Author: Daniel Fox

Event: The New Museum of Contemporary Art opening
Location: The New Museum of Contemporary Art
Architect: Kazuyo Sejima and Ryue Nishizawa/SANAA (Tokyo) — Architect; Gensler (NY) — Executive Architect

The exterior (left) and lobby (right) of the New Museum of Contemporary Art.

Jessica Sheridan (left); B.A. Cook (right)

The New Museum of Contemporary Art has been open to the public for a little more than a month, and this author believes it is one of the best new built projects. Designed by Tokyo-based Kazuyo Sejima and Ryue Nishizawa of SANAA, with Gensler (NY) serving as executive architect, this small building continues the New Museum’s role as rebel for the cause of culture.

There were challenges. Landowners on the Bowery did not want to sell their lots to yet another developer looking to make luxury apartments. The museum decided to continue building downtown post 9/11. The design team instituted artful and careful use of materials on a frugal budget ($64 million for 60,000 square feet).

Quietly strong, many feel the building works at street level by provoking passersby to peer into its glass lobby. Unobstructed views within welcome installation art. The rest of the building is composed of five almost translucent aluminum clad offset stacked blocks. The top two house the offices and education center with skyline views, while the other boxes provide three open-plan gallery levels partially lit from above by natural light. Gallery levels three and four with a connecting stairway offer choices for multi-media art. The subterranean level forms a theater, quite large for a small museum that will host film series and projection artworks.

The building has flaws, however; the circulation among the levels is bumpy, gallery spaces though open are small, and craftsmanship is not impeccable.

Time will tell if the New Museum’s impact is only of this moment or if it will be able to re-invent itself with the city’s future. The first scenario is akin to Marcel Breuer’s Whitney Museum — a building that was innovative for the post World War II period, but by the end of the 20th century became an agent for the Upper East Side elite, as the institution attracted the upper-crust creating high-end luxury residential development. The second scenario is comparable to the Pompidou Centre, by Renzo Piano, Hon. FAIA, and Richard Rogers, RIBA, Hon. FAIA. It was equally original when built and constantly re-invents the concept of the urban plaza to this day. Could the New Museum and the Bowery co-exist and follow this example? The realist would say no but for now let’s enjoy this moment.

B.A. Cook is a NYC-based architectural designer and freelance writer.

Event: Screening of Michael Blackwood’s film, “Peter Eisenman: Making Architecture Move”
Location: The Paley Center for Media, 10.28.07
Speakers: Peter Eisenman, FAIA — Founder & Principal, Eisenman Architects; Michael Blackwood — Director, “Peter Eisenman: Making Architecture Move;” Ron Simon — Curator of Television, The Museum of Television & Radio
Organizers: The Paley Center for Media, The Architectural League of New York

Event: Dialogue: Jacques Herzog and Peter Eisenman
Location: Graduate School of Design (GSD), Harvard University, 12.04.07
Speakers: Peter Eisenman, FAIA — Founder & Principal, Eisenman Architects; Jacques Herzog, Hon. FAIA — Senior Partner, Herzog & de Meuron (Basel, Switzerland)
Moderator: Jeffrey Kipnis — Curator of Architecture and Design, Wexner Center for the Arts (Columbus, OH)
Organizers: GSD, Harvard University

Though both events — a screening of the documentary “Peter Eisenman: Making Architecture Move,” and a dialogue between Jacques Herzog, Hon. FAIA, and Peter Eisenman, FAIA — were intended as debates between Eisenman and a relevant players in architectural practice, they focused mainly on re-examining Eisenman’s belief in architecture based on the design of the Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe in Berlin, Germany. During the Herzog discussion, the memorial served to answer the question: “What is architecture?” The screening used the memorial to highlight the maze of relations, characters, and politics of Eisenman’s vision.

Directed by Michael Blackwood, the documentary aptly captures the myriad voices and opinions that influenced the course of the memorial’s creation as well as its future. The first half of the film is a collection of opinions from German politicians, filmmakers, and writers that documents the obstacles to the memorial’s creation and interprets the controversy over the abstractly minimalist “memory-scape.” The second half views visitors’ responses to the memorial and each other. Acting as a silent observer, the film shows the memorial melting into society and history. In short, the film itself becomes a part of the formative process as well as a documentation of it.

