Month: October 2015

Archtober Thanks!

There are only a few days left until the end of Archtober, and I want to take this opportunity to thank everyone who participated in our month-long festival of architecture and design. From Building of the Day tours, to LEGO-sponsored events for families, and city-wide exhibitions about the built environment, Archtober sets out to prove to the general public that design matters.

And while the month is almost over, architecture programming is not! Don’t forget to check the Center for Architecture’s online calendar, and visit our partner organizations’ websites to see their offerings for the rest of the year!

Heritage Ball 2015

The AIANY and Center for Architecture Heritage Ball welcomed more than 1,100 AEC professionals to Chelsea Piers Pier Sixty on 10.22.15.Thanks to our generous donors and the efforts of the Center’s tireless Dinner Committee, we raised more than $1.5 million to support the Center for Architecture’s exhibitions, programs, and public events. Continue reading “Heritage Ball 2015”

Safdie’s Secrets of the Sites

Known for his wide array of museums worldwide, Moshe Safdie, FAIA, delivered this year’s ninth annual Rosenblatt Memorial Lecture, a series focusing on museum design. Introducing the series, AIANY and Center for Architecture Interim Executive Director David Burney, FAIA, identified Arthur M. Rosenblatt as a true scholar and a gentleman, and the founding chairman of the AIANY Cultural Facilities Committee, which inaugurated the lecture series in his honor. Though architects are said to peak in their 60s, Safdie, now in his 70s, hit his stride early in his career, and has continued a tradition of design excellence evident in the museums he presented. Continue reading “Safdie’s Secrets of the Sites”

Phil Freelon Blends Practice and Advocacy

The fourth annual J. Max Bond, Jr. Lecture brought esteemed practitioner Phil Freelon, FAIA, NOMA, to the podium. The North Carolina-based architect, who studied how to combine advocacy with practice as a Loeb Fellow at Harvard University, has made a career of designing educational and cultural buildings. Toni Griffin, herself a previous J. Max Bond, Jr. lecturer, introduced Freelon’s talk entitled “Conversations: Community,” reflecting Bond’s own ethos in architecture. The projects that followed certainly promoted cultural and civic understanding, from the historic International Civil Rights Center and Museum in Greensboro, North Carolina, to Freelon’s current collaboration on the National Museum of African American History and Culture for the Smithsonian Institution. Continue reading “Phil Freelon Blends Practice and Advocacy”

Maintaining Diversity and Stimulating Growth in the Face of Gentrification

How can NYC neighborhoods remain diverse in the face of gentrification? What financial and policy-related tools can local, state, and federal governments deploy to better prepare neighborhoods for change? How should the city partner with relevant stakeholders? Continue reading “Maintaining Diversity and Stimulating Growth in the Face of Gentrification”

Brick Building at the Center

Thanks to a partnership with LEGO this Archtober, the Center for Architecture hosted three sold-out youth and family programs focused on creating architecture with LEGO bricks. At our monthly FamilyDay@theCenter program on 10.17.15, 100 visitors spanning three generations worked together to create a LEGO city. An introductory slide talk got people thinking about the different types of buildings, structures, and spaces that make up a city. Families then got to work creating residential, commercial, industrial, and other types of buildings to populate an empty city map laid out at the back of Tafel Hall. An ample supply of LEGO bricks of all shapes, sizes, and colors fueled their imaginations and the final city boasted bioswales and park benches, a hockey arena, police station, bank, grout factory, floating concert venue, and many more key city components, contributed by both parents and kids. Continue reading “Brick Building at the Center”

New Deadlines

2016 Oculus Editorial Calendar
The Oculus 2015 Editorial Calendar has been set. If you are an architect in practice or by training, or see yourself as an astute observer of New York’s architectural and planning scene, Oculus wants to hear from you! You may submit projects/topics from anywhere, but architects must be New York-based. Please submit story ideas/projects by the deadlines indicated below to Kristen Richards, Hon. AIA, Hon. ASLA: kristen@ArchNewsNow.com.

Spring: Institutional Urban Campuses / New York – Science + Research City
How educational, health-care and other institutions fit into the city’s urban fabric; how they are evolving; what are the challenges they face. How can architecture make these large campuses good neighbors? What amenities can they share?
Deadline for story ideas: 10.30.15

Summer: 2016 AIANY Design Awards

Fall: Tech in the City
Why cutting-edge industry loves older buildings. How technology businesses transform neighborhoods and the city at large. Adaptive Reuse & Interiors.
Deadline for story ideas: 05.16.16

Winter: Preservation & Reinvention / Rethinking Preservation / Preservation & Urbanism / Preservation Today
Projects with a unique take on history and how to reconcile it with contemporary needs. Focus on daylight and natural ventilation as city becomes more dense; historic preservation as zoning tool; quality vs. scale. Is city preserving too much in historic districts?
Deadline for story ideas: 08.19.16 Continue reading “New Deadlines”