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02.24.09
This Wednesday, 02.25.09, AIANY and the Center for Architecture Foundation are hosting an Opportunities Fair at the Center for Architecture as part of the Not Business as Usual forums. From 12:00-2:00pm representatives from Chapter committees, community organizations, non-profits, schools, and training programs will share information about volunteer opportunities, continuing education, and other opportunities. Be sure to stop by!
- Jessica Sheridan, Assoc. AIA, LEED AP
CLICK ON BLOG CENTRAL: AIANY BLOG: The AIANY Chapter’s Blog Central features opinion pieces on architectural issues relevant to NY-based designers, firms, and projects, along with spotlights on debates and discussions at the Center for Architecture and AIANY. It is an informal discussion board. To become a regular contributor to Blog Central, please e-mail e-Oculus. Pen names are welcome.
After combing through 404 entries — 160 in architecture, 118 in interiors, and 126 projects — the 2009 AIANY Design Awards have been announced. On 02.23.09, jury members in each category met to make the final decision.
Architecture — Honor
Jury: Brian Healy, AIA, Brian Healy Architects (Somerville, MA); David Miller, FAIA, The Miller | Hull Partnership (Seattle); Terence Riley, AIA, Miami Art Museum, K/R (Miami).
Diller Scofidio + Renfro
Alice Tully Hall, Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts, NY, NY
Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts
Allied Works Architecture
Dutchess County Residence — Guest House, Dutchess County NY
Thomas Phifer and Partners
Millbrook House, Millbrook, NY
Private Residence
Kohn Pedersen Fox Associates, PC
Shanghai World Financial Center, Shanghai, China
Mori Building Company
Thomas Phifer and Partners
Susan and Raymond Brochstein Pavilion at Rice University, Houston, TX
Rice University
Architecture — Merit
Stan Allen Architect
Chosen Children Village Chapel, Tagaytay, Philippines
Chosen Children Village Foundation
Joel Sanders Architect
House on Mount Merino, Hudson, NY
Jay Laudato and Tom Watson
Deborah Berke & Partners Architects LLP
Irwin Union Bank, Creekview Branch, Columbus, IN
Irwin Union Bank
Allied Works Architecture
The Museum of Arts and Design, NY, NY
The Museum of Arts and Design
Perkins Eastman and PKSB Architects
TKTS Booth and Revitalization of Father Duffy Square, NY, NY
Times Square Alliance, Theatre Development Fund, and the Coalition for Father Duffy
Interiors — Merit
Jury: Randy Brown, FAIA, LEED AP, Randy Brown Architects (Omaha); Ivonne Garcia, AIA, AECOM (Arlington, VA); Eva Jiricna, Hon. FAIA, Eva Jiricna Architects (London).
Stephen Yablon Architect PLLC
Betances Community Center and Boxing Gym, Bronx, NY
New York City Housing Authority
Polshek Partnership Architects
Brooklyn Museum, Elizabeth A. Sackler Center for Feminist Art, Brooklyn, NY
Brooklyn Museum
noroof architects
Finger Apartment, NY, NY
a+i architecture
(MALIN+GOETZ), NY, NY
Lynch/Eisinger/Design
Nike Genealogy Of Speed, NY, NY
Nike Inc.
1100 Architect
NYPL Francis Martin Library, Bronx, NY
The New York Public Library
Lyn Rice Architects
Sheila C. Johnson Design Center at Parsons The New School for Design, NY, NY
The New School
Rogers Marvel Architects
W57th Street POP (Privately owned Public) Space
Metropolitan Tower Public Passage and Lobby, NY, NY
Projects — Honors
Jury: Peter Chermayeff, FAIA, Peter Chermayeff and Poole Inc. (Boston); Rahul Mehrotra, RMA Associates (Brookline, MA); Dominique Perrault, Hon. FAIA, Dominique Perrault Architecture (Paris).
H Associates, Joel Sanders Architect, with Haeahn Architecture, YC Cho and HS Ki
Gangbuk Grand Park, Seoul, Korea
Seoul City, Korea
Stageberg Architecture PLLC: Bade Stageberg Cox
MoMA/P.S.1 Contemporary Art Center: Summer Blow-Up, Long Island City, NY
MoMA/P.S. 1
Projects — Merit
Johannes M.P. Knoops
Marriage Bureau; The Office of the City Clerk, The City of New York
Municipal Building, NY, NY
FXFOWLE Architects, LLP
Sheikh Rashid Bin Saeed Crossing, Dubai, United Arab Emirates
Roads and Transport Authority
TEN Arquitectos
Xochimilco Master Plan and Aquarium, Mexico City, Mexico
Government of the Federal District
Weiss/Manfredi
Wandering Ecologies, Toronto, Canada
Event: Not Business as Usual: Advocacy Update
Location: Center for Architecture, 02.11.09
Organizer: AIANY
Sponsors: AMX; Chief Manufacturing; Lutron Electronics; Traxon/e:cue
Many AIANY members believe local chapters need to take a proactive role in government activities and architects should be more involved in their communities to help pull the nation through hard economic times. At the recent Not Business As Usual discussion, Chapter members, professionals in design and related fields, and many individuals seeking employment brainstormed about how to improve advocacy efforts in the city.
One of the most heated discussions centered on the idea that there should be a “Design Corps,” modeled after AmeriCorps and other national design initiatives such as the Work Projects Administration and the Historic American Buildings Survey, which would dedicate government funds to improve city neighborhoods. This group could serve a dual purpose of beautifying communities while educating the general public about the value of architects and architecture. It could also help train emerging designers looking for work with hands-on experience.
