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12.18.07
This is the last issue of 2007. As always, I am grateful to all of you architecture/design/planning enthusiasts for reading, contributing, and suggesting improvements for the publication. I look forward to hearing more from you in 2008. Happy New Year, and e-O will return January 8.
- Jessica Sheridan, Assoc. AIA, LEED AP
Event: Hudson Yards Designers Forum
Location: Cooper Union Great Hall, 12.03.07
Speakers: Rosalie Genevro (introduction) — Architectural League of New York
Representing Extell Development: Steven Holl, AIA, and Chris McVoy — Steven Holl Architects
Representing Related Companies/Goldman Sachs: Robert A.M. Stern, FAIA — Dean, Yale School of Architecture; Bernardo Fort-Brescia, FAIA — Arquitectonica; A. Eugene Kohn, FAIA, RIBA, JIA — Kohn Pedersen Fox; and Claire Weisz, AIA — weisz + yoes architecture
Representing Durst Organization/Vornado Realty: Daniel Kaplan, AIA — FXFowle Architects; Margie Ruddick, ASLA — Wallace Roberts & Todd
Representing Brookfield Properties: James Corner, ASLA — Field Operations; Gary Haney, AIA — Skidmore, Owings & Merrill
Representing Tishman Speyer: Francisco González Pulido — Murphy/Jahn Architects
Moderator: Rick Bell, FAIA — AIANY Executive Director
Organizers: AIANY; American Society of Landscape Architects (ASLA); Architectural League of New York; Design Trust for Public Space; Fine Arts Federation; Friends of the High Line; Irwin S. Chanin School of Architecture, Cooper Union for the Advancement of Science and Art; Metropolitan Waterfront Alliance; Municipal Art Society; New York New Visions; Regional Plan Association
West Side Rail Yards.
Courtesy Design Trust for Public Space
The stakes are high and the pressure is considerable. So said Architectural League of New York Executive Director Rosalie Genevro put the West Side Rail Yards in context: at 26 acres, it’s bigger than Ground Zero or Rockefeller Plaza. If one of the five teams can meet the Metropolitan Transit Authority’s (MTA) straightforward but difficult conditions — maximize revenue and minimize interference with train service — the rail yard will become the fulcrum of a Hudson Yards district spanning 30th to 42nd Streets west of 10th Avenue, Manhattan’s largest new neighborhood since Battery Park City.
A six-block area from 30th to 33rd Streets between 10th and 12th Avenues, the rail yard requires a massive platform above the train storage area. All five plans include park space, a cultural center, a school, some 80/20 affordable rentals, and assorted sustainability features, but only one appeared to dramatically yet economically acknowledge the scope of the structural challenge.
Steven Holl, AIA, defended a departure from the Hudson Yards Development Corporation’s guidelines: his platform will hold substantial green space (19.5 acres to the guidelines’ 12), and a cable suspension system resembling bridge technology will support the platform, obviating disruptive column construction. Holl’s towers, all positioned on terra firma outside the platform, would include a triple skyscraper connected both at ground level and at a high-level “sky lobby,” plus six “sun slice” residential buildings whose profiles maximize daylight year-round; he would also limit a major 33rd Street building to 10 stories, providing an open plain for his sculpture garden. His proposal has the advantages of clear differentiation from the others and an efficient construction plan, but two potential disadvantages: the developer Extell is the consensus dark-horse candidate, and Holl improvises furthest beyond the guidelines. Whether the
MTA will view that independence as a recommendation, as other clients have done, is a wild
card.
The Brookfield Properties team combines an array of talent — Skidmore, Owings & Merrill, Thomas Phifer & Partners, SHoP, Diller Scofidio + Renfro, SANAA, Handel Architects, and Field Operations — with different grounds for departing from the RFP. Fields Ops’ James Corner, ASLA, advocated a four-park plan that preserves the local street grid rather than creating an enclave around a central linear park. It would also overcome the platform’s formidable 26-foot height differential by setting back the SHoP residential towers to allow for a sloping southwestern park (Hudson Green) beginning at grade, connected to a promenade extending along 30th Street beneath the High Line.
If proposals that have already secured a major corporate tenant have a head start, the selection may boil down to which quality deserves strongest emphasis: glamour vs. sustainability vs. restraint. The Kohn Pedersen Fox/Arquitectonica/Robert A.M. Stern Architects/Elkus Manfredi/West 8 Urban Design & Landscape Architecture/weisz + yoes architecture plan for Related and Goldman Sachs includes NewsCorp as the anchor of divergent designs well-suited to high-profile media events. Durst/Vornado’s plan by FXFowle Architects and Pelli Clarke Pelli Architects goes all-out on green technologies and brings in another media tenant already associated with green construction, Condé Nast. This plan clips off the High Line’s eastern spur but adds another aerial walkway, the “Skyline,” wending through ample parkland, plus a subterranean “people-mover” (think mini AirTrain, not conveyor-belt walkways) connecting to the Penn/Moynihan Station
rail hub. Tishman Speyer’s relatively classicist plan by Helmut Jahn, FAIA, (major tenant, Morgan Stanley) with PWP Landscape Architecture and master planners Cooper, Robertson & Partners emphasizes a terraced outdoor amphitheater, the “Forum,” over specific building features. Murphy/Jahn Architects’ Francisco González Pulido described the four towers’ relative formlessness: “By the time these buildings are designed, who knows what they’re going to look
like?”
The MTA invited public input online and plans to make a choice in early 2008. The media is already picking favorites, estimating the volatile balance among the developers’ financial projections (top-secret), the community’s most pressing needs (particularly affordable housing, addressed here dutifully but not energetically), the political variables, and the business imperatives that one hopes will not preclude the risk-taking ideas that the overflow crowd came to see such renowned talents deliver.
Bill Millard is a freelance writer and editor whose work has appeared in OCULUS, Icon, Content, The Architect’s Newspaper, and other publications.
Event: AIANY 2008 Inaugural
Location: Center for Architecture, 12.04.07
Champion: Studio Daniel Libeskind
Supporters: Gensler; HumanScale; James McCullar & Associates
Friends: Forest City Ratner Companies; Hugo S. Subotovsky Architects; Skidmore, Owings & Merrill; Trespa North America; Universal Contracting
Contributors: Anchin, Block & Anchin; Cosentini Associates; FXFowle Architects; Levien & Company; Mancini Duffy; Michael Zenreich, AIA; New York Building Congress; Perkins Eastman; Plaza Construction; Robert A.M. Stern Architects; Shen Milsom & Wilke; Skanska USA Building; Strategic Development & Construction; Swanke Hayden Connell Architects; Thornton-Tomasetti; Weildlinger Associates
As she passed the presidential gavel to 2008 AIANY President James McCullar, FAIA, at the AIANY 2008 Innaugural, 2007 AIANY President Joan Blumenfeld, FAIA, IIDA, LEED AP outlined the many accomplishments that she was “most proud of having been a part of ” with the Chapter and the Center for Architecture. These included continuing to take strong advocacy positions on many topics, such as Columbia’s expansion plans, Moynihan Station, Governors Island, and Coney Island, among others.
In keeping with Blumenfeld’s theme for the year, “Architecture Inside/Out,” she reported that a presentation to the NYC Commissioners and Project Managers about launching an Interior Design Excellence program for city projects has made headway — some antiquated standards have already been revised.
On a bright note, she pointed out that AIANY Chapter membership has grown to over 4,000 and new benefits and initiatives were added during the year. On a sad note, Blumenfeld mourned the passing of “a number of good friends” in 2007: Giorgio Cavaglieri, FAIA; Greg Clement, FAIA; Margaret Helfand, FAIA; Denis Kuhn, FAIA; David Mandl, AIA; and Martin Raab, FAIA.
The Chapter’s AIA150 Champion Mark Ginsberg, FAIA, then reported on the highly successful Sesquicentennial celebrations. He highlighted the New Housing New York Legacy Project and the Public Information Exchange (PIE) installation, and noted that the AIA New York State Convention’s first foray to NYC was a great success. “We hope that the momentum continues; particularly our commitment to improve our City and profession,” he said. With that, he urged members to support a package of Chapter-sponsored zoning changes now going through the ULURP process.
