Author: Jessica Sheridan Assoc. AIA LEED AP

Subtle Changes Make a World of Difference at Washington Square Park

Washington Square Park.

Jessica Sheridan

After years of construction, and persisting through community outrage and political strife, Washington Square Park has finally re-opened. With a centered fountain and improved accessibility, I was pleased to see the park return to its original state of crowded inhabitation.

At my first visit, even though I knew that changes had been made, I found it difficult to tell what was different from the previous incarnation. It took a while to sense the symmetry of the NYC Department of Parks & Recreation’s reconstruction to register. After sitting in various places throughout the afternoon, I began to feel the openness at the center of the park where the fountain now aligns with the arch, as well as on the increased grassy areas.

Although I was extremely skeptical about whether the design improvements were necessary, and I was disappointed to have lost the park for so long during construction, I was surprised by the power of subtle shifts in the design. The slightest increase of openness can have a major effect on the experience of space. This is a project that successfully proves the rule.

Center for Architecture Gallery Hours
Monday-Friday: 9:00am-8:00pm, Saturday: 11:00am-5:00pm, Sunday: CLOSED

Join an Architalker for a Hosted Tour of Center for Architecture
Exhibitions
Join us for free Architalker-hosted tours of the Center for Architecture exhibitions Fridays at 4:00pm. To join one of these tours, meet in the Public Resource Area on the ground floor of the Center for Architecture.

CURRENT EXHIBITIONS

New Practices San Francisco

June 04 – September 19, 2009

New Practices San Francisco is the 2009, West Coast premiere of AIA New York’s annual portfolio competition and exhibition. New Practices San Francisco is a platform for recognizing and promoting new and emerging architecture firms within San Francisco that have undertaken innovative strategies — both in projects and practice. The New Practices program was launched in 2005 by AIA New York to showcase promising new architectural firms.

New Practices San Francisco will be on view at the Center for Architecture from June 4, 2009 through September 19, 2009. It will then be on view at the Center for Architecture & Design, San Francisco, from November 12, 2009 through January 29, 2010. The exhibition will be accompanied by a series of programs organized by the AIA New York Chapter in collaboration with the New Practices Committee and AIA San Francisco.

Congratulations to our 2009 New Practices San Francisco Winners:

* CMG Landscape Architecture
* Edmonds + Lee Architects
* Faulders Studio
* Kennerly Architecture & Planning
* Min|Day
* Public Architecture

Exhibition Design:

Matter Practice, 2008 New Practices New York winning firm.

Graphic Design:
Anyspace Studio

Organized By:
AIA New York/ Center for Architecture, AIA San Francisco/ Center for Architecture + Design, and the New Practices Committee

This exhibition is made possible through the generous support of the following sponsors:

Lead Sponsor:

Presenting Sponsor: Hafele
Sponsor: MG & Company
Supporter: Hawa
Friends: diamondLife, Specialty Finishes, Trespa and Yarde Metals – Hauppauge, NY, and Hotel Carlton San Francisco
Media Partner: The Architect’s Newspaper

The Global Polis: Interactive Infrastructures

May 15 – August 29, 2009

What is infrastructure? For much of the twentieth century, the answer to this question was guided by the ideology of functionalist urbanism, a school of thought that said that all healthy cities served four major needs – work, housing, recreation, and transportation. Today, we no longer take this view for granted, for it is a perspective that makes no provisions for community, identity, or history. At the same time, we still lack an alternative model for visualizing the city that can deal adequately with the public health and quality-of-life issues that the early functionalists sought to address. Our capacity to balance urban development with the demands of ecological imperatives and social needs has only worsened in recent decades, and this exhibition asks whether the trend can be reversed.

Global Polis: Interactive Infrastructures documents a series of contemporary experiments in planning, architecture, and design that treat cities and their environments in holistic terms, as a complex social, political, and ecological matrix – not just as an assembly of buildings, roadways, bridges, pipes, and tunnels (although each of these is important). Infrastructure cannot be divorced from the structure of democracy, from the environment at large, and the contributions to this exhibition highlight the important role that community, communication, participation, and the sharing of knowledge can play in informing understanding of the urban fabric.

This spring and summer, a series of workshops and public programs will be held to generate discussion and debate about civic participation, urbanism, and design. Drawings and diagrams produced in the workshops will be incorporated into the exhibition as an evolving presentation of ideas.

