July 2007 – Page 3 – News – What’s New at AIANY and the Center for Architecture.

Architecture Sells Out

Event: BRANDISM: ARCHITECTURE/IDENTITY/COMMUNITY
Location: Center for Architecture, 06.27.07
Speakers: Keller Easterling — Associate Professor of Architecture, Yale School of Architecture; Martha Kohen — Professor & Director, School of Architecture & College of Design, Construction, and Planning, University of Florida; Mary McLeod — Professor of Architecture, Columbia University Graduate School of Architecture, Planning and Preservation; Elsie Maio — Brand Strategist & President, Maio and Company; Michel Mein — Executive Creative Director, The 7th Art; Marvin Meltzer, AIA — Meltzer/Mandl Architects.
Moderator: Anna Klingman, Assoc. AIA — principal, KL!NGMANN Architecture Brand Development
Organizer: Anna Klingmann; AIANY

Dubai’s Internet City — branding at an urban scale.

Courtesy Dubai Internet City

Branding can be dismissed as laboring over logos and aesthetics — visual representations that are easily recognizable and symbolic. These days, however, it has come to mean a total identity package; a name is attached to an entire lifestyle, not just a single product. In this way, architecture may be a powerful instrument in orchestrating the experiential aspects of brands. The question, then, is what this involvement with branding could mean for our urban environments.

A city like Dubai seems to be the quintessential example of branding at the urban scale. With names like Internet City, Healthcare City, Humanitarian City, and Knowledge Village, these smaller entities each maintain their own logo, slogan, architectural icons, and even web presence, but together form a “Dubai Land.” Yet, built without an existing population or history, one must wonder what depth there is to these cities and their pre-established identities.

Arguably, excesses of free land and lax economic zoning make Dubai more of an exception than a rule as an urban branding strategy. This congregate of cities is more accurately reflected in special-interest communities in America, rather than major metropolitan areas. In actuality, a city like NYC could even be said to represent urbanism that resists this type of branding because, as is commonly noted, the grid takes prominence over the buildings. While the fickleness of style and taste plays itself out, the city is able to retain its cohesive urban identity.

Though branding has and will play an important role in the business of architecture, architects put the field at risk when they position themselves at the disposal of marketing trends. The consumerism that comes with branding may reveal itself in the form of short-term dollar signs for developers and landlords, but it could be at the cost of long-term urban design. Branding breeds homogeneity, and designers should not compromise their individuality for the latest fashion. As participants in a discipline that inherently must look toward the future to accommodate the needs of people and their communities, architects should set the trends, not follow them.

Rachel Schauer is concentrating her studies on architecture and communications at New York University Gallatin School. She also is e-OCULUS’ graphic designer.

On the Road and at Home: Nature Inspires Design

Event: Biomimicry for a Sustainable Built Environment
Location: Cooper Union’s Wollman Auditorium, 06.26.07
Speakers: Dayna Baumeister, PhD — Co-Founder, Biomimicry Guild
Organizers: AIANY Committee on the Environment (COTE), AIA COTE and its Biomimicry Guild
Sponsors: FXFOWLE Architects; InterfaceFLOR

Proponents of biomimicry argue that 3.8 billion years of natural evolution has yielded strategies often more efficient and less wasteful that those developed by humans, who have been around only a fraction of that time. By looking at natural forms, processes, and ecosystems, biomimcry can influence design, as been attested to by many practicing architects including Cook + Fox Architects for the Bank of America Tower at One Bryant Park, and Skidmore, Owings & Merrill for the Pearl River Tower under construction in China.

One source of biomimicry-based design is in the industrial design field. A fan developed by PAX Scientific is based on the Fibonacci sequence. With noise reduction, an increase of energy use for the same output, and a reduction in manufacturing costs because less material is wasted, the “PaxFan” blades can be used in kitchen range hoods, refrigerator evaporators, and HVAC fans.

The Mercedes-Benz Bionic Car is a new concept car that mimics the shape of a boxfish. Even though the car has an angular, cube-like shape, it is more aerodynamic than many other cars and achieves 78-miles-per-gallon.

The evening lecture given by Biomimicry Guild co-founder Dayna Baumeister, Ph.D., kicked off a two-day workshop held at the Center for Architecture and at the Interface Showroom, a condensed professional workshop given by the Biomimicry Guild to designers.

Aaron Slodounik, LEED AP, is a freelance art and architecture writer based in New York.

