Buildings don’t say as much about the year they are born as they do about the decade it takes to conceive them. And the list of best buildings in 2013 gives clear evidence of the chastity accompanying that defined life across the U.S.
It’s a terrific roster really, marked by superior structures that will stand well for the age we live in. But it is short in ways that matter.
There are just five entries instead of the customary 10; so many promising projects fell apart during the recession.
Just as telling, nothing here rises more than three stories. This was a year when aggressive developers, with their office towers and residential skyscrapers, handed over the glory to public institutions. Three of the buildings on the list are museums, two are schools.
These are the best I saw this year.
, University of Pennsylvania campus, Philadelphia
Designer: Weiss/Manfredi Architecture, based in New York City
is the future, and this building gives it a forward-looking home while actually being fun at the same time. It’s a complicated, glass-and-steel structure that bends in the middle, turning in on itself with the help of a second-floor mini-wing that cantilevers impossibly over the front yard. Still, its biggest statement is a mighty, bright orange interior scheme. Serious and wild.
Perez Art Museum, Miami
Design: , based in Basel, Switzerland
The , located on sunny, scenic Biscayne Bay, manages to be indigenous and international at the same time. The architects took a design problem — the need to elevate the building above flood levels — and turned out a giant concrete block set on stilts and lifted up into the air with grace. The Perez, landscaped with hanging vertical gardens, embraces its surroundings; letting in light and some incredible natural views, while never distracting from the art.
St. Louis Art Museum expansion, St. Louis
Design: , based in London.
St. Louis argued for a decade over how to enlarge in its treasured Forest Park, and the tension paid off in the form of balance. Chipperfield produced a humble, right-angled box that honors the basic shape of the original landmark next door and never overwhelms the green space all around it. This is an expressively human structure that finds beauty through delicate, understated details.
, Fort Worth
Design: Renzo Piano Building Workshop, based in Genoa, Italy
No modern building is more revered than the original Kimbell, designed by master in 1972, and did everything he could not to mess with the legend. The addition is a full 65 yards away but connects with awe and precision, mirroring Kahn’s basic ideas and dimensions and playing off his exterior columns and dual staircases. Still, Piano makes it a building for his own age, adding energy-efficient glass ceilings, wooden beams that extend through the walls, a rooftop park and the silkiest concrete walls ever poured.
The Aspen Music School addition, Aspen
Design: Harry Teague Architects, based in Aspen
The was an extraordinary challenge met, starting with the restoration of land polluted by years of mountain mining and ending with the need to hold back the mud slides that gush from the steep slopes on all sides. But few designers know the terrain as well as Harry . Cleverly, he turned practice rooms into retaining walls and let the surrounding hillscape inspire the roof lines of his new campus. The structure is a leap forward for a part of the country that has long put public architecture second.
Ray Mark Rinaldi: 303-954-1540, rrinaldi@denverpost.com or twitter.com/rayrinaldi
