Tour Carpe Diem, RAMSA's new office tower at La Défense outside of Paris, is France's first LEED Platinum building; the building achieved the certification in the US Green Building Council's LEED for Core & Shell (CS) Rating System. It also significantly exceeds French Haute Qualité Environnementale regulations for environmentally responsible development. It will be the first building in France to receive these dual certifications. Tour Carpe Diem will rely on geothermal wells as its main energy source, and the lobby garden will be irrigated using captured rainwater. Additional sustainable design strategies include a double-glazed curtain wall which incorporates sunshades that respond to the solar orientation of each facade, solar water heating, a heat-recovery system, high-performance lighting, controls for daylight dimming, and occupancy sensors. 

The 40-story, 507,000-square-foot (45,000 m²) building connects both to the raised esplanade—the "dalle" that continues the axis of the Champs-Elysées—and to the urban fabric of the city of Courbevoie to the north with a monumental stair that descends to a plaza on the Boulevard Circulaire.  The building's faceted facades that catch the ever-changing Parisian light will give the building a strong identity among the towers of La Défense.

Tour Carpe Diem is RAMSA's seventh Platinum-certified building, joining Five Crescent Drive, an office building for GlaxoSmithKline, and  One Crescent Drive, both located at the Philadelphia Navy Yard; the George W. Bush Presidential Center at Southern Methodist University in Dallas, Texas; the Kohler Environmental Center at Choate Rosemary Hall in Wallingford, Connecticut; the Jennie Smoly Caruthers Biotechnology Building at the University of Colorado Boulder; and the Dorothy D. and Roy H. Park Center for Business and Sustainable Enterprise at the Ithaca College School of Business in Ithaca, New York

RAMSA Partners Robert A.M. Stern, Meghan L. McDermott, and Kevin M. Smith led the design for the project. The building is owned by AVIVA and Crédit Agricole Immobilier, and was developed by Hines France. Tour Carpe Diem will open in September 2013.

Today the University of Georgia broke ground for Correll Hall, the first phase of a new Business Learning Community for the C. Herman and Mary Virginia Terry College of Business.  Named for Ada Lee and A.D. "Pete" Correll, Chairman Emeritus of Georgia-Pacific Corp, the new 75,000 square foot building will mark a northern gateway to the University at the corner of Baxter and Lumpkin Streets. Correll Hall will include state-of-the-art classrooms and other learning spaces for Terry College's Master's programs in business administration, accountancy, and market research.

At full buildout, Phases II and III of the Business Learning Community will provide an additional 230,000 square feet of space for a social commons area, undergraduate classrooms, multipurpose rooms, and offices for academic departments, professional programs, and central administration.

RAMSA Partners Robert A.M. Stern, Kevin M. Smith, and Graham S. Wyatt are leading the design of the project.  Rule Joy Trammell + Rubio, LLC of Atlanta, Georgia is the Architect-of-Record.

Rendering by Jeff Stikeman.

The George W. Bush Presidential Center was dedicated this morning. The building, at Southern Methodist University in Dallas, Texas, houses the Presidential Library and Museum together with the George W. Bush Institute in a single environmentally sustainable building. Set in a sustainable native Texas landscape designed by Michael Van Valkenburgh Associates, the building has been certified LEED Platinum, the highest level in the U.S. Green Building Council's Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design rating system.

The brick and Texas Cordova Cream limestone building complements the historic American Georgian character of the Southern Methodist University campus which it adjoins.

The Museum's central orientation point, Freedom Hall is a 67-foot-high, 50-by-50-foot Texas Cordova Cream limestone lantern that brings daylight into the heart of the building and, at night, forms a softly glowing beacon. Twenty feet above Freedom Hall's Marianna Cream limestone-paved floor, a twenty-foot high, 360-degree high-definition LED media display introduces visitors to the Museum's public exhibition galleries, which include a full-scale replica of the Oval Office and a Texas rose garden modeled on the Rose Garden at the White House. Freedom Hall also provides access to an outdoor courtyard with a café.

