Month: September 2009

(Continued from above)

The “Dutch Dialogues” workshops were the outgrowth of extended interactions among Dutch engineers, urban designers, landscape architects, city planners, soils/hydrology experts, and their Louisiana counterparts. New Orleans-based David Waggonner, AIA, principal of Waggoner and Ball Architects, with the backing of the American Planning Association, initiated the talks, which continued at a panel including Waggonner, Bruce Knight, president of the APA, and Paula Verhoeven, director of the climate office for Rotterdam. While “safety first” remains the cornerstone of Dutch water management policy, a new “living with water” mentality has transformed its approach to urban design and redevelopment. In addition to dikes, levees, and super levees, the Dutch are building terraced levees, roof parks, water plazas, and water storage basins under parking lots. While the land is reclaimed from the sea in Rotterdam, the new port area frees up land in the city center for development.

In the panel New Opportunities for Blue/Green Development, “green” was talked about in terms of both sustainability and economic development. Trent Lethco, associate principal at ARUP, stated that we have to reclaim our waterfront from its industrial past. The question is whether to move buildings and infrastructure or repurpose them. Laurie Kerr, senior policy advisor for buildings at the NYC Mayor’s Office of Long Term Planning and Sustainability, expressed concern over the frequency of storms, flooding, and power outages. Most critical to Kerr is protecting critical infrastructure such as power plants, vehicular tunnels, and water treatment plants on the waterfront. Anneke De Vries, CEO of ING Real Estate in the Netherlands, presented a new mixed-used development her company is developing on the site of a former Shell Oil plant. According to NY-based developer Jonathan Rose, “the recession is a great time to plan projects like Battery Park City, which took 30-40 years to plan.” Ultimately, “AIA members have visions; design does matter on the waterfront,” AIANY Executive Director Rick Bell, FAIA, said in closing.

09.01.09
This issue is Dutch-centric in anticipation of the 400th anniversary of Henry Hudson’s sail into New York Harbor. Check out NY400 to find out about next week’s events and celebrations.

I’ve received a great response so far from those of you who are Twittering! Please let me know if your firm is Twittering. I’d like to find all the NY-based firms that take part in the latest in social media. E-mail me at eoculus@aiany.org. Also, be sure to follow Tweets from e-Oculus and the Center for Architecture.

– Jessica Sheridan, Assoc. AIA, LEED AP

Exhibition: “Mannahatta/Manhattan: A Natural History of New York City” (through 10.12.09); “Amsterdam/New Amsterdam: The Worlds of Henry Hudson” (through 09.27.09); “Dutch Seen: New York Rediscovered” (through 09.13.09)
Location: Museum of the City of New York

Four hundred years after Henry Hudson’s discovery of what has become Manhattan, the Museum of the City of New York is exhibiting three very different shows to celebrate this historic event. Viewing Manhattan both before it was “discovered” as an early Dutch settlement and in its modern-day incarnation, the lasting influence of the Dutch is undeniable.

“Mannahatta/Manhattan: A Natural History of New York City” depicts the island at the time of Hudson’s arrival — a pristine, natural environment. Called Mannahatta by the local Lenape Indians, which may have meant “island of many hills,” the lush island was home to more than 1,000 species of plants and animals. The exhibition explores the themes of density, diversity, openness, locality, interdependence, and home. Multi-media displays include a topographical model of pre-1690 Manhattan, onto which several maps are projected showing beaver distributions, streams, and biodiversity. Pods contain backlit screens illustrating the natural environment, and viewers move through the show under taxidermy mountain lions, bears, and birds that once inhabited the region. The exhibition is presented in collaboration with the Wildlife Conservation Society and based on Eric W. Sanderson’s “Mannahatta Project.”

“Amsterdam/New Amsterdam: The Worlds of Henry Hudson” presents the settlement of Manhattan by the Dutch, showing how its imprint on Manhattan extends today, evident in art, politics, business, and even street names (Broadway is Breede Weg in Dutch, and Bowery is Bouwerij). On display are rare 16th- and 17th-century paintings, engravings, and documents, and everyday objects from life in the early settlement — as well as a large-scale model of New Amsterdam. Visitors can listen to period songs and personal accounts of life in New Amsterdam. The exhibition is designed to make visitors feel as if they in the hull of a ship, complete with sails suspended above.

Finally, “Dutch Seen: New York Rediscovered” features the work of contemporary Dutch photographers who have captured portraits of New York as it is today. Described as “modern work, firmly rooted within the Dutch tradition,” the portraits, landscapes, still lifes, conceptual, and documentary photography are by artists including Rineke Dijkstra, Charlotte Dumas, Hendrik Kerstens, Erwin Olaf, Danielle van Ark, and Inez van Lamsweerde and Vinoodh Matadin.

