Linda G. Miller – Contributing Editor – Page 16 – News – What’s New at AIANY and the Center for Architecture.

Pink Asks Architects: What is Your Sentence?

Courtesy AIA

After his opening day keynote address, Daniel H. Pink became a hot topic of conversation throughout the convention. Pink is a Washington, DC-based, New York Times bestselling author of four books about the changing world of work. His book, A Whole New Mind: Why Right-Brainers Will Rule the Future (Riverhead Trade, 2006), which explains the rise of right brain thinking in modern economies, was completely sold out before the end of the convention.

According to Pink, the era of left brain dominance, and the Information Age that was born out of it, are giving way to a new world in which right brain qualities — such as inventiveness and empathy — predominate. Routine work is being outsourced offshore, and software has replaced many functions that were performed by accountants and lawyers in the past. “In the future,” said Pink, “people who can integrate right and left [brain functions] will flourish.”

How does this right brain/left brain talk pertain to architects and “Design for the New Decade,” the theme of this year’s convention? “To be in this business,” said Pink, “you must be literate in design. The future will be sharply influenced by the role of right brain thinking and right brain thinkers. Architects must be able to focus on the real challenges of affordable housing, better schools, and public buildings. Of equal importance, they need to have the capability to verbalize them to the general public.” Moderator Susan Szenasy, Hon. AIANY, Hon. ASLA, editor-in-chief of Metropolis, elaborated: “The story of architecture is a human story. You can speak your priestly language to each other, but shouldn’t to the average person.”

For guidance, Pink recommended that architects clarify their message. Rather than trying to accomplish too many things at once, which often results in muddled communication, he referenced Clare Booth Luce’s question to President Kennedy: “What is your sentence?” Design makes architects relevant and, indeed, essential in the new decade. The goal is to not lose the depth of meaning in the translation.

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

In this issue:
· Common Ground Opens The Brook in The Bronx
· Weill Cornell Medical College Expands Interdisciplinary Research
· Public to Walk in Donald Judd’s Footsteps
· SUNY Maritime Harnesses Wind

Common Ground Opens The Brook in The Bronx

The Brook.

Courtesy Alexander Gorlin Architects

Common Ground, New York’s largest provider of supportive housing, recently completed its first project in the Bronx with The Brook, a six-story residential project designed by Alexander Gorlin Architects. The 90,000-square-foot project contains 120 units for formerly homeless adults, including those with special needs, and 70 units for low-income single adults from the South Bronx. The project features a ground floor retail space; a 2,400-square-foot event space open to the neighborhood; a large courtyard garden; computer lab; and fitness room. Sustainable features include a green roof; a high-efficiency building temperature management system; high-efficiency boilers; light and motion sensors; and low VOC paints and materials. Common Ground’s service partner BronxWorks will provide on-site social services. The $43 million project was developed under NYC’s New Housing Marketplace Plan, which intends to build or preserve 165,000 units of affordable housing by 2014, with more than 100,000 units financed to date.

Weill Cornell Medical College Expands Interdisciplinary Research

New medical research building at Weill Cornell Medical College.

©Polshek Partnership Architects

Construction has begun on a new medical research building at Weill Cornell Medical College on the Upper East Side of Manhattan. The new, $650 million facility, designed by Polshek Partnership Architects, will more than double the institution’s existing research space. The 18-story, 480,000-square-foot building will include 16 floors of housing research initiatives that target cancer, cardiovascular disease, children’s health, and neurodegenerative diseases, and global health and infectious diseases. Open floor plans throughout will facilitate communication and collaboration among scientists. Its proximity to the Weill Greenberg Center, the Medical College’s ambulatory care building, will further enhance communication between investigative researchers and practicing clinicians.

Public to Walk in Donald Judd’s Footsteps

101 Spring Street.

Architecture Research Office

The artist Donald Judd lived and worked in a five-story cast iron loft in SoHo, and left it as a haunting “permanent installation.” It has not been open to the public. Architecture Research Office (ARO) will restore the building as a museum and office for the Judd Foundation. Constructed in 1870 by Nicholas Whyte, the building was built as a factory. The scope of the restoration includes a complete overhaul of the building’s structural foundation; preservation of the historic exterior fabric; and the installation of building-wide environmental and fire safety systems. Upon completion, scheduled for spring 2013, the ground floor will host public programs, while visitors to the upper floors will experience Judd’s collection of more than 500 objects, original sculptures, paintings, drawings, prints, and furniture, as well as works by Marcel Duchamp, Dan Flavin, Claes Oldenburg, Ad Reinhardt, and Frank Stella, among many others.

SUNY Maritime Harnesses Wind

SUNY Maritime.

EYP Architecture & Engineering

EYP Architecture & Engineering has been selected to design the new academic building on the Fort Schuyler campus of SUNY Maritime College. Located at the confluence of the East River and Long Island Sound in the Throgs Neck section of the Bronx, the building will include classrooms capable of supporting a variety of seating configurations to match different pedagogical styles; a reconfigurable multi-purpose room; formal and informal student areas; conference rooms; an outdoor terrace; and an accessible roof. Clad in glass and metal that responds to its marine environment, the building will be naturally ventilated, deflecting harsh winder winds and channeling cooler summer winds. Southern exposure will allow for passive heating during the winter, and a system of exterior sunshades will minimize solar heat gain in the summer. Rusticated stone panels will visually connect with the stonework of a nearby historic fort.