The Institute, wrapping the south side of the building, includes a 360-seat broadcast-ready auditorium and a fully-equipped broadcast and recording studio, as well as seminar, meeting, and reception rooms and terraces that look to the Dallas skyline across the 14-acre park and university recreational fields.

RAMSA partners Robert A.M. Stern, Augusta Barone, Alexander P. Lamis, and Graham S. Wyatt led the design. 

The University of Nebraska-Lincoln announced today that the Robert and Ardis James Foundation has made a $7 million gift for expansion of Quilt House, and that Robert A.M. Stern Architects, designers of Quilt House, home to the International Study Center & Museum, will be responsible for the design of the addition as well.

The expansion will involve an addition on the west side of the building of about 12,400 square feet and will feature new gallery space for more exhibitions as well as additional room for quilt collection storage and care, education, and museum operations. The original building, at 1523 North 33rd Street on UNL's East Campus, opened in 2008.

About his gift and continued investment, Robert James said Quilt House is dedicated to the people of Nebraska, to quilt lovers, and to those around the world who have helped recognize quilts as true art: “It is helping the world comprehend a previously underappreciated form of art. That’s what it’s done, and that’s what Ardis and I always had in mind.” Mrs. James died in 2011.

“Because of the vision and generosity of Bob and Ardis James, our university has become the most important place for the scholarly study, research, and curated exhibition of quilts as an international art form,” said UNL Chancellor Harvey Perlman. “We are extremely grateful for their support of Quilt House over the years and for making another important investment.”

Pat Crews, founding director of Quilt House and Professor of Textiles, Merchandising & Fashion Design, said the public's interest in the museum - its exhibitions, educational offerings, and unique mission - continues to grow. "Our guests have loved what they've been able to experience and learn here, but they're eager to see even more," she said. "With the new expansion, we'll have additional room for our popular exhibitions as well as increased space for our collections and research. We cannot thank the James family enough for making this possible,"

The gift includes an additional $1 million to establish a permanent endowment for the University of Nebraska Foundation.

RAMSA Partners Robert A.M. Stern and Grant Marani will lead the design team. Alley Poyner Macchietto Architecture of Omaha will serve as associate architect. 

The partners of Robert A.M. Stern Architects are pleased to announce that the firm has named five new Senior Associates: Bina Bhattacharyya, George de Brigard, Chen-Huan Liao, Breen Mahony, and Sara Rubenstein; and five new associates: Katie Casanta, Peter Garofalo, Nikki Hartle, Douglas Neri, and Kley Salas. RAMSA extends congratulations to each of them.

Today Stephen A. Schwarzman, chairman and CEO of the Blackstone Group, unveiled Robert A.M. Stern Architects' design for a new building at Tsinghua University in Beijing for the Schwarzman Scholars, as he announced the establishment of Schwarzman College. The new building will be the residential and academic center for the Schwarzman Scholars, 200 students selected each year from around the world for a one-year master’s program on the model of the Rhodes Scholarship.

Much like the program it houses, the College is designed to harmonize Eastern and Western principles while creating an elegant, recognizable contribution to the future of Tsinghua University. Beyond a low garden wall with open entrance pavilions at each end, an entrance courtyard will welcome both scholars and visitors to Schwarzman College. Inside, a double-height forum will serve as a social space for informal conversations and large gatherings. The library and the dining hall are located on the ground floor, to either side of the entrance court. One level down, four classrooms and a conference center will surround the building's interior garden court. The auditorium will be located below the courtyard. Above, the scholars will live in single rooms organized in groups of eight that share a common lounge—a model taken from the executive education program at the Harvard Business School, intended to foster close relationships among subsets of the 200 scholars who will be enrolled at any given time. The building is clad in the gray brick characteristic of Beijing and is accented with stone and wood details. A stone watertable balances the proportions of the building. Stone and brick panels surround large windows, using shadow and detail to reinforce the symmetry of each facade.  A traditional tile roof of varied heights moderates the scale of the building and accentuates its corners.

"I think bringing students to China is an essential part of their education. China is no longer an elective course, it's really core curriculum," said Stephen A. Schwarzman. "I feel grateful to be able to have the resources to help change future leaders to impact their countries' and China's destinies."

