| Having trouble reading this newsletter? Click here to see it in your browser. |
 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
06.24.08
This is Buckminster Fuller week in the city. Panel discussions at the Center for Architecture, the opening of the Dymaxion Study Center, an installation of an authentic Fly’s Eye Dome in LaGuardia Park, and exhibitions at the Max Protetch Gallery and the Whitney Museum are just some of the happenings celebrating what would have been the architectural master’s 113th birthday. Go to the AIANY Calendar for more information and event listings.
- Jessica Sheridan, Assoc. AIA, LEED AP
THE CENTER: AIANY BLOG: The AIANY Chapter has launched a new blog. The Center features opinion pieces on architectural issues relevant to NY-based designers, firms, and projects, along with spotlight debates and discussions at the Center for Architecture and AIANY, and is an informal discussion board. Be sure to check it out regularly and contribute to the dialogue.
Some of the recent debates include:
· 980 Madison Avenue. Foster + Partners is proposing a 10-story addition to the existing landmarked building. Read some of the pros and cons about the project.
· Buildings Commissioner Qualifications. NYC is still undecided about whether the Buildings Commissioner must be licensed to hold the position. Read the AIANY Policy Update.
· St. Vincent’s Hospital Expansion. Read about AIANY testimony at the Landmarks Preservation Commission.
· Work/Life Balance. This ongoing discussion is at the forefront of the AIANY Women in Architecture (WIA) Committee meetings.
To become a regular contributor to The Center, please e-mail e-Oculus.
Event: New York Designs
Location: The Urban Center, 06.05.08
Speakers: Lyn Rice, AIA — Principal, Astrid Lipka, AIA — Associate Principal, Lyn Rice Architects; Eric Bunge, AIA, Mimi Hoang — Partners, nARCHITECTS; Robert Rogers, FAIA, Jonathan Marvel, AIA — Partners, Rogers Marvel Architects; Henry Smith-Miller, Laurie Hawkinson — Partners, & Luben Dimcheff — Project Architect, Smith-Miller + Hawkinson Architects; Douglas Korves, AIA — Partner, Douglas Korves Architect
Organizers: The Architectural League of New York
(L-R): Sheila C. Johnson Design Center by Lyn Rice Architects; Switch Building by nARCHITECTS; Luminaire Celebrates Public Space by Rogers Marvel Architects; 322 Hicks Street by Smith-Miller + Hawkinson Architects.
(L-R): Michael Moran; Frank Ouderman; Paul Warchol; Michael Moran, courtesy The Architectural League of New York
“Threshold,” said Henry Smith-Miller, “is the point that must be reached for a psychological or physiological effect to begin or be noticeable.” That definition of the word seems to be open to interpretation, as evidenced at second in the Architectural League of New York’s 2008 New York Designs juried lecture series. The 2008 New York Designs committee, comprised of Sunil Bald, Markus Dochantschi, Lynn Gaffney, AIA, Victoria Meyers, AIA, and Adam Yarinsky, FAIA, asked entrants to consider what limits, opportunities, and compromises shape thresholds in the city. A threshold, as outlined in the call for entries, might be literally a transitional space or overlap among materials, disciplines, cultures, and more.
Lyn Rice, AIA, and Astrid Lipka, AIA, of Lyn Rice Architects presented their Sheila C. Johnson Design Center at Parsons The New School for Design. The firm reinterpreted the campus to create an urban quad in the Village. Using architecture as interface, they united existing street-level lobbies of four adjacent buildings with found spaces such as a trash alley to create a new 20,000-square-foot common space. The new center contains a critique space, auditorium, design store, and an expanded gallery/exhibition area that is visually open to the street, allowing interactions between the students and public.
Eric Bunge, AIA, and Mimi Hoang of nARCHITECTS presented their Switch Building on the Lower East Side. The design interprets constraints imposed by the developer’s needs and zoning laws to create the completed seven-story building with four floor-through apartments, a duplex penthouse, and a double-height art gallery. The building’s bay windows are angled and switch back and forth, providing deep window seats on the inside. At the rear of each apartment, the living space extends out to balconies, blurring the boundary between indoors and out. The Switch Gallery has a black, hot-rolled steel-and-glass storefront and canopy that opens completely allowing art openings to extend onto the sidewalk.
Robert Rogers, FAIA, and Jonathan Marvel, AIA, surveyed their firm’s history of designing public spaces such as 55 Water Street, Streetscapes in Battery Park and on Wall Street, and the redesign, with West 8, of Governors Island. The lobby and passageway in the 78-story, black-glass Metropolitan Tower on West 57th Street is a privately owned public space. For the Luminaire Celebrates Public Space project, an illuminated feature forms the lobby desk. Its color-changing light and sculptural form animate and engage the building’s entrance; the glowing five-foot-high desk broadcasts to the street, connecting the boundary between interior and exterior.
Henry Smith-Miller’s residential project at 322 Hicks Street in Brooklyn Heights mediates the threshold between historical context and new building. Situated in a historic residential neighborhood of diverse brick building types, the angled and inflected brick façade breaks its mass to remain constant with the neighborhood’s scale. The building stretches from lot line to lot line, and Oriel windows — “innies and outies” — punctuate the façade recalling brownstone bay windows. The rear of the building opens up in a more traditionally Modern glass-and-steel façade.
Event: Public Lecture Series: Beyond the AIA Firm Award: an Evening with Jane Weinzapfel
Location: Center for Architecture, 06.16.08
Speaker: Jane Weinzapfel, FAIA — Principal, Leers Weinzapfel Associates
Organizer: AIANY Women in Architecture (WIA) Committee
Sponsors: Champion: Studio Daniel Libeskind; Supporters: Gensler; Humanscale; James McCullar & Associates; Friends: Costas Kondylis & Partners; Forest City Ratner Companies; Frank Williams & Associates; Hugo S. Subotovsky A.I.A. Architects; Mancini Duffy; Magnusson Architecture and Planning; Rawlings Architects; RicciGreene Associates; Skidmore, Owings & Merrill; Syska Hennessy Group; Trespa North America; Universal Contracting Group
University of Pennsylvania Gateway Complex, Philadelphia, PA.
©Peter Aaron/Esto
Leers Weinzapfel Associates, the first women-owned architecture firm to be awarded the AIA Firm Award in 2007, is guided by two goals: to create architecture that has improves the public realm, and to encourage an inclusive, collaborative workplace that fosters individual growth. Founded in 1982 by Andrea Leers, FAIA, and Jane Weinzapfel, FAIA, the firm has produced award-laden work in its 26 years, including many seemingly unglamorous infrastructure projects. The University of Pennsylvania Gateway Complex houses a giant chiller plant yet forms a landmark that echoes curves of a nearby river and roads. The Princeton University Chilled Water Plant incorporates translucent and fritted glass to bring natural light into equipment floors. Both projects show how the firm solves complex, technically demanding design problems with tailor-made responses. This has led to community and civic projects, as well as campus work for institutions such as the University of Cincinnati,
Harvard University, and Smith College.