Exhibition and related programs organized by AIA New York in partnership with Architecture for Humanity New York (AFHny) , The Austrian Cultural Forum, and the American Institute for Graphic Arts New York (AIGA NY).

Curator: Nader Vossoughian
Exhibition Design: Project Projects

SPONSORS

Underwriter:

Center for Architecture Foundation

Lead Sponsor:

Supporter:

Consulate General of The Netherlands

Friend:

Times Square Alliance

Helfand Spotlight Series:
Max Bond 1935 – 2009

May 12 – June 11, 2009

Max Bond: 1935 – 2009 was organized by AIA New York with Davis Brody Bond Aedas to commemorate the life and work of J. Max Bond, Jr., FAIA

This exhibition is made possible through the generous support of ABC Printing and Davis Brody Bond Aedas.

Max Bond: 1935 – 2009 is presented as part of the Margaret Helfand Spotlight Series.

SPONSORS

Supporters:
ABC Imaging
Davis Brody Bond Aedas

Friends:
IBEX Construction
The Margaret Helfand Fund

2009 Design Awards and Building Type Awards

April 23 — June 13, 2009

AIA New York’s Annual Design Awards Program is the largest competition held to recognize excellence in architectural design for projects in New York City and by New York City architects worldwide. The 2009 Design Awards Program also includes the Building Type Awards in collaboration with the Boston Society of Architects to honor excellence in architectural design in Housing and Health Facilities.

The thirty-two winners of these awards will be on display at the Center for Architecture beginning April 23 and through June 13.
For the full list of winners, please visit the AIANY Awards Web site.

Exhibition organized by: AIA New York

Exhibition design by: Remake with Corey Yurkovich

Benefactor


Patrons



Lead Sponsor:

Arup

Dagher Engineering
The Durst Organization
HOK
Mancini Duffy
Pelli Clarke Pelli Architects

Sponsors:
AKF Group
Building Contractors Association

FXFOWLE Architects
Hopkins Foodservice Specialists
Ingram Yuzek Gainen Carroll & Bertolotti
JFK&M Consulting Group
KI
Langan Engineering and Environmental Services
Mechoshade Systems

New York University
Pei Cobb Freed & Partners Architects
Rogers Marvel Architects
Steelcase
Studio Daniel Libeskind
Tishman Construction Corporation
VJ Associates
Weidlinger Associates

Zumtobel Lighting/International Lights

Friend:

Associated Fabrication

Architects Get in the Green Game

Event: AIANY Joins AmeriCorps for Community Service Day: “Getting Green Done”
Location: Thomas Jefferson Park Recreation Center, 05.09.09
Organizers: AIANY Emerging NY Architects Committee; AIANY

Designers conducted a charrette about ideas to green NYC.

Jessica Sheridan

Can a group of architects and designers come together and make NYC buildings carbon neutral, and even bring them off the grid? This was the question posed at the launch of AmeriCorps Week on May 9. Throughout the day, community groups gathered to plant trees, clean up parks, and improve schools under the theme, “Getting Green Done.” AIANY with the AIANY Emerging NY Architects Committee (of which this author is the co-chair) hosted a design charrette at the Thomas Jefferson Park Recreation Center aiming to prove that architects are key to sustainability efforts in the city.

After a general tour of the Robert Moses-commissioned bath house-turned-recreation center, designers and one engineer from Arup (“to keep us honest,” quipped Margaret Castillo, AIA, LEED AP, AIANY Vice President of Public Outreach) broke out into three groups tackling themes of energy, envelope, and program. Ideas included: inserting skylights and operable windows for cross ventilation; adding a green roof with photovoltaics; installing thermal solar hot water heaters and low-flow showerheads; re-using gray water from rain and the pool; insulating the walls; installing vertical shades; and providing opportunities for users to learn about the systems implemented. The programming team focused on limiting circulation so the maximum amount of space can be used for various activities. There was a small proposal that adjusted the existing circulation, medium-sized proposal that made the center more accessible, and a large proposal that sunk additional program below grade under earth berms.

After an afternoon of brainstorming, the team proved that it would not take much more than creative thinking to achieve carbon neutrality at the recreation center. While there are many engineers currently conducting everything from energy audits to mechanical system overhauls, they demonstrated that architects should also be called upon to conduct sustainability surveys of existing buildings. Perhaps if this team continues to grow, the success of PlaNYC will be possible by 2030.