"We have designed a building that is modern in every way, shape, and form: the way it will perform, the way it's put together, the functional elements that are inside it," said RAMSA Senior Partner Robert A.M. Stern. "We have looked to the organization of academic institutions as diverse as the Oxford and Cambridge Colleges and the recent residential graduate student programs of the best American universities. But we have also looked to the long tradition of Chinese architecture and, through that, to Chinese culture. We found to our great delight that these two traditions—the Eastern and Western—have much in common. What we are really trying to build here is a community based on continuity."

RAMSA partners Robert A.M. Stern, Melissa DelVecchio, and Graham S. Wyatt are leading the design. AECOM of Shanghai, China, is the Associate Architect for the project.

Today the town of Chapel Hill dedicated the newly renovated Chapel Hill Public Library.  The renovations, designed by Robert A.M. Stern Architects, roughly double the size of the original 40,000-square-foot library, built in 1994, by bookending the existing building with two additions. The loft-like south addition provides book stacks and reading areas with views of Pritchard Park. The north addition, faced with glass, brick, wood, and stone, provides a new entrance and much-needed community meeting spaces. The interior of the existing building has been completely reorganized and upgraded.  The design takes advantage of a fine setting within a park, with outdoor spaces that connect to a local trail system.  Daylight suffuses the library from a series of picture windows and roof-top light monitors.

“Dreams of more than a generation of Chapel Hillians are the mortar holding these bricks together,” says Chapel Hill Mayor Mark Kleinschmidt, who was one of several local government officials to deliver remarks during the ceremony. “These are the kinds of days when I pinch myself and ask, ‘Am I really the mayor of this great town?’ Look at what we can do, and look at what we have done.”

“Libraries are undergoing a great deal of change and our building marries traditional paper-based library services with a robust and expandable digital presence," said RAMSA Partner Alexander P. Lamis. "Our challenge was to reimagine a library building that had been open for only a decade, but no longer met the needs of its community."

The design is targeting LEED Silver certification and employs high-efficiency mechanical systems, intelligent lighting controls, natural lighting, water conservation, and stormwater runoff control, and uses post-industrial recycled, post-consumer recycled, and regionally sourced materials. 

RAMSA partners Robert A.M. Stern, Alexander P. Lamis, and Kevin M. Smith led the design. Corley Redfoot Architects was the Architect-of-Record.

RAMSA and the Kindel Furniture Company are pleased to announce a new licensing agreement. The creative partnership, which brings together a design firm known worldwide for its commitment to contemporary interpretations of traditional forms and a manufacturer dedicated to carrying forward the heritage of American craftsmanship, expects to introduce a collection in the Spring of 2014.

“We are excited about our partnership with Robert A.M. Stern Architects because we believe they seek to be first in class in their field as does Kindel in furniture craftsmanship,” said Thomas Yeo, CEO of Kindel. “The partnership will allow Kindel the opportunity to work with the talented designers at RAMSA in creating a home collection that reflects how people live today.”

"We're eager to start our work with Kindel, an American company with a storied history of over a century of fine craftsmanship," said Alexander P. Lamis, Partner with Robert A.M. Stern Architects, who manages Robert A.M. Stern Design, LLC, which licenses the firm's product designs. "Both Kindel and our office are interested in what American furniture has been and can be, and how traditional forms can be updated with a contemporary feel and an eye to the future."

Kindel Furniture Company is a premier source for American-made luxury furniture. A commitment to hand craftsmanship, hand carving, bench assembly, and hand finishing has defined Kindel since 1901. The new collection will complement the existing collections in Kindel’s product line including The Winterthur Collection from the estate of Henry Francis du Pont, The Dorothy Draper Collection based on the work of the legendary New York designer, as well as the legacy of classic design created in Kindel’s own Neoclassic Collection, Knowledge Collection, and Classic Additions.

RAMSA's current product line, the Robert A.M. Stern Collection, includes carpets for Bentley Prince Street, furniture for David Edward, garden ornaments for Haddonstone, site furniture for Landscape Forms, architectural glass for Bendheim, architectural hardware for SA Baxter, doors for Lualdi, and fabric for C.F. Stinson.