In this issue:
· The New School Expands on Fifth Avenue
· One Isn’t the Loneliest Number
· MAP Continues to Make Its Mark in Melrose
· Two by TEN
· Fresh Fish, Sticky Rice, and CNC Fabrication
· Jewish Museum Berlin is Expanding Across the Strasse

The New School Expands on Fifth Avenue

The University Center.

Skidmore, Owings & Merrill

The New School has plans to create a major new 16-story, 365,000-square-foot campus hub, designed by Skidmore, Owings & Merrill, on Fifth Avenue between 13th and 14th Streets. Named The University Center, it replaces a structure designed as a department store in 1951. The first seven floors will contain specialized design studios, interdisciplinary classrooms, university resource centers, faculty offices, and laboratories in addition to an auditorium, library, dining facilities, and student gathering spaces; the first floor and below-grade floors will house retail space. The top nine floors will house a 608-bed dormitory that will have a separate entrance. The school’s partners on the project include The Durst Organization, Tishman Construction, and SLCE Architects, who designed the dormitory interiors. Construction is scheduled to begin this August and the building is expected to open for the Fall 2013 semester.

One Isn’t the Loneliest Number

Theater for One.

Times Square Alliance

Theater for One (T41), conceived by set designer Christine Jones and developed into its architectural form by LOT/EK, is an intimate space created for experiencing theater. Located in Duffy Square, this four-by-nine-foot portable, fully operational theater is created for one audience member and one performer. With separate entrances, the audience half references the iconography of Baroque theaters and opera houses and is lined with red padded velvet, while the performer’s side is intentionally raw so it can be transformed as needed for magic, poetry, dance, puppetry, and theater pieces created for the venue. T41 uses “road box” technology to configure a system where connected and detachable units for the black box theater allow for the different sets. Presented by the Times Square Public Art Program, T41 will be open to the public until 05.23.10.

MAP Continues to Make Its Mark in Melrose

El Jardin de Selene.

Magnusson Architecture and Planning

El Jardin de Selene, a mixed-use affordable housing project, designed by Magnusson Architecture and Planning (MAP), recently opened in the Melrose section of the Bronx. Mindful of the rich architectural heritage of the Bronx, Art Deco elements were incorporated into the design. The 12-story building contains studio, one-, and two-bedroom rental units, and residents have access to over 2,000 square feet of community space, including green roofs at the second floor courtyard and ninth floor setback. The building also features 6,000 square feet of commercial space and more than 12,000 square feet of structured parking. In addition to receiving a LEED Gold rating, the building is NYSERDA Energy Star certified and Enterprise Green Communities compliant. Sustainable strategies include daylight and occupancy sensors in common areas, bamboo flooring, and solar panels on the roof. The project is a joint venture of Nos Quedamos, MJM Construction Services, and Melrose Associates, under the financial guidance of Forsyth Street Advisors.

Two by TEN

Rutgers Business School (left) and the National Laboratory of Genomics.

Photo by Luis Gordoa

The new facility for the Rutgers Business School-Newark and New Brunswick on the Livingston Campus in Piscataway, NJ, has be given the green light for construction to begin in late spring 2011. Designed by Enrique Norten/TEN Arquitectos, the 156,000-square-foot project will feature classrooms, lecture halls, instructional labs, meeting spaces, student lounges, faculty offices, a business library, and a trading floor, and is expected to be completed by the fall semester of 2013.

The firm has also completed the first construction phase for the National Laboratory of Genomics, which is part of an extension to the Institute of Agricultural Studies in Irapuato, Guanajuato, Mexico. Nestled within a built-up artificial topography, the institution happens to be sited on a fault line that divides the program in half, with laboratories on one side and an auditorium and administrative spaces on the other, and a paved courtyard in between.

Fresh Fish, Sticky Rice, and CNC Fabrication

Moc Moc.

Fabian Birgfeld, PHOTOtectonics

MoC MoC is a new, 2,400-square-foot restaurant in a building being renovated in downtown Princeton. The project, designed by NYC-based GRO Architects, features a ceiling and wall system that that functions as both infrastructure and an architectural effect. A curvilinear system of mahogany wood slats is used to organize the main dining area into a series of alcoves formed as the ceiling slats curve down to create screen partitions. This system is also essential to the operations of the restaurant as it houses retractable privacy screens, conceals glowing linear LED lights, organizes speakers and sprinkler heads, and functions as a fresh air diffuser. The restaurant also includes a sushi bar at the rear of the first floor, and a chef’s table in the private dining room adjacent to the kitchen on the lower level. The project was developed parametrically to allow for variations in the geometry and a seamless output to CNC fabrication.

Jewish Museum Berlin is Expanding Across the Strasse

Jewish Museum Berlin Library Cube.

P Rendering by bromsky, © Jewish Museum Berlin

Plans for the Daniel Libeskind-designed Jewish Museum Berlin Academy to house the museum’s archives, library, and education center were recently revealed. Located across from the existing museum complex, the academy will be built on the site of the 19th-century Berlin Flower Market and an existing hall. The design features a tilted cube that penetrates the outer wall of the hall creating a counterpart to the museum’s main Baroque entrance. Visitors will enter the academy through an opening in the entrance cube, which leads to the hall where two more cubes tilt towards each other containing a lecture hall, library, and packing crates filled with documents and artifacts sent to the museum from around the world. Clad in rough timber board, the cubes are meant to recall Noah’s Ark. The exterior walls are clad with titan zinc-plate panels and skylights form an alef and a bet, the first letters in the Hebrew alphabet. The project expected to be completed by fall of 2011.