There are several roles a Design Corps could play in the city. It could provide professional overview for design legislation and policies already on the table in the local and national government, supporting projects it deems important for successful urban growth. Or, it could disseminate information to the local and national design community from various governmental committees, including community boards, the Department of Buildings, and the Landmark Preservation Commission. A Design Corps could evaluate and report on projects and developments that qualify for density bonuses or other incentives. For public services, such as schools and hospitals, the group could act as a consultant advocating for design excellence. Finally, it could provide design services to communities and neighborhoods that cannot afford architects.
Participants at the table agreed that the Design Corps should be formed in collaboration with AIANY and other local professional organizations. Recruiting could happen at the Center for Architecture as well as throughout the city’s architecture schools. An office should be established where small neighborhood groups can come to request evaluations of new projects and conduct feasibility studies. The office would organize funding opportunities and sponsor grant proposals. To start, efforts should be concentrated on smaller projects that receive less attention from legislators and the general public.
The question of who should make up the Design Corps, and how much of the funding should go to the proposed projects and/or participants, drew the most debate. It was decided that licensed architects need to participate to maintain quality control. But if services are being offered, registered architects should be covered for liability. Since designers’ schedules fluctuate, depending largely on whether or not they are working, temporary, part-time, and full-time commitments should be made available. A living wage potentially could be provided for participants matched with funds from project budgets, and perhaps debt-relief, tuition, and pay for student loans could be provided for recent graduates.
Overall, the development of a Design Corps could help justify to the government how design is sustainable and can improve life for inhabitants; therefore, it is worthy of support and funding.
Event: Building Over the Past: The Hidden Layers of the City
Location: Center for Architecture, 01.27.09
Speaker: Steve Duncan — Urban Historian and photographer
Organizer: AIANY International Committee
Steve Duncan inside the Old Croton Aqueduct, which supplied NYC’s drinking water from 1842 until the late 19th century.
Steve Duncan
When most of us think of spending a nice day at a museum, we might think of hitting MoMA or the Met. But guerrilla historian Steve Duncan is more inclined to don a headlamp and explore a local NYC sewer, instead. The old subterranean infrastructure of cities is “one of the best ‘museums’ of old America that I’ve found,” he explained in a recent talk and slideshow. After all, underground spots tend to be protected from the elements and well preserved, so they provide a glimpse of architectural and cultural layers of times past.
Duncan’s obsession began in 1996, when he began exploring Columbia University’s subterranean tunnels while he was an undergrad there. These days, he travels around the world to practice “urban archaeology.” His slideshow gave the audience a whirlwind tour of Paris, London, Minneapolis-St. Paul, and other locales where he has snapped photos in spots both high above and far below the streets, in his never-ending quest to discover new angles on built environments.
Some of the underground images he showed have a strange beauty, such as the sculpted forms of sandstone tunnels forming the sewers of Minneapolis-St. Paul. His photos of NYC sewers and underground streams often showed a mélange of brick and concrete construction, much like the buildings above, though with occasional stalagmites or stalactites, as one might find in natural caves.
NYC’s underground watercourses bear testament to the city’s past incarnations, Duncan observed. Of course, NYC’s many waterways were one of the original draws for settlers. As the city, the sewer system developed along with it (rather chaotically), in multiple phases and methods of construction. The distinction between sewers and underground streams has often become blurred, Duncan added, because many streams became sewers once they were built over.
Though most of the city’s waterways are now hidden belowground, their memory lives on. Near the Center for Architecture, Minetta Street and Minetta Lane were named for Minetta Brook. The area’s underground waterways also make their continued presence known when local buildings such as the New School on West 13th Street occasionally flood, according to Duncan.
People in New York and beyond are searching for better ways to make underground watercourses more-well known and accessible. “Here are all these underground streams, these ancient watercourses, aqueducts, and I think it’s up to architects and builders and urban planners to try to celebrate that or open them up and reveal them,” Duncan said. But in NYC, the fact that the original watercourses are so intertwined with a labyrinthine sewer system makes such a task difficult. Some people advocate daylighting certain streams (though Duncan is too much of a fan of tunnels for that). Other efforts involve creating parks to celebrate the urban waterways, he said. Bounded by Canal, Varick, and Laight Streets, one park that’s under construction will feature a canal-like fountain (complete with a system of locks) inspired by the canal that once ran nearby. However, the project will use some water pumped in from the city’s water supply, instead of the nearby groundwater, Duncan said, challenging the architects in the audience to come up with better ideas about how best to celebrate and integrate the city’s groundwater in future projects.
Lisa Delgado is a freelance journalist who has written for OCULUS, The Architect’s Newspaper, Blueprint, and Wired, among other publications.
Event: Multidisciplinary Innovation
Location: Center for Architecture, 02.04.09
Speakers: Phillip Anzalone — Assistant Director of Avery Fabrication and Material Conservation Laboratory, Columbia University; Craig Schwitter, PE — Principal, Buro Happold; Chuck Hoberman — Founder & President, Hoberman Associates; Tristan d’Estree Sterk — Founder, Office for Robotic Architectural Media & Bureau for Responsive Architecture (ORAMBRA)
Moderator: Nina Rappaport — Publications Director, Yale University School of Architecture
Organizer: Center for Architecture
Sponsors: Underwriter: The Center for Architecture Foundation; Patron: Con Edison; Lead American Council of Engineering Companies; Josef Gartner USA; Weidlinger Associates; Friend: Grimshaw
“Trusset Structural System” by Philip Anzalone, Cory Clarke, and aa64 (left); ORAMBRA’s “Actuated Tensegrity Structures” (right).
Courtesy AIANY
“I think that architecture students are hungry to learn more about sustainability,” stated Phillip Anzalone, assistant director of the Avery Fabrication and Material Conservation Laboratory at Columbia University. But, “today’s students don’t have a feeling for sustainability. They create sustainable projects; however, in reality, these projects don’t work,” added Craig Schwitter, PE, principal at Buro Happold. It is practicing designers and engineers who are collaborating to pave the way for a sustainable future with technological innovation.
