In this issue:
· VIA AIA!
· How and Why to Get Involved with Your Community Board
· From Cave Art to Art Cave
· Libeskind Sweeps Museum Architecture
· common room Takes Uncommon Approach to Design
· MAD: A Slice of Life

(L-R): Laura Manville; Rick Bell, FAIA; Tony Schirripa, AIA, IIDA; Sherida Paulsen, FAIA; Michael Cosentino, AIA (President-elect, AIA Queens); Congresswoman Carolyn Maloney; Mary Burke, AIA; Margery Perlmutter, AIA; Margaret Castillo, AIA, LEED AP; Venesa Alicea, Assoc. AIA, LEED AP: Terrence O’Neal, AIA; Burt Roslyn, AIA.

Orly Isaacson

The Grassroots Leadership and Legislative Conference of the American Institute of Architects brought more than 800 architects to Capitol Hill last week. Our Rebuild & Renew message called on Congress to prioritize economic recovery funding for projects that will stimulate the design and construction industries, creating jobs and assuring design quality. The AIA’s plan will enable architects and builders to create safe and modern infrastructure, energy efficient buildings, and sustainable communities.

The AIA New York delegation was led by Chapter President Sherida Paulsen, FAIA, and included President-elect Tony Schirripa, AIA, IIDA, Vice President for Public Outreach Margaret Castillo, AIA, LEED AP, Public Director Margery Perlmutter, AIA, Associate Director Venesa Alicea, Assoc. AIA, LEED AP, along with Policy Coordinator Laura Manville.

AIA National issued briefs that we discussed with NYC legislators calling for the promotion of healthy and safe communities through transportation funding, the elimination of federal fee retainage rules, and health care reform.

We also had conversations on the Hill about the impact of the economic crisis on the architecture and design community in New York, and how project funding and credit is needed to keep offices going. The Chapter’s Not Business as Usual advocacy efforts resonated with members of Congress and others present. Of particular interest to many was the idea of energy surveys of public buildings as a generator of work, and the expansion of AmeriCorps to include a DesignCorps component.

The VIA AIA theme of vision/influence/action was organized and led by AIA National President-elect George Miller, FAIA, a past-president of AIA New York.

A highlight was the Best Practice session spotlighting the AIA New York Chapter’s New Housing New York Legacy Project. Many affordable housing enthusiasts and housing specialists came to hear the presentation by Holly Leicht, Deputy Commissioner for Development of the NYC Department of Housing Preservation & Development, and Mark Ginsberg, FAIA, LEED AP, the Chapter’s AIA150 Champion.

With a spirit of change in DC, and a sense of urgency imparted by global economic conditions, this Grassroots conference was considered by those attending as the most important lobbying effort by the AIA in history.

Event: Info Session: How to Join a Community Board
Location: Helpern Architects, 01.23.09
Speakers: Shaan Khan — Director of Community Affairs and Constituent Services, Manhattan Borough President’s Office; Margery Perlmutter, AIA — AIANY Public Director & Former Community Board 8 Member; David Helpern, FAIA — Principal, Helpern Architects & Community Board 8 Member
Organizer: David Helpern, FAIA

Governmental reform in NYC’s community boards is needed. There are a high number of vacancies, unbalanced representation, a highly politicized appointment process, unreported conflicts of interest, and many are unaware that community boards exist. The urgency is apparent, as this comes from Shaan Khan, the director of community affairs and constituent services at the Manhattan Borough President’s Office. “Participation is the first step to reform,” Khan stated at a recent discussion encouraging design professionals to join community boards.

There are 600 members in Manhattan’s 12 community boards. With staggered two-year terms, members are residents, work in the area, or otherwise have a significant interest in the neighborhood. Full boards meet once a month, and sub-committees meet more regularly. The boards’ roles range from reviewing land-use proposals, monitoring city services, influencing policy issues, and controlling some of the NYC capital and expense budget. Community boards are the first step in the Uniform Land Use Review Procedure (ULURP) process as well as budgeting in the city. They have major say in what buildings get built and what changes are made to zoning regulations.

