Press Releases

NEW YORK, NY, July 27, 2015 — Since Governors Island first opened to the public in 2004, the attention and interest that this public place has received has increased dramatically. Each summer, approximately 500,000 people visit the island through to engage in a variety of arts and cultural programs, as well as to enjoy summertime activities like picnicking and bike riding.

FIGMENT has once again teamed with the Emerging New York Architects Committee (ENYA) of the American Institute of Architects New York Chapter (AIANY) and the Structural Engineers Association of New York (SEAoNY) to host a competition to design and construct the City of Dreams Pavilion, an architectural pavilion on Governors Island.

FIGMENT, ENYA and SEAoNY are excited to announce they are now accepting entries for The City of Dreams 2016 Pavilion Design Competition.

Registration deadline: September 20, 2015, 11:59 pm
(Registrations are $50 for individuals, $20 for students, and $80 for teams of any composition)
Submission deadline: September 30, 2015, 11:59 pm
To register and for more information, visit http://newyork.figmentproject.org/2016pavilion

Entries are encouraged from individuals or teams of architects and non-architects of any age or experience level, provided they are prepared to carry out the project.

Instead of a typical design competition, the City of Dreams Pavilion asks entrants to consider how to construct this temporary structure in the most efficient and sustainable way possible. Entrants are asked to consider using “borrowed” materials from existing construction sites and from places where the materials can be returned after the season ends and the temporary structure is disassembled. The goal is to create a pavilion that has net zero impact and serves as a prototype for a new, truly sustainable approach to design and construction.

The 2016 competition will be the sixth City of Dreams Pavilion Design Competition. In 2015, for the first time , two pavilions were selected. Organic Growth and Billion Oyster Pavilion, designed by Izaskun Chinchilla Architects and BanG Studio respectively, are currently installed on Governors Island for the 2015 summer season. Pending permits and approvals, the winner of the 2016 City of Dreams Pavilion competition will be installed and open to the public on New York City’s Governors Island throughout the 2016 summer season.

The City of Dreams Pavilion at a glance
The City of Dreams Pavilion will be a gathering place for people to meet, learn about the arts programs on the island, enjoy a performance or lecture, and experience the interaction of art and the historic context of Governors Island. The objective of the City of Dreams pavilion is to look to the future. If we imagine a future New York City where anything is possible, what would it look like? In our wildest and most optimistic dreams, what is the future of the city?

The current state of the world is such that both economic and natural resources are limited in ways we have never experienced in our before. A new way of thinking is necessary to solve the problems facing the world. Inevitably, the result will be a change in the basic practices that have driven the world to its current state. One place to start to activate and energize these changes in within the architecture and design community, where the movement toward sustainable design has only scratched the surface of what is possible and necessary.

The Competition Jury
The City of Dreams 2016 Pavilion Design Competition will be a two-stage process, in which a jury of leading architects and other industry professionals will review initial submissions and select a number of finalists. These finalists will receive comments and have the opportunity to revise their proposals. The jury will select the competition winner in November 2015. The confirmed 2016 City of Dreams Pavilion Competition jurors are:

Megan Chusid, AIA, Associate Director of Facilities, Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum
Lizzie Hodges, Project Manager, Guy Nordenson and Associates
Ben Jones, Artist
Phillip Nobel, Editorial Director, SHoP Architects
Anne Rieselbach, Program Director, The Architectural League of New York
Weston Walker, AIA, LEED AP, Design Principal, Studio Gang Architects
Ekaterina Zavyalova, Designer, CDR Studio (2014 City of Dreams Pavilion Winner – Governor’s Cup)

SLO Architecture Co-Founder and Principal Alexander Levi, AIA, will serve as a design mentor to the finalists and winning design team.

About FIGMENT
FIGMENT catalyzes and celebrates an abundance of creativity and passion, challenging artists and our communities to find new ways to create, share, think, and dream. FIGMENT’s free annual participatory arts event began in New York City in 2007 and has expanded to include 10 events in cities around the US and now in Australia and Canada. In New York, FIGMENT hosts an annual summer-long exhibition on Governors Island that includes an interactive sculpture garden, an artist-designed minigolf course, a treehouse, and an architectural pavilion co-presented with ENYA and SEAoNY. For more information, visit http://figmentproject.org.

FIGMENT is a 501(c)(3) not-for-profit organization entirely funded by grants and individual donations. FIGMENT accepts no corporate sponsorship of any kind. FIGMENT NYC is supported by public funds from the National Endowment for the Arts, as well as the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs, in partnership with the City Council, as well as by the Fund for Creative Communities, supported by the New York State Council on the Arts with the support of Governor Andrew Cuomo and the New York State Legislature and administered by the Lower Manhattan Cultural Council.

About the AIANY Emerging New York Architects Committee
It is the goal of the Emerging New York Architects Committee to encourage membership, participation, and leadership in the AIANY Chapter among intern architects, young architects (licensed 10 years or less), and emerging professionals in the fields of design and construction. The committee engages NYC’s diverse emerging design professionals through lectures, design competitions, and networking opportunities, with a focus on Professional Development, Design Excellence, and Public Outreach.

Founded in 1857, the AIA New York Chapter is the oldest and largest chapter of the American Institute of Architects. The Chapter’s members include more than 5,000 practicing architects, allied professionals, students, and public members interested in architecture and design. The AIA New York Chapter is dedicated to three goals: design excellence, public outreach, and professional development.

ABOUT SEAoNY
SEAoNY is a member organization of the National Council of Structural Engineers Associations. Presently, 39 states and the District of Columbia have structural engineers’ associations, the largest of which is SEAOC, Structural Engineers Association of California, which was founded in 1930 and presently has approximately 4,000 members.

The association sponsors workshops, panel discussions, lectures and seminars with the aim of addressing topics of interest and concern to structural engineers. Our membership, which is over 500 members, includes individuals from most major structural engineering design firms in New York State. SEAoNY also reaches out to other professionals, outside the engineering community, who work in related fields with common interests. Currently, 10 percent of our membership are affiliate members who come from a variety of disciplines such as geotechnical, civil, construction management and architecture. The purpose of SEAoNY is to advance the art of structural engineering in New York by improving the flow of ideas and building the community of colleagues.