A Call to Action: Fit City 5

Event: Fit City 5: Promoting Physical Activity through Design
Location: Center for Architecture, 05.18.10
Keynote Speaker: William Bird, MBE — Natural England (UK)
Speakers: Thomas Farley, MD, MPH — Commissioner, NYC Dept. of Health and Mental Hygiene; David Burney, FAIA — Commissioner, NYC Dept. of Design + Construction; Janette Sadik-Khan — Commissioner, NYC Dept. of Transportation; Amanda Burden, FAICP, Hon. AIANY — Chair NYC Dept. of City Planning; Adrian Benepe — Commissioner, NYC Dept. of Parks & Recreation; Fatma Amer, PE — Deputy Commissioner, NYC Dept. of Buildings; Matthew Sapolin — Commissioner, Mayor’s Office for People with Disabilities; Thomas Balsley, Hon. AIA, FASLA — Principal, Thomas Balsley Associates; Rick Bell, FAIA — Executive Director, AIANY; Les Bluestone — Blue Sea Development; Vincent Chang, AIA — Principal, Grimshaw Architects; Craig Dykers, AIA — Co-Founder, Snøhetta; Robin Guenther, FAIA — Principal, Perkins + Will; Ernie Hutton, FAICP, Assoc. AIA — President, Hutton Associates; Robyne Kassen, Assoc. AIA — Owner, Urban Movement Design; Karen Lee, MD, MHSc — Director, Built Environment, NYC Dept. of Health and Mental Hygiene; Thom Mayne, FAIA — Principal, Morphosis; George Miller, FAIA — 2010 President, AIA; Jonathan Rose — President, Rose Companies; Anthony Schirripa, FAIA, IIDA — 2010 President, AIANY; Lynn Silver, MD, MPH, FAAP — NYC Dept. of Health and Mental Hygiene; Susan Szenasy — Editor-in-Chief, Metropolis Magazine; Katie Winter — Principal, Katie Winter Architecture
Organizers: AIA New York Chapter; NYC Department of Health and Mental Hygiene

Courtesy of AIANY

We think of New York as being a fast-paced, walking city. Yet obesity, and with it type 2 diabetes, has reached epidemic levels in NYC. Whereas infectious diseases were once the greatest risk, the largest killers of our time are chronic diseases, including heart disease, stroke, cancers, and diabetes. At “Fit City 5,” panelists considered the many possibilities detailed in the new Active Design Guidelines — Promoting Physical Activity and Health in Design (ADG), released January 2010. It presents strategies for designing neighborhoods, streets, buildings, and outdoor spaces that encourage activity, and provides us with a plan to turn New York from a “fat city” into a “fit city.”

By appearing together on one panel at the Fit City 5 conference, nine representatives from varying city agencies demonstrated their solidarity in a mission to create whole, healthy, safe neighborhoods throughout the city. Ideally, neighborhoods should be pedestrian friendly — with amenities close to home so people can walk or bike to mass transit, work, parks, and waterfronts. It’s one of the reasons the city has built miles of new dedicated bike paths and lanes; turned school playgrounds into parks during off hours; designed parks to engage the public, including those with physical or mental disabilities; and encouraged exercise with park furniture that can be used as both exercise equipment and for relaxing.

Buildings themselves provide an opportunity to promote physical activity. Want to reduce your carbon footprint? Take the stairs instead of the elevator — a practice that has been encouraged for years at the Center for Architecture. Many new buildings, including 41 Cooper Square by Morphosis and Gruzen Samton, have installed skip-stop elevators and designed stairways people want to use. Other approaches include locating building entrances and attractive gathering places to encourage walking; encouraging biking with secure bike storage; and designing building exteriors and massing that make walking a pleasure for passersby.

Craig Dykers, AIA, of Snøhetta, who used to live in Norway, walks to work, owns two bikes, and yet he has gained weight since living in NYC. He reasoned that he hasn’t found a single restaurant in Manhattan that doesn’t use preprocessed food. To remedy the situation, both Snøhetta offices have a kitchen, and the Norwegians even have a chef preparing wholesome meals.

Brian Tolman, AIA, LEED AP, managing principal of STUDIOS Architecture, said his clients are requesting designs that actively engage employees. His proposed ingredients are: communication, sustainability, and activity. One example is the firm’s Dow Jones Offices (recipient of a 2010 AIANY Merit Award in Interiors), where the newsroom acts as a hub to the offices and employees interact as they traverse the interior stairs.

Environmental design strategies (daylight, fresh air, sanitation) were used in the 19th century to fight infectious diseases such as tuberculosis, cholera, and yellow fever, NYC agencies are combining forces to combat obesity in the 21st-century. The NYC Departments of Health and Mental Hygiene, Design + Construction (DDC), Transportation (DOT), and City Planning have partnered with the Mayor’s Office of Management and Budget and the AIA New York Chapter, as well as members of the academic and design communities, to publish the ADG. The Mayor’s Office of Long Term Planning and Sustainability; the Mayor’s Office for People with Disabilities; the School Construction Authority; the Departments of Parks & Recreation, Housing Preservation and Development, and Aging also contributed to the ADG.

“My theme this year is Architect as Leader,” said 2010 AIANY President Tony Schirripa, FAIA, IIDA, “and what better way to exemplify that principle than to facilitate this discussion. Architects can lead the way by designing buildings that are not just sustainable but can also help maintain good health by design.”

In his keynote, Dr. William Bird, MBE, a British medical doctor who has set up strategies to promote good health and encourage people in the UK to exercise. “Good design is about making people want to exercise,” he said. As the strategic health advisor for Natural England, he feels using the environment as a major health resource is a moral obligation. Every doctor at the conference, from Commissioner Thomas Farley, MD, MPH, to Built Environment Director Karen Lee, MD, MHSc, both of the NYC Dept. of Health and Mental Hygiene, stressed the urgency of the obesity epidemic.

