Author: Catherine Teegarden

With the opening of Center for Architecture at the Seaport, our new exhibition and event space at 181 Front Street in the Seaport Culture District, the Center has launched several new educational programs that will introduce families, school groups, and the general public to the area’s unique built environment. This Saturday, 09.19.15 is our first FamilyDay@theSeaport, focusing on the nearby Brooklyn Bridge. In this two-hour, hands-on program, families will learn about the exciting story of its design and construction, and create their own model suspension bridges to take home. Continue reading “New Educational Programs at Center for Architecture at the Seaport”

Summer@theCenter, the Center’s summer design program for youth ages 7-18, is in full swing as we enter the second half of our 2015 season. A full slate of 14 separate, week-long programs and one two-week program, developed and taught by the Center for Architecture’s Education Department and affiliated design educators, is keeping a steady stream of young architecture enthusiasts – and their parents – coming to the Center on a daily basis. Lead Design Educator Tim Hayduk, Summer@theCenter Assistant Jenny Leiman, and a host of dedicated architecture student volunteers are helping to ensure the program’s success. With more than 240 students enrolled, we are building a corps of future designers, helping them discover their love of architecture at an early age. Continue reading “Summer@theCenter 2015”

The start of summer marks the completion of the school year and the culmination of the Center for Architecture’s in-school Learning By Design: NY (LBD: NY) program for 2014-15. June was filled with student presentations from the LBD: NY program, both at the Center and in schools throughout the metropolitan area. This year’s program served nearly 2,000 students and teachers through in-school residencies and teacher training workshops in twenty schools in Manhattan, Brooklyn, Queens, Staten Island, and Westchester.   Continue reading “Learning By Design: NY Wraps Up a Successful Year”

Vacation is a time to play and explore new ideas and places. Thirty-five students enrolled in the Center’s Studio@theCenter vacation programs did just that, investigating what it might be like to be an architect and create new living spaces for imaginary clients. Three different apartment design programs were offered for elementary (3rd – 5th grades), middle (6th – 8th grades) and high school students over their February school break. High school and middle school students tackled the contemporary challenge of designing a micro-unit apartment in New York City. They learned how to communicate their design ideas through architectural scale drawings and models. Middle school students created their designs in the Center’s computer lab using SketchUp, a free 3-D rendering program. Thanks to the ease of digital duplication, students were able to create apartment buildings based on their unit design, adding in communal spaces and amenities. Both groups looked at other architects’ micro-unit designs proposed for NYC, as well as the minimal dwelling unit currently on display in the “Prague Functionalism” exhibition at the Center. Continue reading “(Very) New Practices”

On 01.15.15, the Center for Architecture hosted staff and students from our partner school, the Urban Assembly School of Design and Construction (UASDC), for a semi-annual presentation by students in the school’s architecture program, led by CFA Design Educator Yves Roger. Roger has been teaching at the school through our Learning By Design:NY program for eight years, introducing students to the process of architectural design. Ninth-grade students begin exploring fundamentals of scale, structure, and shaping space through 2-D and 3-D design exercises, culminating in their designs for a cube house and a bridge. Tenth-graders delve deeper, working in teams to design a high school, a museum, and living space based on the complex geometries of the ancient Chinese tangram puzzle. Eleventh- and twelfth-graders who choose to continue with architecture move into advanced classes, working independently on studio projects, and developing their portfolios for college applications. Continue reading “Design Professionals Share Their Expertise with Aspiring High School Students at the Center”

As we approach the close of 2014, the Center for Architecture Foundation looks back at nearly 50 years of organizational history. The Foundation has gone through several transformations since its founding by AIANY in 1966 as a non-profit 501(c)3 organization to complement the Chapter’s professional mission. Its first programs were scholarships for students pursuing a degree in architecture. In 1998, the Foundation adopted the Learning By Design:NY committee, providing the support that enabled it to grow into the nationally-recognized K-12 education program it is today. With the opening of the Center for Architecture in 2003, we changed our name from the New York Foundation for Architecture to the Center for Architecture Foundation, to recognize the role of the Center in our next phase of development. Here, we have expanded our offerings to include design workshops for K-12 students, families, and adults curious to learn more about the city’s built environment and the process of design. Continue reading “Looking Back, Looking Forward”