At the Herzog debate, when the fundamental question of “what is architecture” arose, the discussion turned into self-reflection. Eisenman defined himself as a conceptual stronghold — someone who revels in theory over pragmatics. He recounted that sculptor Richard Serra, one-time collaborator on the memorial, stated it was Eisenman’s best work because “it does not have plumbing.”

In the end, Eisenman, as in all his works, presents a self-evaluation adding meaning and value to the creative process. For him, the transformation from his intellectual pursuits to his physical manifestations is anti-climatic. The finished product must be experienced and continuously evolve through visitors and inhabitants.

Harry Gaveras, AIA, is the principal of Propylaea Architecture, and co-chair of the Emerging NY Architects (ENYA) Committee, AIANY. Chi-Fan Wong is a visiting assistant professor and director of exhibitions at Pratt Institute, Department of Undergraduate Architecture.

Event: Modernism and the Public Realm with Nathan Glazer
Location: The Museum of the City of New York, 11.28.07
Speakers: Kent Barwick — President, Municipal Art Society; Nathan Glazer — Sociologist, Critic, Author of From a Cause to a Style: Modernist Architecture’s Encounter with the American City; Fred Siegel — Senior Fellow, Progressive Policy Institute and Columnist, New York Post; Susan Henshaw Jones (introduction) — President/Director, The Museum of the City of New York
Moderator: Hilary Ballon, Ph.D. — Professor, Department of Art History and Archaeology, Columbia University, Associate Vice Chancellor, NYU Abu Dhabi, and Curator, Robert Moses and the Modern City
Organizer: The Museum of the City of New York

As more large buildings are built in the city, the more its vitality is lost.

Jessica Sheridan

“The difficulties in producing an attractive urbanism constitute perhaps the greatest problem for Modernism,” argues sociologist and critic Nathan Glazer in From a Cause to a Style: Modernist Architecture’s Encounter with the American City. He takes planners and architects to task for their apathy toward social consciousness. The impact of iconic and gigantic buildings has led to a lack in diversity and livability in cities. “There should be a diversity of functions (uses), and there should be an interest in neighborhoods,” continues Glazer. Successful streets depend on planners, architects, developers, politicians, and the public. The political culture and economic forces need to be examined to restore life to the streets.

Coupled with the current exhibition, Jane Jacobs and the Future of New York at the Municipal Art Society, and Glazer’s book on Modernism’s failure to cities, a recent panel debated how to salvage the city’s vitality and fabric. “Big cities are the natural economic homes of immense numbers and ranges of small enterprises.” (The Life and Death of Great American Cities). However, the contemporary urban fabric does not permit the diversity so sought by Jacobs.

To accommodate increased density, larger buildings are being constructed, and NYC is moving farther away from Jacobs’s ideal, claimed Kent Barwick, president of the Municipal Art Society. Larger buildings create empty streets. Lexington Avenue is a case study showing that certain neighborhoods are dense and full of vitality, while others consist of Modernist buildings and vacant sidewalks, an audience member pointed out.

The number of iconic buildings is now what defines modern cities. For example, the Atlantic Yards development will change a large section of Brooklyn, adding a number of new high rise buildings designed by Gehry Partners, yet it was not planned or discussed with its residents, stated New York Post columnist and senior fellow at the Progressive Policy Institute Fred Siegel. Atlantic Yards will not benefit Brooklyn residents, he argued. It will only mark the skyline — something that will feed into politicians’ egos, and not much else.

Questions remain about what should be done to preserve the city’s vitality while maintaining economic growth. The real estate industry is one source for jobs and is essential for economic growth. But we do not fully take advantage of other resources NYC can offer, contends Siegel. Civic culture is an instrument that can impact the city as well. Every voice needs to be heard when making major urban decisions, not just a powerful few.

Selma Antoine is a recent graduate of the City College of New York-CUNY.

If you visit the Sydney Opera House, you will find an international cultural repertoire such the Paris Ballet or the Mozart Festival. You will also find contemporary artists and art in the Australian bush, or in the avant-guarde Darling Harbor in Sydney. The issue of current versus established culture is a modern phenomenon worldwide, and subject of recent debate between Magdy Youssef, director and the senior planner of the Maroochy Shire Council, and this author.

