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09.15.09
Now that the fall is approaching, the city is brimful of architectural events. Be sure to check out the recently announced Architecture Week schedule on the AIANY website, and start planning your October now!
- Jessica Sheridan, Assoc. AIA, LEED AP
Correction: In the Summer 09 OCULUS Design Awards issue, the names Rahul Mehrotra and Peter Chermayeff, FAIA, should be transposed in the caption under the Design Awards jury photo on page 9, and in the Projects jury caption on page 13.
Note: Be sure to follow Tweets from e-Oculus and the Center for Architecture.
Event: H209 Water Forum
Location: Liberty Science Center, 09.09-10.09
Speakers: For a full list of the more than 100 speakers, and to download the full H209 program, go to henryhudson400.com
Organizers: Henry Hudson 400 in partnership with Liberty Science Center, Metropolitan Waterfront Alliance, and the Netherlands Water Partnership
The H209 Forum commemorated Henry Hudson’s pioneering voyage by exploring the water challenges of the 21st century.
Courtesy Henry Hudson 400
The Dutch have a saying that God created the earth, but the Dutch created the Netherlands. “The Dutch have a long, and sometimes painful, relationship with the sea,” said Cees Veerman, chairman of the Dutch Delta Commission and co-chair of H209 — a two-day forum for the Dutch to share their knowledge and best practices. The great flood of 1953, ever present in conversation today, spurred the creation of the Delta Works, a series of locks, dams, and flood barriers. With the predicted rise in sea level and fluctuations in river discharge, the Dutch are constantly planning for disaster. For that reason, the government established a “new” delta committee, called the Sustainable Coastal Development Committee. Whereas the former committee focused on hydraulic engineering works to counter an acute threat, the second is charged with making recommendations with a broader mandate. Top on their list of goals: how to adapt to climate change.
Mayor Ahmed Aboutaleb of Rotterdam showed post-WWII and current photos of his city, Holland’s second largest with Europe’s largest port. Located on the North Sea, the port of Rotterdam has 24/7 access, hosting companies that specialize in storage, trans-shipment, and ancillary services. “And it could all be gone in seconds,” said Aboutaleb. One solution to rising tides is the Delta Works’ Maeslant Barrier, a storm surge barrier built in 1997 consisting of two enormous doors that fill with water and sink to the bottom when closed to seal off the port. The barrier is only closed in extreme weather, but the Dutch expect this to happen more frequently due to the rising sea levels. Because of this and other developments, Rotterdam hopes to be a 100% climate-proof delta city by 2025.
Also on the minds of attendees was Hurricane Katrina, which U.S. Senator Mary L. Landrieu (D-LA) said was our “wake-up call,” warning of another category-three storm in the near future. She compared the U.S. to a drowning person, as Holland is an Olympic swimmer. The senator reiterated reform goals she detailed in a letter to President Obama urging restoration, flood protection, and a new system of integrated water management. She called for dedicated funding to replace the project-by-project approach that has characterized the Water Resources Development Authority legislation in the past, and hopes this administration will designate a high-level working group to address these issues.
Continues…
Event: H209 Water Forum Keynote Address
Location: Liberty Science Center, 09.09-10.09
Speaker: Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. — Chairman, Waterkeeper Alliance
Organizers: Henry Hudson 400 in partnership with Liberty Science Center, Metropolitan Waterfront Alliance, and the Netherlands Water Partnership
The Hudson River.
Jessica Sheridan
When Henry Hudson reached New York Harbor, he noted it was teeming with salmon, mullet, and wraith-like rays. Americans have been fisherman since the country was a Dutch colony, employing techniques learned from the Native Americans. “The Hudson River is our Noah’s Ark,” said Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., chairman of the Waterkeeper Alliance, the largest grassroots water protection group in the country. The organization started in 1966 in Crontonville, NY, when commercial and recreational fisherman united to save the Hudson River.
According to Kennedy, “they were prototypical blue-collar environmentalists,” and to them, “the Hudson was their environment, their workplace, their property, their park — it was their Riviera.” They felt Penn Central was robbing them of their river, which had turned black with oil, and joined forces despite doubting they could beat a large corporation and force it to obey the law. In the course of researching an article about angling in the river two years earlier, one member of the group came across two little-known laws — the Rivers and Harbors Act of 1888 and the Refuse Act of 1899. These statutes forbade pollution of American waters and provided a bounty reward for whoever reported the violation.
The Riverkeepers, as they called themselves, succeeded in shutting down the Penn Central pipeline and collected a $2,000 bounty, the first ever awarded under the statute. The group went on to collect larger bounties against Standard Brands, Ciba-Geigy, American Cyanamid, and $200,000 from Anaconda Wire and Copper.
The Waterfront Alliance now has 200 member organizations worldwide. “Know your rights,” says Kennedy. “The people own the waterways, not the government or a corporation.”
Event: Pioneers of Change: Open Talks
Location: Nolan Park, Governors Island, 09.10.09
Speakers: “Towards a New Notion of Luxury”: Laurene Boym — Boym Partner; Marije Vogelzang — Proef; Amale Andraos — WORKac; Christien Meindertsma — Product Designer; Matilda McQuaid — Deputy Curatorial Director & Head of Textiles, Cooper-Hewitt National Design Museum (Moderator);
“New Collaborations”: Jake Barton — Local Projects; Pascale Gatzen — Painted; Arne Hendriks — Platform 21; Scott Stowell — Open; Julie Iovine — Executive Editor, The Architect’s Newspaper (Moderator)
Organizer: Pioneers of Change; Cooper-Hewitt National Design Museum
Governors Island, New York, sign ‘LAND! Pioneers of Change’ by Experimental Jetset.
Photograph by Experimental Jetset, courtesy of Droog
As part of NY400 Week, the Dutch have taken over Governors Island to host Pioneers of Change, a festival of Dutch design, fashion, and architecture celebrating 400 years of Dutch-American friendship. Conceived and curated by Renny Ramakers, co-founder and director of Droog, Pioneers of Change is comprised of installations in eleven houses in Nolan Park. Installations include a pop-up store of Dutch design and a slow food café, as well as exhibitions of collaborations between Dutch and American artists and designers. A two-part panel discussion kicked off the festivities.
