In this issue:
· Active Design Guidelines Tell NYC to Shape Up
· PANYNJ Puts It All on the Table
· Innovation, Education Are the New Science of Architecture
· Cast Iron Meets Channel Glass in the Village
· Dance and Architecture: Interpreting Space

Event: Active Design Guidelines Launch
Location: Center for Architecture, 01.27.10
Speakers: David Burney, FAIA — Commissioner, Dept. of Design & Construction; Amanda Burden, FAICP, Hon. AIANY — Commissioner, Dept. of City Planning; Thomas Farley, MD, MPH — Commissioner, Dept. of Health and Mental Hygiene; Janette Sadik-Khan — Commissioner, Dept. of Transportation; Craig Zimring, Ph.D. — Professor, Georgia Institute of Technology, College of Architecture
Sponsors: NYC Department of Design and Construction

http://www.nyc.gov/html/ddc/html/design/active_design.shtml

The recently published “Active Design Guidelines: Promoting Physical Activity and Health in Design” is the “first publication to focus on designers’ roles in tackling one of the most urgent health crises of our day: obesity and related diseases including diabetes,” as stated in the manual’s introduction. The publication — which grew out of AIANY’s Fit City conferences — is a collaborative effort among the NYC Departments of Design and Construction, Health and Mental Hygiene, Transportation, and City Planning, as well as the Mayor’s Office of Management and Budget, the AIA New York Chapter, and several others including Ernest Hutton, FAICP, Assoc. AIA; Ellen Martin; Linda Pollak, AIA; John Pucher; Jessica Spiegel; William Stein, FAIA; and Shin-Pei Tsay. Spurred by the desire to increase physical activity in the city to deliver myriad physical and mental health benefits, the publication is part of the Take Care New York 2012 health policy agenda that offers strategies for New Yorkers to live longer and healthier lives.

The practices put forward in the “Active Design Guidelines” are rooted in research-based evidence and encourage architects and urban designers to introduce physical activity within the environments they design. Strategies delineated in the manual include: the development and maintenance of mixed-use neighborhoods; improved access to full-service grocery stores, fresh produce, parks, and recreational facilities; pedestrian and bike-friendly streets with high connectivity; infrastructure that offers safe indoor and outdoor bicycle parking; conveniently located and appealing stairs within buildings; and motivational signage to encourage walking over elevator usage.

The manual serves as a series of design suggestions to improve physical activity and does not serve as a rating system independent of LEED. However, incorporating the “Active Design Guidelines” in a design will qualify for the LEED innovation credit “Design for Health through Increased Physical Activity.” According to David Burney, FAIA, commissioner of the Department of Design and Construction (DDC), his agency will identify opportunities for implementation of the guidelines in DDC-managed projects as well as other commercial projects within the city. Burney alluded to a possible future “seal of approval” recognizing projects successfully designed with adherence to the guidelines.

A crucial component to the creation of a healthier city is the synergy among the various NYC agencies. As stated by Thomas Farley, MD, MPH, commissioner of the Department of Health and Mental Hygiene, this is a “broad based initiative rooted in many city agencies” to combat urban and building designs that have “engineered physical activity out of our daily lives.” Amanda Burden, FAICP, Hon. AIANY, commissioner of the Department of City Planning, views her agency as one of many puzzle pieces that will work to ensure the success of this initiative. Burden’s agency is working to introduce new zoning regulations for bike parking, the improvement of greenscape and pedestrian environments at street level, and incentives for neighborhood amenities.

The role of designers is crucial in addressing health epidemics. Historically, cholera and tuberculosis were defeated, in part, by the improvement of urban infrastructure such as buildings, streets, water systems, and parks. The publication cites that today physical inactivity and unhealthy diet are second only to tobacco as the main causes of premature death in the U.S. The severity of the current epidemic was echoed by Department of Transportation Commissioner Jeanette Sadik-Khan. “Creating healthier lifestyles is an urgent priority,” she stated. With the help of “Active Design Guidelines,” NYC may be the catalyst of change nationwide to shape up.

Jacqueline Pezzillo, Assoc. AIA, LEED AP, is the communications manager at Davis Brody Bond Aedas and a regular contributor to e-Oculus.

Event: The Growth Catalyst: Reviving New York City’s Economy through Infrastructure, The Port Authority Lecture Series
Location: Theresa Lang Community & Student Center, 01.28.10
Remarks: Christopher O. Ward — Executive Director, Port Authority of New York and New Jersey (PANYNJ); Seth W. Pinsky — President, NYC Economic Development Corporation
Discussion: Joan Byron — Director of Sustainability and Environmental Justice Initiative, Pratt Center for Community Development; Robert D. Yaro — President, Regional Plan Association; Kathryn S. Wyle — President & CEO, Partnership for NYC
Moderator: Daniel Massey — Reporter, Crain’s New York Business
Organizer: Center for New York City Affairs, The New School

ARC Penn Station Expansion.

