Monday, May 7th, 2012
Weighing in on the Loci Architecture blog about the contentious debate regarding NYU’s expansion in Greenwich Village, David Briggs questions if new buildings could strike a balance with the existing community; in the latest issue of The Architect’s Newspaper, Jeff Byles profiles Meta Brunzema’s “Building Exhibition Hudson Valley/Erie Canal” project; Susan Chin wrote an op-ed for the New York Observer about the Design Trust for Public Space’s collaboration on the “Taxi of Tomorrow”; also in Design Trust news, the organization’s “Made in Midtown” project is featured in the newly released book, Designing for Social Change; an HOK team led by Ken Drucker is a finalist to design the School of Medicine and Biomedical Sciences at SUNY-Buffalo; work done for Marc Jacobs by Mark Gardner and Stephan Jaklitsch’s firm is profiled in Interior Design (pictured above); Laurie Kerr discussed cutting building energy use for an article by the Urban Land Institute; Lebbeus Woods published an extensive transcript of his conversation with Board Member Thom Mayne; Mercedes House, a new residential building by Board Member Enrique Norten, was profiled in The Real Deal; Grahame Shane wrote an article in Bauwelt magazine about restoring the urban dream through affordable housing; Don Stastny oversaw a competition to redesign Austin’s downtown Waller Creek, with Robert Rogers’ firm coming in as a finalist.
Tags: Austin, Bauwelt magazine, David Briggs, Design Trust for Public Space, Designing for Social Change, Don Stastny, Enrique Norten, Erie Canal, Grahame Shane, Greenwich Village, HOK, Hudson Valley, interior design, Jaklitsch/Gardner Architects, Jeff Byles, Ken Drucker, Laurie Kerr, Lebbeus Woods, Loci Architecture, Made in Midtown, Marc by Marc Jacobs, Marc Jacobs, Mark Gardner, Mercedes House, Meta Brunzema, Morphosis, New York Observer, NYU 2031, Robert Rogers, Rogers Marvel, School of Medicine and Biomedical Sciences, Stephan Jaklitsch, SUNY Buffalo, Susan Chin, Taxi of Tomorrow, TEN Arquitectos, Texas, The Architect's Newspaper, The Real Deal, Thom Mayne, University at Buffalo, Urban Land Institute, Waller Creek
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Friday, April 27th, 2012
In an Observer article about New York City’s Economic Development Corporation, Tom Angotti commented, “They pass for being a government agency, and in fact they have more power than many of the line agencies under the mayor.” In speaking about his Seaside, FL development (pictured at left), Robert Davis speculated that the future “push for new urbanism will be in cities on urban renewal land and in the suburbs where former shopping centers will be redeveloped.” Ken Greenberg wrote about the need for new urban manners in Planetizen, asserting “the real measures of successful urbanity may be in the demonstrations of mutual respect while living at close quarters, the degree to which we are comfortable with each other…and the accumulation of small acts of kindness.” On the importance of aesthetics in architecture, Michael Stepner said “I use a quote from Garrison Keillor. He said the response to, ‘Why should we build something so nice?’ is, ‘It’s to lift our hearts and to inspire us.’”
Tags: aesthetics, EDC, Florida, Garrison Keillor, Ken Greenberg, Michael Stepner, new urbanism, New York Observer, NYC Economic Development Corporation, Planetizen, Robert Davis, Seaside, Tom Angotti, urban manners
Posted in Quoth the Fellows | Comments Off
Thursday, December 29th, 2011
Dwell sat down with Craig Dykers to talk about Snøhetta’s design process for the expansion of SFMOMA. On the relationship of the new wing to the museum’s iconic Mario Botta-designed home, he explained that “I think the best way to say it is that we’re working with a dancing partner, and you have to be sure not to step on your partner’s feet.” And back in New York, Patricia Lancaster spoke to the Observer about the recently-announced plans for modular towers (pictured at left, and designed by Gregg Pasquarelli) to rise at Atlantic Yards, stating that “I think prefab is the wave of the future, and I think it will come to New York. The only question is when, and how much power the unions have to do something about it.”
Tags: Architecture, atlantic yards, brooklyn, Craig Dykers, Dwell, Gregg Pasquarelli, mario botta, modular, museums, New York City, New York Observer, Patricia Lancaster, prefab, quotes, San Francisco, sfmoma, SHoP Architects, Snohetta
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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).
Tags: AIANY, Architecture, Asia, atlas, Chris Hardwicke, crap, data, downtown, manhattan, Mary Ann Tighe, New York City, New York Observer, politics, public space, quotes, Rick Bell, robert a.m. stern, romantic, Saskatoon, skyline, skyscraper, urban planning, video, Zoning the City
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Tuesday, November 8th, 2011
We’ve seen so many wonderful interviews with Fellows in the past couple of weeks; in lieu of pulling just a couple of quotes this time around, we recommend that you take a look at these recent interviews with Susan Chin (pictured at left) in Metropolis and the New York Observer, Board Member Winka Dubbeldam in Lookbooks, Daniel Libeskind in Time Out Hong Kong, John Portman in the New York Times, and Moshe Safdie on PBS’s Newshour. And to catch a Fellow on the other side of the table, don’t miss Ken Fisher interviewing political consultant Joseph Mercurio on the latest episode of his Citywide program on CUNY-TV.
Tags: CityWide, CUNY-TV, daniel libeskind, Design Trust for Public Space, Hong Kong, interview, john portman, Joseph Mercurio, Kenneth K. Fisher, Metropolis, moshe safdie, New York Observer, New York Times, Newshour, PBS, quotes, Susan Chin, Winka Dubbeldam
Posted in Uncategorized | Comments Off
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.
Tags: AIA, AIANY, awards, Barbara Wilks, Center for Architecture, color, Commercial Real Estate, competition, Deborah Berke, historic preservation, jury, Kenneth K. Fisher, landscape architecture, lawyers, lighting, MASterworks, Municipal Art Society, New York City, New York Observer, Queens, Queens Theater-in-the-Park, restoration, Rick Bell, Sara Caples, Troy, waterfront
Posted in Prizes and Awards | Comments Off
