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At this year’s American Photographic Artists awards, I was pleased to have been presented with both First and Second prizes in the Architecture category. The winning image was part of our documentation of the University of Minnesota Science Teaching and Student Services building.

The newly opened Terminal B and Concourse at Sacramento International Airport was known as The Big Build, mostly due to the billion dollar price tag. Over the past four years, it has been the single biggest construction project in California. Designed by Fentress Architects in association with Corgan Associates, the new terminal dramatically improves the entire airport experience for travelers

A 56 foot long polygonal rabbit by artist Lawrence Argent leaps through the void towards a giant suitcase on the baggage level below. Though I must admit to conjuring up thoughts of Monty Python and the Holy Grail’s “death awaits you all with nasty, big, pointy teeth…” every time we walked by.

Light entering the terminal through the south facade screens casts an ever-moving variety of shadows throughout the day

Located on the south-western edge of the University of California San Diego campus, the Keeling Apartments are the newest addition to the Revelle College Student Housing. Named after Charles David Keeling, a scientist famous for recording the progressive buildup of carbon dioxide in the Earth’s atmosphere, a precursor to the notion of Global Warming, the apartments were designed by Philadelphia architectural firm Kieren Timberlake and are in line for a Platinum LEED rating.

The sun shades, created from a recycled material protect the west and south facades from the Californian sun but keep open the amazing views out along the nearby Pacific Coast.

Walking around the apartment buildings, there are obvious references to the existing material palette used throughout the campus since the 1960′s. In particular, as we were framing up views at Keeling, one couldn’t help but recall the exquisite, poured-in-place concrete of Louis Khan’s nearby Salk Institute, beautifully photographed by Ezra Stoller in 1977.

In Huntington Beach, south of Los Angeles, Steinberg Architect’s Golden West College Learning Resource Center has opened. The light filled interior houses several classrooms, staff offices, a resource library and extensive tutorial facilities.

My photographs of architect Greg Gong’s crisp residential extension in Melbourne were featured handsomely in a recent issue of Monument magazine.

There’s always something nice about getting high. Wait, let me start that again.

Whenever I can, I like to get high. No, no that’s not it.

It’s not everyday that your hotel room has five numbers in it.

This was indeed the case when I recently had an opportunity to spend a few nights at the new Ritz-Carlton, perched atop Kohn Pedersen Fox’s International Commerce Center in Hong Kong.

Even though I know the city pretty well, the new views were mesmerizing. The chance to set up a few cameras recording time-lapse sequences of the constant activity on the harbor was too good to pass up.

Breakfast on the 102nd floor provided stunning view across to Hong Kong Island. I could have stayed there all day but more earthly endeavors beckoned, albeit from several hundred feet below.

In our ongoing documentation of the tower for KPF, we were looking to capture new views of the canopies above the building entrances. Using the dramatic overhangs to frame views of the Hong Kong skyline reinforced  the central position of the building within the bustling harbor.

While scouting out the locations, I noticed in the ashtrays, a few stylistic similarities to a previous project by the same firm we had photographed, albeit at a somewhat smaller scale. Referencing the original circular design of the aperture, of course.

ICC Ashtray

Shanghai World Financial Center

Another angle I was looking for was an overview from Hong Kong Island. “Looks like rain” warned my assistant Mr Wood as we plodded along the path to our vantage point. “Unbeliever!” I retorted, quickening my pace and casting a furtive glance up through the trees. “What could possibly go wrong?” We set up early, in anticipation of a glorious sunset, which unsurprisingly, given the thickening clouds, didn’t happen.

With the building disappearing completely at times behind the rolling cloud, we hung out as the scene darkened. Then just as the lights of the city came to life, an opening in the western sky gave us the bright reflection we needed to make our project jump out across the harbor.

Ominous, fat drops began to dot the pavement around us as we quickly packed the bags and dashed back down the trail to shelter. Twenty steps from the taxi rank, the long awaited thunderstorms let loose . “That was close..” observed Mr Wood, as we headed home in the downpour.

“Unbeliever!” I smiled.

In land-strapped Hong Kong, expanding an already sizable school campus can be a tricky affair. The Singapore International School in Hong Kong worked with Singapore-based MKPL Architects to arrive at an innovative solution to that problem. The design involved renovation of an existing structure and its incorporation into a new wing of classrooms,library and performance spaces.

Carving out a void in the center of the mass provided open space for various assembly and class activities while taking advantage of the coastal breezes to provide cross ventilation throughout the twelve levels. To create the internal spaces, a number art studios, a recreation plaza and a full size gymnasium were hoisted up on columns, creating a new visual icon of the school within the surrounding community.

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Following on from our work on the award winning Ed Roberts Campus in Berkeley, architects Leddy Maytum Stacy commissioned us to create a short video piece to accompany an article in Architectural Record August 2011 issue. Though not our first foray into motion, this was certainly a wonderful opportunity to tell the story of the architecture from the perspective of those people who use it everyday.

The five minute cut of the film can be seen here in full HD.

Over at UC Berkeley, Ratcliff Architects have completed the final stage of their major renovation and expansion of the Boalt School of Law. The plan brings a new sense of order and transparency to the site, incorporating the various buildings added to the school over the decades.

The new, light-filled south pavilion  sits back from the street, opening up two courtyards to create a new public entrance to the school.

It houses several classrooms, a café, landscaped roof terrace and the new Law Library, featuring double height reading rooms bathed in natural light throughout the day.