Berke to Speak at Ghost Lab 13

Tuesday, March 29th, 2011

Brian MacKay-Lyons’ Ghost Lab has attained a somewhat legendary status. To wit: Architectural Record recently described the annual design-build gathering, which takes place in rural Nova Scotia at the MacKay-Lyons Farm (pictured at left), as “a kind of elite and magical summer camp” for the architecturally-inclined. We were excited to learn, then, that the list of speakers for Ghost Lab 13: Ideas in Things includes Institute Fellow Deborah Berke. This year’s event will take place from June 14-17, and will feature open registration for the first time. Register soon — space is limited, and it’s sure to fill up quickly.

Four Fellows Win AIA Design Awards

Thursday, March 24th, 2011

The Institute is well-represented on the list of winners of this year’s AIANY Design Awards: Patron Steven Holl received an Honor Award in Architecture for the Horizontal Skyscraper project in Shenzhen; Board Member Thom Mayne’s Phare Tower design in Paris (pictured at left) was recognized in the Unbuilt Work category; Fellow Bruce Fowle’s FXFOWLE scored two awards, both in New York with partners Diller Scofidio + Renfro (in Architecture for the Hypar Pavilion and in Urban Design for the Lincoln Center Public Spaces); and Claire Weisz for the NYC Information Center in Times Square. All honorees will be recognized at an award luncheon at Cipriani Wall Street on April 12th, 2011.

Fellows in the News: Blaik, Gorlin, Libeskind, Palmieri, Safdie, Sennett, Sheffer, Stepner, Walker, & Wong

Monday, March 21st, 2011

Detroit is abuzz with talk about Omar Blaik’s revitalization plan for the historic Midtown neighborhood, which recently got extensive write-ups from the Detroit News and the Free-Press; the latest issue of Dwell features a two-page spread on Alexander Gorlin’s The Brook development in the Bronx; a torquing tower designed by Daniel Libeskind will soon join a new cluster of skyscrapers rising in Jerusalem; John Palmieri recently visited Belfast as a guest lecturer for the city’s State of the City Development Debate; the Architect’s Newspaper recently visited Moshe Safdie’s studio for a look at his current projects, while the Huffington Post featured a slideshow of the architect’s daring Golden Dream Bay Sky Garden Apartments in Qinhuangdao; Richard Sennett wrote an article in the Guardian on the recent funding scandal at the London School of Economics; New York magazine talked to Ethel Sheffer about the uniquely depressing quality of long-vacant storefronts in newer buildings; Michael Stepner spoke to the Voice of San Diego about the challenges presented by “invisible parks”; construction is just getting underway to transform a disused stretch of Sydney’s waterfront into the 15-acre Headlands Park, designed by Peter Walker; and HuffPo visited the serenely swooping gardens (pictured at left), designed by John Wong, at the base of the world’s tallest building, Dubai’s Burj Khalifa.

Fellow Designs NYC’s Best Picnic Spot

Friday, March 18th, 2011

New York magazine’s annual Best of New York issue hit the stands last week, and the West Harlem Piers Park, designed by our own Barbara Wilks, was named as the city’s Best Picnic Spot. The weather has been improving lately in the city, and if you’re looking for a good way to kick back and relax with friends this weekend, there’s now official proof that you can’t beat Wilks’ Hudson Riverfront greensward. Check it out!

Ziskind Elected to College of Fellows

Wednesday, March 16th, 2011

Fellow David Miles Ziskind, Chief Architect at STV, has been elected to the prestigious College of Fellows of the American Institute of Architects. David and several other new AIA Fellows from the New York area were honored in Manhattan last night at a special reception at the Center for Architecture. This honor is bestowed on only 2,700 of the AIA’s 80,000 members (just over 3%), so congratulations are most certainly in order!

Fellows’ Events & Exhibitions: March 15-31, 2011

Tuesday, March 15th, 2011

Claire Weisz will participate in a panel discussion, to be moderated by Wanda Bubriski, on Emily Roebling’s role in the construction of the Brooklyn Bridge tonight (3/15) in New York; Weisz will also speak at the New Museum tomorrow (3/16) as part of the Architectural League of New York’s Emerging Voices series; Gretchen Bank will lead a Marketing & PR seminar for the AIANY’s Architects’ Fast-Track Leadership Series on 3/23; a traveling exhibit of work by Craig Dykers’ Snøhetta has just landed at Lisbon’s Musea de Electricidade; and the exhibit “Alessi: Ethical and Radical,” featuring items designed by Patron Robert Venturi, opened recently at the Philadelphia Museum of Art, where it will remain on view until 4/10.

Dykers’ Snøhetta a “Most Innovative” Company

Friday, March 11th, 2011

Fast Company ranked Craig Dykers’ Snøhetta at #35 on its list of the 50 Most Innovative Companies for 2011, commending the Norwegian firm for its attention to the “social experience” of architecture. Quoth Dykers in the business mag: “I hope that the fascination with a building’s sculptural form will make way for a greater emphasis on its socially conscious engagement with its surroundings.”

New York For Sale…Goes On Sale

Wednesday, March 9th, 2011

Fellow Tom Angotti’s new book New York For Sale: Community Planning Confronts Global Real Estate, will be published by the MIT Press in April 2011. Angotti’s 323-page tome can be pre-ordered now online. Says Harvard’s Susan Fainstein: “[Angotti's] acute observations of the threat to community residents underlying the drive for ‘global competitiveness’ and his analysis of the tactics available to progressive community planners constitute essential reading for everyone concerned with using planning as a means to obtaining a more just and democratic city.”

GSA Taps Coen for National Registry

Monday, March 7th, 2011

Fellow Shane Coen has been selected to serve on the General Service Administration’s National Registry of Peer Professionals, and will advise the GSA Public Buildings Service over the next two years. This appointment follows a winning entry in the 2010 Design Excellence Awards for Landscape Architecture for the U.S. Land Port of Entry in Warroad, Minnesota (pictured at left).

Fellows in the News: Gelb, Greenberg, Mayne, Newman, Norten, Sauerbruch, & Ryall

Friday, March 4th, 2011

DNAinfo.com spoke with Stephanie Gelb about a recent tussle over the use of recreational space in Battery Park City; eOculus recapped a recent panel discussion, featuring Beth Greenberg, on the extension of NYC’s #7 subway line; Kenneth Greenberg compared his plans for client Ryerson University’s bid to establish a face on Toronto’s famed Younge Street to NYU’s presence on Washington Square Park; Inhabitat explored Board Member Thom Mayne’s new  campus for Giant Interactive in Shanghai (pictured at left); Herbert Newman’s firm was announced as the winner of a design competition for the Slover Memorial Library in Norfolk, VA; Architectural Record reviewed Board Member Enrique Norten’s renovation of the Chopo Museum in Mexico City; Land Securities released new designs by Matthias Sauerbruch’s for an office complex on London’s Old Bailey, and the Guardian profiled the architect’s recently-completed renovation of the Turkentor Gallery in Munich; and William Ryall’s Harlem loft is featured in the February issue of Dwell.