Category: In The News

In this issue:
· Something Old, New, Reclaimed for New Condo
· South Park Slope Breaks Ground for Supportive Housing
· Goethe-Institut Opens Two New Downtown Spaces
· Contemporary Library Blends New and Old
· Digital Medium is Message at Public Communications School

Something Old, New, Reclaimed for New Condo

Steelworks House.

AvroKO

A 130,000-square-foot building, originally home to the Lewis Steel Products factory in the 1930s, is being converted to high-end loft condominiums containing 88 studio- to three-bedroom lofts. NY-based AvroKO was signed on by Fifth Square Partners to complete the concept and the creative marketing and branding. The design team decided to repurpose original site materials. Reclaimed lumber from the building was used to create shelving, interior details, and a rough-hewn wood reception desk for the lobby. The steel sash industrial window frames will be preserved and new energy-efficient windows installed. Each of the residences will feature custom-designed, handmade elements by local craftspeople, including Synchro, a contracting and architectural fabrication company.

New elements, such as steel mesh wall-coverings and polished concrete floors, aim to complement the reclaimed materials. Greener By Design will landscape the building’s 8,500-square-foot roof deck using organic fertilizers and non-chemical weed control, and incorporate low-voltage lighting and water-conserving irrigation systems. Other rooftop features include a skyline cinema, open air bungalows, communal kitchen, private rooftop cabanas, and stone fire pits. Gene Kaufman, Architect, is serving as project architect.

South Park Slope Breaks Ground for Supportive Housing

575 Fifth Avenue.

Amie Gross Architects

Amie Gross Architects recently broke ground on a new 30,000-square-foot, five-story supportive housing project in South Park Slope, Brooklyn. The mixed-use development will provide studio apartments and social services for 48 individuals in need, including the elderly, formerly homeless, and young adults coming out of foster care, as well as street level retail, and office and community space for supportive services. The building has been designed to achieve a LEED Gold rating and will be one of the first LEED-rated publicly-funded buildings in Brooklyn. The Fifth Avenue Committee (FAC), a not-for-profit that creates affordable housing in South Brooklyn, is developing the project.

Goethe-Institut Opens Two New Downtown Spaces

Goethe-Institut New York.

Courtesy Goethe-Institut

The Goethe-Institut New York, which organizes and hosts German cultural events and promotes international cultural exchange, has opened a second satellite space called the Goethe-Institut Wyoming Building in the Bowery Arts District. The space will formally open in March 2009 after a renovation by Berlin-based architects ifau (Institut für angewandte Urbanistik/Institute for Applied Urbanism) + Jesko Fezer, a firm focused on interrelated, interdisciplinary projects — including architectural and urban design, research, installations, and events in the urban context. The Institut recently opened another downtown satellite space, Ludlow 38, designed by artists Ethan Breckenridge and Liam Gillick. The space, programmed by Kunstverein München, will exhibit contemporary art.

Contemporary Library Blends New and Old

Mamaroneck Library.

BKSK Architects.

Ground was recently broken on the 13,000-square-foot addition to the Mamaroneck Public Library in Westchester County. BKSK Architects designed the addition to the existing 21,000-square-foot library, a portion of which dates back to 1927. Façade materials, column design, and box patterns are meant to blend old with new. The library’s original 1927 reading room was also restored, and a new children’s wing, dedicated teen area, expanded public computer space, enlarged community meeting facilities, a coffee bar, and outdoor terrace will meet current and anticipated future needs of library patrons. The new facility incorporates energy-efficient building systems, a green roof, sustainable materials, and natural light — elements that will enable the library to qualify for LEED Silver. Completion is slated for spring 2010.

Digital Medium is Message at Public Communications School

Newhouse III.

Poulin+Morris

Poulin + Morris, a multidisciplinary design consultancy, has completed work on Newhouse III, the latest addition to the Newhouse School of Public Communications at Syracuse University. Completed in 2008, the glass-wrapped building, designed by Polshek Partnership, supports the integration of students and specialties by housing community spaces including dining facilities, student lounges, an auditorium, a conference center, classrooms, offices, editing suites, media labs, and research centers (see OCULUS, Winter 2007/08). Poulin + Morris was responsible for the design of a comprehensive donor recognition and environmental graphics program. The solutions rely on visual metaphor and technology to communicate the foundation and future mission the journalism school. A donor wall in the entrance lobby uses more than 100 staggered, horizontal LED digital panels. In addition, two typographic wall murals are located in the atrium; one identifies school programs spanning three stories, and another celebrates the First Amendment.

