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!)
Quoth the Fellows: Holl, Sassen, & Williamson
Monday, July 25th, 2011
In a Time magazine article about the advent bookless libraries, Patron Steven Holl noted that “Acknowledging the digital and its speed and putting it in relation to the history and physical presence of the books makes it an exciting space. A book represents knowledge, and striking a balance in a library is a good thing.” Asked what makes a city successful, Board Member Saskia Sassen (pictured at left) argued that it is cities’ “incompleteness that gifts them their longevity. A city does not become obsolete.” (Sassen also sat down with Nicolas Nova for a great interview in advance of Lift Lab earlier this month.) And June Williamson spoke about the future of suburbia in one of Record’s “What’s Next” features, explaining that “We spent 50 to 60 years building it up, so we’re going to have to spend an equivalent period of time restructuring, infilling, and remaking it.”
Fellows Envision the Future of Suburbia
Monday, May 9th, 2011
The suburbs are all the rage, lately! On April 23rd, Fellow John Hartmann participated in Welcome to Future Suburbia: Open House 2011, a tour of retrofitted houses in Long Island proto-burb Levittown. The event, organized by Droog and Diller Scofidio + Renfro, featured ten stops–one of which featured Bright Dawn Farm (pictured at left), a home that Hartmann’s firm Freecell transformed into a “greenhouse-like environment.” Meanwhile, back in Manhattan, MoMA announced the launch of Foreclosed: Rehousing the American Dream, a 14-month project in which five collaborative design teams will work to address mass foreclosures in “megaregions” around the US. The selection committee for the teams included Fellow June Williamson, author of the book Retrofitting Suburbia.
Fellows in the News: Bubriski, Flint, Frugiuele, Greenberg, Griffin, Hoal, Holl, Kazi, Kerr, Mayne, Pasquarelli, Rogers, Thompson, Whalley, & Williamson
Tuesday, April 5th, 2011
Wanda Bubriski jumped into the public debate surrounding Architect Barbie at BWAF’s new blog; a recent CNN feature on urban agriculture included two projects by Colin Cathcart; Anthony Flint (whose Wrestling With Moses has been garnering fresh attention lately) wrote an article for Boston.com on Ben and Jane Thompson’s storied Design Research store in Cambridge, calling Jane’s new book on DR’s history “wonderful”; a developer announced plans for a floating marina complex (pictured at left), designed by Carlo Frugiuele, on the Jersey City waterfront; Ken Greenberg is working on a plan for the pedestrianization of part of Toronto’s famed Yonge Street; Board Member Toni Griffin and Fellow June Williamson both contributed to a Times Room for Debate feature on “the Incredible Shrinking City”; John Hoal is leading a six-team visioning process for St. Louis’ Ackert Walkway; Stephen Holl talked to the Scotland Herald about his Glasgow School of Art project, which was unanimously approved by the city; Olympia Kazi’s Van Alen Institute has been busy, announcing the mid-April opening of its design bookstore in Manhattan and launching the Life at the Speed of Rail design competition, the jury for which will include IfUD Board Member Thom Mayne; Treehugger talked to Laurie Kerr about NYC’s pioneering Local Law 84; the Architect’s Newspaper posted video of Gregg Pasquarelli discussing SHoP’s design for the Botswana Innovation Hub; Rob Rogers’ firm Rogers Marvel will handle restoration work on Manhattan’s Pier A, which will become a retail and event space; and Metropolis visited Andrew Whalley at Grimshaw Industrial Design’s new Chelsea office.
Fellows in the News: Alschuler, Angotti, Balsley, Dykers, Fain, Fisher, Orff, Pasquarelli, Stepner, & Williamson
Friday, February 4th, 2011
San Mateo’s Station Park Green development (pictured at left), designed by Karen Alschuler, received an enthusiastic thumbs-up from that city’s Council; Tom Angotti’s column in the Gotham Gazette looks at NYC’s new comprehensive waterfront plan, Vision 2020; the Epoch Times profiled a Thomas Balsley-designed rooftop forest in Lower Manhattan; Metropolis visited the Manhattan office of Craig Dykers’ firm Snøhetta; San Antonio’s KSAT-12 spoke with William Fain about the redesign of HemisFair Park; Kenneth K. Fisher interviewed Manhattan Borough President Scott Stringer for CUNY-TV; Kate Orff’s work on “oyster-tecture” was featured in Harvard Design Magazine; in the lead-up to Gregg Pasquarelli’s Architectural League-organized lecture last Wednesday, the League published an extensive interview with the architect; Michael Stepner co-authored a call for planners to articulate a long-term vision for downtown San Diego; and NorthJersey.com talked to June Williamson about how suburbs can be retrofitted to create walkable, urban communities.
Fellows In the News: Arad, Williamson, and Safdie
Saturday, July 10th, 2010
IfUD Fellows have been popping up all over the place lately, it seems! New Fellow Michael Arad’s rooftop farming project on the Lower East Side of Manhattan was recently covered in The Architect’s Newspaper; Chicago Tribune architecture critic Blair Kamin cited Fellow June Williamson’s book Retrofitting Suburbia in a column about mall re-use in suburban Chicago; and the Daily Mail featured a glamorous photo spread of Fellow Moshe Safdie’s newly-opened Marina Bay Sands resort in Singapore, pictured at left.
June Williamson Featured in GOOD Magazine
Wednesday, April 21st, 2010
Institute Fellow June Williamson, Associate Professor of Urban Design at the City College of New York, was recently featured in GOOD Magazine’s Neighborhoods Issue. The article, “Agriculture is the New Golf: Rethinking Suburban Communities” by Allison Arieff, cites Williamson’s expertise in suburban development patterns. Williamson has worked extensively in the field and co-authored the book Retrofitting Suburbia: Urban Design Solutions for Redesigning Suburb with Ellen Dunham-Jones.
Isadore Candeub Memorial Lecture in Planning
Thursday, December 3rd, 2009
Click to enlarge.
Institute fellow June Williamson will deliver the Isadore Candeub Memorial Lecture in Planning on “Retrofitting Suburbia” at the Rutgers University Bloustein School of Planning and Public Policy on Tuesday, December 8th at 7:30 pm.
June Williamson at The Diverse Suburb Conference
Thursday, October 15th, 2009
Institute fellow June Williamson will be speaking at The Diverse Suburb conference at Hofstra University, from October 22 to 24. The event will consider the challenging and emergent phenomenon of suburban diversity. What are the implications of this growing diversity? To what extent is this apparent growth simply a rediscovery of differences long written out of suburban history? How might the changing suburbs present new opportunities for creating a more just and equitable society?
2009 Kick-Off Party, New York
Sunday, February 8th, 2009
Friends and fellows gather to toast the Institute.
Fellows, friends, and supporters of the Institute for Urban Design gathered at the New York studio of mOrphosis Architects to celebrate the new board of directors and chart an expansive next phase of critical urban engagement. Generously hosted by board member Thom Mayne, the event marked one year of transition, building upon the legacy of the Institute’s past while looking toward the future. More
