Page Updated September 5, 2010
News of underground buildings that are being contemplated or constructed will be added to this page as information becomes available.
If you are aware of new examples that are being considered, designed, or built, please let us know.
News of underground buildings that are being contemplated or constructed will be added to this page as information becomes available.
If you are aware of new examples that are being considered, designed, or built, please let us know.
Unless otherwise attributed, all SubsurfaceBuildings.com content is © Loretta Hall, 2000-2009.
Planned
Renovation of the underground museum in Philadelphia's Franklin Court is expected to begin in the fall of 2010. It will include construction of a new glass-enclosed entrance pavilion.
At least six underground cottages are planned to accomodate visitors and scholars near Fallingwater in Mill Run, Pennsylvania. They will be immersed in a meadow above the Frank Lloyd Wright classic. Construction on the first two cottages will begin in the fall of 2010.
Potential developers had until June 3, 2010, to submit proposals for reusing the vacant, underground trolley station at Dupont Circle in Washington DC. The Arts Coalition for Dupont Underground has suggested using the space for galleries.
Architects are designing a new medical mart for Cleveland, Ohio. The project includes rebuilding the existing underground convention center, which is adjacent to the medical mart site. Project completion is expected in 2013.
Construction of a new NFL stadium in the City of Industry, near Los Angeles, California, will begin as soon as a team agrees to relocate there. The roofless stadium will be inserted into a hilltop, with its exterior covered with vegetation. It is expected to cost one-third less than any other recently proposed NFL stadium, and it is designed to be LEED compliant.
Forks Township in Easton, Pennsylvania, plans to build an earth-covered municipal public works building. For visual and environmental reasons, the roof and three sides of the building will be covered with soil and vegetation.
Groundbreaking is scheduled for October 14, 2010, on the National Law Enforcement Museum under Judiciary Square in Washington, DC. The three-story building, which should be completed in mid-2013, will have two aboveground, glass entrance pavilions.
The University of Iowa plans to build an animal research laboratory under a landscaped courtyard. It will be part of the new Iowa Institute for Biomedical Discovery. Construction will begin during the first half of 2010, with completion of the new complex expected in 2013.
Starchitect Renzo Piano is designing an addition to Fort Worth's Kimbell Art Museum. Much of the new structure will be below ground level or recessed into a slope. Construction is expected to begin in 2010, with completion in 2012.
Phase II of the campus expansion of the Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute in Williamstown, Massachusetts, will include a mostly underground building designed by Tadao Ando. The building, which will serve as an exhibition, visitor, and conference center, should be complete in 2013. Phase I, completed in June 2008, consists of a two-story Ando-designed building that has part of its first floor recessed into a hill.
Under Construction
NEW The 9/11 Museum at the World Trade Center site in New York will open in 2012. Located 70 feet below ground, underneath an 8-acre memorial plaza, the museum will display relics from the destroyed buildings.
Spaceport America, which will offer commercial flights on Virgin Galactic spacecraft, will be located near White Sands, New Mexico. Plans call for the energy-efficient headquarters to be a multi-level underground building. Architects Foster + Partners and design engineers URS Corporation designed the hanger and terminal facility. Runway construction is under way, and a contract has been awarded for construction of the hanger and terminal building, which will be completed in early 2011.
Groundbreaking took place in October 2009 on an addition to the San Francisco General Hospital campus. A substantial part of the space in the new building will be in a basement level that will extend outward beyond the footprint of the new, 90-foot-tall building. This plan satisfies zoning restrictions on height as well as seismic code restrictions on the space between the new structure and neighboring buildings. Construction is expected to be completed by 2015.
Renovation of the Morse College residence hall at Yale University should be completed in August 2010. The project also includes an under-courtyard addition housing student activity rooms including a gym, a recording studio, an art studio space and a 100-seat auditorium.
Construction began in June 2009 on Paul Milstein Hall at Cornell University. The building, designed by Rem Koolhaas, features a dome-covered auditorium extending one story below ground and one story above. The surrounding lawn will be pulled up over the dome to retain open space. Completion is expected in 2011.
