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

Event: High Line Section 2 Community Input Forum
Location: Cedar Lake Theater, 10.23.07
Speakers: James Corner — Principal, Field Operations; Ricardo Scofidio, AIA — Principal, Diller Scofidio + Renfro; Robert Hammond — Co-Founder, Friends of the High Line
Organizers: Friends of the High Line (FHL); New York City Department of Parks & Recreation

Section 2 of the High Line will include everything from sumac trees to an open lawn.

Jessica Sheridan

The High Line is a rare civic-activism success story, and its progress, cheered by a devoted constituency well ahead of its opening, carries both the energy and the risks of high expectations. At the unveiling of new designs for the structure’s Section 2, between 20th and 30th Streets, Ricardo Scofidio, AIA, principal of Diller Scofidio + Renfro, said that only six years ago “a former mayor of this city” signed orders for the High Line to be demolished. Its preservation as a public park — thanks to Robert Hammond, Joshua David, and the other Friends of the High Line (FHL), media-savviness and effective legal work, convincing photography by Joel Sternberg, a well-publicized design competition, and other key public officials — shows that propertied interests and the autocrats who serve them need not always prevail in land-use disputes.

Throughout, there’s an effort to respect what landscape architect James Corner, principal of Field Operations, called the “characteristics that people have come to love about the High Line: its wildness, its autonomy, its strange, found, melancholic properties.” Section 1, extending from Gansevoort to 20th Street, is under construction and scheduled to open in 2008 (see New High Line to Open in 2008, by Kathryn Carlson, e-OCULUS 10.02.07). The future of Section 2 is secure though it is unknown when work will begin, and the fate of Section 3 (the railyard from 30th to 34th Street, owned by the Metropolitan Transit Authority) remains unresolved. The designs displayed at Cedar Lake Theater (unfortunately not yet ready for publication) will be worth the wait. Features include thickets of sumac trees and wild grasses, an open lawn near 23rd Street, and a ramp or “flyover” where visitors may stroll at treetop-canopy level. Plantings in the various areas are sequenced for variety.

As FHL morphs from an advocacy group to a conservancy that will manage the High Line in conjunction with the NYC Department of Parks & Recreation, the space is to remain public. Hammond deliberately debunked advertising-driven rumors of private access for residents of the area’s new luxury developments. Specific programming decisions favor sanctuary and relaxation: dogs will be welcome, but not rollerblades, and bicycles will have to stay at street level (in custom-designed bike storage). The lighting scheme will be a continuous, eerie glow. Access points, Corner explained, will be limited for crowd control.

The 1.45-mile stretch of planned wildness above the Meatpacking District and Chelsea is a beloved oxymoron. There’s enough buzz and mythology about the High Line to make huge crowds inevitable; the challenge now is to raise funds and manage the specific features that can sustain this site’s uniqueness beyond the point where its novelty fades.

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

Event: This Will Kill That? presents Saskia Sassen, author of Territory, Authority, Rights: From Medieval to Global Assemblage
Location: Center for Architecture, 10.23.07
Speakers: Saskia Sassen — Sociology Professor, Columbia University
Organizers: AIANY Emerging NY Architects (ENYA) This Will Kill That? Committee
Sponsors: SoHo Reprographics

Saskia Sassen holding her book, Territory, Authority, Rights: From Medieval to Global Assemblage at the Center for Architecture.

Katerina Kampiti

Nation-states often sacrifice their national identities for globalization. But don’t ignore national identities, including their economic histories, if you want to comprehend the global environment. This is the argument made by Saskia Sassen in her latest book, Territory, Authority, Rights: From Medieval to Global Assemblage (Princeton University Press, 2006).

Sassen explains globalization by using analogies, tracing their progress through history. One example is the corporate environment. In the past, companies were small entities. They were housed in one building, and the firm’s identity was apparent in the architecture, the advertising, the owners themselves, and the location of the business. This was long ago. After years of technological advancement and evolving infrastructure, businesses have become more global and less identifiable. Satellite offices and the Internet allow for multi-national establishments, creating what Sassen terms “specialized assemblages.”

In a way, corporations parallel larger global trends. Whereas countries used to be entities within themselves, now boundaries are blurred. Countries will thrive if they can successfully make this transition.

Serena Chen, Assoc. AIA, works at DeWitt Tishman Architects and is an ENYA member. Vasso Kampiti, Assoc. AIA, is the 2007 AIANYS Associate Director.

Event: Canstruction; 15th Annual Design/Build Competition Awards Gala
Location: New York Design Center, 11.08.07 (exhibition through 11.21.07)
Organizers: The Society for Design Administration; AIANY; The New York Design Center

(l-r): “Best Structure”: Tree by Platt Byard Dovell White; and “Best Labels”: Decoding Hunger by JCJ Architecture; “Honorable Mention”: D-CAN-A by Gilsanz Murray Steficek.