Liquid Sky Washes Out P.S.1

(left) The Liquid Sky entry proposed by Ball-Nogues for the 2007 Young Architects Program, and (right) Liquid Sky on opening day.

I have mixed feelings about this year’s MoMA/P.S.1 Young Architects Program installation, Liquid Sky by Los Angeles-based Ball-Nogues. While it engages the senses and alludes to the sea — appropriate for a “beach” — the piece as a whole feels unfinished.

Dispersed throughout the main courtyard, six “towers” constructed from untreated utility poles act as supports for “community hammocks” while providing an armature for red-tinted Mylar “petals.” Water shoots out of the top of the towers sprinkling visitors below. Two platforms are situated on opposite ends of the adjacent outdoor gallery with a Mylar-netted Droopscape stretched between. Above the platforms are troughs of water that periodically tip over and drench bystanders.

While the elements of water and sand are included every year (this is the eighth year for the program), Liquid Sky amplifies the beach-like experience. The wood of the utility poles, ropes used for the hammocks, and even the existing gravel in the courtyard remind me of boat docks. As the Mylar blows in the wind, the sound references kites and sails in the wind. When the water hits the Mylar and the troughs douse the platforms with water, I think of ocean waves.

The Mylar petals are supposed to form “a tensioned surface that reconfigures the horizon, cresting above the walls of the P.S.1 courtyard,” according to the Liquid Sky press release, and this is where I feel the work falls short. The petals at the towers are in tension, but they do not reach the perimeter walls, nor do they reach the center of the courtyard to complete a canopy. It seems as if the design team ran out of material. The bottom-most petals wilt with the weight of the water that has been sprinkled on them. There is little shelter from the sun where there could have been a fully shaded field of color.

In 2005, Ball-Nogues designed a summer-long installation in a courtyard in Los Angeles called Maximilian’s Schell Installation. A yellow Mylar canopy stretched over a plaza with a central “vortex” reaching down in the center. From the photographs online, Liquid Sky appears to have very similar goals (and a similar description). I feel that my criticism of the work was resolved in a previous iteration of a similar project. This leads me to think that perhaps the design team did not have enough time to finish, and maybe they will add more material over the next few days. As the installation is on view through September 28, I hope to return later in the summer to a more complete project.

In this issue:
·Sustainable Software Begins with Headquarters Expansion
·Message in a Klein Bottle
·Shirtsleeves Fit Arts Center
·Israel Museum Expands Campus
·Yes in Meier’s Backyard
·Hoboken Clock Tower Will Tick Once Again

Sustainable Software Begins with Headquarters Expansion

SAP’s HQ Expansion.

FXFOWLE Architects

Ground was recently broken for the new corporate headquarters for SAP America, the world’s third largest independent software provider, designed by FXFOWLE Architects. Located west of Philadelphia, the new 425,000-square-foot complex will provide additional office, meeting, conference, and amenity space for the company’s 1,500-plus employees. FXFOWLE won an invited competition to design what will be the first corporate-owned LEED Platinum building in the mid-Atlantic region. To conserve existing wooded areas and, in particular, a large grove of chestnut trees, the buildings curve along the land’s grade. The sculptural form of the buildings serves as the basis for the application and integration of calibrated, sustainable strategies.

The interior organization is an open plan that focuses office areas to the north side of the complex to capitalize on the views of the landscape; service and fixed elements are grouped together in nodes along an anchoring spine. The circulation spine along the south guides employees and visitors along the length of the complex, feeding into the office spaces. Other systems and materials will be incorporated to maximize energy conservation capabilities including geothermal wells, an ice storage plant, green roofs, under-floor air distribution system, and daylight sensors.

Message in a Klein Bottle

Infinity Chapel’s sanctuary.

hanrahanMeyers

Construction has begun on the hanrahanMeyers architects redesign of the Tenth Church of Christ, Scientist in Greenwich Village. The design of the 8,000-square-foot Infinity Chapel is based on the idea of a Klein bottle or a Mobius strip, which has no beginning or end and symbolizes infinity. In front of the sanctuary and visible to pedestrians via a newly renovated glass façade is a combined lobby and Christian Science Reading Room, designed as an open and relaxed space for study. The project also features a below ground space for Sunday school and boardroom, with borrowed natural light entering from light monitors projecting through the first floor. Completion is scheduled for February 2008.

Shirtsleeves Fit Arts Center

Herning Center of the Arts.