Currently, Anzalone is researching how to incorporate greenhouse spaces into building systems in urban environments. He developed a “Trusset Structural System” at the Graduate School of Architecture Planning and Preservation with Cory Clarke, director of electronic publishing at Columbia University, and aa64 in collaboration with the Fu Foundation School of Engineering and Applied Sciences. This lightweight structure can span distances with a high degree of flexibility.
After much technical training, integrated research, and experimentation, Buro Happold’s master plan of the City of Justice at Valdebebas Park in Madrid, expected to be complete in 2011, takes advantage of the city’s abundant sunshine by incorporating photovoltaics to harness solar energy. A collaboration with Hoberman Associates, the responsive façade maximizes translucency and natural shading to minimize solar gain. “Portability, instantaneous openings, and intelligent responsiveness” are other functions of the system’s ability to fold, retract, and shape-shift, Hoberman said.
Similar to Hoberman, Tristan d’Estree Sterk, founder of the Office for Robotic Architectural Media & Bureau for Responsive Architecture (ORAMBRA), is “interested in challenging the notion of structure and skin by using unlikely materials.” With a focus on the connection between engineering and architectural media, his “Actuated Tensegrity Structures” explore the limit of rigid structures in relation to dead loads. He developed prototypes that change shape in response to the weather and building occupants to have a minimum impact on the natural environment.
Christian Bergner, Assoc. AIA, currently works at Caples Jefferson Architects, and is a member of the AIANY Emerging NY Architects (ENYA) Committee.
Event: Films and Conversations with the Architects: Peter Eisenman: University of Phoenix Stadium for the Arizona Cardinals. Producer: Edgar B. Howard Director: Tom Piper
Location: Center for Architecture, 02.12.09
Speakers: Peter Eisenman, FAIA — Founder and Principal, Eisenman Architects; Suzanne Stephens — Deputy Editor, Architectural Record
Organizers: Checkerboard Film Foundation; AIANY
Sponsors: Peter Jay Sharp Foundation
University of Phoenix Stadium, designed by Eisenman Architects with HOK Sport.
Photo: David Sundberg/ESTO. Copyright Arizona Cardinals
The University of Phoenix Stadium was not designed to create change; nor was it intended to leave an overwhelming impression, explained its architect Peter Eisenman, FAIA, at a recent discussion and film screening about the stadium at the Center for Architecture. Eisenman, in conjunction with HOK Sport, set out to develop a “powerful symbol of community for Glendale,” rather than a “canonical” or “great” structure. The short film, produced by Edgar B. Howard and directed by Tom Piper, highlighted how Glendale itself inspired the stadium’s design.
Glendale residents value agriculture and the outdoors, and Eisenman looked to the surrounding landscape — particularly the indigenous barrel cactus — to inform his design. With double curvature and a hovering skin, the building bends in on the east, stretches out on the west, and retracts to open to the sky above. The metal skin reflects the surrounding environment and the glass slots between the panels provide interior views of the horizon. With the first fully retractable natural grass playing field in North America, the stadium floor can also accommodate public conferences and trade shows — a need that Eisenman discovered while listening to local residents.
Although the University of Phoenix Stadium may appear to be a departure from his theoretical work, Eisenman believes every building is open to interpretation. During the discussion with Architectural Record Deputy Editor Suzanne Stephens after the screening, he used the City of Culture of Galicia, currently under construction in Santiago de Compostela, Spain, as an example. He explained that projects are made for interpretation. “I don’t know what makes great, or good, or canonical. It just happens.” For the people of Glendale, the stadium has been all of those things, along with being the strong community attraction it was intended to be, Eisenman concluded.
Melissa Simonetti is an architectural designer at Kohn Pedersen Fox Associates and a new contributor to e-Oculus.
Event: New Practices New York 2008, David Wallance Architect: ‘Thingness’
Location: Hafele New York Showroom, 02.12.09
Speakers: David Wallance, AIA — Principal, David Wallance | Architect
Organizer: AIANY New Practices Committee
Proposed residence using the shipping container as a module.
David Wallance | Architect
Elements of architecture are not typically referred to as “things,” but David Wallance, AIA, one of the 2008 New Practices New York winners, titled his recent presentation “Thingness.” A phrase coined by philosopher Martin Heidegger in his essay, “The Question Concerning Technology,” “thingness” refers to the essence or fundamental nature of a thing, rather than the perception of it as simply an object. Similarly, Wallance considers buildings not as physical objects, but things that occupy their own rightful place. “Ideas are inseparable from things,” he said.
After attending Cooper Union, Wallance spent a number of years as a “journeyman,” learning how to design and develop drawings. He worked for a series of large firms; however, he was uncomfortable with thinking “outside of time” and decided to learn how to build. Wallance spent his free time designing and building a spec house in Upstate New York. The simple box features a unifying central fireplace and bookcase that spans two vertical floors. He and his family lived there for several years before selling the home. Wallance then designed and built a home specifically for his family — a one-story structure integrated with the landscape at grade. Organized by a series of modules, the house provides privacy for his teenage daughter who has her space at one end, while the master bedroom is situated at the opposite end. Glass walls maintain a connection between indoor and outdoor spaces, and the landscape becomes “living wallpaper.”
After growing increasingly frustrated with large drawing sets and the disconnect between designer and those actually building the projects (”craft is a mentality, not a tradition,” he stated), Wallance left his day job to pursue his private practice. Two entrepreneurs had approached him to design residences in downtown Manhattan using the dimensions of shipping containers as a module. The project, which is currently on hold due to the current real estate market, features an exposed structural frame enclosing the ground floor that supports the containers above. The containers themselves can be quickly installed by crane. Wallance designed four prototypical apartments with limitless combinations for the building.