Margery Perlmutter, AIA, was a member of Community Board 8 for six years. She joined after witnessing board members “abusing” architects who were presenting their projects. “Most members have no idea about zoning, buildings, or planning. They make big decisions for people who don’t have a background.” Perlmutter used the Atlantic Yards debacle as an example of the naiveté of board members. This is why it is important for those who have experience and expertise — architects, engineers, and design professionals — to get involved with their neighborhoods, she said.

While the government may be working on de-politicizing the application process, Perlmutter had some words of wisdom for those considering applying. “Filling out the application is just the beginning. You have to jockey for position among the many cliques.” She recommends making appointments with council members, becoming a non-voting public member of sub-committees, making acquaintances with members, and using all of your personal connections to vie for a position.

David Helpern, FAIA, a member of Community Board 8 who cites Perlmutter as integral to his appointment on the board, spent time marketing himself to his board. He kept after council members to meet with him. He made sure the Borough President knew him, asked that committee heads consider him, went to as many community board meetings as possible, and made friends with as many members as possible. When his application came through, the board was already familiar with his qualifications and him, personally.

While the process to get on a community board may be intensive, there are many benefits to sitting on one. They can be used to leverage a future in politics. As the chair of CB 8’s landmarks committee, Perlmutter used her position to vie for and become the commissioner of the Landmarks Commission. Ultimately, the more informed and knowledgeable people in board positions are, the better it is for communities, she stated. Even if the deadline for this year has passed, now is the time to start getting involved to make a significant difference.

Event: Lascaux: “The Sistine Ceiling of Prehistory”: The Complex Story of an Ice Age Sanctuary
Location: Center for Architecture, 01.30.09
Speaker: Randall White — Professor of Anthropology, New York University
Respondents: Simon Carr — Painter; Terrence Moran — NYU Professor of Culture and Communication, NYU; James McCullar, FAIA — Immediate Past President, AIANY; David Bennett, FAIA — Representative, International Tunneling and Underground Space Association
Organizers: AIANY Architectural Dialogue Committee; American Society of Landscape Architects; Les Maison Française, NYU

Hall of Bulls, Lascaux Cave, Montignac, France.

Courtesy AIANY

The flame created by burning animal fat and juniper twigs in a small clay lamp would flicker across the contours of the cave, bringing to life about 2,100 realistic paintings animals ranging from a 16-foot-long bull to tiny 18-inch-long horses. Since the complex of prehistoric caves with 17,000-year-old paintings were accidentally discovered in 1940, anthropologists, archaeologist, and art historians have marveled at the abilities of the artists to create depth, mix unnatural colors, and build scaffolds to tell stories that are indecipherable to this day.

In the subterranean gallery of the Center for Architecture, which is about one-third the size of Lascaux, NYU Professor of Anthropology Randall White, one of the world’s leading specialists in the study of Paleolithic art, discussed the 30 years of research he has conducted in the Dordogne region of France, where the caves are located. “Lascaux is not an island,” says White, “it’s part of a collection of caves.” In his opinion, Lascaux has been out of fashion for the last 20 or so years since other discoveries as old as 33,000 years have been found in the region. They are “not quite the same, but as impressive,” he says.

So why is Lascaux continually intriguing? In addition to the paintings themselves, there are stories about overzealous archeologists, mismanagement of the site by bureaucrats, and shady dealings by the locals. But today’s headline reads that Lascaux is in crisis mode — fighting for its life, and Mother Nature seems to be against it. In brief, the caves were opened to tourists after World War II, and the influx of thousands of people disturbed the cave’s natural equilibrium. After being plagued by fungi and bacteria then by re-crystallization of the rock itself, the caves were closed to the public in 1963. That year an air recirculation system was installed to mimic the cave’s natural currents. When in 2000 it was decided that the caves needed a new air conditioning system, authorities hired a company from the region that had experience doing supermarkets, not pre-historic caves.

