West 8 Urban Design and Landscape Architecture

West 8 and Atelier Kempe Thill have been selected as one of the twelve finalists to develop a master plan for the long-term development of the BMW Group’s Research and Innovation Center (FIZ) in Munich.

West 8’s Freiham North project in Munich, Germany and the Reconversion EAI, Former School of Infantry in Montpellier, France, are both presented at MIPIM – the leading real estate event for property professionals from the 11-14th of March 2014 in Cannes, France.

On the 4th March, 2014, the Canadian Society of Landscape Architects (CSLA) announced the national and regional winners of its annual Awards of Excellence. The East Bayfront Water's Edge Promenade, a realized section of the Toronto Central Waterfront project, wins an Award of Excellence, in the National Merit category.

The Netherlands Embassy in London, in collaboration with The Building Centre, have invited West 8 to bring their insight on the design and development of Rotterdam Centraal Station, one of The Netherlands' most important transport hubs. 

The 4th annual conference on "Bridge Construction and Maintenance in Europe and Russia" with the theme "New Construction Technologies and Equipment”, will take place between 19th - 21st of March 2014 in Bordeaux, France. West 8's representative Maarten van de Voorde will present a lecture titled: "Designing pedestrian bridges and understanding the poetry of human use" to conference delegates.

On the 28th of February, The West Kowloon Cultural District Authority (“WKCDA”) announced that a design team led by Dennis Lau & Ng Chun Man Architects & Engineers (Hong Kong) Ltd (DLN), supported by landscape architects, West 8 (Netherlands) and ACLA (Hong Kong), have been selected to design and manage the development of the Park in the West Kowloon Cultural District (“WKCD”), scheduled to open in stages starting from 2015.

We are excited to launch the ‘News in Pictures’ section of our website. News in Pictures will keep you up to date with West 8’s new and current work in a visual format.

Critic says, "its future looks brighter." 

The jury has announced the five competitors selected for the rejuvenation of Biel’s waterfront near Castle Nidau (Agglolac Biel). The LARIDAE team, consisting of Baukontor AG (Zürich), West 8 (Rotterdam), Dr. Schwartz Consulting (Zug) and Basler & Hofmann AG (Zürich) is proud to have been selected.

It has been almost a decade since ground was broken on this massive project and on Thursday the 13th of March 2014 the official Grand Opening celebration will be held to mark the conclusion of this extraordinary project.

The jury list of the Prix de Rome Architecture in 2014 has been announced: Adriaan Geuze, together with William Lim, Ellen van Loon, Saskia van Stein and Cathelijne Nuijsink will select the shortlist candidates of 2014 and eventually select a winner in autumn.

West 8 is very proud to be member of the team within the van Oord & Boskalis joint venture, which has been awarded the contract for "The New Hondsbossche Dunes" (formerly known as "Hondsbossche and Pettemer Seawall") by Royal Dutch Government. We are honoured to be a part of the design team which has contribuetd to this success.

Last weekend, Toronto was hit by a beautiful snow storm, nearly 20cm of fresh snow covered Queens Quay, Simcoe, Spandina and  Rees Wavedecks and the Water's Edge Promenade. 

On Thursday the 21st of November, the Flemish Minister for Public Works, Hilde Crevits erected the first wooden beam on the new pedestrian bridge designed by West 8 in conjunction with sub consultants Snoeck & Partners and BAS for Vlaams Gewest AMDK.

On November 14, New York City Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg planted the 800,000th tree of the new 30-acre park designed by West 8, marking the completion of the first phase of park on Governors Island. The ceremony drew a crowd of over 300 visitors, who explored the new park spaces.

Toronto based LANDinc, in consortium with West 8, and a multidisciplinary team, have been awarded the landscape architectural services contract for the urban park and waterfront trail at Ontario Place.

On the 31st of October, the IBA Hamburg awarded West 8 a Certificate of Excellence for their work on Jenfelder Au. According to the IBA “the concept of the project meets the criteria of excellence established by the international building exhibition, IBA Hamburg and is characterized by outstanding quality, innovation and sustainability.”

At 3.00pm on Friday the 29th of November, West 8 will discuss the landscaping of Schiphol Airport. Alongside Jan Benthem of Benthem Crouwel Architects (project architects) and Rijk Boerma, partner at Mijksenaar (way-finding and signage consultants). The free talk will critically examine the complex processes involved in creating a place used by thousands of passengers, commuters and visitors.

On Friday the 15th of November Adriaan Geuze will be a keynote speaker at the two day conference on the "Airport Landscape: Urban Ecologies in the Aerial Age", hosted by the Harvard Graduate Design School. Adriaan will be speaking on "counteracting stress-scape" at 9.15am in the Piper Auditorium, Gund Hall, 48 Quincy Street, Cambridge MA. The conference is free and open to the public, so save the date.

Three hundred and ninety eight thousand visitors, a 15% increase on last year, enjoyed the Island during the 40 day weekend and holiday Monday season, which ran from the end of May through to the end of September. While the Island is now closed to the public for the winter season, the construction of 30 new acres of park will be completed in November and an official commemoration ceremony will be hosted by Michael R. Bloomberg, Mayor of New York City and Ronay Menschel, Chair of the Trust for Governors Island. The West 8 November newsletter will document the event.