On Broadway… Literally

This past weekend marked a major decongestion experiment in the city. Times Square and Herald Square opened Broadway to pedestrians, re-routing all traffic. As I could only imagine as kid, I went to Times Square to see what it felt like to stand in the middle of the avenue. Maybe because it was Memorial Day, what I found was that it did not feel much different from a weekend street festival.

Lounge chairs were strewn about, street performers tap danced and played instruments, and throngs of people moved through in a lazy daze. All in all, the experience was novel, but it seemed temporary. If the city is going to determine the experiment’s staying power, more needs to be done to make it feel permanent.

Despite the chairs and performers, the street still felt like a street. Painting it green, like other pedestrian-designated lanes carved out of the city’s avenues, is not enough. I think there should be a design competition for street furniture; artists should be commissioned to paint or tile the street. Broadway is so wide it should be divided into paths designated for different speeds of movement. There could be zones designated for slow shoppers, halted loungers, flexible space for performers, and express lanes for people passing through.

It is about time that something is being done to alleviate overcrowding in Times Square and Herald Square. Pedestrians no longer have to fight with taxis over space. I hope that traffic patterns adjust as Mayor Bloomberg predicts — a 30% reduction in congestion. And I hope this experiment endures so its potential can be fully realized.

05.12.09: The Center for Architecture hosted an exhibition opening and reception honoring the life and work of J. Max Bond, Jr., FAIA, organized by Davis Brody Bond Aedas and the Center for Architecture.

A view into the Center for Architecture at the reception.

Sam Lahoz

(L-R): Richard Franklin, AIA, Davis Brody Bond Aedas; Jean Bond, wife of the late J. Max Bond, Jr., FAIA; and Rick Bell, FAIA, AIANY executive director.

Sam Lahoz

(L-R): Philip Freelon, FAIA, principal of The Freelon Group: Architects, with Sherida Paulsen, FAIA, 2009 AIANY President.

Sam Lahoz

05.09.09: Margaret Castillo, AIA, LEED AP, AIANY Vice President of Public Outreach, presented Gov. Paterson with a pre-publication copy of the cultureNOW map of Harlem at the launch of AmeriCorps Week. During the day, AIANY and the AIANY Emerging NY Architects committee hosted a design charrette to make the Thomas Jefferson Park Recreation Center carbon neutral and take it off-the-grid. See “Architects Get in the Green Game,” this issue.

Brandon Cook

05.18.09: At this year’s International Contemporary Furniture Fair (ICFF), Pratt Institute received the Editors Award for best Design School exhibiting at the Javits Center.

Jessica Sheridan

05.08.09: Fifth graders from P.S. 50 partnered with the non-profit organization PENCIL and Radhi Majmudar Aziz, a principal at engineering firm ISSE and adjunct professor at Pratt Institute, on a structural engineering project to help enhance the school curriculum and increase interest in the field. Almost 100 students worked in small groups on proposals for a sculpture or climbing structure to be built at the school.

(From rear, left) Radhi Majmudar Aziz; Honorable James Oddo, Councilman, Staten Island; Michael Haberman, President, PENCIL; P.S. 50 Principal Sharon Fine; and (front) two fifth-grade students.

Courtesy PENCIL

Center for Architecture Gallery Hours
Monday-Friday: 9:00am-8:00pm, Saturday: 11:00am-5:00pm, Sunday: CLOSED

Join an Architalker for a Hosted Tour of Center for Architecture
Exhibitions
Join us for free Architalker-hosted tours of the Center for Architecture exhibitions Fridays at 4:00pm. To join one of these tours, meet in the Public Resource Area on the ground floor of the Center for Architecture.

CURRENT EXHIBITIONS

The Global Polis: Interactive Infrastructures

May 15 – August 29, 2009

What is infrastructure? For much of the twentieth century, the answer to this question was guided by the ideology of functionalist urbanism, a school of thought that said that all healthy cities served four major needs – work, housing, recreation, and transportation. Today, we no longer take this view for granted, for it is a perspective that makes no provisions for community, identity, or history. At the same time, we still lack an alternative model for visualizing the city that can deal adequately with the public health and quality-of-life issues that the early functionalists sought to address. Our capacity to balance urban development with the demands of ecological imperatives and social needs has only worsened in recent decades, and this exhibition asks whether the trend can be reversed.

Global Polis: Interactive Infrastructures documents a series of contemporary experiments in planning, architecture, and design that treat cities and their environments in holistic terms, as a complex social, political, and ecological matrix – not just as an assembly of buildings, roadways, bridges, pipes, and tunnels (although each of these is important). Infrastructure cannot be divorced from the structure of democracy, from the environment at large, and the contributions to this exhibition highlight the important role that community, communication, participation, and the sharing of knowledge can play in informing understanding of the urban fabric.