The last time White visited Lascaux in 2001, he studied mold instead of the paintings themselves. “We’ve created a monster,” he says. “Lascaux has been turned into a laboratory.” Today, only a few scientific experts are allowed to work inside the cave and just for a few days a month. To satisfy the public and local economy, Lascaux II, a replica of two of the cave halls — the Great Hall of the Bulls and the Painted Gallery — was opened in 1983, 200 meters from the original. In addition, reproductions of other Lascaux artwork can be seen at the Centre of Prehistoric Art at Le Thot, France.

This brings us the Art Cave, an award winning project designed by Brooklyn-based architecture firm Bade Stageberg Cox. The Art Cave was built for private art collectors to house works they owned by contemporary artists such as Donald Judd, Richard Serra, and Vito Acconci. Instead of disturbing the natural beauty of the landscape on the 17-acre site in Napa Valley, the architects reverted to the idea of the primitive cave to shelter and showcase the works of art. The cave’s presence is articulated by weathering steel entry portals incised into the hillside. This modern cave satisfies local building codes. The design takes advantage of tunneling construction techniques developed for the wine industry to create a column-free interior volume. Like the original Lascaux Caves, the Art Cave is not open to the public, but unlike Lascaux, it has ever changing exhibitions to showcase the owner’s collections.

Event: Films and Conversations with the Architects: Daniel Libeskind: Denver Art Museum: Frederic C. Hamilton Building. Producer: Edgar B. Howard; Director: Muffie Dunn
Location: Center for Architecture 01.29.09
Speakers: Daniel Libeskind, AIA — Principal Design Architect, Studio Daniel Libeskind; Suzanne Stephens — Deputy Editor, Architectural Record
Organizers: Checkerboard Film Foundation; AIANY
Sponsors: Benjamin Moore

The titanium-clad exterior of the Denver Art Museum’s Hamilton Building.

Courtesy Denver Art Museum

After being recognized for many of his museum designs in Europe, the Frederic C. Hamilton Building, an extension to the Denver Art Museum, is the first built work in the U.S. by Daniel Libeskind, AIA. Using inspiration from the Rocky Mountains, Libeskind’s museum is like a crystal cantilevered from a central point. The sharp angles and sculptural form create new forms while keeping the building in an open dialogue with the existing environment.

Libeskind uses this form to produce an ever-changing experience that stays true to Denver. Outside, the titanium cladding picks up light and creates shifts in color; the structural folds invite natural light and sweeping vistas of the mountains. The variety of walls and spaces inside allow artists to come up with innovative ways of displaying their art. But for the visitor, it is the journey through these varied spaces and the experience of the plaza outside that is important.

Libeskind’s other recent endeavors include the Contemporary Jewish Museum in San Francisco; Tangent in Seoul; Westside in Brünnen, Switzerland; Zlota 44 in Warsaw; and Fiera, Milan. Each uses his design language and expresses his desire for challenge, celebrating the impossible.

The next Films and Conversations with the Architects event is this coming Thursday, 02.12.09, featuring Peter Eisenman, FAIA. Click here for more information.

Melissa Simonetti is an architectural designer at Kohn Pedersen Fox Associates and a new contributor to e-OCULUS.

Event: New Practices New York 2008, common room: 5 Obstructions (for Architecture)
Location: Häfele New York Showroom, 01.22.09
Speakers: Todd Rouhe, Maria Ibanez, & Lars Fischer — Principals, common room
Organizer: AIA New Practices Committee

NYFA Offices.

common room

The New Practices New York Winners Symposium last October left me wondering if common room, did, in fact, practice architecture (See “New Practices Preview: Six New Firms in Five Slides,” e-Oculus, 02.28.08). It turns out they DO practice architecture. Firm principals Todd Rouhe, Maria Ibanez, and Lars Fischer discussed the firm’s work, philosophy, and interests. Their presentation was structured by a series of five statements that summarize their practice:

1) Appropriate the Everyday
Before beginning design, common room carefully evaluates the daily routines of future users. In the case of office space for the New York Foundation for the Arts (NYFA), common room noticed that workers were using potted plants to form privacy screens. In their design they provided built-in planters and an open framework for hanging plants and climbing vines.

