Month: June 2009

Event: Design Awards Symposium — Interiors Winners
Location: Center for Architecture, 05.18.09
Speakers: Stephen Yablon, AIA — Principal, Stephen Yablon Architect (Betances Community Center and Boxing Gym); Susan T. Rodriguez, FAIA — Design Partner, Polshek Partnership Architects (Elizabeth A. Sackler Center for Feminist Art, Brooklyn Museum); Margarita McGrath, AIA, LEED AP — Partner, noroof architects (Finger Apartment); Sommer Schauer — Senior Assoicate, a+i architecture (Malin + Goetz); Christian Lynch & Simon Eisinger — Partners, Lynch Eisinger Design (Nike Genealogy Of Speed); Juergen Riehm, FAIA — Principal, 1100: Architects (NYPL Francis Martin Library); Lyn Rice, AIA — Founding Principal, Lyn Rice Architects (Sheila C. Johnson Design Center); Jonathan Marvel, AIA — Principal, & Vince Lee, Associate, Rogers Marvel Architects (W57th Street POP (Privately Owned Public) Space)
Moderator: Johanne Woodcock — Director, AAS Interior Design Program, Parsons The New School for Design
Organizers: AIANY Design Awards Committee
Sponsors: Benefactor: ABC Imaging; Patrons: Cosentino North America; The Rudin Family; Syska Hennessy Group; Lead Sponsors: Arup; Dagher Engineering; The Durst Organization; HOK; Mancini Duffy; Pelli Clarke Pelli Architects; Sponsors: AKF Group; Building Contractors Association; FXFOWLE Architects; Hopkins Foodservice Specialists; Ingram Yuzek Gainen Carroll & Bertolotti; JFK&M Consulting Group; KI; Langan Engineering & Environmental Services; MechoShade Systems; New York University; Pei Cobb Freed & Partners; Rogers Marvel Architects; Steelcase; Studio Daniel Libeskind; Tishman Realty & Construction; VJ Associates; Weidlinger Associates; Zumtobel Lighting/International Lights

(L-R, top): POP Space by Rogers Marvel Architects; Finger Apartment by noroof architects; NYPL Francis Martin Library by 1100 Architects; Betances Community Center and Boxing Gym by Stephen Yablon Architect; (L-R, bottom): Sheila C. Johnson Design Center by Lyn Rice Architects; Nike Geneology of Speed by Lynch Eisinger Design; Elizabeth A. Sackler Center for Feminist Art by Polshek Partnership Architects; and Malin + Goetz by a+i architecture.

Courtesy AIANY

Of all the AIANY Design Award categories, Interiors was the most competitive with 118 entries. The jury awarded no honor awards, but eight interiors won merits.

The Sheila C. Johnson Design Center, has won numerous awards already, including an AIANY Design Award in the Projects category in 2007. Lyn Rice Architect took four adjacent buildings, each with its own labyrinth of circulation, and stripped them down to their shells. Then, as Lyn Rice, AIA, explained, “The program evolved in the process.” With found space that was formerly a maintenance shop, he created an urban quad, developed a new identity for the school, and tied it into the fabric of the city. By placing window benches inside and out of the glass façade, and pouring concrete floors at the same level as the street, student works are on view to passersby.

There was originally no budget and no program for the Nike installation, and according to Christian Lynch of Lynch Eisinger Design, “That was not a comfortable zone to be in.” The partners decided to build the “idea” of speed by playing with metal, letting the material tell the story. The curved metal wall was not welded together, but rather molded. Despite looking like a high-ticket project, which was a drawback for the jury, the installation cost only $125/square foot, including before/after demolition.

There were so many different parties Stephen Yablon, AIA, had to satisfy for the Betances Community Center and Boxing Gym. He particularly wanted to make this community in the Bronx feel like they owned the building. Yablon united two structures, raised the roof to create a triple-height space that topped the ring, added “punches of color,” and designed a building that used boxing as a metaphor for success and survival. Yablon thanked the NYC Department of Design & Construction for recognizing the importance of safe places for kids while upholding a high level of design.