With some 35 employees, the firm is set up in an open office environment with the principals sitting among the staff. Every year the staff goes on a design retreat to one of the buildings the firm designed, where they reflect on recent work as well as the business’s future. The firm values every employee’s ideas, and makes an effort to understand each individual’s role in the design process, according to Weinzapfel. She feels it is important for designers to find their voice — especially for women architects. She and Leers asked clients and friends how they were perceived, and was surprised to find that they were perceived as women first. That said, they argue it’s good for institutions to have women in roles of leadership, and collaboration relies on the inclusion of many different voices.
As for work/life balance challenges, the firm believes that a full life indeed matters. Weinzapfel took two-and-a-half years away from the practice to start a family, and Leers continues to teach at architecture schools. It is a priority to allow women employees, including key leaders, the option of flexible schedules, and to encourage and support men to be just as involved in raising their children.
Weinzapfel was one of the first two women architecture students to graduate from the University of Arizona. She pays tribute for her and Leer’s spelling success to their upbringing. “We grew up with a voice at the dining table,” she said.
Alethea Cheng, AIA, LEED AP, is currently a senior associate with Lee H. Skolnick Architecture + Design Partnership and was previously an associate with STUDIOS architecture.
Event: “Unnatural” in Architecture by Elizabeth Diller
Location: National Arts Club, 06.16.08
Speakers: Elizabeth Diller — Principal, Diller Scofidio + Renfro; Douglas Friedlander — Chair of the Architectural Committee of the National Arts Club (introduction)
Organizer: The National Arts Club, Architectural Committee
Poss Family Mediatheque at The Institute of Contemporary Art/Boston, one of Elizabeth Diller’s favorite unreal spaces.
Photo by Iwan Baan, courtesy The Institute of Contemporary Art/Boston
In an era when “natural” is touted in everything from food to design, it’s refreshing to hear someone come out in favor of its opposite. “The unnatural doesn’t necessarily have to be bad,” declared Elizabeth Diller in a recent talk about her firm Diller Scofidio + Renfro’s (DS+R) work. “It’s not necessarily fake, it’s just a different kind of natural.”
Her firm has long treaded the border between the natural and the artificial. Take the Blur Building, a technologically conjured fogbank at Lake Neuchâtel for the Swiss Expo 2002. The ephemeral “building” redefined what architecture could be, putting a focus on the visitors’ transient experiences instead of creating an enduring physical form.
To promote social contact in the densely foggy environment with limited visibility, the firm designed an intelligent raincoat for visitors that would blush pink when someone with a similar personality profile drew near, Diller explained. Although the wearable technology was never developed, the designers’ fascination with the natural phenomenon of blushing continued. As part of a renovation of Alice Tully Hall at Lincoln Center, they designed an “intelligent skin” lined with wood veneer and resin translucent enough for light to shine through, creating a warm glow. When the house lights come down, the lighting under the veneer will glow briefly, “blushing,” so that “momentarily attention is stolen from the stage and brought to the architecture,” she said. Audiences will first get to see the effect at a gala this December.
Designs such as The Institute of Contemporary Art/Boston (ICA) and the unbuilt Slow House play with the artificial framing effect of windows. At the ICA, views of the harbor are slowly doled out, glimpse by glimpse. A favorite spot for Diller is the Mediatheque, a vertiginously sloped computer room that draws the eye to a patch of undulating waves framed by a window at the end of the space. Devoid of context, the view’s impact almost begins to appear unreal. “When we opened, some elderly gentleman stood at the top and said, ‘Wow, this is the biggest screensaver I’ve ever seen,’” she recalled.
Unlike such eye-grabbing experiments, DS+R and Field Operations’ design for the High Line called for a light touch, she said. As documented by Joel Sternfeld’s photographs, the long-abandoned elevated railway had the eerie charm of an industrial ruin being reclaimed by nature. The architects’ goal was to preserve that feeling of a natural oasis in the midst of the city, so they designed slender paved areas weaving through vegetation, inspired by the look of plants pushing up between cracks in old, crumbling concrete. They never anticipated the development frenzy that the High Line would trigger, and that worried them, she said, along with concerns about potential overuse of the park once it opens.
“We had this strange feeling of doubt that we’re losing the very thing that we love, that melancholic, very beautiful postindustrial feel of this abandoned railroad that we wanted to turn into something that was a kind of contemplation about the nature of nature,” she said. But in the end, “we began to realize that this kind of growth is very much part of what cities are about and the High Line will ultimately be a blend of the natural and the cultural. The notion of ‘nature’ really does need to be rethought…. We foresee a future of the High Line where nature and culture will find a really smooth and interesting interface that we can’t entirely predict.”
Lisa Delgado is a freelance journalist who has written for The Architect’s Newspaper, Blueprint, and Wired, among other publications.
BIM modeling was used as part of a program initiated by the MTA.
Rendering by Shani Gurevich, Assoc. AIA, electrical program, CPM.
The MTA New York City Transit is transitioning to BIM. With the launch of a pilot program to train a small group of architects and engineers in the software, the training strategy assumed no previous knowledge and put participants to work on a real project — the rehabilitation of a substation in Brooklyn — in just five weeks.
As a participant, I found the pilot highlighted some of the major issues facing the two fields when working together on any project. In one instance, architects and engineers found that they were working on the same concrete wall in separate files without knowing it. This caused a small row as they each tried to mark “their territory.” Jurisdiction over different materials between architects and structural engineers became a hot topic for debate when it came to finishes that could be considered both aesthetic and structural. The disagreement could have been avoided if more time was spent communicating.
In an age when technological devices — computers, cell phones, fax machines — make human contact so effortless, it is hard to believe communication is still a challenge. Barriers still need to be broken between architects and engineers. As the first members of our organization to use BIM, we have been able to affect the day-to-day culture of our agency. Because BIM is much more interactive and complex than typical CAD programs, the extent to which we rely on each other is special, not only in generating work, but also in learning from each other’s talents.
Marc Soffer is an assistant architect of the electrical program at MTA New York City Transit. This article was written with edits by Judith Kunoff, AIA, LEED AP, chief architect of capital program management at the MTA, and help by Keith Summa, AIA, design manager at the MTA.
Scale model of Cooper Union architecture students’ vision for Columbia University.
Courtesy The Cooper Union for the Advancement of Science and Art
After studying the 19.7-acre Manhattanville design conceived by Renzo Piano Building Workshop with master planning by Skidmore, Owings & Merrill, fourth-year design students at The Cooper Union’s Irwin S. Chanin School of Architecture were asked to re-analyze the site and design an alternative master plan. Throughout the semester, they researched it’s topography, history, and sociological character, and collaboratively fabricated a scaled site model to test their designs.
e-Oculus had the opportunity to sit down with Professor Lebbeus Woods, Adjunct Professor Christoph a. Kumpusch, and students Christopher M. Pounds, Anna Kostreva, Raye C. Levine, Dennis Murphy, and Tom Brooksbank to discuss their projects.
e-Oculus: Why did you choose the Manhattanville site, and how was the studio organized to develop the program?
Lebbeus Woods: We picked a site that Columbia University is trying to expand into over the next 25 years, and we used it as an opportunity to imagine what a 21st century campus might be like. It’s not a critique of the Columbia plan; it’s really an independent piece of research. So we’ve taken a master planning approach, and we decided to adopt a matrix idea.
