eOCULUS 03.07.06

Editor's Note: Architecture Season is in full swing this month as the many exhibition openings, lectures, and symposia leave one bewildered. Fear not. To keep you informed, e-O will be there, reaching its tendrils into every corner of the city.

REPORTS FROM THE FIELD

Event: Symposium, Philip Johnson and the Constancy of Change
Presenters: Museum of Modern Art and Yale School of Architecture
Where: Museum of Modern Art, 02.16.06; Yale A&A Building, 02.17–02.18.06

Generally we're allotted "one life to a person," as Jeffrey Kipnis observed at the symposium's opening session. But during his 98 years Philip Johnson lived many: as co-coiner of the term "International Style" at the age of 24; as a pioneering design curator; as a supporter of the Nazis; as an architect following a parade of styles; as a major art collector and donor; as a promoter of many of today's famous architects. Nineteen speakers shed light on these lives—some brilliantly. So uneven was Johnson's large architectural output that, as Mark Wigley observed, "We tend to view his good things as exceptions." The predominance of historians on the program produced an almost exclusive focus on form and style. The single mention of a structural system in all those hours was by Johnson himself, in a TV excerpt. He was in fact an expert on such construction issues as masonry joints. There was only momentary reference to the succession of partners who shared credit for most of his buildings. A few thoughtful minutes were devoted to his long-time personal partner, the curator David Whitney, who apparently guided Johnson's art collecting. The overflow audience learned a lot, but some key aspects of Johnson's lives were hardly examined.

John Morris Dixon was chief editor of Progressive Architecture 1972–1996. He has since written for such publications as Architectural Record, Architecture, Competitions, and Harvard Design Magazine.

SHoP's new strategy for the Lower East Side waterfront creates "cross grain connections" between the city and the water's edge.
Courtesy of SHoP Architects, PC

Grüntuch Ernst Architekten's Floating Homes prototype transforms the city's edge.
Grüntuch Ernst Architekten, Berlin

Event: Berlin-New York Dialogues: Architecture and Urban Planning NOW! Program Underwriter: DEUTSCHE BANK. Additional support provided by The German Consulate General New York, and The German Center for Architecture, DAZ in Berlin.
Presenters: Meta Brunzema—Meta Brunzema Architects, New York; Ray Gastil—New York City Department of City Planning; Armand Grüntuch—Grüntuch Ernst Architekten, Berlin; Mathias Heyden—architect, Berlin; Hilmar von Lojewski—Department of Urban Development, Berlin; Gregg Pasquarelli—SHoP Architects, New York; Kristien Ring—The German Center for Architecture, Berlin; Jesse Shapins—Yellow Arrow/Counts Media, New York; Moderators: Saskia Sassen—Sociologist, University of Chicago; Ron Shiffman—Urban planner and educator, New York. Opening remarks: Dr. Hans-Jürgen Heimsoeth—Consul General of Germany; Peter Zlonicky—Architect/planner, Munich.
Where: Center for Architecture, 02.18.06

The concept of terrain vague, as described by sociologist Saskia Sassen, exists in neglected space leftover in a "global network city." Potential uses for these sites—which include city waterfronts, urban edge conditions, and infill sites—can be overwhelming, complicated by disparate groups jockeying to exploit fragmented urban areas. Terrain vague sites require both formal and informal strategies.

New York and Berlin face the destructive effects of "urban planning dogmas," struggle with shifting economic bases, and incur the scars of war or terrorism. City planners, including Hilmar von Lojewski and Ray Gastil, are wary of negative implications of terrain vague, as it is difficult to control in an unregulated form. Critical reconstruction includes historical considerations and the interests of the community, according to von Lojewski, but in order to foster a "new generation seeking a new iconography" solutions must exceed historical outlines. Gregg Pasquarelli seeks to transcend image-based projects with "performative" architecture. Armand Grüntuch wants to reinvent the city on a small scale by layering Berlin's urban fabric over tight building envelopes.

Reacting against what they consider a "postmodern and cynical" planning culture, architects Meta Brunzema and Matheus Heyden advocate "direct actions." Dismayed over economically based initiatives that drown out creative informality, Heyden uses urban "squats" for performance art protests and Brunzema galvanizes community groups to transform their surroundings. Kristien Ring and Jesse Shapins humorously attempt to "influence the cultural landscape" with interventions such as Raumlabour's crystalline structure atop the Berliner Palace, and Yellow Square's media-based attempts to mesh together image, digital networks, and urban space.

The wide range of specialties highlighted by the panelists at the New York-Berlin symposium provided a platform for comparing cities and learning from each other.

Scott Jardine is a writer and project architect at David Fratianne Architect in New York City.

Event: "FXFOWLE: Building a Green Practice," Skyscraper Museum Green Teams Lecture
Presenters: Bruce Fowle, FAIA, LEED AP, and Peter Weingarten, AIA, LEED
Where: Donnell Library Auditorium, NYPL, 02.21.06

The current wave of green skyscrapers owes a debt to Bruce Fowle, FAIA, LEED AP, FXFOWLE senior principal, whose Condé Nast building is regarded as the city's first green high-rise. Speaking with his firm's senior associate Peter Weingarten, AIA, Fowle laid out the social context for the green design movement, drawing on observations from David Owen's influential New Yorker article ("Green Manhattan," 10.18.04), and data on the contribution that buildings make toward energy use, greenhouse-gas emissions, and ozone-depletion potential. He outlined techniques used for light control, blackwater purification, and energy management in the New York Times tower and the Helena Apartments—the former uncertified, the latter rated gold, but both arguably green.

Fowle is personally LEED-certified—the proportion of FXFOWLE staff with this credential rose from 20% to 50% after he obtained it—but he believes that professional leadership, committed R&D, and rigorous information exchange in the end count for more than the formal pursuit of LEED points on single projects. Weingarten and Fowle presented pro/con positions on the LEED program as presently structured: though it provides a common language and identifiable benchmarks, it doesn't do enough, in Fowle's view, to reward design excellence or to draw useful distinctions among the point-garnering initiatives.

