Quoth the Fellows: Sassen, Sennett, Solomonoff, & Venturi

Friday, August 26th, 2011

In a co-authored NY Times op-ed that cites cuts to government-funded social programs as an underlying cause of the recent UK riots, Board Member Saskia Sassen and Fellow Richard Sennett caution that “Americans ought to ponder this aspect of Britain’s trauma. After all, London is one of the world’s wealthiest cities, but large sections of it are impoverished. New York is not so different.” In responding to a young woman’s question about whether or not to take time to work between receiving her undergraduate degree in environmental science and returning to school to pursue a graduate degree in architecture, Galia Solomonoff noted that “One of the benefits of working in between careers is understanding the life applications of a given practice.” And while being interviewed about his role in shaping Postmodernism by filmmaker John Thornton, Patron Robert Venturi (pictured at left) advised that: “Modernism is about space. Postmodernism is about communication. You should do what turns you on.”

Fellow to Design Center for Architecture Expansion

Wednesday, August 24th, 2011

The AIANY’s Center for Architecture, helmed by Rick Bell, is expanding into an adjacent storefront! And it gets better still: the new wing will be designed by Rob Rogers‘ firm Rogers Marvel. To show your support for this fantastic venue, consider becoming a sponsor for the  AIANY Heritage Ball, which will take place at Chelsea Piers on October 27th. This year’s ball will honor By the City / For the City juror and Janette Sadik-Khan, along with Gary Barnett, Leslie Koch, and Richard Meier.

BWAF Seeks To Fill All 50

Monday, August 22nd, 2011

The Beverly Willis Architecture Foundation, founded by Beverly Willis (pictured at left) and is now led by Wanda Bubriski, has launched a Call for Entries to the Collection of Women in 20th Century Architecture, an online database in which 40 of the 50 US states are currently represented. The BWAF’s summer mission is to find enough entries to fill out the map! If you know of a historical or active practitioner in Montana, Idaho, Nevada, Utah, Wyoming, South Dakota, Indiana, Kentucky, West Virginia, or New Hampshire, please contribute today!

Fellows in the News: Berke, Berman, David, Dubbeldam, Fisher, Hutton, Libeskind, Manfredi, Portman, Stastny, Weisz, & Wong

Friday, August 19th, 2011

Deborah Berke will serve on one of the resource teams at the 51st Annual Meeting of the Mayors’ Institute on City Design in Charleston in September; Architizer included Matt Berman’s “Studio Retreat” (pictured at left) in its round-up of modern interpretations of the cabin-in-the-woods; a preview of Re-Definitions, the publication featuring work from a design studio led by Theo. David, is available on Blurb.com; Philadelphia’s TASHAN restaurant, designed by Board Member Winka Dubbeldam, is getting ready to open to the public; on the latest episode of Citywide, Ken Fisher interviews singer and activist Peter Yarrow of Peter, Paul, & Mary fame; eOculus recapped a panel on NYC’s waterfront that was moderated by Ernie Hutton; Daniel Libeskind opined about his love of flight (and his “lucky charm” wife, Nina) in the NY Times; Michael Manfredi’s firm was one of six finalists chosen to compete to revamp St. Petersburg, FL’s City Pier; SFGate picked John Portman’s Hyatt Regency Hotel as one of the ten most impressive buildings in San Francisco; Park City, UT’s Kimball Art Center hired Don Stastny to manage a new design competition for its expansion; Board Member Clare Weisz presented the master plan for Manhattan’s Sherman Creek; and the Wall Street Journal spoke to John Wong about his “most personal project”–the renovation of his own home in San Francisco’s Sea Cliff neighborhood.

Opening & Closing Events of Urban Design Week Announced!

Wednesday, August 17th, 2011

With the full schedule set to come online next week, we’re excited to share news about the opening and closing events of the IfUD’s first-ever Urban Design Week festival, to be held in New York City next month. On Thursday, September 15th, we’ll kick things off with a party and announcement of the winners of the By the City / For the City design competition at the BMW Guggenheim Lab, the mobile urban laboratory (pictured at left) that’s just opened on Manhattan’s Lower East Side. Then, after a week of events celebrating the city’s public realm, we’ll close on Tuesday, September 20th with the US premiere of Helvetica and Objectified director Gary Hustwit’s new documentary Urbanized. Tickets are limited, so get yours today if you plan to attend!