Shipping containers — useless things that have seemingly served their purpose — find a new life through Wallance’s practical adaptation. He likes to quote Frank Sinatra when talking of his work: “being modern’s not about the future; it’s about the present.”
Murrye Bernard, LEED AP, is a designer with TEK Architects and has written for Architectural Record, Architecture Boston, and Architectural Lighting.
Leadon and White on Bleecker Street, January 30, 2000 (left); 40 Gansevoort Street (right).
Courtesy Fran Leadon (left); Fran Leadon (right)
One misconception about the AIA Guide to New York City is that its various editions (1968, 1978, 1988, 2000) were edited by Norval White, FAIA, and Elliot Willensky, FAIA. I occasionally see references to the “editors of the AIA Guide,” as if the Guide were an encyclopedia, written by many authors, their work merely overseen by White and Willensky. In fact, the Guide was always written by White and Willensky. Aside from contributions by Richard Dattner, FAIA, to the first edition (much of the original Upper Manhattan text was his), the Guide was all original work: White and Willensky divided up the neighborhoods, hiked the streets, did the research, snapped thousands of photos, and wrote the descriptions. It was, and is, field work. It’s eyewitness reporting, covering all five boroughs, one church, school, row house, park, restaurant, and statue at a time.
The first three editions of the Guide were true collaborations between White and Willensky. White might write about Greenwich Village and Willensky about Sheepshead Bay in one edition, and then they would swap for the following edition, revisiting and rewriting each other’s text. When Willensky passed away in 1990, the fourth edition (2000) was completed solo by White. My involvement in the Guide’s upcoming fifth edition (Oxford University Press, 2010) offered a chance for White to re-establish the collaborative process. He now lives in France; I live in Brooklyn. Last summer we discovered Google Docs, where both of us can access files simultaneously online. If one of us finds an interesting building unnoticed before, we post an initial description and wait for the other to rewrite it. Many of the descriptions in the new Guide have been written equally by both of us, and rewritten so many times I can no longer tell who wrote which parts. Here’s a good example:
40 Gansevoort Street, SE corner of Greenwich Street. 2006. Morris Adjmi.
Gansevoort Market boasts unique vernacular architecture: block buildings with loading docks, canopies pendant over the sidewalk: their steel joists and translucent vinyl panels cabled to the façade. Here Adjmi, a disciple of the late, great Italian architect Aldo Rossi, attempts new canopies, using the same vocabulary. But try as he might, the old ones, often mangled from countless trucks backing into them, are more funky, less precious, and much more interesting.
Most of White and Willensky’s original text from previous editions will remain in the new Guide, edited for details when necessary (a stoop added or wisteria vines cleared, a favorite tavern boarded up, a theater turned into a Rite Aid). While there have been unfortunate demolitions, other buildings have been saved. In this case, a building was even (almost) replicated:
72nd Street IRT Subway Kiosk, Broadway and Amsterdam Ave. S of W.72nd St. 1904. Heins & La Farge. Reconstruction and extension of the station, 1999-2004. Gruzen Samton and Richard Dattner & Assocs.
Cartoonist and wit James Stevenson termed this a “Peruvian Cathedral”. And so it has been preserved, in concert with a new, much larger entrance by Gruzen Samton and Dattner. Roomy and full of light inside, it’s a welcome addition to one of the most congested transfer platforms on the IRT. Outside it’s a disappointment. Why try to duplicate the old Heins & La Farge kiosk across the street? The Peruvian Cathedral reigns: this is merely a very large kiosk.
I have no idea at this point if “merely a very large kiosk” came from White or from me. And I’m hoping that when the new Guide comes out next year I won’t be able to point definitely to any passages that I wrote on my own, without White’s words growing through them like wisteria.
Norval White, FAIA, is an architect, architectural historian and professor. He has designed buildings throughout the U.S., and in addition to the AIA Guide to New York City, is the author of The Architecture Book and New York: A Physical History. He currently resides with his wife Camilla in Roques, France.
Elliot Willensky, FAIA, (1934-1990) was an architect and architectural historian. He served as vice chairman of the NYC Landmarks Preservation Commission, and was the official Borough Historian of Brooklyn. He also wrote a popular history, When Brooklyn Was the World, 1920-1957.
Fran Leadon, AIA, is an architect and professor at the School of Architecture, Landscape Architecture, and Urban Design at the City College of New York. He lives in Brooklyn.
The South Bronx holds 40% of NYC’s waste, 100% of the Bronx’s waste, four electrical power plants, a sewage treatment plant, a sewage pelletizing plant, and sees more than 60,000 trucks pass through daily. These statistics, presented by Sustainable South Bronx (SSBx) Founder and Majora Carter Group President Majora Carter at a recent talk at the Museum of the City of New York, brought to light for me the importance of thinking holistically when it comes to sustainable design.
“No community should harbor the burden of environmental waste while not getting any benefit from sustainability,” Carter argued, adding that if dumping grounds were placed in wealthy neighborhoods there would be no need to go green. Those communities would have found a way to keep their districts clean long ago.
By spreading both the wealth and the burden, the whole nation could potentially lower its emissions and perhaps improve the overall state of the environment. Currently, Carter is proposing to use the national grid to harvest sun and wind (”it is always sunny and windy somewhere in the nation”), and deliver green energy throughout the country, preferably via highways to avoid disrupting existing communities. I can see how remote towns would be directly connected with major cities; the coasts would be able to use inland resources usually unavailable to them, and vice versa. Instead of politics, nature could unify the U.S.