There is definitely a synergy, as well as cost effectiveness, between active design and local, national, and international initiatives like LEED and PlaNYC. The tenets of the ADG, however, address the ways that architectural, landscape, and urban design can meet people’s varying needs. In a combined statement in the introduction to the ADG, AIANY Executive Director Rick Bell, FAIA, and 2009 AIANY President Sherida Paulsen, FAIA, wrote: “The New York Chapter of the American Institute of Architects is dedicated to design excellence, professional development, and public outreach. The City’s Active Design Guidelines combine these three goals in a well-written document that should be used by all architects, designers, and building owners as a reference and resource.”

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

In this issue:
· The Great Blue Way
· The McKim Building Undergoes Restoration
· Artists Take Up Residence on Governors Island
· In Time for Summer: Parks and Recreation Open on West Side
· Princeton Reduces Dust, Vibration for Energy Research
· The Curtain Goes Up on Hylton Performing Arts

The Great Blue Way

“Cool Water, Hot Island” in Times Square.

Courtesy the Times Square Alliance

Out of 150 submissions, the NYC Department of Transportation (DOT) in partnership with the Times Square Alliance, has selected Brooklyn-based artist Molly Dilworth’s “Cool Water, Hot Island” as the winning temporary treatment for the Times Square pedestrian plaza. The design, which is scheduled to be installed by mid-July, is composed of a graphical representation of NASA’s infrared satellite data of Manhattan. Its color palette reflects sunlight and absorbs less heat, thus making the plaza a more comfortable place to sit. The Alliance will maintain the treatment as the DOT initiates plans for a permanent plaza under the Department of Design + Construction’s Design Excellence program. As part of the longer-term project, DOT and DDC are working with architects, landscape architects, and engineers to design appealing plazas with ample seating, new paving, and underground infrastructure able to accommodate and enhance the signature events that are staged at Times Square throughout the year.

The McKim Building Undergoes Restoration

The Morgan Library & Museum’s McKim Building.

©Todd Eberle 2007

The Morgan Library & Museum’s McKim Building will undergo the most extensive restoration of its interior spaces since its construction more than a century ago. Designed by McKim, Mead & White, as the private study and library of Pierpont Morgan, the restoration will provide new and expanded exhibition space for the Morgan’s permanent collection. Key components include: new lighting throughout the building to better illuminate its murals and décor; the installation of new exhibition cases to house rotating displays; restoration of period furniture and fixtures; and the cleaning of the walls and applied ornamentation. Also, for the first time, the North Room, which will display the earliest works in the collection, will be open to visitors. Beyer Blinder Belle Architects & Planners, who served as executive architect during the Morgan’s 2006 expansion by Renzo Piano Building Workshop, will act as architect-of-record on the restoration. The museum reopens to the public on 10.30.10.

Artists Take Up Residence on Governors Island

Artist Studio Program at Governors Island.

Davis Brody Bond Aedas

The Lower Manhattan Cultural Council (LMCC) has opened its year-round artist studio program on Governors Island. More than 50 visual and performing artists in all disciplines were selected in a competitive request for proposals (RFP) held by the Governors Island Preservation and Education Corporation (GIPEC). The program resides on the island’s north shore in Building 110, a circa 1870s building originally used to store munitions and later occupied by offices for the Army and U.S. Coast Guard. The building renovation was designed and built by GIPEC and Cubellis, Davis Brody Bond Aedas did the interior fitted out of 14,000 square feet pro bono to house artist studios, two rehearsal areas, and exhibition space. Visual artists are provided studio space for five-month residencies, while performing artists receive rehearsal space for periods ranging from two weeks to two months. All LMCC artists-in-residence on the island are expected to show work when the island is open to the public.

In Time for Summer: Parks and Recreation Open on West Side

Opening day at Riverside Park.

Photo by Malcolm Pinkckney

The NYC Department of Parks & Recreation recently cut the ribbon on Riverwalk, the pathway stretching from West 83rd to 91st Streets, completing the bike and pedestrian path along the Hudson River from Battery Park to Dyckman Street. Constructed on a pile-supported platform in and along the river, it features hardwood railing interspersed with bollard lighting and granite walls. Design consultants on the $15.7 million project were RGR Landscape and Stantec.

The newest sections of Hudson River Park, Piers 62 and 63 in Chelsea, were also officially opened. The two new piers and adjacent uplands join Pier 64, which opened last year, to form nine acres of new green space. The construction includes a great lawn, a landscape created by artist Meg Webster, a public garden designed by Lynden Miller Public Garden Design, and a new California-style skate park. The park also includes a Hudson River carousel complete with a “green” roof. The design team for the Chelsea segment of Hudson River Park was led by Michael Van Valkenburgh Associates and included Beyer Blinder Belle Architects & Planners, CR Studio Architects, Mueser Rutledge Consulting Engineers, Maitra Associates Engineers, Ysrael A. Seinuk Consulting Engineers, U Lighting, Skanska USA, and Ove Arup & Partners.

Battery Park City’s long delayed Teardrop Park South, also designed by Michael Van Valkenburgh Associates, has finally opened with two water features, a stacked wooden amphitheater, sun-refracting heliostats atop neighboring buildings to reflect light into the shadowy gardens.

Princeton Reduces Dust, Vibration for Energy Research

Princeton University’s Andlinger Center for Energy and the Environment.

