Thursday, May 3rd, 2012
During the month of April, Larry Wayne Richards was a Visiting Professor at the National Cheng Kung University Department of Architecture in Tainan (Taiwan), where he also presented a lecture, “Is Everything the Same Now?”; Patron Denise Scott Brown will be at the Center for Architecture on Friday (5/4) for a conversation about the National Mosque of Baghdad competition; the final tours of David van der Leer’s stillspotting nyc exhibit will take place on 5/5 and 5/6 in Jackson Heights, Queens; Board Member Saskia Sassen will be at the Frieze Art Fair on 5/6 for a panel about land occupation; on 5/8, Rick Bell will introduce a moderated discussion about “Practice in the Middle East” at his Center for Architecture; the next day in D.C., Lance Jay Brown will be at the National Building Museum to present on public space in the nation’s capital; Sassen will also be at the Megaprojects symposium hosted by Columbia’s GSAPP and CURE on 5/11, and will then participate in the New Cities Summit in Paris (5/14-16), along with Daniel Libeskind; an exhibit of Patron Steven Holl’s work is now on view at the Meulensteen Gallery through 6/2; also on now through 7/29 is an exhibit about Buckminster Fuller at SFMoMA (image from exhibit pictured at right) that includes work by Board Member Thom Mayne.
Tags: AIA New York, Buckminster Fuller, Center for Architecture, Columbia University, CURE, daniel libeskind, David van der Leer, Denise Scott Brown, Frieze Art Fair, GSAPP, Jackson Heights, Lance Jay Brown, land occupation, larry wayne richards, megaprojects, Meulensteen Gallery, Morphosis, national building museum, National Cheng Kung University, National Mosque of Baghdad, New Cities Summit, Paris, Practice in the Middle East, public space, Queens, Rick Bell, Saskia Sassen, sfmoma, Steven Holl, stillspotting nyc, Tainan, Taiwan, Thom Mayne, washington dc
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Tuesday, February 28th, 2012
In a fascinating reflection of the concept of hospitality inspired by a trip to Jerusalem’s In-House Festival last summer, Deborah Gans (pictured at left) posits that “Beyond the intractable divisions of Jerusalem, perhaps hospitality offers us language with which to describe our emerging geo-political spaces and the aspirations we have for them.” Speaking to the New York Times about the increasing focus on transit-oriented development in suburban areas, Mark Strauss explained that “In Westchester [New York] and other places, the mindset of many residents is that they moved to the suburbs to get away from an urban environment, and they want their towns to remain as much as possible like life was on the TV show Leave it to Beaver.” And Rosemary Wakeman was quoted in an article on neighborhood re-brandings in Philadelphia’s City Paper, noting the association of such efforts with gentrification and cautioning that “People coming in want to protect their investment…[Sometimes it works], but sometimes it’s quite a different thing for the people who live there, who understand their neighborhood in a certain way.”
Tags: branding, Design Observer, gentrification, hospitality, In-House Festival, Jerusalem, Leave it to Beaver, Mark Strauss, neighborhoods, New York Times, Philadelphia, politics, public space, quotes, Rosemary Wakeman, suburbs, Transit Oriented Development, Westchester
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Monday, February 13th, 2012
Writing for The Atlantic CITIES blog, Anthony Flint comments on the recent surge in freeway demolition projects, remarking that “We’ve reached a unique point in city-building when the destruction of a public works project has all the glamor and buzz of breaking ground on a new one.” With FXFOWLE leading design work on the ongoing renovation of New York’s Javits Center, Bruce Fowle provides a counterpoint to Meta Brunzema’s favorable remarks in our last Update: “The waste of creative energy, money, and material that would result in its being torn down is painful to think about. When you’re worrying about every detail–trying to do the best you can to make something that represents the city–it’s like having the rug pulled out from under you.” And in a Globe and Mail profile of Edmonton-born Claire Weisz (pictured at left), the IfUD Board Member explained her focus on the public space design projects that have defined her career by explaining that she moved to New York “not to make stuff, but to make stuff happen.”
Tags: Anthony Flint, Architecture, Bruce Fowle, Canada, Claire Weisz, convention center, demolition, Edmonton, freeway, FXFOWLE, glamor, Globe and Mail, highway, Javits Center, Meta Brunzema, New York City, public space, public works, renovation, The Atlantic CITIES, transportation, Urban Design
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Wednesday, February 1st, 2012
The Sam Fox School of Design and Visual Arts at St. Louis’ Washington University announced its spring lecture series, with Craig Dykers set to speak tonight (2/1), and visits from Gregg Pasquarelli and Richard Sennett scheduled for later this semester; Rob Rogers will speak about Rogers Marvel’s recent work (including President’s Park South, pictured at left) at the National Building Museum in Washington on 2/2; Denise Hoffman Brandt and Board Member Toni Griffin have organized a panel, Defining Cultural Landscapes, at CCNY on 2/3 (with opening remarks by Olympia Kazi); the Center for Architecture will host the panel Freedom of Assembly: Public Space Today Redux on 2/4, with Thomas Balsley, Rick Bell, Lance Jay Brown, and Susan Chin all participating (Brown will be back at the Center, with David Dixon, for a discussion about Climate Change on 2/17); Bruce Fowle will speak at the Center’s Active Design 201 on 2/7; Board Member Claire Weisz will speak in New York, also on 2/7, at the Studio-X panel Trash Tubes of the Future; Board Member Enrique Norten will give a talk at the Preservation Foundation of Palm Beach on 2/9; that same day, in New York, Ernie Hutton will moderate a discussion on the Miami21 zoning initiative; and a new exhibit at the National Academy, featuring work by Robert A.M. Stern, has just opened and will remain on view in New York through 4/29.