(l-r): Matthew J. Lalli; Matthew J. Lalli; Amy Tsim

Canstruction is an annual event where teams of architects, engineers, and other design/construction-related firms disobey the axiom, “Don’t play with your food.” Challenged to conceive structures created solely out of cans and other food products, these virtuosos never cease to amaze with their gravity-defying feats of visual canplexity.

While Canstruction is first and foremost a charity donating all food proceeds to City Harvest, it is also an impassioned competition among the participants, many of whom have entered for more than 10 years. Though many of the designs are whimsical, some integrate social commentary. Gensler’s More Than Just “TwoCANS” Feeding, a team led by yours truly, exhibits a mother toucan feeding her chick. Butler Rogers Baskett Architects’ An UnBEARable Truth incorporates the world’s environmental crisis with two polar bears surviving a melting ice cap.

There are also eye-catching designs that redefine structural integrity, such as Platt Byard Dovell White’s Tree. Having won the Structural Ingenuity award for the past four years, their creations always set a high bar for other entrants. This year, the structural engineering firm Gilsanz Murray Steficek met, and nearly jumped over, that bar winning an Honorable Mention for their interpretation of a DNA Helix. When asked how GMS has grown since last year, team captain Eugene Kim said that it was pre-planning, pre-builds, three-times as many volunteers, and three-times the cost.

Whereas GMS has grown from experience, “rookie of the year” JCJ Architecture depended on passion and a fresh outlook to win Best Use of Labels for its entry Decoding Hunger, a depiction of the Mona Lisa. According to Anthony Arce, AIA, principal at JCJ, “a great team building experience and a chance to give back to the community” were the reasons his firm entered. When asked about their strategy, team member Raphael Charles said, “We wanted to do something iconic.”

The Canstruction exhibition may be seen at the New York Design Center, 200 Lexington Avenue, from November 8-21. Hours: Monday-Saturday, 9:00am-5:00pm. Admission: one can (or more) of food.

Wes Anderson has directed a series of AT&T commercials that feature the busy lives of various professionals. As a fan of his work, I was excited that one of the commercials features an architect. The commercial moves frame by frame through the busy life of a partner of the fictional firm, “Lea Nakamura Architects.” Dressed in black with thick-framed glasses, she oversees everything from design development through construction. At first watch, I thought the commercial celebrates architects; it even makes a statement about gender equality by featuring a woman in power. The more I watch the ad, however, the worse she — and the profession — looks.

With each frame, disasters appear. Her design team is not living up to her standards; the architect-of-record confuses an elevator for a chimney; a cement order was cancelled on the job site; there are electrical problems. The architect deals with each situation in a blasé, not-my-problem kind of way. It seems as if everyone is scampering to get the job done, and meanwhile the architect is sitting on a stool with her cell phone brushing them all off. In the end, the project gets done (it’s a white, rectangular room), and the viewer is left questioning what the architect actually accomplished. Yes, she is aware of all the issues because she is able to communicate with everyone on her phone, but she hasn’t solved any of the problems.

This ad is uncalled for to say the least. When the ad should commend architects for handling the various sticky situations on job sites, and AT&T should sell the phone as a way to help architects handle disasters, it makes them look foolish instead. So much for progress.

In this issue:
·Louis Armstrong House Museum Expands Across Lot
·21st Century Tools Revamp Metropolitan Museum of Art
·CyberDoorman At Your Service
·The Alexander Rises in Midtown
·Institute’s a Matter of NanoScience
·Louisville’s Slugger of a Skyscraper
·A Housing First for Greater Boston

Louis Armstrong House Museum Expands Across Lot
After a national search, NY-based Caples Jefferson Architects has been selected to design the Visitors Center for the Louis Armstrong House Museum (a NYC and national historic landmark) in Corona, Queens. The Visitors Center is across an empty lot, donated to Queens College in 1986 by the Louis Armstrong Educational Foundation, from the museum. In 2006, NY State awarded Queens College and the City University of New York (CUNY) $5 million to design and construct the center, and this July the NYC Department of Cultural Affairs awarded an additional $5 million to the project. Expected to open in three years, the new center will offer concerts, lectures, exhibitions, community events, and other services and programs.

21st Century Tools Revamp Metropolitan Museum of Art

The Ruth and Harold D. Uris Center for Education at The Metropolitan Museum of Art.

Courtesy The Metropolitan Museum of Art

Following a $75 million, three-year renovation and complete reconfiguration by CT-based Kevin Roche John Dinkeloo and Associates, the Ruth and Harold D. Uris Center for Education at the Metropolitan Museum of Art re-opened. The 25,000-square-foot center includes the museum’s first art study room designed for teaching with original artworks, studio facilities, and a lecture hall. All classrooms and lecture rooms are equipped to document and archive lectures and presentations, and to support distance-learning and video-conferencing. High-speed communication networks will enable students, artists, and teachers to have access to educators, students, and other museums worldwide. The firm has directed the master planning for the museum since 1967.