Incoming President James McCullar, FAIA, introduced his theme for 2008: “Architecture: Designs for Living.” He explained it as a “response to Mayor Bloomberg’s initiatives for PlaNYC 2030, which requires new sustainable typologies from infrastructure to housing… We are part of an emerging global community — from our PlaNYC neighborhoods to the Northeast Mega-region and urban centers around the world. Our theme supports building relationships for a sustainable global future.”
The evening’s keynote speaker, 2008 AIA National President Marshall Purnell, FAIA, design principal at Washington, DC-based Devrouax+Purnell Architects and Planners, applauded the Chapter’s leadership role in the AIA’s 150th anniversary celebrations: “AIANY truly honored the profession’s past…. The Center for Architecture is a mirror of what the future of the profession could and should look like — a future where design professionals, elected leaders, and the public chart a better future for everyone through the power of design.” Purnell stressed building bridges both within the AIA and as part of an aggressive commitment to public outreach: “We must pursue it not simply as a moral, but a professional imperative.”
The Inaugural followed a moving celebration of the life and work of 2001 Chapter President Margaret Helfand, FAIA, at which it was announced that a generous gift in her honor by her client David Whitcomb and husband Jon Turner would lead to a re-naming of one of the galleries at the Center for Architecture. More about the memorial and memorial matching fund will follow in an upcoming issue of e-Oculus.
Event: Berlin-New York Dialogues: City of Water: A Documentary and Panel Discussion about the Future of New York’s Waterfront
Location: Center for Architecture, 11.30.07
Speakers: Majora Carter — Executive Director, Sustainable South Bronx; Carter Craft — Director of Programs and Policy, Metropolitan Waterfront Alliance; Greg O’Connell — Manager, Pier 41 Associates; William Kornblum — Sociology Professor, CUNY Graduate Center
Moderator: Daniel Wiley — Community Coordinator for Congresswoman Nydia Velazquez
Organizers: AIANY; Metropolitan Waterfront Alliance; Municipal Art Society
Sponsors: Underwriters: Digital Plus; RFR Holding; Patrons: Eurohypo; IULA-International Urban Landscape Award; Lead Sponsors: Carnegie Corporation of New York; Tishman Speyer Properties; Supporter: The German Consulate General New York; Friends: Aucapina Cabinetry; bartcoLighting; Getmapping; Osram Sylvania. This program is supported, in part, by public funds from the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs
Courtesy of the Metropolitan Waterfront Alliance
We are in an era where NYC’s waterfront is seemingly up for grabs. The maritime industrial trade that literally pushed and pulled the city to prominence has been relegated to back-of-the-house status and sent to New Jersey, leaving the shoreline infrastructure abandoned and prime for redevelopment. With development already underway along the Long Island City-Greenpoint-Williamsburg stretch of the East River, advocates including U.S. Representative Nydia Velazquez are expressing concern that the public’s basic right of access to the water is being ignored by private developers. Many dismiss Deputy Mayor Daniel Doctoroff’s vision of an emerald necklace as a “Disneyification” of the waterfront, where a promenade in the shadow of a 40-story building produces a sterilized environment virtually eliminating the public’s physical interaction with the water. As a counterpoint, the town dock often becomes a vibrant nexus of community interaction
and does what the ever-present promenade does not — allows people to get into the water
(gasp!).
These issues, among others, are captured in City of Water, a documentary produced by the Metropolitan Waterfront Alliance. The three opening scenes of the film set the stage: first, a stoic workhorse of the harbor, a McAllister tugboat pushes a gravel barge in the shadow of the Queensboro Bridge; next, Doctoroff appears promoting the current redevelopment of NYC’s waterfront at an historic rate; and finally, Velazquez counters, stressing the need for public access and use of the waterfront.
A proposal from the Sustainable South Bronx (SSBx) for the Oak Point Maritime Eco-Industrial Park seeks to appease all three players in waterfront development. Majora Carter, executive director of SSBx, describes the project as an opportunity to create living-wage jobs, promote a clean-tech economy, and utilize inter-modal transportation opportunities (barge and rail). Sadly, the city currently has other plans for the Oak Point site — a 2,000-inmate jail.
The slow burn of the city’s last major redevelopment of the waterfront — Robert Moses’ asphalt necklace known as the West Side Highway and the FDR Drive — has prompted waterfront advocates to speak with a louder voice this time around. Unfortunately, the odd man out in this debate seems to be those hoping to enhance the working waterfront in the city, prompting fears that the workhorse that got us here may soon be tossed overboard.
Max Driscoll is a junior architect at Croxton Collaborative Architects and is a member of the U.S. Green Building Council.
Event: Pratt Institute President’s Lecture Series
Location: Higgins Hall, Pratt Institute, 11.29.07
Speaker: Edward Mazria, AIA — Founder, Mazria Inc., Architecture Planning Conservation and Founder & Executive Director, Architecture 2030
Organizer: Pratt Institute
NYC if there is a three-meter (left) or five-meter (right) rise in sea level.
Courtesy architecture2030.org
Edward Mazria, AIA, conveys a frightening reality of a world fueling global warming. He predicts the world’s population has seven years before its discharge of greenhouse gases brings it to a point that scientists consider irreversible. Seven years before the inertia of a rising concentration of carbon dioxide will be beyond our ability to stop catastrophic rises in sea level.
Architecture 2030 — a non-profit organization aiming to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by changing the way buildings and developments are planned, designed, and constructed, according to their mission statement — recently released a study showing the incremental rates that sea levels are changing throughout coastal American cities. Cities like Boston, New Orleans, and Miami would be devastated from just one meter of rising waters. Mazria, who is the founder and executive director of the organization, exclaimed, “It astonished us that our government did not do this study before.”
There are two methods to solve the greenhouse gas emission problem in the U.S., according to Mazria. Since burning coal is the single greatest source of carbon dioxide emissions today, a moratorium on coal is necessary to reverse its affect. Also, the nation must begin implementing the “2030 Challenge,” calling for all new buildings to use a maximum of 50% of the energy required by today’s standard by the year 2030.
Mazria is confident that the challenge can be met, but the time to act is now. Santa Barbara, CA, is the first municipality to carve the standard into its building code. Hopefully, more will follow soon.
Tyler Caine, LEED AP, is a designer at Cook + Fox Architects.
Event: SUPERMODELS: Exfoliation Re-Generation
Location: Center for Architecture, 12.06.07
Speakers: Chris Beardsley & Dennis Vermeulen, Assoc. AIA — Flank Architecture; Charlie Kaplan — Peter L. Gluck & Partners, Architects; Adam Meshberg — Meshberg Group
Moderator: Anne Guiney — New York Editor, The Architect’s Newspaper
Organizer: AIANY New Practices Committee
Sponsors: Exhibition Underwriters: Associated Fabrication; Hafele; SKYY90; Patrons: 3Form; ABC Imaging; Sponsors: Severud Associates; Thornton-Tomasetti; OS Fabrication & Design; The Conran Shop; Supporters: Arup; bartcoLighting; Fountainhead Construction; FXFowle Architects; MG & Company; Microsol Resources; Structural Enterprises; Friends: Barefoot Wines; Cosentini Associates; DEGW; Delta Faucet Company; Perkins Eastman; Media Partner: The Architect’s Newspaper
Firms that see a project through from design to construction claim to have a greater sense of satisfaction from a job.
Courtesy Meshberg Group
A holistic approach to building will save us from the threats of a tumbling economy, some firms believe. Flank Architecture, Peter L. Gluck & Partners, Architects, and the Meshberg Group have all set up business models incorporating a range of specialties including design, construction, management, development, and even real estate brokerage. For these firms, seeing a building through from sketch to construction is rewarding artistically as well as monetarily.
