Category: In The News

The NJ Chapter of the AIA announced award winners at its annual awards dinner: Martin Santini, FAIA, was named Architect of the Year; Robert F. Barranger, AIA, was honored with Distinguished Service Award; Barlo & Associates Architects received Architectural Firm of the Year; Rafael Da Silva, AIA, received Young Architect of the Year; Sophia Jones, Assoc. AIA, won Intern of the Year; and David A. Mooij, superintendent of Neptune Township schools, won Resident of the Year…

The Brooklyn Chapter of the AIA will be honoring the following professionals at its biennial dinner dance on May 7: Vincent C. Battista, AIA, Executive Director, Institute of Design and Construction, will receive a Distinguished Achievement Award; Joseph P. Trivisnoono, Assoc. AIA, will be awarded a Lifetime Achievement Award; Michael J. Macalusco, FARA, will win an Advancement of the Architectural Profession Award; and Vincent Dicce, LS, will receive a Distinguished Service Award…

The Sustainable Buildings Industry Council announced the winners of its 2008 Beyond Green High-Performance Building Awards, including, in the category of Multi-Family, Garden Street Lofts, submitted by SHoP Architects; and in the category of Policy/Program Development: New York City Green Schools Guide and Standards Revision, submitted by Dattner Architects, New York City School Construction Authority…

IESNYC announced the winners for the 2009 “Audible Light” Student Design Competition: First Place, Hye Yeun Lee for “Subway Sound;” Second Place, Ching-Yu Lin for “Hey! It’s a Party;” Third Place, Sukmo Koo and Young Taek Oh for “Make It Rain-Rain Box;” and Honorable Mentions, Kacie Stigliano for “Rhythms” and Sungbin Ma for “The Sound of Glitz”…

EYP is reducing its carbon footprint by buying Carbon Offsets for air travel by its employees and Renewable Energy Certificates (RECs) for one year to offset 100% of the electricity used by its corporate offices…

Stonehill & Taylor has taken on three new principals, Neill Parker, Jr., AIA, Michael Suomi, Assoc. AIA, and Christina Zimmer, AIA…

The NJ Chapter of the AIA announced award winners at its annual awards dinner: Martin Santini, FAIA, was named Architect of the Year; Robert F. Barranger, AIA, was honored with Distinguished Service Award; Barlo & Associates Architects received Architectural Firm of the Year; Rafael Da Silva, AIA, received Young Architect of the Year; Sophia Jones, Assoc. AIA, won Intern of the Year; and David A. Mooij, superintendent of Neptune Township schools, won Resident of the Year…

The Brooklyn Chapter of the AIA will be honoring the following professionals at its biennial dinner dance on May 7: Vincent C. Battista, AIA, Executive Director, Institute of Design and Construction, will receive a Distinguished Achievement Award; Joseph P. Trivisnoono, Assoc. AIA, will be awarded a Lifetime Achievement Award; Michael J. Macalusco, FARA, will win an Advancement of the Architectural Profession Award; and Vincent Dicce, LS, will receive a Distinguished Service Award…

The Sustainable Buildings Industry Council announced the winners of its 2008 Beyond Green High-Performance Building Awards, including, in the category of Multi-Family, Garden Street Lofts, submitted by SHoP Architects; and in the category of Policy/Program Development: New York City Green Schools Guide and Standards Revision, submitted by Dattner Architects, New York City School Construction Authority…

IESNYC announced the winners for the 2009 “Audible Light” Student Design Competition: First Place, Hye Yeun Lee for “Subway Sound;” Second Place, Ching-Yu Lin for “Hey! It’s a Party;” Third Place, Sukmo Koo and Young Taek Oh for “Make It Rain-Rain Box;” and Honorable Mentions, Kacie Stigliano for “Rhythms” and Sungbin Ma for “The Sound of Glitz”…

EYP is reducing its carbon footprint by buying Carbon Offsets for air travel by its employees and Renewable Energy Certificates (RECs) for one year to offset 100% of the electricity used by its corporate offices…

Stonehill & Taylor has taken on three new principals, Neill Parker, Jr., AIA, Michael Suomi, Assoc. AIA, and Christina Zimmer, AIA…

