarship and information in the heart of New York City. Check out more information about this remarkable project on designer’s website.

Photos © Foster + Partners and @nypl.org

Here is an animated video about the project to watch, which takes you into The New York Public Library’s Central Library Plan:

Central Library Plan