The incentives for green design leave some developers unmoved, but architects can be persuasive by stressing appropriate benefits to clients (productivity gains in offices; improved health in residences). With an average "green cost premium" of only 1.84% across 33 buildings studied—and with several important Times Tower innovations coming in under budget, after some well-spent R&D investments up front—Fowle believes the profession can and must create an atmosphere that encourages climate-neutral buildings and rejects non-sustainable development outright. Ultimately, you cannot separate economic from ecological sustainability.

Bill Millard is a freelance writer and editor whose work has appeared in Oculus, Icon, Content, and other publications.

The Manufactured Sites project injects small frames into some of the informal communities in Tijuana as a micro infrastructure to mediate and reinforce the improvisational tactics of construction, as people build their own dwellings out of the waste of San Diego.
Courtesy estudio teddy cruz

The differently angled bay windows in nARCHITECTS' Switch Building, on the LES, resolves zoning codes to allow similar apartment layouts to differ through varying light conditions and views.
Courtesy nARCHITECTS

Event: Lecture 1—The Architectural League of New York presents: Emerging Voices 2006
Presenters: Eric Bunge, AIA, & Mimi Hoang—principals, nARCHITECTS, NYC; Teddy Cruz—estudio teddy cruz, San Diego
Where: Scholastic Auditorium, 03.02.06

The thread that ties nARCHITECTS' small-scale projects and competitions to estudio teddy cruz's urban collages at edge cities is the element of improvisation. Bunge and Hoang develop projects based on needs of potential occupants while attempting to rethink the use of materials. Estudio teddy cruz, working with non-profit organizations to mediate the process, creates vernacular frameworks to help create sustainable communities based on the needs of the inhabitants

nARCHITECTS attempts to facilitate chance interactions on a project by attempting to redefine typologies. For example, their entry for the Hotel Pro Forma competition, Denmark, reinterprets performance space by creating areas for a nomadic theater group to perform in corridors and lobbies within a hotel. They use materials without knowing exactly how they will perform. When they designed Canopy at MoMA/P.S. 1, as part of the Young Architects Program, nARCHITECTS chose to work with freshly cut green bamboo. The canopy, designed on a computer, became more dense and curvilinear throughout the assembly process because the properties of the bamboo could not be anticipated.

Estudio teddy cruz's work embodies socio-economic research of border dynamics, especially between San Diego, CA, and Tijuana, Mexico. Actively involved in the development of the edge-city condition, Cruz studies the mutual influence of San Diego, as an affluent city of sprawled gated communities and glamorized redevelopment, and Tijuana, as the site for a marginalized and dense impoverished urban condition. Casa Familiar, an affordable housing project in San Ysidro, CA, attempts to increase the volume of social interactions per acre. Instead of using a preconceived notion that a certain number of units should fit into a parcel, Cruz uses the model of how inhabitants actually live in order to organize small communities. In constructing a framework around the perimeter of a parcel, dense housing can be built on top of open flexible spaces, with a central public garden. Inhabitants are empowered to use and expand their spaces as needed.

Contemporary Music Center in Taichung, Taiwan, is an "event landscape" that includes an 18,000-seat outdoor amphitheater, and indoor concert and performance venues; exhibition and educational facilities occupy a "horizontal skyscraper" that complements the landform.
Stan Allen Architect

Event: Objects + Fields, AIA NY Architecture Dialogue Committee's "Experimental Architecture" lecture series
Presenter: Stan Allen, AIA—principal, Stan Allen Architect, and Dean, Princeton University School of Architecture; Moderator Winka Dubbeldam—principal, Archi-tectonics
Where: Center for Architecture, 02.16.06

Steeped in both the academic and professional worlds, Stan Allen, AIA, presented a candid take on the state of both, saying that there is a split in the relationship between education and the profession that has to be taken seriously. "Skepticism about the academic world should be a prerequisite to working in it. Schools can choose constraints, but constraints in the real world are accidental and arbitrary, and that is what needs to be taught." He also noted the change in focus since the 1980s, when young architects were hired for their image-making rather than technical ability, to today, when schools are more interested in technique. But, he pointed out, "Architectural expertise has to include culture, economics, urban issues." Coming down on the side of optimism, he noted that students today view technology as part of the creative endeavor.

Presenting projects from the Philippines and Korea to Toronto and Puerto Rico, including collaborations with Field Operations (Allen was a co-founder with James Corner), Allen's approach illustrates the co-existence of infrastructure, architecture, and landscape. Among the most intriguing questions of the evening: "Are architects being eclipsed by landscape architects?" Allen's response: "Architects have a lot to learn from landscape architects, who deal with time as a variable, and look at the life of a site in time, not as a fixed object. We have to start thinking of cities as landscapes." But he also offered a caveat: "Be careful about the fuzzy boundaries and overlaps in expertise and disciplines. You need exchange, but you also need separation...Architects are the last surviving generalists."

Form of iconicity or harmony? The Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe
Courtesy Eisenman Architects

Event: "Architecture Against Itself"—part of the Architecture as Icon series
Presenter: Peter Eisenman, FAIA
Where: City College, 03.02.06

Peter Eisenman, FAIA, architect, philosopher, and periodic enfant terrible of the architectural community, sharply attacked iconicity as damaging to the future of architecture. Icons and iconicity tend to see architecture as heroic discrete objects, rather than as components of a community sustained by comparable scale, form, and materials (see also Charles Jencks' The Iconic Building, reviewed in OCULUS, Winter 2005/06).

Although not always innocent of making icons, witness the series of numbered houses that triggered his career, Eisenman took issue with the work of architects such as Frank Gehry, FAIA, and Santiago Calatrava who have created successive forms that are conceptually the same and serve to broadcast the architect's personal signature. As examples of non-iconicity (reviewer's term), he showed his Berlin Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe and the City of Culture of Galicia in Santiago de Compostela, Spain, now under construction, because both engage an entire community.

Eisenman also questioned what he called the "cult of homogeneity," best exemplified by the new building of the Museum of Modern Art, which exchanges the former taut avant garde attitude to modern art with a venue intended to please visitors of all intellectual and social stripes.