Tags: active design, Bruce Fowle, CCNY, Center for Architecture, Claire Weisz, climate change, Craig Dykers, David Dixon, Defining Cultural Landscapes, Denise Hoffman Brandt, Enrique Norten, Ernest Hutton, Florida, form-based code, Freedom of Assembly, Gregg Pasquarelli, historic preservation, Lance Jay Brown, manhattan, Miami, Miami21, National Academy Museum, national building museum, New York City, occupation, Olympia Kazi, pneumatic tubes, Preservation Foundation of Palm Beach, President's Park South, public space, Richard Sennett, Rick Bell, Rob Rogers, robert a.m. stern, Rogers Marvel, Saint Louis, Sam Fox School of Design and Visual Arts, Studio-X, Susan Chin, Thomas Balsley, Toni Griffin, washington dc, Washington University, zoning
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Friday, January 27th, 2012
In a Crain’s New York article about growth patterns in Brooklyn over the past decade, Tom Angotti did not mince words, stating that “The development has been very uneven and unequal. Instead of the vibrant city that was more diverse, it’s becoming a city of separate enclaves.” Speaking in her official capacity as the chair of the Hell’s Kitchen Neighborhood Association’s planning committee, Meta Brunzema cheered Governor Andrew Cuomo’s proposal to tear down the Javits Center: “I hate to say it, but [Hudson River Park's] really inadequate around here and everyone knows it. The Javits Center is an obstacle to it really becoming a great park.” And Saskia Sassen, in an Artforum piece on the sociopolitical conditions that led up to OWS (pictured at left), writes that “The Occupy movements are emergent assemblages of fragments of various national (and global) territories. Their reclamation of public space is also a response to the increasingly palpable insufficiency of the logic of the nation-state.”
Tags: Artforum, brooklyn, Crain's New York, Development, diversity, Governor Cuomo, Hell's Kitchen, Hell's Kitchen Neighborhood Association, Hudson River Park, Javits Center, manhattan, Meta Brunzema, New York City, occupation, Occupy Wall Street, public space, Saskia Sassen, segregation, Tom Angotti, waterfront
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Wednesday, January 11th, 2012
One of the most prolific designers of Privately-Owned Public Spaces (POPS), Thomas Balsley (pictured at left), came out in support of these small-scale but recently-high-profile places in the New York Observer, voicing a hope that POPS will not be the ‘scapegoat’ of the reaction to the Occupy movement: “The fact that a tiny POPS park was made to act in lieu of a dedicated civic forum for popular protest should serve to remind all of us of NYC’s greater obligation to create a new and more innovative kind of public space to do what POPS can’t.” At the Downtown X-posed symposium in Edmonton, Ken Greenberg made a case for universities as anchor institutions in urban revitalization efforts in his keynote address, stating plainly that “Educational institutions are key city builders.” And in a BBC Radio segment with artist Andrew Gormley on public space and public art, Richard Sennett argued that “The really exciting things that we can do with public art are not monumental…There are lots of small-scale places that need our attention. Grandeur is not what we want in our cities today.” (See also: SFGate has an excerpt from Richard’s forthcoming book Together: The Rituals, Pleasures, and Politics of Collaboration).
Tags: anchor institutions, Andrew Gormley, BBC, book, Canada, Downtown X-posed, Edmonton, excerpt, Ken Greenberg, New York City, Occupy Wall Street, OWS, POPS, Privately-Owned Public Spaces, protest, public art, public space, revitalization, Richard Sennett, scale, Thomas Balsley, Together: The Rituals Pleasures and Politics of Collaboration, universities, Urban Design, urban landscape
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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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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.
Tags: Anthony Flint, ArchDaily, ArchNewsNow, books, Charles McKinney, Chouteau Park, criticism, Cyprus, David Kamp, Death and Life of Great American Cities, Deborah Gans, Hank White, Housing, interview, Jane Jacobs, John di Domenico, John Hoal, landscape architecture, Making Room, Mark Ginsberg, Mark Strauss, master plan, matt blesso, Michael Sorkin, Michael Stepner, New York Times, Nicosia, Norman Weinstein, nyu schack institute of real estate, Old GSP Area, Paris, Parkview Gardens, Patricia Lancaster, Peter Walker, Ports1961, public space, retail, review, Saint Louis, San Diego, Shore Décor, streetscape, Sutton Place South, Theo David, University City, washington dc, waterfront, Winka Dubbeldam, WNYC
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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.”
Tags: Architecture, color, Craig Dykers, Europe, Globe and Mail, IIDEX/NeoCon, manhattan, Matthias Sauerbruch, methodology, New York City, noir, PlaNYC, public space, quotes, Snohetta, streetscape, times square, Tom Angotti, urban planning
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Friday, July 15th, 2011
Our friends at the Design Trust for Public Space will host one of their Public Space Potlucks at Barbara Wilks‘ Harlem Piers Park on 7/20 (pictured at left); Craig Dykers will participate in the Forum for Urban Design’s Next Urbanism discussion at Scandanavia House on 7/27; Ernie Hutton will moderate a panel on PlaNYC at the Center for Architecture on 7/29; and an exhibit of AIA Connecticut’s Design Awards winners, including work by Herbert Newman, will be on view in Clinton through 7/31.
Tags: AIA Connecticut, AIA Design Awards, Barbara Wilks, Bjarke Ingels, Center for Architecture, Clinton, Connecticut, Craig Dykers, Design Trust for Public Space, Ernest Hutton, Events, exhibit, Forum for Urban Design, Herbert Newman, panel discussion, PlaNYC, potluck, public space, symposium, Urbanism
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