Steven Holl Architects

Ground was broken on the Steven Holl Architects-designed Herning Center of the Arts located in the mid-Jutland region of Denmark. The center will unite three different cultural institutions creating a single venue for both music and visual arts. The 5,600-square-meter center will contain orthogonally shaped galleries with moveable walls for permanent and temporary exhibitions. In addition, the center will house a 150-seat auditorium, music rehearsal rooms, restaurant, media library, and administrative offices. Relating to a 1960s shirt factory building in the shape of a shirt collar across the street, a fabric theme carries through the project — the building’s shape resembles shirtsleeves from above and incorporates fabric-like wall finishes. In 2005, the firm won an international design competition for this scheme that fuses landscape and architecture, transforming a flat field into a bermed landscape of grass mounds and reflecting pools that conceal parking and service areas.

Israel Museum Expands Campus

Daytime view of the gallery entrance pavilion (center) set within The Israel Museum’s original Mansfeld-designed buildings.

Courtesy James Carpenter Design Associates Inc.

The Israel Museum in Jerusalem, founded in 1965 and known for its extensive holdings in biblical archaeology, most notably the Dead Sea Scrolls, has launched a comprehensive $80 million project. The design team of NY-based James Carpenter Design Associates with Tel-Aviv-based Efrat-Kowalsky architects and Lerman Architects & Town Planners will unify the 20-acre terraced complex, increasing accessibility to main exhibition spaces while remaining faithful to Alfred Mansfeld’s original 1960s design. The multi-year program will create new entrance facilities, an enclosed route of passage throughout the campus, access to curatorial collection wings, reorganized and expanded collection galleries, and centralized temporary exhibition space. Overall, 80,000 square feet of new construction will be added and 200,000 square feet of gallery space will be renovated, with an opening anticipated for the museum’s 45th anniversary in mid-2010.

Yes in Meier’s Backyard

166 Perry Street.

Asymptote Architecture

On a site adjacent to Richard Meier & Partners, Architects’ Perry Street condos, Asymptote Architecture is designing an eight-story residential condo. Containing 22 lofts and two penthouses, each occupying its own corner of the building, the building’s sculptural glass façade will appear to materialize or dematerialize with the daylight, according to the press release. The interiors will have laser-cut and patterned operable metal scrims, translucent glass floating walls, sculptural forms concealing kitchen functions, and other features deployed throughout open floor plans to provide optimal transparency. Every home will have its own private terrace and lap pool.

Hoboken Clock Tower Will Tick Once Again

Hoboken Ferry Terminal Clock Tower.

Stantec

The New York office of Stantec (formerly Vollmer Associates), in coordination with the New Jersey State Historical Preservation Office and the Historic Sites Council, is replicating the historic Clock Tower at the Hoboken Ferry Terminal. Built in 1907, the original clock tower was designed by Kenneth Murchison in the Beaux Arts style typical of large public buildings of that time, but was demolished in the 1950s. True to the original, the new 134-foot-high clock tower will have a steel frame structure with a solid copper skin and roof. New exterior fiber optic lighting will recreate the traditional look of incandescent lighting. In addition to architectural design, the firm is overseeing the mechanical and electrical engineering, exterior lighting design, and all historic preservation measures.

In this issue:
·Sign Up for AIANYS 2007 Convention Today
·AIANY Calls Architects to Support plaNYC
·Individual Jurisdictions to Set Timing for ARE
·Architects Gain accessArchitecture
·Students Build Connections at the Center
·Legislative Session Wraps Up
·Announcements: New Organization/Government Initiatives

Sign Up for AIANYS 2007 Convention Today

Courtesy AIANYS

Online registration for the AIANYS 2007 Convention, to take place October 4-6 at the Grand Hyatt New York, is now available. This is the first time the convention will be located in NYC, and with the theme “Past as Prologue,” the AIA continues its celebration of the 150th Anniversary of its founding.

To make overnight room reservations, call Central Reservations at the Grand Hyatt (1-800-233-1234) and identify that you are with AIANYS October 4-6, 2007. Reservations must be made by phone to receive the special group rate: $359 for single/double room plus taxes. Reservations must be made by September 12 to receive the special rate.

AIANY Calls Architects to Support plaNYC

The fate of the Mayor’s plaNYC 2030, including transportation plans such as the Congestion Pricing program, is now in the hands of the NY State Legislature and NYC Council. AIANY is urging all members to contact their city and state representatives. Let them know you support the plan and request them to push for adoption in time to receive available federal funding. Visit NYC Council, NY State Assembly, and NY State Senate. The deadline is July 16.