Whether it is with PlaNYC or the stimulus package, we need to start thinking beyond specific proposals and individual communities. Sustainable planning in a larger, global sense would create environmental justice — by improving the environment, creating jobs, and educating the nation — unparalleled to what we have seen before. Carter praised President Obama’s ideals, but claimed it is the responsibility of the nation to get involved with changing the world. She ended her talk with an Obama acronym that speaks beyond the man and to our future actions: “Officially Behaving as Magnificent Americans.”
In this issue:
· The Bronx is Up With a New Mixed-Use Development
· Jewish Braille Institute Reveals NY Headquarters
· Three Becomes One for New Housing in Brooklyn Historic District
· Green Design to Revitalize New Brunswick
· The Beacon Shines Once Again
The Bronx is Up With a New Mixed-Use Development
Fordham Place.
GreenbergFarrow
The recently opened Fordham Place, designed by GreenbergFarrow, is the first new mixed-use development in the Bronx in more than 15 years and the first Class A office building to be built in the borough in over 20 years. The 276,475-square-foot retail and office complex, developed by Acadia Realty Trust and its partner PA Associates, is located opposite Fordham University. Maintaining and reusing as much of the existing structure as possible, the design adds a total of approximately 90,000 square feet to the property’s first six floors. Other upgrades include an expanded cellar, and the relocation of the loading dock, which was replaced by a two- to five-story glass structure serving as an entrance to the upper-level retailers.
Jewish Braille Institute Reveals NY Headquarters
JBI International.
Fink & Platt Architects
JBI International, established in 1931 as the non-profit Jewish Braille Institute that provides blind and visually impaired readers with literature in audio, large print, and Braille, has recently opened a 20,000-square-foot facility in midtown Manhattan. Designed by Fink & Platt Architects, the new JBI Library includes a complete renovation of the organization’s existing 17,500-square-foot, seven-story building, a two-story, 2,500-square-foot addition, and a new curtain wall and storefront to replace the failing masonry façade. The library includes a digital recording studio, post-production and circulation departments, high-efficiency archival media storage, executive offices, meeting rooms, staff lounge, roof garden, and tenant rental space. Fink & Platt established a strong visual identity for the space through color, materials, and graphics. Graphic design firm Whitehouse & Company created a Braille map for the lobby and custom wallpaper that communicate the mission of the organization. The project was partially funded by the NYC Economic Development Corporation (NYCEDC).
Three Becomes One for New Housing in Brooklyn Historic District
Old Fulton Street Apartments.
Fifield Piaker Elman Architects
Three adjoining Greek Revival commercial structures built from 1836-1839 in Brooklyn’s Fulton Ferry Historic District in Dumbo will be transformed into a 15-unit apartment building with retail on the ground floor. Designed by Fifield Piaker Elman Architects for Northside Development, the buildings’ façades will be restored. Internally, the units will be united by replacing the original structural columns and floor joists with a new steel frame allowing for clear spans between bearing walls. The new brick rear façade will feature punched window openings with double-hung windows compatible with the historic front façade. The penthouse addition, which will be set back, has a sloped upper façade so that it will be barely visible from the street, and won’t detract from the building’s architectural character. The Landmarks Preservation Commission has approved the plans for the buildings, and the project is scheduled to be completed in early 2010.
Green Design to Revitalize New Brunswick
Hiram Square Condominium.
Tarantino Architect
Lawrence and Sharon Tarantino, of NJ-based Tarantino Architect, have teamed with the owners of the Frog and The Peach Restaurant at Hiram Square in downtown New Brunswick to design and develop a multi-unit, sustainable residential condominium adjoining the restaurant. The restaurateurs, Jim Black and Betsy Alger, have a background in environmental design and horticulture, which may account for the fact that the project contains a green roof for growing herbs for the restaurant and beehives for honey production. Other green features include renewable solar energy collection, geothermal heat systems, recycled building materials, on-site wind power and a solar veil. The one- and two-bedroom units will contain private green spaces with outdoor accessibility, radiant heating, sustainable interior finishes, and renewable materials. Green amenities include Smart Car Zip Car service, and culinary amenities include a “Take Home Chef.” The project is part of the vision for revitalizing New Brunswick and the riverfront, and aspires to be the first residential project in the city to receive a LEED-Platinum certification.
The Beacon Shines Once Again
Following a seven-month, $16 million restoration, the 2,800-seat landmark Beacon Theatre on the Upper West Side reopened this month. The 1927 theater was designed by architect Walter Ahlschlager in a mix of styles including Greek, Roman, Renaissance, and Rococo. Beyer Blinder Belle Architects & Planners headed-up the comprehensive restoration project that focused on all historic interior public spaces, backstage, and back-of-house areas, and was based on extensive research and on-site examination of original, decorative painting techniques. Restoration elements range from historic finishes in the lobbies, to custom patterned carpet based on the original designs, and the original 30-foot-high Venetian-inspired chandelier. Over the course of the restoration process, more than 1,000 artisans, craftsmen, and tradesmen worked on the project.
In this issue:
· A Community of Hands to Help: Max is Gone
· AIANY Chapter Launches A.R.E. Boot Camp
· AIA Responds to Cutting of School Construction Funding
· AIA Publishes Pro Bono Guide
· Box-a-Thon Returns to NYC
A Community of Hands to Help: Max is Gone
By Rick Bell, FAIA, AIANY Executive Director
I was going to write, about the death of J. Max Bond, Jr., FAIA; that Max was my mentor, as he was for so many others — that he was an inspiration and a role model for thousands of architects and architecture students. Roberta Washington, FAIA, said it better and first in one of many, many e-mails that brought people together in their shock and their grief. She sent the following short message: “Max was my mentor (he was for many) and an inspiration in so many respects. He was a role model extraordinaire. He was supportive when he needed to be and blunt and truthful when he had to be. There will be a big hole in the architecture fabric of New York with his passing.”