The Heart of Brooklyn (HOB) Connection is a new free shuttle connecting central Brooklyn’s cultural institutions: Brooklyn Botanic Garden, Brooklyn Children’s Museum, Brooklyn Museum, Brooklyn Public Library, Prospect Park, and Prospect Park Zoo.

There are three programs, which are hop-on/hop-off rides featuring tour guides, coupon books for local restaurants and shops, and maps and brochures from Brooklyn cultural attractions. Museum Mile to Brooklyn Style picks up passengers outside of the Metropolitan Museum of Art on Sundays; Saturday Scene runs continuous loops from Bay Ridge, Red Hook, and Williamsburg, depending on the Saturday, to all the cultural institutions; and Target First Saturdays Shuttle carries riders between the Brooklyn Museum and places to eat, drink, and shop in surrounding neighborhoods,

For more information, visit The HOB Connection website or call 718.638.7700 x22.

AIA-NJ announced its 2008 Design Award Winners including the following NY-based firms: in the Built Category, ARO (Honor Award, The School of Architecture addition at Princeton University), and Ricci Greene Associates (Merit Award, Union County Juvenile Detention Center); in the Un-Built Category, David Yum Architects (Merit Award, Evening Land Winery)…

Crain’s New York Business‘ 2008 list of “Best Places to Work in New York City” includes architecture firms RAND Engineering & Architecture (#26), Ted Moudis Associates (#30), Beyer Blinder Belle Architects & Planners (#40), HOK (#44), and Studio Daniel Libeskind (#45)… Special Olympics New York honored Ted Moudis, AIA, at its Ninth Annual Real Estate & Construction Gala…

Parsons The New School for Design and director of interior design, Lois Weinthal, announced a new Master of Fine Arts degree in Interior Design…

WSP Flack + Kurtz announces the addition of David Choy, PE, senior vice president, and the return of Daniel Nall, FAIA, PE, LEED AP, senior vice president as the firm-wide director of sustainability… Callison announces the promotion of Susan Soehnlen to the role of director…

12.15.08 Call for Entries: ICFF Studio Bernhardt Design
The International Contemporary Furniture Fair (ICFF) will be held 05.16-19.09 at the Jacob K. Javits Convention Center. ICFF Studio invites submissions of product prototypes from designers working on any and all the product categories: furniture, seating, carpet and flooring, lighting, outdoor furniture, materials, wall coverings, accessories, textiles, and kitchen and bath. Selected designers win a spot to display their prototypes on the exhibition floor.

12.15.08 Call for Entries: ICFF Design Schools
GLM, producer and manager of the ICFF, announces a call for entries from design schools for consideration for spots at the ICFF. Entries must describe a topic, a singular concept with original products and prototypes, and be designed by students. Submissions will be reviewed and judged by editors from design publications and sponsors of the ICFF: Abitare, Domus, Frame, Interni, Intramuros, Metropolis, and Wallpaper. Each school will have a 200-square-foot booth space.

01.23.09 Call for Ideas: Woburn Public Library Expansion “Ideas” Competition
This ideas competition, sponsored by the New England Society of Architectural Historians, Harvard University Graduate School of Design, AIANY, and Boston Society of Architects, seeks ideas for a 25,000-square-foot expansion of the H. H. Richardson-designed Woburn Library. The first-place award is $2,500, second place is $1,500, and third place is $500. The winner will not get the commission for the actual project, but will be free to submit a proposal for the forthcoming formal RFQ/P process.

11.11.08

Now that Architecture Week is over, be sure to check out all you missed or re-visit the events you attended in this issue.

And thank you to everyone who contributed to the special Stephen Kliment tribute issue. Contributions are now being added as they are submitted. Recent additions include memorials from: Charles Linn, FAIA; Kirsten Sibilia, Assoc. AIA, LEED AP; and Marcy Stanley. Click here to read the Special Issue.

– Jessica Sheridan, Assoc. AIA, LEED AP

CLICK ON BLOG CENTRAL: AIANY BLOG: The AIANY Chapter has launched a new blog. Blog Central features opinion pieces on architectural issues relevant to NY-based designers, firms, and projects, along with spotlights on debates and discussions at the Center for Architecture and AIANY. It is an informal discussion board. Be sure to check it out regularly and contribute to the dialogue.

Some of the recent debates include:
· South Street Seaport Redevelopment. AIANY is supporting General Growth Properties with SHoP Architects to develop South Street Seaport. Click the link to read more about the testimony at the Landmarks Preservation Commission.