The New York Public Library was interested in innovative ideas, according to Juergen Riehm, FAIA, principal of 1100: Architects. His firm was attracted to the Francis Martin Library because it is housed in a semi-modernist building with an unusual shape. The firm gave the second floor children’s library an open layout by getting rid of most of the partitions. The kids can see their own reflections in a shiny white membrane. Bright color accents were added and a “wall of fame” highlights notable Bronx natives.

Malin + Goetz had outgrown its flagship store in Chelsea and hired a+i architecture to design an expanded space for the manufacturer, distributor, and retailer of skincare products. Konyk Architecture originally designed the front of the space is just a few feet wide. Since the apothecary was launching a new line, a new look for what had been the back office was in order. The outcome is a sensual environment with room for the client’s collectibles in a dark wood centerpiece. The space will become a prototype for the line in department stores.

Built they way they were intended to be, privately owned public spaces can be welcoming, engaging places that enhance urban living. But the through-block passageway at the Metropolitan Tower was just the opposite. The new owner asked Rogers Marvel Architects to remedy the situation by enlivening the space. The firm carried the sleekness of the black façade of the building into the lobby area. An LCD strip that runs the length of the space carries text and digital art, and a color-changing LED reception desk draws people to it.

The only award winning residential interior was noroof architect’s Finger Apartment, named such because of its configuration: public spaces in the front, private in the back, and bath and kitchen in between. The home to two adults, one a gourmet cook who likes to entertain, and two kids, is a mere 540 square feet. Yet, the building seems to satisfy the family’s needs by creating space where none seems to be available. According to the firm’s partner Margarita McGrath, AIA, LEED AP, the client’s nine-year-old says the apartment is a ship! The architects turned fireplaces into storage bins, designed a desk that transforms into a bed, and created built-in storage under the floors.

Event: Building Type Awards Symposium: Housing Winners
Location: Center for Architecture, 05.28.09
Speakers: David Hacin, AIA — Principal, Hacin + Associates; Craig Copeland — Senior Associate, Pelli Clarke Pelli; Eric Bunge, AIA — Principal. nARCHITECTS
Moderator: Anthony Schuman — Graduate Program Director, New Jersey School of Architecture at NJ Institute of Technology
Organizers: AIANY; Boston Society of Architects
Sponsors: Benefactor: ABC Imaging; Patrons: Cosentino North America; The Rudin Family; Syska Hennessy Group; Lead Sponsors: Arup; Dagher Engineering; The Durst Organization; HOK; Mancini Duffy; Pelli Clarke Pelli Architects; Sponsors: AKF Group; Building Contractors Association; FXFOWLE Architects; Hopkins Foodservice Specialists; Ingram Yuzek Gainen Carroll & Bertolotti; JFK&M Consulting Group; KI; Langan Engineering & Environmental Services; MechoShade Systems; New York University; Pei Cobb Freed & Partners; Rogers Marvel Architects; Steelcase; Studio Daniel Libeskind; Tishman Realty & Construction; VJ Associates; Weidlinger Associates; Zumtobel Lighting/International Lights

(L-R, top): Museum Residences in Denver by Studio Daniel Libeskind with Davis Partnership Architects; Project Place Gatehouse by Hacin + Associates; (L-R, bottom): FP3/Fort Point Channel by Hacin + Associates; Visionaire by Pelli Clarke Pelli; Switch Building by nARCHITECTS.

Courtesy AIANY

The 2008 expansion of the Design Awards, adding the Building Type Awards (BTAs), a collaborative New York-Boston program, allows a wider and more detailed examination of the state of the art in specific areas (this year, Housing and Health Facilities). The symposium honoring the Housing winners anatomized an array of innovations on different scales, constructed for residents occupying different points on the economic spectrum. In luxury apartments and social-service housing alike, the emphasis fell on what Pelli Clarke Pelli’s Craig Copeland called “sustainability as a marketable quality” — a nearly effortless incorporation of green details into residences that are both graceful and financially viable. Panelists emphasized the concept of architectural activism, narrowing the design gap between market and subsidized forms of housing. Socially and environmentally progressive housing, in the hands of the kind of talent represented here, can give residents an enlivening atmosphere while offering visionary developers a fair and reliable return.