During the first part of the semester, we held an in-studio competition. There were seven teams of four students each. Each team proposed their matrix. We had a distinguished jury, which included Steven Holl, AIA, Diana Agrest, FAIA, Michael Bell, and several faculty members, and they chose what they felt was the best matrix, which is the one we developed. The reason they thought it was best was because it was based on the idea of movement on and above the site, connecting different existing levels. This scheme took advantage the site’s verticality — the elevated train and subway to the east, the highway to the west, plus the general topography which has a hilly quality to it.
Then, the rest of the semester was spent developing concepts or programs that can plug into the matrix. So the overall landscape can be looked at as an evolving landscape, because the idea a 21st century institution for education is something that evolves. It’s a living, organic structure.
Continues…
In theory, the Intern Development Program (IDP), helps emerging designers obtain a varied experience in the practice of architecture. In addition to the Architect Registration Exams, the three-years-worth of required hours are supposed to extend the education of designers and prepare them for the pitfalls of licensure. The system is also set up to let employers know what is required of them when they train their interns. Unfortunately, practice is never as smooth as the principles. Ask any intern or recently licensed professional, and you will get an earful of what barriers they had to overcome to complete and file their hours. Part of the reason fewer designers are getting licensed, I believe, is because of the complicated and costly bureaucracy that many do not see as necessary for practice.
This Saturday, 06.28.08, the National Council of Architectural Registration Boards (NCARB) will vote on an initiative that will make the IDP process even more difficult. Resolution 2008-07, which includes the “6 Month Rule,” will require interns to file their training units every six months. Training units not reported in a timely manner will expire on a rolling clock after eight months. The National Associates Committee has voiced opposition, and now the AIA National Board has announced a formal position against the resolution as well.
A rolling clock should not be a deciding factor on whether or not one’s experience is valid. While NCARB may be trying to prevent interns from filing all of their hours at once, the organization should focus more on how to help designers become architects. There are many ways it can do this, from establishing guidelines for designers who were educated and/or practiced abroad, to requiring that firms set up committees or programs that help interns complete their hours. It could establish more scholarships to help pay NCARB fees, and work toward making the training unit forms Mac-friendly, not just PC-based. Ultimately, NCARB should help the profession thrive, not hinder its growth.
To read more, the Boston Society of Architects and the AIA Emerging Professionals website have the information well organized online. There is an active discussion thread debating the pros and cons of the initiative on the AIA Archiblog. And the AIA has published FAQ’s on the resolution.
In this issue:
· New FABulous Off-Broadway District Planned for East Village
· House Built for Lions is Now Home for Lemurs
· NYC School Passes the LEED Test
· Mixed-Use, Mid-Rise Completed in Central Harlem
· Two Park Avenue (1926) to Get Art Deco Update
· Yale: Gwathmey Traces Rudolph’s Footsteps
· Regeneration Building Prods Researchers to Work Together
· New-Build on Shanghai’s Bund
New FABulous Off-Broadway District Planned for East Village
The Fourth Arts Block.
Artefactory
A new cultural destination with seven different capital projects is in the works. The Fourth Arts Block (FAB) a non-profit organization founded in 2001, recently held a ceremonial ground breaking for projects including renovation work ranging from moderate to gut rehabilitation on East 4th Street, between Second Avenue and the Bowery. The space for cultural activity on the block will increase over 90% to 99,000 square feet with the addition of three theaters, two dance studios, and three rehearsal spaces.
Starr Whitehouse Landscape Architects and Planners is leading the landscape design for the overall streetscape, which will include new tree plantings, historic-looking lampposts, and improved lighting on building façades and from buildings onto the sidewalk. Superstructures Engineers & Architects has led design on several exterior renovations and stabilizations. Mitchell Kurtz Architect, Duke Beeson Architect, Charles Rose Architects, and Robert Biviano are leading the renovations and design for the New York Theatre Workshop and La MaMa’s buildings, a multi-arts building, a youth arts center, and Teatro Circulo, respectively. In addition, WORKac is designing new office space for CreativeTime, a non-profit organization that commissions and presents public arts projects.
House Built for Lions is Now Home for Lemurs
The Lion House.
Photo by Bob Zucker, courtesy FXFOWLE Architects
Exotic plant life, birds, crocodiles, hissing cockroaches, and different species of lemurs from Madagascar have a new home in the Bronx Zoo’s recently restored Lion House. The Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS), which manages the zoo, and the NYC Department of Design and Construction selected FXFOWLE Architects to integrate the new “Madagascar!” exhibition and convert the Lion House to a set piece for the zoo. Heins & LaFarge designed the 20,000-square-foot Beaux Arts building in 1903 as part of the original campus at Astor Court. As the first project to come out of the zoo’s 2001 master plan, the Lion House needed to represent the next generation of the zoo experience, function as a publicly accessible building, and exemplify the WCS’s conservation mission. Programmatically, the project integrates varying degrees of public and private access within the constrained footprint. The Lion House is the first designated landmark building in
NYC to be certified “green” by the USGBC, and is projected to receive a LEED Gold certification.
NYC School Passes the LEED Test
Poly Prep Country Day School.
Photo by Lester Ali
Poly Prep Country Day School, located on a 25-acre campus in Dyker Heights in Brooklyn, is the first NYC school to be awarded a LEED Silver plaque — for Platt Byard Dovell White’s new addition to the school. The project, which received approval from the Landmarks Preservation Commission, incorporated characteristics of the 1892 Hulbert Mansion into the design featuring eight new classrooms, a multi-purpose gymnasium, and a sky-lit dance studio. The mansion was reconfigured to include larger homerooms, a new dining room, central library, double-height music room, and additional art studios. An entrance lobby off a newly landscaped playground leads to a glass-enclosed stair linking the addition to the mansion. Green features include: a 30% reduction in potable water consumption; 70% of the school’s energy is being provided from renewable sources for at least two years; demand control ventilation in high activity spaces; and landscape materials were selected
to minimize heat island effect.
Mixed-Use, Mid-Rise Completed in Central Harlem
Salem House.
Photo by John Bartlestone
Construction of Salem House, a $9.5 million, 60,000-square-foot, mixed-use facility designed by RKT&B Architects is complete. Located in Central Harlem, the seven-story structure combines affordable housing with commercial and community facilities. The primary façade is an aluminum-and-glass window wall system, and alternates with red brick panels with punched window openings. The segmented façade treatment is intended to bring the scale of the 130-foot-wide building down to that of the narrow adjacent structures along Adam Clayton Powell Jr. Boulevard. The Salem United Methodist City Society in partnership with the Phipps Houses Group commissioned the project.
Two Park Avenue (1926) to Get Art Deco Update
The lobby of Two Park Avenue.
Fifield Piaker Elman Architects
The American Art Deco building at Two Park Avenue, designed by Ely Jacques Kahn and built in 1926, is getting a new lobby designed by Fifield Piaker Elman Architects (FPE). The building’s new owners, Morgan Stanley and L&L Holdings, commissioned FPE to reverse a series of earlier renovations to the building, which is a designated landmark. Inspired by Kahn’s existing ornamental detailing, FPE is introducing elements such as new light fixtures with custom bronze sconces to illuminate the original ceiling mosaic and vaulted alcoves, and accent the marble walls. A new concierge desk, bronze-clad doors, and decorative bronze grilles have been designed to match Kahn’s aesthetic while functioning for contemporary use.