This spring and summer, a series of workshops and public programs will be held to generate discussion and debate about civic participation, urbanism, and design. Drawings and diagrams produced in the workshops will be incorporated into the exhibition as an evolving presentation of ideas.

Exhibition and related programs organized by AIA New York in partnership with Architecture for Humanity New York (AFHny) , The Austrian Cultural Forum, and the American Institute for Graphic Arts New York (AIGA NY).

Curator: Nader Vossoughian
Exhibition Design: Project Projects

SPONSORS

Underwriter:

Center for Architecture Foundation

Lead Sponsor:

Supporter:

Consulate General of The Netherlands

Friend:

Times Square Alliance

Helfand Spotlight Series:
Max Bond 1935 – 2009

May 12 – June 11, 2009

Max Bond: 1935 – 2009 was organized by AIA New York with Davis Brody Bond Aedas to commemorate the life and work of J. Max Bond, Jr., FAIA

This exhibition is made possible through the generous support of ABC Printing and Davis Brody Bond Aedas.

Max Bond: 1935 – 2009 is presented as part of the Margaret Helfand Spotlight Series.

SPONSORS

Supporters:
ABC Imaging
Davis Brody Bond Aedas

Friends:
IBEX Construction
The Margaret Helfand Fund

2009 Design Awards and Building Type Awards

April 23 — June 13, 2009

AIA New York’s Annual Design Awards Program is the largest competition held to recognize excellence in architectural design for projects in New York City and by New York City architects worldwide. The 2009 Design Awards Program also includes the Building Type Awards in collaboration with the Boston Society of Architects to honor excellence in architectural design in Housing and Health Facilities.

The thirty-two winners of these awards will be on display at the Center for Architecture beginning April 23 and through June 13.
For the full list of winners, please visit the AIANY Awards Web site.

Exhibition organized by: AIA New York

Exhibition design by: Remake with Corey Yurkovich

Benefactor


Patrons



Lead Sponsor:

Arup

Dagher Engineering
The Durst Organization
HOK
Mancini Duffy
Pelli Clarke Pelli Architects

Sponsors:
AKF Group
Building Contractors Association

FXFOWLE Architects
Hopkins Foodservice Specialists
Ingram Yuzek Gainen Carroll & Bertolotti
JFK&M Consulting Group
KI
Langan Engineering and Environmental Services
Mechoshade Systems

New York University
Pei Cobb Freed & Partners Architects
Rogers Marvel Architects
Steelcase
Studio Daniel Libeskind
Tishman Construction Corporation
VJ Associates
Weidlinger Associates

Zumtobel Lighting/International Lights

Friend:

Associated Fabrication

Convention 2009, The Power of Diversity: It Begins At the Workplace

Considering the economic downturn, retaining clients for repeat work is key. According to many of the speakers at the 2009 AIA Convention, the way to do this is by holding on to the best employees and adjusting the practice to accommodate modern lifestyles.

At the “Focus on Design and Global Practice” General Session, Craig Dykers, AIA, principal at Snøhetta, called for architects to “practice what we preach,” by democratizing and socializing the office. With a mixed office of international architects, landscape architects, and interior designers, his firm is not divided into typical studios. Instead, collaborations are formed and hierarchical titles and categories are discouraged. A committee of employees is responsible for making many of the policy decisions in the office, resulting in five-week vacation time and a narrow salary range (Dykers makes only twice as much as entry-level employees).

It is of ultimate importance to achieve a comfortable work-life balance. Panelists at “Navigating Life and the Workplace: How Leading Women in Architecture and Other Professions Balance Their Careers and Other Goals” discussed how this is possible by learning to be a good leader. Nancy Goshow, AIA, of NY-based Goshow Architects and co-chair of the AIANY Women in Architecture Committee, said that to achieve balance is to understand how much one can take on, and then take full responsibility to carry out the tasks required. Leadership requires knowing how to delegate, listening and being objective, taking risks, and prioritizing goals. All of the panelists agreed family must come first, but to be successful calls for an understanding of personal limits. If you are an asset to your firm and you are productive, stated Lina G. Telese, Esq., you will be able to keep reasonable hours, even request flex time, and maintain the value of your, and your firm’s, work.