2009 Oculus Editorial Calendar
If you are an architect by training or see yourself as an astute observer of New York’s architectural and planning scene, note that OCULUS editors want to hear from you! Projects/topics may be anywhere, but architects must be New York-based. The themes:

Fall Issue: Carbon Neutral Now. The new green frontier, carbon neutrality, researched, explored, planned, and designed at all scales by New York architects.
06.01.09: Suggestion Deadline

Winter Issue: Health & Architecture. Architecture designed to promote fitness, health, and wellness will be profiled. Projects selected from within this growing field will demonstrate sensitivity to generational and demographic issues, sustainability, and technology.
08.01.09: Suggestion Deadline

If you have suggestions, please contact OCULUS editor-in-chief Kristen Richards.

03.29.09 Call for Ideas: Competitial
Edificial, a new architecture and design tabloid, is hosting its first design competition challenging entrants to produce a minimum of four images of a waiting room for unemployed architects — a universal holding pen or cosmic unemployment office, designed explicitly for all the architects looking for work in this recession. One winner and a runner-up will receive a feature post on FotoShoppe.

04.20.09 Call for Submissions: ICSC Future Image Architecture Competition
The International Council of Shopping Centers (ICSC) invites industry professionals to envision what the architectural innovations of the shopping center of the future will be in 2029-2059. Open to all architecture professionals who are ICSC members, submissions should inspire the retail real estate industry with out-of-the-box ideas that will progress the current understanding of the shopping experience. All submissions will be exhibited during the ICSC’s annual convention, RECon, 05.17-20.09, where winners will be announced and featured in an article in ICSC’s Shopping Centers Today.

05.01.09 Call for Proposals: Design Trust for Public Space
New York City community groups and public agencies are invited to submit proposals for research, design, and planning projects that will improve public space in NYCand benefit from private-sector expertise. If a project is selected, a team is organized of architects, planners, industrial designers, ecologists, and landscape architects. Projects will be selected every 18-24 months (one to three) for Design Trust assistance.

05.08.09 Call for Entries: Ample Sample
Designers are challenged to rethink and repurpose carpet samples to create a design product. The best ideas will be showcased at NeoCon 2009 and on the Ample Sample website, complete with blueprints and instructions for their creations.

05.15.09 Call for Nominations: CTBUH Awards 2009
The Council on Tall Buildings and Urban Habitat (CTBUH) is calling for nominations in four regional Best Tall Building Awards, Best Tall Building Overall, and two Lifetime Achievement Awards. Winners and finalists will be honored at the 8th Annual CTBUH awards dinner and ceremony in Chicago, 10.22.09, and be featured in an awards publication to be distributed internationally.

05.15.09 Call for Submissions: Photo Urbanism 5
The Design Trust is seeking submissions from emerging and established photographers for projects that enhance the recognition, understanding, and definition of public space in NYC. This fellowship award includes a $5,000 stipend and a public presentation of the project. Fellows must be based in NYC and complete their project within one year.

05.18.09 Call for Entries: Celebrate Diversity
As technological advancements in developing countries create a tradeoff between cultural integration and preservation, DESIGN 21: Social Design Network, an online platform founded by Felissimo and UNESCO to inspire design for the greater good, is helping promote international cultural diversity. Designers are being called to submit an official logo design for UNESCO’s International Festival of Cultural Diversity, which will be celebrated for the first time on 05.21.09.

Event: Alice Tully Hall Press Preview
Location: Alice Tully Hall, Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts, 02.19.09
Speakers: Reynold Levy — President, Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts; Frank A. Bennack, Jr. — Chairman, Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts; Katherine Farley — Vice Chairman, Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts and Chairman, Lincoln Center Development Project; Elizabeth Diller — Principal, Diller Scofidio + Renfro; Charles Renfro, AIA — Principal, Diller Scofidio + Renfro; Sylvia Smith, FAIA, LEED AP — Senior Partner, FXFOWLE Architects; Adam Kusinitz — Senior Project Manager, Lincoln Center Development Project; Ron Austin — Executive Director, Lincoln Center Development Project; Mark Holden — Principal, Acoustics, JaffeHolden; Peter Flamm — Chief of Staff and Senior Director of Planning and Logistics, Lincoln Center Development Project
Organizer: Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts

The newly opened Alice Tully Hall, re-named the Starr Theater.

