Quoth the Fellows

Friday, June 29th, 2012

Ken Greenberg spoke at a conference in Hamilton, Ontario about changing transportation habits, stating “Autopia has started to collapse. The new North American dream is about being able to walk to work.” Board Member Toni Griffin (pictured above) discussed the launch of the new J. Max Bond Center for Design on the Just City with Architectural Record, and articulated her goal for the Center as “My long-term vision is to create an academy that raises design awareness among youth of color. As we devise interventions that move toward the “just city”–if we define the just city as being inclusive and equally accessible–then architects must reflect that approach.” In a USA Today article about the Millennial generation of workers, Patricia Lancaster commented, “Cities around the world are competing to become creative digital lifestyle centers…(Young workers) are into culture, parks, working closer to home, having dogs in the office.”

Fellows’ New Projects

Wednesday, June 27th, 2012

Matt Blesso’s Blesso Properties is breaking ground on the Pavilion nightclub on Fire Island after it was destroyed in a November 2011 fire; only his second project in the UK, Patron Steven Holl will design a hospital for Maggie’s Cancer Care Centre; David Manfredi unveiled plans to redesign the Suffolk Downs racetrack in East Boston, adding a casino and resort; former New York Knick Clyde Frazier opened a restaurant in West Midtown designed by Board Member Thom Mayne’s Morphosis Architects (pictured at left); the nonprofit arm of John Palmieri’s Casino Reinvestment Development Authority will put on a video and light show to attract visitors to Atlantic City; Robert A.M. Stern will design the American Revolution Center in Philadelphia; Donna Walcavage served as the landscape architect for the newly open Polo Grounds Community Center in West Harlem.

Fellows’ Honors and Awards

Monday, June 25th, 2012

As Pratt Institute looks back and celebrates its 125th anniversary, the Institute named Theo. David as one of its ‘Most Admired’ alumni; a Sasaki Associates team led by Dennis Pieprz won a 2012 AIA National Honor Award for Regional and Urban Design for its Dead Sea Development Zone Master Plan in Jordan (pictured above); Pieprz also co-led a team that won a Society for College and University Planning award for its master planning of Universidad del Istmo in Guatemala; Board Member Claire Weisz is in the running for an Urban Land Institute Urban Open Space Award for WXY Studio’s renovation of Pier 25 at the Tribeca section of Hudson River Park.

Fellows in the News

Thursday, June 21st, 2012

 

e-Oculus recapped the Center for Architecture event “Practice in the Middle East,” whose participants included Rick Bell, Sudhir Jambhekar, and Board Member Byron Stigge; John di Domenico, John Hartmann, and Blake Middleton are on the jury for Moleskine’s Grand Central Terminal Sketchbook competition; David Dixon presented Good Clancy’s plans for Central Square in Cambridge to city officials; Craig Dykers created and served as jury chair for the Sam Fox School’s 2012 Steedman Fellowship in Architecture International Design; Dykers’ Snøhetta is also on the cover of the latest issue of The Architect’s Newspaper for their renovation of Times Square (pictured above); Galia Solomonoff has an essay featured in the new Princeton Architecture Press book Post-Ductility: Metals in Architecture and Engineering; Solomonoff also has a house featured in New York Magazine’s new Design Hunting issue; MAS’ MASterworks award winners were announced, with Suzanne Stephens and Board Member Claire Weisz on the jury.

Your Input Is Requested

Tuesday, June 19th, 2012
Your input is requested! As part of last year’s Urban Design Week, Fellow Mary Miss constructed an installation in West Harlem’s Montefiore Park with funding from the National Science Foundation. The installation asked passers-by to consider sustainability issues in the city. Architect and psychologist Dr. John Fraser, and his colleagues from NewKnowledge.org, have been studying the impact of the installation by assessing responses from the urban design community, passers-by, and Mary Miss herself.  Fraser is now asking the community to comment on his preliminary reports over the next two weeks.  He and his colleagues would love to have your feedback so they can fully gauge how Miss’ work impacted community thinking about sustainability. You can download their draft report and submit comments here.