By doing construction, engineering, and design, Adam Meshberg of the Meshberg Group is satisfied knowing a building belongs fully to his firm. Charlie Kaplan, of Peter L. Gluck & Partners, Architects, agrees and is proud that this allows a team to “get their hands dirty.” Once a team finishes design work, it goes on-site to complete construction. Flank Architecture builds three-dimensional models simultaneous to financial frameworks so there is a mutual understanding of both realism and aspiration for a building, according to Chris Beardsley. As a result, the firm’s success has led to larger projects, he believes.
Another result of developing design and finances concurrently is that clients understand their costs. Meshberg enjoys clients’ reactions when presenting a project. His firm not only exhibits seductive designs, but it also provides real estimates, which is reassuring to many of his clients. Kaplan sees this as an added business benefit; the skepticism architects often face is replaced by optimism when numbers are revealed to a client.
One might think liability would go up for these firms that straddle so many fields; however, that is not the case. Kaplan posits that by being in control of a project from start to finish there is less of a chance for something to go wrong. If a problem arises, adds Dennis Vermeulen, Assoc. AIA, of Flank Architecture, the client knows whom to call, instead of hiring a lawyer to figure out which entity is responsible for the error.
With the future of the economy in question, every firm is trying to prepare for a potential downfall. The answer for Beardsley is maintaining a diverse practice. Construction management has a longer lifespan than design, adds Meshberg as an example. By being involved with so many aspects of building, the ebbs and flows of work are staggered. Ultimately, success hinges on good design and skillful construction. Says Kaplan, “If you provide a good product, you’ll always have work.”
Event: Changing Perspectives on Preservation: A Panel Discussion
Location: The Municipal Art Society, 11.29.07
Speakers: Hilary Ballon, Ph.D. — Professor, Department of Art History and Archaeology, Columbia University & Associate Vice Chancellor, NYU Abu Dhabi; Thomas Mellins — Curator of Special Projects, Museum of the City of New York; Anthony Wood — Executive Director, Ittleson Foundation, Professor of Historic Preservation, Columbia University, and Founder/Chair, New York Preservation Archive Project
Moderator: Frank E. Sanchis — Senior Vice President, Municipal Art Society
Organizer: Municipal Art Society
Grand Central Station is one of the Municipal Art Society’s successful campaigns.
Courtesy Municipal Art Society
“I can’t think of any building we’re sorry we’ve saved, but I can say that about the ones we didn’t,” said Anthony Wood, founder and chair of the New York Preservation Archive Project. This is an apt statement to make in the gallery of the Urban Center, housed in McKim, Mead & White’s 1884 Henry Villard House, saved by the fledgling Landmarks Preservation Commission (LPC) in the early 1970s. In a discussion exploring the theme of changing perspectives on preservation, new challenges and arguments are arising with contemporary times, especially when it comes to preserving Modern icons.
The Municipal Art Society (MAS), which has offices in the Henry Villard House, champions the preservation of the earliest city buildings through the Modernist era. In general, it urges the LPC to protect buildings prior to major rezoning and redevelopment projects, and advocates for the City Council to increase the LPC’s budget to allow an increase in the landmark designation rate and efficiency with which permits are processed.
Protecting Modern buildings can be a “hard sell,” even for preservationists. “We’re destroying Paul Rudolph’s across the country,” said Hilary Ballon, Ph.D., professor in the Department of Art History and Archaeology at Columbia University, underscoring the concern for protecting Modern buildings. The fate of Edward Durell Stone’s 2 Columbus Circle, for example, remains a sore point for many preservationists because the issue never went through a public hearing. Some buildings are fraught with outdated technical problems. Sustainability issues emerge, as some preservationists believe “the best green building is one that already exists,” according to Frank Sanchis, MAS’s senior vice president.
Traditional preservationists carry baggage against Modern buildings, according to Thomas Mellins, curator of special projects at the Museum of the City of New York, and it will be up to the next generation to provide the impetus to save them. “The price of preservation is constant vigilance,” said Mellins.
Event: This Will Kill That? Maximum City: A reading forum with Suketu Metha
Location: Center for Architecture, 11.15.07
Speaker: Suketu Metha — Fiction Writer, Journalist, Author of Maximum City: Bombay Lost and Found
Organizer: AIANY Emerging NY Architects Committee
Suketu Metha reads from his book Maximum City: Bombay Lost and Found.
Katerina Kampiti
“Bombay is the future of urban civilization on the planet. God help us,” writes Suketu Metha in Maximum City: Bombay Lost and Found. With the decreasing viability of agriculture in India, and economic opportunities expanding in urban centers, cities such as Mumbai (formerly Bombay) are experiencing mass immigration. Facing rapid growth and economic disparities, Mumbai is a testing ground for the compatibility of largely unplanned urbanization with both modern democracy and an ancient culture.
In addition to providing utilities, housing, transportation, and open space, Mumbai faces the paradoxical challenge, as relayed to Metha by Indian architect Rahul Mehrotra: “If we make the city nice, with good roads, trains, and accommodation — if we make the city a nicer place to live — it attracts more people from the outside.” To plan for the future, Metha suggests that architects need to understand the complex and informal social networks of the city. Currently, there is “almost no dialogue” between architects and the local citizenry; most architects “simply tell the people how to live,” rather than “asking them how they want to live.”
Within the hyper-density of Mumbai, “the greatest luxury is solitude,” says Metha. Every economic, ethnic, and religious class is forced to interface. Scarcity of space in Mumbai precludes the development of gated communities, and results in rich and poor living in adjacent, if unequal, accommodations. He evokes a metaphorical cross section of Mumbai society when describing a typical high-rise tower. Wealthy residents live atop a parking garage that also houses the residents’ drivers and their families. Differing economic classes may “not like each other, but they need each other to survive.”
Metha is optimistic for Mumbai’s future, however. Indians “make space where none exists,” he states when describing crowded trains. “Come on-board, they say. We’ll adjust.”
Gregory Haley, AICP, AIA, LEED AP is a project architect and urban designer at Studio V Architects, and has taught architectural design studios at NYIT School of Architecture.
Event: Modernism and the Public Realm with Nathan Glazer
Location: The Museum of the City of New York, 11.28.07
Speakers: Kent Barwick — President, Municipal Art Society; Nathan Glazer — Sociologist, Critic, Author of From a Cause to a Style: Modernist Architecture’s Encounter with the American City; Fred Siegel — Senior Fellow, Progressive Policy Institute and Columnist, New York Post; Susan Henshaw Jones (introduction) — President/Director, The Museum of the City of New York
Moderator: Hilary Ballon, Ph.D. — Professor, Department of Art History and Archaeology, Columbia University, Associate Vice Chancellor, NYU Abu Dhabi, and Curator, Robert Moses and the Modern City
Organizer: The Museum of the City of New York
As more large buildings are built in the city, the more its vitality is lost.
Jessica Sheridan
“The difficulties in producing an attractive urbanism constitute perhaps the greatest problem for Modernism,” argues sociologist and critic Nathan Glazer in From a Cause to a Style: Modernist Architecture’s Encounter with the American City. He takes planners and architects to task for their apathy toward social consciousness. The impact of iconic and gigantic buildings has led to a lack in diversity and livability in cities. “There should be a diversity of functions (uses), and there should be an interest in neighborhoods,” continues Glazer. Successful streets depend on planners, architects, developers, politicians, and the public. The political culture and economic forces need to be examined to restore life to the streets.
Coupled with the current exhibition, Jane Jacobs and the Future of New York at the Municipal Art Society, and Glazer’s book on Modernism’s failure to cities, a recent panel debated how to salvage the city’s vitality and fabric. “Big cities are the natural economic homes of immense numbers and ranges of small enterprises.” (The Life and Death of Great American Cities). However, the contemporary urban fabric does not permit the diversity so sought by Jacobs.
To accommodate increased density, larger buildings are being constructed, and NYC is moving farther away from Jacobs’s ideal, claimed Kent Barwick, president of the Municipal Art Society. Larger buildings create empty streets. Lexington Avenue is a case study showing that certain neighborhoods are dense and full of vitality, while others consist of Modernist buildings and vacant sidewalks, an audience member pointed out.