The Center for Architecture Foundation’s K-12 educational programs Learning By Design:NY and StudentDay@theCenter reach more than 4,000 students each year, and have a devoted following of schools and teachers who have made these programs an integral part of their curriculum. The Deutsch Bank Americas Foundation has recognized these unique programs by selecting CFAF to participate in its current Arts & Enterprise grant program, which will provide $50,000 to help CFAF integrate the K-12 Common Core Learning Standards into our educational programs, and expand these programs to more low-income, underserved schools. CFAF is one of about 20 cultural organizations in New York City that were selected for this program based on “a strong vision of supporting underserved communities and a history of educational commitment through both intensive and broad-reaching programs alike.” The grant program includes training for staff and educators on Common Core integration, and a series of working sessions for educational leaders from the cohort to develop a set of best practices for arts and cultural organizations that can be disseminated to the field. Continue reading “Center for Architecture Foundation Awarded $50,000 Grant from Deutsche Bank Americas Foundation”

The Center for Architecture Foundation (CFAF) collaborated with openhousenewyork (OHNY) to present the 7th annual Family Festival as part of Archtober and OHNY’s annual exploration of NYC’s built environment. During this free, weekend-long event, more than 300 parents and kids came to the Center for Architecture to enjoy a variety of art and design activities presented by OHNY, CFAF, and several other participating organizations and individuals. The goal was to build awareness of and interest in the city’s built environment among New Yorkers of all ages, and to introduce them to the many cultural institutions that provide family programming on the topic year-round. Continue reading “Family Festival Brings Hundreds to the Center for Architecture”

Elementary and middle school students had an opportunity to explore their neighborhoods’ architecture and their own design ideas, thanks to a new partnership between the Center for Architecture Foundation and the NYC Department of Youth and Community Development (DYCD). This multi-part program combined training for DYCD after-school and summer program staff with hands-on programs for students at four program sites in Brooklyn and Manhattan. Twenty DYCD staff members participated in two days of professional development workshops at the Center in June, which introduced them to fundamentals of architectural design, and successful activities they could use with their students to explore their local architecture. The group learned new architectural vocabulary and design concepts, and went out into the Center’s neighborhood to see how they can serve as clues to understanding a building’s structure, design, age, and function. They tested out hands-on activities they would use with students, such as drawing floor plans and creating scale models, and exploring the structural design of skyscrapers and bridges by building structural models of each. Continue reading “What I Did Over Summer Vacation…”

The Center for Architecture Foundation joined forces with an impressive list of dignitaries to support the Bronx Children’s Museum’s 5th Annual Dream Big Day at Lehman College on 07.25.14. The event was the culmination of the museum’s summer arts enrichment program for low-income Bronx youth. The nearby High Bridge, New York City’s oldest standing bridge, was the theme of this year’s Dream Big event, which encourages kids to “dream, work hard, follow their passions, and become caretakers of their world.” CFAF Director Catherine Teegarden led a bridge-building workshop at the event where 1st^–through 3rd^–grade students learned about the structure of the High Bridge and built a 15-foot model, which they presented to event honorees Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor, actor and author Sonia Manzano (“Maria” from Sesame Street, whose children’s book on the High Bridge will be published in the fall), and NYC Department of Design + Construction Commissioner Feniosky Peña-Mora. Commissioner Peña-Mora, a structural engineer, was delighted to discuss structural concepts of tension and compression with the workshop participants, and fielded questions prompted by the children’s model about how the larger steel arch can span a greater distance than the stone arches, rendered in the model with Chinese take-out containers. The renovation of the High Bridge is due to be completed later this year, and will provide pedestrians and bicyclists with a new quarter-mile of parkland, reconnecting the Highbridge neighborhoods of the Bronx and Manhattan. Continue reading “Center for Architecture Foundation Dreams Big in the Bronx with Hillary Clinton and Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor”