Murrye Bernard, Assoc. AIA, LEED AP – Contributing Editor – Page 21 – News – What’s New at AIANY and the Center for Architecture.

I.M. Pei has been awarded the 2009 RIBA Royal Gold Medal…

The New York City Department of Buildings and AIANY announced the three finalists for the urbanSHED International Design Competition: “urbanCLOUD,” developed by Kevin Erickson, Brodie Bricker, Dan Campbell, Johann Riscahu, and Mathew Strack of KNEStudio, NY, NY; “Urban Umbrella,” developed by Young Hwan Choi from the University of Pennsylvania; and “Tripod MOD(ule),” developed by Jonace Bascon, AIA, Derrick Choi, AIA, Lynn Hsu, RA, Stephen Lew, PE, and Andrew Stark, PE, of XChange Architects, Brookline, MA… Honorable mentions were awarded to: Tenzin M. Phuntsok of the Cranbrook Academy of Art; “Kit-Of-Parts,” developed by Craig Tooma, Asaf Yogev, Frank Scanlon, Tim Jagisch and Jiro Baskin, NY, NY; and “64.8265,” developed by Michael Sullivan of the Cranbrook Academy of Art. See the winners here.

PREFAB 20*20: Visions for 400 SF Homes has announced winners and shortlisted entries including projects by NY-based firms: Jason David Designs (Urban (Tree) House), Honorable Mention; Studio Sanglot (Light Infill); and Measured Works Architecture (Scaffolding House: A Modular Prefab Home for Urban Rooftops), Shortlisted Entries…

Nordhavnen City Regenerative masterplan by FXFOWLE Architects received a WAN (World Architecture News) Urban Sector Award in the Unbuilt category… RMJM’s Global Education Studio won the Cityscape award for Best Islamic Architecture for the design of Al Asmariya University-Zliten campus in Libya…

The 26th Annual IALD International Lighting Design Awards recipients include an Award of Excellence for The Metropolitan Museum of Art, The Wrightsman Galleries for French Decorative Arts by Auerbach Glasow French; an Award of Merit for The New York Times Building by Renzo Piano Building Workshop with FXFOWLE Architects with Gensler (interiors), for Façade Lighting by Office for Visual Interaction Architect; and a Citation for the TKTS Booth in Times Square by Perkins Eastman based on a competition-winning concept by Choi Ropiha Architects with lighting design by Fisher Marantz Stone…

Attorney Robert M. Morgenthau will be honored with the Franklin Delano Roosevelt Distinguished Public Service Award at a dinner on 10.28.09, which will directly benefit the Franklin D. Roosevelt Four Freedoms Park…

Management consulting and research firm ZweigWhite and engineering media specialists Stagnito Media named EYP Architecture & Engineering one of the nation’s “Best Firms to Work For”…

The 11 teams participating in the 2009 Architects Regatta placed as follows:
Fuller & D’Angelo / Pei Partnership (1); Polshek Partnership I (2); William Nicholas Bodouva (3); Rogers Marvel Architects (4); HOK (5); AIANY (6), Mancini Duffy (7); Polshek Partnership II (8); Swanke Hayden Connell Architects (9); Cetra Ruddy (10); and Daniel Frisch (11)…

Will Alsop has been appointed to lead the new London-based studio “Will Alsop at RMJM”… Carol Karasek, AIA, has joined STV to lead the firms Health & Science group, which is a part of the firms Buildings and Facilities Division…

2010 Oculus Editorial Calendar
Coming soon!

10.20.09 Call for Proposals: 2009 NCARB Grant

10.23.09 Call for Entires: 2010 AIA/ACSA Topaz Medallion for Excellence in Architectural Education

10.26.09 Call for Submissions: Performing Arts Centers

11.01.09 Call for Proposals: 2010 Berkley Prize

11.01.09 Call for Entries: Green Good Design Awards 2010

11.15.09 Early Registration Deadline: HB:BX Building Cultural Infrastructure International Ideas Competition

11.17.09 Call for Submissions: RE:VISION Design Awards 2010

12.01.09 Call for Entries: Project 2009: Lakefront Station

12.11.09 Call for Entries: AIA Facebook Young Designers Challenge

12.11.09 Call for Entries: SHIFTboston Ideas Competition 2009

12.15.09 Call for Entries: 2010 Arthur Ross Awards
01.22.10 Call for Entries: WHR Architects 2010 Tradewell Fellowship

02.24.10 Call for Entries: 2010 NYC Student Lighting Competition

Through 10.23.09
Models of Concern

Design by Gilian Schrofer.

