by: Carolyn Sponza AIA LEED AP
Event: ENYA Launch Party for 2008 South Street Seaport, Re-envisioning the Urban Edge competition
Location: The Seamen’s Church Institute, 09.27.07
Organizers: AIANY Emerging NY Architects (ENYA) committee
Sponsors: ENYA; The Seamen’s Church Institute
(l-r): ENYA competition organizers Joel Melton, Sean Rasmussen, Heather Mangrum, and Anne Leondhardt, Assoc. AIA; Vasso Kampiti, Assoc. AIA, Associate Director AIANYS with Anne Leondhardt, Assoc. AIA; Omar Mitchell, Assoc. AIA, and Megan Chusid, Assoc. AIA, co-chair of ENYA.
Carolyn Sponza
Continuing a theme of hosting projects focused on NYC’s changing waterfront, the AIANY Emerging New York Architects (ENYA) committee launched its third Biennial Ideas Competition at the Seamen’s Church Institute (SCI) at South Street Seaport. SCI is acting as a hypothetical client for this international competition, South Street Seaport: Re-envisioning the Urban Edge, whose program includes a community center/gallery space for the institute as well as sanctuary space and a public meditation garden. Unlike previous competitions that have asked entrants to consider building on terra firma, this competition requires the design of a new pier over the water south of the Brooklyn Bridge. Competitors are also encouraged to make connections with the South Street Seaport neighborhood and Lower Manhattan.
Surrounded by models of tall ships on display at SCI, attendees of the competition launch were reminded of the over 200-year history of the area as a port. This is a particularly apt time for architects and planners to focus on this area; since 2005, the departure of the Fulton Fish Market has marked a rapid shift to more intense residential and retail uses in the neighborhood. Also impacting the area is the imminent implementation of the city’s East River Waterfront plan.
For more information about the competition, or to register, click the link. And be sure to check out the area on Saturday, October 6, as ENYA hosts the site for openhousenewyork.
Carolyn Sponza, AIA, is an architect with Beyer Blinder Belle Architects and Planners and is the AIANY Chapter Vice President of Professional Development.