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.”
Quoth the Fellows: Cathcart & Nyman
Tuesday, November 29th, 2011Fellows’ Awards & Honors: Balsley, Durst, Portman, & Stepner
Thursday, November 10th, 2011
At the Waterfront Center Awards, Thomas Balsley was presented with an Honor Award for Manhattan’s Riverside Park South Waterfront (pictured at left), and his Gantry State Plaza State Park project in Queens was given a tribute for its 1999 Top Honor Award; Douglas Durst was presented with the “Green God” award at the New York Restoration Project’s Hulaween gala last week; John Portman was named an Industry Fellow at this year’s American Furniture Hall of Fame banquet; and Michael Stepner was presented with the Society of American Registered Architects’ Synergy Award.
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.
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.
Fellows’ Events & Exhibits: October 15-31, 2011
Saturday, October 15th, 2011
Board Member Saskia Sassen will participate in the Columbia GSAPP’s Injured Cities Conference on 10/14-15; Barbara Wilks will give a talk at the New York Botanical Garden’s Midtown Education Center on 10/24; Board Member Enrique Norten will speak at the Pratt Institute on 10/24 in conjunction with the new exhibit Breaking Borders: New Latin American Architecture; Richard Sennett will join the Institute for Public Knowledge’s discussion of the new publication Living in the Endless City in New York on 10/25; Jack Nyman’s Steven L. Newman Real Estate Institute will host the symposium The Waterfront: A Brooklyn Model for Preservation and Change on 10/26; Deborah Berke will talk about Development, Design and Financing Strategies for Urban Revitalization Using Hospitality and the Arts at the ULI Fall Conference on 10/26; Board Member Toni Griffin will visit Notre Dame University on 10/26 to deliver the lecture Can Planning Save the City: Facing the Challenges of Urban America; Olympia Kazi will host Board Member Thom Mayne at Van Alen Books on 10/28 for a presentation on his new book, Combinatory Urbanism; Board Member Winka Dubbeldam is on the Host Committee for the Storefront for Art & Architecture’s Critical Halloween party on 10/29; and Tom Angotti will participate in the panel Where is New York? Apparitions at Willets Point at the Columbia GSAPP on 10/31.
Quoth the Fellows: Angotti, Dykers, & Sauerbruch
Thursday, October 13th, 2011
In criticizing the methodology behind the Bloomberg administration’s PlaNYC sustainability plan, Tom Angotti explained his chief concern thusly: “It’s an accountants’ approach to the city, not a planners’ approach.” At the public debut of Snøhetta’s re-design of Times Square (pictured at left), Craig Dykers stated that his much-anticipated plan was “not taking its cues from some pretty little things in Europe or something. Our design has a film noir feel to it; it’s more muscular.” Speaking to the Globe and Mail in advance of his keynote address at IIDEX/NeoCon event in Toronto last week, ‘crusader for color’ Matthias Sauerbruch noted that color “is slowly, slowly coming back, as a way of tuning buildings, almost like you would tune an instrument–slightly shifting their appearance, their identity, their atmospheric quality.”
IfUD On Screen: Hutton, Portman, Sorkin, & Stern
Friday, October 7th, 2011
Director Ben Loeterman’s feature-length film about the life and work of John Portman, A Life of Building, will have its film festival premiere at the Architecture Film Festival in Rotterdam next week before making its way to New York for the Architecture and Design Film Festival later this month. PBS will broadcast Chicago affiliate WTTW’s documentary on Robert AM Stern (pictured at left) nationally on October 9th and 10th. Online, you can catch Board President Michael Sorkin discussing the World Trade Center rebuilding process in a Telegraph video feature, and a TalkingScience clip featuring Ernie Hutton on sustainability in New York City.
Fellows in the News: Balsley, Cooper, Dubbeldam, Enquist, Griffin, Hartmann, Jones, Palmieri, & Richards
Wednesday, October 5th, 2011
The firm of Thomas Balsley was named as one of six finalists in a competition to re-design the waterfront of Corpus Christi, Texas; David Cooper was interviewed about the importance of maintenance at LEED-certified buildings; TASHAN, a new restaurant designed by Board Member Winka Dubbeldam, has just opened in Philadelphia (pictured at left); Philip Enquist participated in Milwaukee’s fifth annual Water Summit; Board Member Toni Griffin has been named as the first Director of the new J. Max Bond Center at the Spitzer School of Architecture of the City College of New York; John Hartmann’s +Farm project made its first appearance in Perrysburg, New York; Mary Margaret Jones is working on the re-design of Richmond’s James Riverfront; North Jersey’s The Record calls the hiring of John Palmieri to helm the state’s Casino Reinvestment Development Authority “a smart bet”; and Larry Wayne Richards served on the jury for Twenty + Change 03, the exhibit of which opens in Toronto today.
By the City / For the City @ Van Alen Books
Friday, September 23rd, 2011
Next Wednesday, September 28th, we’ll be at Van Alen Books (30 W. 22nd Street) to talk about By the City / For the City: An Atlas of Possibility for the Future of New York, our newest publication (available for purchase here). The talk, presented as part of VAB’s weekly Brown Bag Reading Series, will take place from 12:30 pm – 1:30 pm. We hope that you can make it! Bring yourself, your lunch, and some thought-provoking questions, and we’ll see you there.
On Ground Zero
Wednesday, September 7th, 2011
Our Fellows have been heavily involved in the reconstruction of Ground Zero–Michael Arad and Peter Walker designed the memorial, while Craig Dykers designed the adjacent museum pavilion, and Daniel Libeskind the master plan for the site. Reviews by Justin Davidson, Inga Saffron, and Christopher Hawthorne have appeared in advance of the memorial’s opening this September 11th. Libeskind’s role has also been the subject of some great coverage. Ethel Sheffer contributed an article, “Ground Zero a Decade Later,” to the most recent issue of Planning, Bloomberg Businessweek featured a cover story entitled “The Saving of Ground Zero,” and Architectural Record includes an extensive write-up on the site in their special feature “The Death and Life of a Great American City: New York 2001-2011.” Tomorrow, the Center for Architecture will host the conference Lower Manhattan Rising: Looking Toward 9/11/2021, which features an excellent line-up including Arad, Dykers, Libeskind, and several other Fellows: Rick Bell, Bruce Fowle, Ernest Hutton, Jack Nyman, and Donna Walcavage.