Photography by Peter Gerhards

This traveling exhibition features models of the work of Gilian Schrofer, principal at the Dutch design firm Concern, who has designed select interiors of the Stedelijk Museum renovation.

Trespa Design Centre
62 Greene Street, NYC

Through 11.07.09
Design Jazz: Improvisations on the Urban Street

Design Jazz.

Pratt Institute

The cross-disciplinary design trio of Amy Guggenheim, artist, writer, filmmaker, and professor; Mitchell Joachim, architectural designer, and co-founder of Terreform ONE; and Leon Reid IV, street artist, teacher, and Pratt alumnus met to discuss and theorize the design of the street for our contemporary culture, for sustaining communities, and for adding to the exploration of contemporary critical design theory.

Pratt Manhattan Gallery
144 West 14th Street, NYC

Through 11.07.09
Toward the Sentient City

Toward the Sentient City.

Architectural League of New York/Mark Shepard

Five newly commissioned projects and installations by teams of architects, artists, and technologists imagine alternative trajectories for how various mobile, embedded, networked, and distributed forms of communication systems might inform the architecture of urban space and/or influence our behavior within it.

Sentient City Hub Exhibition, The Urban Center
457 Madison Avenue, NYC

Art And/Or Architecture?

Event: TOWARD “ANARCHITECTURE”: A Conversation between Architects and Artists
Location: Center for Architecture, 09.16.09
Speakers: Joe MacDonald — Founder Urban A&O; Mark Foster Gage — Principal Gage/Clemenceau Architects; David Marcus Abir — Artist & Composer; Alex Amini — Artist; Ula Einstein — Artist
Moderator: Farnaz Mansuri, Assoc. AIA — Principal, de-spec
Organizer: AIANY New Practices Committee

In the past, architects designed by sketching and making models — a hands-on approach similar to that of a traditional artist. Now, architects employ technologically advanced software and materials that allow them to create ever more sculptural spaces, challenging the notion of what constitutes a building. The line between art and architecture seems more blurred than ever — or is it? In the early 1970s, Gordon Matta-Clark formed the Anarchitecture Group, seeking to push the boundaries of architecture. In the same spirit, the AIANY New Practices Committee gathered a group of artists and architects to discuss whether there is a middle ground between the two fields.

Artist and composer David Marcus Abir borrows materials and building systems from architecture for his installations. “Tekrar,” a sound installation for The Aldrich Contemporary Art Museum in Ridgefield, CT, was organized with angled walls to emulate the structure of the human ear. To produce a multi-sensory experience in his work, he uses “light and shadow to create or expand a physical space.”

Similarly, the work of artist Ula Einstein expresses spatial qualities. For “A Plan for Her,” she collected architectural drawings found on the street, added her own markings, and cut them into strips, that she wove through a found rack. “I’m influenced by windows and openings,” she explains, which is evident in her sculpture titled windows: rolls of paper are set on end like miniature skyscrapers, with openings rhythmically sliced along the surfaces.

Alex Amini, an architect-turned-artist, creates abstract drawings using ink on mylar and enamel on cardboard, among other media. His architectural background is evident in his work, but he prefers to make spontaneous lines as opposed to the “forceful lines” in architectural drawings. Amini also appreciates the autonomy of being an artist, explaining, “The most painful part of being an architect is having to hand off your work to someone else to build.”

Conceptual architecture, however, avoids this quandary. Joe MacDonald, founder of the architecture firm Urban A&O, is exploring several “client-less” projects such as the Bone Wall and the Cairo Tower. MacDonald is able to indulge his preoccupation with pattern by transforming two-dimensional geometries into three-dimensional structures via the modeling software CATIA. The resulting forms appear more sculptural and less inhabitable.