CyberDoorman At Your Service

441 East 57th Street.

FLAnk

Positioned in an enclave between two circa 1920’s brick co-op buildings on Sutton Place is 441 East 57th Street, now under construction by design/developer firm, FLAnk. When completed in 2008, the luxury 15-story residential condo will contain four duplexes, a triplex, and a penthouse. The building boasts light from three sides, with a façade edged in anodized metal in fritted glass, employing 51 panel typologies totaling over 1,500 framed “puzzle pieces.” Amenities abound in this “smart” building — including entries controlled by a “CyberDoorman” that is operated via a key fob or biometric thumbprint reader.

The Alexander Rises in Midtown

The Alexander.

Sydness Architects

The Alexander, a 24-story, 88-unit luxury residential building, designed by Sydness Architects, is under construction on the corner of Second Avenue and 49th Street. To respect the scale of the residential block’s masonry-clad, low-scale buildings, a 19-story curved glass tower bookended by panels of tan-colored terra cotta will rise from a five-story podium. Shops will comprise the podium’s first two glass-clad levels, with large terraced apartments on the next three levels clad in deep red terra cotta panels. The building is scheduled to open in 2009.

Institute’s a Matter of NanoScience

The central courtyard of California NanoSystems Institute.

Rafael Viñoly Architects

Rafael Viñoly Architects reports the December opening of the California NanoSystems Institute (CNSI) on the UCLA campus. Located on the Court of Sciences, CNSI is a seven-story building housing laboratories for nanotechnology, a multidisciplinary field addressing the control of matter on a molecular level. The building is partially below grade and is sited on a narrow, steep lot adjacent to a parking structure. At first considered an obstacle, the parking structure became inspiration for the design with three floors constructed over part of it. The entrance lobby connects the parking structure to the research floors through a zigzag network of suspended bridges and stairs in the building’s central courtyard, realizing the client’s goals of interdisciplinary cooperation and socialization.

Louisville’s Slugger of a Skyscraper

Museum Plaza.

REX

Construction has begun on Museum Plaza, a $490 million tower in Louisville, KY, that will transform the city’s skyline. Designed by NY-based REX, the 62-story skyscraper combines the arts, commerce, and residences in one cultural center with 165 luxury condominiums, 300,000 square feet of class-A office space, a 260-room Westin Hotel, and the University of Louisville Master of Fine Arts program. An island, located 24 stories up, will be a hub of activity with a 35,000-square-foot, world-class contemporary arts center, a luxury spa, pool and fitness center, a condo club, ballroom, restaurants, and retail. In addition, the plaza will feature a new three-acre public park with connections to the Muhammad Ali Center and riverfront.

A Housing First for Greater Boston

303 Third Street.

Cetra/Ruddy

NY-based Cetra/Ruddy recently celebrated the topping out of 303 Third Street in Cambridge, MA, the first residential community in the Boston area marketed with the University Residential Community at MIT (URC). The 605,000-square-foot project consists of 292 residential apartments and 167 co-ops, sited around a landscaped courtyard reminiscent of the university quads of Harvard and MIT. The apartments are marketed exclusively to the URC community consisting of Harvard, MIT, and Massachusetts General Hospital faculty, staff, and alumni. Cetra/Ruddy designed amenities one would find “on campus” including: a club/library; flexible meeting spaces for lectures, community activities, and business meetings; and a private dining club.

Architects, urban designers, and planners are needed on NYC’s 59 Community Boards to provide knowledgeable and experience-based input on development and planning, land use, zoning, and service delivery issues. Every board has 50 members, a budget, district manager, and staff to represent the voice of its community. The Borough President makes all appointments — half are unilateral, and half are upon recommendation by city council members. The next round of applications are due in January 2008 for Fall 2008 membership. For more information about the position, go to Manhattan Borough President Scott M. Stringer’s website. If interested, contact your Borough President’s Office and the office of your local city councilmember, also.

Perkins Eastman has acquired Basler Mosa Design Group and The Liebman Melting Partnership. Principals making the transition include Shawn Basler, AIA; Ibrahim Mosa; Theodore Liebman, FAIA; and Alan Melting, FAIA, AICP…

Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg will receive a special honor at the New York Housing Conference (NYHC) and National Housing Conference (NHC) 34th Annual Awards Luncheon in December…

Slovenian artist and architect Marjetica Potrc will serve as a fellow at the The New School’s Vera List Center for Art and Politics for the 2007-08 academic year…

Joanne M. Minieri has been named president and chief operating officer of Forest City Ratner Companies… IA Interior Architects announced that Jennifer Hatton has been promoted to Director of Global Business Development and David Bourke, AIA, Managing Principal, has been appointed Chief Marketing Officer… Swanke Hayden Connell Architects has named Robert Vail Cole, AIA, a principal of the firm…