Author: Daniel Fox

Event: Powerhouse: New Housing New York — Panel Discussion with Finalist Teams
Location: Center for Architecture, 04.16.07
Speakers: Richard Cook, AIA — Cook+Fox; Sam Marks — WHEDCO; Colin Cathcart, AIA — Kiss+Cathcart; Robert Rogers, AIA — Rogers Marvel; Alexander Taylor — BRP Development
Moderators: Holly Leicht & Lance Jay Brown, FAIA
Organizers: AIANY; New Housing New York Steering Committee; NYC Department of Housing Preservation and Development; additional support: AIANY Housing Committee
Sponsors: National Endowment for the Arts; Enterprise Community Partners; AIANY Housing Committee

The New Housing New York (NHNY) Legacy competition asked architects and developers to push the limits of their design and practice modes. To what extent could interdisciplinary teams collaborate in greater depth, spend less, build greener, inspire the community, and set a replicable precedent at this 60,000-square-foot site in the Bronx? The fruits of the competition lie not only in the winning design by Phipps Rose Dattner Grimshaw, but in the plurality of sustainable, urban, affordable proposals generated by the five finalist teams.

Richard Cook, AIA, of Cook+Fox, discussed the undulating “oxbow” design his team devised in order to endow the long, narrow site with a sense of public/private circulation. He identified an inherent tension between an adaptable urban housing template and a response to the specific site conditions. The result draws upon his firm’s increasing use of sustainable design strategies to maximize natural light and ventilation while minimizing solar gain.

The 13-story slab proposed by Kiss + Cathcart with Magnusson Architecture and Planning expressed the concept of a “green building” with live vegetation growing on a planted façade. Articulated bands of “townhouses in the sky” would afford residents a clear view of the passing seasons, while a single-loaded corridor scheme would allow cross-ventilation and a more open feeling. Ground-level retail space would cluster near the northern side of the site, while health and recreation facilities would be grouped at the southern side.

Robert Rogers, AIA, of Rogers Marvel Architects, outlined the “thematic condition of health” that permeates his team’s proposal, from cultural enrichment to physical health and financial security. Together with Alexander Taylor of BRP Development, he articulated the desire to “land on the street with consequential community facilities” such as dance and exercise studios and a food co-op. Concave slabs clad in modular brick and masonry panels would create a complementary pattern of open and enclosed space. A co-generation plant, meandering gardens, and a carefully planned ventilation system would conserve resources and boost the quality of life.

Noting that the city possesses few remaining land parcels to offer for future new housing developments, Sam Marks, a director at the Women’s Housing and Economic Development Corporation (WHEDCO, which teamed with Cook+Fox), wondered whether a future competition could focus on retrofitting existing buildings. Lance Jay Brown, FAIA, defined the replicability of the NHNY exercise as a question of continued collaboration: “Can you replicate the act of will that it takes to bring this kind of event about?”

Powerhouse: New Housing New York is on view at the Center for Architecture through 06.16.07. See On View: At the Center for Architecture for more information.

Gideon Fink Shapiro is a writer and researcher at Gabellini Sheppard Associates, and contributes to several design publications.

Event: The Tiber Project: Rome; Rivers and Art as Catalysts for Urbanism: A Dialogue with New York
Location: Center for Architecture, 03.29.07
Speakers: Kristin Jones — President, Tevereterno; Gennaro Farina — Director of Historic Center, Department of City Planning, Rome; Patricia C. Philips — public art critic, Interim Director, Minetta Brooks; Meredith Johnson — Assistant Director, Minetta Brooks; Michael Fishman — advisory board member, Metropolitan Waterfront Alliance; Leni Schwendinger — Leni Schwendinger Light Projects; Moderator Ernest Hutton, AICP, Assoc. AIA — Hutton Associates & New York New Visions
Sponsors: AIA NY Planning and Urban Design Committee; AIA NY International Committee

The Italian Cultural Institute described TEVERETERNO in the following terms. “Motivated by the conviction that art is a powerful catalyst for environmental awareness and urban renewal, TEVERETERNO is a unique multi-disciplinary project that aims to contribute to the revitalization of Rome’s Tiber River by establishing a lively public gathering place — the Piazza Tevere — on a central section of the Tiber between Ponte Sisto and Ponte Mazzini.”

Each year international artists are invited to create innovative, site-specific art installations to stimulate a dialogue between nature and the city, between history and present day. It is with these environmental works that TEVERETERNO aspires to contribute to the revival of rivers worldwide, according to its website. Currently, the project is a cornerstone to the new city plan developed by Rome’s Department of City Planning.

Continuing to engage with architectural initiatives abroad, the AIA New York Chapter organized a dialogue as a follow-up to the initial presentation at the Italian Cultural Institute, on March 26. Kristin Jones, President of TEVERETERNO, and Gennaro Farina, Director of the Historic Center in Rome’s City Planning Office, presented the project and a summary of current planning efforts along the Tiber River. Indeed, this sequence settling development on the heels of temporary installations symbolized the aspirations of TEVERETERNO itself.