Culture can stagnate within traditional institutions, and contemporary art is often found in fragments hidden within cities. Of course, prominent art institutions play a role within the contemporary city fabric — the Museum of Modern Art demonstrated a commitment to new art when it acquired PS 1 in Queens, for example — but architects and urban designers can take the lead in creating small, more modest places for new, experimental art. Renzo Piano Building Workshop designed Aurora Place, a mixed-use office and residential tower overlooking the Sydney Opera House and Sydney Harbor. The building’s plaza opens to a neglected alleyway with shops and warehouses, instead of the nearby botanical garden with access to the opera house. As a result, space is provided for contemporary art that will not be overshadowed or polarized by the institutions.

In Europe, such phenomena can also be observed. Current art can be found in Percy, the old wine port of Paris — more so than the institutionalized French outlets dedicated to the same purpose. The Berlin-NewYork Dialogues exhibition at the Center for Architecture sheds some additional light on this phenomenon.

The current dynamics of cultural generation and renewal is critical to the process of urban design and architecture. Our Australian colleagues are demonstrating meticulous efforts to observe the process of renewal by integrating art, architecture, and planning under one umbrella, and their cities are benefiting as a result.

Saf Fahim, AIA, is the design principal of Archronica Architects. Magdy Youssef pioneered a comprehensive practice in city art, architecture, and planning. Their list of credits includes many communities on the Australian Sunshine Coast, most notably the new city plan for Mooloolaba. Currently, Prime Minister John Howard has appointed Youssef to revitalize the city center of Canberra.

Event: Can One Woman (Still) Make a Difference? Jane Jacobs and New York
Location: St. Mark’s Church-in-the-Bowery, 10.31.07
Speakers: Christopher Klemek — Co-Curator, Jane Jacobs and the Future of New York; Roberta Brandes Gratz — Urban Critic; Samuel Zipp — Assistant Professor of American Civilization and Urban Studies, Brown University; Julia Vitullo-Martin — Senior Fellow, Manhattan Institute’s Center for Civic Innovation; Laurie Beckelman — President, Beckelman & Capalino (Introduction)
Moderator: Joseph Giovannini — Architectural Critic & Author
Organizers: Municipal Art Society

Courtesy Municipal Art Society

As one who rose from ordinary citizen to celebrity, Jane Jacobs continues to fascinate readers and rouse conversation about what makes cities work. In The Death and Life of Great American Cities, she encouraged fellow citizens and readers to “look closely at real cities. While you are looking, you might as well also listen, linger and think about what you see.” At this event panelists of urban experts who have written about Jacobs’s work and/or knew her personally provided vignettes into her persona and work.

Urban critic Roberta Brandes Gratz, who knew Jacobs, described her as someone who was both interested in and cared about real people, how they lived, and what their lives were like — important things to know to resolve urban issues. Christopher Klemek, co-curator of Jane Jacobs and the Future of New York now on view at the Urban Center, called Jacobs a “Madisonian” who sought ways to prevent any one faction from obtaining tyrannical control. He noted that Mayor John Lindsay had made overtures to Jacobs to work in government. Klemek reported that later in life she had some regrets about not taking Lindsay up on the offer, but she cared more about creating coalitions and organizations. Besides, both sides of the 1960s political spectrum embraced her ideas, stated Samuel Zipp, assistant professor of American civilization and urban studies at Brown University.

Questions remain about whether current city planning actually incorporates Jacobs’s thinking. Gratz lamented that lessons of the West Village have never been fully realized. While community-oriented structures have been put in place since the 1960s, “private market imperatives dominated by corporate developers, including nonprofits, have gone largely unquestioned,” added Zipp. In some instances, nonprofits are competing for what Jacobs would have regarded as self-isolating land, argued Julia Vitullo-Martin, senior fellow at Manhattan Institute’s Center for Civic Innovation.

Still, times have changed for the better because of Jacobs, believes Vitullo-Martin, citing successful developments citywide from Brooklyn waterfronts to Frederick Douglas Boulevard between 116th and 125th Streets. Jacobs’s influence spreads beyond NYC as well. The local fishing community is taking civic planning action in New Jersey to preserve Liberty State Park. So there is still hope for a Jacobs-inspired future. Jacobs has set a precedent for citizens to get involved, coalesce, and shape development of their communities.