Oil in Newtown Creek contains numerous hazards to worms, fish, birds, humans, and other organisms. Oil products are known to contain a range of human carcinogens.
Basil Seggos, Riverkeeper

Event: Metropolitan Waterfront Alliance Program: "Newtown Creek and its Effects on East River Ecology"
Presenter: Basil Seggos, chief investigator, Riverkeeper
Where: Urban Center, 02.23.06

It's hard to imagine that one of the most polluted waterways in America is on the border between Brooklyn and Queens, and its 3.5 miles are so plagued by oil spills, brownfields, and illegal dumping that it cannot cleanse itself. For more than 50 years, 17 million of gallons of oil (50% more than the EXXON Valdez) have been oozing beneath the industrial, commercial, and residential properties in Greenpoint, Brooklyn. Compounding the situation, when it rains 1/2-inch, the sewer system overflows and 2.7 billion gallons per year pour into Newtown Creek.

This toxic souvenir from the days when there were oil refineries lining Newton Creek prompted Riverkeeper, an organization whose mission is to safeguard the ecological integrity of the Hudson River, its tributaries, and the New York City Watershed, to contact Basil Seggos, an urban planner and environmental lawyer. According to Seggos, "the delicate balance with environmental restoration is figuring out how to guard against gentrification and the kind of redevelopment that destroys community character. We want the beneficiaries of our work, first and foremost, to be those who have suffered the greatest. We must therefore empower communities through our work, not just serve them."

In 2004, Riverkeeper launched a citizen suit against two of the world's largest oil companies and filed a lawsuit against Exxon Mobile for the largest urban oil spill—in the heart of NYC. In May 2004, Riverkeeper filed the lawsuit for violation of the Clean Water Act and Resource Conservation and Recovery Act. At one time, there used to be 1,400 acres of tidal wetlands along the creek. Seggos believes that once again there can be a balance of industry, residential, and recreation along Newtown Creek.

Event: The Making of Modern New York: Puerto Rican Architects and Their Contributions to New York
Presenters: Celeste Umpierre—principal, Celeste Umpierre Architects; Victor M. Morales, AIA—principal, Cityscapes Group; Jonathan Marvel, AIA—principal, Rogers Marvel Architects; Moderator Professor Luis Aponte-Parés—University of Massachusetts
Where: Hunter College, 02.23.06

Approximately 800,000 New Yorkers are Boricuas, or people of Puerto Rican descent, but their presence is not strongly felt in the architecture community. Architecture produced by Boricua architects practicing in New York City ranges from small apartment renovations by Umpierre, to several traditional affordable housing projects by Morales, to widely published rooftop public spaces at 55 Water Street by Rogers Marvel and Ken Smith Landscape Architects. The range of work presented at the lecture, "Puerto Rican Architects and Their Contributions to New York," is so broad that one yearns to find a common thread among the panelists other than their shared ethnicity. Their education, experience, practice, and philosophy well represent the range of all New York design, Boricua or otherwise. Panelists encouraged experienced Boricua designers to connect with those emerging within the field in order to make an impact and establish Boricua culture in architecture.

A rendering of the Museum of Arts & Design by Allied Works Architecture
Courtesy Allied Works Architecture

Event: Two Columbus Circle Design with architect Brad Cloepfil and artist Christine Jetten
Presenters: Brad Cloepfil, AIA, Allied Works Architecture; Christine Jetten; Sponsored by the Museum of Arts and Design
Where: Center for Architecture, 02.13.06

By spring 2008, the marble cladding will be replaced with 22,000 terra cotta panels for the Museum of Arts and Design's new home at Two Columbus Circle. These panels, developed to produce a specific glow and color that will change under different lighting conditions, are a result of a year-long process of experimentation by architect Cloepfil and ceramicist Jetten. The façade will engage and energize the site, transforming an ambiguous structure to a vibrant part of its environment. Terra cotta, chosen because of its material qualities and connotations with craft consistent with the museum's scope, will—according to Cloepfil—"take a site that's been dead and communicating in only one way, and making it communicate in ten ways."

Pollyanna Rhee has done graduate work in education and is a member of the steering committee for Architecture for Humanity New York.

CONVERSATION: Ronald Shiffman—Affecting NOLA

Students experience Katrina's destruction first-hand.
Carrie McKnelly, Pratt Institute School of Architecture

Ronald Shiffman, urban planner and professor at the Pratt Institute, leads a program where students from NY and NJ help with redevelopment efforts in New Orleans. Collaborating with James Dart of NJIT and Deborah Gans at Pratt, students participate with the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now (ACORN) in efforts to aid low to moderate income communities. Along with self-funding efforts by faculty and students, and having recently been awarded a major HUD grant for NJIT and Pratt to work in New Orleans, the two schools are making inroads into the long process of rebuilding. e-O had the opportunity to speak with Ron about the program.

e-O: You and your students recently visited New Orleans. What were some of your impressions?

RS: We were impressed by what has been done and overwhelmed by what remains to be done. We were impressed with the accomplishments of ACORN and others, and worried about how they could engage in a more coordinated effort. We were moved by what people are doing and angered by what government, particularly our Federal government, was not doing. Most importantly as faculty member, both the warmth we were greeted with by the people of NOLA and the energy, commitment, enthusiasm, and creativity of the NJIT and Pratt Students impressed me.

RS: Immediately after the hurricane and the failed federal response occurred I called friends at ACORN to see if there was anything I could do to assist. We share many of the same values and thought it critically important to give low-income residents a voice. The right to return respective of income, race, and place of residence was the unifying principle. We convened a group of architects, planners, and developers to discuss how to address needs of low to moderate income communities, and the African American community in New Orleans.

RHETORICALLY SPEAKING

Circulating around e-mail are the following photographs demonstrating flood control solutions throughout the world. Included is an image of a dilapidated and ineffective retaining wall in the United States. The argument is that the U.S is the richest, most powerful, and technologically advanced nation on the planet, yet because of allegedly corrupt politicians, funding is being directed elsewhere. e-O welcomes your responses: eoculus@aiany.org.

EDITOR'S SOAPBOX—New Visions Fail to Ease WTC Concerns

From the cultural and commercial institutions at the WTC site to urban and park developments reaching into the Lower East Side, Stefan Pryor, president of the Lower Manhattan Development Corporation (LMDC), presented an impressive list of on- and off-site initiatives. Meanwhile, Steven Plate, Director of Priority Capital Projects at the Port Authority of NY and NJ, led the audience through the subterranean master plan, including an elaborate walk-through of Calatrava's Path Station, and discussed the vast matrix of infrastructure and retail expanding under 2/3 the width of Lower Manhattan.

