MTA: To Dig or Not to Dig?
Sunset for the Z-train: The MTA could be ending express service on the JMZ line—and so much more—amid new budget shortfalls. (Courtesy Satan's Landromat)
Not since the collapse of Lehman Brothers last year has a major bastion in the city seemed to fall apart so quickly and readily as the MTA over the past few weeks. As the Times succinctly puts it, “state legislators cut $143 million out of the authority’s budget; state accountants then determined that a payroll tax dedicated to mass transit financing would produce $100 million less revenue than initially thought. Finally, late last week, a court ruled that the authority must pay significant raises to transit workers, adding tens of millions of dollars in expenses.” The MTA is required to fill the $400 million budget hole this created because it must end the year with a balanced budget. And so a range of service cuts were ratified today by the agency’s board, including the elimination of subway and bus lines, reduced off-peak service and para-transit, and no more free rides for half-a-million students. Read More
Journey From The Center Of CityCenter
Helmut Jahn's Veer Towers at CityCenter.
And so it begins. MGM Mirage’s 67-acre, 18 million square foot, $7.8 billion CityCenter, one of the biggest developments in the history of mankind, officially opened today. It includes buildings by Cesar Pelli, Daniel Libeskind, Rafael Viñoly, Helmut Jahn, KPF and Norman Foster. We can’t wait to put together our commentary. Here are some initial thoughts after our first day here: Read More
New Gams for Lever House
Richard Wood's "Port Sunlight" at Lever House (all photos: Amy Barkow courtesy Perry Rubenstein Gallery, New York)
The British artist Richard Woods is known for using patterns from historical sources such as Tudor architecture and the designs of William Morris in his Pop inflected works. His new installation at Lever House, entitled Port Sunlight, wraps the ground level elements at Gordon Bunshaft’s mid-century masterwork in vibrant panels, and while there isn’t a snowflake in sight the effect is festive. Read More
Light Walk With Me
In the above video, lighting designer Leni Schwendinger takes us on a light walk. Inspired by the Professional Lighting Designers Association’s LightMapping events, Schwendinger guides us through the nighttime streets of Greenwich Village, using her keen eye to observe and interpret the urban lighting conditions. What she reveals is a nuanced way of experiencing the city—New York or any place where electric light and the built environment can be found—after the sun goes down and is not to be missed. Enjoy.
The Final Slam Dunk?
Forest City Ratner successfully sold bonds today, paving the way for construction of its new arena in Brooklyn.
There may be a few hoops left to jump through before Bruce Ratner can begin construction of his SHoP- and Ellerbe Becket-designed arena for the Brooklyn, né New Jersey, Nets, such as completing a partial sale of the team to a Russian oligarch, prevailing in some outstanding lawsuits, and going ahead with eminent domain against the area’s remaining holdouts. But the developer appears to have cleared the final major hurdle standing in his way with the successful sale of $511 million in tax-exempt bonds today for his $900 million arena. (There are still taxed bonds and an equity stake to be taken care of, but they lacked the December 31 deadline.) Read More
Bay Bridge Babylon
The new Bay Bridge in progress. Photo by jitze/Flickr
Launching last Tuesday, Dave Eggers’ one-time-only Panorama newspaper celebrated the good old days of investigative journalism with a muckraking piece on the Bay Bridge. Its “above-the-fold” piece, “Unparalleled Bridge, Unparalleled Cost” (which, unlike the rest of the issue, is available online), is a massive 22,000-word exploration into the bureaucratic issues that have caused the new Bay Bridge to be delayed for years and go from an original estimate of $1.8 billion to a final cost around $12 billion. Read More
Kicked by the Curb
Curbed calls Calatrava's 80 South Street the biggest disappointment of the decade.
The recent building boom has proven to be as much about what got built—40s Bond and Mercer, One Bryant Park, the High Line—as what hasn’t—our Gehry Guggenheim, ample affordable housing, so much of the World Trade Center, not to mention Dubai. Our good pals at Curbed New York, so often trafficking in our real estate dreams and nightmares, have put together a run-down of their top 10 projects that never got built. Read More
R.I.P., I.D.
(Image Courtesy I.D. Magazine)
To get a brief taste of a world short one more smart design magazine, type ID Magazine into the search field. You might get i-D with a bunch of nude blondes on the cover or id magazine at the ready to discuss transgender issues in Oregon, but you will not easily find I.D., the magazine that has covered the art of design and the design of the everyday for more than 50 years, winning five National Magazine Awards in the process. While nobody who wanted to know the new brand names in the making dared miss I.D.’s Annual Design Review every July/August (since 1954!), it was really the steady hand and sharp eye of its most formidable editors Julie Lasky and, before that, Chee Pearlman that made I.D. a force of good in design. Lasky left last February to join the website Change Observer and continue championing innovative design. The rest of us will just have to turn the page.
And the Winners Are
(Rick Lowe's Project Row House. All images courtesy United States Artists)
(Denari's HL23)
Among the winners at last night’s ceremony for United States Artists (USA) were architects Neil Denari, Laura Kurgan, and architect/activist Rick Lowe. The $50,000 unrestricted awards are given each year “to ignite the creativity that makes this country great,” according to the organization’s website. USA was started in 2005 with seed money from the Rockefeller, Ford, Prudential, and Ramuson foundations to support artists in the wake of dwindling public funding for the arts.
They praised Denari as a “leading voice in the pedagogy and practice of contemporary architecture,” and commended him for showing that “progressive ideology is buildable.”
Kurgan’s work employs “data network information and uses it as a visual device to inform and educate the general public on social issues and their physical implications to the built environment.” Read More
The Big Bang
On Friday I posted a video about the Ocean Tower in South Padre Island, Texas, also known as the Leaning Tower of South Padre Island. It is, or was to be, a 31 story condo. Regrettably, after topping out one side of the foundation sank more than a foot into the sand, construction was halted, and on Sunday the structure was imploded. At 400 feet tall, it was the tallest concrete structure to ever be imploded, according to the demolition contractor, Controlled Demolition of Phoenix, Maryland. The above video, and many more like it on youtube, capture the magic moment.
Willets Wonderings
The city saw a robust response to an RFQ for the development of the western portion of Willets Point in Queens.
It appears the city’s plan to trifurcate development out at Willets Point has been a smashing success, as the Economic Development Corporation announced on Friday that 29 developers from across the country have expressed interest in the first phase of the project, an 18-acre swath of land on the western section of the 62-acre Iron Triangle that contains the densest mix of uses. “The quantity and quality of these responses are strong indicators that the development community has confidence in the successful redevelopment of Willets Point despite current economic conditions,” Seth Pinsky, president of EDC, said in a release. An RFP is expected sometime in 2010 for a selection of those 29 respondents. After that, the next hurdle is finishing land acquisition, which stands at 75 percent of the phase one area controlled by the city. If need be, the city has not ruled out acquiring what’s left through eminent domain, a specter that has cast a long shadow over the area’s redevelopment, though one that could be sunsetting. Read More
High Tech Holidays
(images courtesy SOM)
The Chicago office of SOM has designed a modern take on the menorah, which recently took top prize in a charity competition sponsored by Steelcase. The solid wax menorah, which was created by Colin Gorsuch, burns so that the eight inch square frame is revealed with the passing of each night of Chanukkah. Read More
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