Individual Jurisdictions to Set Timing for ARE

At the annual meeting on June 25, member boards of the National Council of Architectural Registration Boards (NCARB) voted to allow individual jurisdictions to determine when a candidate is eligible to begin taking the Architectural Registration Examination® (ARE). The AIA supports architectural registration boards allowing interns for licensure candidacy to take the ARE following graduation from a NAAB-accredited degree program and concurrent with enrollment in the Intern Development Program (IDP).

The adopted-as-amended Resolution 07-8 states: “To begin taking the ARE an applicant shall have fulfilled all requirements for eligibility established by his or her jurisdiction and shall have enrolled in IDP by establishing a Council record.” The resolution also states, “It is the intent and policy of the Council that all jurisdictions accept NCARB certification as a basis for reciprocal registration without the application of any other state requirements applicable to initial licensure in such state.”

Until now, NCARB has had no position on the sequencing of the three requirements for licensure (education, experience, and examination), however, it recommended candidates earn an NAAB-accredited degree, complete IDP, and then pass the ARE. For more information on individual registration boards, visit the NCARB website.

Architects Gain accessArchitecture

Access Architecture is a joint program between AIANY and Reed Construction Data to better engage architects in their business of publishing project leads, project plans, and project specifications to building product manufacturers and contractors. By creating an open network of information, architects share in the value of the content they provide by gaining valuable tools, marketing exposure, and project leads for no out-of-pocket expense. In addition to the direct benefits (firms get paid $35 for each accepted entry), Reed Construction Data will share the value of this content with AIANY and the AIAS. Specifically, they will pay $10 to AIANY and $5 to AIAS Freedom by Design program for every qualified project contributed. To register, click here or call 1-800-424-3996.

Students Build Connections at the Center
By Tim Hayduk, Center for Architecture Foundation School Program Manager

Skyscrapers float in the exhibition “Building Connections: 11th Annual Exhibition of K-12 Design Work.”

Sam LaHoz

The Center for Architecture’s storefront gallery and mezzanine have been filled with model bridges of the bascule, draw and suspension types, colorful groupings of skyscrapers, the landmarks of Chinatown, and many other specimens from New York’s built environment. The Center for Architecture Foundation’s annual exhibition, Building Connections, opened June 28 as guests were tantalized by the architectural models created by K-12 students who participated in the Foundation’s Learning by Design:NY in-school residencies and numerous Programs@theCenter.

Building Connections was opportunity for students from the metropolitan region to share their ideas about NY’s past, present, and future. The variety of projects reflects the Foundation’s involvement in many learning contexts. Students’ experiences are culled from engagement with buildings and neighborhoods near participating schools or from the Center for Architecture’s exhibitions. Student work offers a unique interpretation of NYC shown side-by-side with ideas presented by many of NY’s practicing architects.

The exhibition itself is a celebration of experimentation. 1100 Architect donated time toward design, prototyping, and installation of the exhibition’s unique system of strands that suspends each model. Fishing line was hung in a matrix that gives the models the illusion of weightlessness and suspended animation. The architects worked closely with Casey Maher in developing a graphic design that ties the works together. The collaboration also included the talents of Sophie Stigliano and Rosamond Fletcher, the Center’s exhibition experts who work wonders in transforming the galleries into dynamic visual and spatial experiences.

Legislative Session Wraps Up

The Senate went into recess on June 21 and the Assembly the following day, wrapping up a generally unproductive legislative session which some have described as the most dysfunctional ever. It is expected that the legislature will re-convene later this year. Here is a listing of where the AIANYS legislative priorities ended.

♦ Passed Both Houses
Qualifications-Based Procurement of Professional Design Services was passed by both the Senate and the Assembly. This bill extends quality-based selection of architects, landscape architects, engineers, and land surveyors to public authorities and public benefit corporations. AIANYS will be urging Governor Spitzer to sign the bill into law.

♦ Passed One House
Wicks Reform passed the Assembly with new threshold amounts: $3 million NYC, $1.5 million for Nassau, Suffolk, and Westchester counties, and $500,000 for the rest of the state. Two additional requirements were also included in the bill. If an owner enters into a project labor agreement (union only workers), the project would be exempt from Wicks. Also, contractors are required to list their subs at the time of bid submission. The Senate had previously agreed to this bill and may take it up upon re-convening.