Iwan Baan

Stars such as Yo-Yo Ma and David Byrne have graced the stage of Alice Tully Hall, but during a preview before its recent opening, the real star was the redesigned theater itself. With its eye-catching expanses of wood veneer curving over gill-like forms along the sides of the theater, the space seemed to embrace the onlookers with warm tones and understated forms.

The visually cohesive expanse of wood veneer was part of design architect Diller Scofidio + Renfro’s strategy to give the newly named Starr Theater a sense of intimacy it had previously been lacking, Elizabeth Diller explained. Thanks to the help of acousticians JaffeHolden, they were able to improve the 39-year-old auditorium’s acoustics and eliminate rumbles from the subway, but an equally important goal was to eliminate “unwanted visual noise,” she said. “In many halls, there are distracting elements like acoustic panels and hardware, railings, exposed equipment, exposed light fixtures, and so forth. And for this hall, we developed a high-performance wood skin, which you see wraps the entire hall, all the surfaces: the floor, the stage. We thought of the wood almost like a bespoke material, almost like a tailored suit.” The skin encloses lighting and other equipment, and its “gills” are designed to perfect the acoustics, said Sylvia Smith, FAIA, LEED AP, of associate architect FXFOWLE Architects.

The thinness of the veneer is conducive to a certain signature effect: in the moment when the theater goes dark and a hush falls before a show starts, the walls can light up in a rosy “blush” when illuminated by LEDs from behind. (See “The Unnatural: How Diller Marches to a Different Drummer,” Reports From the Field, e-Oculus, 06.24.08). When demonstrated, this glowing effect appeared a bit patchier than expected, but no doubt its novelty will still make an impact on audiences.

While “intimacy” was the watchword of the theater, designing the lobby and exterior spaces of the hall was about creating a sense of celebration and connection to the surrounding city, according to Diller. In the past, Lincoln Center has suffered from a reputation for elitism fostered by its austere superblock architecture that appeared unwelcoming from the surrounding streets. In the original 1969 Brutalist design by Pietro Belluschi, the Juilliard building that includes Alice Tully Hall was “entirely internally focused and mute to the street,” she said. In the new design, a dramatic cantilever at the corner of 65th Street and Broadway not only expands Juilliard’s space but also provides a “framing canopy” for Tully. Large glass curtain walls yield views inside, creating part of a new “Street of the Arts” along West 65th Street — a concept that was first unveiled almost five years ago and is finally starting to come to fruition, noted Lincoln Center Chairman Frank Bennack.

Especially appropriate for these recession-pinched times, the hall offers ample and inviting hang-out spots for those without tickets but longing for somewhere to relax, people-watch, and perhaps grab a cup of coffee. A visible café in the lobby tempts passersby, and outside, a whimsically designed “infopeel” (incomplete at the time of the tour) offers stairlike seating and information screens in a structure shaped like a candy wrapper curling up from the ground. “Whether you’re buying a ticket or not, we want you to come; we want you to stay a while; we want you to enjoy this precious public space on a very dense island,” declared Reynold Levy, president of Lincoln Center.

Lisa Delgado is a freelance journalist who has written for OCULUS, The Architect’s Newspaper, Blueprint, and Wired, among other publications.

Event: New Urbanism for New Yorkers
Location: Museum of the City of New York, 02.25.09
Speakers: John Norquist — President, Congress for the New Urbanism (CNU); Robert Yaro — President, Regional Planning Association (RPA)
Introduction: Susan Henshaw Jones — President & Director, Museum of the City of New York; John Massengale — President, CNU New York Chapter
Organizers: CNU-NY; RPA; American Planning Association NY, CT, and NJ chapters; Institute for Classical Architecture

Since the Regional Planning Association (RPA) announced its original plan for greater New York in 1929, RPA President Robert Yaro noted those familiar with the organization’s and the city’s history may be viewing the current economic crash with a sense of déjà vu. Both the RPA and the Congress for the New Urbanism (CNU) interpret White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel’s already-famous line “Never let a serious crisis go to waste” as a signal that spatial reconfigurations comparable to those seen during the New Deal may be imminent. The RPA’s initial plan was in many respects a precursor of New Urbanism, and with a president who reads Jane Jacobs, political and economic conditions may be more favorable toward transit-based planning and other public quality-of-life investments than at any point in living memory. Yaro and CNU President John Norquist discussed the current prospects with different emphases and warnings, but in many respects the groups are working with the same playbook.

