Month: April 2008

In this issue:
· First-time AIA and Associate Members to Attend Convention Free
· Wicks Law Overhaul Increases Threshold
· Sweets Network Available on AIA’s Soloso
· Passing: David Todd, FAIA, FCSI

First-time AIA and Associate Members to Attend Convention Free
The Boston Society of Architects (BSA) will host the AIA National Convention and Exhibition, May 15-17, for the first time in 16 years. To encourage local designers to participate, the BSA invites first-time AIA and Associate AIA members who join by April 30 to attend the convention at no cost. Complimentary registration includes most continuing-education programs, expo education programs, general sessions, and business meetings. Download an application on the BSA website or contact Membership Director Karin Broadhurst via e-mail or call 617-951-1433 x228.

Wicks Law Overhaul Increases Threshold
New York lawmakers have reformed a decades-old law that drove up local property taxes by requiring state and local governments to pay for multiple construction contracts on most public works projects. Dating back to 1921, this is the first time Wicks Law has been adjusted for inflation since the 1960s. It required governments with construction projects valued at $50,000 or more to divide the job into several contracts. The law, which was intended to protect subcontractors from billing fraud, drove up construction costs, which were then passed on to taxpayers. The new threshold for triggering the law is $3 million in NYC, $1.5 million in downstate suburbs, and $500,000 in upstate New York. For more information go to the New York State Division of the Budget.

Sweets Network Available on AIA’s Soloso
McGraw-Hill Construction announced that information on 80,000 building products from its Sweets Network will be integrated directly into Soloso, the AIA’s online resource for solutions, products, and trends. AIA members will be able to link directly to detailed information, download product catalogs, CAD details, 3-D models, and specifications. McGraw-Hill Construction will provide AIA with regular updates as building product manufacturers change or add information on the Sweets Network.

Passing: David Todd, FAIA, FCSI
After a long career as an architect and landmark preservationist in New York, David F.M. Todd, FAIA, FCSI, passed away on March 31 at the age of 93.

Todd received his architectural degree at the University of Michigan and began a career in NY following his return from the Pacific after WWII, joining the firm of Harrison, Ballard & Allen. He became a name partner in 1957, first as Ballard, Todd & Snibbe, then Ballard Todd Associates, and finally sole name partner in 1967 when Ballard left to become head of the New York City Planning Commission.

Todd’s architectural work included a range of projects, from Manhattan Plaza (co-designed with Robert Cabrera), to the Polo Grounds Houses in upper Manhattan. He did extensive work for schools and universities, including the master plan for the State University of New York, and buildings for Princeton, SUNY New Paltz, Lehman College, and the Collegiate School.

Following his architectural career, he became the chairman of the New York Landmarks Preservation Commission where he sought to balance the competing interests of design, history, community, efficacy, fairness, and forward planning and development. He was closely involved in the designation of Manhattan’s Upper West Side as a historic district.

Todd was committed to public housing, and was a board and committee member of housing and community organizations throughout his life, including the Leake & Watts Children’s Home (Chairman, 1984-1988), the Settlement Housing Fund, West Side Day Nursery, St. Margaret’s House (Section 202 Housing for the Elderly), the Community Service Society, Community Planning Board Number 8, the West Side Day Nursery, and Exploring the Metropolis Foundation. He received the Andrew Thomas/Pioneer in Housing Award from AIANY in 1986.

Todd was also the AIANY Chapter President in 1969-70, during the time of the Vietnam War, the Chicago Convention, and campus uprisings, including striking architectural students at Columbia University. He met with them on campus, and organized a delegation to Washington to meet with top housing officials to press for more public housing.

A memorial service will be held on May 9, at 5 pm. Individuals interested in attending are invited to contact his son, Greg Todd, by e-mail, or call 212-246-5151.

04.01.08

e-OCULUS is moving into new Internet realms. If you are a member of Facebook, be sure to join the e-OCULUS group (in addition to the Center for Architecture/AIANY group, and the Emerging NY Architects group).

– Jessica Sheridan, Assoc. AIA, LEED AP

Event: AIANY Biennial Building Type Awards jury
Location: Center for Architecture, 03.15.08
Urban Design Jury: Martha Lampkin Welborne, FAIA — Managing Director, Grand Avenue Committee (Los Angeles); M. David Lee, FAIA — Vice President, Stull and Lee (Boston); Thomas Fisher, Assoc. AIA — Dean & Professor, College of Design, University of Minnesota (Minneapolis)
Sustainable Design Jury: Craig A. Curtis, Assoc. AIA — Partner, The Miller Hull Partnership (Seattle); Stephen J. Kieran, FAIA — Principal, Kieran Timberlake Associates (Philadelphia); Meredith Elbaum, AIA, LEED AP — Director of Sustainable Design, Sasaki Associates (Watertown, MA)
Educational Facility Design Jury: Jane H. Weinzapfel, FAIA — Principal, Leers Weinzapfel Associates Architects (Boston); John Weekes, AIA — Principal, Dull Olson Weekes Architects (DOWA) (Portland, OR); John Comazzi — W+C Willkins + Comazzi (Ann Arbor)
Organizers: AIANY; Boston Society of Architects

2008 marks the first AIA New York Chapter Building Type Design Awards (BTA), hosted by AIANY and co-sponsored by the Boston Society of Architects (BSA). The program recognizes excellence and innovation in the design of selected building types and design-related disciplines, and to honor their architects, clients, and consultants. This year’s awards are for Urban Design, Sustainable Design, and Educational Facility Design. 2009 will feature Health and Housing Facilities.