A highly-sensitive site-specific intervention, TEVERETERNO could not be simply transported to New York, panelists noted. Rather, the Tiber River project has pedagogic value for New York City designers in its attention to undervalued and discarded waterfront properties, stated Michael Fishman of the Metropolitan Waterfront Alliance. One would need completely new artistic and formal concepts to develop projects along these lines in any of the five boroughs, responded Leni Schwendinger, partner of Leni Schwendinger Light Projects. In any case, Farina stressed that the main objective in such development remains a desire to bring the city to the river, and the river to the city. Participants of the question and answer period noted that the combination of the arts with public/government development in so called discarded spaces serve to greatly enliven cityscapes.

Earlier in the day, Jones, Farina, Fishman, and Anna Maria Rosati, TEVERETERNO’s Executive Director, met with the AIANY Emerging NY Architects Committee to begin a dialogue about creating a bi-continental international competition. Finally, a conference is being planned for this fall to pursue opportunities further.

James Karl Fischer, AIA, RIBA, Ph.D, co-chairs the AIA NY International Committee with John Steigerwald, AIA, and Jonathan Wimpenny, AIA, RIBA.

Event: James Carpenter Design Associates’ ‘Environmental Refractions’
Location: The Architectural League of New York, 03.13.07
Speakers: James Carpenter — James Carpenter Design Associates; Sandro Marpillero, AIA — Marpillero Pollak Architects; Kenneth Frampton — Ware Professor of Architecture, Columbia University GSAPP; Matthias Schuler — lecturer in architecture, Harvard Graduate School of Design; Detlef Mertins — Chair, Department of Architecture University of Pennsylvania; Linnaea Tillett, PhD, IESNA — Principal, Tillett Lighting Design Inc.
Organizers: The Architectural League of New York

James Carpenter pushes the material boundaries of his projects, according to Sandro Marpillero, AIA, author of James Carpenter: Environmental Refractions. Glass, a common material, transforms into something spiritual and evocative. Kenneth Frampton, who contributed the afterword in the monograph, praised Carpenter’s ability to achieve technae, the ancient Greek ideal that lies “between craft and technology — linked to engineering but removed from its instrumentality.”

Sought after by designers, Carpenter often acts as a collaborative design consultant, a current trend in architectural practice. The James Carpenter Design Associates’ (JCDA) collaboration with Grimshaw Architects at the Fulton Street Transit Center is an example of how this collaboration can enhance a project, according to Detlef Mertins, Chair of the Department of Architecture at the University of Pennsylvania. The dynamic interplay of sunlight, glass, and reflections throughout the interior show an “interaction with phantasms.”

At the Tulane University Student Center, designed by Vincent James Associates, the two disciplines of glass and environmental design converge at the entrance. Climate engineer Transsolar and JCDA created a distinctly “non-glassy” solution involving motorized flat fans and excess chiller water to cool and dehumidify the space without conventional air-conditioning, explained Matthias Schuler, Diplom-Ingenieur at Transsolar.

Carpenter describes his work as “coming down to light and materiality.” Absorption and reflection are found in all materials, but he uses glass as a “substrate that can coalesce different bodies of information… compacting information, conscious and unconscious.”

Craig Morton, Assoc. AIA, LEED AP, is a freelance writer and an architectural designer with FXFOWLE Architects.

Event: Brandism Series: Icon as Brand
Location: Center for Architecture, 02.26.07
Speakers: Mustafa Abadan, FAIA – partner, Skidmore, Owings & Merrill; James Biber, FAIA – partner, Pentagram; Mario Natarelli – Chief Brand Experience Officer, FutureBrand; Frank Sciame – President & CEO, F.J. Sciame Construction Company
Moderator: Ned Cramer – Editor-in-Chief, Architect
Organizers: Anna Klingmann, Assoc. AIA; AIA New York Chapter

Architects today receive commissions from more clients who value good design, thanks in part to the efforts of ascendant branding experts. Developers have realized that some buyers and tenants will pay premium rates to occupy space designed by a “name-brand” architect, just as museum directors and city officials have tried to harness the caché of star architects to attract tourists. As a result, a super-crop of signature buildings is surfacing on the streets of major cities. New York’s recent and imminent icons include the Morgan Library & Museum designed by Renzo Piano Building Workshop (RPBW) with Beyer Blinder Belle Architects and Planners; Hearst Headquarters by Foster + Partners; RPBW/ FXFOWLE Architects’ New York Times Building; Gehry Partners’ IAC Center; the four new towers at the World Trade Center site; and One Bryant Park designed by Cook + Fox Architects. Is the drive to produce signature architecture healthy for the profession and the built environment, or does branding ultimately erase construction quality?

“Icon-branded buildings make connections between culture and commerce by combining design and real estate logic,” according to Anna Klingmann, Assoc. AIA, organizer of the Brandism series hosted by the Center for Architecture. Magazines such as Wallpaper – that fuse fashion, products, and architecture into a chic digest of contemporary visual culture – whet the public’s growing appetite for good design. While Ned Cramer, Editor-in-Chief of Architect, observed that contemporary architecture still lags behind classical and pre-modern design in mainstream popularity (see the AIA’s recent survey of America’s Favorite Architecture), several highly branded, recent projects, including the Apple Store Fifth Avenue by Bohlin Cywinski Jackson, made the list shortly following their completion.

