News – What’s New at AIANY and the Center for Architecture.

05.28.08

While it was impossible to be everywhere at once at the AIA National Convention, this issue features many of the happenings.

– Jessica Sheridan, Assoc. AIA, LEED AP

SAVE THE DATE: This year marks the 5th anniversary of OCULUS. Help us celebrate with a party following the Annual Meeting.

Location: Center for Architecture
Date: 06.03.08, 8:30-10:00pm

To RSVP, click the link. See you there!

CORRECTION: In the last issue, the In the News section featured 48 Bond Street, “A Contemporary Take on Bond Street,” designed by Deborah Berke & Partners Architects. GF55 Partners acted as Executive Architect responsible for construction documents, shop drawings, coordinating with engineers, attending community board meetings for building approval, and code compliance. We apologize for the omission.

BLOG ANNOUNCEMENT: Beginning with this issue, the AIANY Chapter is launching a new blog. We’re calling it The Center (there’s a link in the navigation menu on the e-Oculus homepage as well). You’ll find opinion pieces on a wide array of architectural concerns tied to NY-based designers, firms, and projects, along with a spotlight on debates and discussions at the Center for Architecture and AIANY. It’s an informal discussion board. Be sure to check it out regularly. Contribute to the dialogue.

If you would like to become a regular contributor to The Center, please e-mail e-Oculus.

Event: Architecture: Designs for Living – Environmental Design
Location: Center for Architecture, 05.12.08
Speakers: Paul Stoller, LEED AP — Director, Atelier Ten; Julia Nelson, AIA, LEED AP — Partner, BKSK Architects; Christopher Stoddard, AIA — Project Manager, Kohn Pedersen Fox
Moderator: Ernest Hutton, FAICP, Assoc. AIA — Principal, Hutton Associates
Organizer: AIANY Committee on the Environment (COTE); New York Visions
Sponsors: Champion: Studio Daniel Libeskind; Supporters: Gensler; Humanscale; James McCullar & Associates; Friends: Benjamin Moore & Co.; Costas Kondylis & Partners; Forest City Ratner Companies; Frank Williams & Associates; Hugo S. Subotovsky Architects; Ingram Yuzek Gainen Carroll & Bertolotti; Mancini Duffy; Magnusson Architecture and Planning; Rawlings Architects; RicciGreene Associates; Skidmore, Owings & Merrill; Syska Hennessy Group; Trespa North America; Universal Contracting Group; Contributors: Anchin, Block & Anchin; Calvin Tsao, FAIA; Cosentini Associates; Cross Construction Company; DeLaCour Ferrara Architects; Domenech Hicks Krockmalnic Architects; FXFOWLE Architects; Goldfinger Foundaiton for the Visual Arts; Helpern Architects; IBEC Development; Levien & Company; Michael Zenreich, AIA; Monadnock/Capsys; New York Building Congress; Perkins Eastman; Plaza Construction; Porter & Yee Associates; Robert A.M. Stern Architects; Roberta Washington, Architect; Rothzeid Kaiserman Thomson & Bee; Shen Milsom & Wilke; Skanska USA; Strategic Development & Construction; Swanke Hayden Connell Architects; Theo David Architects; Thornton-Tomasetti; Weidlinger Associates

Kohn Pedersen Fox Associates (International) PA designed the Heron Tower to increase density in London’s already dense urban center.

Rendering by Hayes Davidson

Sustainable design must mitigate the effects of sun, wind, and precipitation, according to Paul Stoller, LEED AP, director at Atelier Ten. Buildings should work more so their systems work less. By designing and developing a variety of projects, the firm is able to compare how the natural environment impacts a building, and through cost analysis it can find the best ways to reduce energy consumption. For example, the Strata Tower in Abu Dhabi, designed by Asymptote with Atelier Ten acting as the environmental design consultant, a double-curved sun-shading system wraps the building maximizing views and shading in the desert climate. See In The News for more information about the tower.

Stoller spoke as part of a panel to determine whether sustainable design focuses on alleviating climate conditions, advocates for green activism, or condemns urban sprawl. Other members of the panel discussing environmental designs revealed different approaches.

For Julie Nelson, AIA, LEED AP, partner at BKSK Architects, heightening one’s experience of nature will make him or her fully realize the importance of environmental stewardship. At the Queen’s Botanical Gardens in Flushing, Queens, ecological strategies directly engage the occupants. The building peels up from the ground creating a green roof. Rainwater is captured on the large planes and directed to an apex where it falls into an open pool. Plants naturally cleanse the water before it is stored in a cistern for re-use. Visitors enter the building via a pedestrian bridge, connecting them both visually and acoustically to the running water.

Tall buildings can provide the density needed in a time of massive urban growth, believes Christopher Stoddard, AIA, project manager at Kohn Pedersen Fox. The Heron Tower, for example, will be London’s tallest building when complete. It seeks to maximize efficiency and flexibility over time. The design features a side-oriented core on the south side, shielding the interiors from the day’s harshest sun. East and west façades incorporate triple-glazed wall systems with automatic shading. A series of three-story, vertical atria on the north side of the building defines smaller “villages” within the larger building mass. Each village has an independent HVAC system that can be changed out as technology improves, and the client can reclaim the space if needed. Calculations predict an overall 34% carbon-dioxide reduction.

