Fellows’ Awards & Competitions: Brown, Dykers, Griffin, Handel, Harwick, Hoffman Brandt, Holl, Jahn, Kazi, Libeskind, Manfredi, Rogers, Sorkin, Stastny, Wakeman, & Walker

Friday, January 6th, 2012

Lance Jay Brown will serve as a juror for the AIANY State 2012 Honors Awards, to be presented this coming April; the teams proceeding to the third and final round of the National Mall Design Competition, managed by Donald Stastny, were announced, with Craig Dykers, Michael Manfredi, Rob Rogers, and Peter Walker all still in the mix; Dykers was also just announced as the chair of the jury for the 2012 Steedman Fellowship in Architecture International Design Competition; Ron Harwick’s Columbia Parc neighborhood in New Orleans (pictured at left) had a banner year, taking home multiple honors–click here to download a full list of awards and more information on the project; Patron Steven Holl’s Cité de l’Océan et du Surf in Biarritz, France, won the sole award in the Play category in Architect magazine’s 2011 Annual Design Review; critic Lee Bey cited the opening of Helmut Jahn’s Mansueto Library on his list of the best Chicago architecture of the past year (echoing Blair Kamin’s list from earlier in the month); the Parks for the People competition, organized by Olympia Kazi’s Van Alen Institute and with Steven Handel sitting on the jury, just announced the selection of nine teams to move on to the second round–one of which is led by CCNY’s Denise Hoffman Brandt and Board Member Toni Griffin; Daniel Libeskind’s Crystals at CityCenter project in Las Vegas won Gold and Sustainable Design Awards in the ICSC’s annual US Design & Development Awards; Urban Omnibus announced an essay competition to complement the Architectural League’s exhibit The Unfinished Grid, with our own Board President Michael Sorkin on the jury (deadline: 2/1/12); and Rosemary Wakeman has received a EURIAS Senior Fellowship to spend the next year at the Netherlands Institute for Advanced Studies completing her book on the New Town Movement.

Fellows’ Awards & Competitions: Bell, Crispino, Holl, Enquist, Jahn, Norten, Portman, Sassen, & Steiner

Wednesday, December 21st, 2011

The AIA’s New York chapter, led by Rick Bell, has just put out the call for entries for the 2012 AIANY Design Awards (deadline: 2/3/12); Francis Cauffman, led by James Crispino, has been recognized as one of the fastest-growing A/E/C industry firms on ZweigWhite’s annual Hot Firms List; Patron Steven Holl was named as the winner of the prestigious 2012 AIA Gold Medal; SOM’s Chicago Office, where Philip Enquist is the Partner in Charge of Urban Design and Planning, received AIA Chicago’s Firm of the Year award; Tribune architecture critic Blair Kamin included the opening of Helmut Jahn’s Mansueto Library at the University of Chicago (pictured at left) in his round-up of the best architecture of 2011; Board Member Enrique Norten will serve as a juror for this year’s Deutsche Bank Urban Age Award, which will focus on Cape Town, South Africa (deadline: 2/24/12); AmericasMart founder John Portman will receive a special honor, the “Legend for Life” award, in recognition of his five decades of entrepreneurship and service to the home decor industry; Board Member Saskia Sassen made Foreign Policy magazine’s list of the Top 100 Global Thinkers for her “passionate advocacy of an urban-based society”; and the undergraduate program at the University of Texas at Austin’s School of Architecture, led by Frederick Steiner, was ranked second in the nation by DesignIntelligence.

Quoth the Fellows: Bell, Hardwicke, & Stern

Tuesday, December 13th, 2011

Speaking to the New York Observer about the AIA’s growing role in New York City politics, Rick Bell noted that “It used to be we were more reactive, waiting for the forum to air our views, and by then it was usually too late. Now we want to be there for the start of the discussion, or even initiating the discussion ourselves.” Chris Hardwicke explained the 220-page report that he just completed on downtown Saskatoon as an innovative effort to gather hard data on day-to-day use of the city by its citizens: “It’s an atlas of public life. It’s unique to study people spending time in space…I think most people assume planning is for people, but because you don’t measure it, you can’t actually plan for it.” At the Zoning the City symposium earlier this month, Robert A.M. Stern responded to Mary Ann Tighe’s lament about Asia’s nascent preeminence in the great skyscraper race (and the related falling-behind of New York’s “romantic” skyline) with a cutting quip: “Let’s be real. There’s a lot of crap out there. I’m happy to come home.” (Video of all of the panels from that event, by the way, are now available online).

Fellows’ Events & Exhibits: December 1-15, 2011

Thursday, December 1st, 2011

MAXXI’s exhibit RE-CYCLE, which features work by Elisabetta Terragni and Patrons Robert Venturi & Denise Scott Brown, opens today (12/1); Frederick Steiner will speak at the University of Texas at Austin’s fall convocation ceremonies on 12/3; Rick Bell will deliver the closing remarks at AIANY’s 2012 Board Inaugural at the Center for Architecture on 12/6; and the show STITCHES: Suzhou Fast Forward, co-curated by Larry Wayne Richards, will be on view in Toronto through 2/18/12.

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.

Today is Archtober 1st!

Saturday, October 1st, 2011

Archtober kicks off today with the opening of three new exhibitions at the Center for Architecture in New York, including Buildings = Energy, for which Colin Cathcart, Bruce Fowle, and Laurie Kerr all served on the Advisory Committee. The IfUD is hosting a book talk on the High Line with Founder Ann Ferebee and Jeff Byles next Friday (10/7) from 12:00-1:00 PM, and we hope to see you there! Many Fellows will be participating in other events during the month-long festival: Kerr and Richard Dattner will both speak at the symposium When Green is not an Option but the Law! on 10/3; Deborah Gans will speak on, and Lance Jay Brown will moderate, the panel VisioNYC 2080: Towards a Risk-Resilient City on 10/6; and Cathcart will give a presentation on “Furry Buildings” at the conference High-Performance Landscapes: People, Places, Plants on 10/21. For more, check out the full schedule of events. Congratulations to Rick Bell and everyone at AIANY for putting together such an impressive month!

Fellows’ Awards & Honors: Bell, Caples, Fisher, & Wilks

Friday, September 9th, 2011

The AIA Council of Architectural Component Executives named Rick Bell, director of the AIANY chapter and the Center for Architecture, as its Executive of the Year; Sara Caples’ Queens Theater-in-the-Park received two recent awards: one for Best Restoration from the Municipal Art Society’s MASterworks (for which Deborah Berke served on the jury), and another for Best Use of Color from Architectural Lighting magazine; the New York Observer included Ken Fisher (pictured at left) on their list of the Top Lawyers in NYC Commercial Real Estate Right Now; and Barbara Wilks (whose waterfront redevelopment in Troy is just getting underway) was named one of the Best Landscape Architects in New York by H&G Ideas.

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.

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.