The extraordinary facts of his life have been related in the obituaries linked to this space-limited tribute. Academic achievements, breakthrough patterns of work from the Architects Renewal Committee in Harlem (ARCH) to Davis Brody Bond Aedas, not to forget Bond Ryder James Architects. The projects we all know, large and small, near and far. And those of us who loved his forceful persistence for an engaged, politically-aware design excellence find no one else to fill his shoes. Whether over an architectural school drawing board (second year housing studio in my case), a tricky land use issue at the City Planning Commission, or over the design and symbolism of major public project (one of my favorites is the Langston Hughes Library & Community Center that Max did under the auspices of DDC on Northern Boulevard in Queens). Over the front door of that project, a bronze-colored façade frames some of the famous words of Freedom’s Plow. The poem begins: “When a man starts to build the world / He starts first with himself / And the faith that is in his heart / The strength there / The will to build.” Max had the will to build, and he built well.
Other memorials in the news:
“J. Max Bond Jr., Architect, Dies at 73,” by David W. Dunlop, The New York Times, 02.19.09.
“Max Bond, 1935-2009: Revered Davis Brody Bond Aedas partner was pathbreaking African-American architect,” by Julie Iovine, The Architect’s Newspaper, 02.18.09. The Architect’s Newspaper is also soliciting tributes: Remembering Max Bond.
“J. Max Bond, 1935-2009,” by Clay Risen, The New Republic, 02.19.09.
AIANY Chapter Launches A.R.E. Boot Camp
By Carolyn Sponza, AIA, LEED AP
A.R.E. Bootcamp.
Carolyn Sponza
The AIANY Chapter and the Emerging NY Architects Committee (ENYA) has launched an Architects Registration Examination (A.R.E.) Boot Camp program for intern architects. The first three sessions, which covered the Structural Systems, Site Planning, and Building Systems divisions of the examination, were filled to capacity. The remaining four Saturday sessions will focus on Construction Documents and Services, Building Design and Construction Systems, Programming Planning and Practice, and Schematic Design. Format of the program is structured on ARE 4.0.
95% of respondents polled at the first session said that this was the first review class they had taken. Led by a combination of recently licensed architects and seasoned professionals, each class begins with an overview of study and test-taking strategies and techniques critical to exam success. This program is offered at $10 for Associate AIA members ($75 for non-members), and is part of AIANY Chapter’s efforts to support intern architects on the road to licensure.
More information about the remaining sessions in this series is available on the program website at: www.aiany.org/are. The series is also planned to run again in the fall.
AIA Responds to Cutting of School Construction Funding
In response to the Senate’s elimination of stimulus funding for the modernization of schools, the AIA is sending a letter to Congressional leaders to argue against this, citing 67 organizations (including Sierra Club, U.S. Conference of Mayors, National Education Association) who support the AIA’s concerns.
AIA Vice President, Government & Community Relations, Paul Mendelsohn said, “Not only are America’s schools in desperate need of repairs, but the money allocated in the House version of the bill would result in the creation of 400,000 jobs nationwide. Schools are the only building type where, through green design, you can reduce energy consumption, improve the environment, and create a learning environment where students will be better prepared to compete in a global workplace.”
AIA Publishes Pro Bono Guide
Through pro bono efforts, architects and allied design professionals bring a unique combination of knowledge and design skills to bear on a wide range of issues facing our communities.
To translate good intentions into effective action, the AIA has released the Institute Guidelines to Assist AIA Members, Firms and Components in Undertaking Pro Bono Service Activities. The Guidelines include how to select pro bono clients, define the scope of services, avoid legal liabilities and other pitfalls, and develop contracts or agreements for pro bono services.
Box-a-Thon Returns to NYC
SpecSimple.com’s Save A Sample! invites design firms to donate boxes of materials including fabrics, brochures, and finish cards, which will be given to local design schools. In addition, Save A Sample! raises money from manufacturer sponsors for resource library scholarships for each of the participating schools. Supported by AIA, ASID, IIDA, SMPS, and USGBC, last year’s Save A Sample! raised over $14,000 in scholarships, which were distributed to the Art Institute, FIT, Kean University, NYIT, NYSID, Parsons The New School, and Pratt Institute. This year’s event runs 04.07-09.09.
What is your opinion about pro bono work?
Note: Results from this poll are non-scientific.
Musician Quincy Jones is petitioning President Obama to appoint a Secretary of Arts. Do you agree with the proposal?
Note: Results from this poll are non-scientific.
With no operating money for the island in Governor Paterson’s proposed budget and no new capital money in sight, the Governors Island Preservation and Education Corporation (GIPEC) is preparing to shut down the island, unless the state legislature can push through funding, which the city will match. Governors Island Alliance (GIA) members are meeting with legislative leaders on February 27, launching a postcard drive to the Governor, Mayor, and legislators, planning a press conference, and testifying at hearings. “Being the eternal optimist, I am hopeful that we will indeed have a summer season on the Island and the historic district will be protected,” says GIA executive director Rob Pirani. “But it’s going to take all of us to see this happen.” Click here to send a “Keep the Island Afloat” postcard to the Governor.
