Under the High Line, Pop-Up Cave-itecture
Richard Chai + Snarkitecture's ice-cave under the High Line. (Photo: David Smith)
Lurking under the High Line has been a bit more fun since Building Fashion began its series of architecture-and-fashion installations in September, erecting a new collaboration every two weeks as a means of reusing the former onsite Sales Tin of Neil Denari’s HL23 condos. On Thursday, Brooklyn firm Snarkitecture and fashion designer Richard Chai will unveil the fourth project in the series, a cave carved by hand from architectural foam. Designed to give shoppers the feel of a glacial cavern, the pop-up shop will feature men’s and women’s fashions displayed on shelves, niches, and hang bars embedded in the foam. Read More
Americans at the Door
The Dror door: Davina (All photos courtesy Lualdi)
Last night at Material ConneXion Italian door manufacturer Lualdi unveiled its first collection of doors designed by U.S.-based architects. Dror Benshetrit’s lacquered red Davina door stole the show with a diagonally folded design that makes the door appear slightly ajar when closed. Read More
New at NeoCon
We’ll see you in Chicago at the show—while you’re there, remember to pick up a copy of our latest Midwest edition, hot off the press! Until then, we offer you a sneak peek of our favorite finds from this year’s contract furnishings market:
Bram Boo Bench, VanerumStelter
Belgian designer Bram Boo’s bench fosters socialization, rest, and work all in one piece of furniture. Four seats arranged in a square create four desktops and multiple ways to face others. The bench is available in red and black.
Mind Your Manors
Winterthur Museum: Coming to a home near you.
In these days of shrinking endowments, museums have to do what they can to make a buck. In the case of Delaware’s Winterthur Museum, that means endorsing a new line of pre-engineered houses from Vermont company Connor Homes.
Earning Their Stripes
Slade Architecture's rags-to-riches table for DIFFA's Dining By Design. (Slade Architecture)
How quickly they grow up. No sooner had James and Hayes Slade sprung from the chrysalis of their Emerging Voices lecture than they spread their wings at one of the city’s toniest design-and-dining events. Joining the likes of David Rockwell and Vicente Wolf, not to mention Cindy Crawford and Ralph Lauren, Slade Architecture debuted their variegated talent with a tape-covered dining room at DIFFA’s Dining By Design gala. Read More
Ferry Funds Dry Up
All aboard the A train. (Courtesy NY Water Taxi)
Commuters who have come to rely on the ferry that connects the Rockaways and Wall Street will have to find another way to get to work starting March 19. The city has subsidized the route since it launched plans for new and expanded ferry service in 2008, but last year’s average ridership was a little more than half of the 300-passenger daily quota required to continue funding. Read More
Concrete Verdict Set in Stone
Cracked concrete at Yankee Stadium. (New York Times)
The citywide concrete crackdown continued yesterday as jurors delivered a guilty verdict against Testwell Laboratories and its owner, V. Reddy Kancharla, who were accused of falsifying concrete test reports for a range of high-profile projects including Yankee Stadium and the Freedom Tower. The question of whether Kancharla and his company committed the more serious charge of enterprise corruption, which carries a possible prison sentence of 25 years, is still being examined by the jury, according to the Times. Read More
Big Moola for NOLA
A preliminary scheme for Charity Hospital's replacement.
On the heels of the Saints’ victory, the Big Easy had another big win this week, this time in the form of a $474.8 million FEMA payment. But preservationists have been dealt a major blow in their fight to save 70-year-old Charity Hospital in New Orleans, along with a tract of historic homes and structures in the city’s Mid-City district. For the past four years, Louisiana state officials have been at loggerheads with FEMA over the extent of Hurricane Katrina’s damages to Charity, which has been shuttered since the storm. On Wednesday, a federal arbitration panel ordered FEMA to pay nearly all of the requested replacement costs for the state-owned hospital. The ruling was a triumph for city and state officials who argued that Charity was more than 50 percent damaged by the hurricane and therefore eligible for replacement, instead of repair. Read More
Drawing Attention
Jean Tschumi's Nestlé Headquarters (Courtesy Artinfo.com)
Just when we thought the season of giving was behind us, Bernard Tschumi has brought out one last gift for MoMA. The architect announced yesterday that he would donate 43 of his father’s architectural drawings to the museum, making it the only non-European institution with a collection of Jean Tschumi originals. Read More
In Moe We Could Trust
Richard Moe announces his retirement. (National Trust)
National Trust for Historic Preservation president Richard Moe announced today that he will retire in the spring of 2010. Moe, 72, is the longest-serving president in the organization’s 60-year history. The legacy of his 17-year tenure will likely be his push to bring historic preservation into the mainstream by revitalizing urban historic districts and promoting the environmental importance of saving aging buildings and structures.
“It has been an enormous privilege to be associated with the National Trust over these years,” Moe said in a statement on the National Trust’s website. “It has been the most fulfilling professional experience I have ever had.” Moe went on to say that his departure will present an opportunity for the Trust to seek a generational change at a time when its financial base and its programming are on solid ground. Read More
Man of Metal
Moneo
Last night Rafael Moneo, Madrid-based architect and Harvard Graduate School of Design professor, kicked off Columbia’s third annual conference on architecture, engineering, and materials with a keynote lecture on his Northwest Corner Building, a new interdisciplinary science facility between Chandler and Pupin halls.
This year’s conference is titled Post Ductility: Metals in Architecture and Engineering, and though Moneo’s building isn’t scheduled to be completed until the fall of next year, there may not have been a better time to discuss its materials or its contribution to the campus. Unfinished, the building can be seen as the engineering marvel that it is, with 300 tons of structural trusses enabling it to float above the gym beneath it. (Here’s a video we posted of them being installed.) Read More
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