An April 2009 court decision cleared the way for construction to continue on the Student Athlete High-Performance Center at the University of California at Berkeley. Protests against the mostly underground center focused on the need to remove trees for its construction, and on concerns about its proximity (4 feet) to the football stadium, which sits above the Hayward fault.
An early-2011 completion is expected for the University of Chicago's Mansueto Library. A ground-level reading room encased by a 35-foot-high, eliptical glass dome will sit atop a 50-foot-deep high-density underground book storage cavern.
In July 2008, the University of Utah began building the Utah Museum of Natural History on its Salt Lake City campus. The museum, which is being built into a hillside, should be finished in early 2011.
A mostly underground expansion will be added to the Herbert F. Johnson Museum of Art at Cornell University in Ithaca, NY. Ground was broken in mid-May 2008, and completion is expected in 2011. The expansion was included in I.M. Pei's original design of the building.
Renovation of part of the Oakland Museum of California was completed in May 2010. The three-story building steps down a hillside so that the roof of one level becomes a terrace for the level above. The second phase of the expansion, which will be completed in 2012, will include enclosing some of the existing terrace space.
Recently Completed
UPDATED Ground was broken in August 2009 for an addition to the historic Greenbrier Resort in White Sulpher Springs, West Virginia. A secret, underground, Cold War-era refuge for the US Congress has been converted to meeting rooms. The new, two-story addition, which opened in July 2010, houses a casino, restaurants, and retail shops. It is located under resort's front lawn.
Acido Dorado, a luxury vacation rental house in Joshua Tree, California, is available through PrettyVacantProperties.com. The stunningly modern house is recessed into the ground to resist the desert heat.
Fortaleza Hall opened in January 2010 on the campus of the S.C. Johnson company. An extensive system of pedestrian tunnels connects with the lower level of the new building through a below-grade museum.
A renovation and expansion of the Ingalls Hockey Rink at Yale University was completed in January 2010. A 12,700-square-foot addition that houses training facilities, offices, and locker rooms was hidden underground to preserve the appearance of the original building, which was designed by Eero Saarinen.
Recent Awards
NEW In May 2010, the American Society of Landscape Architects and the National Trust for Historic Preservation selected New York City's Bryant Park for the 2010 Landmark Award. The award recognizes a notable landscape architecture project completed between 15 and 50 years ago. During the 1992 reconstruction, of what had become a dingy, dangerous area, a two-story addition to the main public library was built beneath Bryant Park.
Renovation of the underground museum in Philadelphia's Franklin Court is expected to begin in the fall of 2010. It will include construction of a new glass-enclosed entrance pavilion.
At least six underground cottages are planned to accomodate visitors and scholars near Fallingwater in Mill Run, Pennsylvania. They will be immersed in a meadow above the Frank Lloyd Wright classic. Construction on the first two cottages will begin in the fall of 2010.
Potential developers had until June 3, 2010, to submit proposals for reusing the vacant, underground trolley station at Dupont Circle in Washington DC. The Arts Coalition for Dupont Underground has suggested using the space for galleries.
Architects are designing a new medical mart for Cleveland, Ohio. The project includes rebuilding the existing underground convention center, which is adjacent to the medical mart site. Project completion is expected in 2013.
Construction of a new NFL stadium in the City of Industry, near Los Angeles, California, will begin as soon as a team agrees to relocate there. The roofless stadium will be inserted into a hilltop, with its exterior covered with vegetation. It is expected to cost one-third less than any other recently proposed NFL stadium, and it is designed to be LEED compliant.
Forks Township in Easton, Pennsylvania, plans to build an earth-covered municipal public works building. For visual and environmental reasons, the roof and three sides of the building will be covered with soil and vegetation.
Groundbreaking is scheduled for October 14, 2010, on the National Law Enforcement Museum under Judiciary Square in Washington, DC. The three-story building, which should be completed in mid-2013, will have two aboveground, glass entrance pavilions.
The University of Iowa plans to build an animal research laboratory under a landscaped courtyard. It will be part of the new Iowa Institute for Biomedical Discovery. Construction will begin during the first half of 2010, with completion of the new complex expected in 2013.
Starchitect Renzo Piano is designing an addition to Fort Worth's Kimbell Art Museum. Much of the new structure will be below ground level or recessed into a slope. Construction is expected to begin in 2010, with completion in 2012.