Boston’s Hacin + Associates took home Honor Awards for two entries, the FP3 adaptive-reuse loft condos at Fort Point Channel and the Project Place Gatehouse, a mixed-use halfway house that integrates 14 studio apartments with a restaurant, communal spaces, and the offices for Project Place, a nonprofit organization that transitions the formerly homeless back into employment and stable life. Both these projects merge modern geometries into Boston’s eclectic old building stock. FP3 threads a new structure through two preserved and renovated 1900-vintage buildings, handling the complexity of building on landfill in a seismic zone on a site where fire had destroyed a previous building. Capping all three buildings is an angled, prepatinated-copper-clad penthouse that honors existing cornice lines, view corridors, and even custom brick sizes. The striped brick Gatehouse emphasizes openness, natural light, and connections to the neighborhood, foregrounding its internal functions through external detail. The 14 interior designers engaged to create distinctive spaces have agreed to stay on and maintain them.

Pelli Clarke Pelli’s 250-unit Visionaire is the latest in the firm’s series of green towers in Battery Park City (BPC) for Albanese Development (along with the Solaire and the Verdesian, joining the latter in achieving LEED Platinum). It strikes a nautical profile with its curved and “tuned” curtain wall combining low-emissivity glass and terracotta rain-screening. Copeland pointed out that the amount of amenity-rich housing this building creates on 0.67 acres compares favorably with what suburbia would offer in 100 acres, saving a large spatial footprint and adding 40,000 square feet of headquarters for the BPC Parks Conservancy plus two public garden spaces. Integrated photovoltaics, wind cogeneration, natural gas-powered cooling, and an efficient filtration/humidification/ dehumidification system allow local thermal and air-quality control while drawing relatively little energy: costs run some 40% below those seen in an ordinary code-compliant building.

Eric Bunge, AIA, of nARCHITECTS (whose bespoke spelling hints at “n as a variable”) took some heady risks with the six-story Switch Building, a Merit Award winner on the Lower East Side that has attracted publicity despite a location in the shadow of Bernard Tschumi Architects’ Blue, and an alarmingly accelerated design schedule, including ad hoc revisions responding to changing instructions by the developer. The Switch is the firm’s first ground-up building and its first façade design; it incorporates alternating bay windows and Galvalume cladding panels, echoed by alternating rear balconies that create double-height spaces for light. Beyond the exterior, the innovation offers unique views and lighting subtleties to every apartment. Bunge and colleagues scrupulously “never turned a corner with a detail,” exterior or interior, front or rear, bringing material contrasts to a neighborhood not previously known for orderly, elegant forms.

Studio Daniel Libeskind, winner of a Merit Award for the Museum Residences in Denver, was unable to participate in the panel. The firm’s seven-story luxury complex across the street from the Denver Art Museum provides context and balance for the museum’s famously aggressive geometries, and a detailed presentation on this project would have been a welcome opportunity. An extended discussion segment demonstrated the willingness of both the panelists and their listeners to drill down and consider specifics of function and program: strategies for venting exhaust, double glass skins, mixed-income designs that avoid stigmatizing the most affordable segments — the myriad details that add up to new varieties of urban livability.

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

Event: Washington Square Park: Designs Over Time
Location: Center for Architecture, 05.27.09
Speakers: Adrian Smith, ASLA — Senior Associate, EDAW; George Vellonakis — Landscape Architect, NYC Department of Parks & Recreation; Rebecca Ferguson — Washington Square Park Administrator, NYC Department of Parks & Recreation; Nancy Owens, ASLA — Principal, Nancy Owens Studio
Organizers: AIANY; New York Chapter, ASLA

Washington Square Park.

Jessica Sheridan

Bathers may have returned to the fountain in Washington Square Park, but the face of the park has changed profoundly since renovations began in December 2007, according to George Vellonakis, landscape architect at the NYC Department of Parks & Recreation. In his recent presentation, he discussed his design in the context of Washington Square Park’s designs over history. Vellonakis aimed to “respect the layers of design” woven into the park’s layout, while also introducing new innovations.

Vellonakis’s design provides the park its first face-lift since a 1967 redesign, under the direction of Robert Moses. By removing concrete retaining walls and benches from the 1967 plan, Vellonakis created what he called a “more gardenesque approach.” Returning the park’s fountain to the same elevation as the surrounding park eliminates the need for ramps that used to lead to the central plaza. The design also attempts to “recapture” the park’s lawns for “passive recreation.”