The number of iconic buildings is now what defines modern cities. For example, the Atlantic Yards development will change a large section of Brooklyn, adding a number of new high rise buildings designed by Gehry Partners, yet it was not planned or discussed with its residents, stated New York Post columnist and senior fellow at the Progressive Policy Institute Fred Siegel. Atlantic Yards will not benefit Brooklyn residents, he argued. It will only mark the skyline — something that will feed into politicians’ egos, and not much else.
Questions remain about what should be done to preserve the city’s vitality while maintaining economic growth. The real estate industry is one source for jobs and is essential for economic growth. But we do not fully take advantage of other resources NYC can offer, contends Siegel. Civic culture is an instrument that can impact the city as well. Every voice needs to be heard when making major urban decisions, not just a powerful few.
Selma Antoine is a recent graduate of the City College of New York-CUNY.
If you visit the Sydney Opera House, you will find an international cultural repertoire such the Paris Ballet or the Mozart Festival. You will also find contemporary artists and art in the Australian bush, or in the avant-guarde Darling Harbor in Sydney. The issue of current versus established culture is a modern phenomenon worldwide, and subject of recent debate between Magdy Youssef, director and the senior planner of the Maroochy Shire Council, and this author.
Culture can stagnate within traditional institutions, and contemporary art is often found in fragments hidden within cities. Of course, prominent art institutions play a role within the contemporary city fabric — the Museum of Modern Art demonstrated a commitment to new art when it acquired PS 1 in Queens, for example — but architects and urban designers can take the lead in creating small, more modest places for new, experimental art. Renzo Piano Building Workshop designed Aurora Place, a mixed-use office and residential tower overlooking the Sydney Opera House and Sydney Harbor. The building’s plaza opens to a neglected alleyway with shops and warehouses, instead of the nearby botanical garden with access to the opera house. As a result, space is provided for contemporary art that will not be overshadowed or polarized by the institutions.
In Europe, such phenomena can also be observed. Current art can be found in Percy, the old wine port of Paris — more so than the institutionalized French outlets dedicated to the same purpose. The Berlin-NewYork Dialogues exhibition at the Center for Architecture sheds some additional light on this phenomenon.
The current dynamics of cultural generation and renewal is critical to the process of urban design and architecture. Our Australian colleagues are demonstrating meticulous efforts to observe the process of renewal by integrating art, architecture, and planning under one umbrella, and their cities are benefiting as a result.
Saf Fahim, AIA, is the design principal of Archronica Architects. Magdy Youssef pioneered a comprehensive practice in city art, architecture, and planning. Their list of credits includes many communities on the Australian Sunshine Coast, most notably the new city plan for Mooloolaba. Currently, Prime Minister John Howard has appointed Youssef to revitalize the city center of Canberra.
The West Side Rail Yards is the largest plot of land remaining for development in Manhattan, so the team chosen to develop the 26.2 acres of land at the end of the High Line and near Penn Station and Port Authority will have a major impact on the skyline and the city as a whole. I think the exhibition and comment period provided by the MTA were much too short for the public to form an opinion, but at least I saw an attempt at garnering input.
All of the schemes propose unique solutions to the site’s challenges, which include spanning the rail yards, incorporating design suitable for PlaNYC, and addressing a mixed-use program appropriate for current and future zoning codes. Durst/Vornado’s proposal is the most green. Designed by FXFowle Architects and Pelli Clarke Pelli Architects, the team incorporates strategies that, to my knowledge, have not been implemented at such a large scale (integrating scheme-wide blackwater recycling, for example).
The Related/Goldman Sachs team, consisting of Kohn Pedersen Fox, Arquitectonica, Robert A.M. Stern Architects, Elkus Manfredi, West 8, and weisz + yoes architecture, will develop a “media district” by bringing anchor client NewsCorp to the site (which is across from the Mid-Town Mart Building housing the Daily News, U.S. News & World Report, WNET, and the Associated Press). The idea is that the energy of the information flowing in and out of the area will influence the vibrancy on the street.
Tishman Speyer/Morgan Stanley, with Murphy/Jahn Architects, PWP Landscape Architecture, and Cooper, Robertson & Partners is proposing the most traditional scheme with a central fountain and plaza borrowing from existing successful gathering places including Rockefeller Center, Lincoln Center, Washington Square Park, and even the Spanish Steps in Rome.
My favorite among the five schemes is Brookfield Properties’ proposal, with Skidmore, Owings & Merrill, Thomas Phifer & Partners, SHoP, Handel Architects, SANAA, Diller Scofidio + Renfro, and Field Operations. SOM is the master planner and engineer for the site and the architect for two towers (the tallest of all proposals). The plaza between the towers has a structural element above the throat of the rail yards referencing Santiago Calatrava’s World Trade Center Transportation Hub (the buildings are also located near a water wall). Creating this visual reference shows an effort to connect with the urban fabric.
This scheme has the highest density, the most square footage devoted to public and cultural facilities, and considers human scale the most, in my opinion. This is the only scheme that builds on the center of the site. Two hotels, by Handel Architects, flank 11th Avenue dividing the site into two zones and creating two parks — one surrounded by residential and the other by commercial buildings. SHoP is designing a string of residential buildings along the south, set back from the High Line — a move that will make 30th Street accessible rather than creating a barricade with a high, blank wall.
This scheme also maintains the full length of the High Line, which terminates at a residential tower designed by Diller Scofidio + Renfro. And with Field Operations as the landscape architect, I think this strategy will provide freedom for the firms to complete their High Line the way they see fit.
My least favorite of the finalists is the Extell proposal. The only architect on the project is Steven Holl Architects, which is putting forth a scheme with large towers lining the site’s perimeter, casting “sun slice” shadows across the central lawn. Suspension technology is employed across the rail yards — a unique and innovative solution — but the resulting concave expanse above the structure seems monumental in scale. I can imagine feeling very small at the lowest point at the center of the grass in the shadow of the towers on either side of me. The renderings do not include people on the lawn, either, implying that perhaps people are not welcome, as they might ruin the clean lines cast by the buildings.
Now that the MTA and NYC Department of City Planning’s comment period has ended, we’ll have to wait a couple of months to hear a decision on the selected team. I am looking forward to the decision as I see value in every proposal, and I am pleased that the city will take advantage of the vacant area now occupied by the West Side Rail Yard.
To read more about the proposals, check out the Rail Yards Blog, a comprehensive website including reactions to all of the recent presentations and working sessions held by the MTA, and the AIANY Public Information Exchange (PIE) to read comments by the public about all of the proposals. Also, be sure to read West Side Rail Yards: Formidable Talents, Cautious Drafts, in this issue of e-Oculus.
In this issue:
· Pennies for Kids’ Thoughts
· Ready to Bow: Bronx County Hall of Justice
· Juvenile Justice Facilities: Environment Cues Behavior
· Luxury Hotel/Condo to Connect Lower Manhattan and Battery Park
· 20th Century Village Hall Gets 21st Century Update
· Renovation of Rudolph Building is Key to Yale’s New Arts Complex
· Natick Collection Redefines Shopping Mall Experience
· South Korea Goes LEED Platinum
Pennies for Kids’ Thoughts
Penny Harvest Field at Rockefeller Center.
(left) Courtesy Common Cents; (right) photo by Peter Barton courtesy Levien & Company
Common Cents, a non-profit that teaches children about their value as contributors to society, has launched the 17th annual Penny Harvest. Students from more than 800 schools collected over 100 million pennies to be given away to organizations of their choice, and Polshek Partnership Architects designed a 165-foot-long by 30-foot-wide steel channel to contain them. The sides are mirrored, giving the impression that the field of pennies goes on ad infinitum. Polshek Partnership recruited Peter DiMaggio from Weidlinger Associates and project manager Ken Levien, AIA, of Levien and Co. to help with the design and construction. And the cost to Common Cents? Not one penny. Professional services were pro bono. Hosted by Tishman Speyer, the installation will be on view at Rockefeller Center through December 31.
Ready to Bow: Bronx County Hall of Justice
Bronx County Hall of Justice.