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

Exhibition: “China Prophecy: Shanghai” (through 03.2010)
Location: Skyscraper Museum

The third exhibition in the Skyscraper Museum’s “Future City 20 | 21” series explores the idea that China’s largest city may be to the next century what New York was to the last. “If you think of New York as a predictor, it predicted Hong Kong perfectly,” says museum director Carol Willis. “The question is, what’s the 21st century’s future city?” “China Prophecy: Shanghai” suggests that a new kind of city on an unprecedented scale will be the urban model of the future, as influential in its approaches to density, planning, and design as New York once was (and, in some quarters, arguably remains), while growing at a pace that’s distinctly Chinese.

Shanghai is home to 18 million people, including 10 million in Puxi, its historic core area one third the size of New York, and some 3 million “floating” or non-registered migrants; considering the influx from rural regions, some demographers project expansion to 23 million by 2020. Rapid expansion, naturally, means aggressive urbanization. Traditional lilong lanes and shikumen housing in much of the city have given way to high- or mid-rises.

The Pudong New Area — a stretch of waterfront and countryside across the Huangpu River from Puxi — now hosts the Lujiazui financial district and its exuberant icons, including the rocketlike Oriental Pearl television tower (a local equivalent of the Eiffel Tower), designed by Shanghai Modern Architectural Design Co., and two of the world’s top 10 supertall towers (about to be joined by a third). The three largest skyscrapers, says Willis, express Shanghai city leaders’ sense of the past, present, and future: respectively, the Jin Mao tower’s pagoda-like geometries by SOM’s Chicago office, the contemporary modernism of Kohn Pedersen Fox (KPF) and Leslie Robertson’s World Financial Center, and the twisting, segmented, biomorphic Shanghai Tower, a 128-story Gensler design that, when completed, will mark China’s place in the age of green building technologies.

Models and diagrams of these, KPF’s Jing An complex, John Portman’s mixed-use Tomorrow Square, the Xintiandi and Rockbund preservation/reclamation projects, and others offer details on the buildings’ structures, design evolution, and urban roles.

Three main models of urbanization, Willis says, characterize today’s Shanghai: patchwork modernization in the Puxi core, a commercial incursion of self-contained high-rises into the two-story, pedestrian-scale city fabric; superblocks with supertowers, executed by decree according to the master plan for Pudong, often surrounded by green space as separate islands with little street-level life nearby; and historic preservation with adaptive re-use, as in developer Vincent Lo’s Xintiandi (“New Heaven and Earth”), a car-free entertainment district of restored shikumen. Here, architect Benjamin Wood developed new variations on the lilong street form, hybridized with modern infrastructure and program.

Shanghai, like New York before it, is adopting modernity’s vertical and horizontal transformative technologies, but on a larger scale and several times as fast. Processes that took New York roughly from 1880 to 1930, Willis says, are occurring in Shanghai within 10 years, and a full century’s worth of development and acculturation here has shoehorned there into less than three decades. China has the advantage of modernizing at a point when ecological knowledge is far greater than when America was undergoing similar change, but Shanghai may not dodge the bullet of aggressive automobilization to the same extent New York did. With a far higher national savings rate, Willis notes, construction is unlikely to stop booming despite global recession. It’s possible that both American successes and American errors will find echoes there.

“China Prophecy” is evolving during its long run through next March: it will soon add a wooden scale model of the Lujiazui district, and a lecture/panel series featuring American architects with major Shanghai projects will begin in October. Along with models and other static visual elements, an animation by Crystal CG places newly planned buildings within their urban context, suggesting that the 2010 World Expo (“Better City, Better Life”) may situate Shanghai as tomorrow’s global utopia, much as the 1939 World’s Fair did for New York.

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

Earlier this month, the NYC Buildings Department and AIANY launched urbanSHED, an international design competition to create a new standard sidewalk shed design. Other similar competitions have existed in the past: The Architectural League of New York’s Design in 5 committee held a charrette in 2007 to reconceptualize scaffolding (See “Designers Rethink Cityscape — One Scaffold at a Time,” by Bill Millard, e-Oculus, 08.07.07); the Downtown Alliance is currently hosting Re:Construction, a call to artists to use standard construction barriers as canvasses for public art. But never have three agencies — the Buildings Department, NYC Department of City Planning, and NYC Department of Transportation — come together to issue a call for designs that will change the face of the city, or at least the 189 miles of sheds that inhabit the NYC metro area.

“If you are a designer, why wouldn’t you enter this competition?” asked Buildings Commissioner Robert LiMandri, who presented the urbanSHED competition at a Not Business As Usual discussion at the Center for Architecture on 08.19.09. Sidewalk sheds are an inevitability in the urban landscape, and even though they are not permanent, they are constant. Every New Yorker is familiar with the current holding pattern in construction, and therefore come into contact with sidewalk sheds daily.

