A set of red steps cum ticket booth in New York’s landmark Times Square, and its Australian-led architect design team, have been awarded the International Award at the 2009 Australian Institute of Architects National Architecture Awards.
The Australian Institute of Architects’ Jorn Utzon Award for International Architecture was presented to the TKTS Booth and Environs in New York’s Times Square by Sydney firm Choi Ropiha, with Perkins Eastman and PKSB. Choi Ropiha is an innovative Sydney-based architecture practice founded by design architects John Choi and Tai Ropiha.
It was noted by the jury that the booth project began 10 years ago with an international competition to re-design the popular and iconic TKTS booth, which serves New York’s main theatre district in Times Square.
The design featured strikingly translucent red steps that terrace upwards and the booth itself, which is neatly tucked beneath.
With references to the “red carpet” of Broadway, the red steps provides the booth with a memorable and fitting presence in Times Square, strengthening the position of TKTS as a New York cultural institution.
The Qatar Science and Technology Park by Sydney firm Woods Bagot Stadium was presented with an Architecture Award for International Architecture for a large scale project in the United Arab Emirates.
Woods Bagot described the master plan as encompassing 123 hectares of land. Phase one construction comprised 115,000 square metres – incorporating the site’s 12,000 sq metre administrative hub and business centre, and two 20,000 sq metre laboratory information transfer centre buildings.
Woods Bagot recognised the importance in Islamic architecture that focuses on the interior space as opposed to the exterior, and commented that the buildings were generally enveloped by double skin-facades that responded to the climate of the area. The internal elaborate atriums were equivalent to the inner life of a traditional courtyard.