Deadlines are fast approaching for two competitions involving Fellows: there are still two and a half weeks to enter the Waller Creek design competition in Austin, managed by Donald Stastny (Deadline: 12/16/11), and Michael Arad will head up the jury for a competition to design an AIDS Memorial Park in Manhattan (Deadline: 1/21/12). Gregory J. Haley and Andrew Whalley are on one of the six teams selected as finalists in the competition to revamp Los Angeles’ Union Station, while Thomas Balsley’s Hixon Waterfront Park in Tampa (pictured at left) was named one of the best new urban parks in America by The Atlantic CITIES. Meanwhile, Moshe Safdie is in a competition of a different sort: his iconic Habitat 67 is currently in the lead in a public online poll to see which building will be the next reproduced in Lego’s architecture series. There’s still time to cast votes for your favorites…
Fellows’ Awards & Competitions: Arad, Balsley, Haley, Safdie, Stastny, & Whalley
Friday, December 9th, 2011Fellows in the News: Balsley, Berke, Blaik, Cooper, Dubbeldam, Dykers, Fisher, Gans, Pasquarelli, Schrag, Schmidt, Solomonoff, & Wilks
Monday, December 5th, 2011
Cleveland’s ParkWorks cut the ribbon on Perk Park, a new green space designed by Thomas Balsley; in a post reflecting on what Jeanne Gang’s recent MacArthur win means for women in architecture, Flavorpill noted the accomplishments of Deborah Berke, Board Member Winka Dubbeldam, and Galia Solomonoff in this historically-male-dominated field; Omar Blaik has been hired by the University of Kentucky to help better integrate several universities into downtown Lexington; the New York Times interviewed David Cooper as he celebrated his 30th year with WSP Flack + Kurtz; Craig Dykers had a big November: the Wolfe Center for the Arts at Bowling Green State University became Snøhetta’s first building completed in the US, while the firm also unveiled new, detailed renderings of the SFMOMA expansion and won a competition to design the subway entrances for the Basque city of Donostia-San Sebastián (pictured at left); Kenneth K. Fisher interviewed former NYC Public Advocate Mark Green for this month’s episode of Citywide; Times architecture critic Michael Kimmelman’s latest column, on re-thinking housing for contemporary New York, included a nod to Deborah Gans‘ work for the Architectural League’s recent Making Room symposium; Gregg Pasquarelli’s SHoP (which was recently profiled in New York Magazine) released much-anticipated renderings of the modular residential towers planned for Brooklyn’s Atlantic Yards site; the Hartford Business Journal talked to Jonathan Schrag about the effectiveness of Cap & Trade programs; Paul Schmidt reaffirmed CADA’s committment to the organization’s R Street warehouse project in the Sacramento Bee; and Barbara Wilks‘ new The Edge Park along the Williamsburg’s rapidly-changing waterfront was a featured project on Landezine.
Quoth the Fellows: Cathcart & Nyman
Tuesday, November 29th, 2011
Speaking at the Center for Architecture’s Buildings = Energy symposium last month, Colin Cathcart noted that, while New Yorkers’ per capita carbon footprint was quite large when viewed at the metropolitan level, the central city’s high density provided a model for the future–both here and around the world–asserting that “Our first, last, best hope to turn this planet around is right here in New York City.” Speaking in support of Manhattan Borough President Scott Stringer’s new report on the need for an infrastructure bank, Jack Nyman noted the need for public education and outreach: “We must help every sector of the economy genuinely understand its own stake in infrastructure issues, and we must engage all sectors fully in building support for new financial models over the long term.”
IfUD On Screen: Enquist, Greenberg, Manfredi, Palmieri, & Terragni
Thursday, November 24th, 2011
A video by Philip Enquist’s Great Lakes Project (which, we recently discovered, has a great new blog) lays out a broad vision for the Great Lakes region; Ken Greenberg stopped by Global Toronto’s Morning Show to discuss his international slate of urban design projects; David Manfredi spoke about his design for the Edgewater Hotel in a video clip about the Madison project; NJBIZ spoke to John Palmieri about his plans for New Jersey’s Casino Reinvestment Development Authority; and Elisabetta Terragni’s Trento Tunnels project (image at left) was featured in a video about Future Mind Award winners.
It’s Competition Season!
Monday, November 21st, 2011
Finalists for the National Mall design competition in Washington, DC, were announced recently, and the IfUD is well-represented: Michael Arad, Craig Dykers, Rob Rogers, Peter Walker, Barbara Wilks, and Board Member Enrique Norten will all move forward. Donald Stastny is managing the high-profile competition, while Board Member Thom Mayne is one of the jurors. And speaking of juries, Arad and Joseph Brown both spent some time on that side of the competition process recently–the former for this year’s NYC iteration of CANstruction, and the latter for the Urban Land Institute’s Global Awards for Excellence. Coming up: June Williamson will judge entries for the CNU Charter Awards (entries due by January 25th!)
