Red Lights and Green Lights in Central Park
Cyclist vs. pedestrians in Central Park. Photo: Tom Stoelker/ The Architect's Newspaper
Captain Philip Wishnia, commander of the Central Park Precinct, went before the CB7’s Parks and Environment Committee on Monday night to explain the rash of speeding tickets being given to bicyclists in Central Park. Wishna said that the spike in ticketing is part of a larger citywide initiative to crack down on bikers before the weather warms up. Cyclists can expect tickets for speeding, going the wrong way, riding bikes on pathways and not coming to a complete stop at red lights. The captain pointed out that in 2008 there were 60 bike accidents, but in 2010 there were 122. The ticket is a criminal court summons that can affect points on the biker’s drivers license and cost at least $270.
Event> Architecture-Made Music
Diagram of Blake Carrington's Cathedral Scan (Courtesy Blake Carrington)
Architecture is often referred to as frozen music, but with a little digital technology, artist Blake Carrington has learned to capture the “diverse rhythms, drones and textures” from the stone walls of cathedrals. In his aural performances called Cathedral Scan, Carrington uses a church’s floor plan combined with the space’s unique acoustics to create to generate his his unique architectural sounds. Here’s more from the artist:
Groups of scanners filling the sonic spectrum may act in synch, forming a single harmonically-dense rhythm, or they may scan the plans at different speeds, resulting in complex polyrhythms. Each plan is treated as a modular score, with a distinct rhythm and timbre of its own. Also, by varying the speed and intensity of each scanning group, drone-like sounds may emerge based on the “resonant frequency” of the black and white plan.
This Thursday, March 3, Carrington will reveal the hidden sound of New York’s Basilica of St. Patrick’s Old Cathedral for a CD release concert. He will be joined by audiovisual artists Mark Cetilia (of Mem1) and Kamran Sadeghi. More information on the AN events diary. (Via BldgBlog.)
Space Available on the High Line
Space Available by Kim Beck, 2008 (Courtesy High Line)
This Friday, three massive billboards will debut along the High Line, but instead of blasting consumerism, the art installation by Kim Beck hopes to provoke visitors to think of public space. From the High Line: “Kim’s work will encourage park visitors to reconsider the water towers, exhaust pipes, HVAC systems, roof decks, green roofs, and other building elements that are integral components of the cityscape views along the High Line.”
Called Space Available, Beck will install three “skeletal” blank billboards. Experiencing the signs from different angles can provide the illusion of three dimensionality, when in fact each sign is really flat.
Video> Pick Up The Pace, New York
Still from Josh Owens' NYC - Mindrelic Timelapse
If you thought the pace of life in Manhattan couldn’t get any more hectic, think again. Photographer Josh Owens has compiled a stunning collection of time lapse scenes from around New York. Despite its fast pace, there’s something distinctly calming about the hustle. (Via swissmiss.)
Antonelli Talks To Me: Upcoming Design Show at MoMA
WiFi Divining Rod by Designer Michael Thompson
Senior curator in MoMA’s department of architecture and design, Paola Antonelli is also a verb. She said so herself in describing her approach to curating, in general, and particularly preparing for her upcoming summer show, Talk to Me, opening on July 24. Read More
World Trade Update: Community Blasts Bus Plan
Manhattan Borough President Scott Stringer pulled together a stellar panel of World Trade movers and shakers to update the community Wednesday night, but the crowd wasn’t impressed. Chris Ward, executive director of the the Port Authority, was joined at the podium by LMDC Chair Avi Schick, DOT Lower Manhattan Commissioner Louis Sanchez, Downtown Alliance President Elizabeth Berger, president and CEO of the memorial Joe Daniels, State Senator Dan Squadron and Congressman Jerry Nadler. Silverstein Properties’ Malcolm Williams breezed through a PowerPoint update detailing progress of the four towers at the site. Ward’s presentation showed the robust ribs of the Calatrava structure from underneath the plaza. But Sanchez’s presentation outlining plans for the accommodating tour buses took on the most scrutiny.
Pittsburgh Riverfront Revival
Corridors that once separated industry from neighborhoods could become the commercial corridor.
Last week, Pittsburgh Mayor Luke Ravenstahl unveiled a plan to resuscitate 2,000 acres of brownfield property alongside the Allegheny River. The report, the Allegheny Riverfront Vision Plan, follows a two-year study headed up by Perkins Eastman. Much of the planning sprung from meetings with the resident and business communities, and aims to connect neighborhoods to the river for the first time. Cities throughout the country continue to reclaim their rivers, but Pittsburgh’s situation is unique.
Pratt Lectures on Architecture and Planning
If you’re an architect interested urban planning issues or a city planner interested contemporary architecture relationship to the city this is a lecture series for you! Created and organized by the Pratt Institute’s Program for Sustainable Planning and Development features planners and architects engaged in rethinking contemporary Preservation, sustainability, and urban design.
Invited lectures include; Jirge Rigau a Puerto Rican preservationist, Andrew Genn project director of New York’s comprehensive waterfront plan and a young Mississippi architect Whitney Grant who founded the Jackson Community Development Center.
They will all be addressing the fundamental questions facing today’s cites and attendees will be encouraged to ask questions of the lecturers. It takes place in room 213 of Pratt’s Manhattan campus at 144 West 14th Street and it starts with drinks at 5:30. The lectures are free and open to the public.
MoMA/P.S. 1 Young Architects Program Winner Announced
Interboro's design for MoMA P.S.1 (Courtesy Interboro)
P.S. 1 and the Museum of Modern Art have just announced that Brooklyn-based urban design and planning firm Interboro Partners are the winners of the 2011 Young Architects Program. Now celebrating its 12th year, the honor means designing what by now is widely recognized as the liveliest party space of the summer, the outdoor plaza of P.S. 1 in Queens.
Video> Exhibition Recalls NY′s Lost Garden of Eden
Adam Purple's Garden of Eden in the Lower East Side (Photo by Harvey Wang)
As he watched his Manhattan neighborhood crumble and burn around him in the urban decay of the 1970s, Adam Purple decided to build a garden. For roughly a decade from the 1970s until 1985, Purple’s Garden of Eden earthwork expanded with concentric circles as more and more buildings were torn down. Photographer Harvey Wang is marking the 25th anniversary of the garden’s destruction with an exhibition at the Fusion Arts gallery running through February 20.
Click through for more info and a video about the exhibition.
Bus Bonanza Expected at WTC Memorial
Memorial grove and the Museum Pavilion under construction.
While most of the World Trade Center site whirls in mid-construction, the National September 11 Memorial is a mere 208 days from completion. That thought brings both relief and consternation to local residents who have seen their neighborhood become a national flash point for mourning, controversy, and debate. It is also about to become one of the most heavily trafficked tourist destinations in the country.
Community Board 4 Welcomes Bjarke to New York
Proposed W57 tower viewed from the Hudson River (Courtesy BIG)
Bjarke Ingels’ star-studded ascendancy to New York architecture fame was checked last night as Community Board 4′s land-use committee had its first look at Durst Fettner Residential’s planned W57 tower in Hell’s Kitchen. Already sobered by a two-hour discussion of planned zoning changes only blocks from BIG’s courtyard-skyscraper hybrid, the board quietly sat through Ingels’ signature multimedia show detailing the strenuous process that guided the sloping tower’s design.
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