Historic Tax Credit, the bill would amend the tax law in relation to providing a tax credit for the rehabilitation of historic properties and expands upon the tax credit enacted last year by authorizing additional homeowners to qualify and by removing the cap on commercial structures, passed the Senate.

Corporate Practice of Design Professions, the bill that would have allowed professional design firms to offer key personnel an equity interest in the firm, passed the Senate.

Smart Growth-Livable Communities, the bill that sets a smart growth policy for the State’s public works development in a manner that would maximize existing infrastructure and minimize the negative effects if dispersed development and sprawl, passed the Assembly.

♦ Crossed
Green Buildings and Sustainable Development passed each house but it was not the same version. The bill would require adherence to LEED’s Silver rating level and guidelines, and incorporate the use of life cycle cost analysis in new or substantially reconstructed state facilities.

♦ Died in Committee
Affordable Housing Initiatives, Design-Build, Funding for Prosecution of Illegal Practice, Good Samaritan Act, Civil Justice Reform, and Ten-Year Statute of Repose for Third Party Suits.

♦ Successfully Opposed
AIANYS was successful in killing three bills it opposed as part of its legislative agenda. Construction Threshold would have raised the threshold for construction and maintenance of buildings where the services of architects, engineers, or land surveyors are required. Died in committee. Design Delegation would have transfered responsibility of proprietary design to the architect-of-record. Died in committee. Damages for Delay would require public contracts to include clauses authorizing contractors to recover damages for delay for itself as well as on behalf of subcontractors. The bill passed the Senate, but died in the Assembly.

Announcements: New Organization/Government Initiatives

♦ NYC Department of City Planning (DCP) announced the beginning of public review on new regulations for commercial and community facility parking lots that impose new regulations for landscaping, perimeter screening of the lots, and requirements for canopy trees in planting islands within the lots.

♦ The New York State Energy Research and Development Authority (NYSERDA) has released a “High Performance Buildings” video highlighting the benefits of sustainability, energy efficiency, and the financial opportunities available through NYSERDA’s New Construction Program (NCP).

♦ The Institute for Transportation and Development Policy (ITDP), together with the United Nations Environment Programme, Deutsche Gesselschaft fur Technische Zusammenarbeit (GTZ), the Hewlett Foundation, and Viva, announced the publication of the Bus Rapid Transit Planning Guide, the most comprehensive effort to date to provide detailed technical guidance for developing a Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) system.

♦ The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Association’s (NOAA) Climatic Data Center (NCDC) in Asheville, NC is teaming with Scott Shuford, AICP, former Asheville planning and development director, and the Environmental Quality Institute at the University of North Carolina Asheville to develop a practical manual for American planners. “Planning for Climate Change, A Handbook for City, Town and Rural Area Planners” should be completed in 2008 and is intended to guide planning and decision makers in areas such as land use, transportation, natural resources management, structure and site management, public safety, public infrastructure, economic development, and social services.

Look Out For Two New Performances

Changing Room

The Changing Room photo/installation/performance.

Deborah Lohse photo ©Anja Hitzenberger

Architectural performing arts are thriving throughout the city this summer. Changing Room is a photo/installation/performance series presented by Anja Hitzenberger in an abandoned storefront at 145 Nassau Street in Manhattan. Each week a new installation by Illya Azaroff, Assoc. AIA, Director of Design, the design collective studio, is installed for live performances. Hitzenberger also photographs performers and dancers of different body shapes and movement backgrounds every week. Gallery hours are Thursdays and Fridays from noon to 8pm and performances begin every Friday at 6pm through July 28. For more information and performance schedule, click the link.

Metapolis II

Ballet National de Marseille performs the North American premiere of Metapolis II, an evening-length convergence of contemporary dance with cutting-edge architecture created by Frédéric Flamand, the Ballet National de Marseille’s artistic director, and Zaha Hadid, the Pritzker Prize-winning Iraqi-British architect.

Pino Pipitone, courtesy Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts

And, if you haven’t heard, Metapolis II, a collaboration between choreographer Frédéric Flamand and Zaha Hadid, Hon. FAIA, will be making its North American premiere at the Lincoln Center Festival 2007. Performed by the Ballet National de Marseille, there will be three performances at the New York State Theater July 25, 26, and 27. The piece synthesizes video (some created in real time) with the dancers’ bodies and Hadid’s moveable sculptures. Click the link to order tickets.