Yale: Gwathmey Traces Rudolph’s Footsteps
Model of Yale arts complex showing York Street Elevation.
Photograph by Jock Potel, courtesy Gwathmey Siegel & Associates Architects
Yale University’s major new building comprising the renovated Art & Architecture building (to be renamed Paul Rudolph Hall), the Jeffrey Loria Center for the History of Art, and the Robert B. Haas Family Arts Library, will open this August. Designed by Charles Gwathmey, FAIA, of Gwathmey Siegel & Associates Architects, who received his MArch from Yale in 1962 while Rudolph was chairman of the Department of Architecture, will enable continuous links between the Department of the History of Art and the School of Architecture.
As part of the master plan for the Yale Arts Area, Gwathmey Siegel & Associates restored Rudolph’s historic building, and introduced state-of-the-art technology, air conditioning, and LEED standards into a new facility serving Yale’s art history department. The firm intended the building to have its own identity, create an expanded art, drama, and architecture library with a street-level presence, and respect the surrounding streetscape. The Jeffrey Loria Center for the History of Art is added to the north side of Paul Rudolph Hall, reflecting Rudolph’s original plan to expand the building to the north.
Regeneration Building Prods Researchers to Work Together
Institute for Regeneration Medicine.
Rafael Viñoly Architects
Rafael Viñoly Architects’ design for the Institute for Regeneration Medicine (IRM) building on the University of California at San Francisco Parnassus campus has been approved. The curved, terraced building follows the slope of a narrow hillside. Its horizontal form allows the building to operate as a continuous lab across its four split-levels, encouraging physical and visual connectivity among its users. Exterior ramps along the north façade connect the lab floors in continuous circulation. Landscaped green roofs offer garden amenities for the offices, and break rooms serve as social hubs. IRM reaches out to three nearby research and medical buildings via a pedestrian bridge, connecting it to the center of the campus research community. Walkways anticipate future pedestrian route improvements. The building is expected to be completed in 2010, and expects LEED Silver in line with university policy. It will also follow Labs21 environmental performance
criteria.
New-Build on Shanghai’s Bund
Peninsula Shanghai Hotel & Apartments.
BBG-BBGM
A recent ceremony marked the topping out of the new Peninsula Shanghai Hotel & Apartments designed by BBG-BBGM. The project consists of a hotel with approximately 235 guestrooms and suites, high-end retail space, 39 luxury residential units, and amenities that include a grand ballroom and meeting complex, jazz lounge, and rooftop restaurant. Located in the newly redeveloped Waitanyuan neighborhood on Shanghai’s historic Bund, the design combines traditional art-deco detailing and contextual scale with materials such as bronze and granite that reflect the neighborhood’s historic architecture. The hotel, the only new development on the Bund, is expected to be complete in the fall of 2009.
In this issue:
· White House Blocks OSHA Crane Safety Regulations
· NYC Plaza Program Debuts
· AIANYS Opposes Senate and Assembly Ruling on Corporate Practice
· AIA Report Examines Sustainability Incentives
White House Blocks OSHA Crane Safety Regulations
Susan Podziba, a public policy mediator, was hired by the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) in 2003 to unite union and industry representatives of the Cranes and Derricks Negotiated Rulemaking Advisory Committee (C-DAC) to update federal crane and derrick regulations. Once a new standard was agreed upon, the next step was for OSHA to publish it in the Federal Register as its proposed rule, and after a period for public comment, it would become law. However, four years later, OSHA has yet to publish the rule, despite claiming that the revised crane standard is a priority.
In an Op-Ed piece in the New York Times (”Safety Starts at the Top,” 06.12.08), Podziba claims that OSHA planned to publish the rule this August; however, the White House chief of staff, Johshua Bolten, recently informed administrative agencies that no proposed rules were to be published after June 1 except under “extraordinary” circumstances, and that no draft rules could be made final after November 1. Podziba strongly encourages the administrator of OSHA, Edwin G. Foulke Jr., to request, and if necessary demand, an exception to both deadlines.
NYC Plaza Program Debuts
Mayor Bloomberg’s PlaNYC calls for the creation of a new plaza in every NYC community to ensure that all New Yorkers live within a 10-minute walk of quality open space. The “NYC Plaza Program” aims to design and build public plazas in partnership with local non-profit organizations. It will find at least one opportunity in each of the city’s 59 community districts to reclaim underutilized street spaces and transform them into successful plazas that express each neighborhood’s character and scale. Partnerships are at the core of this new program. In collaboration with the Department of Small Business Services, the NYC Department of Transportation will work with community-based organizations to design, build, manage, and maintain these plazas.
AIANYS Opposes Senate and Assembly Ruling on Corporate Practice
Many states allow design professionals to form regular or business corporations. However, under current NY law, architecture, landscape architecture, engineering, and land surveying firms must be owned 100% by licensed design professionals. Recently amended by both the Senate and the Assembly, AIANYS believes the Corporate Practice of Design Firms Initiative places restrictive ownership provisions on design professional firms, subjecting them to competitive disadvantages. If enacted, design firms would be allowed to offer key personnel such as business managers, human resource managers, or computer information and other specialists up to 25% equity interest in the firm. For more information and to fill out a form letter for legislators, go to the AIA Government Advocacy Center.
AIA Report Examines Sustainability Incentives
State and local governments are using a variety of incentive-based techniques to encourage green building practices, but some efforts have encountered challenges such as the high costs of new incentive programs, and shortcomings in resources, and application. To help communities overcome these obstacles, the AIA commissioned a report, Local Leaders in Sustainability — Green Incentives, that examines many types of incentive programs, details the inherent barriers to success, and highlights best practice examples from around the country. The report identifies some of the most attractive incentives: tax incentives, density/floor area ratio bonuses, and expedited permitting.
AIANY supports a proposal to build an addition on top of 980 Madison Avenue designed by Foster + Partners. Do you support this decision? (See The Center: AIANY Blog to read more about the debate).
Note: Results from this poll are non-scientific.
The St. Vincent's Hospital expansion debate is heating up. AIANY has supported demolition of the O'Toole building so the hospital can construct a state-of-the-art medical facility (See The Center: AIANY Blog for more information). Do you support this decision?
Note: Results from this poll are non-scientific.
The Coney Island Development Corporation (CIDC) launched the Coney Island Fun Guide. The online resource contains everything from daily event listings, to the Brooklyn Cyclones schedule, maps and addresses for local attractions.
