Quoth the Fellows: Dykers & Lancaster

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.”

Fellows in the News: Balsley, Berke, Blaik, Cooper, Dubbeldam, Dykers, Fisher, Gans, Pasquarelli, Schrag, Schmidt, Solomonoff, & Wilks

Monday, December 5th, 2011

Cleveland’s ParkWorks cut the ribbon on Perk Park, a new green space designed by Thomas Balsley; in a post reflecting on what Jeanne Gang’s recent MacArthur win means for women in architecture, Flavorpill noted the accomplishments of  Deborah Berke, Board Member Winka Dubbeldam, and Galia Solomonoff in this historically-male-dominated field; Omar Blaik has been hired by the University of Kentucky to help better integrate several universities into downtown Lexington; the New York Times interviewed David Cooper as he celebrated his 30th year with WSP Flack + Kurtz; Craig Dykers had a big November: the Wolfe Center for the Arts at Bowling Green State University became Snøhetta’s first building completed in the US, while the firm also unveiled new, detailed renderings of the SFMOMA expansion and won a competition to design the subway entrances for the Basque city of Donostia-San Sebastián (pictured at left); Kenneth K. Fisher interviewed former NYC Public Advocate Mark Green for this month’s episode of Citywide; Times architecture critic Michael Kimmelman’s latest column, on re-thinking housing for contemporary New York, included a nod to Deborah Gans‘ work for the Architectural League’s recent Making Room symposium; Gregg Pasquarelli’s SHoP (which was recently profiled in New York Magazine) released much-anticipated renderings of the modular residential towers planned for Brooklyn’s Atlantic Yards site; the Hartford Business Journal talked to Jonathan Schrag about the effectiveness of Cap & Trade programs; Paul Schmidt reaffirmed CADA’s committment to the organization’s R Street warehouse project in the Sacramento Bee; and Barbara Wilks‘ new The Edge Park along the Williamsburg’s rapidly-changing waterfront was a featured project on Landezine.

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.”

Fellows’ Events & Exhibits: October 1-15, 2011

Friday, September 30th, 2011

The AIACC’s Monterey Design Conference, scheduled for 10/7-9, will feature talks by Peter Walker and Board Member Thom Mayne; Matthew Berman will speak at Chicago Ideas Week on 10/10; Craig Dykers‘ firm Snøhetta will host the Architectural League of New York’s First Friday reception on 10/14; and Board Member Saskia Sassen will participate in the Columbia GSAPP-hosted Injured Cities Conference on 10/14-15.

Quoth the Fellows: Dykers, Greenberg, & Sassen

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.”

Fellows in the News: Angotti, Balsley, Dart, Drucker, Dykers, Greenberg, Holl, Mayne, Sassen, Sauerbruch, Sollohub, & Weisz

Wednesday, June 22nd, 2011

The Vanishing City, a new film on the gentrification of Manhattan, featuring interviews with Tom Angotti and Board Member Saskia Sassen, opened the Staten Island Film Festival; Angotti also spoke to the NY Daily News about his new research project at Hunter College trying to repurpose vacant residential units to shrink rates of homelessness; Mimi Zeiger profiled Thomas Balsley in the latest Landscape Architecture Magazine [PDF]; Jim Dart wrote briefly about progress on the Great Falls Arts + Revitalization Initiative at the Great Falls National Park in Paterson, NJ, a project that also involves Darius Sollohub and Claire Weisz; in nearby Nutley, NJ, Ken Drucker is designing a new pedestrian bridge at the Hoffman La Roche corporate campus; the Museum of Fine Arts Houston announced a shortlist of three firms for its planned expansion: Craig Dykers’ Snøhetta, Patron Steven Holl’s eponymous firm, and Board Member Thom Mayne’s Morphosis; hot off an interview with the Montreal Gazette, Ken Greenberg penned a requiem for a pedestrian bridge proposed in Toronto; Matthias Sauerbruch’s design for an office building on London’s Old Bailey (pictured at left) has been approved; and the Drawing Center has just launched a capital plan for their Claire Weisz-designed expansion.

Fellows Kick Off Major Projects

Wednesday, June 8th, 2011

Fellows have launched a number of exciting new projects recently: Craig Dykers released the much-anticipated initial renderings of Snøhetta’s addition to SFMOMA’s iconic Mario Botta-designed building last week. Board Member Enrique Norten debuted his own set of renderings of the planned renovation of the Amparo Museum in Puebla, Mexico (pictured at left), and Robert A.M. Stern was announced as the architect of a new Chapel for the Ages at the Virginia Theological Seminary in Alexandria. Meanwhile, just down I-95 in Richmond, Patron Steven Holl was tapped to design a new home for the Institute for Contemporary Art within days of revealing the design for a new university building in Bogotá. 

Fellows In the News: Berke, Brown, Dubbeldam, Dykers, Fain, Holl, Katz, Pollak, Portman, Sennett, & Wong

Thursday, April 21st, 2011

The New York Times went shopping for coffee tables with Deborah Berke; AECOM Chief Innovation Officer Joseph Brown commented on his firm’s new partnership with IBM’s Smarter Planet Initiative; the Shanghai flagship of retailer Ports 1961, designed by Board Member Winka Dubbeldam, has just opened; Toronto’s Ryerson University revealed renderings of an eye-catching new building by Craig Dykers‘ Snøhetta (pictured at left); William Fain served on the jury of this year’s AIA Pennsylvania Design Excellence Awards, which were presented this past week; Patron Steven Holl’s athletic center for Columbia in Inwood was recently approved by the city; Apartment Therapy Boston featured Deborah Grossberg Katz’s “A Cabin in a Loft” project; the Lynn University Performing Arts Center, designed by Herbert Newman, is featured in the March 2011 issue of American School & University Magazine [PDF]; Linda Pollak reviewed NYC’s new High Performance Landscape Guidelines in Topos 74 [PDF]; construction has begun on John Portman’s newest hotel in Shenzhen; Richard Sennett was announced as one of the jurors for the Watermill Center’s International Residency Program; and John Wong’s SWA Group will be designing a new park around an historic schoolhouse in Milpitas, CA.

Fellows’ Events & Exhibitions: March 15-31, 2011

Tuesday, March 15th, 2011

Claire Weisz will participate in a panel discussion, to be moderated by Wanda Bubriski, on Emily Roebling’s role in the construction of the Brooklyn Bridge tonight (3/15) in New York; Weisz will also speak at the New Museum tomorrow (3/16) as part of the Architectural League of New York’s Emerging Voices series; Gretchen Bank will lead a Marketing & PR seminar for the AIANY’s Architects’ Fast-Track Leadership Series on 3/23; a traveling exhibit of work by Craig Dykers’ Snøhetta has just landed at Lisbon’s Musea de Electricidade; and the exhibit “Alessi: Ethical and Radical,” featuring items designed by Patron Robert Venturi, opened recently at the Philadelphia Museum of Art, where it will remain on view until 4/10.

Dykers’ Snøhetta a “Most Innovative” Company

Friday, March 11th, 2011

Fast Company ranked Craig Dykers’ Snøhetta at #35 on its list of the 50 Most Innovative Companies for 2011, commending the Norwegian firm for its attention to the “social experience” of architecture. Quoth Dykers in the business mag: “I hope that the fascination with a building’s sculptural form will make way for a greater emphasis on its socially conscious engagement with its surroundings.”