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Event: Fixing the Great Mistake
Location: Center for Architecture, 07.13.11
Speaker: Mark Gorton — Founder, OpenPlans & Co-Founder, The New York City Streets Renaissance Campaign
Moderator: Ethan Kent — Project for Public Spaces & Co-Founder, The New York City Streets Renaissance Campaign
Introduction: Celeste Layne — Co-Chair, APA NY Metro Chapter Transportation Committee
Organizers: AIANY Transportation and Infrastructure Committee; APA NY Metro Chapter Transportation Committee

Bicycling is viable for a wide range of the population .

Courtesy The New York Streets Renaissance

Mark Gorton’s hopeful vision for NYC is one in which stickball has returned to our streets. He views street games as a unique indicator of livability, and, as the founder of OpenPlans and the co-founder of The New York City Streets Renaissance Campaign, he is a vehement advocate for improving civic life by demoting the role of the automobile in the urban planning process. During his lecture, he contended that we have a choice, to design a city that is friendly to cars or to people.

Central to Gorton’s argument is the assertion that a people-friendly city must promote the safety and welfare of its children. Kids are the victims in an automobile-centric street infrastructure because, in addition being unable to operate a car, they are often endangered by traffic. Gorton presented research suggesting that kids who can play games in the street will socialize with their peers, interact on a visceral level with their neighborhood, and otherwise remove the voyeuristic burden from their parents or caretakers. Moreover, as the U.S. stares down a childhood obesity crisis, it is worthwhile to contemplate the secondary health benefits of pedestrianizing little-trafficked streets.

Gorton also highlighted studies that show a direct correlation between reductions in automobile traffic and increases in economic activity. Thus, creating more pedestrian-only zones in NYC is likely to aid business, not hinder it, as some planners feared in the past. Automobiles are not banished entirely from these neighborhoods, so slow-moving emergency, delivery, and sanitation vehicles can continue to quietly support activity without interrupting foot-traffic.

Gorton believes that NYC has the opportunity to embrace a radically different urban planning paradigm, one that places greater emphasis on livability than on the circulation of automobiles. We can craft a city where foot-traffic bolsters economic development, cyclists commute safely to work, and children play hopscotch in the streets. Or we can manufacture a city that endangers pedestrians, prioritizes inefficient car traffic, and chokes on airborne pollutants. Regardless, we have the choice: stickball or stoplights?

Matt Shoor, LEED AP, is a freelance designer, educator, and writer living in Manhattan. He is currently teaching sustainable design to Bronx high school students, and recently completed his architectural license exams.

Event: From Maps to Apps: cultureNOW’s Museum without Walls Project
Location: Center for Architecture, 07.12.11
Speakers: Abby Suckle, FAIA, LEED AP — AIANY VP of Public Outreach & President, cultureNOW & Design Principal, Abby Suckle Architect; Anne Lewison, AIA, RAIC — Board of Directors, cultureNOW & Senior Architect, Snøhetta
Introduction: Paul Seletsky, Assoc. AIA — Co-chair, AIANY Technology Committee
Organizer: AIANY Technology Committee
Sponsors: ABC-Imaging; Partners: Betaville-Brooklyn Experimental Media Center; Center for Urban Research — City University of New York; Google; New York Public Library; Spatial Information Design Lab — Graduate School of Architecture, Planning & Preservation at Columbia University; Wildlife Conservation Society; Tauranac Maps; The Environmental Simulation Center; Special Thanks: Dattner Architects; The Mohawk Group; Karastan

Mapping the Cityscape exhibition opening.

Courtesy: the Center for Architecture

For a committee that usually concerns itself with tech tools the likes of parametric modeling, structural analysis, and BIM, the subject of cultural mapping might appear to be, slightly off-topic. Not so! According to AIANY Technology Committee co-chair Paul Seletsky, Assoc. AIA, “as architects we are story tellers, and this is a new tool we can use to convey our design intent in a rich, vibrant way.”

CultureNOW created its first map, DowntownNOW, in 2002 as an outgrowth of the Cultural and Historical Committee of New York/New Visions, a coalition of architecture, design, planning, and civic groups (including AIANY) that banded together in response to 9/11. Hugh Hardy, FAIA, suggested a map as a way to encourage people to visit the 16 acres of Lower Manhattan and beyond. Abby Suckle, FAIA, picked up the reins and researched, designed, and printed a foldout map that was distributed throughout the city. The organization subsequently documented and produced other NYC-centric cultural maps, including the eight-foot-long ManhattanArtNow, a compendium of public art.