Tod Williams Billie Tsien Architects

Plans for Princeton University’s Andlinger Center for Energy and the Environment were recently released. Designed by Tod Williams Billie Tsien Architects, the 127,000-square-foot center will provide specialized facilities for sustainable energy research. The plan builds on the findings of a faculty steering committee that worked with Davis Brody Bond Aedas to develop a program study. The design calls for three interconnected buildings built of mostly brick and glass and include a range of needs, from highly specialized labs to classroom and meeting spaces. The lab with the most demanding technical requirements will reduce the amount of airborne dusts one-thousand-fold, a requirement for nanotechnology research. It also will contain imaging labs for microscopes examining atomic material, which require an ultra-low vibration environment. To achieve such low vibration, the labs will be built directly on top of bedrock, below the natural grade level. Instead of being fully underground, the space will open to gardens.

The Curtain Goes Up on Hylton Performing Arts

The Hylton Performing Arts Center, George Mason University.

©Robert Benson Photography

The Hylton Performing Arts Center on the Prince William campus of George Mason University in Manassas, VA, recently opened after a 10-year effort to make this performing arts venue a reality. Designed by Holzman Moss Bottino Architecture, the $44 million, 85,000-square-foot facility clad in copper, glass, and masonry will provide a setting for local, national, and international arts groups and performers, as well as university-related activities. Within the nine-story venue is Merchant Hall, a 1,121-seat, multi-functioning theater modeled on the classic European opera houses for an intimate audience experience. The hall features flexible acoustics and stage/pit configurations, a movable orchestra shell, and rows of box seating. No seat in the house is more than 95 feet from the stage. In addition, the center contains a 4,400-square-foot black box theater, a 1,000-square-foot practice studio, an art gallery, and a donor’s lounge. Sterling, VA-based Hughes Group Architects served as the architect-of-record.

In this issue:
· The New School Expands on Fifth Avenue
· One Isn’t the Loneliest Number
· MAP Continues to Make Its Mark in Melrose
· Two by TEN
· Fresh Fish, Sticky Rice, and CNC Fabrication
· Jewish Museum Berlin is Expanding Across the Strasse

The New School Expands on Fifth Avenue

The University Center.

Skidmore, Owings & Merrill

The New School has plans to create a major new 16-story, 365,000-square-foot campus hub, designed by Skidmore, Owings & Merrill, on Fifth Avenue between 13th and 14th Streets. Named The University Center, it replaces a structure designed as a department store in 1951. The first seven floors will contain specialized design studios, interdisciplinary classrooms, university resource centers, faculty offices, and laboratories in addition to an auditorium, library, dining facilities, and student gathering spaces; the first floor and below-grade floors will house retail space. The top nine floors will house a 608-bed dormitory that will have a separate entrance. The school’s partners on the project include The Durst Organization, Tishman Construction, and SLCE Architects, who designed the dormitory interiors. Construction is scheduled to begin this August and the building is expected to open for the Fall 2013 semester.

One Isn’t the Loneliest Number

Theater for One.

Times Square Alliance

Theater for One (T41), conceived by set designer Christine Jones and developed into its architectural form by LOT/EK, is an intimate space created for experiencing theater. Located in Duffy Square, this four-by-nine-foot portable, fully operational theater is created for one audience member and one performer. With separate entrances, the audience half references the iconography of Baroque theaters and opera houses and is lined with red padded velvet, while the performer’s side is intentionally raw so it can be transformed as needed for magic, poetry, dance, puppetry, and theater pieces created for the venue. T41 uses “road box” technology to configure a system where connected and detachable units for the black box theater allow for the different sets. Presented by the Times Square Public Art Program, T41 will be open to the public until 05.23.10.

MAP Continues to Make Its Mark in Melrose

El Jardin de Selene.

Magnusson Architecture and Planning

El Jardin de Selene, a mixed-use affordable housing project, designed by Magnusson Architecture and Planning (MAP), recently opened in the Melrose section of the Bronx. Mindful of the rich architectural heritage of the Bronx, Art Deco elements were incorporated into the design. The 12-story building contains studio, one-, and two-bedroom rental units, and residents have access to over 2,000 square feet of community space, including green roofs at the second floor courtyard and ninth floor setback. The building also features 6,000 square feet of commercial space and more than 12,000 square feet of structured parking. In addition to receiving a LEED Gold rating, the building is NYSERDA Energy Star certified and Enterprise Green Communities compliant. Sustainable strategies include daylight and occupancy sensors in common areas, bamboo flooring, and solar panels on the roof. The project is a joint venture of Nos Quedamos, MJM Construction Services, and Melrose Associates, under the financial guidance of Forsyth Street Advisors.

Two by TEN

Rutgers Business School (left) and the National Laboratory of Genomics.

Photo by Luis Gordoa

The new facility for the Rutgers Business School-Newark and New Brunswick on the Livingston Campus in Piscataway, NJ, has be given the green light for construction to begin in late spring 2011. Designed by Enrique Norten/TEN Arquitectos, the 156,000-square-foot project will feature classrooms, lecture halls, instructional labs, meeting spaces, student lounges, faculty offices, a business library, and a trading floor, and is expected to be completed by the fall semester of 2013.

The firm has also completed the first construction phase for the National Laboratory of Genomics, which is part of an extension to the Institute of Agricultural Studies in Irapuato, Guanajuato, Mexico. Nestled within a built-up artificial topography, the institution happens to be sited on a fault line that divides the program in half, with laboratories on one side and an auditorium and administrative spaces on the other, and a paved courtyard in between.

Fresh Fish, Sticky Rice, and CNC Fabrication

Moc Moc.