To start the evening, Adrian Smith, ASLA, senior associate at EDAW, provided a summary of Washington Square Park’s previous incarnations with a historical slideshow. Originally a marsh fed by Minetta stream, the area that would become Washington Square Park first served as a potter’s field, or public burial ground. In the 1820s, the Square became a military parade ground. A Tammany Hall-financed redesign in the 1870s enlisted landscape designer Ignaz Anton Pilat, who, influenced by Frederick Law Olmsted, introduced more curvaceous paths to soften the military-straight lines of the parade ground. The most prominent features that link the new design to the past are these diagonal paths crisscrossing the central plaza.

After presenting “before” and “after” photos of his redesign, Vellonakis took comments from the audience. Several audience members criticized Vellonakis for not having enough community input. Panelist Nancy Owens, ASLA, of Nancy Owens Studio, addressed the issue by asking rhetorically, “Do we want input from the community? Or are we marketing our own designs?” Whether the public had enough say or not, so far the masses have returned seemingly unaware of the politics leading to its fruition.

Matt Frassica is a freelance writer.

Event: Good Schools: Inside and Out
Location: Center for Architecture, 05.28.09
Speakers: Paul Broches, FAIA, LEED AP – Partner, Mitchell/Giurgola Architects; Ned Smyth – Sculptor; Sally Young — Assistant Principal, Forest Hills High School
Moderator: Michele Cohen — Director, Public Art for Public Schools & Author, Public Art for Public Schools (Monacelli Press, 2009)
Organizers: School Construction Authority; AIANY Architecture for Education Committee

Perhaps the most pertinent question of the evening came from a sculptor and concerned parent whose middle schooler is competing for a spot in one of the many over-crowded NYC schools. “Why make art when we need more seats?” At a recent discussion about what makes good schools, Michele Cohen, director of Public Art for Public Schools, addressed the question by examining the history of art in the city’s schools, the subject of her recent book Public Art for Public Schools (Monacelli Press, 2009).

Cohen presented some of the city’s early public schools, the neo-gothic fortresses designed by CBJ Snyder. Those schools have stood the test of time, largely because so much effort was put into their construction, she stated. What the impressive façades of those buildings prove is that building schools is about more than using sturdy, cost effective materials. It’s about investing in the schoolhouse as a center of civic pride.

Cohen shared the lectern with Paul Broches, FAIA, LEEP AP, partner at Mitchell/Giurgola Architects, sculptor Ned Smyth, and Sally Young, assistant principal at Forest Hills High School, who focused on a recent addition to the city’s roster of school buildings. At the Mitchell/Giurgola Architects-designed P.S. 156/I.S. 392 in Brownsville, Brooklyn, Ned Smyth, known throughout the U.S. for his site-specific public art installations, was selected to design and install a work in the new school’s staircase. A wall of colored-glass tiles, whose light spills out onto the Sutter Avenue-facing courtyard, rises along a monumental stair linking an auditorium, dance and music studios, and gymnasium.

After Cohen’s historical perspective on which buildings had become icons within NYC’s schools, P.S. 156/I.S. 392 represents a new point of pride. Central to the project is the artist/architect collaboration, but it is also the building’s public face — the inlaid-glass wall is visible from the courtyard and the street. For Smyth, it created a fun, impromptu stage for the kindergarten through eighth-grade students tromping up and down the stairs; Broches’ intent was for the transparent, light-filled space to draw the community into the building. The result of their collaboration was an icon for the neighborhood, and a sense of pride for the students, Broches stated.

Whether it’s a mural or an inspiring entryway, making schools into buildings that the community cares about is worth the effort, Cohen and the panelists all believe. As the School Construction Authority embarks on its biggest building campaign in history, it will be interesting to see how Cohen’s lessons are realized in the next generation of NYC schools.

Emily Nemens is the AIANY Communications Coordinator.

