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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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 29th, 2011
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.”
Tags: Buildings = Energy, carbon footprint, Center for Architecture, Colin Cathcart, density, economy, education, infrastructure bank, Jack Nyman, manhattan, New York City, quotes, scott stringer, sustainability, Urbanism
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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
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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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Thursday, September 29th, 2011
“People come to New York to be famous and to be anonymous,” Deborah Berke (pictured at left) suggested to the Daily News in a recent interview. “I want my work to be invisible at times, and prominent at others, to be rigorous but not pretentious.” Speaking to Architectural Record about working on the 9/11 Memorial, Peter Walker noted that “There are memorials that have no real quality, and there are the great ones, like the Lincoln and the Vietnam. You try to catch that abstract thing, and if you do, I think you succeed.”
Tags: 9/11 Memorial, abstract, annonymity, Architectural Record, Deborah Berke, Design, landscape architecture, Lincoln Memorial, monuments, New York City, NY Daily News, Peter Walker, quotes, Vietnam Memorial
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Tuesday, September 13th, 2011
In a discussing his office space (pictured at left) with Chicago Tribune critic Blair Kamin, Helmut Jahn contrasted it with other firms: “You don’t see drawings anymore. You don’t see any models. That’s the problem. Sometimes I go to other people’s offices, I think I would die.” Board Member Thom Mayne expressed his own concerns about the effects of technology on the profession during a keynote address at last month’s International Architectural Education Summit in Spain, noting that “in the age of globalization, student portfolios are becoming more and more similar.”
Tags: Architecture, Blair Kamin, Chicago, drawing, globalization, Helmut Jahn, International Architectural Education Summit, models, portfolios, quotes, sketch, Spain, technology, Thom Mayne
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Friday, August 26th, 2011
In a co-authored NY Times op-ed that cites cuts to government-funded social programs as an underlying cause of the recent UK riots, Board Member Saskia Sassen and Fellow Richard Sennett caution that “Americans ought to ponder this aspect of Britain’s trauma. After all, London is one of the world’s wealthiest cities, but large sections of it are impoverished. New York is not so different.” In responding to a young woman’s question about whether or not to take time to work between receiving her undergraduate degree in environmental science and returning to school to pursue a graduate degree in architecture, Galia Solomonoff noted that “One of the benefits of working in between careers is understanding the life applications of a given practice.” And while being interviewed about his role in shaping Postmodernism by filmmaker John Thornton, Patron Robert Venturi (pictured at left) advised that: “Modernism is about space. Postmodernism is about communication. You should do what turns you on.”
Tags: communication, education, environmental science, Galia Solomonoff, graduate school, John Thornton, london, modernism, New York Times, Postmodernism, poverty, quotes, Richard Sennett, riots, Robert Venturi, Saskia Sassen, space, UK, wealth, women architects
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Thursday, August 11th, 2011
In describing plans for the expansion of SFMOMA’s Mario Botta-designed building (pictured at left), Craig Dykers explained that Snøhetta’s new wing is intended to help people “to experience the city in a completely new way.” Speaking to the Calgary Herald about the future of urban and suburban development, Ken Greenberg asserted that “The status quo is not an option.” And during her introductory speech at the Audi Urban Future Summit, Saskia Sassen argued that “We must think of mobility as a sort of black box that has many more facets than those defined by current technologies.”
Tags: Audi Urban Future, Calgary, Canada, Craig Dykers, Ken Greenberg, mario botta, mobility, quotes, San Francisco, Saskia Sassen, sfmoma, Snohetta, sprawl, suburbs, technology, urban development
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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.”