Gruzen Samton Architects won two awards for its design of Eleven80, a luxury housing project in downtown Newark — Urban Land Institute’s 2008 Award of Excellence: The Americas Competition, and a Smart Growth Award from New Jersey Future… Other ULI winners include the Overture Center for the Arts by Pelli Clarke Pelli Architects, and finalist Avalon Chrystie Place/Bowery Place by Arquitectonica and SLCE Architects…
Hospitality Design magazine’s fourth annual Hospitality Design Awards include these NY-based firms: The Royalton, Luxury Hotel finalist by R Wade Johnson Design Architecture (architecture) with Roman and Williams Buildings and Interiors (public spaces) and Charlotte Macaux Perelman of Studio CMP (guestrooms); Hyatt New Brunswick, Mid-range or Economy Hotel finalist by Stonehill & Taylor Architects and Planners; Jumeirah Essex House South Gate, Casual or Quick-service Restaurant finalist by tonychi and associates (interiors) and Stonehill & Taylor Architects and Planners (architecture); Townline BBQ, Casual or Quick-service Restaurant winner by CCS Architecture; FR.OG, Bathroom winner by Coffinier Ku Design; The Lucida Sales and Design Center, Green Design finalist by S. Russell Groves; and Fine
Dining Restaurant finalists include Bourbon Steak by AvroKO, STK Los Angeles by iCRAVE, Belvedere Club and Matsuhisa by The Rockwell Group, which also won in the category for Nobu InterContinental Hong
Kong…
New York Foundation for the Arts (NYFA) has awarded 136 Fellowships to 144
New York artists; in the category of Architecture/Environmental Structures:
Stella Betts and David Leven, AIA; Eric Bunge, AIA, and Mimi Hoang (Lily Auchincloss Fellow); Lishan Chang; Ian Gordon, and Eva Perez de Vega; Joanne Howard; Omar Khan; Michael Morris and Yoshiko Sato; Robert Pyzocha; Ann Reichlin; Jean Shin; and Brett Snyder…The ACE (architects, constructors, engineers) Mentor Program of Greater New York announced 58 four-year scholarship awards totaling $179,000 to graduates of the 2008 program; for a complete list of recipients please click here (excel file)…
The participating organizations for the U.S. Pavilion for the 2008 Venice Architecture Biennale include NY-based groups: Center for Urban Pedagogy, Gans Studio, Jonathan Kirschenfeld Associates, and Spatial Information Design Lab…
The Queens Botanical Garden Visitor & Administration Center, designed by BKSK Architects, has officially received LEED Platinum certification…
David Owen Tryba, FAIA, is the winner of the James Marston Fitch Charitable Foundation’s Richard Blinder Award (underwritten by Beyer Blinder Belle Architects & Planners, Mrs. Richard Blinder, and donations made to the Fitch Foundation in memory of Richard Blinder)… The book Frank Lloyd Wright in New York: The Plaza Years, 1954-1959, by Jane King Hession and Debra Pickrel received the 2008 Independent Publishers Book Awards’ Gold Medal in the Architecture category…
Vin Cipolla, the current President and Chief Executive Officer of the National Park Foundation, has been named President of the Municipal Art Society… The Office for Metropolitan Architecture (OMA) has appointed Shohei Shigematsu, currently the director of OMA*AMO in NY, as partner of the OMA Holding company… Meredith Berman Lovejoy, Assoc. AIA, has joined Perkins Eastman as marketing manager…
Material ConneXion is opening its fifth international location, this one in Korea…
06.10.08: openhouse newyork (OHNY) hosted a walking tour of Governors Island guided by the Governors Island Preservation & Education Corporation (GIPEC) and Rogers Marvel Architects.
(L-R): Robert Rogers, FAIA, principal of Rogers Marvel Architects; Leslie Koch, president of GIPEC; Margaret Sullivan, acting executive director of OHNY; Guido Hartray, associate at Rogers Marvel Architects.
Courtesy openhousenewyork
The Municipal Art Society recently hosted a panel on Moynihan Station. A video of the highlights are now available online. Click here to view.
To read the article published in the 05.28.08 issue of e-Oculus, see “Insiders Discuss Jump-Starting Moynihan Station,” by Robert Hauer Santos, Assoc. AIA)
Oculus 2008 Editorial Calendar
If you are an architect by training or see yourself as an astute observer of New York’s architectural and planning scene, note that OCULUS editors are looking for writers for the Winter issue. The theme:
Competing for Space. Explore the growing competition between expansionist institutions on limited sites and the interests of adjacent communities, many in residential areas with moderate-income families.
If you’re interested, please contact OCULUS editor-in-chief Kristen Richards. with a brief outline and full contact information.
08.01.08 Winter 2008-09: Competing for Space
07.01.08 Call for Submissions: AIA COTE Whitepapers
The Committee on the Environment (COTE) seeks Whitepaper submissions from architectural educators, practitioners, and colleagues from allied professions. Authors are invited to submit 200-600-word abstracts and selected authors will receive $1,000. If commissioned, authors will have three months to produce papers that will be published on the COTE website and Soloso. They will also be featured as the lead story in an issue of COTEnotes, which goes out to 9,000 AIA COTE members. COTE will accept submissions year-round and will review the submissions on a quarterly basis.
07.15.08 Call for Entries: IDP Outstanding Firm Award
This program honors firms who make it a priority to nurture interns on the path to licensure. Expanded in January 2008, the award recognizes firms employing interns that meet 12 essential criteria with the “IDP Firm Award,” including mentoring, supervising, training opportunities, commitment to IDP, and ARE support.
07.23.08 Call for Entries: Skuuma Soft Surface Design Competition 2008
SKUUMA invites designers to create home or office products with foam (polyurethane) and special coating as a component. Five winners’ designs will be
added to the SKUUMA collection and the designers will receive royalties.
07.31.08 Call for Entries: Lifecycle Building Challenge 2
Organized by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, the AIA, and the Building Materials Reuse Association, this national competition is intended to spur innovations on front-end design for adaptability and disassembly, to conserve resources, and promote local building materials reuse. The competition categories are Building (Built and Unbuilt) and Innovations. This year, special recognition awards will also be given in the following categories: Best Greenhouse Gas Reducing Design, Best School Design (K-13), and Best Residential Design.
08.01.08 Call for Entries: Spark Awards
Designers from all levels and skill-sets are welcome to enter this two-phased competition. Graphics, product, transportation, and architecture are a few of the many design categories. Expert and independent judges from design and related fields evaluate submitted designs.
Center for Architecture Gallery Hours
Monday-Friday: 9:00am-8:00pm, Saturday: 11:00am-5:00pm, Sunday: CLOSED
Join an Architalker for a Hosted Tour of Center for Architecture
Exhibitions
Join us for free Architalker-hosted tours of the Center for Architecture exhibitions Fridays at 4:00pm. To join one of these tours, meet in the Public Resource Area on the ground floor of the Center for Architecture.
CURRENT EXHIBITIONS
June 23 — September 14, 2008
Buckminster Fuller Dymaxion Study Center
Galleries: Libary
The Dymaxion Study Center will display over four hundred volumes of books by and about visionary inventor and theorist, Buckminster Fuller, whose work has influenced generations of architects and environmentalists. These volumes will include the complete and extremely rare set of Buckminster Fuller’s Synergetics Dictionary edited by Ed Applewhite, as well as other well-known works by Fuller, such as Synergetics and Nine Chains to the Moon. The Study Center will include selections from Fuller’s “live book squad” of influential texts and a Dymaxion timeline, outlining the evolution of Fuller’s geodesic designs in the context of their co-evolution with the Dymaxion map, organized in collaboration with Bonnie DeVarco, former Fuller Archivist and Shoji Sadao, President of Fuller and Sadao PC.