Architectural firm Gage/Clemenceau is known for fluid, ethereal designs, but partner Mark Foster Gage said, “I don’t think what we’re doing is art.” He believes there is a strong distinction between art and architecture, and that blurred boundaries are rare. While interior and exterior surfaces offer opportunities for creativity, architects must “stuff what’s between with plumbing.” Moderator Farnaz Mansuri, Assoc. AIA, countered that some installations take the function out of architecture, citing Gage/Clemenceau’s Valentine to Times Square as an example. Apparently art and architecture, like beauty, are in the eye of the beholder.

Murrye Bernard, LEED AP, is a freelance architectural writer and a contributing editor to e-Oculus.

Bauhaus Off-Broadway

Karen Grenke as Walter Gropius, surrounded by a team of researchers: (R-L) Sandie Luna, Robin Kurtz, Anna Konkle, James “Face” Yu, V. Orion Delwaterman.

Photo by Jonathan Slaff

The Bauhaus movement turned 90-years-old this year. What better way to commemorate its Utopian ideals than to attend a theatrical performance in a 100-year-old former municipal bath house? The Nerve Tank will perform “bauhaus the bauhaus” at The Brooklyn Lyceum on various dates between 10.09.09 and 11.22.09. The performance piece seeks to apply the Bauhaus School’s ideals to contemporary society. Characters include Walter Gropius, Andy Warhol, Henry Ford, and Tom Wolfe. This multi-sensory performance will include direct audience address and video components.

At the MAINSTREETS Convention in Rochester, NY, AIANYS elected Susan Chin, FAIA, as the incoming Regional Director.

The 2009 AIANYS Honor Award Recipients were honored at the MAINSTREETS Convention, 09.25.09, in Rochester, NY. Abby Suckle, FAIA, received the Fellow’s Award; Venesa Alicea, Assoc. AIA, LEED AP, received an Intern/Associate Award; Pei Cobb Freed + Partners received the Firm Award; Leevi Kiil, FAIA, received the President’s Award; Dr. Anthony Vidler received the Educator Award; and Jackie Delsandro, a student at Parsons, The New School of Design, School of Constructed Environments, received a 2009 AIANY Student Award.

The 2009 Chicago Athenaeum International Architecture Awards winners include Puma City by LOT-EK, Centro de Artes Nadir Afonso by Louise Braverman Architect, and the Sheila C. Johnson Design Center by Lyn Rice Architects…

New York Construction Best of ’09 award winners include many NYC-based firms. Click here to download a PDF of the complete list. The Brick Industry Association’s New York/New Jersey Brick Distributor Council and the Associated Brick Mason Contractors of Greater New York will honor the following projects: Sky House by FXFOWLE Architects, I.S. 227 Restoration by Omni Architects, PS-1/MoMA Contemporary Art Center Restoration by Wank Adams Slavin Associates with Ohlhausen DuBois Architects, Riverhouse at Battery Park City by Polshek Partnership Architects, and The Solaire 20 River Terrace by Pelli Clarke Pelli…
FreeGreen invites the public to vote until 09.30.09 for the best design submitted to the Chain of Eco-Homes Project, which will determine the form and function of Greensburg, KS, as it is being rebuilt after a tornado leveled the town in 2007… The New Jersey Hall of Fame (NJHOF) announced that Michael Graves, FAIA, is the first architect to be nominated for its Class of 2010, in the “Enterprise” category… The Thornton Tomasetti Foundation has become a sponsor for Penn State University’s Department of Architectural Engineering capstone senior thesis program utilizing Integrated Project Delivery and Building Information Modeling (IPD/BIM)…

U.K.-based Balfour Beatty has agreed to buy Parsons Brinckerhoff for $626 million… Carl Galioto, FAIA, joins HOK from Skidmore, Owings and Merrill as a senior principal and member of the HOK New York Management Committee… Elizabeth Battista has been named Director of Communications and Institutional Development for the Institute of Design and Construction (IDC)…

