Month: April 2009

Event: Green Walls (Helfand Spotlight Series)
Location: Center for Architecture, 03.24.09
Speakers: Clare Miflin — Associate Principal, Kiss + Cathcart; Marni Horwitz — Principal, Alive Structures; Denise Hoffman-Brandt, ASLA — Associate Professor, City College School of Architecture and Urban Design
Moderator: Susannah Drake, ASLA, Assoc. AIA — dlandstudio, 2009 President, New York Chapter, ASLA
Organizers: AIANY in partnership with the New York Chapter, American Society of Landscape Architects (ASLA)
Sponsors: Alive Structures; Landscape Forms, Inc.; New York City Green Roof and Landscape; Lieb’s Greenhouses Inc.

(L-R): Susannah Drake, ASLA, Assoc. AIA; Denise Hoffman-Brandt, ASLA; Marni Horwitz; Clare Miflin.

Bill Millard

Green roofs have become a highly visible instrument and symbol of commitment to sustainable design. The same biophilic impulse applied to interior and exterior walls can improve a wide range of environments, but as the green-wall specialists who spoke at the opening of “Work in Progress: Green Walls” at the Center for Architecture emphasized, the practical challenges of working with vegetation are complex. Enthusiasm and good intentions alone won’t create a healthy botanical structure that improves air quality, water management, thermal control, acoustics, and aesthetics; it takes specific expertise and sound judgment about the right species and support systems for a particular space.

Clare Miflin presented a series of success stories including the Solar One environmental learning center at Stuyvesant Cove Park, the vine-covered Riverhouse at the Bronx River Greenway, and the Vertically Integrated Greenhouse, a hydroponic food-production facility proposed as a New York Sun Works demonstration project at the Science Barge on the Hudson. The Bronx project, she recalled, involved the opposite of architects’ customary thinking about hydrology: instead of striving to minimize water requirements, she found in working with the Gaia Institute’s Paul Mankiewicz that a “maximalist” approach to water use was preferable, creating a space with credible resemblance to a temperate rain forest.

Marni Horwitz, a certified green-roof and green-wall installer, recognizes risks as well as benefits. Cautioning that some businesses look to this form of construction for greenwashing purposes, she emphasized that green walls are a young industry with considerable potential to backfire when firms start “experimenting on clients.” One restaurant installed a green wall without proper irrigation; after a striking appearance for the first week or so, the soil dried, the plants died, and diners found bits of soil dropping into their meals. Modular soil-based systems can be dramatically beautiful, she said, but also labor-intensive and costly (up to $150 per square foot); irrigation requires constant attention; simple, seasonal native-species vines such as Virginia Creepers are often the most reliable choices.

The evening’s most visionary discussion, offered by Denise Hoffman-Brandt, ASLA, concerned integrating green walls into broader systemic thinking. Her City-Sink project addresses the function of plants as carbon-sequestering agents, not just ornamentation, in urban space. Retrofitting roadside sound-barrier walls along the Staten Island Expressway and the Brooklyn-Queens Expressway to suspend plants on geotextile fabrics held by rebar cages, creating microclimates and areas sheltered from sun scorch, Brandt’s system converts a component of an otherwise harsh and drab highway environment into an ecological asset.

As NY-ASLA President Susannah Drake, ASLA, Assoc. AIA, pointed out, plants as a design element have a long history, from the Hanging Gardens of Babylon to the ivy of college campuses. Arguments in favor of green walls, as Miflin mentioned during the panel segment, involve measurable cost-benefit ratios as well as intangibles: they reduce asthma and air-conditioning use while providing “increased worker productivity and happiness.” Hoffman-Brandt stressed the scalability of the various benefits relative to initial costs and noted that the more manageable vines, while useful in smaller urban settings, do not maximize biomass for long-term carbon storage as bulkier species do. More complex local ecosystems, including urban fauna — birds, beneficial insects, occasional snakes — are “hard to sell to community boards,” Hoffman-Brandt acknowledged, perhaps touching on a core conflict between philosophies of design: the uncontrollable messiness of nature vs. the urge for predictability and reductionism that shapes many modern spaces. “The thing to take away from these green walls,” she added, “is the kind of language they’re setting up for microclimate and microconditions and diversity” — natural qualities that users and observers of these spaces may need to adjust to.

“No system is going to be 100% perfect, except in theory,” commented Horwitz. The pragmatism and attention to detail in this discussion suggests that the local green-design community has moved well beyond the stage of initial enthusiasm that sees natural elements as a panacea, instead taking a realistic nuts-and-bolts approach to the specifics of leaves and roots.

Bill Millard is a freelance writer and editor whose work has appeared in OCULUS, Icon, Content, The Architect’s Newspaper, and other publications.