Rafael Viñoly Architects
Almost 15 years after Rafael Viñoly Architects completed the design for the Bronx County Hall of Justice, the building is finally reaching completion. Sited along two blocks of East 161st Street near the Grand Concourse, the L-shaped structure houses 47 courtrooms, seven grand jury rooms, offices, and underground parking. The building’s public courtyard and translucent accordion-shaped curtain wall were designed to signify the openness of the judicial system. The jury assembly room is adjacent to the building in a separate, private mass.
The courtrooms, with 18-foot slab-to-slab heights, house 60 spectators and 16 jurors, and many are equipped with the latest audio-visual and computer technology. The grand jury rooms allow jurors to view evidence from individual flat screens, and custom-designed benches, cabinetry, and paneling recall historic court spaces. Energy conservation is employed with extensive use of daylight, high-performance low-e glass, energy-efficient lighting, and heating and air conditioning systems that incorporate displacement ventilation.
Juvenile Justice Facilities: Environment Cues Behavior
Union County Juvenile Justice Center.
Ricci Greene Associates
Ricci Greene Associates, a justice design and planning firm, has completed three juvenile justice facilities in the Northeast. The $28 million Union County Juvenile Justice Center in Linden, NJ, is a 70,000-square-foot building housing 80 children. A courtyard encloses almost an acre of outdoor recreation space and allows natural daylight to penetrate the building. The $43 million Rhode Island Training School for Youth in Cranston is composed of a 52-bed detention facility and a 96-bed adjudicated facility providing an optimal physical and operational environment to house troubled youth, boasting two gymnasiums, a regulation-size soccer field, exercise rooms, library, and computer and culinary arts amenities. The $34.6 million, 100,000-square-foot Superior Court and Center for Juvenile Matters in Bridgeport, CT, built on a remediated brownfield site, consists of two separate buildings containing a courthouse with three courtrooms and a detention facility with 44 sleeping
rooms. The facility is framed by a lawn in the front and a waterfront park along the river that is open to the public.
Luxury Hotel/Condo to Connect Lower Manhattan and Battery Park
50 West Street.
Murphy/Jahn Architects
Time Equities has gotten the green light from the NYC Council to build a 63-story, 580,000-square-foot hotel and residential building at 50 West Street, in an area known as Greenwich South, just below the World Trade Center site. Helmut Jahn, FAIA, of Murphy/Jahn Architects is the design architect, Gruzen Samton is serving as executive architect and architect-of-record, and interiors are by Piero Lissoni. The 14 lower floors will contain a 155-room, four-star luxury hotel with ground floor retail and a restaurant, and about 290 residential condominiums will occupy floors 15 through 63. The building will also feature an enclosed roof garden and lounge, spa, fitness center, screening room, and library. A public plaza along the southern boundary of the project will provide a new landscaped circulation path between West and Washington Streets and facilitate pedestrian passage from Battery Park City to Lower Manhattan. The project is expected to garner a LEED Gold certification
when completed in
2010.
20th Century Village Hall Gets 21st Century Update
Bronxville Village Hall.
Peter Gisolfi Associates
The circa 1942 Bronxville Village Hall in Westchester County has undergone a $5 million renovation making it cleaner, greener, and larger. Peter Gisolfi Associates had old asbestos and other hazardous materials removed — including significant quantities of lead from a police firing range in the basement. In its place are new low-e paints and carpeting, recycled and natural materials, and a zoned geo-thermal system. All old windows were replaced with energy-efficient double-glass windows; new, weatherproof doors were fitted throughout; and the attic of the two-story building has been insulated, sharply reducing heat loss through the roof. Lighting was redesigned to make greater use of natural light and to zone the building for lighting depending upon use and occupancy. The design also adds 5,000 square feet of assignable space.
Renovation of Rudolph Building is Key to Yale’s New Arts Complex
Model of Yale arts complex showing York Street elevation.
Gwathmey Siegel & Associates Architects, photograph by Jock Pottell, courtesy Yale University
Yale University is restoring and renovating Paul Rudolph’s historic Art & Architecture Building. Per the wishes of the project’s benefactor, Sid Bass, the building will be renamed “The Rudolph Building.” This project is a key step in the creation of the university’s new arts complex, designed by Charles Gwathmey, FAIA, of Gwathmey Siegel & Associates Architects (who received his Master of Architecture from Yale in 1962, while Paul Rudolph was chairman of the Department of Architecture), that will include, in addition to The Rudolph Building, a new facility for the Department of the History of Art, and an expanded arts and architecture library.
In creating the arts complex, Gwathmey Siegel is charged with several tasks: above all restoration of Rudolph’s building; to introduce state-of-the-art technology, air-conditioning, and LEED standards; to design a new facility for the art history department; to create an expanded arts and architecture library with a street-level presence and entry; and to maintain a harmonious relationship among the complex’s elements, the multifaceted structure, and surrounding streetscape.
Natick Collection Redefines Shopping Mall Experience
Natick Mall.
Beyer Blinder Belle Architects & Planners
Natick, an American Indian name loosely translated as “Place of Rolling Hills,” provided the inspiration for Beyer Blinder Belle Architects & Planners’ design for the restoration and expansion of the Natick Mall, originally built in 1966 in Natick, MA. Renamed the Natick Collection to reflect its new look, an undulating arcade ceiling, curved clerestories, and expansive skylights that filter in natural light are in direct response to the site’s topography. 550,000 square feet of retail space will be added to the renovation of the existing 150,000-square-foot mall, fitting within a 3 million-square-foot master plan — including over 100 new shops and two new anchor stores, as well as luxury condominiums and below-grade parking.
South Korea Goes LEED Platinum
Gale International/U-Life Northeast Asia Headquarters.
HOK
The NY office of HOK has unveiled a new 55,000-square-foot Gale International/U-Life Northeast Asia Headquarters building in the Songdo International Business District in Incheon, South Korea. The building is expected to achieve a LEED Platinum rating — the first of its kind in Korea. It is part of the Kohn Pedersen Fox Associates master-plan comprised of residential, cultural, leisure, educational, healthcare, government, and institutional facilities.
Composed of a high-performance curtain wall, the five-story steel structure features photovoltaic panels integrated into the site canopy and rooftop structures, entry canopy, and south façade shade devices. A narrow floor plate and interior daylight atrium shaped by the sun’s passage will ensure daylight to over 90% of the workstations. The design also includes rain gardens, native landscaping, solar electric automobile charging stations, full daylight office space, optimized natural ventilation, fuel cells, rooftop wind turbines, a greywater recovery system, green roofs, and material life-cycle analysis.
In this issue:
· AIANY Policy Update: Manhattanville
· AIA Urges Members to Get Political
· Recap: 2007 Procrastinators’ Days
AIANY Policy Update: Manhattanville
By Laura Manville, AIANY Policy Coordinator
On December 12, AIANY testified in support of rezoning Manhattanville before the City Council — one of the last hurdles in a controversial Uniform Land Use Review Procedure (ULURP) process expected to result in a new campus for Columbia University between 125th and 130th Streets in West Harlem. The Policy Board discussed the plans for the new Columbia campus in October, when AIANY testified in general support of rezoning the area from manufacturing to residential, commercial, and academic uses before the City Planning Commission in a packed West Harlem auditorium.
The testimony was updated this month to address the approval of both Columbia and Community Board 9’s land use plans for the area, which AIANY feels “calls for streetscape and buildings in character with the surrounding neighborhoods, changes in use that will animate the area at all times of day and night, and well-designed public streets and spaces.” The Policy Board was also optimistic that, “with the revised land use plans calling for mixed-use and public spaces along all the boundaries of the site, including Broadway and 125th Street… the new campus will be both welcomed by and welcoming for its neighbors.” AIANY will continue to discuss the design of the site’s public spaces with the design team Skidmore, Owings & Merrill and Renzo Piano Building Workshop.
AIA Urges Members to Get Political
The latest initiative from the AIA is helping raise the profile of architecture in the 2008 election. The organization’s first-ever nonpartisan program, DesignVote08, aims to help members get involved in presidential and senatorial campaigns, supporting the AIA’s goal of promoting citizen architects and civic engagement, according to a statement released by the AIA.