2010 Oculus Editorial Calendar
Coming soon!

10.02.09 Submission Deadline: urbanSHED International Design Competition

10.05.09 Call for Entries: P/A Awards *Extended

10.30.09 Call for Entries: 2009 Beyond Green High-Performance Building Awards

11.01.09 Call for Entries: Peace Pentagon International Competition

11.02.09 Call for Applications: Reiger Graham Prize

11.15.09 Early Registration Deadline: HB:BX Building Cultural Infrastructure International Ideas Competition

11.20.09 Call for Entries: 2010 Palladio Awards

12.01.09 Call for Entires: 2010 I.D. Annual Design Review

01.29.10 Call for Entries: 2010 Metropolis Next Generation Design Competition

Through 10.18.09
Life and Works of J. Max Bond, Jr.: Practice, Education, and Activism

The Harvard University Graduate School of Design (GSD) presents an exhibition in memory of J. Max Bond Jr., FAIA. As an alumnus of both Harvard College (Phi Beta Kappa, BArch ’55) and the GSD (MArch ’58), he is fondly remembered for his personal encouragement and mentorship of students from the GSD.

Gund Hall Gallery
Harvard University Graduate School of Design, Boston, MA

Through 10.24.09
Noguchi ReINstalled

Gallery view of the Noguchi Museum, Small Torso, 1958-1962; Core Piece #1, 1974; Core Piece #2, 1974.

Photograph by Sarah Wells, Courtesy The Noguchi Museum, New York

This installation commemorates Isamu Noguchi’s original vision in celebration of the museum’s recent renovation completion. The collection occupies the entire Museum, as it did upon its opening in 1985.

The Noguchi Museum
33rd Road at Vernon Boulevard, Long Island City, NY

Through 10.24.09
Downtown Alliance Vision for Future of Greenwich South

Vision for Future of Greenwich South.

Courtesy Alliance for Downtown New York

The Alliance for Downtown New York displays its vision for the future of Greenwich South, the 41 acres south of the World Trade Center, as a set of scalable principles, illustrated by architects, designers, and artists.

Zuccotti Park
Broadway and Liberty Street, NYC

10.01.09 through 10.30.09
Forms+Surfaces® Beyond the Surface

MicroPerf (detail) shown in Stainless Steel Savannah.

Material ConneXion

On view is Forms+Surfaces’ Screens, a new building system for façades, outdoor fencing, as well as interior applications such as privacy screens or wall panels. Also on display is the new high-performance material, Bonded Quartz, a composite of quartz and FRP-reinforced resin matrix.

Material ConneXion
60 Madison Avenue, 2nd Floor, NYC

The Dutch Take Governors Island

Event: Pioneers of Change: Open Talks
Location: Nolan Park, Governors Island, 09.10.09
Speakers: “Towards a New Notion of Luxury”: Laurene Boym — Boym Partner; Marije Vogelzang — Proef; Amale Andraos — WORKac; Christien Meindertsma — Product Designer; Matilda McQuaid — Deputy Curatorial Director & Head of Textiles, Cooper-Hewitt National Design Museum (Moderator);
“New Collaborations”: Jake Barton — Local Projects; Pascale Gatzen — Painted; Arne Hendriks — Platform 21; Scott Stowell — Open; Julie Iovine — Executive Editor, The Architect’s Newspaper (Moderator)
Organizer: Pioneers of Change; Cooper-Hewitt National Design Museum

Governors Island, New York, sign ‘LAND! Pioneers of Change’ by Experimental Jetset.

Photograph by Experimental Jetset, courtesy of Droog

As part of NY400 Week, the Dutch have taken over Governors Island to host Pioneers of Change, a festival of Dutch design, fashion, and architecture celebrating 400 years of Dutch-American friendship. Conceived and curated by Renny Ramakers, co-founder and director of Droog, Pioneers of Change is comprised of installations in eleven houses in Nolan Park. Installations include a pop-up store of Dutch design and a slow food café, as well as exhibitions of collaborations between Dutch and American artists and designers. A two-part panel discussion kicked off the festivities.

“Towards a New Notion of Luxury” examined the impact of the economic downfall on perceptions of the finer things in life. Panelists agreed that with the current return to simplicity, space, fresh air, respect, silence, and time are valued more than money. They discussed this idea through some of their projects.