Event: New Practices San Francisco: Winner’s Symposium
Location: Center for Architecture, 06.05.09
Speakers: Chris Guillard & Willett Moss — Principals, CMG Landscape Architecture; Robert Edmonds, AIA — Principal, Edmonds + Lee Architects; Thom Faulders — Principal, Faulders Studio; Owen Kennerly, AIA — Principal, Kennerly Architecture & Planning; Jeffrey Day, AIA — Principal, Min|Day; John Peterson, AIA — Founder, Public Architecture.
Moderator: Bill Menking — Editor-in-Chief, The Architect’s Newspaper
Organizers: AIANY/Center for Architecture; AIA San Francisco/Center for Architecture + Design; AIANY New Practices Committee
Sponsors: Lead Sponsor: ABC Imaging; Presenting Sponsor: Hafele; Sponsors: MG & Company; Supporter: Hawa; Friends: diamondLife, Specialty Finishes, Trespa and Yarde Metals — Hauppauge, NY, and Hotel Carlton San Francisco; Media Partner: The Architect’s Newspaper

Courtesy AIA San Francisco

AIANY’s New Practices Program, an annual portfolio competition and exhibition, has gone bi-coastal: New Practices San Francisco premiered this year with six winning firms. To kick off their exhibition opening at the Center for Architecture, which will be on view through 09.19.09, winners gathered to discuss their practices by presenting one project each.

Apparently, it is as difficult to get projects built in San Francisco as it is here, in NYC. San Francisco promotes low-scale architecture, Thom Faulders of Faulders Studio explained, but “as the city gets more complex, it gets more interesting.” Owen Kennerly, AIA, principal of Kennerly Architecture & Planning, noted that there is “a very political aspect to our work” in dealing with neighborhood associations, and it is difficult to get projects approved in San Francisco. Perhaps due to the difficulties of building in San Francisco, only CMG Landscape Architecture presented a project in San Francisco.

Faulders discussed his design for Airspace Tokyo, a multi-residential project in Tokyo. Working with Proces2, also a San Francisco-based firm, they designed a screen for the façade. The skin forms a foliage-like protective zone around the building, which was designed by Tokyo-based Studio M/Hajime Masubuchi. To make the skin appear to float, the firm created a layered, open-celled meshwork.

In developing the Day Labor Station, Public Architecture founder John Petersen explained the extensive community interview process, and how not all of the responses were positive. Luckily, the design moved forward, comprised of a canopy-covered waiting area for workers and a restroom and small kitchen to generate income. The station, like its transient population, can fit into any urban or rural environment, but the first will most likely be installed in Los Angeles.

A 40-acre site in Sonoma County provided a blank slate for the Summerhill Residence by Edmonds + Lee Architects. The three separate buildings — a main house, guesthouse, and detached garage — were articulated through a process of “simple push and pull,” Robert Edmonds, AIA, explained. Organized in a way that angled glazing makes the façades seem to reach for each other, the spaces between the buildings provide outdoor space and circulation.

Six months after Jeffrey Day, AIA, moved to Omaha for a teaching position, he started Min|Day with partner E. B. Min in San Francisco. Functioning as if in a long-distance relationship, the partners don’t feel particularly embedded in any one place. Day discussed their design for a vacation home on Lake Okoboji in rural Iowa, which establishes a sanctuary along a densely populated shore. Sited on narrow lot, the house is designed as a gradient that obscures the neighbors and opens up to the lake.

Kennerly Architecture & Planning designed a photography studio on the site of an old barn in Marin County. Situated between existing trees, the studio “touches the land lightly,” Owen Kennerly, AIA, explained. The firm salvaged redwood planks from the barn to be integrated into the floors and façade. Translucent corrugated polycarbonate forms the roof, and sheets of muslin help to modulate the light for photo shoots.

The work of CMG Landscape Architecture explores the community’s relationship to public space. The design for Mint Plaza aimed to transform a downtown back alley into a public pedestrian plaza and festival space. An arbor, rain gardens, and orange chairs shape the space and provide flexibility for the public and local workers to use.

For more information on the program, exhibition, and competition, visit the New Practices San Francisco website.

John Murrye Bernard, LEED AP, is a freelance writer and contributing editor to e-Oculus.