DesignVote08 intends to empower AIA members and components to: place the AIA’s public policies and issues before political candidates; organize and cosponsor candidate forums in their home states; raise the AIA’s visibility at conventions in the summer of 2008; track where candidates stand on key AIA issues; and volunteer for campaigns. The website will provide voter registration information and links to candidates’ websites, as well as offering up-to-the-minute information and tips on getting active in the campaigns.
Contact the AIA Government Advocacy Team to sign up for updates and get more information.
Recap: 2007 Procrastinators’ Days
By Barb Steffen, Communication Committee Coordinator at the Center for Architecture
Event: AIANY 2007 Procrastinators’ Days
Location: Center for Architecture, 12.06-07.07
Organizers: AIANY; Center for Architecture
Vendors: Trespa North America; Essroc Italcementi Group; Azek Building Products Inc.; Pella Window and Doors; Icynen Inc.; Lucifer Lighting Company; Unico, Inc.; Venco Sales, Inc.; Assa Abloy Door Security Solutions; Langan Engineering & Environmental Services, Inc.; Marvin Windows and Doors; International Masonry Institute; Owens Corning; Brick Industry Association; Ove Arup & Partners; NYC Brickwork Design Center; Hohmann and Barnard Exterior Wall; Integrated CADD Services; ThermaTru Doors; Jeldwen Doors; Black Millwork Co., Inc.; 3Form; ARUP
With more than 180 attendees and 27 providers, the AIANY annual Procrastinators’ Days offered classes filled with ways to protect the environment and uphold the quality of sustainability. Discussions covered a range of green strategies, such as improving thermal performance in buildings, understanding indoor air quality solutions, clarifying the LEED Green Building Rating System, and installing and using sustainable products.
Procrastinators’ Days provides architects a last minute opportunity to get continuing education credits required for AIA membership and continued state licensure. In NY, the State Licensing Board requires 36 continuing education credits in a three-year period, of which at least 24 credits must come from programs conforming to health, safety, and welfare (HSW) guidelines established by the AIA and the state. AIA members are also required to have 18 continuing education units per year, of which eight must qualify as HSW. Procrastinators’ Days offered 28 classes with up to 14 HSW credits before the year-end deadline.
Which West Side Rail Yards proposal do you prefer?
Note: Results from this poll are non-scientific.
As the 2008 Presidential primaries are approaching, do you consider candidates' opinions on architecture, planning, and development?
Note: Results from this poll are non-scientific.
The Make It Right Foundation has launched a project to fund 150 homes in the Lower 9th Ward in New Orleans. The brainchild of architecture enthusiast Brad Pitt, a core team of experts including William McDonough + Partners, Cherokee Gives Back Foundation, Graft architecture, and Trevor Neilson and Nina Killeen, worked in tandem with local nonprofit organizations to select 14 firms specializing in innovation and ecologically responsible design.
Designs by KieranTimberlake Associates (2008 AIA Architecture Firm Award recipient), Morphosis, Adjaye Architects, MVRDV, and Shigeru Ban Architects, along with other local, national, and internationally renowned firms, will design homes that “encourage both the evolution of aesthetic distinctiveness and the conscientious awareness of natural surroundings,” according to the website. Firms were given a typology, such as the Shotgun, Camelback, and Creole Cottage, along with general guidelines outlined by the core team emphasizing safety, affordability, sustainability, and high design quality. All of the designs can be viewed online.
What is unique about donating to the cause is that it is possible to donate a whole house or parts of a house, in addition to making monetary contributions. So if you are still looking for holiday gifts, consider donating a house ($150,000), LEED certification fees ($2,500), a tankless water heater ($1,500), energy efficient lighting ($500), a tree ($200), a programmable thermostat ($100), low VOC paint ($25), or a compact fluorescent bulb ($5) in your or your loved one’s name.
Renzo Piano, Hon. FAIA, is named the 2008 AIA Gold Medal Recipient… Philadelphia-based KieranTimberlake Associates receives the 2008 AIA Architecture Firm Award…The Board of the AIA and the Association of Collegiate Schools of Architecture (ACSA) names architect and educator Stanley Tigerman, FAIA, as 2008 recipient of the Topaz Medallion for Excellence in Architectural Education…
The Rockefeller Foundation announced the first award recipients of the Foundation’s $2.6 million NYC Cultural Innovation Fund including The Architectural League of New York, to launch Urban Omnibus: a Broadband Channel for Architecture, Infrastructure and Environment in New York City; The Bronx Museum of the Arts, for Phase II Capital Master Plan and Design; The Civilians, for Development and Brooklyn Neighborhoods; and Friends of the High Line with Creative Time and the NYC Department of Parks and Recreation, to create a new, large-scale public art commissioning program for the High Line’s Chelsea Market Tunnel…
The National Council of Architectural Registration Boards has awarded an NCARB Grant for the Integration of Practice and Education in the Academy to Pratt Institute…
New York magazine’s “The Year in Architecture” recognized, in the category of Best New Building, the New Museum, by SANAA; Best New Affordable Housing, Via Verde, Dattner Architects and Grimshaw; Best French Architectural Invasion, Jean Nouvel, Hon, FAIA; Most Hopeful Vision, Governors Island and the Battery Maritime Building (originally designed by Walker and Morris); Most Alluring Bad-Weather Beacon, IAC Headquarters, Gehry Partners; Best New Prewar, 15 Central Park West, Robert A.M. Stern Architects; Best Monument to Modernism, Glass House, Philip Johnson; Best Critical Reappraisal, Robert Moses and Jane Jacobs; Best New Interior, Tiffany & Co. at 37 Wall
Street, Yabu Pushelberg; Best Street Furniture, New Bus Shelters by Cemusa, designed by Grimshaw; Debut, 40 Bond, Herzog & de Meuron; and Stinker, The Deutsche Bank
Building…
Robert A.M. Stern, FAIA, will serve a third five-year term as dean of Yale School of Architecture…The chief “architect” of the city’s economic development agenda, Deputy Mayor Daniel Doctoroff, is leaving the Bloomberg administration at the end of this month to become president of Bloomberg L.P., the financial news, data, and analytics provider founded by the mayor…
AIANY 2008 Inaugural
Marshall Purnell, FAIA, 2008 AIA National President; Joan Blumenfeld, FAIA, IIDA, LEED AP, 2007 AIANY President; Mark Ginsberg, FAIA, 2004 AIANY President and AIA150 Champion.
Sam Lahoz
2008 AIANY President James McCullar, FAIA.
Sam Lahoz
11.20.07: (Chris) Calori & (David) Vanden-Eynden SEGD Fellows/Book/25th Anniversary Party @ the Center included a reprise of their spirited Fellows presentation from the SEGD conference, and a signing party for Chris Calori’s book, Signage and Wayfinding Design.
Kristen Richards
Holiday Celebrations around the city
Kim Mathews, ASLA, and Signe Nielsen, FASLA, framing up the New Year at the Mathews Nielsen Landscape Architecture holiday celebration.
Kristen Richards
Pei Partnership Architects party: Li Chung (Sandi) Pei, AIA, catching up on news with Peter Morris Dixon, FAIA.
Kristen Richards
Pei Partnership Architects party: Abby Suckle, FAIA, chats it up with Paul Marantz, IES, FIALD, LC, founder/consulting design principal, Fisher Marantz Stone.
Kristen Richards
SMPS-NY (Society for Marketing Professional Services) celebration included Marines campaigning for Toys for Tots: Liz O’Rourke Kupcha, former SMPS-NY board member, current PR chair for the SMPS Long Island, and Iva Kravitz with a handsome marine.
Kristen Richards
SMPS-NY Annual Party: Kirsten Sibilia, Assoc. AIA, LEED AP, Marketing Director, FXFowle Architects and 2008 Chair of the Oculus Committee, Richard Staub, consultant and Oculus contributing editor, and photographer Elliott Kaufman.