With the country’s changing demographics, the Millennials will soon take up a large portion of the profession — if they stay in the field. Catering to their needs is important, and understanding the generational differences will help businesses on many levels.

If employees are happy, clients are happy, simply stated Patricia Saldaña Natke, AIA, founding partner of Urban Works in Chicago, at “Designing the Emergent Firm.” When hiring, Natke brings in individuals who demonstrate leadership in and outside of the office — many employees are board members and activists at local and national organizations. To retain emerging talent, her firm enters design competitions regularly to not only get new work, but to empower younger architects by allowing them ownership of designs. With summer hours and part-time employment options, the best employees enjoy the firm’s working environment, and this is the reason, she said, that they were voted the most family-friendly firm by Architect magazine.

For Frank Greene, FAIA, NY-based Ricci Greene Associates has enjoyed success because of the expertise of its employees. There are no project managers, only project architects at the firm. This encourages a culture of ideas and everyone has a personal stake in the work, he explained. Designing justice facilities is possible because the firm consists of diverse specialists, and, with two PhDs in criminal justice on the team, not everyone is an architectural designer.

Acknowledging the many various jobs it takes to run an architecture firm, “What’s Wrong with How Design Firms Are Set Up?” addressed the question about why ownership is in the hands of licensed professionals alone. While each state differs, the majority of the U.S. requires that owners of architecture and engineering firms be licensed professionals (in NY, 100% of owners must be licensed, although regulations may change this year dropping the percentage to 75%). This is a disservice to the profession, argued Joan Capelin, Hon. AIA, FSMPS, of Capelin Communications, as it deprives businesses of diversity and expansive knowledge. If employees who specialize in finance, marketing, information technology, public relations, human resources, among others, have an opportunity to partially own businesses, architects and engineers would have more time to focus on the creative development of their firms. Also, with a broader base, firms will be able to expand and market differently to new clients, stated James Frankel, Esq., a lawyer at Arent Fox.

Convention 2009, The Power of Diversity: Social Sustainability is the New Green

Ranch Commons in Bulverde, TX, by Architecture In Formation.

Architecture In Formation

At the “Focus on Design and Global Practice” session, Amale Andraos, principal of WORKac in NYC, discussed the need to always look for new ways of working in the world. Her firm tries to transform the way it works and lives as they encounter new audiences and new clients. With Public Farm 1, infrastructure and gardening were mixed with the urban context of P.S. 1 to create an interactive installation that served as a party space and vegetable garden throughout the summer. Now, WORKac is collaborating with Alice Waters for Public Farm 2 to create edible gardens at P.S. 216.

Young architects are no longer settling for traditional paths of practice; when they are faced with road blocks, they adjust the rules to their needs, as was proven at the “2009 Young Architects Award Recipient’s Discussion.” “Good design should be accessible, especially for those who can’t afford it,” stated Angela Brooks, AIA, LEED AP, principal at CA-based Pugh + Scarpa Architects. If good design is not feasible because of policy, she continued, then make friends in the government and change the policy. When she faced 15 variances for a market-rate, affordable housing project in Los Angeles, she co-founded Livable Places, a non-profit organization aimed at changing policy in LA.

Jinhee Park, AIA, principal of SsD in Cambridge, MA, developed a housing prototype that could be built by highway construction workers. When the Big Dig was developing, SsD’s proposal was to recycle the highway and the skilled labor to create both new housing and an opportunity for the construction workers to stay in one city longer than usual. Matthew Bremer, AIA, principal of NY-based Architecture In Formation and co-chair of the AIANY New Practices Committee, faced the challenge of developing housing in an area suffering from suburban sprawl in Bulverde, TX. His solution was to propose a development that looks like a cattle ranch, so the community would welcome it, yet it will be the densest development in the area, making it much more efficient than the surrounding neighborhoods.

During “Queer Space: Designing for the GLBT Community,” social sustainability took on a slightly different meaning. Creating a space for the gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgender populations, architects are faced with designing a building that embraces all lifestyles, provides privacy for those who need it, enables individuals to celebrate their identity, and links people within and without the community. Belmont Freeman, FAIA, of Belmont Freeman Architects in NY, presented his firm’s LGBT Carriage House at the University of Pennsylvania. While the design incorporates a private back entrance in addition to the front entry and a Modern interior to counter the traditional architecture on campus, the meeting spaces and multi-purpose lounge are now some of the most popular spaces for all student groups on campus. For Freeman, the building is successful because the spaces are inviting to all, and its users do not segregate themselves into separate groups.