Nine firms were selected out of 40 to be a part of the 2009 Center for Architecture Exhibition Design Shortlist — Open Call: Architecture in Formation, Evidence Design, G TECTS, Incorporated Architecture + Design, Leven Betts, Lyn Rice Architects, MATTER, Moorhead & Moorhead, and nARCHITECTS…
The Interior Design Department at FIT announced that Gaetano Pesce is the 2009 Lawrence Israel Prize honoree…
NY-based winners of the 2008 International Design Awards competition Professional First Place Awards include, in the following categories: Landscape, WXY Architecture + Urban Design for The Battery Bosque & Carousel; Urban Design, Rogers Marvel Architects for Battery Park City Streetscapes; Renovation, Jonathan Kirschenfeld Associates for Floating Pool; Renovation, Taryn Christoff, Martin Finio, AIA, Jeff Hong, Chris Mechaley, Mac Patoulas, John Szot, and Vicky Yuan for The Heckscher Foundation… Mancini Duffy also won an award in the Annual Reports category for “Mancini Duffy’s Year in Review”…
The Alliance for Downtown New York has selected Starr Whitehouse Landscape Architects and Planners and FXFOWLE Architects to study street-level conditions, and implement a planning and design study of Water Street… The Illuminating Engineering Society of NYC will announce the results of their Ninth Annual NYC Student Lighting Competition and mark the opening of the Audible Light Exhibition on 03.04.09 with a keynote address by Linnaea Tillett, PhD…
George Melas, AIA, LEED AP, has been named a Senior Vice President at Syska Hennessy Group, Inc… Gerner Kronick + Valcarcel Architects (GKV) appointed Benita Welch, AIA, and Joseph Barbagallo, AIA, as Principals… Poulin + Morris has named Brian Brindisi a Principal of the firm… BBG-BBGM named Roderick A. Petschauer and Ronda McCrea Principals.
01.28.09: PKSB Architects feted Principal Sherida Paulsen, FAIA, on her assuming the mantle of 2009 AIANY President.
AIANY President Sherida Paulsen, FAIA, with David Burney, FAIA, Commissioner, NYC Dept. of Design + Construction, and AIANY Executive Director Rick Bell, FAIA.
Kristen Richards
(L-R): Mark Ginsberg, FAIA, Past AIANY President; Frank Sciame, Hon. AIANY; David Burney, FAIA.
Kristen Richards
Marcy Stanley, Hon. AIA, Weidlinger Associates; Sophie Deprez, AIANY/Center for Architecture Development Coordinator; Sara Romanoski, AIANY/Center for Architecture Programs Coordinator.
Kristen Richards
02.11.09: A 10-foot-tall heart sculpture by Gage/Clemenceau made from stainless steel, LED lights, and robot-carved Corian shelves was erected in Times Square for Valentine’s Day.
Lovers embrace under the lights.
Murrye Bernard
The sculpture up close.
Murrye Bernard
2009 Oculus Editorial Calendar
If you are an architect by training or see yourself as an astute observer of New York’s architectural and planning scene, note that OCULUS editors want to hear from you! Projects/topics may be anywhere, but architects must be New York-based. The themes:
Spring Issue: Elevating Architecture / Design Literacy for All. Closed.
Summer Issue: AIANY 2009 Design Awards and AIANY/BSA Biennial Design Type Awards. Closed.
Fall Issue: Carbon Neutral Now. The new green frontier, carbon neutrality, researched, explored, planned, and designed at all scales by New York architects.
06.01.09: Suggestion Deadline
Winter Issue: Health & Architecture. Architecture designed to promote fitness, health, and wellness will be profiled. Projects selected from within this growing field will demonstrate sensitivity to generational and demographic issues, sustainability, and technology.
08.01.09: Suggestion Deadline
If you have suggestions, please contact OCULUS editor-in-chief Kristen Richards.
03.31.09 Call for Nominations: CTBUH Chair Search
The Council on Tall Buildings and Urban Habitat (CTBUH) seeks a new chair to oversee its strategic steering and direction in conjunction with the CTBUH Board of Trustees. The position is a two-year tenure, ideally preceded by a one-year position as Vice-Chair/Chair-Elect. There is no fixed profile, but prior involvement in the conception, design, construction, and/or operation of tall buildings is a pre-requisite.
05.15.09 Call for Entries: Maxmix Cities: Celebration of Cities 3
This ideas consultation is open to architects and architecture students internationally. It is a response to the multiple contradictions of contemporary cities: high density and anonymity; man’s distance from nature and his desire to retrieve it; opposition between the urban world and the rural world, between the past and the present. A grand prize of 5,000 Euros will be awarded in each category (students and professionals).
09.04.09 Call for Nominations: MAPA Design 09
The Mid-Atlantic Precast Association (MAPA) announces a new awards competition with two categories to honor architect and student designs that incorporate precast concrete in the mid-Atlantic region. Winners will receive a custom plaque and recognition in a variety of MAPA communications.
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
January 22 — April 25, 2009
MAKE IT WORK. Engineering Possibilities
Today’s engineers are working across disciplines and driving innovation. MAKE IT WORK. Engineering Possibilities looks at how engineers are envisioning and realizing the future of our built environment by transforming structures, improving environments, enhancing materials, re-inventing building technologies, and advancing forms. This exhibition highlights how inventive strategies for building are born from multidisciplinary research and integrated practice. Small engineering firms, large engineering firms, engineering schools, university labs, materials labs, artists, inventors, and architects are all part of the exchange of ideas — plotting trajectories of innovation.
Building on observations, analysis, and mathematical principles, engineers have developed the profession from empirical analysis into a field of expertise based on predictability and synthesis. With digital simulation and processing capabilities, engineers are utilizing comprehensive models to explore different options for optimizing structures and systems.
Twenty-first century engineers are tackling some of the most challenging concerns of our day. Exceeding LEED standards for sustainable building, engineers are conceiving of new ways for buildings to harvest and manage energy — floors that create electricity and facade systems that respond to the sun. Anticipating dwindling global resources, engineers are designing structures to new standards of efficiency and economy — stadiums that use 50% less steel and towers formed for optimal wind-loading.