Fabian Birgfeld, PHOTOtectonics

MoC MoC is a new, 2,400-square-foot restaurant in a building being renovated in downtown Princeton. The project, designed by NYC-based GRO Architects, features a ceiling and wall system that that functions as both infrastructure and an architectural effect. A curvilinear system of mahogany wood slats is used to organize the main dining area into a series of alcoves formed as the ceiling slats curve down to create screen partitions. This system is also essential to the operations of the restaurant as it houses retractable privacy screens, conceals glowing linear LED lights, organizes speakers and sprinkler heads, and functions as a fresh air diffuser. The restaurant also includes a sushi bar at the rear of the first floor, and a chef’s table in the private dining room adjacent to the kitchen on the lower level. The project was developed parametrically to allow for variations in the geometry and a seamless output to CNC fabrication.

Jewish Museum Berlin is Expanding Across the Strasse

Jewish Museum Berlin Library Cube.

P Rendering by bromsky, © Jewish Museum Berlin

Plans for the Daniel Libeskind-designed Jewish Museum Berlin Academy to house the museum’s archives, library, and education center were recently revealed. Located across from the existing museum complex, the academy will be built on the site of the 19th-century Berlin Flower Market and an existing hall. The design features a tilted cube that penetrates the outer wall of the hall creating a counterpart to the museum’s main Baroque entrance. Visitors will enter the academy through an opening in the entrance cube, which leads to the hall where two more cubes tilt towards each other containing a lecture hall, library, and packing crates filled with documents and artifacts sent to the museum from around the world. Clad in rough timber board, the cubes are meant to recall Noah’s Ark. The exterior walls are clad with titan zinc-plate panels and skylights form an alef and a bet, the first letters in the Hebrew alphabet. The project expected to be completed by fall of 2011.

In this issue:
· NYU Consolidates School of Continuing and Professional Studies
· A View from the Bay Windows
· Architecture Takes Flight in Dance
· Let There Be Street Art
· Arcadia Expands for the Common’s Good
· Shanghai Dreaming

NYU Consolidates School of Continuing and Professional Studies

7 E. 12th Street.

Mitchell/Giurgola Architects

New York University has plans to unite its Washington Square academic programs and services, now located in several locations in Greenwich Village, into a single 117,000-square-foot building at 7 East 12th Street. The 12-story building, designed by Harrison & Abramowitz in 1948, will give the School of Continuing and Professional Studies an identifiable and dedicated teaching, learning, and administrative environment at NYU’s main campus. Mitchell/Giurgola Architects will oversee the redesign, including a new, transparent façade, and the reconfiguration of the building into 65,000 square feet of administrative and faculty offices. The remaining 52,000 square feet will be dedicated to state-of-the-art classrooms, multi-use student lounges, and conference rooms. Occupancy is planned to begin in early summer of 2011.

A View from the Bay Windows

The Dillon.

The Dillon, aka 405-437 West 53rd Street, designed by Smith-Miller + Hawkinson, opened where parking lots and derelict buildings once stood. The seven-story building has 150,000 square feet of residential space featuring a mix of 51 “flats” (studios to three-bedrooms), 22 duplexes, and nine triplex townhouses, with underground parking and outdoor courtyards. Walls are angled to draw the eye outside, and the building’s faceted façade featuring bay windows is intended to broaden views along the block. The residents’ lounge, with a service bar and a private dining room with catering kitchen, leads to a landscaped garden terrace and a fitness center. Montroy Andersen DeMarco served as the executive architect.

Architecture Takes Flight in Dance

Calatrava designed sets for Christopher Weeldon (left) and Melissa Baraki.

New York City Ballet

After receiving a personal invitation from Peter Martins, the ballet master of the New York City Ballet (NYCB), Santiago Calatrava, FAIA, has designed several multi-functional environments, each one illustrating the recurring theme of movement and flight, for the company’s new season titled “Architecture of Dance — New Choreography and Music.” This is the first time Calatrava has designed sets and his work will appear in world premiere ballets choreographed by Melissa Barak, Mauro Bigonzetti, Martins, Benjamin Millepied, and Christopher Wheeldon. This also marks the first time an architect has designed sets for the NYCB since Philip Johnson in 1981.

Let There Be Street Art

Urban Art Program.

Sage and Coombe Architects

More than 300 volunteers recently painted murals on 150 Jersey barriers lining pedestrian paths and bike lanes in the Bronx, Brooklyn, Manhattan, and Queens, as part of public-art project created by Otis Berkin with Sage and Coombe Architects, Niko Courtelis, Lucy Kalian, and Brenda Zlamany. The team was selected through a design competition sponsored by NYC Department of Transportation’s Urban Art Program to enhance public space through art and improved street design and streetscapes.

Arcadia Expands for the Common’s Good

Arcadia University Commons.

Kliment Halsband Architects

As part of its At Home & In the World campaign, Arcadia University in suburban Philadelphia, has broken ground for a new three-story University Commons, designed Kliment Halsband Architects. Intended to create a gathering place at the heart of the campus, it will provide larger spaces for lectures, seminars, art exhibitions, fitness, performances, and many other student, faculty, and community needs. With a new façade and a 50,000-square-foot extension to the existing recreation and athletics center, the building completes the campus green. The curving silhouette of the roof defines the interior spaces by separating commons rooms and public spaces facing east to the green from private and service spaces to the west. A terra-cotta-and-glass façade relates to the materials of Landman Library, whose addition was also designed by the firm.

Shanghai Dreaming

Dream Cube.

Basil Childers

ESI Design, in collaboration with Yung Ho Chang, AIA, founder of Atelier FCJZ Architects and current head of MIT’s department of architecture, has designed the Dream Cube for the Shanghai Corporate Pavilion at the Shanghai Expo. The 40,000-square-foot space was designed from the visitor experience outwards, creating synergies between the exhibition and architectural experiences. The interiors of the pavilion are shaped as a series of free-flowing organic forms wrapped by a dense, cubic volume of infrastructural network housing millions of LED lights encased in polycarbonate transparent plastic tubes made from recycled materials. The building changes its appearance in response to visitor interaction. The concept for the pavilion was inspired in part by fourth-century Chinese philosopher Zhuangzi’s Butterfly Dream in which he could not determine if he was a person dreaming he was a butterfly or vice versa. The Expo features 200 pavilions and will run through 10.31.10.

