Opposition to Madison Square Gardens Heating Up
Madison Square Garden. (Thanos Papavasiliou / Flickr)
Madison Square Garden has been on the move since its inception in 1879 as a 10,000-square-foot boxing, bike racing, and ice hockey venue in an old railroad depot at Madison Avenue and 26th Street. The facility later moved into an ornate Moorish-style building designed by famed Stanford White, architect of the Penn Station, which the arena notoriously replaced at its fourth and current home on 33rd Street in Midtown (after a brief stop on 50th Street). Now, if community boards, civic and planning groups, and Manhattan Borough President Scott Stringer get their way, the venue will be sent packing once again.
April 12: NEW Dialog Workshops at Facades + PERFORMANCE Conference
A tour of the recently reclad Javits Center will be part of a special Facades + Performance Dialog Workshop.
Many conferences leave audiences sitting in a dark theater while speakers and panelists perform on stage. At Facades + PERFORMANCE, April 11-12 in NYC, attendees have the opportunity to have in-depth conversations with architects, fabricators, developers, and engineers. Day 2 Dialog workshops, a new feature at this year’s conference, offer participants an opportunity to interact with some of the industry’s top experts in an intimate, seminar-style setting with a goal of encouraging inquiry and problem-solving.
Participants can select one workshop each from morning and afternoon sessions to create a customized daylong schedule that best suits their professional goals. For those interested in the renovation of large commercial facades in the urban environment and the use of contemporary curtainwall technology to renovate old masonry buildings, a special full-day session, “The Challenge and Opportunity Presented by an Aging Building Stock“ is being led by Mic Patterson, director of strategic development at the facade technology firm Enclos. The workshop meets at Enclos’ Advanced Technology Studio, but to discuss retrofitting there’s no better classroom than the city of Manhattan itself—the group will conclude the day with a visit the Javits Center for a tour of the recently reclad building. As part of the program, case studies will be presented by Robert Golda of Heintges; William Paxson & Mayin Yu from Davis Brody Bond, and Hamid Vossoughi of Halsall Associates.
Up to 8 AIA/CES LU or LU/HSW credits available. Register here.
Check out the full Dialogue Workshops menu after the jump.
A Spruced Up Central Park Precinct Opens to Public
Exterior of Central Park Precinct (Courtesy of New York City Department of Design + Construction)
Mayor Bloomberg and the NYPD gathered yesterday to unveil the newly renovated Central Park Precinct, the oldest stationhouse in the city. According to DNAinfo, the $61 million project included repairs to the crumbling building and a new canopy and glass atrium over the lobby, with the help of Karlsberger Architects.
New Renderings Detail Kohn Pedersen Fox’s One Hudson Yards
Rendering of Extell’s KPF-designed One Hudson Yards tower. (Courtesy One Hudson Yards)
With both the Hudson Yards and Manhattan West mega-developments underway on Manhattan’s West Side, several other projects in the area are coming into closer focus. Among them, Extell’s structurally criss-crossed Kohn Pedersen Fox-designed tower across 11th Avenue from Hudson Yards proper taking the name of its larger neighbor: One Hudson Yards. New York YIMBY spotted a bevy of new renderings of the 877-foot-tall diagrid tower posted to a just-launched project website. At 56 floors, the tower, shown with a wavy ledge peeling up the building’s facade at its main entrance, will front the Michael Van Valkenburgh-designed linear park, Hudson Boulevard, where the new Dattner-designed 7 line subway will emerge through glass canopies.
Future of Gehry’s World Trade Center Performing Arts Center Still Uncertain
Model of a preliminary design for the WTC performing arts center. (Courtesy Gehry Partners via NY Times)
It is not uncommon for projects to change over time, but the performing arts center planned for the World Trade Center site has undergone many iterations. It has been tweaked, downsized, refocused, delayed, and at one point, possibly re-located to another site. Now, the New York Times reported that the center has been whittled down from a four-stage arts complex housing multiple cultural organizations—including the International Freedom Center, Signature Theater, the Drawing Center, and the Joyce Theater—to a multidisciplinary arts space with just one main stage. The Joyce Theater is the only remaining organization that will still be part of the center, though it will not be based at the World Trade Center site as previously planned.
The next step is to find an artistic director who can oversee center and curate its programming. Frank Gehry has been working on the design of the center, but the recent changes have called for him to scale it back. Once costs and programming are nailed down, the preliminary board will move forward with fundraising efforts. Right now, though, it looks like the center won’t open its doors until 2017 or 2018.
