New York

Over 20 projects located in or designed by firms in the New York Metropolitan region have received a 2012 American Architecture Award.  The annual awards program, organized by the European Centre for Architecture Art Design and The Chicago Athenaeum Museum of Architecture and Design, recognizes the best new design in America.   Selected by the Korean Federation of Architects, there were a total of 87 projects recognized from around the globe.  

Local winners include four projects by Ennead Architects, The New York City Center, The William H. Neukom Building Stanford Law School, The Gateway Center Westchester Community College, and the Natural History Museum of Utah; The Syracuse Center of Excellence in Environmental and Energy Systems by Toshiko Mori Architect; two projects by Diller Scofidio + Renfro, The Perry and Marty Granoff Center for the Creative Arts at Brown University and the High Line (Phase II); two projects by Rafael Vinoly Architects,  The Milennium Science Complex, Pennsylvania State University and The Ray and Dagmar Dolby Regeneration Medicine Building, University of California San Francisco; The National September 11 Memorial, Handel Architects, Michael Arad lead designer; The Sagaponack Barns, Christoff: Finio Architecture;  HL23 by Neil Denari; The National World War II Museum Phase 1, Voorsanger Architects;  Village Health Works Staff Residence in Burundi by Louise Braverman, Architect; NASCAR Hall of Fame, Yvonne Szeta/Pei Cobb Freed & Partners;  Cite de L’Ocean et du Surf, Steven Holl Architects with Solange Fabiao;  McGee Art Pavilion School of Art and Design at New York State College of Ceramics, ikon.5 architects; East Hampton Town Hall, Minneapolis, Robert A.M. Stern Architects, LLP; Master Plan for Central Delaware, Cooper, Robertson & Partners;  Watha T. Daniel/Shaw Library District of Columbia, Davis Brody Bond Aedas;  W24 Loft, Desai Chia Architecture;  Hunters Point South Waterfront Park,WEISS/MANFREDI with Thomas Balsey Associates; and the Clyfford Still Museum, Allied Works Architecture, Brad Cloepfil lead designer.   

Skidmore Owings & Merrill LLP with offices in New York and around the globe was recognized for four projects, the HongQiao Central Business District, Shanghai, The San Diego Superior Courthouse, Midway Loop, Chicago, and the China World Trade Center Tower Phase III, Beijing.

Congratulations to all!

Winners and selected entries of The Harlem Edge design challenge sponsored by the Emerging New York Architects (ENYA) Committee of the AIA NY Chapter are now on view at the Center for Architecture in New York. The biennial design ideas competition now in its fifth year asked emerging professionals including students with less than ten years experience to propose creative solutions for a multi modal transit hub and food and nutrition education center at a site in Harlem on West 135th street and the Hudson River, which formerly served as a marine transfer station. Nourishing USA, a non-profit community food program that serves communities nationwide and endeavors to reverse the strong correlation between low income and poor dietary health, served as the client.  The exhibition runs from July-October 2012 at the Center for Architecture, 536 LaGuardia Place, New York, NY.

Courtesy MoMA and HWKN

Big, blue and green describes MoMA PS1’s newest acquisition dubbed Wendy. Designed by New York architect HWKN, led by Matthias Hollwich and Mark Kushner, Wendy is the winning entry in this year’s MoMA/MoMA PS1 Young Architects Program, which provides emerging architects the opportunity to design and build a temporary installation in the courtyard of MoMA PS1 that will place host to its popular summer music program, Warm-Up while also providing seating, shade and water.  The installation is built on the cheap, which makes such amazing designs like Wendy and past winners all the more amazing.  And, it is sustainable, too. The blue nylon fabric is treated with a titania nanoparticle spay that will clean the air.  It is estimated that the cleaning effect will be the equivelant of taking 260 cars off the road over the course of Wendy’s run, which opens Sunday and closes on September 8.

To mark its fifteenth anniversary, Residential Architect (RA) magazine put together a list of 15 young design firms to watch.  Those firms, which were globally drawn, were selected on the quality of their work and their business model.  “We chose firms that did strong residential work and ones we thought would be around for the long haul”, said Meghan Dreuding, a Senior Editor at Residential Architect, of the firms that made the cut.  “Some were drawn from our research, some were firms we knew about, and we also spoke with more established firms”, she said.

The three New York practices that made the list are Workshop/apd, Made, and Grzywinski + pons.  While considered “young” practices, all have been in business for a while, proving that architecture is indeed a profession that takes time to master.   Based in Brooklyn, Made has been in business for a decade. While initially led by three friends who met at Yale’s School of Architecture, two exited in 2011 leaving co-founder Ben Bischoff to carry on.  Made’s primary focus is custom design build residential work, which has grown over the years in size and complexity.  This year, Made is completing its first ‘ground up’ residential project in Westchester County, New York and it has landed its first large-scale commercial project. http://made-nyc.com. 

Workshop/apd with offices in Manhattan and Nantucket, Massachusetts is a press favorite, grabbing headlines for its work in trade journals and shelter magazines too numerous to mention here. Founded in 1999 by Andrew Kotchen and Matthew Berman, both graduates of Lehigh University, workshop/apd broke onto the scene with their award winning housing work in New Orleans.  Berman believes as do I “that design is inextricably linked to our happiness”. http:// www.workshopapd.com.