On Monday, June 23rd, 2008, the Center for Architecture will also unveil the Buckminster Fuller’s Fly’s Eye Dome, courtesy of the Buckminster Fuller Institute and Max Protetch Gallery, New York, in conjunction with NYC Department of Transportation’s Temporary Art Program and Friends of LaGuardia Place. The dome will be temporarily displayed at LaGuardia Park between Bleecker and West 3rd Streets. Its presence will draw attention to the imminent re-design of the park by landscape architect, Adrian Smith, ASLA, working with students and Friends of LaGuardia Place.
“The Fly’s Eye domes are designed as components of a ’livingry’ service. The basic hardware components will produce a beautiful, fully equipped, air-deliverable house that weighs and costs about as much as a good automobile. Not only will it be highly efficient in its use of energy and materials, it also will be capable of harvesting incoming light and wind energies.” - Buckminster Fuller, Critical Path, 1983.
The Center for Architecture’s Dymaxion Study Center will offer audiences an in-depth view of Buckminster Fuller, his influences, his words, and works.
Organized by: AIA New York Chapter and the Center for
Architecture Foundation in association with the Buckminster Fuller Institute
Exhibition and Graphic Design: Project Projects
Underwriters: NYC Department of Transportation’s Temporary Art
Program
Friends of LaGuardia Place, Center for Architecture
Foundation
Lead Sponsors: Spring Scaffolding
Sponsor: Richter+Ratner
Supporters: New York University; Purchase College, State University of
New York
Media Sponsor: Metropolis Magazine
Related Events
Monday, June 23, 2008, 2:00 — 5:00pm
Buckminster Fuller Challenge Conferring Ceremony
Monday, June 23, 2008, 5:00 — 7:00pm
Reception and Opening of Dymaxion Study Center and Buckminster Fuller’s Fly’s Eye Dome
Wednesday, June 25, 2008, 12:00 — 2:00pm
Dialogue: Fuller’s architectural partners
Wednesday, June 25, 2008, 2:00 — 4:00pm
Dialogue, Fuller’s associates
Thursday, June 26, 2008, 5:00 — 8:00pm
Dymaxion Study Center Roundtable
Friday, June 27, 2008, 6:00 — 8:00pm
Fuller Film Series & Discussion
Saturday, June 28, 2008, 11:00 — 1:00pm
Dymaxion Map Intergenerational Workshop: One Earth Island - One Earth Ocean (Session I)
Saturday, June 28, 2008, 2:00 — 4:00pm
Dymaxion Map Intergenerational Workshop: One Earth Island - One Earth Ocean (Session II)
Saturday, July 12, 2008, 10:00 — 12:00pm
FamilyDay@theCenter: Bucky’s Ge-Odyssey (Session I)
Saturday, July 12, 2008, 1:00 — 3:00pm
FamilyDay@theCenter: Bucky’s Ge-Odyssey (Session II)
May 22 — September 6, 2008
Ecotones: mitigating NYC’s contentious sites
Galleries: Margaret Helfand Gallery, Gerald D Hines Gallery, Public Resource Center
Given the global and local challenges of climate change, the Landscape Architecture profession is at the forefront of New York City’s sustainability efforts. Collaborating with governments, regulatory agencies, community groups, and design professionals, Landscape Architects are transforming ecological problems into opportunities for habitation and recreation. With Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg’s sustainability plan, plaNYC, in place, the challenge is to understand the interconnectedness of the City’s green spaces.
Ecotones are transition zones between adjacent ecosystems. In urban environments they emerge as contentious sites located between disparate or opposing forces: where industry meets the river; where community and industrial uses collide; where public and private interests merge. These areas are often the unconsidered result of infrastructure improvements and building developments yet have the potential to be cultural and ecological mitigators. The projects in this exhibition show us how sustainable practices, specifically, the collecting, cleansing, and reclaiming of water, can be used to mediate conflicting circumstances, integrating technical solutions with the social and cultural considerations that make for vibrant urban spaces.
Organized by the AIA New York Chapter and the Center for Architecture Foundation in collaboration with the American Society of Landscape Architects New York Chapter
Curator: Tricia Martin
Exhibition Design: Moorhead & Moorhead
Graphic Design: PS New York
Patron: Alcan Composites USA
Sponsor
H.I. Interior Corp
Duggal Visual Solutions
Supporters: Delta Fountains; H.M. White Site Architects; Landscape Forms; Langan Engineering and Environmental Services; Michael Van Valkenburgh Associates, Landscape Architects
Friends: EDAW; Lee Weintraub Landscape Architecture; Mathews Nielsen Landscape Architects; Sawyer/Berson, Architecture and Landscape Architecture
Related Events
Saturday, July 26, 2008, 11:00am — 5:00pm
Symposium
organized by the ASLA New York Chapter
May 1 — June 28, 2008
Design Awards & Building Type Awards 2008
Galleries: Kohn Pedersen Fox Gallery, HLW Gallery
The AIA New York Chapter 2008 Design Awards exhibition is a showcase of the 2008 award-winning projects in three categories — Interiors, Architecture, and Projects. Selected from international, national and local submissions, these projects spotlight the extraordinary achievements in architectural design excellence in New York City and around the world.
The AIA New York Chapter 2008 Biennial Building Type Awards program has been established to recognize excellence and innovation in specialized design fields and to honor the architects, clients, and consultants who work together to improve the built environment. The 2008 design categories are: Educational Facility Design, Sustainable Design, and Urban Design. The program is co-sponsored with the Boston Society of Architects.
Design Awards 2008 is organized by the AIA New York Chapter and the AIA New York Chapter Design Awards Committee.
Building Type Awards 2008 is co-sponsored by the AIA New York Chapter and the Boston Society of Architects. The 2008 program was organized in collaboration with the following AIA New York Chapter Committees: Architecture for Education, Committee on the Environment, and Planning & Urban Design.
Exhibition Design: Graham Hanson Design
The 2008 Design Awards Program was made possible with support from the following organizations:
Benefactors
Patrons
Lead Sponsors
Arup
Consulting for Architects
Gensler
KI
Lutron Electronics
Mancini Duffy
RMJM Hillier
Robert A.M. Stern Architects
STUDIOS architecture
Turner Construction Corporation
Related Events
Wednesday, June 18, 2008 6:00 — 8:00pm
Design Awards Winners’ Symposium: Projects Winners
June 13 — August 23, 2008
Building Connections: 12th Annual Exhibition of K-12 Design Work
Join us in celebrating our young designers! This annual exhibition of K-12 explorations into the built environment showcases models and drawings from Learning By Design:NY, our school based residency program, as well as work from our youth programs at the Center for Architecture.
Exhibition Design: Arquitectonica
Exhibition Graphics: Casey Maher
Exhibition organized by the Center for Architecture Foundation and the AIA New York.