“Towards a New Notion of Luxury” examined the impact of the economic downfall on perceptions of the finer things in life. Panelists agreed that with the current return to simplicity, space, fresh air, respect, silence, and time are valued more than money. They discussed this idea through some of their projects.
Amale Andraos, co-founder of WORKac, presented the simple luxury of growing food, as featured in Public Farm 1 last summer at P.S.1, and an edible schoolyard for P.S. 216. “Eating-designer” Marije Volgelzang, founder of Proef, explores connections between food, culture, and memory. She organized a Dutch national tap water tasting, sampling water from 12 different regions of the Netherlands, and a Food Memory Workshop, where elderly citizens of Rotterdam were fed typical old Dutch dishes that brought back memories from the WWII era. “It’s luxury in a twisted way,” Volgelzang said, “of getting back what you own.” Laurene Boym, of Boym Partners, discussed a series of handmade objects — Missing Monuments, Buildings of Disaster Series, and Babel Blocks — that she believes are luxurious because they are one-of-a-kind and in limited edition.
“New Collaborations” examined connections between the “design world” and the “normal world” by posing the question: How can non-professionals play an intricate role in realizing creative projects? Local Projects, a media design firm, created StoryCorps, a booth where people document their experiences for a national oral history archive. Similarly, graphic design firm Open creates “designs for people,” according to firm founder Scott Stowell. For its design for architectural signage at the Brown University Friedman Study Center, Open invited students and faculty to submit words and images from the archives, which were then silkscreened on the walls.
Dutch collaborative Platform 21 connects the efforts of amateurs and professionals. Their project “Hacking IKEA” displays how designers and non-designers alike transform their IKEA furniture for new uses. For the Pioneers of Change exhibition, Platform 21 is inviting the public to help them repair and refinish old furniture.
One of the themes of the day was why the Dutch are good designers. Moderator Julie Iovine, executive editor of The Architect’s Newspaper, pointed out that being a designer might be easier in the Netherlands, where the government provides more support than the U.S. According to Dutch fashion designer Pascale Gatzen, the reason is because “we have to reorganize ourselves constantly,” due to the lack of space. Perhaps space isn’t such a luxury, after all.
Murrye Bernard, LEED AP, is a freelance architectural writer and a contributing editor to e-Oculus.
Event: Archiculture Trailer Premiere Benefit
Location: Center for Architecture, 09.02.09
Speakers: Ted Landsmark, Assoc. AIA, Ph.D. — President, Boston Architectural College; Bill Moorish — Dean, School of Constructed Environments, Parsons The New School for Design; Gregg Pasquarelli, AIA — Co-founder, SHoP Architects; Billie Tsien, AIA — Co-Founder, Todd Williams Billie Tsien Architects; Giancarlo Tramontozzi — Architectural Professional, Profiled in Archiculture; Dionysios Neofitidis — Architectural Professional, Profiled in Archiculture
Moderator: Ian Harris, Co-Director, Archiculture
Organizers: Archiculture
Sponsors: HOK; Studios GO; Battle Tank Design Studio; MKI Realtors; Anyline; Brooklyn Brewery
Archiculture Drafter.
Courtesy www.archiculturefilm.com
As the design industry continues to be transformed by technology and a demographic of young professionals enter the work force, Archiculture — a documentary directed by David Krantz and Ian Harris — presents a provocative view of the architectural profession and its impact on the lives of practitioners and the general public. Exposing the intense reality of matriculating through an architecture program, the film, currently in post-production, follows five students through the trajectory of their senior thesis projects.
During the trailer premiere at the Center for Architecture, Krantz and Harris fueled a conversation among academics and seasoned and young professionals to explore a growing disconnect between architectural education and professional practice. “Architecture schools are failing to prepare our graduates to be architects,” claimed Ted Landsmark, Assoc. AIA, Ph.D., president of Boston Architectural College. With a growing sense that architecture is a concept hinged on the virtual world of design, Landsmark inquired, “Can one be an architect without making anything?” The theoretical practice of design led many graduates of prior generations to pursue academia over the studio. With a majority of now tenured faculty espousing a limited view of a multi-faceted field, concern is rising about the ability of architecture curriculums to equip students with professional practice skills. Gregg Pasquarelli, AIA, principal of SHoP Architects, believes in engaging technology, production, and culture, and encouraging students to possess a greater understanding of finance and development to broaden their design freedom.
Krantz and Harris have tapped into a rising coup among architecture students, as the consensus calls for a syllabus emphasizing greater accountability to the general public and the environment. Architectural training needs to stress scale, according to Billie Tsein, AIA, of Tod Williams Billie Tsien Architects; understanding the relationship between the built environment and human beings is crucial to creating space. Landsmark encouraged architects to be more political and avoid working in isolation, stating, “Every time we design a public space we are engaging in a political act that affects people we don’t know — we can’t divorce ourselves from that.” Scheduled to premiere in 2010, Archiculture is a call for change, intrepidly exposing the shortcomings of architectural education today, and motivating design’s leaders to make their language more accessible to the public.
Jacqueline Pezzillo, Assoc. AIA, LEED AP, is the communications manager at Davis Brody Bond Aedas and a regular contributor to e-Oculus.
Event: Are High-Performance Buildings Really Performing? A Discussion with Drury B. Crawley
Location: Con Edison, 09.08.2009
Speakers: Drury B. Crawley, AIA — Technology Development Manager, U.S. Department of Energy
Organizers: ASHRAE; Urban Green Council
U.S. Department of Energy’s 2025 Goal.
Courtesy Net Zero Energy Commercial Building Initiative
No matter how often they’re repeated, the statistics stun. Responsible for 40% of all energy consumed in the U.S., buildings are the nation’s largest energy drain, beating out both transportation and industry. They use 73% of our electricity and 55% of our natural gas. At 9% of the total carbon dioxide released into the world’s atmosphere, their direct contribution to global warming exceeds that of the combined economies of Japan, France, and the United Kingdom. And, emphasized Drury B. Crawley, head of the U.S. Department of Energy’s Net Zero Commercial Building Initiative, the problem is only getting worse.