To become a regular contributor to Blog Central, please e-mail e-Oculus. Pen names are welcome.

Event: Forum for Urban Design Fall Conference Presentation
Location: Century Association, 11.03.08
Speakers: Richard Burdett — Centennial Professor in Architecture and Urbanism, London School of Economics & Director, Urban Age; Robert Bruegmann — Professor, University of Illinois
Organizers: Forum for Urban Design

Courtesy Forum for Urban Design

In back-to-back presentations, two urban planning researchers gave conflicting accounts of the future of cities, differing on the use of statistics and the desires of city dwellers. Richard Burdett, director of the Urban Age project, outlined the results of an eight-city study, recently published in the book The Endless City (Phaidon, 2008). Noting that 2007 marked the first time in history that half the world’s population lived in cities, Burdett used photos and diagrams from the book to summarize the prospects for urban design in the 21st century.

In one aerial image from São Paulo, a freeway separated orderly apartment blocks from a chaotic shantytown, or favela. Pointing to the image, Burdett said architects “mostly build ugly buildings, and only to the end of the property line, with little concern for what happens outside.” A series of maps showed the locations of the world’s fastest-growing cities in Africa and Southeast Asia. According to Burdett, São Paulo’s favela is representative of the explosive growth of the slums and shantytowns in these cities. “As urbanists, this is the problem we have to deal with… and I don’t think we have the tools to do it.”

Against this vision of endless sprawl, Burdett held up examples of highly functional urban design, including London, Berlin, and New York. Through their combination of inclusive governance structure, public transit, and high density, Burdett argued that these cities could serve as models for the developing world.

Professor Robert Bruegmann of the University of Illinois responded to Burdett’s presentation, taking issue with several of Urban Age’s statistics and methods. Bruegmann charged that Burdett and Urban Age had neglected the middle class’s desire for lower density and detached housing. The book, Bruegmann said, is concerned with not what people want but “what people should want.”

Referring to the high-density cities, Bruegmann observed, “It’s quite possible that these old European and American cities were an aberration.” He forecasted that future cities would look less like Berlin and more like Los Angeles, with sprawling suburbs and exurbs connected to a medium-density core by freeways.

Matt Frassica is a freelance writer.

Event: Current Work: Snøhetta
Location: The Cooper Union for the Advancement of Science and Art, 10.28.08
Speakers: Craig Dykers, AIA — Senior Partner/Director, Snøhetta; Calvin Tsao, FAIA — President, Architectural League & Partner, Tsao & McKown Architects (introduction)
Organizer: The Architectural League of New York

Snøhetta’s entry pavilion for the September 11 Memorial Hall and Memorial Museum.

Rendering by Squared Design Lab

Snøhetta is named for a craggy Norwegian mountain, but the firm’s inspiration comes as easily from water. From its Oslo office windows, ships can be seen drifting by on a fjord, said Senior Partner/Director Craig Dykers, AIA. “Three or four hundred tons of metal float effortlessly by, and there’s nothing more engaging to an architect [than] to see that much weight seemingly untouched by gravity. In a sense, that’s an important part of, I think, how we approach things — with a lightness,” he remarked.

The design for an airy glass-and-steel pavilion at the WTC tilts up toward the sky. Serving as an entry to the September 11 Memorial Hall and Memorial Museum, the pavilion has an angled roof that points down toward the underground museum and leads the eye up toward nearby buildings, reinforcing its role as a “link between the memorial and the commercial fabric of the city,” Dykers said.

The much-delayed project has, at times, been a tumultuous one. “Our building has been the only building on the memorial site, and therefore it gathers more criticism than the much larger buildings nearby,” he said. At one point, they had to redesign it and scale it down, yet in the end, Dykers thinks the change has been a good one. “In NYC, a small scale is a luxury,” he observed; the reduced size will bring a greater sense of intimacy for visitors.

The project led the firm to establish a second office in NYC in 2004, boosting its local presence. These days, it is planning to renovate a Williamsburg space for STREB, a highly athletic dance company whose gravity-defying feats match the firm’s kinetic sensibilities. “We began to review the methods of movement that occur with their dance company and integrate that into the motions of the façade,” Dykers said. Ripples in the brick will let dancers climb on the façade’s surface to perform acrobatic feats, and entire sections of the façade will be able to pivot open to the street.