For a full list of winning entries, go to the Names in the News section.

Urban Design: 1+1 = 3
By Lance Jay Brown, FAIA, Eric C.Y. Fang, AIA, Jeffrey Raven, AIA

The BTA program for urban design is slated to advance the discussion about design in the city. Creative approaches will tackle the challenges and opportunities in cities facing diminished resources.

The jury stressed that small scale can play a big role in the urban fabric, and that the design of cities does not have to be about big gestures. Honor Awards went to a pair of designs that carve meaningful public space and make key urban connections out of marginal opportunities. At 55 Water Street Plaza, Rogers Marvel Architects addressed the increasingly common problem of creating successful public space on urban rooftops. This project not only created a vital new public space out of a barren and underutilized elevated plaza, but also used architecture to ensure visibility and accessibility.

Zakrzewski + Hyde Architects’ ambitious Hudson Square RISE (which also won a 2008 AIANY Project Design Merit Award), exploited the rooftop of a NYC maintenance garage to create new open space, a mix of residential and institutional development, and pedestrian connections to Hudson River Park.

The jury also gave a Merit Award to the Long Island Rail Road East Side Access and 50th Street Ventilation Facility, designed by DMJM Harris as a sub-consultant to the joint venture group of PB, STV, and Parsons Transportation Group. The project shows how to sensitively integrate monumental infrastructure into the city and introduce new neighborhood-scaled public spaces.

Three additional Merit Awards dealt with rebuilding in the aftermath of global climate change-driven catastrophe (Frederic Schwartz Architects’ Unified Plan for New Orleans District 3 and 4), using the redevelopment of obsolete industrial sites to repair the fabric of an historic European city (Robert A.M. Stern Architects’ Musiskwartier), and devising new ways to approach security in the post 9/11 world (Rogers Marvel Architects and Ritter Architects’ Pentagon Reservation: Perimeter Security & Pedestrian Plaza).

Lance Jay Brown, FAIA, is the chair of the AIANY Planning & Urban Design committee. Eric C.Y. Fang, AIA, and Jeffrey Raven, AIA are committee members.

Viewing Architectural Excellence Through a Sustainability Lens
By Kelli Ersing, Assoc. AIA

Winning entries in the Sustainable Design category offered a marriage of art and science. From a field of 34 entries, jurors sought criteria that included: beauty; measurable environmental performance; best practices; and ability to become case studies for the future. “Projects need to have both substance and art,” stated juror Stephen J. Kieran, FAIA. “It may be a beautiful building but it needs to have verifiable performance.” Juror Meredith Elbaum, AIA, LEED AP, noted,

Honor Award winners reflect best practices that take the greening process to the next level. The jury felt that BKSK Architects’ Queens Botanical Garden Visitor & Administration Center’s working roofs with water reclamation and integrated photovoltaic systems exemplify how sustainability can drive the design process. A complete retrofit with fully responsive building systems, the Inland Steel Building Restoration, by Skidmore, Owings & Merrill, demonstrates a unique, high performance approach to renovating existing buildings. Both projects stood out to the jury as potential industry case studies showcasing strategies and processes. Setting a precedent in energy efficient design, Kohn Pedersen Fox Associates’ 100 VE — Unilever London Headquarters renovation resulted in a 25% reduction in carbon emissions, while the heat load reduction and daylighting techniques employed by Renzo Piano Building Workshop in association with FXFOWLE Architects in The New York Times Building is slated to reduce annual energy use by 20-30%.

The jury felt Polshek Partnership Architects’ Sarah Lawrence College Monika A. and Charles A. Heimbold Jr. Visual Arts Center’s use of solar orientation and material selection for its site-informed design warranted a Merit Award. Also, Harvard University’s Library Services Building, designed by, Leers Weinzapfel Associates and Samuel Anderson Architects, showed integrated daylighting energy solutions in a program adapted to get the most from its urban site.

Jurors agreed that to move to the next level, sustainability needed a market transformation and rethinking of the process. Juror Craig A. Curtis, Assoc. AIA, concluded, “A balance is needed between beautiful architecture and sustainable design that is appropriate and integrated. Sustainability as an integral part of design needs to be discussed.”

Kelli Ersing, Assoc. AIA, is a member of the AIANY Committee on the Environment (COTE).