The Future of Architecture; Economy, Innovation, Collaboration

Event: #FUTURTECTURE
Location: Mohawk, 04.08.10
Speakers: Dan Kaplan, AIA, LEED AP — Senior Partner, FXFOWLE Architects; Mustafa K. Abadan, FAIA — Design Partner, Skidmore, Owings & Merrill; Marianne Kwok — Director, Kohn Pedersen Fox Associates; Todd Schliemann, FAIA — Design Partner, Polshek Partnership Architects; Scott Johnson, AIA — Associate Partner & Acting COO, Richard Meier & Partners
Moderator: James S. Russell, FAIA — Architecture Critic, Bloomberg
Organizer: IDNY; Designer Pages
Sponsors: OCULUS/e-Oculus

Understandably for a panel entitled #FUTURTECTURE, there were questions concerning the future of architecture in light of the economy, the recovery, or lack of recovery; but other concerns involved computer programs vs. drawing by hand, innovation, collaboration, and why errors happen even to the best of architects.

Discussing the economy, Dan Kaplan, AIA, LEED AP, senior partner at FXFOWLE Architects, noted that he actually benefited from the recession of the early 1990s because many of his coworkers left traditional forms of practice and became clients. “If we can get beyond the short term,” he said, “there will be a need for architects who can deal with complex situations in the long term.” One way Europeans are dealing with the lack of work in the short term, he explained, is that architectural graduates are assuming leadership positions in business and government, which ends up helping the built environment in the long term.

Innovation, and the potential for making errors due to experimenting with new technology, is always a hot topic when discussing the future of the profession. Since buildings are imprecise, mistakes are inevitable. Also, the construction trades are using the same paradigm as they have for years without adjusting to new technology. “Unlike a car, where there are tests and mock-ups before construction, you can’t do that with architecture. The building is the beta-test,” Kaplan explained. When asked about modular construction as an economic solution that uses innovative processes, Scott Johnson, AIA, associate partner and acting COO at Richard Meier & Partners, didn’t think the quality was there yet, and cautioned: “What if the fabricator went out of business?”

About collaboration, the panelists agreed that crossovers can be very productive, and it is natural for architects to work in an interdisciplinary way. Skidmore, Owings & Merrill was founded on collaboration, as its namesakes included two architects and one engineer. Because of this, according to Design Partner Mustafa K. Abadan, FAIA, “we don’t have to wait for the next collaboration to happen.”

Todd Schliemann, FAIA, a design partner at Polshek Partnership Architects, praised architects’ ability weather down markets by exploring different disciplines. Being trained as an architect teaches one to be an organizer, a choreographer, and to be articulate, he believes. “We build models, we’re good at computers, we can be hired guns, and there are options.”

Marianne Kwok, a director at Kohn Pedersen Fox, was optimistic about the future, and said her firm has been fortunate during the downturn. They have diversified their work and have sought out work on a more global scale, especially in China. “Architecture graduates have a lot to look forward to,” she stated optimistically.

Speaking of recent graduates, most on the panel expressed concern that students today view architecture in a different way. Panelists bemoaned students’ lack of drawing skills, and worried that some don’t even have plans in their portfolios. So what can future architects take away from this discussion? Have a broad education and love what you’re doing, said Johnson. Vary your skill set and learn to be articulate, commented Abadan. Perhaps Schliemann summed it up best: “Nothing beats talent.”

To view the program in its entirety, visit http://vimeo.com/10929128.

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

In this issue:
· Trump SoHo Goes SoHi
· Passaic River Inspires Conceptual Design for Visitor’s Center
· DC Opens First in a Series of New Libraries
· North Carolina Museum Vaults Open
· Canceled Building Gets New Life in Istanbul
· Five Rivers to Join at Pedestrian and Bicycle Bridge

Trump SoHo Goes SoHi

Trump SoHo.

Handel Architects

The 46-story, 386,000-square-foot Trump SoHo New York, designed by Handel Architects, recently opened. Clad in a silver-and-glass curtain wall with skybox windows projecting from the façade, the hotel contains 391 guestrooms and suites and has more meeting and event space (including SoHi, an event space on the 46th floor) than any hotel in SoHo. Handel Architects also designed an adjacent landscaped urban plaza featuring a continuous green wall offset by a series of garden rooms. Other designers contributed to the interior spaces: Studio A designed Quattro Gastronomia Italiana; DIGuiseppe Architect designed The Spa at Trump and Bar d’Eau, a seasonal indoor-outdoor bar along the pool on the seventh-floor roof deck; Kastel designed an exclusive cocktail lounge; and the Rockwell Group designed the guestrooms, lobby, and library.

Passaic River Inspires Conceptual Design for Visitor’s Center

Newark Visitor’s Center.

di Dominico + Partners

The conceptual design competition for a new Visitor’s Center in Newark, NJ, was won by a team led by Long Island City-based di Dominico + Partners. The structure consists of an undulating green roof that is a metaphor for the Passaic River. The competition, sponsored by AIA Newark and Suburban Architects in conjunction with its Emerging Professionals and Young Architects Forum, called for a multi-use 13,435-square-foot building that would fit into the surrounding community and reflect the city’s diversity. Uses include an information center, auditorium, interactive display area, gallery space, conference room, café, and a gift shop. Second prize went to a team led by NY-based PLT Design, and fourth was won by a team led by super-interesting! of Brooklyn. Newark-born Richard Meier, FAIA, FRIBA, was honorary jury chairman.