Look under the arm of just about any architect and you might notice a small black notebook. The popular Italian journal maker Moleskine has just opened its first stand-alone retail store in the United States on Friday inside New York’s Time Warner Center. Like other Moleskine stores, the Columbus Circle outpost features a map on the floor and carries a full line of products including journals, pens, bags, and digital accessories. (Photo: Courtesy Moleskine)
With Casino Licence Up For Grabs in Philly, Developers Betting On City Center
The proposed Market 8 in downtown Philly. (Courtesy Market East Associates)
After a Foxwoods casino went bust in Philadelphia, an elusive casino license has been up for grabs, and proposals for a new facility have been pouring in over the Philly region. Six developers are competing for the city’s second casino license, and two of the proposals are betting on Downtown. Curbed reported that while the majority of the proposed developments are planned for the outer edges of Philly, two proposals intend on building right in the heart of the city.
Selldorf Architects To Restore Grand Reading Room at Brown University
The John Hay Library at Brown University. (Mr. Ducke / Flickr)
While some of the new architecture at Brown University is distinctly modern, Manhattan-based Selldorf Architects has been selected to bring back the historic charm of the circa 1910 English Renaissance John Hay Library. According to the Brown Daily Herald, the project was jumpstarted in February following an anonymous $3 million donation, plus another anonymous $6 million donation for the renovation from 2011. The Hay Library, which houses the university’s rare books collection, archives, and other special collections, will be reconfigured to open up the grand 4,400-square-foot reading room to its original design by Boston architects Shepley Rutan & Coolidge. The room is currently divided into parts to securely store sensitive books. The larger space will allow more access to the public and can play host to larger university-related events.
New York City Council Approves SHoP-Designed Pier 17 Makeover at the South Street Seaport
Proposed changes to Pier 17. (Courtesy SHoP)
Last Wednesday, the New York City Council unanimously approved plans to tear down the current Pier 17 in the South Street Seaport and build a new $200 million SHoP Architects-designed mall in its place, marking the end of the long and sometimes contentious ULURP approval process. Crain’s reported that Dallas-based developer Howard Hughes made some concessions to the council including pushing back construction on the project to allow Hurricane Sandy-battered tenants to have an additional summer season, with construction now anticipated to begin on October 1st.
Slideshow> Squibb Pedestrian Bridge Bounces Into Brooklyn Bridge Park
The Squibb Pedestrian Bridge in Brooklyn Bridge Park. (Branden Klayko / AN)
HNTB’s Squibb Park Pedestrian Bridge connecting the Brooklyn Heights Promenade with Brooklyn Bridge Park opened to the public last Thursday. The $4.9 million bridge was built using “trail bridge technology” with galvanized steel cables and cylindrical black locust timbers, providing an efficient and lightweight structure that, as a sign at the entrance to the bridge warns, quite literally puts a bounce in visitors’ steps. “The bridge is very light weight. You will feel yourself walking across the bridge,” HNTB’s Chief Engineer Ted Zoli said at a construction tour in December. On AN‘s visit to the bridge Friday morning, traversing the spans did in fact provide a bouncy effect.
Pittsburgh The Latest To Join the Bike Sharing Game
Mockup of a bike share system in Pittsburgh. (Courtesy City of Pittsburgh)
Pittsburgh is the latest in a long line of cities preparing to launch a bike share system. According to the Bike PGH blog, Mayor Ravenstahl announced the 500-bike, 50-station program earlier this month. Similar to systems in other cities, bikes will be available for short-term rides for a small fee. Portland, OR-based Alta Planning and Design will partner with the city to launch the system, the same company involved with New York, Washington DC, and other major bike share systems. More information will be available at two community meetings scheduled for April 2nd and 3rd. The city hopes to roll out the new bikes in 2014.
Herald Center—From Discount Drab to LED Luminous
Proposed facade for the Herald Center mall. (Courtesy Moed de Armas & Shannon)
Located at one of the busiest intersections in Manhattan—and probably the world—the outdated Herald Center has recently been slated for a $50 million facelift by Moed de Armas & Shannon architecture firm. Hailing from the 1980s, the tinted black windows on the first three floors will be replaced with sheer insulated glass, while the façade of the remaining floors is transformed to offer passersby an LED-lit view befitting the luminous Times Square a few blocks north.
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