In this issue:
· Princeton Sets Stage for Arts Center
· Artists Fence in Construction Sites
· Health Care Center Heals Body and Soul
· New Academic Center Looks to Ellis Island for Inspiration

Princeton Sets Stage for Arts Center

Lewis Center for the Arts.

Princeton University

Steven Holl Architects unveiled Princeton University’s new Lewis Center for the Arts, and performance and teaching spaces for the Program in Theater and Dance in the Department of Music, and the Society of Fellows in the Creative and Performing Arts. Encompassing 130,000 square feet, the proposed complex will contain three buildings sharing a common reception area. It will house several public spaces including an art gallery, black box theater, dance studio, music rehearsal room, box office, café, and offices. The plans also call for a courtyard built around a pool filled with recycled and filtered stormwater. The shallow water will be translucent in all seasons and is intended to be a piece of art itself. Skylights under the pool will provide natural light to the reception space below. In addition to stormwater collection, other sustainable features include graywater treatment and reuse, green roofs, and geothermal wells. Beyer Blinder Belle Architects & Planners are updating traffic circulation, parking, retail space, and other neighborhood plans near the site.

Artists Fence in Construction Sites

Green Gate, Summer, by Raina Accardi.

Downtown Alliance

Two new public art projects have been installed at downtown construction sites as part of Re:Construction, the ongoing initiative of the Alliance for Downtown New York to bring color, movement, nature vistas, and “green” technology to Lower Manhattan streetscapes. Sidewalk shed scaffolding and construction fencing act as canvasses for temporary art and architecture. The Houston Fence installation, designed by Carolina Cisneros, Mateo Pinto, and Carlos J. Gomez de Llarena, is located at the intersection of Broadway and Houston. Inspired by QR-code patterns (a type of barcode), the installation identifies each segment with color codes that relate to the site, traffic, and city. Green Gate, Summer, located at the base of the AIG building at 175 Water Street was designed by artist Raina Accardi and wraps a sidewalk shed in a vinyl banner depicting trees and sky. Actual foliage emerges from the structure itself, also. Re:Construction is made possible by a $1.5 million Community Enhancement Fund grant awarded by the Lower Manhattan Development Corporation, and is sponsored by the AIG and supported by the NYC Department of Design and Construction (DDC).

Health Care Center Heals Body and Soul

Harlem Hospital.

HOK

A ground-breaking ceremony marked the start of construction of the Harlem Hospital modernization project. Designed by HOK NY in association Studio /JTA, the concept integrates innovative health care planning and design excellence with an expression of Harlem’s history and culture. The plan includes a new patient pavilion and the renovation of key nursing and clinical units in the Martin Luther King Jr. Pavilion. With 180,000 square feet of new construction and 120,000 square feet of renovated space, all major clinical elements — specifically the emergency department, surgery, invasive procedures, imaging, and critical care beds — are organized to provide state-of-the-art care and treatment.

The new design will preserve and highlight the WPA murals from existing buildings slated to be demolished. The murals, initially commissioned in 1936, were the first major U.S.-government commissions awarded to African-American artists. The architects will incorporate restored mural images into the building’s architecture at the scale of the 80-foot-high façade by using transparent images integrated within a sustainable, high-performance curtain wall. The design for the new pavilion received an AIANY 2005 Design Award.

New Academic Center Looks to Ellis Island for Inspiration

University Center/Academic Center.

Gensler

St. John’s recently celebrated the topping off of its new University Center/Academic Center (UC/AC) on the school’s Queens campus, attended by the project’s design and construction team from Gensler, FJ Sciame Construction Company, and AFK Engineers. The 127,000-square-foot, five-story brick-and-stone building was designed to complement the existing campus buildings. Fourteen “flexible” classrooms will allow faculty to configure a classroom according to type of class taught, and to quickly rearrange the room from a row setting to a circular, cluster, or other arrangement. The building will also provide ample student recreation and entertainment spaces, student organization offices and meeting/conference rooms, new board room, and banquet room. The design for the estimated $77 million building is said to be inspired by The Great Hall of Ellis Island and is symbolic of the Vincentian Mission of the University which opened its doors to the children of immigrants.