Month: February 2014

New Deadlines

2014 OCULUS Editorial Calendar!
The Oculus 2014 Editorial Calendar has been set. If you are an architect by training, or see yourself as an astute observer of New York’s architectural and planning scene, Oculus wants to hear from you! Projects/topics may be anywhere, but architects must be New York-based. Please submit story ideas by the deadlines indicated below to Kristen Richards, Hon. AIA, Hon. ASLA: kristen@ArchNewsNow.com.

Fall 2014
Culture
Submit story ideas by April 30, 2014

Winter 2014
Emerging Skyline / Evolving Street
Submit story ideas by July 14, 2014 Continue reading “New Deadlines”

On View: At the Center for Architecture + About Town

On View

“Building Connections 2013”
Through 03.01.14

“NYRP EDGEucation Pavilion”
Through 03.06.14

“Arch Schools 2013”
Through 03.22.14

“Considering the Quake: Seismic Design on the Edge”
Through 05.26.14

Upcoming

“Polis: 7 Lessons from the European Prize for Urban Public Space [2000-20012]”
Opening 03.27.14

“2014 Design Awards”
Opening 04.24.14 Continue reading “On View: At the Center for Architecture + About Town”

Editor’s Note

Please join us next week on 02.13.14 at 6:00 PM for the opening of “Considering the Quake: Seismic Design on Edge.” Curated by Professor Ghyslaine McClure and Dr. Effie Bouras of the McGill University Department of Civil Engineering and Applied Mechanics, the exhibition explores the elegant, and oftentimes elusive, intersection between architectural design and the technicality of structural engineering. Envisioned as a “science center” for design, “Considering the Quake” will feature full-sized seismic technology, architectural and structural models, seismic testing videos, and even a shake table.

The exhibition will also be complimented by a series of programs organized by the AIANY Design for Risk and Reconstruction Committee and the AIANY. Check our online calendar for upcoming quake events!

In addition, don’t forget to submit your recommendations for the AIANY College of Fellows (deadline February 20, 5:00 PM) and the AIANY Nominating Committee (deadline February 28, 5:00 PM).

MoMA Mia – A Conversation on the Museum of Modern Art’s Plan for Expansion

Last Tuesday, 01.28.14, a public conversation about the Museum of Modern Art’s expansion plan was convened by The Architectural League of New York, the Municipal Art Society, and AIA New York (to see a video of the full event, click here).

Liz Diller presented the results of the Diller Scofidio + Renfro six-month study commissioned by MoMA, and started her remarks with praise for the American Folk Art Museum, saying: “This is a building by our much-respected colleagues Tod Williams and Billie Tsien. We welcome the opportunity to speak before this group of peers to address these issues in an unfiltered way – even if we don’t change a single mind in the room.”

After welcomes from League president Annabelle Selldorf, FAIA, and MAS President Vin Cipolla, AIANY’s 2014 President Lance Jay Brown, FAIA, spoke of how “as architects and designers, we at the AIA were interested in co-sponsoring this forum because we continually grapple with issues of complex balancing: balancing preservation and change – the morphology of the city; balancing public interest and owner’s needs; and balancing the competing urban scales of the building, the street, and the city.” Before introducing event moderator Reed Kroloff, Assoc. AIA, Brown noted that “other places will learn lessons from what they see and hear today.” Continue reading “MoMA Mia – A Conversation on the Museum of Modern Art’s Plan for Expansion”

New Practices New Visions

On Monday, 01.27.14, the winners of the New Practices New York competition were announced at the Center for Architecture. Held since 2006, the biennial competition serves as a platform to recognize and promote the city’s new and innovative architecture and design firms that employ unique and innovative strategies, both for the projects they undertake and for the practices they have established. The juried portfolio competition is sponsored by the AIANY New Practices Committee, which focuses on exploring new models of architecture and design practices. Continue reading “New Practices New Visions”

Design for Dementia

As a complement to the Center for Architecture’s “Booming Boroughs: Redesigning Aging-in-Place in NYC” exhibition, several experts presented ideas about designing for and living with people with dementia. While the exhibition explored fresh ways to design for SMLXL situations in NYC, the Living with Dementia – At Home and in Urban Communities: Opportunities and Challenges program on 01.28.14 focused on the science and the social issues that surround a particularly challenging nuance of “aging-in-place.” (Read a re-cap of the exhibition here.) Continue reading “Design for Dementia”

The New Yorker Who Carried Taliesin Back Home

Among many stories told at this lively celebration of the later work of Edgar Tafel, FAIA – a natural and engaging raconteur, he was also the subject of quite a few tales over the years – his frequent collaborator Robert Silman related one about the decision to study under Frank Lloyd Wright at Taliesin. Young Tafel had been unimpressed with what he heard as a student in NYU’s architecture program (now defunct) during the 1930s: “These professors don’t know what they’re talking about,” he groused to relatives. Then his aunt saw a newspaper article on the Taliesin Fellowship. What it didn’t say, Silman added, was that “they paid Wright to work for him.” The financial obstacle was considerable, but Wright’s reply to Tafel’s application was something anyone young, talented, ambitious, and shallow-pocketed would want to hear: “Pay what you can, but come.” Continue reading “The New Yorker Who Carried Taliesin Back Home”

Young New Yorkers Learn About City History Through its Architecture

Second-graders at PS 199 on Manhattan’s Upper West Side had an opportunity to teach their parents about the city’s history at the culminating celebration of their Learning By Design:NY program on New York City’s residential architecture. More than 130 students proudly presented their models of residential buildings, documenting 400 years of city history as told through changes in our residential architecture. Students toured admiring parents and siblings through this architectural timeline, which began with Native American longhouses and ended with today’s high-rise apartments. Other key stops along the way included Dutch farm houses, British colonial houses, country estates, row houses, tenement apartments, suburban-style houses that define many neighborhoods in the city’s outer boroughs, and turn-of-the-century apartment houses. Students pointed out how changes in building materials, size, and architectural details showed which buildings came later in the city’s history. Continue reading “Young New Yorkers Learn About City History Through its Architecture”