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

11.30.07 Submission: BusinessWeek/Architectural Record Good Design is Good Business
The second biannual awards program honors architects and clients worldwide who best use design to achieve strategic business and civic objectives. Projects must be completed since January 2005 on Mainland China, Hong Kong, Macau, or Taiwan. Submissions span seven categories: public projects; residential; commercial; planning; historic preservation; green design; and best client. Winners will be featured in Architectural Record China and BusinessWeek China edition, and an awards ceremony will be held in June 2008.

12.14.07 Submission: AIAS/AIA Trust Scholarship Program for Emerging Professionals
This scholarship is intended to assist financially challenged students by paying their tuition and/or other direct educational expenses. The program’s sponsors expect the scholarships to remove some of the barriers to an architecture career. Five scholarships of $750 each will be awarded to students either in the fifth year of an undergraduate professional degree or the first year of graduate professional degree.

12.31.07 Proposals: 2008 Conference Education Proposals
The League of Historic American Theatres calls for proposals for education sessions for the 2008 annual conference and theater tour. Theater managers, other historic theater staff leaders, service providers, and speakers or trainers are invited to submit proposals for sessions reflecting best practices and emerging trends in theater operations, theater programming, management, and defining the field.

01.31.08 Call for Entries: NAHB National Green Building Awards
This year’s National Association of Home Builders (NAHB) residential green design and construction practices award categories include: Green Building Program of the Year, Green Advocate of the Year, Outstanding Green Marketing Program, and Green Project of the Year. Classifications consist of: Single-Family, Multifamily, Development, and Remodeling. Entrants must be NAHB members. Awards will be presented at a gala dinner during the NAHB Green Building Conference in New Orleans, May 11-13, 2008.

02.01.08 Call for Entries: The National Terrazzo & Mosaic Association 2008 Honor Awards
The NTMA awards honor the best terrazzo installations completed during 2007 and are judged on excellence in craftsmanship, idea originality, design intricacy, artistic and faithful reproduction of the architects’ or designers’ drawings, scope of work, and quality of construction materials. Architects, designers, building owners, and others are eligible to submit entries, but an NTMA member contractor must have completed the terrazzo floor.

10.30.07

Now that the weather has finally cooled down, I hope you will want to leave your air-conditioned offices and check out all of the architecture events citywide. With the leaves changing, this is also a great time to explore the city on foot.

– Jessica Sheridan, Assoc. AIA, LEED AP

Note: In the last issue, the article “Green Roses for a Gray Lady” stated that the underfloor air system incorporated into the New York Times Building will not appear on the upper stories that the Times is leasing out. This is incorrect. The underfloor air distribution system appears on all New York Times Company-owned floors, including those that are leased.

Event: The Future Face of New York
Location: The Kaye Playhouse at Hunter College, 10.18.07
Speakers: Laurie Beckelman — Founder & Principal, Beckelman+Capalino; Majora Carter — Executive Director, Sustainable South Bronx; Shaun Donovan — Commissioner, New York Department of Housing Preservation and Development (HPD); Yesenia Graham — Vice President, Sutphin Avenue Development, One Stop Home Services; Daniel Libeskind, AIA — Principal, Studio Daniel Libeskind; Bill McKibben — Author, Educator, Environmentalist; Michael Sorkin — Michael Sorkin Studio & City College of New York; Mike Wallace — Pulitzer-Prize Winning Author
Moderator: Martin Filler — Architecture Columnist, House & Garden
Organizers: House & Garden, as part of House & Garden‘s Design Happening program series, organized in partnership with the Center for Architecture and the Architectural League

As New Yorkers face the challenges outlined in the city’s PlaNYC report, strong communities have the potential to bind and bolster the city during periods of change and turmoil. NYC’s future depends on fostering strong, livable communities within the city’s existing urban fabric.

What will the city’s strong communities look like in 20 years? According to author Mike Wallace, neighborhoods will likely be more diverse than they are today. Since 2000, the city has been growing past its record-high population, in part fueled by immigration. Today, more than 40% of New Yorkers were born in other countries. In recent years, a series of tectonic population shifts amongst the city’s many ethic groups have resulted in an explosion of communities comprised of diverse ethnic groups living together, instead of in autonomous groupings. To a large extent, it is believed that these spontaneously diverse communities are more socially sustainable than their heterogeneous neighbors.

