Tony Ashai grew up on the streets of Kashmir, India, developing a vivid imagination as an introspective child who kept to himself. His interest in architecture eventually brought him to New York and Florence, Italy, where he developed his education and experience with urban design.
Ashai’s architectural firm, Ashai Design Corp (ADC) has since gained legendary status with brilliant designs for luxury mansions, skyscrapers, resorts, and master plans for communities, landscapes, and interiors that define the spaces his firm develops.
Some of the current highlights of ADC’s storied fifteen-year output are a planned series of five towers in Dubai (the first of which has already sold out ahead of its construction), and Dubai’s Lifestyle City, a 98-acre community of luxury villas planned for completion next year, to include two hotels, a golf course, spa, and a 100,000 square foot shopping center. See more of their work here.
Richard Meier’s firm has completed works in fifteen countries during more than forty years of design experience. With dual offices in New York and Los Angeles, their projects have spanned a wide range of civic, residential, corporate, and institutional buildings that regularly receive recognition as bold artistic statements with a classic sense of style and order. Meier’s skill as an architect earned him the holy grail of design awards in 1984, the Pritzker Prize for Architecture.
Notable standouts in Meier’s collection of accomplishments include several grand museums like the High Museum in Atlanta, Ara Pacis Museum in Rome, Barcelona’s Museum of Contemporary Art – eight years in the making and completed in 1995 – and the Frankfurt Museum for Decorative Arts.
Another Roman gem of Meier’s construction is the city’s Jubilee Church, a contemporary masterpiece of geometry bathed in natural light, is another of the firm’s best structures. The church stands as a unique counterpoint to the traditional architecture that surrounds the ancient Italian capital of religious culture.
Image of Richard Meier’s “Atheneum” located in New Harmony, Indiana. Image is from gèr-HÀRDT’s personal Flickr page.
At least one of Skidmore, Owings, and Merrill’s (SOM) recent projects garnered them instant notoriety for a unique design innovation for a unique client, Oakland’s Cathedral of Christ the Light, to be exact. SOM designed the cathedral as a modern monument to green buildings and a symbol of the community’s open faith. The secular building is a luminous combination of a vented wooden inner structure and an outer glass shell.
As an international firm with eight offices in five countries, SOM’s David Childs has been tasked with designing perhaps the most important building in modern history, the 1,776 foot One World Trade Center that is estimated to replace its ill-fated predecessor on the iconic New York City skyline by 2013.
The building presents numerous logistical and structural challenges, since the events of September 11, 2001 demand a structure that is technologically sound and impervious to damage from unnatural forces. The iconic structure will require concrete-reinforced beams with impact resistant layers and an exterior grill that provides a facial blast barrier and eliminates dynamic shift. Find them here.
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In the late 1960′s architect Jim Olson had a vision, to apply his architectural skill in blending modern design with nature, to bring harmony to the project sites he and his company acquired. Along the way, he collaborated with other architects to re-define traditional spaces with a modern, earthy confidence that soothes the eye and calms the spirit.
Today, high-profile projects and renovations around greater Seattle, including museums, churches, public buildings, and private dwellings, have made Olson Sundberg Kundig Allen Architects a well-respected firm for Olson and his associates.
Their work embodies a commitment to contemporary styling while remaining true to classical forms, natural light, and the sanctity of the environments they enhance. The awards and accolades they’ve received to date, including this year’s National AIA (American Institute of Architects) Firm of the Year Award, are well-deserved. Find them here.
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