Crawley is confident that flat-lining buildings’ energy use is technically possible, but stressed that there is no magic bullet. Plastering the nation in photovoltaics is not enough; instead, designers and scientists need to develop a better understanding of the specific consumption patterns of individual buildings and the people who use them, and strategize accordingly.
While a number of recent bills have established firm deadlines for weaning American buildings off energy, Crawley expressed concern that on-the-ground activity was not keeping pace with legislative ambitions. Responding to the 2007 Energy Independence and Security Act requirement that all new commercial buildings be at zero consumption by 2030, followed by 100% of the remaining stock by 2050, he remarked, “I’m glad I won’t be working. There are a lot of buildings out there.”
Sarah Wesseler is a marketing coordinator at Gruzen Samton.
Event: Gramazio & Kohler: Digital Materiality in Architecture
Location: Center for Architecture, 09.10.09
Speakers: Matthias Kohler — Partner, Gramazio & Kohler
Organizers: AIANY Cultural Facilities Committee
Sponsors: Consulate General of Switzerland in New York; Think Swiss; Swiss International Airlines
Image from upcoming site-specific installation of Gramazio & Kohler’s work.
Courtesy Storefront for Art and Architecture
The Swiss firm Gramazio & Kohler explores the interface between architecture, design, and construction through digital control and fabrication. It investigates full-scale applications of programming processes in precise designs with a goal to “transform the physical structure of architecture,” according to firm partner Matthias Kohler. He hopes this digital/material reorganization will lead to a shift in the expression of architecture.
Expression of material properties has been limited by designers’ means of representing those properties in the planning and design phases. Gramazio & Kohler’s approach is to program a paradigm or process with aesthetic parameters into a computer system that can allow an automated system to express the qualities of the material in a new way. For example, by using a robotic arm, the firm has discovered a new way to articulate common masonry units that redefines the relationship of space and decoration to modern architecture, according to Kohler.
Gramazio & Kohler has produced new material expressions using a range of computers, from those found in mobile phones (mTable) to intelligent networks placed throughout the light system of a public park (Uster Municipal Park). To see the firm’s work, Gramazio & Kohler will be featured in an exhibition at the Storefront for Art and Architecture opening on September 30.
Robert Santos, Assoc. AIA, works for Gruzen Samton Architects.
Event: Architectural Photography: Professional Techniques for Shooting Interior and Exterior Spaces Book Launch and Talk with Norman McGrath
Location: Center for Architecture, 09.03.09
Speaker: Norman McGrath
Organizer: AIANY Historic Buildings Committee
Architectural Photography: Professional Techniques for Shooting Interior and Exterior Spaces.
©Norman McGrath, Courtesy AIANY
Throughout his career, Norman McGrath’s photographs have appeared in publications including Architectural Digest, Architectural Record, Progressive Architecture, Domus, Interior Design, Interiors, and New York. He has published several books, and his most recent explains how he has achieved his success. Architectural Photography: Professional Techniques for Shooting Interior and Exterior Spaces serves as a guide to the architectural photography industry, covering the evolution of modern photography techniques and technologies.
One of the biggest changes in photography in recent years has been the switch from film to digital. McGrath took his first digital photo in 1995, which required over 30 seconds of exposure due to all the filters necessary to correct for fluorescent light and other obstacles, as well as hours of computer manipulation afterward. These days, McGrath believes the future of architectural photography is with Photomatix Pro, a program that creates and processes HDR (High Dynamic Range) images and allows seamless integration of images without introducing light. The simplicity of this program eliminates the need to use “casefulls of equipment to light interiors,” McGrath explained.
McGrath is a loyal Canon user — typically the 5D Mark II and IDS Mark III models — and believes it is the best choice among camera manufactures. He is featured as one of the Explorers of Light, a prestigious panel of 78 Canon photographers. As far as favorite places to shoot, McGrath believes that Chicago is one of the most “architecturally rich cities” in the U.S. Millennium Park is “one of my favorite spots in the world,” he said, having recently photographed Renzo Piano Building Workshop’s addition to the Art Institute of Chicago. Foster + Partners’ Hearst Tower — the cover image for his new book — is one of his favorite newer NYC buildings.
How does an aspiring architectural photographer make the transition into the profession? McGrath’s advice is to take workshops, such as those offered by the International Center for Photography (ICP), read up on the subject, and get “suitable” equipment. He also suggests persuading an established architectural photographer to take you on as an assistant. However, “it is not a good field if you have a large ego,” he warned. He believes that an architectural photographer should make you think “what a terrific building” rather than “what an amazing photo.”
Murrye Bernard, LEED AP, is a freelance architectural writer and a contributing editor to e-Oculus.
(Left): Fran Leadon, AIA, last winter in Midtown, with student Adrian Hayes and New York Times writer Constance Rosenblum. (Right): AIA Guide Research Assistants, December 2008. (L-R): Adrian Hayes, Amanda Chen, Christopher Drobny, Katja Dubinsky, Calista Ho, Marina Ovtchinnikova.
Douglas Moreno(left); Fran Leadon
This week we completed the photography for the upcoming fifth edition of the AIA Guide to New York City (Oxford University Press, 2010), with help from 22 student assistants from the Bernard and Anne Spitzer School of Architecture at City College. Our combined efforts over the past year have yielded well over 40,000 new photos of more than 6,000 buildings and parks from the northern tip of the Bronx to the southern end of Staten Island.
We began with a group of four undergraduate architecture students (Calista Ho, Katja Dubinsky, Amanda Chen, and Marina Ovtchinnikova) and three Master of Landscape Architecture students (Jon Fouskaris, Christopher Drobny, and Adrian Hayes), and tackled Midtown, the Upper West and Upper East Sides during the fall 2008 semester. The photos students began to bring back to class were extraordinary. Years of design studios had trained their eyes to analyze and question. They didn’t simply drive by and shoot the buildings; they really studied them. Beautiful details emerged: courtyards, faded signs, lanterns, cornices, pediments, friezes. Their work was extremely time-consuming and dependent on good light and weather.