Amale Andraos, co-founder of WORKac, presented the simple luxury of growing food, as featured in Public Farm 1 last summer at P.S.1, and an edible schoolyard for P.S. 216. “Eating-designer” Marije Volgelzang, founder of Proef, explores connections between food, culture, and memory. She organized a Dutch national tap water tasting, sampling water from 12 different regions of the Netherlands, and a Food Memory Workshop, where elderly citizens of Rotterdam were fed typical old Dutch dishes that brought back memories from the WWII era. “It’s luxury in a twisted way,” Volgelzang said, “of getting back what you own.” Laurene Boym, of Boym Partners, discussed a series of handmade objects — Missing Monuments, Buildings of Disaster Series, and Babel Blocks — that she believes are luxurious because they are one-of-a-kind and in limited edition.

“New Collaborations” examined connections between the “design world” and the “normal world” by posing the question: How can non-professionals play an intricate role in realizing creative projects? Local Projects, a media design firm, created StoryCorps, a booth where people document their experiences for a national oral history archive. Similarly, graphic design firm Open creates “designs for people,” according to firm founder Scott Stowell. For its design for architectural signage at the Brown University Friedman Study Center, Open invited students and faculty to submit words and images from the archives, which were then silkscreened on the walls.

Dutch collaborative Platform 21 connects the efforts of amateurs and professionals. Their project “Hacking IKEA” displays how designers and non-designers alike transform their IKEA furniture for new uses. For the Pioneers of Change exhibition, Platform 21 is inviting the public to help them repair and refinish old furniture.

One of the themes of the day was why the Dutch are good designers. Moderator Julie Iovine, executive editor of The Architect’s Newspaper, pointed out that being a designer might be easier in the Netherlands, where the government provides more support than the U.S. According to Dutch fashion designer Pascale Gatzen, the reason is because “we have to reorganize ourselves constantly,” due to the lack of space. Perhaps space isn’t such a luxury, after all.

Murrye Bernard, LEED AP, is a freelance architectural writer and a contributing editor to e-Oculus.

How to Highlight Architecture

Event: Architectural Photography: Professional Techniques for Shooting Interior and Exterior Spaces Book Launch and Talk with Norman McGrath
Location: Center for Architecture, 09.03.09
Speaker: Norman McGrath
Organizer: AIANY Historic Buildings Committee

Architectural Photography: Professional Techniques for Shooting Interior and Exterior Spaces.

Throughout his career, Norman McGrath’s photographs have appeared in publications including Architectural Digest, Architectural Record, Progressive Architecture, Domus, Interior Design, Interiors, and New York. He has published several books, and his most recent explains how he has achieved his success. Architectural Photography: Professional Techniques for Shooting Interior and Exterior Spaces serves as a guide to the architectural photography industry, covering the evolution of modern photography techniques and technologies.

One of the biggest changes in photography in recent years has been the switch from film to digital. McGrath took his first digital photo in 1995, which required over 30 seconds of exposure due to all the filters necessary to correct for fluorescent light and other obstacles, as well as hours of computer manipulation afterward. These days, McGrath believes the future of architectural photography is with Photomatix Pro, a program that creates and processes HDR (High Dynamic Range) images and allows seamless integration of images without introducing light. The simplicity of this program eliminates the need to use “casefulls of equipment to light interiors,” McGrath explained.

McGrath is a loyal Canon user — typically the 5D Mark II and IDS Mark III models — and believes it is the best choice among camera manufactures. He is featured as one of the Explorers of Light, a prestigious panel of 78 Canon photographers. As far as favorite places to shoot, McGrath believes that Chicago is one of the most “architecturally rich cities” in the U.S. Millennium Park is “one of my favorite spots in the world,” he said, having recently photographed Renzo Piano Building Workshop’s addition to the Art Institute of Chicago. Foster + Partners’ Hearst Tower — the cover image for his new book — is one of his favorite newer NYC buildings.

How does an aspiring architectural photographer make the transition into the profession? McGrath’s advice is to take workshops, such as those offered by the International Center for Photography (ICP), read up on the subject, and get “suitable” equipment. He also suggests persuading an established architectural photographer to take you on as an assistant. However, “it is not a good field if you have a large ego,” he warned. He believes that an architectural photographer should make you think “what a terrific building” rather than “what an amazing photo.”

Murrye Bernard, LEED AP, is a freelance architectural writer and a contributing editor to e-Oculus.