The Rockefeller Foundation announced two recipients of the inaugural Jane Jacobs Medal: Barry Benepe, FAIA, received the Lifetime Leadership award, and Omar Freilla received the New Ideas and Activism award…

Living Steel announced 18 shortlisted firms for the 2nd International Architecture Competition for Sustainable Housing, including NY-based firms Perkins + Will and nARCHITECTS…

The U.S. Green Building Council (USGBC) announced on June 19 that it will commit $1 million to green building research. Funds will be targeted at increasing research in areas such as energy and water security, global climate change prevention, indoor environmental quality, and passive survivability in the face of natural and man-made disasters…

The Society of American Registered Architects/New York Council (SAAR/NY) 2007 Design Awards winners include: Medallion of Honor: Frank J. Sciame, Hon. AIANY; Firm of the Year: HOK Sport Venue Event; Project of the Year: Renzo Piano Building Workshop (Pierpont Morgan Library & Museum — with Beyer Blinder Belle Architects & Planners).

Award of Excellence: A+I Design (Interior Design: CSTV); Bentel & Bentel Architects (Interior Design: Craftsteak); The Stephen B. Jacobs Group (Housing: 325 Fifth Avenue); Swanke Hayden Connell Architects (Rehabilitation: Office of Emergency Management); Butler Rogers Baskett (Educational: Hamilton College); Students: Craig Maniscalco and Felix Baez.

Award of Merit: Rietveld Architects (International: Eisenhower Residence); Swanke Hayden Connell Architects (Design: Astana – Scheme 2); Cannon Design (Design: BSC Group Buffalo); Mancini-Duffy (Interior Design: Latham & Watkins); Scarano Architects (Housing: Manhattan Park); A.L. Maldonado, Architect (Housing: Mazzei Woodland Retreat); Amiaga Photography and Oculus Consulting (Non-Buildings/Arts); Students: Paul Foenka and Ayesha Tarar.

Award of Honor: Bentel & Bentel Architects (Interior Design: Café 2/MOMA); Scarano Architects (Design: 2626 Jackson Avenue); Edwards & Kelcey (Non-Buildings/Planning Design: College Station Cemetery and Aggie Field of Honor).
Silver Anniversary Award/25-Year Projects: Spector Group (Somerset V and Long Island Savings Bank).

Special Recognition Award: MSA Collaborative (Design: Marble Court); Papadatos Partnership (Design: Chapel for St John the Devine)…

The Society for Environmental Graphic Design (SEGD) annual Design Award winners include, in the category of Honor Awards: Arizona Cardinals Stadium, designed by Pentagram Design (NY) with Entro Communications (Toronto) and with design architect consultants Eisenman Architects (NY); and National World War I Museum, Ralph Appelbaum Associates (NY).

Merit Awards include: The High Style of Dorothy Draper at the Museum of the City of New York, designed by Pure+Applied (NY); Sarah Lawrence College Heimbold Visual Arts Center, Poulin + Morris Inc. (NY) (clients: Sarah Lawrence College/Polshek Partnership Architects); Children’s Museum of the East End, Lee H. Skolnick Architecture + Design Partnership; Absolut® Flavor Suite, The Rockwell Group; The Hearst Building Sign Program, C&G Partners (architect: Foster + Partners; architect-of-record: Adamson Associates, interior architecture: Gensler); Newport Tower Marketing Center, Gensler; 7 World Trade Center, Pentagram Design (architect: Skidmore, Owings & Merrill, media installation: Jenny Holzer); and The Museum of the Portuguese Language, Ralph Appelbaum Associates… The winner of the Lot with a Little Award is 365: AIGA Annual Design Exhibition 27, Design360; and the Jury Award winner is the Griffith Observatory Exhibits, C&G Partners…

06.13.07: IESNY Lumen Awards Gala: Francesca Bettridge and Michael Hennes of Cline Bettridge Bernstein accepting the Lumen Award of Excellence for 7 WTC (all the winners are featured in the 2007 Design Awards issue of Oculus).

Ahron D. Weiner, Bulbphoto

Shoshanna Segal and Carrie Hawley, co-chairs of the Lumen Committee present Leni Schwendinger and Charles Cameron of Leni Schwendinger Light Projects with a Lumen Citation for the Coney Island Parachute Jump.