The NYC Department of Housing Preservation and Development (HPD) Commissioner Shaun Donovan claims that NYC struggles to actively plan diversity into the city’s population. Specifically, the housing market should include designing for a diversity of people with different backgrounds and ages, and with a variety of incomes. “We have an ethical responsibility to grow this city,” said Donovan.

Though much of the tone of the discussion was dire — with talk of how population growth, global warming, and a potential housing shortage could cripple the city — Daniel Libeskind, AIA, spoke of his family’s immigration to NYC decades ago as a positive example of its longevity. “At the risk of sounding demented, I do want to say something optimistic about the city.” While New York’s communities could be drastically recast in the future, the city has an idealistic endurance that many others do not. “NYC has the sustainability of an idea.”

Carolyn Sponza, AIA, is an architect with Beyer Blinder Belle Architects and Planners and is the AIANY Chapter Vice President of Professional Development.

Event: Rethinking Domesticity
Location: The Urban Center, 10.19.07
Speakers: Elisa Orlanski Ours — Vice President, Planning & Predevelopment Department, Corcoran Sunshine Marketing Group; Joel Sanders, AIA — Principal, Joel Sanders Architect & Associate Professor of Architecture, Yale University; Calvin Tsao, FAIA — Co-Founder, Tsao & McKown Architects & President, The Architecture League of New York; Lois Weinthal — Director, BFA Interior Design Program, Parsons The New School for Design
Moderator: Marisa Bartolucci — Editor & Writer
Organizer: The Architectural League of New York, as part of House & Garden‘s Design Happening program series

House in Nolan Park on Governors Island.

Jessica Sheridan

Do contemporary dwellings reflect current living habits and desires? Are people truly ready to see the radical changes in their daily lives reflected in their living spaces? By serving as liaisons between clients and designers, integrating new technologies into old typologies, and reinforcing new trends through publication, designers can actively address issues of domesticity in their work and influence the shape of contemporary dwellings.

Currently, much of the domestic realm is shaped by status symbols and nostalgia, neither of which reflects actual living habits. A preference for McMansions may have less to do with the need for square footage and more to do with displays of wealth, according to writer and editor Marisa Bartolucci. Likewise, our sentimentality for vestiges of the past — such as formal dining rooms — may explain why certain unused spaces continue to haunt contemporary dwellings.

While old conventions influence dwellers’ decisions about their homes, attention must be given to forms that more accurately embody modern life. There is an increasing emphasis on spatial flexibility, leading to new definitions of privacy and work habits. Thus, today, a dining room might double as a home office or be integrated into the kitchen itself — a flexible and efficient solution that responds to practical needs in a time when space is at a premium.

Domesticity cannot be limited only to architecture; economic and social considerations are relevant and necessary, especially when it comes to effecting change. Yet, class and income do not necessarily dictate general domestic habits. Calvin Tsao, FAIA, co-founder of Tsao & McKown Architects, noted that apartment plans for residences in Bed-Stuy and Manhattan are similar in both layout and square footage, with only significant differences in materials, details, and location. Clearly our living habits are deeply engrained, and this comfort may ultimately be what maintains the status quo when it comes to contemporary dwelling. Architects continually generate innovative alternatives, but whether dwellers are ready to break free from conventional patterns and embrace these new changes is something that has yet to be seen.

Rachel Schauer is concentrating her studies on architecture and communications at New York University Gallatin School. She also is e-Oculus‘ graphic designer.

Event: Pecha Kucha NY
Location: St. Mark’s Church, 10.10.07
Speakers: Enrique Norten, Hon. FAIA — TEN Arquitectos; Israel Kandarian — 2×4; James Slade, AIA, & Hayes Slade — Slade Architecture; José Parlá — Artist; Andrew Zago — Zago Architecture; Jessica Root — Writer, TreeHugger; Mariah Robertson — Artist; Kanu Agrawal, Melanie Domino, Edward Richardson, Brad Walters — Editors, Perspecta 39: Re_Urbanism: Transforming Capitals; Eric C. Shiner — Independent Curator & author, Making a Home: Japanese Contemporary Artists in New York; Jeannette Kuo & Aziza Chaouni — KuoChaouni Design Collaborative; Annie Choi — Writer, Dear Architects II: The Revenge; Christian Acker & Kyle Talbott — Graphic Designers, Handselecta; Benjamin H. Bratton — Yahoo!, SCI Arc, UCLA; Craig Dykers, AIA — SNØHETTA
Organizers: Pecha Kucha NY

Courtesy Pecha Kucha NY

By now, many are familiar with Pecha Kucha‘s patented 20×20 presentation formula: designers are allowed to show 20 slides for 20 seconds each, giving them a total of 6 minutes 40 seconds to share their most captivating works. Even within these strict guidelines, creative professionals will always attempt to set themselves apart, and NYC’s fourth Pecha Kucha night was no exception.

