Category: At the Center for Architecture

As Miodrag Mitrasinovic, associate professor of Urbanism and Architecture at Parsons The New School for Design, pointed out at the 12.07.13 “Cultivating Engaged and Inclusive Urban Practices” forum, many people talk about the importance of inclusive urbanism and design, but don’t follow through with it in practice. Luckily, the panel comprised five individuals who walk the walk. The event was the first of two forums presented in conjunction with the traveling exhibition “People Building Better Cities: Participation and Inclusive Urbanization.” Beginning in Bangkok in February, the exhibition has been seen in 10 cities so far, including New York. Global Studio’s Anna Rubbo introduced the panel by noting that the exhibition comes at a pivotal moment for New York City, when the mayoral election, among other events, has brought inequality and inclusivity to the forefront of public conversation. In this context, architecture, planning, design, and advocacy are making great strides to address issues of social justice through the built environment. Panelists spoke about projects that are subverting traditional top-down approaches to the creation of the urban environment and bringing a public voice to various facets of urbanism. Continue reading “Inclusive Urban Practices on the Rise”

Two mayors and a university professor met at the Center for Architecture on 12.12.13 to discuss the changing nature of cities in the wake of technological advances. The theme of the evening was simple: cell phones, their ubiquity, the opportunities they present, and the demands they place on cities to respond. AIANY 2014 President Lance Jay Brown, FAIA, commenced with a statistic on the world population of 7.13 billion, citing the number of cell phones in the world as a close second to that number. In fact, the number of cell phones is expected to exceed the world’s population by next year (Silicon India). Continue reading “Smart Cities, Smart Citizens”

The controversy over the fate of Istanbul’s Gezi Park provided the backdrop for protests that took everybody by surprise in late spring.

At home, the unrest and the government’s response have increased polarization; abroad, they have caused many to question what really lies below the surface of economic expansion and rapid urban development in Turkey, and to wonder about the political and social consequences.

On 11.14.13, a panel discussion held in New York at the Center for Architecture, titled “Gezi Park, Istanbul: Reconsiderations,” focused primarily on the context: the city itself, the Taksim area and the political and economic environment fuelling the rapid changes in the city. The spark for the protests was provided by attempts — currently shelved — to redesign Taksim and rebuild the Ottoman Artillery Barracks, remodeled as a shopping mall and luxury residence complex, on the current location of Gezi Park. Continue reading “Political Urbanism”

So what did you do on Saturday night? Perhaps not your usual weekend evening activity, on 11.16.13, a formidable group of academics, administrators, and education enthusiasts assembled at the Center for Architecture to discuss, debate, and possibly provoke the state of architectural education at this moment in time.

Lance Jay Brown, FAIA, AIANY 2014 President, set the stage by welcoming attendees to the 9th annual Deans’ Roundtable. He took the time to set a backdrop of local and world events that have transpired in the last decade. He recalled the first of these roundtables when, in 2004, architecture was “brightly illuminated by post-9/11” issues: we were preparing for the new Bloomberg Administration; developments like Via Verde in the Bronx and Hudson Yards were only distant dreams; and the full impact of climate change and its potential for our profession had not yet been exposed – as it now has, post-Sandy. Finally, at that time the world was not yet 50% urbanized, an observation which precipitated the opportunity to announce his upcoming AIANY 2014 Presidential Theme: Civic Spirit, Civic Vision. Continue reading “Saturday Night Deans”

As the title suggests, “BEIRUT NOW | A Panel On Urban Landscape’s Conflicting Desires” was an evening of binary oppositions. Steeped in nostalgia, it contrasted the inclusive Beirut of the past with the exclusive Beirut of the present, and pitted neo-liberal interests against the desires of those who long for a Beirut attached to its local culture and historical heritage. In fact, nostalgia is, as Nishan Kazazian, AIA, founder of Nishan Kazazian Architecture, stated, a conflicting concept itself, invoking a “paradoxical combination of hope and hopelessness, space and place.”

Setting the tone for the evening, Kazazian took the audience through a haptic journey of the Beirut of his childhood, tracking the route that he took from his home to the center of the city. The urban morphology of 1950s Beirut, he posited, created opportunities for people of different socioeconomic backgrounds to interact and intermix. This “undivided city” not only impacted the formation of his ideas, but also offered a “model of coexistence that may have been emulated at a global level.” Continue reading “Beirut Now: Gazing Into the Void of Nostalgia”

Nine New York-based architects got together at the Center for Architecture to talk about the intersection of their small practices with work that takes them around the globe. Often it’s their smaller size that allows them to work more flexibly within unexpected constraints and conditions. From conversations about how small firms can market themselves globally, to discussions about sourcing labor and materials, each experience was a unique take on navigating uncharted territories. Continue reading “Nimble and Flexible, Small Firms Go Global”

In advance of the Heritage Ball recognizing the Related Companies’ Stephen Ross (among others), three architects whose major contributions are shaping the Hudson Yards megaproject appeared together for the first time, discussing the master plan as a whole and their own contributions: the four main towers and Culture Shed, arranged around the Eastern Rail Yards’ public square. The Yards neighborhood, described as nothing less than “the new New York,” is taking shape amid high hopes and intense scrutiny. Its eastern half will be completed before the western segment. With two essential infrastructural components preceding the buildings (the High Line approaching from the south and wrapping around the full site from the west, and the #7 subway extension opening in 2014 on the northern edge, where 33rd Street meets the new hockey-stick-shaped Hudson Boulevard), the planners can reassure retail tenants that the Yards will have what Related’s Jay Cross calls the “critical mass” in place to begin life as a viable destination, not an indefinite construction site. Continue reading “Midtown’s Shifting Center of Gravity”

For four days last week, New York City’s Tribeca Cinemas became home to the fifth season of the Architecture & Design Film Festival, welcoming a diverse cross section of professionals and non-professionals to experience powerful, design-centric, long- and short-form films and exchange in meaningful discourse. Among the highlights of this five-day event – the nation’s largest devoted to the industry – were director Q&As filled with passionate exchanges; explorations of controversies, design practices, and our rapidly shifting world during expert panel discussions; and, of course, the hushed camaraderie of packed, popcorn-fueled film screenings. Continue reading “Quandaries, Possibilities, and Cityscapes on Celluloid”

During Archtober, New York City hosts a marathon of architecture and design conferences, from Architectural Record’s Innovation Conference, to the Association for Preservation Technology’s Preserving the Metropolis Annual Conference, and the Municpial Art Society’s MAS Summit for New York City. This year, the Center for Architecture joined in on conference frenzy, hosting World Architecture Day 2013 – Towards Eight Million: Housing the Next Generation on 10.07.13. Organized by World Architecture News, the conference was ensured international relevance in the architecture, planning, and design communities. Continue reading “World Architecture Day 2013: A Housing Oddysey”