Event: Firm Development in Uncertain Times — A discussion with Jack Reigle
Location: Center for Architecture, 03.25.09
Speakers: Jack Reigle — President, SPARKS, The Center for Strategic Planning
Organizers: Professor Frank Mruk, AIA, New York Institute of Technology for the Center for Architecture and the Association for Strategic Planning
Sponsor: AIANY New Practices Committee

The past several months have been filled with an uneasy feeling of “now what?” remarked design-business consultant Jack Reigle. Faced with the recession, architects are collectively holding their breath, waiting to see what’s in store for them, their firms, and the industry.

Don’t panic and blindly seek whatever projects can be found, warned Reigle, author of the book Silver Bullets — Strategic Intelligence for Better Design Firm Management (Bascom Hill Publishing Group, 2008). “You want to be better, not busier,” he explained. A firm should carefully assess its individual identity and mission, and pursue the specific types of clients and projects that will help to fulfill its “higher purpose.” Don’t let short-term practical matters drain your time at the expense of far-sighted strategic thinking, he cautioned, for that leads to inefficiency. Focusing on long-term goals helps a firm gain greater success and a more defined identity, which ultimately means attracting business instead of having to spend time chasing it.

Archetypes can help a firm clarify its mission, he added. Is your firm an “Einstein” — a producer of visionary ideas? Or a “niche expert” that clients turn to for advancing a certain specialized type of project? Or a “market partner,” which collaborates with the client to pursue immersion in a certain market? Some other archetypes include “community leader,” “orchestrator,” and “builder.” In general, it’s best for a firm to limit itself to one or two archetypes, to keep well focused, Reigle said. When one audience member from a large company questioned the advisability of such a tight focus, Reigle suggested that big companies might draw from a greater number of archetypes, but each department should keep its own identity well defined.

He also emphasized the importance of “client and market empathy.” “You’ve got to develop expertise beyond your professional skills: expertise that is based on knowledge and familiarity, let’s say, with markets,” he said. “The more you do that, as opposed to just jumping from market to market, the more you’ll be able to contribute.” That kind of market savvy helps architects empathize with the specific challenges the client faces, and as a result, architects can offer services beyond architecture itself, such as valuable research and information, or even marketing.

The economic downturn might also necessitate different, more flexible ways of working, Reigle said. Some architects might end up working as freelancers in medium-to-large firms instead of full-time staff. Also, virtual firms might gain traction, as architects band together on more of an ad-hoc basis in response to these fluid, uncertain times.

Lisa Delgado is a freelance journalist who has written for OCULUS, The Architect’s Newspaper, Blueprint, and Wired, among other publications.

Event: Mentor Match: Burning Questions
Location: Trespa Design Centre, 03.24.09
Mentors: Marc Clemenceau Bailly, AIA — Gage/Clemenceau Architects; Sunil Bald — Studio SUMO; Brandon Cook — Helpern Architects; Jeremy Edmunds, Assoc. AIA, LEED AP; Nancy Goshow, AIA — Goshow Architects; Kathy Kleiver — H3 Hardy Collaboration Architecture; Syed Mahmood — AEG; Kristen Richards — ArchNewsNow, OCULUS; Jessica Sheridan, Assoc. AIA, LEED AP — Helpern Architects
Organizer: AIANY Emerging New York Architects Committee (ENYA)
Sponsor: Trespa

During times of intense change, young architects often have career questions not easily answered by those in their inner circle. The Mentor Match: Burning Questions event was developed to provide insight on these questions from both a peer network and a team of established professionals. Small groups of five to 10 interns and architects met with experienced professionals for an hour-long discussion on topics ranging from pursuing alternate design-related careers to returning to graduate school. Those interested in portfolio and resume review discussed their work; a dozen young professionals met to discuss first steps involved in starting a firm.

In this turbulent economy, mentoring has assumed an increased level of importance. Young architects are forced to either confront career change as a result of layoffs or firm restructuring. Senior practitioners have a vested interest in keeping young architects engaged in the profession to prevent the generational attrition of previous recessions, which resulted in long-term gaps in the workforce.

Through the Emerging NY Architects Committee, AIANY offers two mentoring events targeted towards young architects each year. These events are intended to complement the Chapter’s Mentor Match initiative, a structured program that pairs interns and architects in more traditional mentoring relationship. Those interested in participating in the program should e-mail mentoring@aiany.org for more information.

Carolyn Sponza, AIA, LEED AP, is an architect with Beyer Blinder Belle Architects and Planners.