Beyond presenting an array of projects, Dykers also discussed Snøhetta’s philosophies and progressive work policies, such as keeping an internal union. Principals are paid no more than twice an entry-level salary, and the firm’s experience-based salary ladder is common knowledge, taking the mystery out of the compensation process. And even in busy times, they eschew late nights at the office, proving that architects can take their work seriously without letting it weigh them down.

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

Chanel Contemporary Art Container.

Jessica Sheridan

Much to my surprise, I enjoyed my tour through the Chanel Contemporary Art Container, a traveling installation designed by Zaha Hadid, Hon. FAIA. Inspired by a quilted handbag, I was expecting an interesting form with a creative use of materials, but I was not expecting how integrated and connected the architecture would be with the art, nor that the experience would be so intimate and feminine.

The myth of the black hole that is a woman’s handbag is rather cliché; nevertheless, the pavilion embraces it full-force. A small iPod led me through a guided tour narrated by Jeanne Moreau through the spiraling spaces, from one artwork to the next, in an attempt to make me feel lost in a parallel world of fuzzy materials, sexuality, and curved enclosures. From the parallelogram-shaped floor tiles to the fabric-wrapped skeleton, I literally felt as if I was walking through the folds of a leather purse.

My biggest criticism with the pavilion is not with the architecture, but with its inaccessibility to the public. To place a work of art in the middle of Central Park that is hosted by a brand like Chanel and designed by a “starchitect,” and then to provide a limited number of tickets that one had to reserve months in advance (thanks to a coworker, I was able to get one of the last slots), is a sign of elitism that is against everything public art should stand for. Although there was a stand-by line, I hear that many were turned away because there were not enough time slots and the pavilion isn’t installed for a long enough period of time. I do not feel privileged that I had the chance to experience the pavilion; I feel disappointed that I could not share it with others.

In this issue:
· Metal Shutter Houses Bi-Fold Their Way to West Chelsea
· USS Intrepid Completes Two-Year Makeover
· The Chapin School Grows
· The Show Goes On at SVA
· All Are Welcome at Freak Bar
· Concert Hall Sets Sail at Rensselaer
· Two Towers, Two Bridges, Two Orientations

Metal Shutter Houses Bi-Fold Their Way to West Chelsea

Metal Shutter Houses.

Montroy Andersen DeMarco

NY-based Montroy Andersen DeMarco was named architect-of-record for the Metal Shutter Houses now under construction in West Chelsea, designed by Shigeru Ban Architects in collaboration with NY-based Dean Maltz Architect. The 33,000-square-foot, 11-story building contains floor-through duplexes ranging from 1,950 to more than 3,300 square feet. Natural light enters the first floor, two-story art gallery via a skylight that spans the rear property line through the concrete superstructure. Each residence has a double-height loggia with electronically controlled, perforated metal shutters. When the shutters are retracted, 20-foot-high by 15-foot-wide bi-fold windows — a hybrid of one manufacture’s industrial bi-fold system and another company’s residential window product, are revealed. When opened, they create a continuous floor plan from the interior to the deck. Commissioned by HEEA Development, the project is slated for completion this coming spring.

USS Intrepid Completes Two-Year Makeover

USS Intrepid Sea, Air & Space Museum.

Skanska USA

The USS Intrepid Sea, Air & Space Museum reopened in time for Veteran’s Day after a two-year renovation project with a new paint job, new exhibitions, restored aircrafts, and a new public pier. As part of the final phase of construction, Skanska USA Building installed gangways to transport an estimated one million visitors onto the ship annually, and to permanently secure the USS Intrepid in the newly reconstructed berth at Pier 86 in Hudson River Park. The five gangways provide access from a 64-foot-high glass elevator tower and three stair towers, and contain galvanized aluminum panels and canopies that match the towers. The decommissioned carrier is plugged into utility “umbilicals” on the pier to connect it to the landside visitor’s center for utility sources. A series of flexible hoses transport water and waste, while a chiller plant supplies the ship with heat and air conditioning.

Skanska first removed the original deteriorated pier and built its replacement on 360 steel-pipe piles driven to bedrock. The pier structure is a “sandwich” of drainage mat, high-density traffic-bearing foam fill, gravel, soil, and finished concrete paving. The 782-foot by 150-foot deck surface pattern resembles the stripes on a waving flag. The Concorde aircraft has also been permanently installed on the pier.

The Chapin School Grows

The Chapin School.