These solutions are the product of creative and collaborative pursuit. This exhibition highlights how inventive strategies for building are born from multidisciplinary research and integrated practice. Small engineering firms, large engineering firms, engineering schools, university labs, materials labs, artists, inventors, and architects are all part of the exchange of ideas — plotting trajectories of innovation.
Exhibition Curatorial Team:
Rosamond Fletcher
Eli Gottlieb
Zak Kostura
Erik Madsen
Jonah Stern
Beth Stryker
Exhibition Designer:
Pure + Applied
Framing Space Installation by:
Phillip Anzalone and Stephanie Bayard, aa64
The Trusset Structural System, invented by Phillip Anzalone and Cory Clarke, is a project of the Graduate School of Architecture Planning and Preservation (GSAPP) at Columbia University in collaboration with the Fu Foundation School of Engineering and Applied Sciences.
Research Assistant:
Ginger Nolan, Columba GSAPP Ph.D Candidate
Research Intern:
Alicia Arroyo
Special Thanks to our Advisory Committee:
Julie Applebaum, Center for Architecture Foundation Board
Phil Bernstein, Autodesk
Vincent Chang, Grimshaw
John Hennessy, ACEC President
Marvin Mass, Cosentini
Dan Nall, Flack + Kurtz
Craig Schwitter, Buro Happold
David Scott, Arup
Susan Szenasy, Metropolis
Richard Tomasetti, Thornton Tomasetti.
Underwriter:
Patron:
Lead Sponsors:
Supporters: American Council of Engineering Companies of New York, Josef Gartner USA, and Weidlinger Associates
Friend: Grimshaw Architects
Supporter: American Council of Engineering Companies of New York
The Framing Space Installation is generously provided by aa64 with additional support from:
Alusion, a product of Cymat Technologies Ltd.
Contrarian Metal Resources
General Plastics Manufacturing
Indalex Aluminum Solutions Group
Maloya Laser, Inc.
Panelite
Related Events
Wednesday, February 4, 2009, 6:00 — 8:00pm
Multi-disciplinary Innovation
Saturday, February 21, 2009, 11:00am — 5:00pm
Symposium: Energy Engineering
Thursday, February 26, 2009, 6:00 — 8:00pm
100% BIM
Thursday, March 19, 2009, 6:00 — 8:00pm
Tapered, Tilted, Twisted Towers: a lecture by David Scott, Arup
Friday, March 27, 2009, 6:00 — 8:00pm
Screening of Bird’s Nest, a film by Christoph Schaub & Michael Schindhelm
Through 03.29.09
Urban China: Informal Cities
Urban China: Informal Cities.
The New Museum
The first U.S. exhibition of Urban China magazine, the only magazine devoted to issues of urbanism published in China, includes a built environment of reclaimed construction materials; a massive wall graphic combining photographs, found images, numerical data, and maps; a Flash-based, user-navigable database of photographs; and a selected collection of past issues of Urban China magazine. Together, these elements fill the lobby gallery, exploding the magazine’s radical worldview off its pages and into the physical space of the museum. The wall graphic and related objects examine how informal systems — spatial, economic, and utilitarian — act to subvert the controlled nature of urban spaces in China.
The New Museum
235 Bowery
Through 03.31.09
Exyzt — Situation Room
Storefront for Art and Architecture
Working on experimental projects, Exyzt invites architecture, video, graphic-design, botany and any other concept to become devices of expression and creation. Situation Room is a playground for [re] creation, collective action, active occupation, open demonstration, and social games. It is meant to be a space for intuitive, interactive, and collective performance. Members of Exyzt will inhabit the gallery space, making use of the furnishings as though it were a domestic space and inviting the audience to reconsider occupied areas in a well-defined timeframe.
Storefront for Art and Architecture
97 Kenmare Street
Through 04.04.09
Building Code
Building Code.
Jen Berkman Gallery
This is an exhibition of eight paintings in oil and acrylic by Sarah McKenzie, who paints buildings in various states of construction, referencing geometric abstraction and 20th-century Modernism. She applies paint to the canvas in ways that often break the unity of the image. Her process parallels construction and her surfaces encourage the viewer to compare the structure of the paintings with the frames of the buildings she is painting.
Jen Berkman Gallery
6 Spring Street
Through 05.31.09
What is Sculpture? Akari from the 1986 Venice Biennale
Installation at the 1986 Venice Biennale with Akari VB6 at right.
Photo by Shigeo Anzai, courtesy The Noguchi Museum
The Noguchi Museum presents Isamu Noguchi’s Akari Light Sculptures, focusing on the examples featured in the American Pavilion at the 1986 Venice Biennale. This display comprises eight Akari from that exhibition, along with some 20 additional designs not shown in Venice. A highlight of the exhibition is a group of unique and rarely seen Akari Light Sculptures that Noguchi created especially for the Biennale — the last the artist would make. These include the VB4 model, which is a large, “floating” pyramidal paper shade that is suspended from a cord and has been tethered to the ground by stones covered in handmade paper.
The Noguchi Museum
9-01 33rd Road (at Vernon Boulevard), Long Island City
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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Shared Architectural Office Space: 211 W. 19th Street, 2nd Floor, NY,NY
Established architectural firm has a total of 5 double workstations available for sublease, each approximately 100 sqft, in a large loft-like light filled space. Shared conference table, kitchen, restrooms, and sample library available. Heat, A/C, and desks included.
Please contact Maggie de la Vega at 212-580-2220 or sicoarch@siriscoombs.com.
Architect’s Office / Shared Space
Six (8′ long) work desk positions available ($600 desk/month).
17′ ceiling loft space in SoHo/Chinatown area.
Share amenities including pantry, plotter, photocopier etc.
Contact Bryan Langlands at 212-941-8825 x.101 or blanglands@dbarch.net
Website: www.dbarch.net
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