Two things became apparent at the "New York New Visions Public Forum: Update on the Redevelopment of the World Trade Center Site" held at the Center for Architecture February 28. First, much more development has begun in Lower Manhattan than many were aware. The transit station, Fulton Corridor, South Ferry Station, West Street Promenade, and 13 parks have all broken ground as part of the World Trade Center redevelopment plan. Second, focus on physical buildings has dominated the planning process with little regard to street planning and ground-level development.

The Q&A session, led by New York New Visions co-chairs Jordan Gruzen, FAIA, Ernest Hutton, AICP, Assoc. AIA, and Marcie Kesner, AICP, revealed the public's frustration with the neglected focus on ground-level infrastructural developments. Seemingly an afterthought during the presentations, when asked about the development of the streets, Plate responded that progress depends on acquiring more money from the government. When asked about interstitial spaces around the major buildings at the WTC site, both presenters voiced their trust and faith in the creative genius of the architects hired to design the buildings, claiming a benign collaboration with Silverstein Properties, Calatrava, Gehry, Arad, and Foster.

Developing signature buildings on one site does not make a cohesive master plan, especially when there is disregard to the interstitial spaces. Sure, these architects must be concerned about the areas around their buildings, but it is not their responsibility to connect the dots to other buildings on the site. Without funding for streets, nor a vision for connectivity, the most crucial component of a master plan could be eliminated at the WTC site. Now is the time to focus on the urban fabric that will hold the site together, before all of the designs are solidified and flexibility is not an option.

IN THE NEWS

Queens is the New Hollywood

Courtesy Silvercup Studios Silvercup Studios, home of "The Sopranos" and which bills itself as NYC's largest film and television production facility, is now producing Silvercup West, an over two million- square- foot mixed-use development on a six-acre waterfront site just south of the Queensboro Bridge and six blocks west of the main Silvercup facility. The $1 billion "green" complex, designed by Lord Richard Rogers, will consist of eight new soundstages and other production and studio support space, plus 1,000 residential units, 665,000 square feet of office and retail space, a 40,000-square-foot catering hall, 100,000-square-foot cultural facility and public esplanade on the waterfront and plazas.

The Lux Life Comes to Williamsburg

Courtesy Scarano Architects Trendy bars, restaurants, and even the L-train packed with young urbanites illustrate how much Williamsburg, Brooklyn, has grown in popularity as a neighborhood. Now, developer Moses Gross has commissioned Brooklyn-based architect Robert Scarano, AIA, and Canadian interior designer Andrés Escobar to design a four-story brick, metal, and glass building containing 24 luxury condos ranging from 950 to 1,300 square feet starting at $420,000. All apartments will have a 15 foot-high window wall, private gardens, and terraces or balconies.

Renaissance Takes Stamford Waterfront
Developers Antares Investment Partners and Left Bank Development selected the collaborative team of New York-based Cooper, Robertson & Partners and Boston-based Sasaki Associates to design a master plan for the redevelopment an 82-acre site along the underutilized and vacant waterfront of South Stamford, CT. Preliminary concepts will be prepared by late spring. The project, which has yet to be named, calls for a wide mix of residential types and prices, including a significant affordable component supported by neighborhood retail.

New Cancer Facility Aids India
"All of us in the Tata Group are the inheritors of a legacy of creating institutions that make a difference to the world we live in," said Ratan Tata, chairman of Tata Group of the new Tata Medical Centre in Rajarhat in Kolkata, West Bengal, India. Designed by NY-based Cannon Design, whose practice specializes in health facilities worldwide, the medical center will have 150 beds as well as outpatient and ambulatory care facilities for cancer patients on the 10-acre site. The outpatient block will be completed in two phases covering a total area of 42,872 square feet.

Asia Society Spans Globe
As reported by Robin Pogrebin in The New York Times (02.22.06), the Asia Society plans to increase its international presence by investing In $100 million in new projects including a $ 52 million center in Hong Kong expected to open in fall 2007, designed by Tod Williams and Billie Tsien. A $40 million center in Houston by Yoshio Taniguchi is expected to be completed in 2008. According to the Society's chairman, Richard C. Holbrooke, the intent is to change the organization form a New York institution with regional branches to a global institution with New York headquarters. Asia Society India Center is to open later this month in Mumbai.

Graduate Students Research to Honor 9/11
The New York Metropolitan Transportation Council (NYMTC) established the September 11th Memorial Program for Regional Transportation Planning to honor the memory of three employees, and to foster the academic and professional development of graduate students by providing them with opportunities to participate in innovative transportation research and planning projects. Students in the program will be employed for at least 20 hours per week over 12 months in research or professional work outside the classroom. Applications for the 2006-07 academic year are due 03.17.06.

AROUND THE AIA + THE CENTER FOR ARCHITECTURE

AIA 2007 Officer Nominations Now Open
In preparation for its 2007 officer elections, the AIA has opened nominations for first vice president/president-elect, vice president, and secretary. The deadline for declaring candidacy is 04.07.06, 5pm. Interested members should e-mail AIA General Counsel Jay Stephens, Esq. (jstephens@aia.org) or Senior Director of Governance Administration Pam Day (pday@aia.org). Elections will be held in June at the AIA 2006 National Convention and Expo in Los Angeles.

On a local AIA New York Chapter note, George H. Miller, FAIA, is one of two practitioners currently running for the vice president position.

AIA New York Chapter Calls for Nominations to College of Fellows
AIA NY's Fellows Committee is now accepting nominations for membership to the AIA College of Fellows. To be considered, an architect must be an AIA member in good standing for at least ten years. Advancement to the AIA College of Fellows is granted for significant achievement in design, preservation, education, literature, and service.

If you would like to propose any eligible member, including yourself, for consideration, please send the candidate's resume and ten photographs, or other applicable documentation, to Chair, Fellows Committee, AIA New York Chapter, 536 LaGuardia Place, New York, NY 10012. All information must be received by 04.10.06. Portfolios are to be submitted to the National AIA Fellows Jury in October for consideration. Please view the current AIA Fellows guidelines online. For questions regarding the Chapter's fellowship process, contact Stephen Suggs, Hon. AIA NYS: 212.358.6119 or suggs@aiany.org.