Building Connections was made possible with generous support from the following organizations:
Sponsor: Kramer Levin Naftalis & Frankel; Robert A. M. Stern Architects
Supporters: Ingram, Yuzek, Gainen, Carroll & Bertolotti; Robert Silman Associates
Friends: Archetype Associates; Baldinger; Bentley Prince Street; Cline Bettridge Bernstein Lighting Design; Fisher Marantz Stone; InterfaceFLOR; Langan Engineering and Environmental Services; Murray Engineering; Petty Burton Associates; Pustorino, Puglisi & Co.; RMJM Hillier; Tamarkin Architecture; Weidlinger Associates; Linda Yowell, FAIA
Friday, June 13, 2008, 5:30 — 8:30pm
Exhibition Opening
Special Live Performance at 8pm: Care Bears on Fire
Spend the Summer@theCenter!
For more information go to www.cfafoundation.org, or contact 212.358.6133 or info@cfafoundation.org
FamilyDay@theCenter
Green Roof for a Green Planet, Saturday, June 7, 10:00 – 12:00 pm and 1:00 – 3:00
Bucky’s Maps, Saturday, July 12, 10:00 – 12:00 pm and 1:00 – 3:00
Explore Governor’s Island, Saturday, August 9, Meet at 9:45am at the Ferry Building
Solar Pavilion 3.
Situ Studio
06.26.08 through 06.29.08
Situ Studio: Solar Pavilion 3
Situ Studio has been commissioned to design Solar Pavilion 3, the third in a series of eco-friendly pavilions for Solar One’s annual CitySol Festival. Over the past three years Stuyvesant Cove Park has been the site of a series of experiments in sustainable design.
CitySol, Stuyvesant Cove Park
23rd Street at the East River
“What My Dad Gave Me.”
Courtesy Tishman Speyer Properties
Through 07.10.08
Chris Burden: What My Dad Gave Me
On view is a 65-foot, 16,000-pound skyscraper made entirely of replica toy construction parts. By artist Chris Burden, the sculpture rises more than six stories at Rockefeller Center, and pays homage to the historic skyscrapers.
Rockefeller Center, Channel Gardens
5th Avenue between 49 and 50th Streets
The Futuro Lounge.
Matthew Septimus, courtesy P.S.1
Through 09.15.08
Arctic Hysteria: New Art from Finland
This intergenerational and interdisciplinary exhibition features 16 Finnish artists. It includes drawings, films, architecture, sculpture, and photography. The show’s pivotal installation is a room-size homage to the1968 Futuro house by Finnish architect Matti Suuronen that serves as a screening room for several video pieces and documentaries.
P.S.1 Contemporary Art Center
22-25 Jackson Avenue, Long Island City
P.F.1 at P.S. 1.
Courtesy WORKac
Through 10.20.08
Public Farm One (P.F.1): WORKac
Public Farm One (PF1) is an architectural installation bringing an interactive, working farm to the P.S.1 courtyard. Conceived by WORK Architecture Company (WORKac), P.F.1 was selected as the competition winning entry of the 2008 MoMA/P.S.1 Young Architects Program. Leslie E. Robertson Associates collaborated as the structural engineer. Constructed from recyclable materials, it is the first project at P.S. 1 to engage issues of sustainability. Comprised of large cardboard tubes, the design extends vertically beyond the courtyard walls. Planters housed within the tubes contain a variety of vegetables, fruits, and flowers visible from above and below the installation.
P.S.1 Contemporary Art Center
22-25 Jackson Avenue, Long Island City
eCalendar includes an interactive listing of architectural events around NYC. Click the link to go to to eCalendar on the Web.
The Public Information Exchange (PIE) is an AIANY initiative designed to create an archive of NYC projects, proposals, programs, and exhibitions presented or discussed at the Center for Architecture. It is a forum for public discussion, both general and professional, that includes continuous commentary from users and participants. Click the link to take part.
ADVERTISE IN THE eOCULUS CLASSIFIEDS!
· Click here to download an ad rate/insertion order form.
· Fill out the form and fax it back to us at 212-696-5022.
· E-mail the ad directly to eOculus_ads@aiany.org
Your ad will run in the next available posting. eOCULUS is sent out every other Tuesday.
Would you like to have your message featured in eOCULUS? Spotlight your firm, product, or event as a marquee sponsor of eOCULUS, the electronic newsletter of the AIA New York Chapter. Sponsors receive a prominently-placed banner ad. Your message will reach over 10,000 architects, decision-makers in the building industry, and design enthusiasts via e-mail every two weeks (and countless others who access the newsletter directly from the AIA New York web site). For more information about sponsorship, contact: listadmin@aiany.org or 212.358.6114.
Looking for help? See resumes posted on the AIA New York Chapter website.
NBBJ’s vision: To shape a future that enhances life and inspires human potential through design, www.nbbj.com. To learn about our impact on the world, see NBBJ NY Design Partner on Fox Business news aired 6/12/08 discussing development in China, http://www.foxbusiness.com/video/index.html?referralObject=1359471.
Strategic Planning Lead
The New York office of a large architectural firm seeks a leader of its Planning and Strategies practice. The 18 consultants are in five of this firm’s offices: five in New York. Workplace improvement, strategic facility planning and portfolio strategy are the three primary services.
The current head of New York Planning and Strategies also leads the group globally. he is also Managing Director of the New York office. Executing all three roles well is no longer possible. He seeks a design-trained professional with consulting experience. The right candidate will be naturally attracted to the business of his/her clients’ operations, seeking ways to optimize operations through facilities changes.
This management position requires experience with a significant organization doing business development, project management, practice management and people management. There is opportunity for advancement, a portfolio of world-class clients, experienced, eager colleagues and a nationally-recognized practice leader. To initiate a dialog in confidence, send your resume to Karen@breuerconsulting.com.
Operations Leader — New York
Our client, a highly successful consultancy focused on building performance analysis primarily for architectural firms was founded in London in 1990. The New York office opened in 2001.
The practice seeks to professionalize and consolidate its business operations in the position of Operations Leader. Scope of responsibilities:
- Human Resources and Compliance
- Administrative Quality Control and Procedures
- Legal and Insurance
- Firm-wide Financial Management
- Business Development and Marketing
Consolidating these firm-wide functions under an experienced professional in New York will yield consistency, a single point of contact internally and externally, and improved systems quality. Minimum requirements:
- Bachelors or higher degree in a field related to building design
- At least five years in business administration
- Fluent in written and spoken English
Preference will be given to candidates who have experience a professional services firm: design-related experience would be best. To initiate a confidential dialog, send your resume to tina@breuerconsutling.com
City of New York Department of Cultural Affairs Citywide Vacancy Notice
Office Title: Director of Special Projects Capital
Civil Service Title: Associate Arts Program Specialist
Salary: $40,057-$61,711
Work Location: 21 Chambers St., 2nd Floor, NY, NY 10017
Title Code: 60496
Work Unit: Capital Projects (1) position
JOB DESCRIPTION
The Department of Cultural Affairs (DCLA) seeks to fill the position of Capital Projects Manager in its Capital Projects Unit. The Capital Projects Unit oversees the administration of a multi-million dollar capital program supporting the expenditure of City capital dollars funding design and construction projects and major equipment purchases at cultural facilities located throughout the City. This constituency represents an array of internationally renowned and community-based organizations, including performing arts centers, museums, theaters, botanical gardens and wildlife centers. Projects run the gamut from the creation of new performing arts facilities to basic infrastructure improvements.