Event: Shaping the City: A Strategic Blueprint for New York City’s Future
Location: Center for Architecture, 05.26.09
Speakers: Amanda Burden, FAICP, Hon. AIA — Commissioner, NYC Department of City Planning (DCP)
Organizer: AIANY Public Architecture Committee

Courtesy AIANY

Because of the recent economic downturn, we couldn’t be in a more exciting time for planning, says Amanda Burden, FAICP, Hon. AIA, commissioner of the NYC Department of City Planning (DCP). NYC’s future, in terms of master plans, neighborhood character, outdoor spaces, streetscapes, and general environmental quality of life are in the hands of Burden and her department. So what exactly are they up to?

Efforts range from widely publicized projects such as the rescue and restoration of Coney Island as a year-round destination, to smaller low-key projects like increasing the availability of neighborhood grocery stores through developer incentives. Burden’s esteem for street life and open spaces — inspired by her mentor, urbanist William “Holly” Whyte — resonates in her administration’s ventures. Vitality and sociability are enhanced by sidewalk cafés (legalized under Burden’s reign), privately owned public spaces, and re-zoning in all five boroughs to improve people’s lives. Burden espouses offering New Yorkers a variety of housing options and retail opportunities, waterfront access, cultural and entertainment destinations, and neighborhoods that are characterized by specific features to diminish anonymity in our city. Growth opportunities are anticipated by the subways, says Burden, and grow we must.

Termed by the commissioner, a “city of neighborhoods,” NYC has proven to be a global city of opportunity comparable to Shanghai or Tokyo, as opposed to Chicago or San Francisco. As our city’s population propagates, DCP is responding with initiatives that enhance the public realm, introduce innovative architecture, improve access to public transportation, and promote sustainable growth. And, according to Burden, a true New Yorker, “New York should demand nothing less.”

Jacqueline Pezzillo, Assoc. AIA, LEED AP, is the communications manager at Davis Brody Bond Aedas and a regular contributor to e-Oculus.

In this issue:
· NCARB News
· Passing: Bernard Rothzeid, FAIA

NCARB News
Now Available: NCARB Comments on the NAAB 2009 Conditions for Accreditation, Public Comment Edition
NCARB has reviewed the National Architectural Accrediting Board’s (NAAB) 2009 Conditions for Accreditation, Public Comment Edition, which was released for public comment in February 2009. NCARB used two criteria to guide its review process and develop recommendations. The first was whether the proposed language of the conditions would adversely impact the architecture profession’s capacity to serve as leaders and mentors in the world of design and construction. The second was whether the proposed language would make students less capable of successfully participating in the Intern Development Program (IDP).

NCARB’s comments centered around four areas:
· Definitions of Achievement Levels
· Application of the Definitions of Achievement Levels to the Student Performance Criteria (SPC)
· Recommended Revisions to the SPC
· Role of the Intern Development Program (IDP) Education Coordinator

To download NCARB Comments on the NAAB 2009 Conditions for Accreditation, Public Comment Edition, click the link. Information about accreditation and the schedule for development of the final 2009 Conditions for Accreditation is available on the NAAB website, too.

Passing: Bernard Rothzeid, FAIA
Bernard Rothzeid, FAIA, a co-founder of RKT&B Architects, died of leukemia on 05.25.09. He was 83 and lived in Park Slope, Brooklyn. During his more than 50 years as an architect, Rothzeid was most prominently known for his skill in the adaptive re-use of existing structures as well as historic preservation. As the long-time architect for the City Center Theater in Manhattan, Rothzeid also created two theaters for the Manhattan Theater Club and Symphony Space.

In addition to key work in restoration, Rothzeid had a longstanding involvement with residential design and health-care facility planning and design. At the time of his death, he was overseeing the design of a $30 million, 273,000-square-foot hospital complex for the American Hospital in Abuja, the capital of Nigeria.

Rothzeid was elected to the College of Fellows of the AIA in 1979, and in 1986 he received the Augustus Saint Gaudens Award from The Cooper Union, his alma mater’s most prestigious honor. He also taught at The Cooper Union and at the School of Architecture and Environmental Studies at City College in New York.

Contributions in his memory may be made to Cooper Union, 30 Cooper Square, New York NY, 10003. A memorial will be announced at a later date.