DC Opens First in a Series of New Libraries

Benning Library.

Paúl Rivera — archphoto

The Benning Library, the first in a series of new flexible and open libraries in Washington, DC, recently opened. Designed by Davis Brody Bond Aedas, the building is terraced into the sloping terrain, allowing access from both Benning Road at the upper level and a commercial shopping area at the lower level. The two floors of the 22,000-square-foot, $12 million facility are connected by an interior public stair, which creates a space that encourages pedestrian circulation through the library to connect one elevation to another. The facility features community spaces on the lower level, including a 100-person, multi-purpose room, two 12-person conference rooms, and a public gathering and exhibition space. The upper level houses the library’s collection of books, DVDs, CDs, and other library materials. The upper level also features separate reading areas for adults, teens, and children, complete with a children’s program area. The firm was commissioned in 2007 by DC Public Library to design both the Benning Library and the Watha T. Daniel/Shaw Library, the latter of which is scheduled to open this summer.

North Carolina Museum Vaults Open

View of the Entry Canopy and Contemporary Galleries, North Carolina Museum of Art.

After a three-year expansion, the North Carolina Museum of Art (NCMA), designed by Thomas Phifer and Partners, will open to the public this week. Located on a 164-acre park in Raleigh, the single-story, 127,000-square-foot structure has a roofline defined by a rhythmic series of curves expressive of a system of vaults and coffers designed to bring daylight into the building. In addition to creating a significantly larger home for the collection, the new building, known as the West Building, also has multiple entries, a new restaurant, retail store, and other visitor amenities. The expansion project enables the NCMA’s 1983 East Building, designed by Edward Durell Stone, to become a center dedicated to temporary exhibitions, education, and public programs.

Canceled Building Gets New Life in Istanbul

Vakko Fashion Center and the Power Media Center.

www.rex-ny.com

REX Architecture took an abandoned skeleton of an unfinished hotel project in Istanbul and turned it into the now completed corporate headquarters for two sister companies — the Vakko Fashion Center and the Power Media Center. Construction began just four days after the firm received the commission because they were able to modify plans for the California Institute of Technology’s Annenberg Center, which had the same plan dimension, floor-to-floor height, and servicing concept, which had also recently been canceled. The project was divided into two structurally independent components — a U-shaped concrete structure, and the Ring, which contains a new, six-floor steel tower called the Showcase. The Ring houses flexible office space, and the Showcase includes an auditorium, showrooms, meeting rooms, and executive offices.

Five Rivers to Join at Pedestrian and Bicycle Bridge

Xinjin Pedestrian and Bicycle Bridge.

WXY Architecture

WXY Architecture and Weidlinger Associates have won the international design competition for the Xinjin Pedestrian and Bicycle Bridge. Located in China’s Sichuan Province, the idea for the design reflects the location of the bridge at the confluence of five rivers. The 600-foot-long bridge, based on a double helix configuration, will have new bridge landings and plazas and an interactive lighting design. Rotterdam-based MVRDV, Glasgow-based OLA Architects, and Ty Lin Shanghai were short-listed in the competition.

Congresswoman Maloney Talks Transit

Event: Meet and Greet with Congresswoman Carolyn Maloney
Location: Center for Architecture, 03.22.10
Speaker: Carolyn Maloney — Congresswoman, 14th District
Sponsors: AIANY; AIA Queens

Congresswoman Carolyn Maloney.

Michael Toolan

For his first program, Jay Bond, AIANY’s new policy director, invited Congresswoman Carolyn Maloney to address her legislative agenda as it pertains to the city’s massive infrastructure projects. “That she joined us early Monday morning after the historic vote on the health care bill,” said Bond, “is a testament to her commitment to her constituents and the city she represents.” Maloney represents the 14th District, on the East Side of Manhattan and western part of Queens. Whether or not you live in her district, you are almost certainly affected by the ambitious infrastructure projects — the Second Avenue Subway, East Side Access, and the Outerboard Detour Roadway — taking place on both sides of the East River.

“We have to invest in our infrastructure and if we don’t go forward we’re going backwards,” stated Maloney. For New Yorkers, we are literally “digging our way out of the recession.” Building the Second Avenue Subway, which she called “a sad urban story,” eliciting both chuckles and sighs from the audience, has been one of her top priorities since she was first elected to Congress. Lexington Avenue subway riders commute on the most overcrowded line in the nation. The full-length subway, which will run from 125th Street to Lower Manhattan, will alleviate congestion and reach underserved East Side neighborhoods.

The East Side Access is underway and will create new tunnels and reuse existing ones to transport approximately 160,000 LIRR passengers, including 5,000 residents of western Queens, directly into Grand Central Station. A new station in Sunnyside is expected to act as a catalyst for economic development and growth in Long Island City, as well.

“We look jealously to the West Side of Manhattan,” Maloney noted. One project that could enhance the quality of life on the East Side is the Outerboard Detour Roadway (ODR). Along with a coalition of elected officials, she is urging the State Department of Environmental Conservation to extend the permits to retain the caissons in the East River, a holdover from when the FDR Drive was repaired. The development of the ODR — running roughly from the Con Ed site to the UN — will create parkland and trails for pedestrians and cyclists. She openly invited the Chapter to get involved in the planning.

Since architecture is tied to construction, one of the hardest hit sectors in today’s economy, Maloney stated she is seeing massive construction projects abroad funded by the Department of Defense. “NY sends a lot of money to the federal government,” she said, “and we need to get our share of the jobs.” NY-based architects need to become pre-qualified for these projects and Maloney invited a representative from the procurement department to come to the Center to go over the process with her.