The most apparent break in form came from 2×4’s Israel Kandarian who shared t-shirt designs that explore the public space of private identity. Flipping though many more than 20 slides, Kandarian’s images showed architects, students, and grandmothers holding t-shirts with phrases like “post-modernism, pre-materialism” or “Daft Punk, but less techno” — phrases that at first amused, but eventually grated on the attention span of the audience. Artist Mariah Robertson, on the other hand, projected her slides on the ceiling. While the audience was clearly entertained by her purposefully disheveled performance, it’s hard to say exactly what the content was.

Sticking closer to form was crowd favorite Enrique Norten, Hon. FAIA, from TEN Arquitectos whose images of frogs and pyramids loosely inspire the firm’s work. However, there were no images of projects, as Norten proudly declared, “There’s no time to talk about architecture in six minutes.” This claim did not stop SNØHETTA’s Craig Dykers, AIA, from giving a concise overview of the Norwegian National Opera House. He ultimately won the approval of the audience by sharing that employees at his firm collaborate to agree on their own salaries and vacation time, both of which, judging by the applause, are unusually high for the profession.

Pecha Kucha’s success is entirely dependent on the quality of its presenters whose performances can make even the fast pace of 20×20 feel slow at times. In retrospect, it’s difficult to recall the exact content of the presentations, as sound bites don’t provide much of a lingering aftertaste. But this highlights what could be the evening’s greatest triumph: you may not remember exactly what you’ve seen, but you know you feel inspired.

Rachel Schauer is concentrating her studies on architecture and communications at New York University Gallatin School. She also is e-Oculus‘ graphic designer.

Event: Engineered Transparency: Glass in Architecture and Structural Engineering
Keynote Speaker: Kazuyo Sejima — Founding Partner, SANAA
Location: Columbia University, 09.26-28.07
Organizers: Columbia University Graduate School of Architecture, Planning and Preservation; Columbia University Department of Civil Engineering and Engineering Mechanics; with Technische Universität Dresden’s Institute of Building Construction

The Glass Pavilion at the Toledo Museum of Art, designed by SANAA.

Jessica Sheridan

Offering new modes of visual pleasure and spatial experience, glass has benefited from major advances in engineering and structural innovations. The Engineered Transparency conference brought together international architects and engineers to discuss the present and future implications of glass in building design.

Considered one of the most advanced firms working in glass, founding partner of Tokyo-based SANAA, Kazuyo Sejima, kicked off the three-day conference with a keynote presentation of recent projects that push glass technologies to new limits. One of the best examples is the Glass Pavilion at the Toledo Museum of Art in Ohio, housing the museum’s extensive glass collection, with more than 5,000 works from ancient to contemporary times. Constructed of double-layered, floor-to-ceiling, curved glass panels, the undulating walls blur the boundaries between the exterior and interior spaces. The project pushes the definition of glass as a material as the curves alternate a viewer’s clarity and obscurity, reflection and distortion. In addition, the relationship between inside and outside is intensified. Visitors are constantly aware of their surroundings as the glass walls provide a dual experience of the outside environment overlapping the exhibition spaces.

The Glass Pavilion resurfaced throughout the conference as one of the best examples of cutting-edge glass design. The plan of the pavilion reveals challenges not just in aesthetics and experience, but also in structure, and heating and ventilation. Guy Nordenson, of NY-based Guy Nordenson and Associates Structural Engineers and structural engineer for the project, discussed the unique steel framing in the roof and concrete framing in the floor to enhance the thin panes of glass. Matthias Schuler, of Stuttgart-based Transsolar, talked about climate engineering challenges given the cellular structure of the galleries. The inner walls make up the galleries, and the exterior walls create cavities to insulate and provide heating and ventilation.

While glass might always have been a popular material, it is only recently that its technology has advanced structurally, aesthetically, and thermally. Engineered Transparency only scratched the surface of what is to come.

Annie Kurtin is a first-year student at Columbia University GSAPP.