Jon, Amanda, and Christopher continued their work into the spring semester, joined by two undergraduates, Glenn DeRoche and Douglas Moreno, and two Master of Architecture students, Bradley Kaye and Jason Prunty. Together we photographed the remainder of Manhattan (the Villages, the Lower East Side, Harlem, Upper Manhattan). Shooting photos in the winter months proved to be arduous. There were fewer good hours of light, and last winter’s temperatures were brutal (I almost got frostbite trying to shoot Yorkville one frigid week in January). As Manhattan neared completion, I redeployed three students (Bradley, Amanda, and Jon) to Brooklyn, and wonderful shots of Park Slope, Gerritsen Beach, Coney Island, and Sunset Park were added to our photo database.
By May we had finished all of Manhattan, and an enthusiastic group of undergraduate architecture students (Andrea Barley, Cinthia Cedeno, Mary Doumas, William Eng, Jaimee Gee, Tiffany Liu, Adrian Lopez, Ross Pechenyy, and Billy Schaefer) joined Jon for a summer ramble through the Bronx, Queens, and Staten Island, cameras in hand. Their work was painstaking. The students would make multiple visits to sites to get exactly the right shot, waiting for the light and shadows to cooperate. Frequently they were told to stop photographing by a homeowner or security guard (a constant, vexing problem).
As research assistants, the students weren’t acting only as photographers. We asked them to take notes on each place they visited, as we rewrote, updated, and added to the new edition’s text. It would not have been possible for us to complete the new edition in just one year without the help of our students. To commemorate their work over the last year, we will simultaneously snap one last “ceremonial” photo on September 23 at 11:00 AM. The building I have chosen was not included in the last edition of the Guide, but is a humble landmark and deserving of our undivided attention: Jane Jacobs’ house at 555 Hudson Street in Greenwich Village. I hope that AIA members and e-Oculus readers will come out to witness our “last photo.”
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 Bernard and Anne Spitzer School of Architecture at the City College of New York. He lives in Brooklyn.
Last Friday, the “No Impact Man” movie opened at the Angelika Film Center. This documentary, in limited release, follows the life of Colin Beavan, aka No Impact Man, as he and his family embark on a year-long experiment trying to live off the grid self-sufficiently. Throughout 2007, I followed the blog religiously (See “No Impact Man Has Quite an Impact On Me,” my Soapbox in the 05.15.07 issue of e-Oculus). It made me reconsider my lifestyle, and since then I have made some life changes to live a more sustainable life. I go to farmers markets and eat locally more frequently, walk part of the way to work in mornings, and I have increased my awareness of the waste I produce on a daily basis, among other measures. Naturally, when I heard of the movie release, I gathered some co-workers and saw the film on opening day.
While the No Impact Man blog chronicles Beavan’s personal journey in detail, the film focuses more on his wife, Michelle Conlin, a self-proclaimed mass consumer and reality show addict. While she forcibly agrees to humor Beavan’s extreme project, she faces jeers at work, is subject to a family “vacation” on an upstate New York farm, and experiences massive withdrawal from Starbucks coffee. While Beavan elaborates on the necessity of making major life changes to save the world, Conlin shows the effects of adjusting to living without.
The family is constantly faced with criticism by environmentalists and anti-environmentalists alike (the best scene is when Mayor Vishner, local farmer at Laguardia Corner Gardens and ex-hippie, points out the irony in Beavan considering his effect on global environmentalism while he sits in his Fifth Avenue co-op). However, as Beavan says in the film, the experiment is to try to live without for a year in an effort to scale back in the long-run. The goal is to live a simpler, yet happier life. He may not have the answer to the world’s problems, but I think this movie is well worth seeing; the least it will do is make you reconsider your personal way of life and give you some ideas about how to live more sustainably.
In this issue:
· September 11 Memorial & Museum Design Unveiled
· SHoP Architects Joins the Nets Design Team
· Manhattan’s MOCA Opens
· Yeshiva University Opens Study Center Uptown
· Design Trust Grows Urban Farms & Preserves Creative Industries
· Urban Quad and Commons Encourage Student/Faculty Interaction
· ICU Creates Healing Environment
· Steven Holl Architects’ Big Leap Across the Pond
September 11 Memorial & Museum Design Unveiled
West Chamber with the Last Column in the National September 11 Memorial & Museum.
Courtesy National September 11 Memorial & Museum
The National September 11 Memorial & Museum revealed Davis Brody Bond Aedas’ architectural design for the museum at the 9/11 Memorial Preview Site. According to the plan, visitors will enter the museum through the pavilion located between the two memorial pools on the northeast quadrant of the memorial plaza. The pavilion, designed by Snøhetta, will provide information, ticketing services, and security screening. Visitors will then access the museum’s lower-level lobby and public gathering space, known as “Memorial Hall,” which in turn leads to the exhibition spaces at the bedrock level. To reach the primary exhibition space, visitors will descend a gently ramped “ribbon,” echoing the ramp that once was used by construction workers to help build the World Trade Center, and used again in the aftermath of the attacks for the recovery and clean-up of the site. From the ramp, vistas will provide a sense of the enormity of the site, the scale of the original Twin Towers, and offer views of the preserved portion of the slurry wall.
Visitors will be able to stand between the locations of the original towers and experience their scale, which will be referenced by two metal-clad volumes. Key artifacts include the “Survivor Stairs,” the “Last Column,” and interpretive exhibitions designed by Thinc Design together with Local Projects. Programming will honor victims of the September 11, 2001, and February 26, 1993 terrorist attacks, preserve the history of the events, and provide historical context for 9/11, its aftermath, and continuing implications. The design features the preserved box column remnants that mark the footprints of the original towers. Where possible, remains of the original slab will also be preserved in the footprints.
SHoP Architects Joins the Nets Design Team
Barclays Center.