Courtesy of PANYNJ

“Visit any major city in the world, and you’ll see how far behind we are,” stated Seth Pinsky, president of the NYC Economic Development Corporation (NYCEDC). “We’re still paying for choices made [in the 1970s and 80s], and we’re still underinvested.” The laundry list of negatives far outweighed the positives at a recent discussion about reviving the city’s economy through infrastructure. Toll and fare increases will always be insufficient; LaGuardia Airport needs to be rebuilt; JFK’s poor cargo operations is leading to longer wait periods to get goods to users; trucks are choking the city; we need a better rail freight system; we need better ferry service.

Despite the pessimism, two transportation projects that excited panelists were the ARC (Access to the Region’s Core), a project of the Port Authority of NY and NJ (PANYNJ) and NJ Transit that will be the first new rail tunnel to be constructed under the Hudson River in 100 years, and the MTA’s East Side Access, which will make the east side of Manhattan more accessible to Long Island Rail Road commuters. PANYNJ is investing $6 billion in ARC, which has been on the drawing boards for decades. Ground was broken on the NJ side in June 2009 and, when completed by 2017, it is anticipated that the number of commuters from NJ to Manhattan will double since it will provide more frequent trains and express service. An expanded Penn Station will connect travelers directly to subway concourses at 7th and 8th Avenues, and for the first time, 6th Avenue and Herald Square.

Robert D. Yaro, president of the Regional Plan Association (RPA), concurred: “We need to continue to make investments.” He talked about “value recapture,” and finding ways to make money from the projects on the boards, such as an airport access fee, container fees, and congestion pricing, which he feels will be back on the table for discussion. “People think they can get something for nothing, but to get something, you have to pay for something.”

As for Moynihan Station, Christopher O. Ward, PANYNJ’s executive director, believes it will be built and believes it is not just a beautiful building, but it is a lynchpin to the Northeast Corridor.

And what about the Eero Saarinen’s TWA Terminal at JFK, which is being rehabilitated by Beyer Blinder Belle Architects & Planners? PANYNJ appreciates its architectural legacy and sees it as an asset. They hope it will monetize itself as a corporate center and a place to do business — once the economy picks up.

Linda G. Miller is a NYC-based freelance writer and publicist, and a contributing editor to e-Oculus and OCULUS.

Event: Architecture for New Science/New Science for Architecture
Location: Center for Architecture, 02.02.10
Speakers: William Paxson, AIA — Partner, Davis Brody Bond Aedas; Robert Goodwin, AIA, LEED AP — Design Principal, Perkins+Will; Anthony Alfieri, AIA, LEED AP — Project Manager, Perkins+Will; Roger Duffy, FAIA — Design Partner, SOM
Organizer: AIANY Architecture for Education Committee

Columbia University Northwest Corner Building. Design Architect: José Rafael Moneo, Hon. FAIA. Associate Architect: Davis Brody Bond Aedas.

Image © Michael Moran

The Northwest Corner Building at Columbia University, the New Science Building at CUNY’s Lehman College, and the Koch Center for Science, Math and Technology at Deerfield Academy are three facilities exemplary of synergistic design for academic science and research. The three buildings — presented by Davis Brody Bond Aedas, Perkins+Will, and Skidmore, Owings & Merrill respectively — have each embraced the concept of connectivity among departmental researchers and students to encourage interdisciplinary learning. As Anthony Alfieri, AIA, LEED AP, Perkins+Will project manager for the Lehman College facility explained, the New Science Building is intended to be a “place of dialogue, debate, inquiry, and discovery.” Columbia’s Northwest Corner Building, designed by Rafael Moneo, Hon FAIA, with Davis Brody Bond Aedas as associate architect, is similarly conceived as a collaborative environment with deliberate ambiguity about departmental locations on lab floors, even with construction completion slated to end this year.

The facilities, designed to reach LEED Silver (Northwest Corner Building), Gold (Koch Center), and Platinum (New Science Building) requirements, each contain educational elements. The Northwest Corner Building, a structural feat which spans an existing gymnasium approximately 120 feet at the plaza level, echoes the lateral bracing algorithm in the aluminum façade design. “A critical challenge for the project,” according to William Paxson, AIA, partner at Davis Brody Bond Aedas, was maintaining operation of the gymnasium during construction while the 185,000-square-foot building was erected around and above the long span space. The courtyard created by the massing of the Lehman College facility is treated as a constructive wetland and employed as a teaching tool, or a “living lab,” as described by Alfieri. The Koch Center for Science, Math and Technology, completed in 2007, contains an analemma skylight which etches a figure-eight path of light on a wall within the building, demonstrating the annual movement of the earth around the sun.

Jacqueline Pezzillo, Assoc. AIA, LEED AP, is the communications manager at Davis Brody Bond Aedas and a regular contributor to e-Oculus.

