Art for Architects
Stephen Talasnik in Gensler's New York offices (photos courtesy Gensler)
Artist Stephen Talasnik has long been inspired by architecture and engineering. Now he can return the favor, thanks to an in-office exhibition at Gensler in New York’s Rockefeller Center. The show, called Adrift/Afloat, includes 16 pieces, including sculptures, drawings, and diagrams. Talasnik’s work is in the collection of the National Gallery, the British Museum, and the Canadian Centre for Architecture, among other institutions.
Parametric Tribeca House Clears Preservation Hurdle
187 Franklin Street (Courtesy Landmarks Preservation Commission)
A fanciful parametric design for an addition to a single family house in Tribeca made its way before the Landmarks Preservation Commission today and walked away with a stunning unanimous approval. Jeremy Edmiston of SYSTEMarchitects designed the new facade and addition to an existing three-story single-family house at 187 Franklin Street. According to its web site, the firm studies contemporary culture with “a focus on spaces that are multi-layered, overlapping, and intertwining — systems consisting of varying constituencies, economies and environments — systems both concrete and intangible.” From the looks of these boards presented to the panel, this project is right on the mark.
EVENT> Julius Shulman Los Angeles book launch in LA (tonight!) & NYC (April 21)
This week Rizzoli releases Julius Shulman Los Angeles: The Birth of a Modern Metropolis co-authored by AN’s own West Coast editor Sam Lubell and Doug Woods. The book features the seven decades’ worth of images (many never published), not only of Shulman’s iconic photographs of mid-century houses by Neutra and Eames but also of his lesser known explorations of the streetscapes and surroundings of the city he most adored, Los Angeles. The publisher is marking the occasion with events in Los Angeles (April 15) and New York City (April 21).
TONIGHT in Los Angeles!
7:00 p.m., Friday, April 15 :
Meet the authors, who will discuss the book as part of a panel (among the featured speakers is Judy McKee, Shulman’s only child and the executor of his estate) and book signing.
Location: Julius Shulman Institute at Woodbury University, 7500 Glenoaks Boulevard, Burbank , CA
NEXT WEEK in New York!
5:30 p.m. Thursday, April 21:
Book signing with author Sam Lubell.
Location: Rizzoli Bookstore, 31 West 57th St., New York
Please visit AN’s diary for more info.
Preserving the Legacy of Architect Andrew Geller
Pearlroth House, Westhampton Beach, New York, 1958 (Courtesy Jake Gorst)
[ Editor's Note: Jake Gorst, documentary filmmaker and grandson of Andrew Geller has submitted this guest post relating preservation efforts to save the architect's archive. ]
Efforts are currently underway to catalog and preserve architect Andrew Geller’s architectural archive, which consists of hundreds of drawings, thousands of photographs and pieces of correspondence, and several scale models. To preserve this archive, a film on Geller’s work and the preservation process is currently under production. The archive will ultimately end up at an academic facility for future generations to study.
Moderne Twist Update
The redesigned 837 Washington (at right) lops off two floors from the original seven story version.
It’s been few months since Morris Adjmi presented plans for his twisted tower at 837 Washington to the Landmarks Preservation Commission. He returned on Tuesday with a scaled-down version of the original design. The architect brought two 3-D models to better illustrate the before and after versions. The body of the exoskeletal steel structure still pivots clockwise atop a 1938 art moderne market building, but now it does so at a reduced height of 84 feet, instead of 113. Still, lopping off two of the seven stories from the original design may not be enough to satisfy commissioners who seem to be scratching their heads over how to address the major mood changes in Gansevoort Market Historic District, which sits within the ever expanding design glow of the High Line.
Event> University of Pennsylvania Hosts Paolo Portoghesi
Central Mosque, Rome (1974)
With architectural discourse today so focused on the impact of digital design, it is hard to remember that 20 years ago all architects talked about was postmodernism. The discussion began with the publication of Robert Venturi’s Complexity and Contradiction in Architecture and Aldo Rossi’s The Architecture of the City but became more focused and intense with the opening of an exhibition devoted to the theme.