As introductory remarks by CNU-NY’s John Massengale emphasized, President Obama’s stimulus bill carries the promise of serious progress for urbanists, planners, and regional residents. It’s severely needed, said Yaro — New York’s over-reliance on financial services is now exposed as a vulnerability, a failure to diversify the local economy — but he also offers historical perspective as a caveat against panic. Somehow, we keep bouncing back, Yaro argued. Resilience has a lot to do with density, institutions, and transit, and in these respects the New York region is well prepared to take advantage of the moment.

High-speed rail is an $8 billion priority in the stimulus package, raising the chance that the U.S. may finally get “an Acela that works” (and begin to catch up to nations like Morocco, where the 500-mile Tangier-Casablanca high-speed line is expected to be running by 2013). A strength the region has cultivated more consistently is education: eight of the world’s top 20 research universities are in the Northeast Corridor. Yaro contrasted the city’s relative economic vigor with the post-industrial despondency found upstate. He offered a 14-point set of principles for reanimating the broader Great Lakes region as industrial areas in South Korea, Germany’s Ruhr Valley, and Scotland’s Strathclyde region have done. Cities like Rochester and Buffalo likewise have strong cultural/educational bones; through placemaking strategies integrated into regional- and national-scale planning, Yaro believes, they can and should recover.

As mayor of Milwaukee (1988-2004), Norquist presided over the kind of urban renaissance that Yaro foresees elsewhere. This city reversed a longstanding economic decline, tore down a highway that disfigured its waterfront, built a vibrant walkable neighborhood in its stead, and revised its zoning according to CNU-style form-based codes. Having opposed cities’ over-reliance on federal funding over the years, Norquist sees both constructive and destructive potential in the Obama stimulus. He cautioned that the package’s emphasis on projects that are “shovel-ready” could open up the field to some highly counterproductive national investments. Highway building plans that communities have decisively rejected, he noted, may spring back to life as short-term jobs programs. If the nation takes that approach, he says, we stand to repeat the devastation we brought on ourselves in 1960s urban renewal.

The rise and decline of cities, Norquist emphasized, can be alarmingly swift. His images of Detroit and Berlin during and after World War II illustrated the criticality of transit and grids in a city’s development. By institutionalizing the recognition that streets exist for economic and cultural purposes, not just vehicle movement, Norquist says, we have the chance to capitalize on crisis, repeating the experiences of the New Deal and the City Beautiful movement after the 1890s depression. “As we come out of this recession,” he said, “people who learn these lessons and have these skills… are going to do a lot better. Because America’s going to change.”

Bill Millard is a freelance writer and editor whose work has appeared in OCULUS, Icon, Content, The Architect’s Newspaper, and other publications.

Off the heels of a recent survey claiming NYC is the second-worst congested city in the nation, the Office of the Mayor and the NYC Department of Transportation announced a move to ease congestion in Times Square and Herald Square: eliminate lanes of car traffic, and make way for foot traffic. As a pilot program called “Green Light for Midtown” that will run from May through the end of the year, Broadway from 47th to 42nd Streets and 35th to 33rd Streets (at the cross-over points with Sixth and Seventh Avenues) will be closed off to traffic and replaced with café tables and pedestrian lanes. If successful, the program will remain permanent. Finally, people may be able to move through Times Square with ease. And, perhaps, car congestion will be alleviated by 17%, as the DOT is claiming.

“This experiment is a thoughtful and creative approach to our persistent problems — gridlock, pedlock, and thousands of people walking dangerously in the street for lack of space,” said Tim Tomkins, president of the Times Square Alliance. According to the report, more than 356,000 people walk through Times Square daily. Also, although there are 4.5 times as many pedestrians as vehicles, only 11% of the space is currently allocated for them. With a high rate of accidents and congestion that prohibits emergency vehicles from passing, it is about time a pilot program was launched. It makes sense that redirecting traffic to maintain the gridded traffic flow, instead of permitting Broadway traffic to cross over other avenues, would ease congestion. I am looking forward to being able to walk from the Times Square subway station to hang out on the steps of the new TKTS booth without having to put myself in harm’s way.