Besides addressing safety needs on construction sites, sidewalk sheds have other purposes. LiMandri listed the range of uses, from providing shelter from bad weather, to storage for bikes, to platforms for planters, and structures for exercise (i.e., chin-up bars). This competition wants entrants to take the design a step further, asking how these structures can affect the community and environment in addition to providing safety.

The best aspect of urbanSHED is that the winning entry will not only be constructed in Lower Manhattan (thanks to the Downtown Alliance), but it will become a standard accepted by the Buildings Department for construction sites citywide. After the finalists have been selected this October, they will receive $5,000 to develop their ideas further. A first, second, and third prize will be awarded, and the winning entry will be issued to the Buildings Department as a bulletin establishing it as an approved standard.

While I am very excited to see the results of this competition, and there is no doubt in my mind that the winning entry will go way beyond blue plywood, my question is why will there only be one finalist? I would like to see a few of the proposals built. Ultimately, I hope that this competition proves to be fruitful and inspires more such competitions in the future.

In this issue:
· 9/11 Memorial Preview Site Opens
· Times Square Wurkstadt
· Artists Re:Construct Lower Manhattan
· Milton Glaser Hearts SVA
· NYSE Goes High-Tech and High-Touch
· Princeton Greens Up
· Dallas Decks Freeway with Park, Restaurant
· Louboutin’s New Shoe 212Box

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9/11 Memorial Preview Site Opens

The National September 11 Memorial & Museum has opened a 9/11 Memorial Preview Site at 20 Vesey Street to give the public the opportunity to learn about the memorial and museum, view the construction progress at the World Trade Center site, and participate in creating content for the museum by sharing personal 9/11 stories. Thinc Design, the lead exhibition design team in partnership with Local Projects for the WTC Memorial Museum, designed the preview site and interior exhibition panels. Display models and renderings, selected artifacts, and a 9/11 timeline illustrate what the WTC site will look like when rebuilding is complete. In addition, real-time construction images of the WTC site allow visitors to view the construction as it happens.

Note: Preserving the Past While Building for the Future: Creating the September 11 Memorial Museum will take place 1:00-4:00pm, 09.13.09, at the Center for Architecture. Click the link for more information and to RSVP.

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Times Square Wurkstadt

Wurk Environments, an alternative to traditional office business centers, has hired Swanke Hayden Connell Architects to design its first “Wurksite,” at 1515 Broadway in Times Square. The 65,000-square-foot flex office space occupies two contiguous floors, each with its own character — the 11th floor is modern-chic and geared towards media/entertainment clients, and the 12th is conservative-contemporary, designed with legal or financial services in mind. More than 185 furnished office suites are planned, from self-contained mini-executive suites to built-to-suit environments. “Boulevards” on each floor act as thoroughfares extending through the office space, accented by coffee niches that are intended to echo the bustling NYC crossroads below, as are Wurksite’s furnishings, lighting, layout, textures, and color scheme. Tenants may rent a lounge for parties, events, and conferences. Wurk plans to open two more Manhattan locations this year, then export the concept to tier-one cities nationally and internationally.

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Artists Re:Construct Lower Manhattan

The Alliance for Downtown New York launched a new phase of its Re:Construction initiative with four new art projects. Rainbow Conversation, designed by artist Rachel Hayes, at Louise Nevelson Plaza at William Street and Maiden Lane, has turned 41 chain-link fences surrounding a construction zone into an animated, colorful wall; Nina Bovasso’s Botanizing on the Asphalt, at Hudson River Park along West Street, contains more than 400 feet of concrete jersey barrier covered with the artist’s signature “groovy” flowers; Flying Animals, a mural by artist Caitlin Hurd, on the corner of Washington and Rector Streets, creates a contrast between bustling life in the city and the tranquility of rural life; and in her Poster Project at 50 Trinity, artist Ellen Berkenblit presents six ink and graphite drawings enlarged and printed on a vinyl banner covering the construction barricade. Re:Construction is funded by a $1.5 million Community Enhancement Fund grant awarded by the Lower Manhattan Development Corporation and made possible through the assistance from the Hudson River Park Trust, City of New York, NYC Department of Transportation, Department of Design and Construction, Department of Buildings, and NYS Department of Transportation.

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Milton Glaser Hearts SVA

Designer Milton Glaser’s latest project isn’t a logo or poster, but the new School of Visual Arts (SVA) Theater in Chelsea. The design features what may be the city’s largest kinetic sculpture — a series of three metal cylinders that sit atop the marquee and rotate at hourly intervals, based on Vladimir Tatlin’s 1920 Constructivist Monument to the Third International. The theater’s façade features a billboard that quotes an eclectic group of cultural icons on the subject of art, from Paul Gauguin to Frank Zappa. For the interior, Glaser created two gold-leaf light fixtures, custom floor coverings, and decorative elements in colored metal overlaid with stenciled designs. The 20,000-square-foot theater, which has had many incarnations (once as the Roundabout Theatre, then as a multi-screen movie theater), now houses two auditoriums, one with 490 seats and the other with 360. Both auditoriums have presentation stages, upgraded lighting, sound, and projection capabilities, and are ADA compliant.

