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, 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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Monday, May 9th, 2011
The suburbs are all the rage, lately! On April 23rd, Fellow John Hartmann participated in Welcome to Future Suburbia: Open House 2011, a tour of retrofitted houses in Long Island proto-burb Levittown. The event, organized by Droog and Diller Scofidio + Renfro, featured ten stops–one of which featured Bright Dawn Farm (pictured at left), a home that Hartmann’s firm Freecell transformed into a “greenhouse-like environment.” Meanwhile, back in Manhattan, MoMA announced the launch of Foreclosed: Rehousing the American Dream, a 14-month project in which five collaborative design teams will work to address mass foreclosures in “megaregions” around the US. The selection committee for the teams included Fellow June Williamson, author of the book Retrofitting Suburbia.
Tags: american dream, Bright Dawn Farm, Diller Scofidio + Renfro, Droog, Foreclosed, Freecell, John Hartmann, June Williamson, Levittown, Long Island, manhattan, megaregions, MoMA, Open House, Retrofitting Suburbia, suburbs, urban agriculture
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Friday, February 4th, 2011
San Mateo’s Station Park Green development (pictured at left), designed by Karen Alschuler, received an enthusiastic thumbs-up from that city’s Council; Tom Angotti’s column in the Gotham Gazette looks at NYC’s new comprehensive waterfront plan, Vision 2020; the Epoch Times profiled a Thomas Balsley-designed rooftop forest in Lower Manhattan; Metropolis visited the Manhattan office of Craig Dykers’ firm Snøhetta; San Antonio’s KSAT-12 spoke with William Fain about the redesign of HemisFair Park; Kenneth K. Fisher interviewed Manhattan Borough President Scott Stringer for CUNY-TV; Kate Orff’s work on “oyster-tecture” was featured in Harvard Design Magazine; in the lead-up to Gregg Pasquarelli’s Architectural League-organized lecture last Wednesday, the League published an extensive interview with the architect; Michael Stepner co-authored a call for planners to articulate a long-term vision for downtown San Diego; and NorthJersey.com talked to June Williamson about how suburbs can be retrofitted to create walkable, urban communities.
Tags: Architectural League, California, comprehensive plan, Craig Dykers, CUNY, downtown, green roof, Gregg Pasquarelli, Harvard Design Magazine, Hemisfair Park, June Williamson, Karen Alschuler, Kate Orff, Kenneth K. Fisher, landscape architecture, manhattan, Metropolis, Michael Stepner, New Jersey, New York City, oyster-tecture, Perkins + Will, San Antonio, San Diego, San Mateo, scott stringer, SHoP Architects, Snohetta, Station park Green, suburbs, Texas, Thomas Balsley, Tom Angotti, urban planning, Vision 2020, walkability, waterfront, William Fain
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Monday, November 22nd, 2010
Following up the ideas competition he co-convened earlier this year, Fellow Trevor Boddy is currently using TownShift: Suburb Into City submissions in a series of visually-driven public urban design workshops for the fast-growing Vancouver suburb of Surrey. Boddy’s critique of 2010 Winter Olympics architecture and urban design (“Vision Deficit” for Vancouver Review) is a finalist for “Best Social Issues” and “Gold Award, Best Article, All Categories” at the Western Magazine Awards.
Tags: competition, olympics, suburbs, Townshift, Trevor Boddy, Vancouver, Western Magazine Awards
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Thursday, April 1st, 2010
Build a Better Burb, sponsored by the Long Island Index, is seeking proposals for “retrofitting underutilized asphalt in suburban downtowns into innovative and surprising new uses, forms and urbanisms.” The competition seeks to “widen the debate about building a better – more sustainable and equitable – future for our burbs.” Register before June 21st. Guaranteed first prize of $10,000, $10,000 in additional prizes.
Tags: Build a Better Burb, competition, Long Island Index, New York, prize, suburbs
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Thursday, October 15th, 2009
Institute fellow June Williamson will be speaking at The Diverse Suburb conference at Hofstra University, from October 22 to 24. The event will consider the challenging and emergent phenomenon of suburban diversity. What are the implications of this growing diversity? To what extent is this apparent growth simply a rediscovery of differences long written out of suburban history? How might the changing suburbs present new opportunities for creating a more just and equitable society?
Tags: Hofstra University, June Williamson, suburbs, The Diverse Suburb
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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.”