©SHoP Architects
After scrapping Gehry Partners’ original design (for being too expensive), Forest City Ratner Companies, the developer of Atlantic Yards in Brooklyn, has signed SHoP Architects to collaborate with Ellerbe Becket on the design of the Barclays Center. The 675,000-square-foot sports and entertainment venue will become the home court for the Nets basketball team. The facility will have 18,000 seats for basketball and up to 19,000 seats for concerts.
The building design consists of three separate, woven bands. The first engages the ground where the weathered steel exterior rises and lowers to create a sense of visual transparency. A canopy over the entrance cantilevers 30 feet high creating a visual transition and framing a large viewing portal into the seating area. The second, a glass band, allows views from inside and outside of the arena. The third band floats around the roof and varies in transparency, the weathered steel creating backlit patterns. The main concourse is placed at street level, allowing a direct view to and from the street as well. Large areas of glass at street level are intended to make it not only pedestrian-friendly, but also encourage a strong visual connection to its urban context. Construction is expected to begin later this year, with an anticipated opening during the 2011-12 season. The Center for Architecture conducted a public forum on Monday, September 14th, and images and a model of the facility are on view at Brooklyn Borough Hall through 09.18.09. (Tuesday, 09.15: 8:30 am – 5:30 pm; Wednesday, 09.16: 8:30 am – 8 pm; Friday, 09.18: 8:30 am – 5:30 pm.)
Manhattan’s MOCA Opens
The Museum of Chinese in America (MOCA), dedicated to reclaiming, preserving, and presenting the history and culture of Chinese people in the U.S., is poised to officially open on September 22. Designed by Maya Lin Studio, the new 14,000-square-foot venue on Centre Street has entrances both in Chinatown and SoHo. The museum features multiple exhibition galleries, interactive visitor kiosks, a multi-purpose auditorium/classroom, a research center, and a flexible space for programs. The design juxtaposes the past with the present. At the heart of the museum is its sky-lit courtyard, left raw and untouched, harkening back to a traditional Chinese courtyard house. The core exhibition spaces wrap around the courtyard; biographic films projected onto the glass windows facing the courtyard will offer a glimpse into the stories and faces of Chinese Americans through history — from the 1850s to the present day. MOCA began as a community-based organization in 1980 and has evolved into the keeper of the community’s documented and cultural history.
Yeshiva University Opens Study Center Uptown
Glueck Center for Jewish Study at Yeshiva University.
Courtesy Glueck Center for Jewish Study
The new 60,000-square-foot Glueck Center for Jewish Study at Yeshiva University recently opened on the school’s Washington Heights campus. Designed by HOK, the center’s six floors and lower-level archives house a two-story, 500-seat Torah Study Hall, modern lecture halls, eleven classrooms, conference and seminar rooms, faculty and student lounges, a dean’s suite, 50 faculty and administrative offices, library archival space, a patio, and gardens. The design meets the university’s mission of Torah Umadda — the synthesis of general and Jewish studies — by linking the Glueck Center and the Gottesman Library via a ground-floor atrium. The façade of channel glass, recessed sidelights, and Vetter stone blends into the fabric of the campus. The center is the first new building on this campus — one of six in NYC — in 20 years.
Design Trust Grows Urban Farms & Preserves Creative Industries
Five Borough Farm.
Courtesy Design Trust for Public Space
The Design Trust for Public Space is about to embark on two new projects. Five Borough Farm, a collaboration between NYC- and Brooklyn-based urban farm Added Value, will develop a kit-of-parts designed to replicate the farm’s community-oriented model throughout the city. The second, Made in Midtown, will commission a comprehensive study of the fashion industry’s presence in the Garment District and its place in New York’s creative economy. Partnering with the Council of Fashion Designers of America, this project will recommend place-based strategies to strengthen and preserve creative industries in New York. The resulting study will help guide policies for light manufacturing industries citywide.
Urban Quad and Commons Encourage Student/Faculty Interaction
The Commons.
Courtesy Marymount Manhattan College
Marymount Manhattan College on East 71st Street is composed of two buildings, one built by John Russell Pope in 1929 for the New York Junior League. To complement its urban surroundings without increasing its footprint, the school has completed two renovations, both designed by Lori Kupfer. The Lowerre Family Terrace, a 5,000-square-foot rooftop quad features a water wall, heated trellis, and garden areas. The Commons further encourages interaction among students, faculty, and staff with nearly 20,000 square feet carved out of the third and fourth floors of two separate buildings. Connected by a staircase, the upper floor contains a food servery, and the lower floor includes a student lounge with flexible, private areas that can be used for meetings. A glass canopy and vanishing glass wall system opens out to the terrace, which links the college’s Main and Nugent Buildings and provides students with access to the newly renovated Thomas J. Shanahan Library.
ICU Creates Healing Environment
NYU Langone Medical Center.
Copyright Sarah Mechling — Perkins Eastman
The NYU Langone Medical Center recently completed a 35-bed, 19,600-square-foot intensive care unit on the 15th floor of Tisch Hospital, the medical center’s flagship 705-bed acute-care facility. Designed by Perkins Eastman, the patient- and family-centered unit offers state-of-the-art technology, privacy, and space to accommodate open visiting hours to create an environment more conducive to healing. The large, private patient rooms feature natural light, views of the city, and flat-screen televisions. The spaces were carefully programmed for families to visit and staff to work efficiently. Other ICU patient safety features include computerized charting systems inside and outside of each room with multi-patient video surveillance technology.
Steven Holl Architects’ Big Leap Across the Pond
Glasgow School of Art.
Steven Holl Architects with JM Architects model
An international competition has resulted in Steven Holl Architects with Glasgow -based JM Architects being selected to design a new building for the Glasgow School of Art (GSA) in Garnethill, Glasgow, Scotland. The team will work with the GSA to refine the school’s masterplan and design a new building to enhance the teaching, learning, and research facilities available to students, staff, and the public. The new building will be located opposite the 1909 Charles Rennie Mackintosh Building — recently voted the UK’s favorite building of the past 175 years in a national survey conducted by the Royal Institute of British Architects. The competition, which was to find an architect-led team and not to select a design, received submissions from more than 150 firms internationally from which seven were shortlisted; the Steven Holl Architects/JM Architects team won in a unanimous decision. This is Steven Holl’s first project in the UK.
