Author: Annie Coggan

In Geoff Manaugh’s A Burglar’s Guide to the City, we are introduced to a cavalcade of nefarious characters. Manaugh interviews burglars, ex-burglars, cops, ex-cops/burglars, and others to map a built environment that the average person never sees and, he contends, the average architect never considers. In his Oculus Book Talk at the Center for Architecture on 05.09.16, he maintained that the reason he wrote the book was to illuminate (but not celebrate, we find, at the end of the text) a spatial imagination and sensitivity to the built environment in a population other than the trained architect. This intent leads the reader through a dizzying number of anecdotes to support this notion. We fly through L.A. with an Air Support Division officer who debunks the 1990s paranoia of author Mike Davis by showing that there are no numbers on rooftops that tag every quadrant of the city. While the LAPD has “suggested” that this would help with security, the “space police” have yet to execute this strategy. Manaugh takes the readers to Locksport events, the lock-picking Olympics, and, most interestingly, interviews a Roman historian who specializes in early Roman home invasion. Continue reading “Oculus Book Review: A Burglar’s Guide to the City by Geoff Manaugh”

Despina Stratigakos presented her provocatively titled volume Where are the Women Architects? on 04.19.16 at the Center for Architecture. Following her presentation, Lori Brown, AIA, associate professor of Architecture at Syracuse University and co-founder of Architexx, Joan Blumenfeld, FAIA, IIDA, LEED AP, principal at Perkins+Will and Chair of the Beverly Willis Architecture Foundation; and Stratigakos presided over a discussion about the book’s findings. The lecture hall at the Center for Architecture was packed with second-, third-, fifth-, and sixth-wave feminists. Continue reading “Oculus Book Review: Where are the Women Architects? by Despina Stratigakos”

On 03.28.16, Nina Rappaport, publications director at Yale School of Architecture, introduced us to her book and life’s work, Vertical Urban Factory. After her presentation she chatted with Damon Rich, founder the Center for Urban Pedagogy (CUP) and former planning director and chief urban designer for the City of Newark, NJ, and now principal of Hector Design Service, an urban design, planning and civic arts studio. Both speakers brought the audience into the lush and complex world of the urban factory. Rappaport has worked with the idea of the vertical urban factory for a few decades, evolving from student work and academic research to an exhibition and this publication – and, ultimately, to Rapport’s perspective being acknowledged in policy decisions. This is more than a book; it’s an encyclopedia on the impact of production and the history of its spatial demands. Continue reading “Oculus Book Review: Vertical Urban Factory Factory by Nina Rappaport”

At the Oculus Book Talk on 02.08.16, Sam Schwartz, PE, president and CEO of Sam Schwartz Engineering, and Alex Garvin, Hon. AIANY, president and CEO of AGA Public Realm Strategists, Inc., discussed Schwartz’s new book, Street Smart: The Rise of Cities and the Fall of Cars, at the Center for Architecture. Continue reading “Oculus Book Review: Street Smart: The Rise of Cities and the Fall of Cars by Sam Schwartz”

On 01.11.16, the New York City architectural community converged at the Center for Architecture to celebrate the newest tome by beloved critic, writer, and educator Kenneth Frampton, Assoc. AIA. The first Oculus Book Talk of the year had a particularly jovial air, as Frampton’s new book, A Genealogy of Modern Architecture: Comparative Critical Analysis of Built Form, is the result of 40 years of teaching, and it seemed everyone in the audience had taken his classes at Princeton or Columbia. Continue reading “Oculus Book Review: A Genealogy of Modern Architecture: Comparative Critical Analysis of Built Form by Kenneth Frampton”

The Center for Architecture ended its 2015 Oculus Book Talk series with the eminent Paul Goldberger, Hon. AIA, on hand to discuss his latest triumph, Building Art: The Life and Work of Frank Gehry. The 12.14.15 conversation with James Russell, FAIA, director of Design Strategic Initiatives at the NYC Department of Design and Construction and longtime architecture critic, was an affable and insightful discussion. Continue reading “Oculus Book Review: Building Art: The Life and Work of Frank Gehry by Paul Golberger”

On 11.09.15, Janette Kim, Assistant Professor, Syracuse University, and Erik Carver, Teaching Fellow, Columbia University, presented their new book, The Underdome Guide to Energy Reform (Princeton Architectural Press, November 2015), at the Center for Architecture. The talk was moderated by Matt Shaw, Senior Editor, The Architect’s Newspaper. Continue reading “Oculus Book Review: The Underdome Guide to Energy Reform”

October’s Oculus Book Talk on 10.29.15 was introduced by the Center for Architecture’s Managing Director Cynthia Kracauer, AIA, LEED AP, who acted as a lovely town crier for the lively programming at the Center and its brand new South Street Seaport location. She was followed by a panel discussion moderated by Design Trust Executive Director Susan Chin, FAIA, Hon. ASLA, with the most recent Design Trust Fellows: Douglas Woodward, Policy Fellow; Susannah Drake, AIA, FASLA, Urban Design Fellow; Neil Donnelly, Graphic Design Fellow; Chat Travieso, Participatory Design Fellow; and Neil Gagliardi, Director of Urban Design at the NYC Department of Transportation. Continue reading “Oculus Book Review: Under the Elevated: Reclaiming Space, Connecting Communities”

Roberta Brandes Gratz’s latest book, We’re Still Here Ya Bastards: How the People of New Orleans Rebuilt Their City, is a holistic urbanist triumph. A steady and clear mapping of the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina on the city of New Orleans and the subsequent havoc that the BP oil spill played on the region, Brandes Gratz establishes a new touchstone for the urbanist chronicler. Continue reading “Oculus Book Review: We’re Still Here Ya Bastards by Roberta Brandes Gratz”

The Architectural League’s new compilation, 30 Years of Emerging Voices, is a strong cultural artifact for the North American experimental architectural community. I was bemused that each page brought forth a colleague, neighbor, collaborator, teacher, or dear friend. The book serves as a celebration of Anne Rieselbach and Rosalie Genevro’s commitment to the inquiry of architectural practice and the community the Architectural League has nurtured throughout the past 30 years. Continue reading “Oculus Book Review: 30 Years of Emerging Voices”