Event: What Is Preservation and What Is the Landmarks Commission
Location: Center for Architecture, 03.30.09
Speakers: Mark Silberman — General Counsel, NYC Landmarks Preservation Commission (LPC); Anthony C. Wood — Chair, New York Preservation Archive Project; Frances Halsband, FAIA — Partner, Kliment Halsband Architects & Former LPC Commissioner
Moderator: Sherida Paulsen, FAIA — Partner, PKSB Architects, 2009 AIANY President, & Former LPC Chair
Organizers: AIANY Historic Buildings Committee

The New York Botanical Garden library, Fountain of Life, and Tulip Tree Allée, designed by Robert W. Gibson, were recently awarded NYC landmark status.

Courtesy NYC Landmarks Preservation Commission

The definition and history of landmarks and their designations in NYC is often unclear as it is ever evolving. In a recent panel discussion, the general counsel and several former members of the NYC Landmarks Preservation Commission (LPC) spoke about its history and philosophy, highlighting changing ideas about preservation.

Anthony Wood, chair of the New York Preservation Archive Project, presented a capsule history of the Landmarks law. As the author of Preserving New York (Routledge, 2007), he debunked the myth that the fight to save Pennsylvania Station gave birth to the preservation movement, claiming the myth “robs us of 50 years of New York City history.” Wood emphasized the role of Albert Bard, an early advocate of preservation, who argued as early as 1913 that the city ought to make regulations based on aesthetics. It took decades of protests and legal action, however, before NY passed the Landmarks Preservation Law, which established the LPC. “The law was radical, but it was more radical in its concept than in application,” Wood said, citing the relative conservatism and gradualism with which the Commission has exercised its authority.

With this history as context, Frances Halsband, FAIA, a former LPC commissioner, examined the definition of preservation — a concept that, despite its apparent simplicity, can be difficult to apply in practice. Because individuals and communities may differ on what is worth preserving, Halsband cautioned that preservation is “an art and not a science.” It is an evolving process that reflects changing attitudes and values in the community. Unlike restoration, “preservation is primarily concerned with change,” Halsband said. “We are now preserving buildings that were last generation’s ‘threats,'” to historic areas.

Acts of preservation have as much to say about the present as the past, according to Halsband. “The best we can do is to be true to our own time.”

Matt Frassica is a freelance writer.

Event: Architectural Record‘s “Schools of the 21st Century”
Location: Center for Architecture, 03.24.09
Speakers: Pamela Loeffelman, FAIA — Principal, Perkins Eastman; Jan Keane, FAIA, LEED AP — Partner, Mitchell/Giurgola Architects; Steven Goldberg, FAIA — Partner, Mitchell/Giurgola Architects; James LaPosta, AIA — Partner & Chief Architectural Officer, JCJ Architecture; Gilbert Sanchez, AIA — Principal, Studio B Architects
Introduction: Charles Linn, FAIA — Senior Editor, Architectural Record
Organizers: AIANY Committee on Architecture for Education

Regional Center for the Arts by JCJ Architecture (left); Concordia International School Shanghai by Perkins Eastman (right).

Robert Benson Photography (left); Tim Griffith (right)

For the third year in a row, Architectural Record published its supplemental issue “Schools of the 21st Century,” focusing on school design trends and featuring schools that embody best practice design principles. The four case studies discussed included a middle school overlooking a picturesque mountain range, an American elementary and middle school in Germany embracing sustainable design, a performing arts high school in suburban Connecticut, and an international school in rapidly-expanding Shanghai. In his introduction, Charles Linn, FAIA, senior editor at Architectural Record, discussed how these forward-thinking schools provide relevant lessons in a time when school enrollment is climbing while spending is dropping.

While different in setting and design, the schools all promote sustainability and emphasize the importance of connectivity between indoor and outdoor spaces. At Concordia International School Shanghai, designed by Perkins Eastman, the city views from the rooftop studio are intended to inspire students, while the abundance of glass gives the impression of being outdoors throughout. Windows at Aspen Middle School, a LEED Gold-certified school with an Outdoor Education Program designed by Studio B Architects, look out to Buttermilk Mountain. A balcony off the cafeteria allows students to congregate outdoors to enjoy the views, as well. Large windows at the Regional Center for the Arts by JCJ Architecture in Trumbull, CT, offer students a sense of their surroundings while flooding the interior with natural daylight and reducing energy usage. The building was also sited to preserve much of the surrounding green space and woodlands. Operable clerestory windows at Mitchell/Giurgola Architects’ Elementary and Middle School in Bavaria provide natural ventilation and daylight, while terraces support informal outdoor gathering spaces.

Through environmentally responsible design, multi-functioning spaces, design that turns site constraints into assets, and the importance of outdoor connectivity, these buildings draw students into wanting to be at school. According to Pamela Loeffleman, FAIA, principal at Perkings Eastman, they are student-centric and accommodate students’ needs daily; they “interact with the students” leading to better educational environments.

Shana Smith specializes in K-12 marketing at Perkins Eastman and is a new contributor to e-Oculus.