Event: Architect Talks: Focus on 13th Street
Location: Center for Architecture, 02.03.10
Speaker: Philip Wu, AIA — Partner, io Architects
Organizer: Greenwich Village Society for Historic Preservation (GVSHP)
Co-sponsor: Center for Architecture

While new projects in historic districts are subject to an extensive Landmarks approval, projects on the fringe often escape the process. In these cases, the public is removed from the conversation. To open public dialogue on these projects, the Greenwich Village Society for Historic Preservation (GVSHP) created a series of Architect Talks, the first of which focuses on 39 E.13th Street, designed by io Architects, which won an AIA New York State 2009 Award of Excellence.

Located between Broadway and University Place, the project evolved to include both a restoration and an addition. After studying the zoning requirements, Philip Wu, AIA, partner at io, determined that the building could expand horizontally to occupy the entire lot, and vertically by three floors to maximize square footage. He convinced the client to save and refurbish the building’s historic 19th-century cast iron façade, as well as add new floors on top of the non-load bearing structure.

For the addition, Wu decided to align the three new floors with the edge of the façade, rather than cantilever or set it back, though no other precedents exist in the city. He followed a process of subtraction to carve out a light well that provides both light and air, and a terrace on the top floor, which can be rented for special events. In an effort to create “tension and balance between old and new,” Wu extended the existing columns beyond the existing roof, and installed channel glass behind them. This created “shade and shadow that is similar to the cast iron, but differentiated.” Thus, the building addresses historical Greenwich Village to the south and the “new” urban space of Union Square to the north.

Murrye Bernard, LEED AP, is a freelance architectural writer and a contributing editor to e-Oculus.

Event: No Fixed Points in Space: Transferring Form, Time, and Narrative between Architecture and Performance
Location: Miller Theatre, Columbia University, 01.26.10
Panelists: Trevor Carlson — Executive Director, Merce Cunningham Dance Foundation; Michelle Fornabai — Principal, Ambo.infra Design; Paul Kaiser — Digital Artist & Writer, Open Ended Group; Paul Miller (a.k.a. DJ Spooky) — Artist, Composer & Writer; Tere O’Connor — Founder, Tere O’Connor Dance
Curator & Moderator: Annie K. Kwon — Architectural Designer, Kwon Studio
Performances: Merce Cunningham Dance Company’s Repertory Understudy Group
Presenters: Merce Cunningham Dance Foundation; Barnard College Dance Department; Columbia GSAPP; School of the Arts, Columbia University

Merce Cunningham Dance Company’s Repertory Understudy Group.

Columbia University

Dance choreographer Merce Cunningham (1919-2009) collaborated with visual artists throughout his career. For his final work, Nearly Ninety (2009), he chose to collaborate for the first time with an architect, Benedetta Tagliabue of Barcelona-based Enric Miralles – Benedetta Tagliabue | EMBT, who designed the multi-tier set. This collaboration inspired the creation of a series of public programs to explore the “intersection between architecture and the performing arts.” The first of the three symposia convened a variety of talents from the fields of dance, music, and architecture.

Cunningham was a proponent of Einstein’s proclamation that “there are no fixed points in space.” Moderator and architect Annie K. Kwon agreed, noting that architecture and dance “steal from each other; they shift and merge and become something unexpected.” Much of Cunningham’s work involved the dancer’s interaction with the set. Rather than utilizing conventional proscenium staging, he preferred three-dimensional sets with multiple centers of focus.

Nearly Ninety’s set was progressive within the world of modern dance, but it was panned by many critics who referred to it as “clunky” or too “sci-fi.” His set for the production BIPED was decidedly more elegant. Dancers slipped through slits in the back curtains; and a patterned, metallic scrim hung in front of the stage to frame the dancers’ figures. The “volumetric apparitions” varied depending on the sightlines from the audience, according to digital artist Paul Kaiser.

Tere O’Connor, founder of Tere O’Connor Dance, explained that “dance involves ‘around and through’ and not just a frontal experience,” which is similar to the way one experiences and understands a building. O’Connor looks to architectural concepts as a resource for his own work; for example, Rammed Earth is a performance piece inspired by ancient building techniques and is adaptable to almost any space.

Between discussions, dancers from the Merce Cunningham Dance Company’s Repertory Understudy Group performed. The music was dissonant, composed of seemingly random and harsh sounds, and the dancers’ movements ranged from fluid to rigid. The choreography of the dance was not set to the music, and at times they would coincide by chance while at others they seem awkwardly paired.

DJ Spooky sees dance as a way of “interpreting the space around you.” The human form bends and morphs within its liquid, ambiguous surroundings. Through its limits and capabilities, the body strives to explore space, just as the materials and structural systems that comprise buildings attempt to capture it.

Murrye Bernard, LEED AP, is a freelance architectural writer and a contributing editor to e-Oculus.