Fellows’ Events and Exhibits

Tuesday, June 19th, 2012

Last Friday at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, Achva Stein gave a tour of the new Moroccan Court, followed by cocktails on the roof; also on 6/15, Rick Bell’s Center for Architecture hosted the AIA New York Chapter’s 145th Annual Meeting, where Lance Jay Brown is the 2013 First Vice President/2014 President-Elect; last Saturday in Shanghai, Board Member Thom Mayne spoke at the XXL Supertall Buildings conference co-hosted by Tonji University and USC; while 6/16 in the South Bronx, Kaja Kuhl hosted a workshop about her phytoremediation project; Laurie Kerr was at the Center for Architecture on 6/18 for a talk about “NYC’s Net Zero School”; Architecture for Humanity is having an online auction, running from 6/19 through 6/29, featuring work by Patron Steven Holl, Daniel Libeskind, and Moshe Safdie; Jack Nyman’s Steven L. Newman Real Estate Institute is hosting the day-long Advanced Energy Performance: Real Estate’s New Energy Asset Management Paradigm conference (pictured above) on 6/21, where both he and Laurie Kerr will speak.

Quoth the Fellows

Friday, June 15th, 2012

At a community meeting focused on the redevelopment of Sandy Springs, GA, David Dixon affirmed, “You picked the right time if you want to create a downtown. This is probably [the best] time since the Great Depression.” In Metropolis, Nina Rappaport discussed the inspiration behind her “Vertical Urban Factory” exhibit (pictured above), explaining “Industry can now also be ecological–an urban industrial symbiosis where one company’s waste become the others energy source; where one company’s scrap metal is repurposed by another. This symbiosis has not been tried in cities, so opportunities abound.” Moshe Safdie spoke to Vanity Fair about ‘starchitecture’ and opined, “I don’t think I have a signature style that announces, ‘This is a Safdie.’ But I think star architects have seized an opportunity to go anywhere in the world to produce meaningless buildings. You know?”

Fellow Galia Solomonoff in ‘Design Hunting’

Thursday, June 14th, 2012

Fellow Galia Solomonoff just had a house published in New York Magazine’s launch issue of their standalone design magazine, Design Hunting. You can read the article and get inspired by the wonderful pictures here.

Fellows in the News

Wednesday, June 13th, 2012

In an Abitare article, Justin Allen wrote about David van der Leer’s Stillspotting exhibit (pictured at left); Rick Bell talked to Metropolis about the building boom in the Middle East; Blouin ArtInfo profiled Meta Brunzema’s “Building Exhibition Hudson Valley/Erie Canal” project; Sara Caples served on the jury that determined the AIA 2012 Housing Awards; Craig Dykers’ Snøhetta endowed a scholarship for undergraduates at the UT Austin School of Architecture; for the latest installment of his CityWide talk show, Ken Fisher interviewed former Bronx Borough President Fernando Ferrer; Daniel Libeskind discussed ‘healing’ architecture in Metropolis; John Palmieri contemplated the future of Atlantic City in the Washington Post; Urban Omnibus recapped their Public Space Potluck with Linda Pollak at Dutch Kills Green.

Fellows’ Honors and Awards

Monday, June 11th, 2012

At the AIA National Convention, Susan Chin was elected to the national AIA Vice Presidency, Patron Steven Holl won the AIA Gold Medal, and the firms of Board Member Thom Mayne and Robert Rogers won Honor Awards; the New York chapter of ASLA announced their Design Awards, with Thomas Balsley’s firm taking home four awards, and the firms of Michael Manfredi, Barbara Wilks, and Henry White each receiving one; the Graham Foundation announced their 2012 Grants to Individuals, with Nina Rappaport and June Williamson both receiving awards to support their respective publications about photographer Ezra Stoller and designing suburban futures; Phil Enquist will be honored with Openlands’ 2012 Conservation Leadership Award at a luncheon in October; Matthew Berman’s workshop/apd won a Building Brooklyn award for their BLDG 92 at the Navy Yard (pictured at left); the Society for Marketing Professional Services awarded Board Member Claire Weisz’s studio with an Industry Award for their Battery SeaGlass Carousel.