A Shindig For Storefront
Menking and Crompton with Webb on the mic. (photos: Dillon DeWaters)
Monday night the Storefront for Art and Architecture threw a benefit party at the new home of the Paul Taylor Dance Company on the lower Lower East Side. Arguably the city’s most experimental architecture venue, Storefront can count some of the city’s major architecture names as supporters, or at least as party goers, including Steven Holl, Brad Cloepfil, Marion Weiss and Michael Manfredi, and Bjarke Ingels. Read More
AN Video> Viñoly on Postmodernism, etc.
AN exec editor Julie Iovine in conversation Rafael Viñoly at the Museum of the City of New York.
AN‘s Julie Iovine held a freewheeling conversation last week with architect Rafael Viñoly under the subject heading “What Comes After Postmodern Architecture.” The architect had some choice words about the period before moving on to a variety of other topics, including corporate architecture, collaboration, and New York.
From Urban Farm to Urban Forks
A detail outlining Zelda the turkey's body and neck (her neck represented by a single line of bamboo leading to the head, somewhat obscured by the trees to the upper left). AN/Stoelker
After giving a brief lesson in New York’s Dutch history, Parks Commissioner Adrian Benepe opened a one-acre urban farm to a couple hundred local school children in Battery Park on Monday. It’s the Battery’s first farm in the area since the Dutch tilled soil there in 1625. The idea for the farm brought together celebrity chefs, architects, and community activists to work alongside the kids. The design, by the newly formed STUDIOperFORM, incorporated bamboo salvaged from last year’s Metropolitan Museum rooftop exhibit, Big Bambú. Design partners Shane Neufeld, an architect, and Scott Dougan, a set designer, used an silhouette of Zelda, the park’s resident turkey, as the basis for their design. Neufeld said that Zelda was never meant to be fully recognizable, instead, the design serves as narrative to teach the children about nature. As a native of Brooklyn, Neufeld said that he doesn’t recall ever having a garden. “We had a parking lot,” he said.
Read More
Celebrating Coney Island′s Most Curious
(Courtesy Vivienne Gucwa/Flickr)
The Congress of Curious Peoples has touched down in Brooklyn. Part symposium, part festival, and part freak show, the event celebrates Coney Island’s rich history as a vacation and amusement destination. Starting on April 8th, the 10 days of freaky fun begins with Coney Island USA’s annual Sideshow Hall of Fame Inductions and ends on the 17th with Alumni Weekend, where you can catch legendary sideshow performers from the Coney Island Circus Sideshow as well as a scholarly conference on the past, present, and future of this unique and historic part of NYC.
Event> What Comes After Postmodern Architecture?
Rafael Viñoly (Photo by Adam Friedberg)
- What Comes After Postmodern Architecture?
A Conversation with Rafael Viñoly - Museum of the City of New York
- 1220 Fifth Avenue at 103rd Street
- New York
- Tuesday, April 5 at 6:30pm
Join Julie Iovine, executive editor at The Architect’s Newspaper, tomorrow (Tuesday) evening for a compelling discussion with architect Rafael Viñoly at the Museum of the City of New York at 6:30pm. The topic for the night, “What Comes After Postmodern Architecture?”, will tackle the state of New York City architecture.
The recent building boom in New York City has radically altered the look and feel of the city and added considerably to the list of starchitects currently reshaping New York’s iconic skyline. It has also helped redefine boundaries of the eclectic pluralism of postmodern architecture. How do we label the current architectural style of the last decade? Is there a post-postmodern?
Reservations required. Call 917-492-3395 or purchase tickets online through MCNY. Tickets: $12 for non-members, $8 for seniors & students, $6 for museum members.
Persistence of Plastics at Columbia′s GSAPP
Monsanto's House of the Future for Disneyland. Courtesy Yesterdayland.
The first panel of this week’s conference at Columbia’s GSAPP, “Permanent Change: Plastics in Architecture and Engineering,” got down to business a few minutes late on Thursday morning. After a brief welcome, Dean Mark Wigley ceded the floor to Michael Bell, the first speaker in the line-up for “The Emergence of Polymers: Natural Material–Industrial Material.” But the pace picked up as Bell and subsequent presenters took listeners on an intense romp through the role of plastics in architectural history, providing background for the nine panels to follow through Friday evening.
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