Welcome to Staten Eye-Land: World’s Tallest Ferris Wheel to Anchor New Waterfront Development
The planned New York Wheel development includes the world’s tallest Ferris wheel. (Courtesy NYC Mayor’s Office)
Today, thousands of tourists and New Yorkers make a loop on the Staten Island Ferry between the borough and Manhattan, but as soon as 2016, they will also be able to make a vertical loop on the world’s tallest Ferris wheel, anchoring a new mixed-use project on the North Shore waterfront in St. George. Mayor Bloomberg today unveiled plans for Harbor Commons, which includes 350,000 square feet of retail space for 100 outlet mall stores, a 200-room, 120,000 square foot hotel, and a massive green-roofed parking structure, but all eyes were on the project’s neighbor; the 625-foot-tall New York Wheel will offer stunning views of New York City and its Harbor to an estimated 4.5 million people per year.
Willets Point Brings Retail Revelry, Puts Housing on Back Burner
The retain and entertainment complex to abut the west side of Citi Field.
Mayor Bloomberg evoked Fitzgerald today when he announced the deal between Sterling Equities and Related Companies to revamp Willets Point. “Today the ‘valley of ashes’ is well on its way to becoming the site of historic private investment,” the mayor said in a statement, referring to the gritty midpoint between Gatsby’s West Egg manse and Manhattan. The plan pegs its success to a mega entertainment/retail hub just west of the stadium, that sounds very much a part of a trend in projects that used to be called malls, but are now called retail/entertainment attractions (see also the aptly named American Dream in NJ).
SHFT+ALT+ DEL: June 1, 2012
D.B. Kim has joined Daroff Design as a principal and will lead the firm’s luxury hotel and resort practice. Kim was previously at Pierre-Yves Rochon and prior to that at Starwood Hotels and Resorts.
Design Trust for Public Space‘s executive director Susan Chin was elected Vice President of the 2013-2014 AIA National Board at the recent national convention in Washington, D.C.
SHFT+ALT+DEL: October 28
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Cecilia Alemani has been named the new curator and director of the High Line Art Program. Previously, Alemani had worked as an independent curator and writer, and is currently a guest curator for the upcoming Performa 11.
Lucinda Sanders has been named the 2012 President of the Landscape Architecture Foundation. Her tenure will begin on October 30, 2011 at the American Society of Landscape Architects’ (ASLA) annual meeting. Sanders is the CEO and a partner at OLIN.
The Washington, DC office of Perkins Eastman has announced that J. Scott Kilbourn will join as a Principal and Chief Operating Officer. Kilbourn has more than 28 years of design and planning experience. Most recently, he was Vice President at RTKL where he worked in Hong Kong, Shanghai, Tokyo, and DC.
Suanne Bassett, principal of Suba—Connecting through Architecture and Interior Design, is re-launching her firm. Bassett, who is licensed in California and New York, returns to her own practice after several years of collaborating with local San Francisco Bay Area firms.
Corey Martin has been named principal at Portland firm THA Architecture. Previously, Martin worked at Richard Potestio and Allied Works before co-founding Portland-based PATH Architecture with partner Ben Kaiser in 2005.
Perkins+Will has announced that Wayne Perlenfein has joined the firm as prinicipal and will focus on federal government in the Washington DC office. Previously, Perlenfein ran his own firm of Rogers, Perlenfein & Associates and was also the jurisdiction executive and senior program manager for planning, design and construction for the Architect of the Capitol in Washington DC.
The Center for Curatorial Leadership (CCL) in New York City has announced its 2012 class of fellows. The program spans four weeks and includes instruction by Columbia Business School faculty, a six-month mentorship, a week-long museum residency, and long-term team-based project.
Have news on movers and shakers in the architecture & design universe for SHFT+ALT+DEL? Send your tips to people@archpaper.com!
SHFT+ALT+DEL> Design Moves for 10.14.2011
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WXY appointed Adam Lubinsky as principal. Lubinsky received a Ph.D. in Planning and Urban Design from the University College London, where he also has been teaching.
Ben Bischoff is taking over operations at MADE as the sole principal of the company. Bischoff co-founded MADE with Oliver Freundlich and Brian Papa, who are both departing to “pursue individual interests.”
Ray Huff has been named director of the Clemson Architecture Center in Charleston. Huff was the founding director of the Charleston program when it was initiated in 1987 and has served as an instructor there for much of the time since.
J. Scott Kibourn has been appointed Principal and Chief Operating Officer of Perkins Eastman‘s international operations.
CENTRIA Metal Architectural Systems has named Tom White Design and Development leader. White was previously Corporate Director for Business Development at the architectural firm Burt Hill.
HR&A is opening an office in Washington, D.C. and welcoming back Lionel Lynch as the principal leading the effort.