If the branding-industrial field has discovered how to create interesting new buildings and travel destinations, it has not solved the problem of how to encourage consistent quality, nor how to preserve the distinct integrity of its successes. Can a designer focus on the programmatic, social, and formal challenges at the site while trying to produce a ready-made icon? Mustafa Abadan, FAIA, a partner at SOM currently working on the totemic Burj Dubai, says it’s not impossible. He described the development of the AOL Time Warner Center at Columbus Circle as an organic process of spatial problem-solving resulting in a striking final product. Yet he warns against a city resembling an overcrowded cosmetics store with opulent bottles jostling for attention.

James Biber, FAIA, an architect with the design and branding firm Pentagram, distinguished between architecture that revealed an “honest” brand identity, and superficial glitz amounting to an “advertising lie.” Mario Natarelli, whose firm FutureBrand is commissioned to strategically define cities, countries, and governments as well as companies and buildings, defines brand as a kind of relationship between seller and buyer. He agreed with an audience member that good branding is not synonymous with good architecture: “You can’t spin a building to be any better than it’s going to be.”

Gideon Fink Shapiro is a writer and researcher at Gabellini Sheppard Associates, and contributes to several design publications.

Event: Experimental Urban Ecology
Location: Center for Architecture, 02.22.07
Speakers: David Ortiz – Project Manager, DMJM Harris/AECOM; Alex Felson – Director of Ecological Design, EDAW/AECOM; Anupama Sharma – Senior Project Architect & Planner, Metcalf & Eddy/AECOM; Amy Garrod – Sustainability Specialist, Faber Maunsell/AECOM
Organizer: AIA NY Committee on the Environment (COTE)

The study of ecological systems in urban environments is a relatively new area of research. The methodology used for ecological experiments in natural environments can be adapted for urban conditions – although with some difficulty. The heterogeneity of urban environments and social factors may compromise the scientific method when replicating experiments.

To aid the process, ecologists are forming new partnerships with design professionals to create architecture and urban designs that fuse ecology with design experimentation. Traditional collaborations between ecologists and designers often result in a design that directly mimics nature. In more recent designed experiments, however, the modular, functional, and geometric forms used to conduct the experiment become the basis for a new design expression.

According to statistics, the A/E/C industry invests only .05% of its total budget in research compared with the automotive industry’s 3% or biotech’s 14%. Convincing clients to incorporate design experiments into project budgets requires developing allies who can motivate constituents and mobilize resources. European sustainability metrics, such as the Building Research Establishment’s Environmental Assessment Method (BREEAM) and other regulatory measures, emphasize the impact of development on larger ecosystems and facilitate the participation of ecologists. The inclusion of ecologists on design teams is still rare in the U.S., however.

Architects are in a unique position to integrate ecological research into the built environment by insisting on working with ecologists throughout design development. Such a perspective will prove increasingly valuable as designers attempt to improve local ecosystems with the built realm.

Aaron Slodounik, LEED AP, is a freelance art and architecture writer.

Event: Bronx Library – LEED Silver
Location: Center for Architecture, 02.07.07
Speakers: Daniel Heuberger, AIA, LEED AP – Principal, Dattner Architects; Robin Auchincloss, AIA, LEED AP – Senior Associate, Dattner Architects; James Kilkenny – Project Executive F. J. Sciame Construction Co., Inc.; Susan Kent – Director & CEO of The Branch Libraries, The New York Public Library
Moderator: William Stein, AIA – Principal, Dattner Architects
Organizer: AIA NY Committee on the Environment (COTE)

The 78,000-square-foot Bronx Library Center at the New York Public Library, the largest public library in the Bronx, is the first publicly funded building in New York City to receive LEED Silver certification. Its open, light interior contrasts the dark 25,000-square-foot building it replaced creating a transparency that connects with the neighborhood. Since its opening in January 2006, numerous community groups began to use the building. If numbers can indicate success, 527,000 items were checked out and 15,400 library cards were issued last year, compared to a previous 154,000 items and 3,100 library cards.

The design of the Bronx Library Center is specific to the site conditions, particularly its eastern orientation and zoning envelope. The sloped metal roof maximizes the building’s area within the zoning constraints and allows light to penetrate the western side of the building. Cantilevered glass on the east façade also gives a sense of openness and maximum light penetration. The design includes an outdoor reading room on the roof that will be surrounded by a 10-foot hedge. Related energy conservation measures include thermally broken glass, light shelves, and mechanical blinds.

In addition to being an important lesson in sustainable design for the client, designers, and contractor, the library enjoys success as a public resource. The users of the building learn about sustainable architecture on a daily basis as they explore the Center’s new design.

Aaron Slodounik, LEED AP, is a freelance art and architecture writer.