2) Never Finish
Common room sees architecture as an interconnected process where ideas blend from one project to the next. One example: the podium they designed for the New Practices New York exhibition at the Center for Architecture was adapted for their exhibition at the Häfele Showroom.

3) Share Space
Because NYC forces people to share close quarters, common room creates “hybrid spaces.” In the design for CANADA, a gallery in the Lower East Side, a simple table acts as a mediator between public display and functional workspace. Gallerists did not want a typical “white box” gallery, so common room chose to expose the gallery’s operations, making them “as important as the display of art.” True to their name, the large table in common room’s own office allows everyone to participate on one level in everything that happens in the firm.

4) Include Difference
When programming 30,000-square-foot floor plates of the Lehigh Liberty Center, an eight-story warehouse in Newark, common room had to consolidate two divergent programs on the same floor. Storage facilities are situated at the center with flexible office space lining the perimeter. It is an efficient and profitable layout for the owner.

5) Don’t be New
While “innovation” is a key word that comes to mind with New Practices, common room argues that designers shouldn’t “be new for the sake of the new.” At NYFA, common room reused existing light fixtures as a money-saving precaution. While this limited the plan, they were still able to achieve special moments such as the aforementioned screens and planters.

Common room looks to historical examples for organization, values, and ideals — not just form. And while technology is often a driver of modern form, the firm is, instead, “interested in the boundaries of institutional space.” This is evident in their presentation, which lacked digital renderings. They portray their work through simple, rational program diagrams and photos of built projects.

The next NPNY lecture, given by David Wallance Architect, will be 02.12.09. Go to the AIANY calendar for more information.

Murrye Bernard, LEED AP, is a designer with TEK Architects and has written for Architectural Record, Architecture Boston, and Architectural Lighting.

Event: New Works: Brad Cloepfil and Allied Works Architecture
Location: Museum of Arts and Design, 01.22.09
Speaker: Brad Cloepfil, AIA — Principal, Allied Works Architecture
Organizer: Museum of Arts and Design

Installation view of the “Second Lives: Remixing the Ordinary” exhibition at the MAD Museum.

Photo Richard Barnes, courtesy MAD Museum

The Museum of Arts and Design’s new home at 2 Columbus Circle has been fraught with controversy. Preservationists decried the changes by Allied Works Architecture (AWA) to Edward Durell Stone’s Venetian-style building; some architecture critics looked at the new renovation as not going far enough toward making a bold design gesture.

In a recent talk, AWA principal Brad Cloepfil, AIA, revealed his perspective on the renovation of the museum, which opened in its new location last September. He showed no particular preoccupation with making a grand architectural statement — instead, his focus was on opening up the building to its surroundings and creating a space that feels vibrant, alive, and integrally connected with the fabric of the city.

One early scheme involved using art vitrines as “columns of light” that would penetrate vertically through the various levels and tempt visitors to explore. That idea proved impractical, Cloepfil said, but its spirit remains in a system of glassy slits that cut through the floors, allowing museumgoers to glimpse the shadows of artworks or visitors on other levels. The façade is also slitted, both horizontally and vertically, yielding views of the city to MAD visitors and allowing glimpses of the museum’s collection to people outside.

Other AWA museum projects reveal a similar concern with fostering a connection with the urban surroundings. The Contemporary Art Museum St. Louis features ribbons of concrete that intersect and overlap, creating “a bounded place” that is still “intimately connected with the city,” according to Cloepfil. At the University of Michigan Museum of Art, the firm designed a soon-to-open addition that’s elevated off the ground so that “people could move through the building physically, see into the building, see through the building, and it would become a kind of filter for the activity of the campus,” he said.

As attendees wandered about after the talk, the lights of cars and buildings glowed through the strategically placed slits and windows, demonstrating the way the museum welcomes its surroundings. The architects have given a nod to the art and the design of the city.

Lisa Delgado is a freelance journalist who has written for Oculus, The Architect’s Newspaper, Blueprint, and Wired, among other publications.