Last and by no means least is New York practice Grzywinski + Pons, led by Mathew Grzwinski and Amador Pons.  They met 13 years ago when Grzywinski was at the Rhode Island School of Design and Pons was at Syracuse University.  Grzywinski + Pons has made more than one “firms to watch” list, having been featured in Archrecord2’s ongoing series on emerging architects.  Their signature project is the Nolitan Hotel, which among other things, has been named the best boutique hotel in New York for its über-chic design.  http://gp-arch.com.

This year’s winner in Ceramics of Italy’s annual competition to design a trade show booth that will showcase its products is “Piazza Ceramica” by emerging New York architect e+i Studio.   

Unveiled at Coverings, the premier tile and stone show in the U.S., the pavilion is based on the idea of an Italian piazza. It features a central gathering space around which are two tile-clad mounds in a gradient of colors that provide seating and programming space.  To cap it off, and in true Italian style, the underside of one the mounds becomes a café where one can grab an afternoon espresso while liaising with the tile representatives or negotiating the rest of the show.  The pavilion is designed to be flat packed for ease of transport and it can be reconstructed in different configurations.

Since 1991, prominent architecture studios –from Bernard Tschumi and Arquitectonica to Aldo Rossi and Gaetano Pesce- have created a unique space that is intended not only to inspire but also to serve the functions of reception, info point, café, and trattoria.

Our friends at Open House New York (OHNY) are hosting another great event on Saturday, May 12, 2012.  As part of its openstudios series designed to give access to different architecture and design hubs thoughout New York, OHNY will be opening the Brookyn Navy Yard for the day.  The event is a rare opportunity to visit a wide range of creative industries in the sprawling waterfront complex including – architects, artists, custom furtniture designers, light fixture manufacturers, cabinet makers, metal fabricators and glass engravers.

OHNY’s openstudios Brooklyn Navy Yard is designed to be a self-guided tour that begins at the Navy Yard’s new exhibition and visitors center – BLDG 92, a former marine commandant’s house, built in 1857, that was adaptively reused by Beyer Blinder Belle Architects and Planners in collaboration with workshop/apd in 2011. Some of the Yard’s most interesting sites include a dry dock that’s been used since before the Civil War, the 24-acre former Navy hospital campus that is virtually frozen in time, and the nation’s first multi-story LEED Gold-certified industrial building, which is used for fine art storage and conservation.

Following the self-guided tour will be a reception at BLDG 92 where participants can also view “Brooklyn Navy Yard: Past, Present and Future,” an exhibit that illustrates the history of the site – from its early use by Native Americans, its role in the American Revolution and its history as a naval ship building facility, to its current transformation into an innovative, green-thinking industrial park.

The self guided tour is available from 12:00 – 5:00 pm with the reception immediately following.  Tickets are $30 in advance/$35 at the door.  Student tickets are $ 20 in advance/$ 25 at the door. Tickets can be purchased at http://www.ohnyopenstudiosbny.eventbrite.com

Today the building known as One World Trade Center, formerly the Freedom Tower, will achieve a major milestone, reaching 105 stories to become the tallest building in NYC.  The announcement was what New York Post reporter Josh Margolin called “an all out business war against its Midtown cousin” the 102 story Empire State Building.  The fanfare generated by the announcement is intended to draw new tenants to the building, including poaching some from the Empire State building, by promoting the building’s new observation decks and winning back broadcasters with its massive antenna.   “We’re looking to maximize revenue and maximize the reputation of 1 World Trade Center”, said Douglas Durst, who is building the tower in partnership with the Port Authority.  The New York Post estimates that the antenna alone could easily generate $10 million in revenue.  While estimates of how much income the building’s amenities will generate – like the gift shop, observation decks and concessions- are yet unknown, they will certainly be an improvement over those at the Empire State Building.  One World Trade Center will open in early 2015.

Amanda Burden Receives President's Award

The Architectural League of New York announced today that it has awarded the 2012 President’s Medal to Amanda Burden, Chair of the New York Planning Commission.  The award recognizes extraordinary contribution to the Built Environment of New York City, which in Burden’s case is an exemplary body of work that has raised the bar for design quality in public and private development.   In a press release on the announcement, the League noted that Burden “has championed design excellence for all New Yorkers; shown design to be crucial to economic development; fostered and vigilantly protected New York’s vibrant street life; and helped shepherd some of New York’s most important public spaces, including the High Line, the revitalization of Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts, the East River Waterfront Esplanade, IKEA Erie Basin Park, and the National 911 Memorial.   On a personal note, I want to extend my heartfelt congratulations to Ms. Burden for making the city more livable and for putting a capital “D” in design.  

The first impression of a city is often formed in the cab ride in, a point that is not lost on New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg.  Under his leadership, the city will be getting a new fleet of taxis.   Unveiled last Tuesday, the “Taxi of Tomorrow”, is a new Nissan NV200 van, which won a competition to replace the yellow cabs.  It has been ‘pimped out’ with the latest digital technologies for web surfacing and charging devices and features has a moon roof, overhead lamps, and antibacterial upholstery.   The new vehicle is not hybrid, although electric vehicles are expected to be phased in later.   The City’s contract with Nissan, which is estimated at more than $1 billion, will last 10 years.  The new cabs will on the streets starting next year and will fully replace the existing yellow cabs by 2018.