Marner Architecture

Marner Architecture has completed the expansion of The Chapin School on the Upper East Side. The additions provide advanced technological developments in classroom design for urban independent schools. Built in 1928, the six-story American Georgian-style building has had various additions over the years. This latest glass-and-metal addition includes new faculty offices, a student resources learning center, and three additional classrooms. The materials used in the façade maximize building insulation while allowing ample natural light to enter the building. Sunlight is controlled by external sunshades and translucent glass panels above interior sightlines to optimize light penetration without glare while preserving thermal insulation.

The Show Goes On at SVA

School of Visual Arts new cultural center.

Courtesy School of Visual Arts

School of Visual Arts (SVA) will soon have a new cultural center for film screenings, lectures, and other cultural programs that support its educational mission. Laurence G. Jones Architects and Aragon Construction have begun renovation on a 25,000-square-foot site, formerly the two-screen Clearview Chelsea West Cinemas. Upon completion, one renovated theater will seat 480, and the other 280. Both auditoriums will feature new screens and draperies, expanded stages, and new lighting and sound system. Other improvements include renovating the existing basement and upgrading all of the theater’s mechanical systems, fire alarms, and electrical services. The lobby will be replaced with a design by SVA acting chairman, Milton Glaser. The venue’s façade, also designed by Glaser, will display a changing set of graphic and sculpture art related to the school’s arts curriculum and will serve as the theater’s signature element.

All Are Welcome at Freak Bar

Coney Island USA Freak Bar.

Photo by Paul Warchol, courtesy Philip Tusa, Architect (www.philiptusa.com/new.cfm)

Astroland may be closing, but the new Coney Island USA’s Freak Bar and Museum Gift Shop, designed by Bensonhurst-born architect Philip Tusa, AIA, has opened for year-round business. The bar is in the circa 1917 Child’s Surf Avenue Restaurant building, home to Coney Island USA (CIUSA), a not-for-profit arts organization that presents the Mermaid Parade and Sideshows by the Seashore, the only remaining “ten-in-one” live sideshow in Coney Island. The greatest design challenge was to incorporate the new spaces with the existing, achieved by “perforating” the existing dividing partitions with large-scale oculus and archway openings to form an interconnected whole that functions as CIUSA’s “Front Door on Coney’s Surf Avenue.” The renovation also revealed the façade’s arches, long hidden by plywood signs. Now one can belly up to the bar and have a cold Coney Island Lager with a fire-eater — in the middle of winter, no less.

Concert Hall Sets Sail at Rensselaer

Experimental Media and Performing Arts Center.

Courtesy Davis Brody Bond Aedas

Doors opened at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute’s new Experimental Media and Performing Arts Center (EMPAC) in Troy, NY. Grimshaw Architects in collaboration with Davis Brody Bond Aedas and Buro Happold designed the 220,000-square-foot building that occupies a steep hillside. The $200 million facility houses a 1,200-seat concert hall, a 400-seat theater, two adaptive environment studios, an audio and video production suite, artists-in-residence studios, and a dance studio. To accommodate the steep hillside, the design team located entrances at both the highest and lowest elevations. From the entrance, patrons descend through the seven-level central atrium serving as the building’s social hub.

The concert hall is wrapped inside a “hull” of curved cedar planks hovering inside a glass exterior, and provides a practical enclosure for the extensive mechanical duct spaces and surrounding circulation corridors, and serves as a structural component that supports the roof. The concert hall’s shoebox form is optimized for Romantic-era symphonic music, but adaptive acoustics accommodate jazz, amplified music, films, and spoken-word events. The 400-seat theater is a hybrid of a traditional fly tower/audience chamber configuration with an adaptable studio/theater-in-the-round design.

Two Towers, Two Bridges, Two Orientations

The LM Project.

Steven Holl Architects

Steven Holl Architects unanimously won the international design competition for “the LM Project” in Copenhagen. With a program that connects office towers and civic spaces with a public walkway 65 meters above the harbor, the concept is based on two towers carrying two bridges at two orientations, all intended to connect with the unique aspects of the site’s history. Due to the site geometry, the bridges meet at an angle to appear as if they are shaking hands over the harbor. A prow-like public deck contains public amenities such as cafés and galleries. Each tower carries its own cable-stay bridge that is a public passageway between the two piers. The façades have high-performance glass curtain walls with a solar screen made of photovoltaics. They are connected to a seawater heating/cooling system with radiant heating in the floor slabs and radiant cooling in the ceiling. Natural ventilation is provided on every floor with windows opening at floor and ceiling level for maximum air circulation. Optimum natural light is provided to all offices due to the reflective light performance of the screens. Wind turbines line the roof of the pedestrian bridge providing all electricity for lighting the public spaces.