Taking a Spin With Nouvel
Jean Nouvel and friends on Jane's Carousel. (Photos: Stoelker/AN)
The man in black designing a Merry-Go-Round seems a jarring fit. But out on the Brooklyn waterfront buffeted by winds on a raw point between the muscular grandeur of the Brooklyn and Manhattan bridges, Nouvel seems just the right man to insinuate something as delicate as a life-size interactive music box into a setting as tough as the Brooklyn waterfront. Read More
Gehry’s Signature
Time to hit refresh on another Gehry project that is opening within these city walls. There was a time when Gehry couldn’t get a Big Apple commission off the ground: no mega-Gugg on the Eastside, no New York Times across from the Port Authority. Now they are popping up all over, with IAC a Chelsea fixture, the public school at New York by Gehry on Spruce Street pumping out sassy little brats from day one. Today, we are reminded that the Signature—once part of the performing arts package at ground zero—is opening in February in Times Square. And it’s only spent $6 million over the original $60 mill cost (with $25 from the city). Read More
EVENT> 9/14 Opening Party: desigNYC’s 2011 Exhibition
Architects 590BC and Studio L'Image are working with PortSide New York to enhance a community boathouse in Red Hook.
RECHARGING COMMUNITIES: DesigNYC Exhibition Opening Party
6:00pm-8:30pm
GD Cucine
227 West 17th St.
DesignNYC, an organization connecting New York designers with nonprofits, community groups, and city agencies, presents its current cycle of projects under the banner, “Recharging Communities.” In designNYC’s second annual exhibition, eight teams showcase their in-progress collaborations, including among others: Educating Tomorrow, using communications design to establish an online forum on sustainability issues for NYC educators; The Greenhouse Project, creating an urban farm in an unused lot in East New York; Nostrand Park, developing an engaging urban corridor in Crown Heights; PortSide New York (above), enhancing a boathouse and community center in Red Hook. Visit desigNYC.org to see a full list of projects.
The exhibition kicks off on Wednesday evening with a party at GD Cucine on West 17th Street. The public is invited to come meet the desigNYC teams, who will be on hand to talk about their projects, answer questions, and celebrate their work to date. This year’s participating architecture and design firms: Vamos Architects, Language Department, Abruzzo-Bodziak Architects, Otto NY, Publicis Design, Rodrigo Corral, 590BC, and Studio L’Image.
The exhibition runs through October 1 at GD Cucine‘s Gallery, open 10am-6pm, Monday through Friday.
On View> Ceci N’est Pas Une Reverie: The Architecture of Stanley Tigerman
Formica axonometric by Stanley Tigerman. (Courtesy Yale School of Architecture)
Ceci n’est pas une reverie:
The Architecture of Stanley Tigerman
Yale School of Architecture
180 York Street
New Haven, CT
Through November 4
The exhibition Ceci n’est pas une reverie (“This is not a dream”) celebrates the work of architect Stanley Tigerman. Curated by Yale School of Architecture Associate Professor Emmanuel Petit, this retrospective tells the story of Tigerman’s professional career, beginning with his years at Yale as an undergraduate and then a graduate student in architecture. Organized around several motifs—utopia, allegory, death, humor, and division—the exhibition includes models and objects, documents, cartoons, sketches, and drawings, like an axonometric of formica, above. Video material from lectures and interviews also capture Tigerman’s eclectic style as it has evolved over the past 50 years, encompassing his early work at the Chicago-based firm Tigerman McCurry Architects and his return to Yale as a visiting professor. Ceci n’est pas une reverie will coincide with the publication of Tigerman’s collected writings, 1964-2011 Schlepping Through Ambivalence, Essays on an American Architectural Condition, and his autobiography Designing Bridges to Burn as well as a series of lectures at the Yale School of Architecture.
Pictorial> Tribute in Light Pierces a Calm New York Sky
Tribute in Light. (Branden Klayko)
As night descended on a memory-laden New York City on Sunday, September 11, 88 light cannons were powered up, shooting beams of light into the air representing the profiles of the original Twin Towers. We stopped by Saturday night, as crews were putting the finishing touches on the display and double checking that all the lights performed flawlessly, and the close-up result was nothing short of amazing.
PBS Looks at the Nuts and Bolts of the WTC
(Courtesy NOVA/PBS)
For those who need an even bigger WTC fix, PBS’s long-running science program NOVA has a detailed, hour-long program on the engineering of the site, including an in-depth look at the materials used on site, as well as lengthy interviews with the architects, engineers, and contractors working on the colossal project. Thanks to unparalleled access granted by the Port Authority, NOVA gathered footage for the episode over a five year period, so expect lots of dramatic time lapse video.