Fellows in the News: Blesso, David, di Domenico, Dubbeldam, Flint, Gans, Ginsberg, Hoal, Lancaster, McKinney, Sorkin, Stepner, Strauss, Walker, & White
Thursday, November 17th, 2011
The New York Times and WNYC both featured write-ups of last week’s Making Room symposium, which featured panelists Matt Blesso, Mark Ginsberg, and Mark Strauss, as well as the presentation of new work by Deborah Gans; Theo. David’s proposal for the redesign of the Old GSP Area in Nicosia (pictured at left) was featured on ArchDaily; John di Domenico’s firm has just opened a new DC office; work on Board Member Winka Dubbeldam’s Ports1961 flagship in Paris is just wrapping up; as the 50th anniversary of the publication of Jane Jacobs’ The Death and Life of Great American Cities approaches, Anthony Flint reflects on the book’s legacy; John Hoal presented a draft plan for the reinvention of University City’s Parkview Gardens neighborhood, while construction on Chouteau Park, also designed by Hoal, got underway in nearby St. Louis; Patricia Lancaster joined NYU’s Schack Institute of Real Estate as a clinical professor; Charles McKinney spoke with DNAinfo.com about the NYC Parks Department’s selection of lanscape architect David Kamp for the design of a new city park, Sutton Place South; Norman Weinstein called Board President Michael Sorkin’s All Over the Map “a triumph of enlightened nay-saying and affirmation” in a review at ArchNewsNow; Michael Stepner published a letter in support of the San Diego Symphony’s plan to revamp their entrance and re-engage the street; KERA interviewed Peter Walker about “what makes a landscape a beautiful, pleasing, and functional space”; and work by Hank White is featured in the new book Shore Décor: Design at the Water’s Edge.
Fellows in the News: Angotti, Berman, Enquist, Fain, Flint, Griffin, Holl, Machado, Mayne, Pollak, Stastny, & Wakeman
Thursday, November 3rd, 2011
In his latest Gotham Gazette column, Tom Angotti looks into NYC’s plans for its new bikeshare program; Matt Berman and his partner Andrew Kotchen launched SpruceBox, a new web platform to help homeowners visualize renovation projects; Phil Enquist won two competitions to develop master plans for a 2-kilometer stretch of the Yangtze Riverfront in downtown Nanjing and a new urban center at Duqm City in Oman; William Fain’s firm recently completed master plans for the Chinese cities of Chengdu and XiCheng; Anthony Flint argued for concentrating early development of a high-speed rail system in the US in megaregions like the Northeast Corridor; Board Member Toni Griffin joined in on the New York Times‘ most recent Room For Debate feature on the demolition of foreclosed housing; construction work has begun on Patron Steven Holl’s athletic complex for Columbia at the northern tip of Manhattan (pictured at left); Madison’s Chazen Museum of Art, designed by Rodolfo Machado’s firm, has just opened; the National Mall Design Competition, led by Don Stastny, announced its jury, which will include Board Member Thom Mayne; Linda Pollak will serve as the Lead Juror for AIA Pittsburgh’s Design Pittsburgh awards; and Rosemary Wakeman spoke to the Baltimore Sun about gentrification in that city’s Union Square neighborhood.
Next Fellows’ Breakfast Club: Nov. 22
Monday, October 31st, 2011
We’re happy to be back on track with our monthly Breakfast Club series: on Tuesday, November 22nd, we’ll meet at the Center for Architecture to discuss the Institute’s plans for the US Pavilion at the 2012 Venice Biennale of Architecture from 8:30-10:00 AM. This will be an opportunity for Fellows to learn more about the subject of the exhibition and how they can get involved. We’ll provide coffee and light refreshments. Please RSVP if you plan to attend so that we can get an accurate head-count. We’re looking forward to seeing you soon!
Quoth the Fellows: Enquist & Schmidt
Tuesday, October 25th, 2011
Speaking about SOM’s work on a bi-national economic and environmental plan for the Great Lakes, Phil Enquist asserted that “This isn’t a collection of lakes that divides two countries. This is a collection of lakes that should unite two countries.” And in announcing that he will retire from his post as the Executive Director of Sacramento’s Captiol Area Development Authority at the end of this year, Paul Schmidt explained that “I consider public service a vocation…It’s now time to turn the opportunities and responsibilities [of this position] over to the next generation and let them realize their aspirations.”
Fellows in the News: Bell, Cavaluzzi, Dart, Dubbeldam, Gans, Holl, Norten, Rogers, Sauerbruch, Stern, & Willis
Tuesday, October 18th, 2011
The NY Times spoke to Rick Bell about the planned expansion of the Center for Architecture, designed by Rob Rogers; the jury for a competition to re-design the Capitol Mall in Sacramento (pictured at left) included EE&K’s Peter David Cavaluzzi; the new book Beyond Shelter, published by Metropolis Books, features work by Jim Dart and Deborah Gans; the Architect’s Newspaper visited the newly-opened TASHAN restaurant in Philadelphia, designed by Board Member Winka Dubbeldam; ArchDaily recently posted a great video interview with Patron Steven Holl; today marks the start of construction on Board Member Enrique Norten’s new Rutgers Business School Building in Livingston, New Jersey; construction work on a new half-billion-dollar mixed-use complex designed by John Portman at the former site of the Shanghai Expo is just beginning in China’s largest city; IBM’s SmartPlanet.com took an in-depth look at the intricate facade of Matthias Sauerbruch’s KfW Westarkade in Frankfurt; Robert AM Stern’s George W. Bush Presidential Center in Texas recently had its topping-out ceremony; and Beverly Willis reviewed critic Paul Goldberger’s book Why Architecture Matters for the Associates of the Art Commission.