Outgrowing the confines of print, cultureNOW developed a website that would allow the organization to easily update the maps and expand content with text, images, audio, and video. Then it created an iPhone app to put public art and architecture in the palm of one’s hand (this year it was a winner in the NYC Big Apps 2.0 contest). The app works via GPS, which locates one’s whereabouts in the city and directs him/her to places of cultural interest nearby. What gives the app depth is its multi-media platform. If you are facing Father Duffy Square, for example, you can listen to a podcast of Sherida Paulsen, FAIA, a principal at Pasanella, Klein, Stolzman, Berg, Architects and 2009 AIANY president, talk about her firm’s role in the revitalization of Times Square. Walk downtown and Stephen Cassell, AIA, a principal at Architecture Research Office (ARO), discusses his firm’s design for the Armed Forces Recruiting Center. “When the public is looking at architecture and listening to a podcast, they can see how hard our job is and gain an appreciation for what we do,” said Suckle.

Thus began cultureNOW’s Museum Without Walls, which contains not only NYC collections, but those of 38 other cities in North America. “We’re not MoMA,” claimed Suckle, “but we are a museum outside of a museum for public art and architecture. We have an eclectic collection contained in one app that travels with you across the country.”

Linda G. Miller is a NYC-based freelance writer and publicist, and a contributing editor to e-Oculus and OCULUS.

Event: New Practices São Paulo: Brazil in New York
Location: Center for Architecture, 07.15.11
Introduction: Rick Bell, FAIA
Speakers: Martin Corullon — Metro Arquitetos Associados; Carlos M. Teixeira — Vazio S/A Arquitetura e Urbanismo; Carolina Bueno — Triptyque Arquitetura; Luís Pompeo — 23 Sul; Yuri Vital — Yuri Vital Architect; Paula Sertório — PAX.ARQ; Rafael Brych — Arkiz
Moderators: Toshiko Mori, FAIA — Toshiko Mori Architect, New Practices New York Lead Juror; José Armenio de Brito Cruz — São Paolo Juror
Organizers: Center for Architecture; AIA New York Chapter; Instituto de Arquitetos do Brasil Departamento de São Paulo
Sponsors: Benefactor: FLATCUT_; Lead Sponsors: Dornbracht; MG & Company Construction Managers/General Contractors; Valiant Technology; Sponsors: Espasso; Häfele; Skidmore, Owings & Merrill; Friend: Benjamin Moore; Media Sponsor: The Architect’s Newspaper; Communication Sponsor: Consulate General of Brazil in New York

23 Graus Sul Aquitetura designed one of the winning entries.

23 Graus Sul Aquitetura

As Brazil grows into a burgeoning international power, with all of the intense scrutiny accompanying that position, the nation’s young architects are negotiating their time in the spotlight. While São Paulo captures less of the public’s attention than its sister city, Rio de Janeiro, it is no less important a player in the architectural development of Brazil. Indeed, many of the design firms participating in the New Practices São Paulo exhibition are hard at work on highly public projects for the 2014 World Cup and the 2016 Summer Olympics.

A central theme of the panel discussion was the impact of Brazilian architectural history and construction tradition on the work of contemporary practitioners. Martin Corullon, of Metro Arquitetos Associados, reminded the audience that, as a result of autocratic rule, Brazil remained closed to new architectural ideas and technologies for decades. Generations of designers accepted cast-in-place concrete as a material norm, and worshiped at the altar of Oscar Niemeyer, Joaquim Guedes, Paulo Mendes da Rocha, and other strict Modernists. Carolina Bueno admitted that she and her partners at Triptyque Arquiteture feel fortunate to draw from that strong tradition, but are also wary of history creating an obstacle to forward progress.

The tension between digital and analog technologies, and their varying roles in the creation of buildings, were primary concerns of the panelists. Corullon embraces a tradition grounded in structure. Conversely, Paula Sertório and PAZ.ARQ view digital technology as a partner in the design process.

