In this issue:
· Collaborative Research Center Links Disciplines
· David Adjaye Associates Debuts Broadway Housing
· Two New Infill Buildings Refer to 20th-Century Surroundings
· Community of Designers Creates a Mixed-Use Community for Brooklyn
· Park Avenue Armory Begins Phase I of Renovations
· Libeskind’s Warsaw Project Gets Green Light…Again

Collaborative Research Center Links Disciplines

Rockefeller University’s Collaborative Research Center.

Courtesy Jeff Goldberg/Esto

Phase One of Rockefeller University’s new Collaborative Research Center on the Upper East Side has been completed. Designed by Mitchell/Giurgola Architects, the complex includes the renovation of Smith Hall, one of two neo-classical limestone-and-masonry buildings, and the construction of a “bridge building” over a parking lot sited between the two buildings. The 250,000-square-foot project reorganizes both buildings into open-plan laboratories. Horizontally oriented lab space will allow as many as eight laboratories to share a single floor plan, an arrangement that will help foster interaction among scientists. In addition, the project includes campus-wide support elements, such as a conference center, a café, and facilities for campus-wide glass washing and chemical/biological/radioactive waste removal. The limestone-and-glass curtain wall bridge building incorporates conference and meeting rooms, snack areas, and pantries. During Phase Two, Flexner Hall will undergo renovation and a 200-seat lecture hall will be constructed below the atrium.

David Adjaye Associates Debuts Broadway Housing

Broadway Housing Community development.

David Adjaye Associates

Broadway Housing Communities, a non-profit community housing development and management organization providing permanent housing for individuals and families at “high risk” in Washington Heights and West Harlem, has unveiled plans for the new project designed by David Adjaye Associates. The building, which overlooks the Harlem River, will contain 124 housing units and be home to the new 18,000-square-foot Faith Ringgold Children’s Museum of Art and Storytelling. The museum will house the artist’s permanent collection of painted story quilts along with temporary exhibitions and children’s artwork, a performance space, shop, café, media center, and library. Work on the project is expected to begin later this year and the building is scheduled to open in 2012.

Two New Infill Buildings Refer to 20th-Century Surroundings

HPD Site 8.

©Albert Vecerka/Esto

RKT&B Architects has completed an 80,000-square-foot, $15 million NYC Housing Preservation and Development (HPD) project in Harlem. Located close to Marcus Garvey Park, the project, which is two new eight-story infill buildings that flank an existing low-rise building, includes 37 affordable housing units, commercial ground floors, and community facility space. Both buildings are thematically similar and relate architecturally to the early 20th-century neighborhood. The facades consist of bricks in three colors that relate to the colors of the surrounding buildings. Staggered windows create a variegated surface while allowing flexibility in locating apartment walls.

Community of Designers Creates a Mixed-Use Community for Brooklyn

Navy Green.

FXFOWLE Architects

Ground was recently broken for Navy Green on a 103,000-square-foot city block, a former naval prison site known as “The Brig,” in Fort Greene/Wallabout, Brooklyn. Designed by FXFOWLE Architects, master planner and architect, Curtis + Ginsberg Architects, architect, Architecture in Formation, design architect of supportive housing building, and Todd Rader and Amy Crews Landscape Architecture, the site will be transformed into a mixed-use community by combining affordable rentals with market-rate co-ops, townhouses, and supportive housing facilities constructed in two phases. The first phase includes an eight-story, 101-unit, affordable rental building and an eight-story, 98-unit, supportive housing building. The latter will provide housing and social services, such as access to medical care, recreation, and vocational training to chronically homeless and low-income single adults. When completed, Navy Green will consist of approximately 458 residential units in four multi-family buildings and 23 townhomes. In addition, the project features over 8,000 square feet of commercial and/or community facility space, and approximately 32,000 square feet of common green space in the center of the development.

Park Avenue Armory Begins Phase I of Renovations

Wade Thompson Drill Hall at the Park Avenue Armory.

Elliot Kaufman

Park Avenue Armory has completed the first phase of a $68 million, multi-year renovation and restoration project by Herzog & de Meuron, design architect, Platt Byard Dovell White, executive architect, and Fisher Dachs Associates, theatrical consultant. Work completed to date includes reinforcing trusses and bolstering the building’s electrical capacity, and the installation of high-tech rigging, lighting, and mechanical equipment. The renovation has transformed the Wade Thompson Drill Hall into one of NYC’s largest visual and performing arts spaces for large-scale, immersive, site-specific installations and performances. The overall renovation plans for the building, designed by Herzog & de Meuron and Platt Byard Dovell White, will be unveiled next year.

Libeskind’s Warsaw Project Gets Green Light… Again

ZLOTA 44.

Studio Daniel Libeskind

Objections from neighbors forced Polish authorities to suspend the permit on ZLOTA 44, designed by Studio Daniel Libeskind, located in the heart of Warsaw. After proving the project was planned and designed in accordance with all local codes and regulations, work has resumed on the 54-story concrete structure with glass curtain wall cladding. Designed in response to the destruction of Warsaw in post-war Russian reconstruction, the 804,602-square-foot project — Libeskind’s first in his native Poland — will include 251 luxury residential units, retail, and parking/storage. Orco Property Group, the project’s developer intends to complete as much of the building as possible in time for EURO 2012, the final tournament of the 14th UEFA European Football Championship.