AIA New York Chapter Calls for Board and Elective Committee Nominations
AIA NY seeks candidates interested in guiding the organization in positions on the Chapter Board, the Chapter elective committees, and on the Center for Architecture Foundation Board of Trustees.

Those who wish to be considered for a position should send a resume with a cover letter stating what ideas and experience he/she would bring to the position, and why there is a desire to serve. All correspondence should be addressed to the Chair, 2006 Nominating Committee, and may be mailed (536 LaGuardia Pl., New York, NY 10012), faxed (212.696.5022) or e-mailed (suggs@aiany.org). The deadline for receipt of recommendations is 03.09.06.

NCARB Steps Closer to ARE Retiming
In mid-February, the NCARB Board of Directors released a statement acknowledging "there is no evidence of increased risk to the health, safety, and welfare of the public if a candidate with an accredited degree and who is actively engaged in IDP is permitted to begin to start taking divisions of the ARE." Though this statement alone will alter nothing for the individual intern, it could prompt state boards to review their requirements regarding ARE timing. Exact requirements vary by state, but generally dictate that ARE candidates must complete IDP training prior to sitting for the exam. NCARB is currently recommending that interns be eligible to take at least six divisions of the ARE after completion of roughly one-third of the entire IDP program (250 training units). NCARB's entire statement can be viewed online.

Advocating that the entire ARE be offered concurrent with IDP, the AIA plans to distribute its own educational materials on this topic in early-March.

Negotiation: Getting to Win-Win
By Leon Geoxavier, Project Associate—RAND Engineering & Architecture, PC

Successful negotiation is "the development of enticing options that meet the critical interests of disparate parties in a special way," according to Ava Abramowitz, Esq., Hon. AIA. Here is the breakdown of the Emerging NY Architects' second Architects-in-Training course, "To Be or Not to Be: The Art of Negotiation":

For more, check out Architect's Essentials of Contract Negotiation, by Abramowitz; part of the Architect's Essentials of Professional Practice Series books, published by John Wiley & Sons. For more information on the Architects-In-Training Courses, hosted by the Emerging NY Architects at the Center for Architecture and sponsored by John Wiley & Sons, Inc., click here.

OF INTEREST

If you've ever dreamed of attaining celebrity status, these two recent announcements might be of interest to you:

Want to be on HGTV?
Home and Garden Television (HGTV) is seeking renovated homes in New York to feature on the new series called "Generation Renovation." The producers are looking for homeowners who will open their doors and their personalities to tell their renovation stories. If you have renovated your home within the last five years and think that it is inspiring and unique to your lifestyle yet retains aspects of the home's history, contact Kristina Tabor, ktabor@highnoonentertainment.com. "Before" photos are important and you must be willing to commit to one day of filming. Crews will be in the NY area 03.16-19.06.

ABC'S "The Bachelor" seeks single male architect
Following the doctor, heir, and athlete, ABC is interested in finding an architect for the next season of "The Bachelor." Casting producers are searching for a 27-33-year-old single, handsome, successful, charismatic guy who would like to be whisked away to an exotic, tropical location to date 25 beautiful girls. If you are interested, submit your name, age, occupation, location, contact information, photo, and a short blurb about yourself to Danielle Barba, dbarbacasting@yahoo.com.

NAMES IN THE NEWS

Celebration at the RIBA Royal Gold Medal and Fellowships Dinner. (l-r): Bea Sennewald, AIA London, Susan Chin, FAIA, Bernard Tschumi, AIA, RIBA International Fellow, Toyo Ito, Hon. FAIA, 2006 Royal Gold Medalist, Jack Pringle, RIBA

AIA New York Chapter congratulates its 14 members who have been elevated to the College of Fellows: Mario Gandelsonas, FAIA; Mark E. Ginsberg, FAIA; Lisa Gould, FAIA; Robin Guenther, FAIA; Emma E. Macari, FAIA; Michael A. Manfredi, FAIA; Peter P. Marino, FAIA; Zack McKown, FAIA; Jean Parker Phifer, FAIA; David Piscuskas, FAIA; Raymond Plumey, FAIA; Abby Patricia Suckle, FAIA; James von Klemperer, FAIA; and Roberta D. Washington, FAIA. AIA NY is now accepting recommendations for the AIA College of Fellows. See Around the AIA + Center for Architecture for more information.

Toyo Ito, Hon. FAIA, received the 2006 Royal Institute of British Architects Gold Medal on February 15, for making "so many breakthroughs in…an extraordinary range of investigations into urbanism, organizational theory, experimental structure, robotics, layered skins, electrics, electronics, surfaces, materiality, and the study of process." Jack Pringle, RIBA President, noted, "Toyo Ito has been an inspiration for generations of architects worldwide since his work started to receive international acclaim in the 1970s. For thirty years he has been a leading figure in architecture..." This was the RIBA's first year to name six International Fellows—Shigeru Ban, Peter Eisenman, FAIA, Massimiliano Fuksas, Intl. Assoc. AIA, Wolf Prix, Bernard Tschumi, AIA, and Rafael Vinoly, FAIA. They also named 16 Honorary Fellows, who have made a major contribution in design. 2005 AIA NY Chapter President Susan Chin, FAIA, represented the AIA.

AIA NY and Center for Architecture Foundation have announced their 2006 Heritage Ball honorees: 2006 President's Award conferee Walter A. Hunt Jr., FAIA; 2006 Center for Architecture Award winner David Burney, AIA; 2006 AIA New York Chapter Award recipient Richard L. Tomasetti, PE, Hon. AIA; and 2006 Foundation Award winner Anne Rascón on behalf of Non-traditional Employment for Women. The Heritage Ball will take place 6:00pm Thursday, 10.12.06 at Chelsea Piers. Save the date!

BOMA/NY recently awarded 14 "Pinnacle Awards" for real estate excellence. Local companies recognized include: Boston Properties; CB Richard Ellis; The Durst Organization; 501 Seventh Avenue Associates; Istithmar Building Park Avenue; Jones Lang LaSalle; Macklowe Management Co.; Monday Properties; PPF OFF 500 Park Avenue; Royal Realty; Tishman Speyer Properties; TST 885 Third; and the United States Postal Service… New York Institute of Technology has been selected by the U.S. Department of Energy to compete in the 2007 Solar Decathlon….