Ahron D. Weiner, Bulbphoto

06.20.07: AIANY 140th Annual Meeting (l-r): William Singer, AIA, Design Awards Committee Chair; Anna Torriani, AIA, Public Architects Committee Co-Chair; Michael Plottel, AIA, Public Architects Committee Co-Chair; Lorenzo Pagnamenta, AIA, 2006 Design Awards Committee Chair.

Sam LaHoz

Medal of Honor winners Michael Manfredi, FAIA, and Marion Weiss, AIA, of Weiss/Manfredi; and Joan Blumenfeld, FAIA, IIDA, LEED AP, AIANY President.

Sam LaHoz

Susan Chin, FAIA, with Joyce Lee, AIA, LEED AP.

Sam LaHoz

(l-r): Mary Burke, AIA; Abby Suckle, FAIA; and Suzanne Mecs.

Sam LaHoz

06.28.07: Center for Architecture Foundation (CFAF) School Program Manager Tim Hayduk and Director Erin McCluskey at the opening of “Building Connections: 11th Annual Exhibition of K-12 Design Work.”

Kristen Richards

At the “Building Connections” opening (back row, l-r): Eric Ratkowski, design educator; CFAF School Program Manager Tim Hayduk; (front row, l-r): Maggie Jacobstein, CFAF Program Coordinator; Jenny Lee, design educator; Erin McCluskey, CFAF Director; Lita Riddock, design educator; Connie Rath, 1100 Architect.

Sam LaHoz

06.26.07: Society of American Registered Architects/New York Council President Pierre Guariglia, ARA (left), presents Frank J. Sciame, Hon. AIANY, with the Medallion of Honor at the SARA/NY 2007 Design Awards dinner on June 26.

Kristen Richards

Oculus 2007 Editorial Calendar
If you have ideas, projects, opinions — or perhaps a burning desire to write about a topic below — we’d like to hear from you! Deadlines for submitting suggestions are indicated; projects/topics may be anywhere, but architects must be New York-based. Send suggestions to Kristen Richards.
07.31.07 Winter 2007-08: Power & Patronage

07.13.07 Submission: Healthcare Design Magazine
In conjunction with The Center for Health Design, Healthcare Design is publishing the 2nd Annual International Edition in October featuring articles on healthcare design, planning, and construction issues and ideas. Providing a global view on the healthcare design industry, the facilities showcased in this issue will include discussions with the architects, designers, and facility planners. To be considered, send a brief description of your project and a few low-resolution sample photos for review to Richard L. Peck, Editor, Nursing Homes/Long Term Care Management.

07.31.07 Submission: International Design Awards
The International Design Awards seeks visionaries (including students) in the categories of architecture, interior design, graphics, and fashion to be considered for the title International Designer of the Year. Each winning project will be published in the 2008 International Design Awards hardcover art book, to be distributed to museum bookstores nationwide; promotion in an e-mail blast to 100,000 design professionals and potential clients worldwide; and year-long coverage on the International Design Awards website.

07.31.07 Competition: KVB International Art Competition
The KVB Kölner Verkehrs-Betriebe AG (the Cologne public transportation company) has initiated an international competition for the artistic design of eight stations of the new North-South Light Railway Cologne (Nord-Süd Stadtbahn Köln). This multi-stage international art competition seeks designs that make the “city below” accessible for both Cologne’s inhabitants and its visitors and create a new place of discovery.

09.14.07 Competition: James Marston Fitch Foundation’s Mid-Career Grant Award
The James Marston Fitch Charitable Foundation will award a research grant up to $25,000 to mid-career professionals who have an advanced or professional degree and at least 10 years experience in historic preservation or related fields, including architecture, landscape architecture, architectural conservation, urban design, environmental planning, archaeology, architectural history, and the decorative arts. Additional smaller grants, up to $10,000, are also available. The grants are intended to support projects of innovative research and design that advance the practice of historic preservation in the U.S.

11.19.07 Competition: Shrinkage Worldwide Award
This International Design Award under the Shrinkage Worldwide Award umbrella brings together academics, practitioners, theoreticians, and students in a variety of disciplines, including the art and design community in “poster-form” dialogues/seismographs. Shrinkage Posters are envisioned as an international campaign calling for people to rethink and reassess their daily thoughts, attitudes, and decisions that go beyond social responsibility, sustainability, and the green movement.