Kristen Richards
12.17.07 Registration: Make Space for Art
La Reunion, TX, a Dallas-based artist residence program, announces a juried architecture exhibition seeking to create a dialogue about sustainability, live/work spaces for artists, and community involvement. The site, six acres of wooded property in Oak Cliff, is also the home of a historic trestle from the Dallas Interurban Railway, completed in 1913, running from Dallas to Ft. Worth. Cash prizes will be awarded to selected entries. The entry deadline is 01.31.08.
01.14.08 Submissions: IESNY Lumen Awards
The Lumen Awards, initiated by the New York Section of the Illuminating Engineering Society (IESNY) in 1968 and developed to encourage and recognize excellence, professionalism, ingenuity, and originality in lighting design. Any architectural lighting design project or specialty lighting design is eligible for submission. Projects awarded Lumen Awards will then become eligible for Regional and International IIDA Awards.
01.15.08 Submissions: Justice Facilities Review 2008
The AIA Academy of Architecture for Justice invites all registered architects to submit projects that represent state-of-the-art justice facility design. Justice Facilities Review 2008 offers an opportunity to put jury-selected projects before administrators, architects, state representatives, local jurisdictions, and others involved in the justice system. Selected projects will be published in the companion publication, Justice Facilities Review 2008, and featured in several traveling exhibitions. Small firms with five or fewer staff are eligible to submit entries at a discounted rate.
01.17.08 Call for Entries: MetalMag Architectural Awards
Hanley Wood is accepting entries for its second annual awards program. Winning projects in each category — interiors, metal buildings, roofs, and wall panels — will be featured in MetalMag’s May/June 2008 issue. One winner in each category will receive $750 and free reprint promotional materials.
01.18.08 Call for Entries: 2008 Housing & Healthcare Facilities Design Awards
AIANY has formalized a biennial building types awards program that will be co-sponsored with the Boston Society of Architects (BSA). AIANY members and registered architects practicing in NYC are invited to enter the two BSA design awards categories: housing and healthcare facilities design. The program’s purpose is to increase recognition of design excellence in specialized design fields and to honor the architects, clients, and consultants who collaborate to improve the built environment. Entries are welcomed and encouraged regardless of project size, budget, or style, from both established and new practitioners. The 2008 winning projects will be featured at the BSA Awards Celebration at Build Boston on 11.20.08.
01.30.08 Call for Entries: Richard Kelly Grant
The New York Section of the Illuminating Engineering Society (IESNY) established the Richard Kelly Grant in 1980 to celebrate Richard Kelly, a pioneer of architectural lighting construction. Originally conceived as a scholarship program and later opened to young persons working in lighting in North America, the grant recognizes creative thought and activity in the use of light. Cash award will be granted. Anyone 35 years or under, studying or working in the art and/or science of illumination, in the U.S., Canada, or Mexico is eligible.
01.31.08 Submissions: 2008 AIA COTE Top 10 Green Projects Awards
These awards recognize the benefits of a high-performance, sustainable design approach; educate the architectural community and the public on the increased value that sustainable design provides for developers, building owners, and occupants; and acknowledge architects as experts in the creation of energy conscious and environmentally responsible design solutions. The competition will evaluate projects based on merit rather than in competition with the other submittals. Winning projects will be recognized with an AIA/COTE award certificate and acknowledged in the national press and on the AIA website.
01.31.08 Call for Entries: 2008 James Beard Foundation Awards
The national not-for-profit organization based in NYC offers Outstanding Restaurant Design and Graphics Design Awards for a restaurant design or renovation in the U.S., Mexico, or Canada. Projects must be executed since 01.01.05.
Center for Architecture Gallery Hours
Monday-Friday: 9:00am-8:00pm, Saturday: 11:00am-5:00pm, Sunday: CLOSED
Join an Architalker for a Hosted Tour of Center for Architecture
Exhibitions
Join us for free Architalker-hosted tours of the Center for Architecture exhibitions Fridays at 4:00pm. To join one of these tours, meet in the Public Resource Area on the ground floor of the Center for Architecture.
CURRENT EXHIBITIONS
November 8 - January 26, 2008
Berlin — New York Dialogues: Building in Context
Galleries: Judith and Walter Hunt Gallery, Mezzanine Gallery, Kohn Pederson Fox Gallery, HLW Gallery, South Gallery
Two of the world’s most dynamic urban centers, Berlin and New York, are making radical transformations in their streets and skylines. Berlin — New York Dialogues investigates the changes in these two cities by looking at the contemporary built environment and mechanisms of urban regeneration: the social, political, economic, and cultural processes that affect building.
As the exhibition delineates, the sustainability of these cities’ neighborhoods is increasingly dependent on a critical mixture of identity, diversification, and infrastructure.
Against a background of data Berlin — New York Dialogues brackets three areas of each city. High-end projects and informal initiatives are featured and made comparable by a set of overarching topics: Culture as Catalyst, Community Activism, Gentrification, Open Space, and Governmental Intervention. Focus is given to the stories and forces behind the projects — the urban context.
Berlin — New York Dialogues is presented in partnership with Carnegie Hall as part of Berlin in Lights, a festival taking place November 2-18, 2007.
In partnership with Carnegie Hall’s Berlin in Lights, a festival taking place in November 2007 celebrating the cultural connectivity between Berlin and New York.
This exhibition is presented as part of the Center for Architecture’s Global City Dialogues series exploring differences and commonalities between distinctive international cultural centers and New York City.
Organized by:
Center for Architecture and the German Center for Architecture DAZ in Berlin
Curatorial Team: Lynnette Widder, Kristien Ring, Sophie Stigliano, Rosamond Fletcher, Lutz Knospe
Research Assistants: Anthony Acciavatti, Elizabeth Snow, Anna Vallye
In cooperation with:
Pratt Graduate Center for Planning and the Environment, Deutsches Haus at NYU,
and Akademie der Künste, Berlin
Exhibition Design & Graphics: Project Projects
Exhibition Architecture: MADE
Commissioned Photography: Noah Sheldon
Underwriter: RFR Holding, Digital Plus
Patrons: Eurohypo; IULA
Lead Sponsors:
Carnegie Corporation of New York; Tishman Speyer Properties
Supporter:
The German Consulate in New York
 Friend: Getmapping
This program is supported, in part, by public funds from the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs.
Thanks to the generous support of the Alfred Herrhausen Society the exhibition will travel to the DAZ (LINK www.daz.de ) in Berlin in March 2008. The exhibition will open on March 7 and be on view through June 2008. An exhibition symposium will take place at the Akademie der Künste on March 8/ 9, 2008.
Architecture Inside/Out
September 19 - January 5, 2008
Galleries: Gerald D Hines Gallery, Street Gallery, Public Resource Center
Architecture Inside/Out demonstrates the unfolding of space by exposing architectural interiors through a range of typologies with an inward focus, including libraries, hotels, retail and work spaces. This exhibition challenges conventional categories and explores alternative typologies. The design of interiors has evolved into a complex and nuanced problem and addresses circulation patterns, use and adjacencies, sociologies of hierarchy and networks, and sustainability. The fully integrated interior considers light, color and materiality, but also new ways of programming space, the latest technological advances, innovative methods of construction and green practices.
Traditional representations such as section, plan and elevation, in addition to models and details will provide a lens to reveal inherent characteristics of featured interiors, exposing materials, structure and spatial relationships. Architecture Inside/Out takes the familiar architectural conventions and places them parallel to alternative ways of seeing and revealing. When these alternative methods of understanding space are applied to typologies, they provide views of the interior that shed new light on familiar places.
Curator:
Lois Weinthal, Director of Interior Design, Parsons
Exhibition Design: Freecell
Graphic Design: Language Arts
The exhibition and related programming are organized by the AIA New York Chapter in collaboration with the AIA New York Chapter’s Interiors Committee and the Center for Architecture Foundation.
Underwriter: AFD Contract Furniture
Patron: Certified of New York
Lead Sponsor: Zumtobel Lighting
Sponsor:: BBG-BBGM; Spartech Corporation; STUDIOS Architecture
Supporter:
Jack L. Gorden Architects; Perkins + Will
Supporters:
InterfaceFLOR
Knoll
Mancini Duffy
Perkins + Will
Steelcase
STUDIOS Architecture
Entrance to Chinatown Dubai.
