by: Linda G. Miller
Tom Lee Park in Memphis Opens to the Public
Tom Lee Park, a 31-acre public space located between the Mississippi River and downtown Memphis, TN, adjacent to a crescent of disinvested neighborhoods, has opened to the public. Master planner and architect Studio Gang collaborated with SCAPE Landscape Architecture to design a park that would create greater economic equity across Memphis by providing publicly accessible amenities for all residents. The design of the park is inspired by the dynamic flow patterns of the Mississippi River and a desire to revive the river corridor. The architectural centerpiece of the park is the Sunset Canopy, which will host year-round community activities. The 16,000-square-foot timber structure is supported by six “bundled” steel columns. Its wood beams are constructed of glulam. Above the beams, louvered roof monitors, also made of wood, provide sun and rain protection for those below. A series of open lawns define the park’s four zones and, while each has its own distinct character, they are unified by the overarching plan inspired by the Mississippi River. Transforming a once-flat expanse of lawn, undulating hills of native plants and trees sculpt the spaces. Civic, recreational, and contemplative, these spaces host a range of activities and provide habitat for native birds and pollinator insects that migrate along the Mississippi Flyway Corridor. The park is named for a local Black hero who saved 32 people in a riverboat accident in the river in 1925.
Fifth Avenue Hotel Transforms Italian Renaissance Revival Bank Building
Located on the northwest corner of Fifth Avenue at 28th Street in NoMad, the design of the Fifth Avenue Hotel, a luxury boutique hotel, is inspired by the history of the neighborhood and heritage of the building. Located within the Madison Square North Historic District, the project began in 2012 with a public hearing before the Landmarks Preservation Commission (LPC). The hotel is comprised of two buildings. The first is the five-story 1907 Renaissance-style Second National Bank building, designed by McKim, Mead & White, which has been renovated and restored by Perkins Eastman and transformed into a gastronomic and gathering destination with 24 hotel suites. The second structure, designed in collaboration with PBDW for the building envelope, is The Tower, a ground-up, brick-and-glass, 24-story building with 129 rooms and suites. Through bronze and etched-glass doors on Fifth Avenue lies Café Carmellini, located in the restored, double-height banking hall, with arched windows and an open kitchen, as well as private dining balconies on the second floor. The space also includes a 5,000-square-foot ballroom with 22-foot ceilings, restored original architectural details, and a coffered ceiling overlooking Fifth Avenue. For the interiors, Martin Brudnizki Design Studio created an aesthetic that pays homage to the elegant lifestyle of those who once resided on Fifth Avenue during the Gilded Age; it embraces Bohemian romanticism with its art and objets, from pricey works of art to flea market finds that that might have been collected by a globetrotter. The design team worked in collaboration with Flâneur Hospitality, the hotel’s development and management company.
Brown University’s New TenBerke-designed Residence Halls
The Brook Street Residence Halls at Brown University in Providence, RI, offer a residential community that re-shapes the school’s connection to the surrounding neighborhood. While most of Brown’s dormitory buildings are primarily inward‑facing, separated from their broader neighborhood context by gates or recessed courtyards, TenBerke designed the residence halls to meet the street directly. Interwoven with new, publicly accessible green spaces, the residence halls offer spaces for living alongside places to socialize, study, and gather, inside and out. The pair of buildings provides 125,000-square-feet of housing and adds 353 beds for undergraduates. Taking cues from the pitched roofs found across the city, the volumes feature sloped roof lines that temper the scale of the building. A palette of brick, terracotta, and wood complements and draws from the immediate context. Within the dorms, light‑filled corridors contain inviting spaces such as kitchens and small nooks. Social spaces are located at corners, affording views out while animating the building façades at street level. An integrated design‑build project delivery approach ensured that material, labor, and maintenance costs were streamlined and part of a sustainability strategy. The project’s all‑electric, high‑performance design employs a hybrid steel and cross‑laminated timber structure to minimize the environmental impact of both the residence hall and the construction process. It also contributes to the university’s decarbonization pledge of cutting campus greenhouse gas emissions to net‑zero by 2040.