This position will perform a broad scope of strategic and special projects that support the Agency’s design and construction projects and the administration of capital funding. The position entails extensive interagency coordination and outreach to the field, development and maintenance of information database applications, and project management of design and construction of capital improvements. Diverse responsibilities will include, but are not limited to, the following:
- Work closely with the Assistant Commissioner on special projects and policy issues.
- Develop DCLA’s annual capital budget, Four-Year Plan and biannual Ten-Year Plan and short and long term capital planning for DCA and the institutions and organizations.
- Coordinate with cultural organizations on the development and preparation of the project scope for capital improvement projects.
- Manage the design phase of City-funded capital projects and review privately funded capital projects and associated budgets.
- Assist the Assistant Commissioner and Unit staff in project management of specialized and or complex projects, and oversee design, bidding and construction phases, as required.
- Represent DCLA and cultural organizations with other City agencies and elected officials.
- Prepare correspondence and other written material.
PREFERRED SKILLS
Demonstrated interest in government and in the arts is preferred, as is experience working on design and construction projects, master planning and capital budgeting and reviewing architectural/engineering designs. Excellent writing, analytical, computer and interpersonal skills are essential. The ability to efficiently and promptly handle and prioritize multiple tasks simultaneously while meeting deadlines and changing priorities is critical.
QUALIFICATION REQUIREMENTS
1. Five years of full-time experience in planning, coordinating, budgeting, producing organizing administering or directing a cultural institution; or
2. Four years of full-time experience as a practitioner in any of the performing or visual arts, plus at least one year of experience in planning, coordinating, budgeting, producing, organizing, administering or directing a cultural program or cultural institution; or
3. A baccalaureate degree from an accredited college including or supplemented by 24 credits in one of the visual or performing arts or in arts management plus one-year of full-time experience as described in (1) above or
4. Education and/or experience equivalent to that described in (1), (2), or (3) above. However, all candidates must have at least one year of experience as described in (1) above. Experience of substantial nature will be considered on a pro-rated basis, if it is not full-time.
TO APPLY, PLEASE SUBMIT RESUME &COVER LETTER INDICATING JVN# TO:
NYC Department of Cultural Affairs - Recruitment Office
31 Chamber Street, 2nd Floor, New York, NY 10036
E-mail address CRecruit@culture.nyc.gov (Indicate Office Title in subject line)
The Department of Cultural Affairs and New York City are Equal Opportunity Employers
Date Posted: May 22, 2008
Post Until: Filled
JVN: 126-08-15 CPAAPS
Director of Business and Human Resources
Mid-size NYC firm seeks Director of Business/HR to implement financial strategies to grow the business, and to hire appropriate staff to support those strategies. Candidate will pursue RFQs/RFPs; work on budgets for proposals; negotiate contracts. Working with Principal and Partners, he/she will determine fee structures and staffing requirements for design projects, and ensure clients’ financial obligations are met. Candidate must know industry costs/fees; streamline project-related accounting processes; identify and address project-related financial/HR problems. E-mail resume and cover letter to jobs@selldorf.com.
(Continued from above)
e-O: Tell me about how you researched and developed the site model.
Christopher Pounds: The first thing that leapt out at us was the large dip in the site’s typography. We then took note of Riverside Drive, the MTA bridge, and the subway that comes out of the ground, and from there we looked at what programs on the site are useful to the community. We kept those programs and cleared others out to create an open space. Because two bridges are already lifted off the ground, we proposed a scheme that was also lifted off the ground, providing open access to those programs from all sides.
Anna Kostreva: We decided to create trajectories from the street and another building that has elevated functions. Around nine stories up, we developed a circular ring creating cohesiveness for the university.
CP: In some ways it’s a critique of the Columbia campus, because the campus is gated off and we’re introducing direct access from all sides. We tried to provide many points of access on the campus. Those points are where we located vertical towers that contain libraries.
AK: The idea is that whoever is coming in from the university would access the university through a library relating to neighboring academic programs. Individuals come into the university structure either in a virtual or physical way. The endeavor for knowledge is what’s holding the university up.
So people come up through the library, access the university, and then the framework of the circle level acts both as interior and exterior where people move from one locus to the next.
CP: Our matrix also suggests how the campus can expand for the next few hundred years. There’s a finite quality to the circle, but portions extend out, suggesting trajectories for future generations.
AK: The towers can also expand upward, and the framework toward the interior.
e-O: Once the matrix was established, how did the rest of the students in the studio integrate their projects?
CP: Some chose to completely reject the structure, some chose to directly integrate. There are some projects that worked with the ground, even though the matrix is elevated, and these projects challenged the matrix. There is also a wide variety of scales among the projects. Dennis and Raye’s project integrates with the structure. Tom placed his tower completely out of the matrix, but it works with the ground in a specific way.
Dennis Murphy: We saw the matrix as the generator for our project. We incorporated a pier near the river’s edge between Riverside Drive and the Hudson River, and we oriented a vertical tower in the center.
Raye Levine: We started with a program of a marketplace. We wanted to create a center where everyone in the university can gather. Plazas provide exhibition space for artwork. We developed a center displaced from the center [of the matrix] where the city ends and water begins.
DM: The program is for an exchange of knowledge, not necessarily just art.
RL: And also the university and city can branch out into the water.
DM: One other thing is that we never saw our project as being just for students. Students and the public can use the space. That’s really important to us.
Tom Brooksbank: I imagine that my tower is an alter ego on the site, because during the day it’s dark, and at night it lights up. It would be an “other,” a presence on the site. I was also trying to find a way to make an ambiguous space, where you can’t really tell which elevation you are looking at or how deep it is.
The program is for photosensitivity research. There isn’t really a cure or a known reason for this sun allergy. So the ground level is in essential darkness that would be for research, healing, and living for those extreme cases. Then the building would get lighter as you go up. Within the building are these curvilinear spaces that wrap around the human body as you move through it. I tried to find a completely new type of space.
e-O: Did you find that the studio agreed on any ideas about what a “campus of the future” could be?
LW: They thought not so much about permanent monuments, but about temporary structures that can come and go rather than be fixed. There was a lightness and transience to design. It gives way to a transparency rather than opacity of morals.
AK: The idea of movement among disciplines was taken on by a lot of students, which was promoted by our matrix by having circulation at different levels and direct connections between structures themselves.
e-O: How did working on this project change your idea of what urban planning/architecture is?
TB: It’s a laboratory to try and find things that could reappear and develop later in our work. It’s 32 different ideas of what architecture can become. Also, there isn’t any right or wrong. It’s about choices and taking them as far as you can.
AK: For us [as master planners], it was a struggle to articulate something at an urban scale and a unified whole, while still allowing the individual projects to have an identity.
CP: One great achievement of the project is that it’s not just a campus of the future, it’s talking about the future of education. It’s a moment that people can begin to see new ways of linking disciplines. Because the structure is so readable, people will be able to accept those changes, and new connections — or disconnections — may develop over time.
|
|
|