Several Architectural Record editors have departed the magazine for positions at other publications: Princeton Architectural Press announces the addition of Sara Hart as Senior Technical Editor; Randi Greenberg has joined Metropolis as web editor; and Deborah Snoonian is now senior editor at Plenty Magazine… Cornell University Architect Peter Karp, AIA, RIBA, has expressed his intent to retire later this year

NEW DEADLINES

New York Construction seeks nominations for its annual Top Projects ranking, which will include the largest projects in NY, NJ, and CT, started or completed between July 2005 and April 2006. For a nomination form, contact Tom Stabile at McGraw-Hill, tom_stabile@mcgraw-hill.com.

George Little Management and Bernhardt Design call for design submissions in the categories of furniture, seating, carpet and flooring, lighting, outdoor furniture, materials, wall coverings, accessories, textiles, and kitchen and bath products. Selected designers will win a spot to display their prototypes at the new International Contemporary Furniture Fair Studio in May.

The Design-Build Institute of America calls for presentation proposals for its 2006 Healthcare Conference to be held in Long Beach California in September. Proposals should deal with the topics of best practices/lessons learned, healthcare trends and regulatory issues, and design-build contracting methodology.

The ArchVoices Essay Competition, which promotes critical thinking and writing about architectural education and training, asks students and unlicensed professionals to develop a mission statement for a "new mode" of practice.

The National Foundation for Art in Public Buildings, Norway, invites individuals to participate in an international ideas competition for a memorial site honoring tsunami victims, which will also act as a space of mourning and contemplation for visitors.

DEADLINES

Oculus 2006 Editorial Calendar
Ideas/Submissions Deadlines (projects can be anywhere, but architects must be New York-based). Contact: Kristen Richards kristen@ArchNewsNow.com.
March 20: Summer: Architecture as Public Policy
June 20: Fall: Infrastructure New York
September 20: Winter: The Business of Practice

The 2006 AIA New York Chapter Design Awards have a revised schedule:
More information is available on the website
April 14: Entry forms and fees due
May 5: Submission deadline
May 8: Public symposium and award announcements
June 28: Luncheon honoring Design Awards recipients
June 29: Exhibition opens at the Center for Architecture

ON VIEW

At the Center for Architecture, 536 LaGuardia Place:

About Town: Exhibit Announcements

A members' exhibition of CIMA, the Congress of International Modern Architects, which will culminate in a silent auction on April 24 to benefit the non-profit group.

About Town: Ongoing and Upcoming

Through 04.19.06
Bad Design Darts and Other Methods for Community-Led Improvement/The Municipal Art Society

Through 05.05.05
Prairie Skyscraper: Frank Lloyd Wright's Price Tower/Yale School of Architecture; 80 York Street, New Haven

eCALENDAR
eCalendar now includes the information that used to be found in eOculus' Around the Center, Around the AIA, and Around Town sections. Click the above link to go to to eCalendar on the Web.

AIA NEW YORK CHAPTER MEMBERSHIP REPORT: FEBRUARY, 2006

AIA New York Chapter Membership Report: February, 2006
Verification forms for the 2006 AIA New York Chapter Directory/Center for Architecture Handbook have been mailed to member architecture firms and corporate members. Corporate members should mark up their forms and return them to Dawson Publications by March 8. Architecture firms can update their information on-line at: www.aiany.org/firms; the deadline is March 24. Contact Suzanne Mecs, smecs@aiany.org, 212.358.6115 if you have any questions.

Reminder: all Architect and Associate members who have not renewed by March 31, 2006 will be lapsed and will miss member benefits until they are reactivated. Please go to: www.aia.org and click on "renew my membership" if you have not already submitted a payment this year. If you have questions, please contact, Suzanne Mecs, smecs@aiany.org or the national membership department at 800.242.3837.

New Architect Members: Janet Olmsted Cross, AIA, Cross Architecture | Melissa L. Delvecchio, AIA | Mark J. Krayenhoff Van de Leur, AIA, John M. Reimnitz Architect P. C. | John P. Murray, AIA, Caseworks Architect, PLLC | Peter Ogman, AIA, Gwathmey Siegel & Associates Architects, llc | Nardone Tommaso, AIA, Hazen and Sawyer, P.C. | Gerald L. Valgora, AIA | Mark A. Yoes, AIA, Weisz + Yoes Architecture | John Zafiropoulos, AIA, New York City Transit | Bradley Zizmor, AIA, A+I Design Corporation

New Associate Members: Kellen E. Givda, Assoc. AIA, Trabascia Rojatti Architects Inc. | Jane E. Gooding, Assoc. AIA, HLW International, LLP | Carisima A. Koenig, Assoc. AIA, Einhorn Yaffee Prescott, Architecture & Engineering | Anahita S. Kopet, Assoc. AIA, Anthony C. Baker, Architects & Planners, P.C. | Basil Lee, Assoc. AIA, Skidmore Owings & Merrill LLP | Robert A. Litherland, Assoc. AIA, R.M.Kliment & Frances Halsband Architects | Mara O. Marcu, Assoc. AIA, BKSK Architects, LLP | Dermal L. McCrear, Assoc. AIA, Andre Tchelistcheff Architect | John K. Palmer, Assoc. AIA, Platt Byard Dovell Architects | Jing Su, Assoc. AIA, Gruzen Samton, LLP | Dennis J. Vermeulen, Assoc. AIA, Flank, Inc.