In this issue:
· Water Filtration Plant Is Hole In One for NYC
· Fortune Shines on West Harlem Affordable Housing
· Get Taken to the Couture Cleaners
· Luxury Hilton Rises in Liberty City North
· The Sun Never Sets on New Marc Jacobs Store
· Welcome Center Tells a Story
· Shade Machines, Social Brackets Inspire 4 Tower in 1

Water Filtration Plant Is Hole In One for NYC

Water filtration facility at Moshulu Golf Course.

Grimshaw

The NYC Department of Environmental Protection and Department of Parks and Recreation have partnered to build the city’s first water filtration facility, currently under construction on 35.6 acres in Van Cortlandt Park in the Bronx, beneath the Mosholu Golf Course driving range. The filtration system will become an integral part of the city’s infrastructure and deliver 290 million gallons of water per day, or 30% of the city’s water supply.

The plant itself has been designed by engineering firms Hazen and Sawyer and Metcalf & Eddy in a joint venture. Grimshaw and Ken Smith Landscape Architect are creating the site and above-ground structures, which, when completed, will be a sustainable and low-impact example of storm water management and gray water systems. According to the design team, the concept for the project was influenced by the water lily, which catches rainwater as it falls, filters it for its own use, and returns the excess into the pond below. Recreational facilities include a clubhouse and driving range, tee boxes that are discreet structures fully integrated into the landscape; atop the treatment plant’s green roof is a nine-acre driving range. The project is budgeted at $95 million and is expected to open in 2012.

Fortune Shines on West Harlem Affordable Housing

Fortune Society.

Jonathan Rose Companies

The Fortune Society, whose motto is “building people, not prisons,” and Jonathan Rose Companies recently broke ground on a $42 million, 110,000-square-foot project that will bring affordable housing to the West Harlem community. It will provide supportive permanent housing and service space for formerly incarcerated homeless men and women, and generate ongoing revenue to support the services the Fortune Society offers its clients. The new complex is adjacent to the Fortune Academy, familiarly called “The Castle,” which includes transitional housing for homeless men and women just released from prison.

Designed by Curtis+Ginsberg Architects, the 114-unit development aims to complement the historic character of the Fortune Academy, and will be environmentally responsible and efficient to operate. The project is seeking LEED-NC Gold certification, and is participating in programs from Enterprise Green Communities and the New York State Energy Research and Development Authority (NYSERDA). A roof garden will feature a rainwater harvesting system and offer views of the Hudson River. Aluminum solar shades on the south faç ade are among other green features.

Get Taken to the Couture Cleaners

Madame Paulette’s flagship store.

DIA/WRKS

DIA/WRKS has put the finishing touches to the flagship store of Madame Paulette’s, a custom cleaner to the “who’s who” of fashion. The 2,000-square-foot space, located in Manhattan House, the modernist Upper East Side landmark designed by SOM’s Gordon Bunshaft in 1950, contains a 22-foot-long concierge counter, custom-made bronze tiles, Venini chandeliers, baroque furniture, and one-of-a-kind images of fashion icons. With the grand interiors nearly complete, DIA/WRKS will begin to revamp of the store’s faç ade, which may include displays of such world-renowned designers as Roberto Cavalli and Vera Wang.

Luxury Hilton Rises in Liberty City North

Conrad Hotel.

GRAD Associates

Newark-based GRAD Associates’ design for Hilton’s luxury brand Conrad Hotel in Liberty Harbor North in Jersey City, received the green light from the city’s planning board. The project will occupy a full block of this major redevelopment area, fronting a marina, with views of Lower Manhattan. The complex will contain a 300-room hotel, conference facilities, 470 luxury condominium units, fully mechanized parking for 738 cars, and two rooftop gardens (one for the hotel and one for the nine-story condominium development). Site preparation (Phase I) is scheduled to begin in April for the hotel, and the condominiums (Phase II) are anticipated to start soon after the hotel is completed early in 2011. The project is aiming to achieve LEED Platinum status.

