Report Live from Megaprojects Conference
The conference features Hudson Yards as a "Megaproject for the 21st Century" (Courtesy Related)
AN was live blogging from the Megaprojects Conference at the McGraw Hill Conference Center on May 11. The conference/symposium, sponsored by Columbia University’s Center for Urban Real Estate, took a close look at a few of New York’s biggest real estate projects. The World Trade Center, Hudson Yards, and Times Square. London’s Docklands was also discussed.
5:00PM
The panel from Hudson Yards was the last up at today’s conference, though Related’s Stephen Ross, who sat on an earlier panel was no longer in the house. Oxford Properties’ Dean Shapiro estimated that the project would be completed over the course of two economic cycles. MTA’s real estate director Jeffrey Rosen once again echoed the Port Authority transit theme with “Our paramount concern is running the rail road.” Rosen said that flexibility needs to be a part of any plan, adding that the High Line was not even on the radar when Hudson Yards planning began. As a result the project’s anchor tenant was a luxury fashion company.“Who would’ve thought that this would become Meatpacking North,” he said.
Vishaan Chakrabarti who opened the conference with the statement, “Cities can cure many of the world’s ills” closed the session by explaining how and why. He said major private investment needed to be paired with greater public flexibility and more investment at the federal level. He added that a more nimble public process (that’s you, ULURP) needed to be figured out. “We’re taking too long to build these kind of projects,” he said. But then he zeroed in on the major plus of the megaprojects. “They can address the alarming rate of suburbanization,” he said. “The only way to mitigate that is far denser urbanization with transportation.”
Mark Robbins, Dean of Photography
Mark Robbins.
Syracuse University’s School of Architecture will need a new dean before summer. New York City’s International Center of Photography (ICP) has announced that Mark Robbins the current dean of the school will become its next Executive Director. Robbins worked tirelessly to utilize Syracuse’s intellectual and design resources to bring life and new ideas to the dying college city and will be hard for the school to replace. But perhaps his skill at jump starting building projects will be useful in helping ICP find a new Manhattan gallery space befitting their mission and world class collection. Robbins will move out of his dramatic Syracuse bank townhouse and back to his hometown by July 1.
Childs vs. Durst: WTC’s Stripped Spire Stokes Controversy
The SOM spire at left and the Durst/Port replacement at right. (Courtesy SOM/Durst)
The Durst Organization and the Port Authority have decided to abandon designs for what they once assured the public would be the tallest building in the Western Hemisphere, and architect David Childs of SOM is fighting back. By stripping away the sculptural finishes designed by SOM with artist Kenneth Snelson the developers and the Port may no longer qualify for the tallest title bestowed by the Council of Tall Buildings and Urban Habitat, the body that tallies and ranks building heights.
Join Open House New York Saturday for a Day at the Yard
(Courtesy Space for Art and Industry)
The Brooklyn Navy Yard is home to New York’s most spectacular collection of industrial buildings, warehouses, and 19th century dry docks. The Yard is normally closed to the public, but this Saturday Open House New York will open the gated industrial park to the public and many of its artisans, designers, and fabricators will be on hand to conduct tours of their studio spaces. The Navy Yard has just opened Building 92 with a spectacular museum of the facility’s history and an adjacent exhibition space featuring an exhibit of the collected steel dies (called hubs) of Mathew Lewandowski who was tool and die maker based in the Yard. The hubs on display represent 30 years of Lewandowski’s production and are beautiful objects in their own right as well as being tools for mass production. This Saturday is supposed to be beautiful weather so join Open House for a day in the Yard and its after party with the artists and artisans on the tour.
Event>Re-Envisioning the South Street Seaport Museum
Wendy Evans Joseph and Chris Cooper
Re-Envisioning the South Street Seaport Museum
Thursday, May 10, 6:30 p.m.