Fellows’ Events & Exhibits: August 15-31, 2011

Monday, August 15th, 2011

On 8/24, IfUD Founder Ann Ferebee and Jeff Byles will speak about their book, A History of Design from the Victorian Era to the Present, at the NYPL’s Mid-Manhattan branch; another previous IfUD Director, Olympia Kazi, recently launched the Van Alen Institute’s Parks for the People student design competition, with a deadline of 11/1; and Glimpses 2040, an exhibit featuring work (pictured at left) by Barbara Wilks, and recently reviewed in the Times and The L Magazine, will remain on view at the Center for Architecture through 9/10.

Quoth the Fellows: Dykers, Greenberg, & Sassen

Thursday, August 11th, 2011

In describing plans for the expansion of SFMOMA’s Mario Botta-designed building (pictured at left), Craig Dykers explained that Snøhetta’s new wing is intended to help people “to experience the city in a completely new way.” Speaking to the Calgary Herald about the future of urban and suburban development, Ken Greenberg asserted that “The status quo is not an option.” And during her introductory speech at the Audi Urban Future Summit, Saskia Sassen argued that “We must think of mobility as a sort of black box that has many more facets than those defined by current technologies.”

Fellows Awards & Honors: Bernheimer, Cathcart, Handel, Jambhekar, Mayne, Portman, Stastny, & White

Tuesday, August 9th, 2011

The Design Trust for Public Space announced three Fellows for its Making Manhattan project–including two IfUD Fellows, Andy Bernheimer and Colin Cathcart; the Society for Ecological Restoration International announced Steven N. Handel as the winner of the 2011 Theodore Sperry Award; Sudhir Jambhekar and Hank White won an International Architecture Award for the King Abdullah Financial District Mosque in Riyadh (pictured at left), while Board Member Thom Mayne won for the Giant Interactive Group Corporate Headquarters in Shanghai; John Portman has been announced as a candidate for election to the American Furniture Hall of Fame; and Don Stastny was inducted into the College of Fellows of the Canadian Institute of Planners, following earlier elevations to Fellowship in both the American Institute of Architects and the American Institute of Certified Planners.

Fellows in the News: Angotti, Bell, Berman, Blaik, Ferebee, Flint, Hartmann, Holl, Pasquarelli, Rogers, & Safdie

Thursday, August 4th, 2011

Tom Angotti criticized Mayor Bloomberg’s PlaNYC for not focusing enough on providing affordable housing in the Gotham Gazette; The Epoch Times interviewed Rick Bell about how the economic recovery will affect the architectural profession; Inhabitat interviewed Matt Berman about workshop/apd’s GreeNOLA project; land-use advocacy organization The Fayette Alliance has launched a campaign to bring Omar Blaik to Lexington to help develop a plan for enhancing the relationship between that city and its anchor institutions; the New York Times plugged IfUD Founder Ann Ferebee’s new book, A History of Design form the Victorian Era to the Present; Anthony Flint wrote for The Angle about how bike-sharing could improve traffic in Boston; John Hartmann spoke to Brian Lehrer about his map for WNYC’s “New Littles” feature (pictured at left), popped up in an Architect profile of the non-profit SUPERFRONT, and launched a new Kickstarter fundraising initiative for his +FARM project; a+t released a new book on mixed use hybrid buildings with a preface written by Patron Steven Holl; Gregg Pasquarelli talked to Architect about the launch of SHoP Construction, while Paul Goldberger reviewed the firm’s newly-opened East River Esplanade in the New Yorker; Christopher Hawthorne reviewed Rob Rogers’ firm Rogers Marvel’s winning proposal for the redesign of Washington DC’s Ellipse; and Moshe Safdie was announced as the architect for Bishan Central, a planned 540-unit residential skyscraper in Singapore.

Fellows’ Events & Exhibitions: August 1-15, 2011

Monday, August 1st, 2011

IfUD Founder Ann Ferebee and Jeff Byles will speak about their new book, A History of Design from the Victorian Era to the Present, at the Skyscraper Museum on 8/2; AIANY is organizing a tour of Michael Manfredi’s Diana Center at Barnard (pictured at left) on 8/4; and Board Member Saskia Sassen will speak on the notions of comfort and “cityness” at the BMW Guggenheim Lab in New York on 8/12.