The vast majority of the panelists presented work set in an urban context. Whether for rich or poor clientele, the projects contributed to the civic development of São Paulo, which Rafael Brych of Arkiz described as a rich, diverse, and multicultural city. For instance, Yuri Vital’s GRU Chapel is intended to service the spiritual needs of Guarulhos, an impoverished neighborhood of São Paulo. In response to a competition brief for low-income housing, Luis Pompeo and his fellows at 23 Sul submitted an entry in which new civic structures, not residences, were the focus of the design. 23 Sul intended for denizens to use the city itself as their home, thereby actively promoting neighborhood engagement and unity. Finally, Carlos Teixeira, of Vazio S/A Arquitetura e Urbanismo, crafted a community center that employed a wall with integrated training equipment so that local residents could exercise outdoors.

José Armenio de Brito Cruz stated that only now, as Brazil’s democracy matures, have designers started to look to the future. If the New Practices São Paulo firms accurately encapsulate the ambitions of young Brazilian architects, then the future looks very bright, indeed.

Matt Shoor, LEED AP, is a freelance designer, educator, and writer living in Manhattan. He is currently teaching sustainable design to Bronx high school students, and recently completed his architectural license exams.

Event: Oculus Book Talk: Dickson Despommier, The Vertical Farm
Location: Center for Architecture, 07.11.11
Speaker: Dr. Dickson Despommier — Author, The Vertical Farm: Feeding the World in the 21st Century (St. Martin’s Press)
Organizer: AIANY Oculus Committee

The Vertical Farm: Feeding the World in the 21st Century

Courtesy: the Center for Architecture

In a recent fundraiser for a group of women elders of native cultures from around the world, they talked at length about how the extinction of global resources would be inevitable if we did not turn things around. The grandmother from Tibet spoke specifically about the daily challenges she and her village faced to find clean water and healthy soil to grow their food. I wondered what she thought as she described the plight of her people to an audience drinking bottled water, dozens of which were amply placed around the room. Sitting in this beautiful space on Greenwich Avenue in Manhattan, it was easy to forget that these were not isolated issues in far away places. After reading Dr. Dickson Despommier’s book, The Vertical Farm: Feeding the World in the 2lst Century I believed that while vertical farming could not solve everything it was a very viable and exciting place to start.

The basic concept of vertical farming as described by Despommier, an esteemed Columbia University professor in microbiology and public health in environmental sciences, is the creation of a closed loop, where food is produced in a sealed vertical farm, grey water is purified for drinking water, there is no agricultural runoff, in addition to more control of food safety and security. Vertical farms are not rooftop gardens. They are buildings filled with plants, fruits and vegetables that provide local food sources 365 days a year.

Despommier further states that vertical farms could enable every country in the world, regardless of climate or quality of agricultural land, to be able to grow food in an efficient and sustainable manner. While still largely theoretical, architects such as Weber Thompson Architects in Seattle, have designed a prototypical vertical farm complete with hydroponic grow areas, grey water remediation, research facilities, living spaces, retail, and a learning center for children.

“In the end, if and when our time on this planet has run it’s course, the human species will be judged not by the number of billionaires it has produced, or even by the exquisite art it has produced over the entire span of it’s evolutionary history,” Despommier states. “Rather, it will be evaluated on how well it looked after it’s own kind and the rest of the life forms on which it was wholly dependent.”

Vertical farming may have it’s cynics but unless we take serious steps to implement some fundamental changes in how we produce our food source, we will look back on this idea and wonder why we didn’t take steps when there was still time to make a difference. Majora Carter, in the book’s Foreword, makes an impassioned plea: “it’s time to built monuments to hope and prosperity. Vertical farming represents an elegant opportunity for us to rise to that challenge.” We are way overdue to heed and act upon these words.

Maxinne Rhea Leighton, Assoc. AIA, is a member of the AIANY Oculus Committee. At Parsons Brinckerhoff she is in charge of managing the Northeast Region Business Development and Marketing. Maxinne is also working with the New York Transit Museum on a new book on Grand Central Terminal for the centennial in February 2013.

Note about Oculus Book Talks: Each month, the AIANY Oculus Committee hosts a Book Talk at the Center for Architecture. Each talk highlights a recent publication on architecture, design, or the built environment — presented by the author. The Book Talks are a forum for dialogue and discussion, and copies of the publications are available for purchase and signing. The next talk will take place on 08.25.11, featuring Game Urbanism, by Hans Venuizen. Click here to RSVP.