SmithGroup has tapped Paul Johnson, FAIA, who has been with the firm since 1986, to lead the firm’s Building Technology Studio in Detroit.
Have news on movers and shakers in the architecture & design universe for SHFT+ALT+DEL? Send your tips to people@archpaper.com!
LPC Approves Plans for Ol’ O’Toole
The latest renderings show restored executive offices with the cantilevered form below. (Courtesy Perkins Eastman)
After a protracted land use review with vitriolic community meetings that disquieted even battle-hardened presenters, the Landmarks Preservation Commission finally approved plans by the Rudin development family and North Shore Long Island Jewish Medical to renovate the St. Vincent’s O’Toole building in Manhattan’s West Village. As of Tuesday, the former Maritime Union headquarters is set to become a comprehensive health care facility with emergency services.
Interrogating Plans for St. Vincents
Rendering of the renovation of St. Vincent's O'Toole Building. Courtesy Perkins Eastman.
Presenting to the community board has got be one of the toughest parts of an architect’s job. The mood in the room at last night’s CB2 meeting for St. Vincent’s Campus Redevelopment Project was cantankerous at best. The public scoping meeting, one of the first steps in the review process, gave an overview of the building massing on the site and delved into environmental impacts. Time for community input was scheduled to follow the developers’ presentations, but that didn’t stop the crowd from shouting down Perkins Eastman’s Frank Gunther and FX Fowle’s Dan Kaplan. As Kaplan worked his way through his presentation he was interrupted with shouts of “Soulless architecture for soulless people.” They were no kinder to Gunther, who discussed several details of the O’Toole renovations, including the removal of the ceramic tiles. Gunther said the tiles were not original to the building’s facade, which was concrete.
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.
Perkins Eastman Getting Together with EE&K
Merger-meld: Perkins Eastman + Ehrenkrantz Eckstut & Kuhn
Perkins Eastman confirmed today that the global practice is merging with Ehrenkrantz Eckstut & Kuhn and the firms will be consolidating their offices in New York, Washington, D.C., and China. When the merger is complete, the new firm – yet to be named – will have a total of nearly 600 employees, 500 from Perkins Eastman and 85 from EE&K. Steven Yates with Perkins Eastman says no major layoffs have taken place in the past nine months and the company is not planning any layoffs as part of the merger.
Perkins Eastman is the designer behind Times Square’s glowing red stairs and a mega-project in Queens while EE&K has been busy master planning Cleveland’s waterfront. Anyone care to take a guess at the new firm’s name?
Gateway Of India
Built in 1911 to commemorate a visit from King George V and Queen Mary, Mumbai's Gateway of India is now welcoming a wealth of American architectural talent.
The past ten years have seen an impressive amount of economic growth and infrastructural development in India, and the nation is becoming more and more a well established market for American architectural talent. This trend doesn’t seem to be changing as we embark on a new decade. One sign of that is the September 2009 opening of an office in Mumbai by structural engineering firm Leslie E. Robertson Associates (LERA). Founded in 1923 in New York City, LERA has contributed its services to many of the city’s iconic structures (such as the World Trade Center) and has designed buildings all around the world, but this will be its first foreign office. A release by the firm cited a “growing workload” and the need to “facilitate client relations” as key reasons for the opening. LERA will join a number of other American architecture firms that have recently opened branches in the subcontinent, including HOK and Perkins Eastman. See some of the projects LERA has worked on after the jump.
Fleeting Image
Something New, Something Old: The TKTS Booth has brought new life to Times Square. The absence of cars, however, just might rob it from photographs. (Paúl Rivera/Archphoto)
Today we got an email from the fine folks at Archphoto announcing that one of its trio of photographers, Paúl Rivera, has been featured in the current issue of the Japanese architecture magazine, A+U. The featured work was of the MASterworks award-winning TKTS Booth, including the above photo. In addition to being an unexpected and breathtaking view of the structure and surrounding environs, it made us realize something we hadn’t yet about the much-talked about closure of Broadway in the square: While all those cars whizzing by may have been a pedestrian and congestion nightmare, they sure brought wonderful life to the countless photos that have come to define the Crossroads of the World.
A MASterwork Outing
See you Tuesday...
We just got our invitation to the Municipal Art Society’s annual MASterworks awards. Contained therein are the heretofore unannounced winners, as well. (You can find all four after the jump.) Sadly, the party is invite only, but it’s at the new glassy, glamorous Sheila C. Johnson Design Center at Parsons, so if nothing else, you can wander by Tuesday night and press your face to the glass, making puppy-dog eyes at we revelers therein. It’ll be the perfect Oliver Twist/recession moment. If you’re lucky/pretty, we might even sneak you in the side door. Read More
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