In this issue:
· AIANY Wins at AIANYS
· New NAAB for 2011
· Get Involved with AIA National
AIANY Wins at AIANYS
Six AIANY members won state honors in 2009. Abby Suckle, FAIA, 2009 AIANY Secretary, will receive the Fellow’s Award. Venesa Alicea, Assoc. AIA, LEED AP, 2009 AIANY Associate Director, won one of two AIANYS Intern Associate Awards. Pei Cobb Freed + Partners was granted the 2009 Firm Award. Anthony Vidler, Dean of Cooper Union (who will be speaking at the Deans’ Roundtable at the Center for Architecture, 09.17.09), will receive the AIANYS Education Award, Leevi Kiil, FAIA, will be given the President’s Award, and Russell A. Davidson, AIA, will receive the Matthew W. Del Guadio Service Award. All the awards will be presented during the AIANYS Mainstreets Convention, in Rochester, NY, 09.24-26.09. The Honor Awards Ceremony will take place on Friday, 09.25.09, at the Dryden Theater. The last day to register for the AIANYS Mainstreets convention is 09.16.09.
New NAAB for 2011
It’s been two years in the making, and it will be two more years until the accreditations go into effect, but the National Architectural Accrediting Board (NAAB) has a new set of Conditions of Accreditation. The AIA, the Association of Collegiate Schools of Architecture (ACSA), the National Council of Architectural Registration Boards (NCARB), and the American Institute of Architectural Students (AIAS) weighed in on the new rules, which will go into effect 04.01.10, and will be applied to programs from 2011 to 2016. There are some major changes to what qualifies as an accredited architecture program, including that students have not just the understanding of, but the ability to build sustainably. Applied research is a new student performance criterion, and there is an emphasis on bringing collaboration and leadership into curriculum. Read more here.
Get Involved with AIA National
There are a number of opportunities to have your voice heard at the national level without ever having to leave your desk. On 09.16.09, from 2-3 PM, AIA National is hosting the last of three interactive webinars on its 2010-2015 strategic plan. George H. Miller, FAIA, 2010 president-elect, and Clark Manus, FAIA, 2010 first vice president-elect, will host the event. AIA is seeking feedback from its constituents on its draft plan for the next five years, and hopes to make the adoption process as transparent and inclusive as possible. Sign up here.
AIA National’s Advocacy team announced that the Board Advocacy Committee’s comment period is now open on this year’s outstanding position statements. Last year the board plowed through 43 statements, and set the language of 38. The remaining five open position statements needed further evaluation and review: Research and Development; Architectural Practice and Title Regulations; Energy and the Built Environment; Sustainable Architectural Practice; and Sustainable Rating Systems. A sixth position statement, on Interoperability, is also open for comment. The AIA encourages its members to weigh in on these issues, as they will become “binding on all AIA official activity, including component activities and on AIA members acting in an official capacity on behalf of the AIA.” Read these sunset reviews and comment here.
Eileen, a high school student in the Center for Architecture Foundation’s Summer Studio, shows off her cardboard chair.
Center for Architecture Foundation
During a week-long, intensive summer studio (07.27-31.09), high school students designed and built their own full-sized corrugated cardboard chairs. The week began with a visit to the Museum of Modern Art’s galleries to study and draw important examples of 20th-century chair designs. Then, students worked in teams to make small cardboard models of some of these chairs, gaining insight into chair construction as well as the possibilities and limits of cardboard as a building material. Studio instructor Eric Ratkowski assigned additional design exercises focusing on design issues such as ergonomics, and instructed students to visit local furniture stores, where the students sketched and gathered new ideas and inspiration.
Ultimately, each student developed and designed his or her own full-sized cardboard chair. Working from their drawings, sketch models, and measurements, the students charretted during the final two days, cutting and gluing cardboard to create a chair that was strong enough to support their own weight — and had some style. The shouts of joy and wide grins that accompanied the students’ first successful seating in their chairs showed they had even surprised themselves with their accomplishments. Several of the chairs will be on display in the Center for Architecture’s “Building Connections 2009″ exhibition (See On View: At the Center for Architecture), which showcases student work from the Center for Architecture Foundation’s 2008-09 programs. The exhibition opens on 09.17.09 from 4-6 PM, and runs through 01.09.10.
Catherine Teegarden is the director of Programs@theCenter at the Center for Architecture Foundation.
When was the last time you visited the Center for Architecture?
Note: Results from this poll are non-scientific.
The Buildings Dept. will soon require existing buildings to be audited for energy consumption. What do you think?
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To mark the 400th anniversary of New Amsterdam’s founding, Amsterdam and New York architects swapped jobs for a week. Khoi Tran, co-founder of Urban Symbiose in Amsterdam, traded places with Joe Haberl, a designer at NY-based LEESERarchitecture. Sponsored by the Dutch Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Ministry of the Interior & Kingdom Relations — under the banner of NY 400 and in collaboration with the Henry Hudson Foundation — the JobSwap was designed to call attention to the Dutch contributions to the early history of the U.S. It will lay the groundwork for an ongoing grassroots cultural and academic exchange program to complement the from-the-top-down economic and political ties between the U.S. and the Netherlands. In addition to the architects, there are several other professions participating in the swaps, including bartenders, farmers, and midwives.