South Street Seaport Museum
12 Fulton St.
southstreetseaportmuseum.org
Following extensive renovation, the South Street Seaport Museum reopened its doors in January under the auspices of the Museum of the City of New York. With 16 galleries, a site-specific sculptural installation, and a new shop, the museum is now a modern and vibrant cultural center in the historic Schermerhorn Row. The architects behind this renovation, Wendy Evans Joseph and Chris Cooper of Cooper Joseph Studio, will discuss their approach in modernizing these historic structures and the process of realizing their vision. Read More
Cornell Chooses Thom Mayne; SOM Forges Ahead with Master Plan
Cornell has made an object-ive choice in Thom Mayne. (Brnandon Thomas / Flickr)
Cornell University has named 2005 Pritzker Prize winner Thom Mayne as architect for the first building at its Tech Campus on Roosevelt Island called the Technion-Cornell Innovation Institute. The selection should overshadow some sour grapes that were emanating from Stanford in the past few days regarding their losing bid. Mayne bested an all-star list, including Rem Koolhaas of OMA, Diller, Scofidio + Renfro, Steven Holl, and SOM. The choice of Mayne, whose iconic building 41 Cooper Square still jams traffic at Astor Place, hints that Cornell is looking for a traffic stopper of its own on the East River.
Visitors Become Performers at OMA’s Marina Abramovic Institute
OMA's design for a 650-seat theater at the Marina Abramovic Institute for the Preservation of Performing Arts in Hudson, New York. (Courtesy OMA)
What makes the performing arts so thrilling is also what makes them so elusive—they are, by nature, ephemeral. Any documentation of a performance is only a pale reflection of what it’s like to be there in the moment. So when performance artist Marina Abramovic began to contemplate what her own legacy would be, she thought beyond biographies, retrospectives, or monuments and instead began to develop a method of generating the kind of experiences she valued, one that would allow her kind of performances to continue long after the artist was no longer present.
Starting in late 2014, “long duration” (six hours plus) performance pieces as well as facilities intended to initiate the public into performance art will be housed in the Marina Abramovic Institute for the Preservation of Performance Art (MAI) in Hudson, New York. The institute will occupy an old 20,000 square-foot theater that was purchased by Abramovic in 2007 and whose interior is being redesigned by Shohei Shigematsu and Rem Koolhaas of OMA.
Ten Thousand Blue Citibikes to Hit New York Streets
A Citibike demonstration at today's announcement. (Branden Klayko / AN)
Beginning this July, thousands of bright-blue Citibikes will begin swarming the streets of Manhattan and eventually Brooklyn and Long Island City, Queens. Mayor Michael Bloomberg and NYCDOT Commissioner Janette Sadik-Khan made the formal announcement today that Citibank has signed on as the official sponsor for the city’s new bike share system.
Deborah Berke and Students Toast Urban Industry
Chester Prescott Distillation Tower by Francesco Galetto.
With investment in American cities on the rise, mixed-use development is all the buzz, but architect Deborah Berke says we must be careful not to leave industry out of the mix. “We need to sway mixed-use back to the direction of a real mix. We’ve gone to all residential,” she said. Berke and critic Noah Biklen just finished teaching an architectural studio at Yale on boutique urban manufacturing, where students explored bringing a bourbon distillery to downtown Louisville, Kentucky.
High Holiday
The world's tallest Holiday Inn under construction in Manhattan. (Rendering via ReBusiness Online)
We heard rumblings, but now it’s official—a 400-room, 50-story high Holiday Inn will be joining the ranks of downtown hotels at 99 Washington Street near the World Trade Center. It will be the world’s tallest Holiday Inn and the go-to architect for New York hotels, Gene Kaufman of Gwathmey Siegel Kaufman & Associates Architects, will be doing the honors. Kaufman’s other high-profile hotel projects, the Chelsea Hotel renovation and the new Hyatt near Union Square, seem to be moving full steam ahead, despite legal wrangling at the Chelsea. The Holiday Inn will likely open to guests by the end of this year.
The perplexing yet bewitching jumble of concrete boxes known as Paul Rudolph’s Orange County Government Center in Goshen, New York has been granted a reprieve. The county legislature voted 11 to 10 against a bond issue which would have funded the demolition of the Paul Rudolph designed building. Preservationists and architects have been following the project closely, and have made compelling arguments against the demolition and in favor of renovation. No word yet on whether the county will move to renovate the building, which suffers from leaks as well as damage from tropical storm Irene.
Taxi of the Day After Tomorrow?
Taxi of Tomorrow.
John Liu, New York’s City Controller, is set to reject the much hyped “taxi of tomorrow” because it is not 100% handicap accessible. In rejecting the new design Liu claims that it if adopted as the standard taxi for the city it would become “a symbol of exclusion by telling wheelchair users ‘find another ride.’ That’s not what New York City is about.” I guess Liu is not talking about the present taxi standard the ubiquitous Crown Victoria which has become an iconic symbol of the city for the past decade but is barely accessible by the public.
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