Congratulations to these longtime members who have upgraded to Emeritus Status: Saul Stewart Anton, AIA, Saul Stewart Anton | William James Jacquette, Jr., AIA, Jacquette William Architect | Stanley B. Kalb, AIA, Bell Atlantic Corp. | G. Daniel Perry, AIA, Mygatt/Perry Architects | William Todd Springer, AIA, Springer and Ting Architects

Individuals recently upgraded to Architect Membership: Gregory George Aiello, AIA, Gerald M. Daub, P.C. | Emily Eastman Kotsaftis, AIA, PB Team/DattnerArchitects | Frank Pizzurro, Jr., AIA, Frank Pizzurro Jr. Arch Design/Consulting | Timothy H. Rasic, AIA, Janko Rasic Associates, Architects | Karen Solomon, AIA, Gensler | Andrew T. Wojnoonski, AIA, GWK Architects

New Center for Architecture Professional Members: Abigail Carlen, FXFOWLE ARCHITECTS PC | Aaron Slodounik, FXFOWLE ARCHITECTS, PC

Reinstating Members: Anthony C. Brunson, Assoc. AIA, New York State Off of Gen Services | Serge P. Appel, AIA, Cook + Fox Architects, LLP | Israel Berger, AIA, Israel Berger & Associates | Michael Stuart Canter, AIA, Michael S. Canter Architecture & Decorating | Christopher R. Eidt, AIA, Marpillero Pollak Architects | Mark Elman, AIA, Fifield Piaker Elman Architects PC | Chien Dao Glasgow, AIA, CHIEN DAO STUDIO | Pastor Medina, AIA | Michael Monsky, AIA, M. D. Monsky Architect | Harutaka Oribe, AIA, Gwathmey Siegel & Associates Architects, llc | Dona Orozova, AIA, Cook & Fox Architects, LLP | Margery H. Perlmutter, AIA | Shiming Tam, AIA, Shiming Tam Architect, PC | Ronald Jacob Zeytoonian, AIA, Greenberg Farrow Architecture

Members who transferred into the AIA New York Chapter: Brad R. Blythe, AIA, Robert Towell & Associates | Robert W. Browne, AIA, New York City Housing Authority | Lee R. Hagen, AIA, Callison Architecture, Inc. | Dennis K. King, AIA | Faye Ann Premer, AIA

Members who have transferred to another AIA Chapter: Good luck in your new locale: Lynn Michaels, Assoc. AIA, Morgan Stanley | Philip Babb, AIA, Philip Babb, Architect | Alicia Diaz-de-Leon, AIA, WJE Engineers & Architects, PC | Robert G. Furno, AIA, Wendy Evens Joseph Architecture | Cristiana L. Georgescu, AIA, FRCH Design Worldwide | Gail Erway Gerard, AIA, Gail Erway Gerard Architect | John Katimaris, AIA, Katimaris & Associates Design Consult. Inc. | John D. Seppanen, AIA, Elness Swenson Graham Architects, Inc. | Albert Murray Zulps, AIA, Skanska USA Building Inc.

The Chapter mourns the passing of: Edward C. Hambrecht, AIA, FRCH Design Worldwide | Armand Philip Bartos, FAIA, Robert Rhodes & Associates, Architects

Correction: In the 10.31.05 e-Oculus report, we listed Robert A. Papocchia, AIA as a newly licensed architect; we should have reported that he was newly upgraded to an Architect level membership in the AIA.

CLASSIFIEDS

Would you like to get your message featured in eOCULUS? Spotlight your firm, product, or event as a marquee sponsor of eOCULUS, the electronic newsletter of the AIA New York Chapter. Sponsors receive a banner ad prominently placed above the table of contents. Your message will reach over 5,000 architects and decision-makers in the building industry via e-mail every two weeks (and countless others who access the newsletter directly from the AIA New York web site). For more information about sponsorship, contact Dan Hillman: dhillman@aiany.org or 212.358.6114.

MARKETING COORDINATOR
GOSHOW ARCHITECTS, a mid-sized architectural firm specializing in educational and federal contracts, seeks a Marketing Coordinator to research leads, prepare proposals, foster new and existing client relationships, coordinate events and photoshoots, and maintain and update all marketing materials. Must be highly-organized, have strong writing skills and a good design eye as well as knowledge of InDesign, Photoshop, and Microsoft Office. Bachelor's degree and prior architectural marketing experience essential. Send resume, sample materials, and salary requirement to mds@goshow.com

Callison is currently seeking talented individuals for a Project Architect position in our New York office. This individual will work semi-independently in a project office environment with frequent communication to project teams in Seattle. Responsibilities for this position include the following: prepare design concepts and translate them into workable construction systems; maintain quality technical and design control; maintain records to document phases of client/architect/consultant/contractor relationship and activities.

Must have experience and working knowledge of retail, mixed-use and commercial projects; be proficient with CADD systems, Photoshop proficiency, electronic documentation and we-based project management processes. This position requires a Bachelor's or Master's degree in Architecture, Interior Design, or related field. Licensure preferred, and minimum of 8-10 years experience.

To apply, send application materials to Callison Architecture, 1420 Fifth Avenue, Suite 2400, Seattle, WA 98101 or by email to employment@callison.com.

MARKETING COORDINATOR
Architecture Research Office seeks qualified individual to coordinate marketing activities. Responsibilities include generation of proposals, production and management of promotional material including brochures and qualifications packages, response to media requests and market research. The ideal candidate will have excellent verbal, written and graphic skills. Experience working with design professionals preferred (2-3 years). Proficiency with Word, Quark, InDesign and Illustrator is essential. Please email resume and cover letter, with Marketing Coordinator in the subject line: resumes@aro.net.

NBBJ designs and develops projects in various market sectors such as healthcare and Commercial with offices all over the world. As we expand, we pursue the most talented staff to gain and maintain recognition for outstanding design quality.

Current New York opportunities:
Intermediate Technical Architect
Project Architect (Healthcare)
Project Architect (Corporate/Commercial)
Senior Interior Designer (Healthcare)
Senior Medical Planner
Senior Project Manager

New York City Economic Development Corporation ("NYCEDC") is seeking proposals for the provision of full-service urban design and planning services for various projects upon assignment. Services to be provided include urban design, site planning, graphics and renderings, existing conditions analysis, infrastructure analysis, market analysis and public outreach.

Detailed submission guidelines and requirements are outlined in the RFP, available as of Monday, March 6, 2006. RFP is available for in-person pick-up between 9:30 a.m. and 4:30 p.m., Monday through Friday, from NYCEDC, 110 William Street, 6th floor, New York, NY (between Fulton & John streets). For more information, and to request or download a copy of the RFP, call (212) 312-3969 or visit www.nycedc.com/RFP. RESPONSES ARE DUE NO LATER THAN 4:00 p.m. on Thursday, March 30, 2006. Please submit five sets of your proposal to: NYCEDC, 110 William Street, 6th Floor, New York, NY 10038, Attention: Dominic Domingo, Agency Chief Contracting Officer.

The AIA Contract Documents program
provides proven, consistent, and effective standard form contracts to the building design and construction industry. The program directs its efforts toward improving existing documents and developing new ones. In late 2005 the AIA introduced six new contract documents. These included two new agreements and four new scopes of service documents for use with owner-architect agreements.