Architect magazine’s 2009 R+D Award Winners include LED Streetlight by Office for Visual Interaction and Werner Sobek, with Thomas Phifer and Partners; Dynamic Descent by Dean/Wolf Architects; and TKTS Booth by Perkins Eastman with Choi-Ropiha Architects and William Fellows, AIA/Perkins+Will…
2009 Open Architecture Challenge award winners include Blurred Classroom by Gensler… H Associates was awarded First Prize in the International Competition for the National Pavilion of Expo 2012 in Yeosu, South Korea, for “The 3rd Nature: Metaphorical Archipelago” in collaboration with Haeahn Architecture and Danu Architects & Engineers…
Pratt Institute will award four alumni Young Alumni Achievement Awards, including Young Woo, founder and principal of Young Woo & Associates and Pratt Trustee… Metropolismag.com was chosen as “best” website it its field by officeinsight…
The Museum of the City of New York unveiled its first annual list, “The New York City 400,” which includes architectural figures Gordon Bunshaft; James Marston Fitch; Cass Gilbert; Richard Morris Hunt; Ada Louise Huxtable, Hon. AIA; Margot Gayle; Phillip Johnson, FAIA; Maya Lin; Joseph François Mangin; Charles Follen McKim; Frederick Law Olmsted; I.M. Pei, FAIA; Saul Steinberg; Robert A. M. Stern, FAIA; I.N. (Isaac Newton) Phelps Stokes; William Van Alen; Calvert Vaux; and Stanford White…
The Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum and Google invite the public to vote for its favorite design among the Top 10 People’s Prize finalists for the Design It: Shelter Competition through 10.10.09. Click here to vote…
UMass Amherst and Hancock Shaker Village have announced a partnership that will create a new two-year master’s degree program that combines architecture and public history with on-site training and courses utilizing the Village’s National Historic Landmark site…
Columbia University’s Graduate School of Architecture, Planning, and Preservation has named Vishaan Chakrabarti, AIA, as the first full-time director of its real estate development program… Pratt Institute has named Assistant Chair of Undergraduate Architecture and Adjunct Associate Professor of Architecture Lonn Combs as acting chair of its undergraduate architecture program, replacing Evan Douglis, who stepped down to become Dean of the School of Architecture at Rennselear Polytechnic Institute…
The Real Estate Board of New York has selected Mary Ann Tighe as its chair, the first woman to hold this position in its 113-year history… Ruth Reed has been elected the next President of the Royal Institute of British Architects (RIBA)…
Einhorn Yaffee Prescott welcomes laboratory planning expert Robert DeGenova as a new Senior Laboratory Planner and William Van Horn, AIA, as a new Senior Project Director… Cannon Design announces that Eric Jaffe, AIA, has joined the firm as a principal…
RMJM is partnering with the Maasai Wilderness Conservation Trust to raise funds during the New York City Marathon, in which actor Ed Norton is running to benefit the Trust…
09.02.09:Archiculture threw a benefit party at the Center For Architecture. More than 400 guest came to see the premiere of the filmmaker’s new trailer, listen to a roundtable discussion about architectural education, and dance the night away.
Co-Producer/Directors Ian Harris and David Krantz.
Kevin Wick
09.10.09: The AIANY Emerging NY Architects Committee (ENYA) launched its fourth biennial international ideas competition, HB:BX Building Cultural Infrastructure, at the Trespa Design Centre. For more information about the competition, go to the enyacompetitions.org website.
ENYA with “clients” Artists Unite and the Bronx Museum of the Arts. (L-R): Sean Rasmussen; Jessica Sheridan, Assoc. AIA, LEED AP; Megan Chusid, Assoc. AIA; Joseph E. Hawkins, Assoc. AIA; Brynnemarie Lanciotti; Brandon Cook; Najahyia Chinchilla, LEED AP; Matthew Howard; Rosa Naparstek, steering committee member for Artists Unite; Yvonne Chang, Assoc. AIA, LEED AP; and Sergio Bessa, Director of Education at the Bronx Museum of the Arts.
Kristen Richards
Partygoers look on as ENYA announces the competition brief.
Jessica Sheridan
09.09.09: The official unveiling ceremony of Ben van Berkel / UNStudio’s New Amsterdam Pavilion took place on the Peter Minuit Plaza in Battery Park. Guests of honor included the Prince of Orange and Princess Máxima of the Netherlands, NYC Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg, Under Secretary of State Judith A. McHale, and Frans Timmermans the Dutch Minister for European Affairs.
The Design Team: (L-R) Stephen Matkovits, AIA, LEED AP (Handel Architects); D. Blake Middleton, FAIA, LEED AP (Handel Architects); Gijs Libourel (Buro Happold); Gary Handel, AIA (Handel Architects); Wouter de Jonge (UNStudio); Christian Veddeler (UNStudio); Nat Stanton (Buro Happold); Kyle Miller (UNStudio); Mark Morris (Handel Architects, not pictured).
Handel Architects
09.10.09: Officials presented new design details for the National 9/11 Memorial Museum. President Joe Daniels briefed on activities of the past year, architect Steven Davis, FAIA, partner at Davis Brody Bond Aedas, gave an update on the design, and Director Alice Greenwald presented an overview of the vision for the museum.
Museum pavilion at dusk.
Squared Design Lab
New York Says Thank You Foundation sends volunteers from NYC each year on the 9/11 Anniversary to help rebuild communities around the country affected by disasters to commemorate the extraordinary love and generosity extended to New Yorkers by Americans in the days, weeks, and months following September 11th.
Center for Architecture Gallery Hours and Location
Monday-Friday: 9:00am-8:00pm, Saturday: 11:00am-5:00pm, Sunday: CLOSED
536 LaGuardia Place, Between Bleecker and West 3rd Streets in Greenwich Village, NYC, 212-683-0023
CURRENT EXHIBITIONS
New Practices San Francisco
June 04 – September 19, 2009
 New Practices San Francisco is the 2009, West Coast premiere of AIA New York’s annual portfolio competition and exhibition. New Practices San Francisco is a platform for recognizing and promoting new and emerging architecture firms within San Francisco that have undertaken innovative strategies — both in projects and practice. The New Practices program was launched in 2005 by AIA New York to showcase promising new architectural firms.
New Practices San Francisco will be on view at the Center for Architecture from June 4, 2009 through September 19, 2009. It will then be on view at the Center for Architecture & Design, San Francisco, from November 12, 2009 through January 29, 2010. The exhibition will be accompanied by a series of programs organized by the AIA New York Chapter in collaboration with the New Practices Committee and AIA San Francisco.
Congratulations to our 2009 New Practices San Francisco Winners:
* CMG Landscape Architecture
* Edmonds + Lee Architects
* Faulders Studio
* Kennerly Architecture & Planning
* Min|Day
* Public Architecture
Exhibition Design:
Matter Practice, 2008 New Practices New York winning firm.