In Downtown Brooklyn, Construction on 101 Fleet Place Underway
Currently under construction is the J Frankl Architects (JFA)-designed 101 Fleet Place near City Point in Downtown Brooklyn. The over 240,000-square-foot, 21-story residential building will contain 299 market-rate and affordable rental units, plus ground floor commercial space. The building’s undulating façade features stepped setbacks with terraces on its upper floors. Located on a trapezoidal-shaped site, the building takes the form of an “H.” The units overlook two courtyards and a yard in the rear of the site. This configuration allows air and light to flow into the units. With interiors designed by Input Creative Studio, the lobby features a monolithic desk that blends with the walls, expanding the space into a reading lounge with access to the inner courtyard. The ground floor hosts a business lounge, co-working space, resident entertainment room, a kid’s playroom, and a fully equipped fitness center that extends to an outdoor yoga zone and pickle ball court. A park-like rooftop features a lounge areas, BBQ and dining zones, and a game area.
New Campus Plan at University of Maryland Includes Wellness Loop
After an 18-month community engagement and planning process involving 6,000 points of input from over 1,000 students, faculty, staff and community stakeholders, Cooper Robertson announced an initiative that offers a strategic roadmap for campus facilities at the University of Maryland in College Park. Outlining a vision grounded in advanced academic, residential, and recreational facilities, the design boasts signature new green spaces and pedestrian thoroughfares. Plans call for strategic retrofits of more than a dozen existing campus buildings to improve space usage and overall building performance, while also constructing new academic and research facilities to meet long-term programmatic goals. A five-mile walking/biking Wellness Loop will run through urban, wooded, and grassy environments that circumnavigates the campus and connects students with major destinations, on and off-campus. A “complete street” set of improvements will be implemented to redesign roadways that mutually accommodate cars, bikes, scooters, and walkers, while also proposing walk/bike/scooter corridors that connect to key campus points and prioritize pedestrian safety and accessibility. Research and other high-impact academic environments will be showcased via clustering new buildings, building renovations, and open spaces along a campus-wide “Innovation Walk.”
In Case You Missed It…
Governor Hochul and the nonprofit Friends of + POOL plan to launch an approximately 2,000-square-foot version of water-filtering swimming pool utilizing + POOL’s design and technology. To be installed this summer in the East River, it will demonstrate how the + POOL and its filtration system will provide safe public access to our waters and meet new regulations outlined by the government. It will also contribute to the assessment of a variety of sites for the build-out of pools across the State. Designed by PLAYLAB, INC. & Family New York, the pool can be reconfigured for lap swimming, lounging, watersports, and children’s activities. Plans are to open the pool to the public in summer of 2025.
With the opening of “The Bev,” The Beverly Willis Architecture Foundation (BWAF) now has a new 2,000-square-foot headquarters in the SOM-designed 4 Manhattan West. SHoP’s Associate Principal Angelica Baccon, AIA, donated full design services for the multi-use space. The foundation also celebrated the opening of the new exhibition designed by Yay Brigade, Pioneering Women of American Architecture, a companion to the foundation’s online resource.
Beyer Blinder Belle has replaced 30,000-square-feet of skylights that admit natural overhead light into the newly reopened European Paintings galleries at The Met. The technologically advanced glazing system better addresses the issues of sunlight control, thermal efficiency, system longevity, and condensation prevention. The project also replaces an aging HVAC system serving the galleries, the interior louvers for sun control, and the glass ceiling panels which admit diffused light into each gallery. Extensive roofing, gutter, and masonry repairs were included as well.
Central Harlem North Historic District, a residential neighborhood of approximately 10 blocks, has been added to the New York State and National Register of Historic Places. It is one of 37 new historic sites recognized for their cultural and historical significance.
Building Stories, a multi-generational exhibition providing a portal into the built environment through the imaginative lens of children’s books, opens this weekend at the National Building Museum in Washington, DC. Many of the books featured in the exhibition are NYC-centric, including Lost in NYC: A Subway Adventure by Nadja Spiegelman, illustrated by Sergio Garcia Sanchez (2020), Ragged Dick; or, Street Life in New York with the Boot Blacks by Horatio Alger, Jr. (1868), Pet of the Met by Don Freeman (1953), Stuart Little by E.B. White./Garth Williams (1945), Men at Work by Lewis W. Hine (1977), Sky Boys: How They Built the Empire State Building by Deborah Hopkinson/James E. Ransome (2006), and The Brownstone by Paula Scher, illustrated by Stan Mack (1973). It is the museum’s most ambitious exhibition ever undertaken and will be on view for 10 years.