Gallery Hours
Monday–Friday: 9:00am–8:00pm, Saturday: 11:00am–5:00pm, Sunday: CLOSED

Join an Architalker for a Hosted Tour of Center for Architecture
Exhibitions
Join us for free Architalker-hosted tours of the Center for Architecture exhibitions Fridays at 4:00pm. To join one of these tours, meet in the Public Resource Area on the ground floor of the Center for Architecture.

CURRENT EXHIBITIONS

July 19 – October 19, 2007

arch schools: r(each)ing out

Galleries: Kohn Pedersen Fox Gallery, HLW Gallery, South Gallery

Last September, leading New York area architecture schools participated in an exhibition that set out to foster a closer connection between the schools, students, and the profession.

This summer will feature our third annual architecture schools exhibition, arch schools: r[each]ing out, devoted exclusively to the work of students. The AIA New York Chapter’s annual architecture schools exhibition demonstrates exemplary student work representing the 9 New York area architecture schools, whose deans sit on the Board of the AIA New York Chapter, and 8 invited schools, including the four interiors design programs in New York City. The schools are asked to submit work related to the 2007 New York Chapter’s presidential theme “Architecture Inside/Out”.

Participating Schools:

The City College of New York (CUNY)
Columbia University
The Cooper Union for the Advancement of Science and Art
Cornell University
New Jersey Institute of Technology
New York Institute of Technology
New York School of Interior Design
Parsons the New School for Design
Pratt Institute
PrincetonUniversity
Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute
School of Visual Arts
Syracuse University
University at Buffalo (SUNY)
University of Pennsylvania
Yale University

Exhibition and related programming organized by the AIA New York Chapter and the Center for Architecture Foundation

Sponsors:

Supporters:
Pei Cobb Freed & Partners

Friends:
Beyer Binder Belle: Architects & Planners
Butler Rogers Baskett Architects
Francois de Menil Architect
Gabellini Sheppard Associates
Mancini Duffy
Terrence O’Neal Architect

Related Events

Thursday, July 19, 2007, 6:00 – 8:00pm
Exhibition Opening

Friday, September 14, 2007, 7:00 –– 9:00pm
AIAS Event

Monday, September 24, 2007, 6:00 –– 9:00pm
Deans Roundtable and Reception

Monday, October 1, 2007, 6:00 – 8:00pm
2007 Dean’s Forum

Thursday, October 11, 2007, 9:00pm – 2:00am
Party@theCenter!

June 28 — August 11, 2007

Building Connections: 11th Annual Exhibition of K-12 Design Work

Galleries: Judith and Walter Hunt Gallery, Mezzanine Gallery

The Center for Architecture Foundation’s annual exhibit of K-12 explorations into the built environment showcasing models and drawings from Learning By Design: NY, a school based residency program, as well as work from its youth programs at the Center for Architecture.

Organized by:
The Center for Architecture Foundation

Exhibition Designer: 1100: Architect
Graphic Designer: Casey Maher

Exhibition Patron: Robert A.M. Stern Architects

Vanguard Construction
Exhibition Friend: Vanguard Construction

May 31-August 25, 2007

The Park at the Center of the World: Five Visions for Governors Island

Galleries: Edgar A. Tafel Hall

The exhibition features five landscape architecture and architecture teams selected to present their design visions for the future open spaces on Governors Island, the 172 acre Island off the tip of Manhattan. Governors Island’s open space will include the two mile Great Promenade that provides outstanding views of Lower Manhattan and New York Harbor, a new park, and restoration of the landscape in the Island’s National Historic District. Showcasing conceptual and illustrative designs by the five teams for the open space of Governors Island, the exhibition provides a platform for public feedback before the jury will take place in late June 2007. A design team will be selected by mid summer.

Exhibition related programming organized by American Institute of Architects Planning & Urban Design Committee , American Society of Landscape Architects New York Chapter, Center for Architecture Foundation and Governors Island Preservation and Education Corporation (GIPEC)

Exhibition Designer: Freecell
Exhibition Graphics: WSDIA | WeShouldDoItAll

For a list of the teams click here.

June 2nd – September 2nd on Governors Island
Governors Island is open for visitors every Saturday and Sunday. (For ferry schedule and other information log onto www.govisland.com)

Sponsored by: Governors Island Preservation and Education Corporation (GIPEC)

Related Events

Panel discussion with winning team date tba

Saturday, August 11, 2007, 9:45 – 11:30 AM
FamilyDay@theCenter
Governors Island Walking Tour & Scavenger Hunt
To Register: 212.358.6133