Graphic Design:
Anyspace Studio
Organized By:
AIA New York/ Center for Architecture, AIA San Francisco/ Center for Architecture + Design, and the New Practices Committee
This exhibition is made possible through the generous support of the following sponsors:
Lead Sponsor:
Presenting Sponsor: Hafele
Sponsor: MG & Company
Supporter: Hawa
Friends: diamondLife, Specialty Finishes, Trespa and Yarde Metals – Hauppauge, NY, and Hotel Carlton San Francisco
Media Partner: The Architect’s Newspaper
UPCOMING EXHIBITIONS
September 17, 2009 — January 9, 2010
September 17 — December 12, 2009
09.16.09 through 10.16.09
The Aurora Project
Rendering of plaster cast buoys, PETG surface, LED and CRT Aurora field.
©The Aurora Project by Future Cities Lab, Van Alen Institute New York Prize Fellows, Summer 2009
Architects and New York Prize Fellows Jason Kelly Johnson and Nataly Gattegno explored the shifting territorial resources in the Arctic and created a speculative vision for a massive new energy infrastructure and settlement pattern. The exhibition comprises three related installations.
Van Alen Institute
30 West 22nd Street, 6th Floor, NYC
09.18.09 through 09.26.09
FEED
FEED.
Courtesy Fragmental Museum
This migratory exhibition presented by Fragmental Museum seeks to re-nourish public spaces with the installation of visual arts and cultural projects. A collaboration between artist Konstantinos Stamatiou and The Very Many forms the façade of the host space, Cuchifritos Gallery. Inside, a site-specific stadium by Constance Armellino & OFF Architecture is built of recycled materials. There will be video screenings and performances on various dates during the exhibition.
Cuchifritos
Essex Street Market
10.01.09 through 10.12.09
Meier 75
Richard Meier, Design for Museum Entrance Area, for J. Paul Getty Center, Los Angeles, California, 1984-97.
Cooper-Hewitt National Design Museum
Richard Meier, FAIA, is presenting two architectural drawings of the J. Paul Getty Center in Los Angeles to the Cooper-Hewitt on the occasion of his 75th birthday and the publication of Richard Meier, Architect Volume 5 (Rizzoli USA, Oct. 2009). The installation includes drawings and models for three major projects — the Smith House in Darien, CT; the Getty Center; and the Jubilee Church, in a suburb of Rome — as well as three Meier collage works.
Cooper-Hewitt National Design Museum
2 East 91st Street, NYC
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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The New York State Energy Research and Development Authority (NYSERDA) seeks proposals for innovative commercial and industrial projects that are not addressed through other NYSERDA initiatives; complement existing New York Energy $martsm programs; and explore and test emerging technologies for possible inclusion in the current portfolio of Energy Efficiency Services (EES) programs. This RFP offers funding for projects that strengthen the market for energy-efficient products or services through coordinated activities involving market participants at multiple levels. NYSERDA anticipates awarding up to five projects with a maximum of $500,000 per project. The number of proposers selected for contracting will be determined by funding availability. New and Innovative products, technologies, and services that save energy are encouraged.
http://www.nyserda.org/funding/1300rfp.asp
Senior Project Architect/Designer
Licensed architect with minimum 10 years solid design and construction experience in residential and commercial (i.e. hotel, offices, etc) such as detailing of core and shell, integration and coordination of building systems and structure. Excellent communication, collaboration and leadership skills required. LEED accreditation desirable.
Senior Project Manager
Licensed architect with minimum 10 years experience in management of architectural team, consultants, owner, owner’s rep. Experience with new construction and integration of exterior and interior architecture preferred. Excellent communication, collaboration and leadership skills required. Ability to oversee scope/workplan, budget, and schedule on multiple projects. LEED accreditation desirable.
Staff Architect
Talented and dedicated junior architect with minimum 2-3 years office experience. Solid Autocad, renderings (3D Studio Max, Rhino) and graphics (Adobe suite) skills required.
Please send your resume and applicable work samples to: candidates@tsao-mckown.com and note the position which interests you in the subject line of your email. APPLICATIONS ACCEPTED VIA EMAIL ONLY.
Sales — Architectural Product Consultant
Innovator in green building products looking for highly motivated relationship builders to promote the sale of daylighting products.
http://www.advancedglazings.com/
(Continued from above)
The “Dutch Dialogues” workshops were the outgrowth of extended interactions among Dutch engineers, urban designers, landscape architects, city planners, soils/hydrology experts, and their Louisiana counterparts. New Orleans-based David Waggonner, AIA, principal of Waggoner and Ball Architects, with the backing of the American Planning Association, initiated the talks, which continued at a panel including Waggonner, Bruce Knight, president of the APA, and Paula Verhoeven, director of the climate office for Rotterdam. While “safety first” remains the cornerstone of Dutch water management policy, a new “living with water” mentality has transformed its approach to urban design and redevelopment. In addition to dikes, levees, and super levees, the Dutch are building terraced levees, roof parks, water plazas, and water storage basins under parking lots. While the land is reclaimed from the sea in Rotterdam, the new port area frees up land in the city center for development.
In the panel New Opportunities for Blue/Green Development, “green” was talked about in terms of both sustainability and economic development. Trent Lethco, associate principal at ARUP, stated that we have to reclaim our waterfront from its industrial past. The question is whether to move buildings and infrastructure or repurpose them. Laurie Kerr, senior policy advisor for buildings at the NYC Mayor’s Office of Long Term Planning and Sustainability, expressed concern over the frequency of storms, flooding, and power outages. Most critical to Kerr is protecting critical infrastructure such as power plants, vehicular tunnels, and water treatment plants on the waterfront. Anneke De Vries, CEO of ING Real Estate in the Netherlands, presented a new mixed-used development her company is developing on the site of a former Shell Oil plant. According to NY-based developer Jonathan Rose, “the recession is a great time to plan projects like Battery Park City, which took 30-40 years to plan.” Ultimately, “AIA members have visions; design does matter on the waterfront,” AIANY Executive Director Rick Bell, FAIA, said in closing.
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