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NYSE Goes High-Tech and High-Touch
The NY office of Perkins Eastman has been commissioned by NYSE Euronext to design the “next generation trading floor” in its main room. Extensive renovations to create a unified trading environment will include installing modern trading desks, new screens and workspaces, and a new network. Large open trading areas will accommodate up to 40 traders each. The finished space will likely resemble NYSE Euronext’s new NYSE Amex options trading floor, which was also designed by Perkins Eastman.

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Princeton Greens Up

This fall, close to 300 Butler College students at Princeton University will be living in new residence halls designed by Pei Cobb Freed & Partners with landscape architects Michael Van Valkenburgh Associates. The 113,000-square-foot project consists of two contemporary structures with a total of five dormitories all connected at the lower level. The two- to four-story red brick buildings, accentuated with horizontal bands of limestone, are designed to harmonize with three existing halls. The new complex will contain 41 single suites, 59 quad suites, and six residential college adviser suites. Dormitory floors include kitchenettes, studies, and lounges, and common areas include a food emporium with seating areas, a “gallery,” lounge, classroom, seminar rooms, a computer room, laundry rooms, and the exterior Butler Memorial Court.

The building envelope is 30% more energy efficient than the code requires; natural daylight and ventilation are incorporated into the design, as are high-efficiency plumbing fixtures. The roofs on more than half of the Butler buildings have been planted with 14 varieties of hardy sedum, and a 5,000-gallon underground storm water storage tank will collect rainwater runoff from the roofs and be used to irrigate the courtyard. Faculty and students from the Princeton Environmental Institute (PEI) will measure heat flux, soil moisture, and temperature, and the data they collect will help determine how energy efficient the green roofs are in comparison to conventional roofs.

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Dallas Decks Freeway with Park, Restaurant

NY-based Thomas Phifer & Partners is designing a 6,000-square-foot restaurant and performance pavilion for the Woodall Rodgers Park, a 5.2-acre deck park over a freeway in Dallas designed by Office of James Burnett. Plans call for a full restaurant with indoor and outdoor seating, as well as a more casual café in the center of the park. Designed to connect with the surrounding landscape, the project has floor-to-ceiling glass walls, and a sculpted ceiling constructed of a series of coffers, each with a small skylight. The south side will have retractable glass doors to a covered terrace, which will have direct views to a performance pavilion. The event space will feature a private dining room to accommodate up to 80 guests with access to an outdoor grill and bar. Green features include geothermal radiant heating and cooling. The base park is expected to be complete in late 2011 with amenities, including the restaurant, scheduled to be finished in 2012.

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Louboutin’s New Shoe 212Box

Shoe designer Christian Louboutin, known for his red-soled stilettos, will be opening a new 1,800-square-foot store in a two-story 1930s building in West Hollywood. Designed by NY-based 212box, the store’s main entrance is accessed through a hand-forged iron gate that opens into a front patio surrounded by a tall, green wall. Three shoe display rooms flank the entrance. One has arched display niches and a mirrored wall that display the shoes on white glass shelves as if they were works of art. Another is covered in custom-made white-on-white ceramic tiles designed by the firm, each with one of 9,000 encrypted letters, numbers, and symbols. The third contains a tin-panel-clad cash wrap that also serves as a bar with built-in swivel stools and adjacent banquette. The back wall of the stairwell is clad in antique mirror panels that rise more than 26 feet to create a glow and draw customers up to the second floor; a screen of hand-blown glass bubbles functions as the stair railing. The second floor contains retail space as well as a VIP lounge. 212box has already completed stores for the company in Hong Kong, Las Vegas, London, Moscow, and New York.

NYC members of APA, ITE, ASCE, AIA, and ASLA are invited to attend open houses introducing the recently released New York City Street Design Manual. The first of its kind for the city, the manual is a resource that aims to foster safer, more efficient, greener, and more livable city streets. The culmination of two years of work by a 10-agency task force, it provides policies and design guidelines to city agencies, design professionals, developers, and community groups for the improvement of streets and sidewalks throughout the five boroughs. Topics to be covered include:

· Purpose of the Manual and how it was developed;
· Organization and format of the guidelines;
· Benefits to users including expedited design review;
· Integrating guidelines into streetscape projects;
· Submitting suggestions and learning about updates.
The open houses will take place on 09.16.09 and 10.01.09 at the Department of Transportation headquarters, 55 Water Street, ACCO/Permit Office. RSVP to streetdesignmanual@dot.nyc.gov with name, date of attendance, organization, number of attendees, e-mail address, and phone number by 09.14.09.