Remembering 911: Tending to a Tribute in Light
Two clusters of 44 light cannons are arranged on a rooftop in Lower Manhattan. (Branden Klayko)
Perched on the rooftop of a parking garage in Lower Manhattan a few blocks from the World Trade Center site, two groups of 44 light cannons pointing skyward will soon project high-intensity beams of light into the night sky for Tribute in Light, marking the tenth anniversary of the 911 World Trade Center attacks. Last week, as a crew of 30 workers was positioning the lights and laying cable to a large generator on the sidewalk, we stopped by to learn more what’s involved with the massive display.
On View> PIIOTOS_WTC: 22 Brazilian Photographers Capture the World Trade Center on Film
Dive with a WTC View, 1990 by Tuca Reines.
PIIOTOS_WTC
1500 Gallery
511 W 25th St. #607
Through September 17
In honor of the tenth anniversary of September 11th, 1500 Gallery in West Chelsea will present PIIOTOS_WTC, an exhibition of photographs of the Twin Towers taken by 22 of Brazil’s most notable photographers. The images, which all have the World Trade Center site as their subject, span the last three decades of the 20th century. Selected photographers include Victor Andrade, Ali Karakas, and Roberto Linsker, among others. The selection is diverse, with works ranging from distant portrait landscapes of the towers from the Hudson River, to bold aerial views, black and white night shots, glowing, hazy sunsets, andclose-up structural shots, like the work of Tuca Reines, above. Gallery 1500—the only gallery in the world to focus specifically on Brazilian photography—brings together these poetic works, capturing the power, strength, and beauty of the city as it is no longer.
Reflecting the Stars on the Hudson
"Reflecting the Stars" installation on the Hudson.
With the High Line getting the lion’s share of attention lately, Hudson River Park feels more neighborhoody then ever. Last night’s opening of public art installation by artist/performer Jon Morris of Windmill Factory felt pretty down home with everyone sprawling out on the grass around Morris, who explained the inspiration for his light show which sits out in the water.
Growing up in Beria, Kentucky, Morris could see the stars, but in New York light pollution made the experience impossible. His idea was to sprinkle a little stardust onto the Hudson in the form of solar powered LEDs attached to the tops of pilings from a long departed pier.
Blast of Personal Truth from Port Authority’s Chris Ward
The memorial as we looked down from the roof of the Memorial Pavilion on August 29. (Tami Hausman)
Far from the expected pablum that these events usually generate, Chris Ward, executive director of the Port Authority, gave a speech opening the New York Building Congress yesterday loaded to bear with fight, a lot of Good Fight, demanding continued federal funding for infrastructure. Along the way, he recalls his own version of the tortured path from Ground Zero grind to the Memorial Moment of meditation to come.
It’s quite a version and well worth a close read as he “recalls” Libeskind’s master plan as “gardens in the sky” and how that was “replaced with another vision, as realities of the site, the market” set in. Then he talks about “Breaking Away from Monumentalism” and “The Assessment” thanks to the Port Authority, which may or may not be the stinking months of pissing match between PA and Silverstein as they wrangled about responsibility for building the first then the other towers.
Sit back—but fasten your seat belt—You’ll be amazed to read what you went through:
A Terreformed Summer
Terreform1's Papanek award winner "Urbaneering Brooklyn" (Courtesy Terreform1)
Last week at the Phaidon Bookstore in Soho, White Box held a benefit for their new sustainable art garden by organizing a panel discussion called “Sustainable Work Lab: new projects in art, architecture and urban design.” Ali Hossaini moderated the discussion between landscape designer Frances Levine, architect David Turnbull, and urban designer Maria Aiolova.
Hossaini yielded to Turnbull’s freewheeling conversation about Socratic love, i.e. the coupling of poverty and invention. Inspired by his fresh-off-the-plane-from-Kenya presentation, the crowd indulged in the philosophical debate. Turnbull balked at biennials and instead encouraged artists “to make artifacts that are useful and have that magical quality that keep them from being thrown away.” ”Sustainability should be the bare minimum,” concurred Aiolova. She should know. Her firm, Terreform1, held a sustainability love fest all summer long, which culminated in winning the Victor J. Papanek Social Design Award on August 17.
Advertise on The Architect's Newspaper.
Archives
Categories
Architecture
Design
East Coast
Midwest
National
Planning
Shft+Alt+Del
Sustainability
Transportation
West Coast