Paper Documents
The AIA New York Chapter is a full-service distributor of AIA Contract Documents, which are the most widely used standard form contracts in the building industry. These comprehensive contracts have been prepared by the AIA with the input of contractors, attorneys, architects, and engineers. Typically, industry professionals and home/property owners use these documents to support agreements relating to design and construction services. Anyone may purchase and use the AIA Contract Documents. AIA Members receive a 10% discount. For a full list and order form, see www.aiany.org/documents/list.pdf or call 212.358.6113 with your fax number.

Electronic Format Documents
The new AIA Contract Documents software is completely redesigned, based on Microsoft Word, and is easier to use than Word itself. Enter project and document information once and reuse it automatically. E-mail documents as Word or PDF attachments. Print "clean copy" final documents with all changes captured in a special report. Go to www.aia.org/docssoftwaretraining for Contract Documents Software Training and www.aia.org/docs_purchase to download the AIA Contract Documents software.

If you already have the software, Version 2.0.5: Software Update is now available.

AIA New York Chapter's HOME page
If you have any comments, questions or concerns regarding eOculus or would like to know about advertising in or sponsorship of eOculus, or would like to be included in our mailing list please write to us at dhillman@aiany.org.

CONTINUATIONS

At that meeting we agreed to hold a conference in Baton Rouge to discuss how to equitably and safely rebuild New Orleans. That conference was sponsored by ACORN, with Cornell, Louisiana State University, and Pratt acting as cosponsors. About 100 local residents, many whom were displaced, attended that meeting as well as about 100 architects, planners, environmental justice advocates, academics, and developers. The meeting was held over 2.5 days and web cast to 35 locations around the country where residents in the Diaspora could participate and observe the discussions.

As a result of the conference, NJIT, Cornel, LSU, CCNY, and Pratt decided to respond to an RFP from HUD to provide technical assistance to community based organizations in New Orleans. For technical reasons Pratt and NJIT partnered with ACORN Housing to address needs in New Orleans East, and Cornell and LSU partnered with ACORN Organizing to address needs in the Lower Ninth Ward.

RS: Because of groups like ACORN and others such as the Greater New Orleans Fair Housing Action Center (GNOFHAC), the People's Institute, the African American Forum on Race and Regionalism, the Center for Social Inclusion (CSI), the Poverty and Race Research Action Council, and the Structural Racism Caucus, the needs of New Orleans low-income and African American populations must be addressed. The specter of a homegrown policy of ethnic and racial cleansing still looms over much of the city. Unfortunately, many of those helping to perpetuate that policy are in the architectural and planning professions who are not using their creative and technical abilities to simultaneously address the social, economic, and environmental problems.

e-O: What part can New York City students play in the redevelopment of New Orleans?

RS: Our students are working with the reality on the ground. They see how buildings can be rehabilitated to withstand future floods, to provide places of safe refuge. They develop handbooks on how to safely rehabilitate and clean out buildings, remove mold, and what materials are both environmentally safe and water resistant. They look at landscaping and site planning that contribute to solving the problem of flooding. They look at open spaces to convert them to drain and retain water by mimicking wetland actions, and to redesign streetscapes, making them more permeable and porous. They work to retain and capture runoffs and to better manage storm water. They explore plants and materials indigenous to areas with greater resistance to storms. They explore ways of providing interim and permanent housing financed so people can afford to return. In essence, they work on alternatives to rebuild every neighborhood, to minimize costs and maximize the safety and investment of the residents.

e-O: What can ACORN learn from architecture students? And what can we learn from ACORN and the people of NOLA?

RS: We can learn quite a bit about design from the synergy that comes from working with advocates like ACORN and with the people themselves. We are engaged in a "community design" effort in New Orleans, and too often community design is perceived as designing what "people" want. In this case however, architects, planners, and people communicate in a mutual educational process. Underlying our work with ACORN is the concept of community-based planning and design, and recognition of the diversity and pluralism that makes up our communities. It recognizes that cities like New Orleans and communities like the Lower Ninth and New Orleans East are complex, made up of people with different cultural, ethnic, and religious backgrounds. Add those whom have and exercise power to those whom are excluded from decision-making processes and you have a picture of New Orleans. Planning and design approaches should recognize this diversity and build upon it. Our students spend many hours volunteering and receive a more profound educational experience in return.

TABLE OF CONTENTS

03.07.06

REPORTS FROM THE FIELD

CONVERSATION: Ronald Shiffman—Affecting NOLA

RHETORICALLY SPEAKING

EDITOR'S SOAPBOX—New Visions Fail to Ease WTC Concerns

IN THE NEWS

AROUND THE AIA + THE CENTER FOR ARCHITECTURE

OF INTEREST

NAMES IN THE NEWS

NEW DEADLINES

DEADLINES

ON VIEW

At the Center for Architecture, 536 LaGuardia Place:

Architecture's 53rd Annual P/A Awards

The Fashion of Architecture
CONSTRUCTING the Architecture of Fashion

About Town: Exhibit Announcements

About Town: Ongoing and Upcoming

AIA NEW YORK CHAPTER MEMBERSHIP REPORT: FEBRUARY, 2006

CLASSIFIEDS

CONTINUATIONS

TABLE OF CONTENTS

03.07.06

REPORTS FROM THE FIELD

CONVERSATION: Ronald Shiffman—Affecting NOLA

RHETORICALLY SPEAKING

EDITOR'S SOAPBOX—New Visions Fail to Ease WTC Concerns

IN THE NEWS

AROUND THE AIA + THE CENTER FOR ARCHITECTURE

OF INTEREST

NAMES IN THE NEWS

NEW DEADLINES

DEADLINES

ON VIEW

At the Center for Architecture, 536 LaGuardia Place:

Architecture's 53rd Annual P/A Awards

The Fashion of Architecture CONSTRUCTING the Architecture of Fashion

About Town: Exhibit Announcements

About Town: Ongoing and Upcoming

AIA NEW YORK CHAPTER MEMBERSHIP REPORT: FEBRUARY, 2006

CLASSIFIEDS

CONTINUATIONS

The Fashion of Architecture
CONSTRUCTING the Architecture of Fashion