Phase II of the campus expansion of the Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute in Williamstown, Massachusetts, will include a mostly underground building designed by Tadao Ando. The building, which will serve as an exhibition, visitor, and conference center, should be complete in 2013. Phase I, completed in June 2008, consists of a two-story Ando-designed building that has part of its first floor recessed into a hill.
Under Construction
NEW The 9/11 Museum at the World Trade Center site in New York will open in 2012. Located 70 feet below ground, underneath an 8-acre memorial plaza, the museum will display relics from the destroyed buildings.
Spaceport America, which will offer commercial flights on Virgin Galactic spacecraft, will be located near White Sands, New Mexico. Plans call for the energy-efficient headquarters to be a multi-level underground building. Architects Foster + Partners and design engineers URS Corporation designed the hanger and terminal facility. Runway construction is under way, and a contract has been awarded for construction of the hanger and terminal building, which will be completed in early 2011.
Groundbreaking took place in October 2009 on an addition to the San Francisco General Hospital campus. A substantial part of the space in the new building will be in a basement level that will extend outward beyond the footprint of the new, 90-foot-tall building. This plan satisfies zoning restrictions on height as well as seismic code restrictions on the space between the new structure and neighboring buildings. Construction is expected to be completed by 2015.
Renovation of the Morse College residence hall at Yale University should be completed in August 2010. The project also includes an under-courtyard addition housing student activity rooms including a gym, a recording studio, an art studio space and a 100-seat auditorium.
Construction began in June 2009 on Paul Milstein Hall at Cornell University. The building, designed by Rem Koolhaas, features a dome-covered auditorium extending one story below ground and one story above. The surrounding lawn will be pulled up over the dome to retain open space. Completion is expected in 2011.
An April 2009 court decision cleared the way for construction to continue on the Student Athlete High-Performance Center at the University of California at Berkeley. Protests against the mostly underground center focused on the need to remove trees for its construction, and on concerns about its proximity (4 feet) to the football stadium, which sits above the Hayward fault.
An early-2011 completion is expected for the University of Chicago's Mansueto Library. A ground-level reading room encased by a 35-foot-high, eliptical glass dome will sit atop a 50-foot-deep high-density underground book storage cavern.
In July 2008, the University of Utah began building the Utah Museum of Natural History on its Salt Lake City campus. The museum, which is being built into a hillside, should be finished in early 2011.
A mostly underground expansion will be added to the Herbert F. Johnson Museum of Art at Cornell University in Ithaca, NY. Ground was broken in mid-May 2008, and completion is expected in 2011. The expansion was included in I.M. Pei's original design of the building.
Renovation of part of the Oakland Museum of California was completed in May 2010. The three-story building steps down a hillside so that the roof of one level becomes a terrace for the level above. The second phase of the expansion, which will be completed in 2012, will include enclosing some of the existing terrace space.
Recently Completed
UPDATED Ground was broken in August 2009 for an addition to the historic Greenbrier Resort in White Sulpher Springs, West Virginia. A secret, underground, Cold War-era refuge for the US Congress has been converted to meeting rooms. The new, two-story addition, which opened in July 2010, houses a casino, restaurants, and retail shops. It is located under resort's front lawn.
Acido Dorado, a luxury vacation rental house in Joshua Tree, California, is available through PrettyVacantProperties.com. The stunningly modern house is recessed into the ground to resist the desert heat.
Fortaleza Hall opened in January 2010 on the campus of the S.C. Johnson company. An extensive system of pedestrian tunnels connects with the lower level of the new building through a below-grade museum.
A renovation and expansion of the Ingalls Hockey Rink at Yale University was completed in January 2010. A 12,700-square-foot addition that houses training facilities, offices, and locker rooms was hidden underground to preserve the appearance of the original building, which was designed by Eero Saarinen.
Recent Awards
NEW In May 2010, the American Society of Landscape Architects and the National Trust for Historic Preservation selected New York City's Bryant Park for the 2010 Landmark Award. The award recognizes a notable landscape architecture project completed between 15 and 50 years ago. During the 1992 reconstruction, of what had become a dingy, dangerous area, a two-story addition to the main public library was built beneath Bryant Park.