Courtesy Storefront for Art and Architecture
Through 12.22.07
Chinatowns
There are more than 300 Chinatowns around the world today. Many others have disappeared, and new ones are being born each year. Starting in NYC and moving east around the planet, 1,000 photographs taken by almost as many photographers is a visual tribute to the diversities and idiosyncrasies, as much as the similarities, that unite these urban communities scattered over the world. Storefront for Art and Architecture presents the exhibition in association with Chinatown Film Festival New York.
Storefront for Art and Architecture
97 Kenmare Street
Still Life: Houston Street, 2000 to present.
Courtesy of the photographer, Gus Powell
Through 03.15.08
Manhattan Noon
Forty color-saturated photographs, part of a series undertaken since 2000, trace photographer Gus Powell’s fascination with a series of poems by Frank O’Hara, specifically the poet’s ability to write meaningfully while a full-time employee. Powell took advantage of available moments in his own life — lunch hours and daily commutes — to capture the movements of fellow New Yorkers. Helping to establish the connection between the two artists, O’Hara’s poems are also represented in the exhibition.
Museum of the City of New York
1220 5th Avenue
eCalendar includes an interactive listing of architectural events around NYC. Click the link to go to to eCalendar on the Web.
The Public Information Exchange (PIE) is an AIANY initiative designed to create an archive of NYC projects, proposals, programs, and exhibitions presented or discussed at the Center for Architecture. It is a forum for public discussion, both general and professional, that includes continuous commentary from users and participants. Click the link to take part.
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Looking for help? See resumes posted on the AIA New York Chapter website.
Design Architect. KPF NYC, NY. Responsible for tech’l dsgn aspects of assigned commercial structures projects incl investigation, eval’n & recommendation of dsgn solutions. Confer w/client & provide high qlty dsgn drawings & written recommendations of dsgn solutions that best meet client’s needs; coord tech’l solutions for specific aspects of project. Fluency in Japanese & BA in Architecture reqd. Send CV & portfolio to dnmt@kpf.com. EOE. Ref: Code JAEO
HNTB Architecture, a national firm with specialty in public projects, is seeking architects for its growing NYC office.
Senior Project Architect
Serves as technical lead and provide technical solutions and production strategies for projects, coordinate disciplines and management. Architecture degree, R.A., 10 years experience, excellent communication skills, Autocad, strength in detailing and specifications, ability to supervise a team, project management and proposal experience. Revit a plus. (requisition 07-1515)
Project Architect
Responsible for technical solutions, coordinating disciplines and management. Architecture degree, 5-7 years experience, R.A. preferred. Autocad, strength in detailing and specifications, ability to supervise a team, project management and proposal experience. Revit a plus. (requisition 07-1513)
Architect III
Responsibilities include design development, construction documents, specifications, etc. Architecture degree, 3-6 years of experience required. Strong CAD and 3-D rendering skills. Revit a plus. (requisition 07-1193)
Send resume to HNTB Architecture, Attn: Evan Supcoff, 5 Penn Plaza, 6th Floor, New York, NY 10001 or apply on line: www.hntbcareers.com
EOE — M/F/D/V
NBBJ, a growing international design firm, has opportunities for a Design Leader, Project Manager, and Corporate Interior Designer to join teams working on innovative healthcare projects and exciting international commercial projects. To learn more or apply, please visit http://www.nbbj.com/#join/openings
Join the Society for Design Administration (SDA)! If you are employed as an administrator in the A/E/C industry, then you should be a member of the SDA! If you are a design firm principal, then you should ensure that your administrative staff are members of the SDA! For almost 50 years, SDA has promoted education and best practices in management and professional standards of design firm administrative personnel. SDA enhances the professional development and personal growth of its members, and consequently the development and growth of their respective firms. What is the value of Membership? Membership provides networking opportunities as well as educational resources in the areas of Finance, Human Resources, Information Technology, Marketing, Office Administration, and Project Management. Membership provides you with a ready national network for questions and answers, with creative ideas for career direction and recognition of achievements, and with
continuing education to keep you at the top of your field. www.sdanyc.org or www.sdadmin.org
THE PORT AUTHORITY OF NEW YORK AND NEW JERSEY
REQUEST FOR QUALIFICATIONS/PROPOSALS
PERFORMANCE OF EXPERT PROFESSIONAL INTERIOR DESIGN SERVICES FOR OFFICES AT 4 WORLD TRADE CENTER
The Port Authority of New York and New Jersey in its commitment to Design Excellence is seeking to identify Lead Designers and professional Interior Design and/or Architectural firms to respond to an RFQ/RFP for services that include preparation of conceptual, preliminary and final designs, contract documents, and performance of post award services. After review of RFQ submittals, only those deemed most qualified, as determined by the Port Authority, shall be requested to submit a proposal. The RFP process may include a design charrette.
Joint Venture/Teams are acceptable.
Interested designers/firms are encouraged to request a complete copy of the RFQ at askforbids@panynj.gov, also available at www.panynj.gov. Reference RFQ No.: 14463 in the subject line of your e-mail. Include: firm name, e-mail address, contact, mail address, and telephone. Portfolios are due on or about 12/28/07.
Einhorn Yaffee Prescott Architecture and Engineering is a national architectural and engineering firm. Our portfolio includes projects for college and university, science and technology, and government clients.
EYP has openings for Project Architects/Job Captains in our NYC office. We’re seeking candidates with varied years of experience (5-10 years and 15+ years). Leadership and strong design & technical expertise required. Effective presentation skills & organizational skills essential. Professional degree in Architecture required. Must be proficient in CAD. Knowledge of Revit helpful. Professional registration a plus.
Submit a cover letter and resume indicating position number 0704N to Human Resources, EYP, 37 West 28th Street, 5th Floor, New York, NY 10001. e-mail: hr.nyc@eypae.com. Fax: (917) 981-6100
EYP offers a competitive compensation and benefits package.
Applicants will be subject to a background investigation.
EOE M/F/D/V
Einhorn Yaffee Prescott Architecture and Engineering is a national, award-winning architectural and engineering firm. Our portfolio includes projects for college and university, science and technology, and government clients.
EYP is seeking a Project Director for our NYC office. The position is responsible for leading teams in the delivery of projects and interfacing with clients.
Ten+ years experience in client management, and in the management & coordination of projects required. Professional degree in Architecture required. Must be proficient in CAD. Professional registration a plus. Must have excellent communication, presentation, technical & organizational skills. Ability to work in fast-paced, challenging work environment necessary.
Submit cover letter and resume indicating position number 0705N to Human Resources, EYP,37 West 28th Street, 5th Floor, New York, NY 10001. e-mail: hr.nyc@eypae.com. Fax: (917) 981-6100
EYP offers a competitive compensation and benefits package.
Applicants will be subject to a background investigation.
EOE M/F/D/V
LEAD ARCHITECT
The Pratt Center for Community Development works for a more just, equitable, and sustainable city for all New Yorkers, by empowering communities to plan for and realize their futures.
We seek an architect to provide design, feasibility/zoning analyses, and planning for not-for profit community-based organizations in New York City.
For detailed position description, requirements and application procedures, please visit www.pratt.edu/jobs. For more information about Pratt Center, please visit www.prattcenter.net.
Pratt Institute is an equal opportunity employer.
Senior Architect
International, award-winning architecture firm seeking experienced full-time architect to work in NYC headquarters. Candidate must be talented, self-motivated, creative and hard-working with 5-7 years experience. Excellent computer skills and construction experience a must. Competitive salary and benefits.
Please send resume, cover letter and work samples to info@daniel-libeskind.com.
Capital Project Management at Columbia University Facilities is currently seeking a Construction Cost Estimator to oversee and manage construction cost estimating within the department. This position is responsible for cost estimating of in-house projects in feasibility, planning, design and construction stages. Bachelor’s degree in architecture, engineering or construction management and a minimum of 10 years related experience is required. For a detailed job description and to apply to this position, please visit our website at https://jobs.columbia.edu using requisition number 051963.
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