The Jane Jacobs and the Future of New York exhibition aims to “energize a new generation of New Yorkers to observe and recognize the best of our city and become citizen activists for possible change,” according to Laurie Beckelman, president of Beckelman & Capalino, who introduced the event. For more information about the exhibition and related events, and to read blogs and see video podcasts, click the link above.

Marianne R. Lau, AIA, is a Manhattan-based architect.

Event: This Will Kill That? presents Saskia Sassen, author of Territory, Authority, Rights: From Medieval to Global Assemblage
Location: Center for Architecture, 10.23.07
Speakers: Saskia Sassen — Sociology Professor, Columbia University
Organizers: AIANY Emerging NY Architects (ENYA) This Will Kill That? Committee
Sponsors: SoHo Reprographics

Saskia Sassen holding her book, Territory, Authority, Rights: From Medieval to Global Assemblage at the Center for Architecture.

Katerina Kampiti

Nation-states often sacrifice their national identities for globalization. But don’t ignore national identities, including their economic histories, if you want to comprehend the global environment. This is the argument made by Saskia Sassen in her latest book, Territory, Authority, Rights: From Medieval to Global Assemblage (Princeton University Press, 2006).

Sassen explains globalization by using analogies, tracing their progress through history. One example is the corporate environment. In the past, companies were small entities. They were housed in one building, and the firm’s identity was apparent in the architecture, the advertising, the owners themselves, and the location of the business. This was long ago. After years of technological advancement and evolving infrastructure, businesses have become more global and less identifiable. Satellite offices and the Internet allow for multi-national establishments, creating what Sassen terms “specialized assemblages.”

In a way, corporations parallel larger global trends. Whereas countries used to be entities within themselves, now boundaries are blurred. Countries will thrive if they can successfully make this transition.

Serena Chen, Assoc. AIA, works at DeWitt Tishman Architects and is an ENYA member. Vasso Kampiti, Assoc. AIA, is the 2007 AIANYS Associate Director.

Event: Canstruction; 15th Annual Design/Build Competition Awards Gala
Location: New York Design Center, 11.08.07 (exhibition through 11.21.07)
Organizers: The Society for Design Administration; AIANY; The New York Design Center

(l-r): “Best Structure”: Tree by Platt Byard Dovell White; and “Best Labels”: Decoding Hunger by JCJ Architecture; “Honorable Mention”: D-CAN-A by Gilsanz Murray Steficek.

(l-r): Matthew J. Lalli; Matthew J. Lalli; Amy Tsim

Canstruction is an annual event where teams of architects, engineers, and other design/construction-related firms disobey the axiom, “Don’t play with your food.” Challenged to conceive structures created solely out of cans and other food products, these virtuosos never cease to amaze with their gravity-defying feats of visual canplexity.

While Canstruction is first and foremost a charity donating all food proceeds to City Harvest, it is also an impassioned competition among the participants, many of whom have entered for more than 10 years. Though many of the designs are whimsical, some integrate social commentary. Gensler’s More Than Just “TwoCANS” Feeding, a team led by yours truly, exhibits a mother toucan feeding her chick. Butler Rogers Baskett Architects’ An UnBEARable Truth incorporates the world’s environmental crisis with two polar bears surviving a melting ice cap.

There are also eye-catching designs that redefine structural integrity, such as Platt Byard Dovell White’s Tree. Having won the Structural Ingenuity award for the past four years, their creations always set a high bar for other entrants. This year, the structural engineering firm Gilsanz Murray Steficek met, and nearly jumped over, that bar winning an Honorable Mention for their interpretation of a DNA Helix. When asked how GMS has grown since last year, team captain Eugene Kim said that it was pre-planning, pre-builds, three-times as many volunteers, and three-times the cost.

Whereas GMS has grown from experience, “rookie of the year” JCJ Architecture depended on passion and a fresh outlook to win Best Use of Labels for its entry Decoding Hunger, a depiction of the Mona Lisa. According to Anthony Arce, AIA, principal at JCJ, “a great team building experience and a chance to give back to the community” were the reasons his firm entered. When asked about their strategy, team member Raphael Charles said, “We wanted to do something iconic.”

The Canstruction exhibition may be seen at the New York Design Center, 200 Lexington Avenue, from November 8-21. Hours: Monday-Saturday, 9:00am-5:00pm. Admission: one can (or more) of food.