Rolling on the High Line
View of the High Line lawn from HL23. (Image: Diana Darling)
We were scouting cool party spaces recently and caught this view from the 9th floor of Neil Denari’s HL23 on the High Line. Lower floors of the 14-story condo, now nearing completion, are going to feel pretty vulnerable to nose-pressers strolling up the rail-bed park who will be just feet away from their living room glass walls. But on the upper floors, views of the length of High Line will unfurl as alluringly as the Yellow Brick Road. Right now, it’s possible to make out the stretch of emerald lawn section at 23rd Street, waiting for its sunbathers.
The Other Side of Ellis Island
Most visitors to Ellis Island only get to see the Ellis Island Immigration Museum. I was fortunate enough to go on a hard hat tour of the island’s south side, which is not open to the public, and explore newly stabilized structures including the new (‘new’ as of 1934) ferry building and part of the old South Side Hospital Complex.
photo by Alyssa Nordhauser
Hangar Selected for Intrepid
The Intrepid's winning hangar design by students from New York Institute of Technology.
December 7, 2010, a day that will live in memory, as opposed to infamy, for winners from New York Institute of Technology’s (NYIT) Student Design Competition held at the Intrepid Sea, Air and Space Museum. Students were charged with creating a sustainable airplane hangar on the deck of the floating museum for under $1 million. Chosen among the six finalists, Team Alphabet Soup walked away with the $3,000 prize by incorporating renewable energy into the design and developing a educational environment for museum visitors.
Friday Video: Little Plane Flies Through Big City
It’s Friday afternoon, so why not take a joy ride through the skies of New York? Gothamist uncovered this amazing video of a homemade RC airplane with a video camera attached to its nose making its way among the skyscrapers and bridges of New York. Makes for some pretty amazing footage!
Models of Freedom
Models by Radii Inc. were the focus of a Fox News feature last night. (Photo: Photo Jock Pottle)
Fox News featured Ed Wood and Leszek Stefanski of Radii Inc. last night, giving viewers a behind the scenes glance at a craft little known outside of architectural circles. Wood explained the relevance of architectural models in the face of advances in computer animation. He noted that there is, perhaps, a kind of dishonesty to the flat screen. “The physical model allows freedom,” he said. It was a sound bite that no doubt gelled with Fox producers, who promptly posted the video to their “Rise of Freedom” website under the subtitle “Designing Freedom.”
Frenemies of Yore: Olmsted & Vaux
Alexander Garvin signs books at a literary breakfast hosted by the Bryant Park Corporation and 34th Street Partnership.
No soggy Wednesday morning in New York could deter park aficionados, urban planners, and assorted Olmstedians from attending a talk and book signing by Alexander Garvin and Robert Twombly. The former head of planning at the LMDC, Garvin is the author of Public Parks: The Key to Livable Communities (W.W. Norton, $59.95), just hitting the bookstores this week. Twombly’s Frederick Law Olmsted: Essential Texts (W.W. Norton, $24.95), came out this past summer.
New York Expands Pop-Up Cafe Program in 2011
Returning the street to pedestrians with pop-up cafe's (Courtesy RG Architecture)
Could 2011 be the year of the pedestrian in New York? Under the guidance of DOT Commissioner Janette Sadik-Khan, NYC sidewalks will continue their slow march into the street next year as the city launches a major expansion of its “pop-up café” pilot program across its five boroughs.
The first pop-up café tested out in Lower Manhattan this year proved successful enough that Sadik-Khan has expanded the program, planning for up to 12 sidewalk extensions.
I Saloni Kicks Off Street Walking Event
Italian Trade Commission President Umberto Vattani cuts ribbon with Cosmit President Carlo Gugliemi and Federlegno-Arredo President Rosario Messina.
A weeklong celebration of Italian art and design kicked off last night at Scavolini, the haute kitchen emporium in Soho. Italian officials, architects, designers, and a sprinkling of royalty in attendance gave the event a mixture of gravitas and glamour.
Titled “I Saloni Milano in New York,” the event will run through January 8. Several programs fill the calendar, including last night’s “Italian Design Street Walking”, which turned Soho and parts of the Upper East Side into a mini Milan for the night. Italian heels navigated the cobblestones of Greene and Wooster Streets to view 20 open showrooms, with cocktails and Italian food provided by Eataly (a self-guided version of the showroom tour will also continue through January 8).
Starting today, a video installation by Robert Wilson in collaboration with Italian ballet dancer Roberto Bolle can be seen at Center 548, on view through December 18. And on Friday, architect/filmmaker Peter Greenaway will launch the U.S. debut of his digital installation Leonardo’s Last Supper at the Park Avenue Armory, which will run from December 3 through January 6.
Rose Window is Lower East Side’s Newest Star
It’s official. The multi-decade restoration of the historic Eldridge Street Synagogue is now truly complete with the recent installation of the new rose window that we told you about last February.
Philly Considers Times Square′s Forbidden Fruit
Proposal for Philly's East Market Street (Courtesy Philly Daily News)
Philly’s East Market Street could offer a small slice of Times Square’s neon nightlife if a proposed “commercial advertising district” makes it through City Council. Developers and billboard proponents are betting that digital advertising signs will keep tourists shopping – and spending – downtown, but the Philadelphia Daily News says not everyone is going along for the ride.
A Thousand Drops of Light in Madison Square Park
Scattered Light installation by Jim Campbell (Photo by James Ewing courtesy Madison Square Park Conservancy)
Upon first stumbling across this massive array of 2,000 LED lights encased in standard light bulbs in Madison Square Park a few weeks ago, I thought holiday decoration had come a little early to the Flatiron’s front yard, but as shadowed figures began moving across the field of light, it became apparent that this installation by artist Jim Campbell was something special.
Hudson Square Pushes to Reclaim Pedestrian Space
Street scene in Hudson Square (Courtesy Hudson Square Connection)
A major transformation of the once-industrial Hudson Square neighborhood in Lower Manhattan aims to bring pedestrian vitality to streets originally designed for delivery trucks servicing printing houses. Crain’s reports that Hudson Square Connections, the local business improvement district, has selected a design group led by Mathews Nielsen Landscape Architects from a pool of 23 respondents to create a new streetscape to improve the area’s image.
More on the plan to balance the area’s changing demographics.
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