The Sun Never Sets on New Marc Jacobs Store

Marc Jacobs store in Sao Paulo.

Stephan Jaklitsch Architects

Stephan Jaklitsch Architects has designed seven stores for Marc Jacobs that are scheduled to open in 2009 — five Marc Jacobs Collection and two Marc by Marc Jacobs stores. Since 2000, the firm has designed all the Marc Jacobs’ stores worldwide and continues to design site-specific boutiques, such as the recently completed first store in South America in the upscale Jardins neighborhood of Sao Paulo with a Collection shop on its first level and a Marc by Marc Jacobs on the second. Also recently completed are two stores in Bahrain.

In the works are a Collection shop in the ground floor of a 19th-century residential building near Grosvenor Square in London; a Collection store on the ground level of the new 60-story Elysian building in Chicago’s historic Gold Coast district; a Hong Kong flagship Marc Jacobs Collection store on the grounds of what once was the Marine Police headquarters and is now a new luxury shopping destination; and finally, a new free-standing Marc Jacobs Collection flagship store in Seoul.

Welcome Center Tells a Story

Rutgers University’s welcome center.

Murphy Burnham & Buttrick

Rutgers University has commissioned architects Murphy Burnham & Buttrick, in collaboration with exhibition designers Ralph Appelbaum Associates, to design a visitor center for its New Brunswick campus geared towards communicating the institution’s global reach and telling the Rutgers story. The new 12,000-square-foot building is strategically sited to serve as a gateway to the university, and will be used as a springboard for the 40,000 students, parents, and alumni who are anticipated to visit the campus each year. In addition to a series of exhibition spaces, the building, known as the Welcome Center, will house admissions staff and contain multipurpose spaces to accommodate large tour groups and university-wide events. The team began to imagine the center as a dynamic, people-filled “billboard” that would grab visitors as they turned off the highway and in to the campus. In addition, the building is designed to be completely “off-the-grid,” employing an array of electricity-generating solar reflectors as well as geothermal technology to heat and cool the facility. Construction is expected to be completed by fall of 2009.

Shade Machines, Social Brackets Inspire 4 Tower in 1

4 Tower in 1.

Steven Holl Architects

Steven Holl Architects has been selected as the winning firm to design the master plan of the “4 Tower in 1,” an office tower complex around the new Shenzhen Stock Exchange Headquarters in Shenzhen’s Futian commercial business district. The design is based on the concept of tropical skyscrapers as “shade machines,” with a “social bracket” connecting the towers and the street level. The design for the four towers utilizes circular building footprints to maximize the interior space and open views while minimizing the exterior envelope. The optimized office floors are connected via double- and triple-height social spaces on alternating sides of the towers. Automatic solar tracking screens made of perforated PV cells make one full rotation per day around the circumference of each building, collecting enough PV energy to cool the towers completely while allowing them to act as an urban clock.

Supporting programs for the towers, such as cafeterias and gyms, are combined with cultural programs such as art galleries, auditoriums, and a cinema. Its sculpted form allows it to negotiate between environmental restrictions and the requirements of the public programs. A continuous roof garden park collects storm water and recycles all the gray water from the four skyscrapers.

Anchors Away! Operation Lieb House Sunrise Sail.

Akira Sawa

What better way to end the week than by watching Robert Venturi, FAIA’s 1969 Lieb House sail (by barge) under the Brooklyn Bridge and up the East River at sunrise — on its way to its new home on Long Island. The pier party will begin to gather at Pier 17 (South Street Seaport) at 7:00am on Friday, March 13 (but bundle up — temps predicted to be in the 30s — not counting wind chill factor).

It is the culmination of a three-day event, sponsored by the Storefront for Art and Architecture, celebrating the rescue of the New Jersey beach house from imminent demolition. Things kick off on Wednesday, 03.11.09 at Storefront with the opening of a “micro-exposition” of the house’s history, and a presentation by the indefatigable Fred Schwartz, FAIA, and filmmaker Jim Venturi, who both championed and organized the relocation. Venturi and Denise Scott Brown, FAIA, will be on hand on Thursday evening. (See also The Architect’s Newspaper: “Liebing for New Shores.”)