All three speakers touched on how the overall energy efficiency of American cities, including NYC, pale in comparison to those in Europe. U.S.-based firms must look at all aspects of green design and learn from existing models.

Tyler Caine, LEED AP, is a designer at Cook + Fox Architects.

Event: Fit-City 3: Promoting Physical Activity through Design
Location: Center for Architecture, 05.20.08
Keynotes: James Sallis, PhD — Prof. of Psychology, San Diego State University and Program Director, Active Living Research; Jan Gehl, Hon. FAIA — architect, public space consultant, Copenhagen, Denmark
Speakers: Comm. Thomas Frieden, MD, MPH — NYC Dept. of Health and Mental Hygiene; Comm. David Burney, FAIA — NYC Dept. of Design and Construction; Rick Bell, FAIA — Executive Director, AIA-NY; Comm. Adrian Benepe, NYC Dept. of Parks and Recreation; Comm. Janette Sadik-Khan — NYC Dept. of Transportation; Alexandros Washburn, AIA — Chief Urban Designer, Dept. of City Planning; Brandon Mitchell — Full Spectrum NYC; Vishaan Chakrabarti, AIA — Related Companies; Stephanie Gelb, AIA — Battery Park City Authority; Robyne Kassen, Assoc. AIA — Pedestrian Studio
Moderators: Asst. Comm. Lynn Silver — NYC DoH; Joyce Lee, AIA — NYC Office of Management and Budget
Organizers: AIANY; NYC Department of Health

Courtesy AIANY

Convincing a roomful of urban architects and public-health personnel that too many Americans are unhealthy doesn’t require a raft of statistics. At the third annual Fit-City symposium, Health Commissioner Thomas Frieden, MD, MPH, provided research statistics anyway, as did “obesity warrior” James Sallis, PhD, program director of Active Living Research, and NYC Dept. of Health and Mental Hygiene (DoH) Assistant Commissioner Lynn Silver, whose national maps showed the alarming state-by-state rise of unhealthy body-mass indexes. The nation now has a proportion of overweight citizens once found only in isolated pockets of pudginess. Diabetes, an obesity-related condition, is rising even faster in NYC nationally. Human biology hasn’t changed, several speakers pointed out; people’s environment and diet have. Architects have some control over the former.

Design alone rarely induces sedentary people to exercise, but a coordinated, research-driven public-health effort that combines physical detailing and behavioral prompting — the new catchphrase is “active design” — is conducive to measurable results. One step promoted by Frieden and NYC Department of Design and Construction (DDC) Commissioner David Burney, FAIA, is to simply use stairs rather than elevators or escalators. Floor plans and attention to aesthetics can make staircases easy to find, welcoming, and visibly safe; on the behavioral side, Burney announced a new public education effort: a free poster by DDC’s graphic design division reading “Burn Calories, Not Electricity/Take the Stairs.” Janette Sadik-Khan, NYC Department of Transportation, presented the “Sustainable Streets” master plan, including measures such as car-free-street days, an idea pioneered in Bogotá, Colombia.

The blend of optimism and promotionalism wasn’t confined to the public sector: representatives of two private developers (Vishaan Chakrabarti, AIA, of the Related Companies, and Brandon Mitchell of Full Spectrum) presented their firms’ experience with sustainable, transit-oriented, and mixed-use urban residences whose locations and amenities advocate for improved health.

Because bodily de-conditioning is associated with car dependence, poor air quality, and a shortage of parks and recreational facilities, panelists believed that PlaNYC’s greening measures can produce positive health effects. NYC Department of Parks and Recreation Commissioner Adrian Benepe presented the plan’s components addressing the need to “program parks, not just build them.” Walking and cycling, in particular, enhance the quality of life for nearly the whole population, and keynote speaker Jan Gehl, Hon. FAIA, architect and public space consultant in Copenhagen, offered arguments for a steady effort to “reconquer” urban space for these and other human-scale activities. Gehl’s anecdote of cycling through Copenhagen with his wife on their 45th wedding anniversary, surveying the changes that several decades of public-space advocacy had brought to their home city, drove home the value of fighting this particular fight.

Ninth Avenue has a Copenhagen-style protected bike lane (at least as a seven-block proof-of-concept prototype), but for PlaNYC to move the city effectively toward Copenhagen’s level of civility, it must take on tougher battles. Overcoming the conundrum limiting bike commuting to the least risk-averse population, for example — cycling becomes safer when enough people ride, but most people won’t ride in city streets until they’re convinced it’s safe — requires a broad culture change: drivers have to learn instinctive respect for cyclists, and police must crack down on aggressive drivers. The Fit-City symposium indicates that officials and private players have a clear view of what a healthy built environment looks like, drawing on the world’s best examples and counselors. This vision, more than any single reform, is a major component of progress.

If you would like to learn more about the Fit-City program, AIANY has published pamphlets available at the Center for Architecture that detail symposium discussions.

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