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

In this issue:

· A New Jewel in NY’s Green Necklace Opens in Brooklyn
· The Public Theater Speaks the Speech
· Brooklyn School Gets an “A” for Banning Beige
· A Salon Designed With Colorists in Mind
· Institute Hall Completes Science Quad at RIT
· NJ’s Gold Coast Gets Richer

A New Jewel in NY’s Green Necklace Opens in Brooklyn

Pier 1 at Brooklyn Bridge Park.

Michael Van Valkenburgh Associates

Six acres of open space recently opened at Pier 1 in Brooklyn Bridge Park. The park, designed by landscape architect Michael Van Valkenburgh Associates, includes 1,300 feet of promenade along the East River and 2.5 acres of lawn. Sustainable features include 300 pieces of reused granite from the Roosevelt Island Bridge to create the Granite Prospect, a tiered viewing deck. Stones from the Willis Avenue Bridge that was replaced in 2007 were placed along the western edge of Pier 1 to prevent sediment on the river bottom from washing away with currents and also provide support to the existing bulkhead. Clean bulk fill salvaged from Long Island Railroad drilling operations for the East Side Access project lies beneath the soil. Reclaimed lumber from demolished structures on the site was used for dam construction and park benches. Storm-water retention tanks for park irrigation, green roofs, the restoration of a wildlife habitat for local birds, and a manmade salt marsh to provide a naturalistic shoreline while creating a biologically productive tidal ecosystem are also included.

The Public Theater Speaks the Speech

The Public Theater.

Polshek Partnership Architects

The Public Theater recently held a ceremonial groundbreaking for renovations that have been in the works for more than 10 years. Polshek Partnership Architects is transforming the 19th-century building to include an expanded and refurbished lobby; an exterior entrance staircase with two ADA-accessible ramps and a glass covered canopy; a complete restoration of the historic brownstone façade; HVAC systems upgrade; an expanded and centrally located box office; a new mezzanine level including a community room/lounge with a capacity for 150 people; improved and expanded concessions service; and improved street visibility with six new poster boxes and exterior lighting. In conjunction with NYC’s Percent for Art program, the theater will incorporate media artist Ben Rubin’s “Shakespeare Machine,” a display screen installation that will cycle continuously through the text of Shakespeare’s plays and will be organized as a series of compositions, with no composition ever repeating twice.

Brooklyn School Gets an “A” for Banning Beige

The Achievement First Endeavor Charter School.

The 71,000-square-foot former factory building that houses the Achievement First Endeavor Charter School in Clinton Hill, Brooklyn, is a result of the re-use and renovation of existing structures designed by Rogers Marvel Architects (RMA). Pentagram, in collaboration with RMA, recently designed a series of environmental graphics for the building that was completed in January 2010. Based on a series of motivational slogans used by the school’s teachers, the graphics appear as a series of equations (“Education = Choice,” “Education = Freedom”) in the halls, around the perimeter of the gymnasium, and up a pre-cast concrete stair; they are also visible from the street. In rooms like the cafeteria, bands of color are used to define and enhance the architecture, creating an illusion of depth that expands the space. The project also features a skylit cafeteria and a rooftop play space. The school is supported by the Robin Hood Foundation.

A Salon Designed With Colorists in Mind

Vasken Salon.

Photo by Stan Wan

MSK Design Group has created the first boutique salon for hairstylist Vasken, in the Trump Building in White Plains. The 1,8000-square-foot salon specializes in color — color classes, training, and techniques — and was specifically designed to assure the accuracy of hair color design. A clean, white sheet of paper was a primary influence for the design of the salon; dashes of red and glossy geometric shapes punctuate the interior and showcase the salon’s floating ceiling, composed of white cylinders that allow for a glowing diffusion of soft, ambient light.

Institute Hall Completes Science Quad at RIT

Institute Hall at RIT.

Francis Cauffman

Francis Cauffman and Rochester-based Bergmann Associates have been selected by Rochester Institute of Technology (RIT) to design Institute Hall, a $26-million research building that will complete the school’s science quadrangle. The four-story, 78,000-square-foot structure will house RIT’s departments of chemical engineering, biomedical engineering, and chemistry, and contain wet research labs, classrooms, a small vivarium, and RIT-Rochester General Health System Alliance facilities. Most of the buildings on RIT’s Modernist campus — with buildings designed by Hugh Stubbins & Associates, Roche Dinkeloo and Associates, Edward Larabee Barnes, and Harry Weese and Associates, among others — are solid red brick masses with dark glass. Institute Hall has a transparent, glazed core that is wrapped in a red brick shell. As part of the school’s campus-wide commitment to sustainability in its curricula, research, and physical environment, the project anticipates receiving at least a LEED Silver rating.

NJ’s Gold Coast Gets Richer

Garden Street Lofts.

Photo by Seong Kwon

Hoboken’s Garden Street Lofts, designed by SHoP Architects has received LEED Gold certification, becoming NJ’s only LEED Gold certified high-rise residential building. Completed in the fall of 2009, the seven-story project containing 30 residences consists of the renovation and conversion of a five-story, 35,400-square-foot former coconut warehouse originally constructed in 1911, and a five-story, 31,600-square-foot addition on an adjacent site with two new additional floors bridging the old and new structures. Numerous sustainable features include a sedum-covered green roof planted with native and non-native species, which allows for the absorption of water and reduces the building’s reflectivity. The façade’s custom fabricated zinc panel system is a pre-weathered metal requiring no treatment such as painting or other coatings, and it absorbs and reflects light.