Figment 2013 Brings a Cloud of 50,000 Plastic Bottles to Governors Island
Head in the Clouds pavilion by Studio Klimoski Chang Architects. (Courtesy Figment)
Each year, the AIANY’s Emerging New York Architect (ENYA) committee and the Structural Engineers Association of New York bring a whimsical, wondrous, and often absurd pavilion to New York’s Governors Island as part of the FIGMENT Festival. This year, FIGMENT held a design competition and 200 designers submitted proposals. The newly announced City of Dreams Competition winner for 2013 is Brooklyn-based Studio Klimoski Chang Architects and their sustainably-minded Head in the Clouds pavilion, comprised of metal rods, and thousands of plastic milk jugs and water bottles.
Photo of the Day: Saarinen’s Swooping Dulles International Airport Turns 50
Inside Dulles Airport in 1964. (Courtesy BamaLawDog / Flickr)
No one understood airports quite like Eero Saarinen. His swooping Dulles International Airport turned 50 over the weekend and its uplifting form is still inspiring today. Saarinen was quite proud of it, too, declaring the building “the best thing I have ever done.” The control tower and main terminal building at Dulles opened on November 17, 1962, formally dedicated by President John F. Kennedy. The airport was named for Secretary of State John Foster Dulles. Also, if you’re in Los Angeles, be sure to check out the A+D Architecture and Design Museum’s exhibition on Saarinen, now up through January 3rd.
Hollywood Sign Now Has Half A Facelift
Workers apply paint to the sign’s “W” (Sherwin-Williams)
Like any star of the silver screen, a facial peel is in order every now and then. For the famous Hollywood Sign perched atop Mount Lee overlooking Los Angeles, it’s been 35 years since its last facelift, but the 89 year-old historical landmark will soon look as young as ever. Last week, the restoration project passed the halfway mark, with the H-O-L-L-Y letters newly primed, primped, and painted. The effort started on October 2 and will be completed by year’s end. The remaining corrugated steel letters will be sanded and given a fresh coat of glossy white paint.
When all is said and done, approximately 110 gallons of primer and 275 gallons of paint will have been used. And for sign aficionados who want to duplicate the color, it’s Sherwin-Williams Emerald Exterior Paint in high reflective white. The Hollywood Sign Trust together with Sherwin-Williams is funding the project. The sign was originally built as a real estate billboard in 1923, scrapped and rebuilt in 1978 and today continues to be an international landmark.
Excitement Builds Over 8-Block SPURA Redevelopment in New York
Seward Park Urban Renewal Area marked in Orange. (Courtesy NYCEDC)
Attention developers! It’s almost time to prepare your visions for one of the largest redevelopment projects in Manhattan, the Seward Park Urban Renewal Area (SPURA), now that all the approvals are in. While an official Request for Proposals (RFP) won’t be issued until early next year, the NYC Economic Development Corporation is getting a jump start on soliciting interest with a new informational brochure issued today including a panoramic new rendering of the SPURA site, marked in orange.
The project calls for up to 1.65 million square feet of mixed-use space built from the ground up on a site covering eight city blocks in the Lower East Side that Robert Moses leveled in the 20th century. The project also calls for a reconstructed Essex Street Market and a new 15,000 square foot park. The notice comes with a warning that the RFP process “will have an aggressive timeline,” between January and May 2013. Watch for the official RFP to be released at the NYCEDC website, and get ready to rev those rendering engines, architects!
Architects and Scientists Debate How to Prepare a Post-Sandy New York Region
Panelists engaged in conversation about design strategies for the city after Hurricane Sandy at the Center for Architecture (Courtesy AIANY)
Barriers or freshwater wetlands? New building codes? What about porous pavements or floating city blocks? These were just a few of the ideas batted around at AIANY’s discussion and fundraiser, “Designing the City after Superstorm Sandy,” at the Center for Architecture last Thursday evening. The panel, moderated by Michael Kimmelman, architecture critic for The New York Times, consisted of the city’s leading designers, architects, scientists, and government officials. While each panelist came to the conversation with a different approach and set of strategies, all agreed that change is necessary and new solutions urgent.
“There’s a certain consensus about taking steps in the long-run,” said Kimmelman.
Massive Fire Engulfs 34-Story Dubai Condo Tower
Early Saturday morning, a 34-story residential tower in Dubai burst into flames running its entire height. The 160-unit Tamweel Tower, located in a complex of towers known as the Jumeirah Lakes Towers, caught fire at 2:30a.m. local time, sending hundreds of residents into the streets to seek refuge in a nearby park. The cause of the fire has not yet been determined, but The National reported that some believe the fire may have started near the roof and propelled down the tower by the building’s flammable cladding material, a similar phenomenon as what happened to Rem Koolhaas’ CCTV tower in China a few years ago when fireworks sparked a major blaze on the under-construction tower and the nearby 40-story Al Tayer Tower that caught fire earlier this year.
Daniel Libeskind Adds Three Intersecting Cubes to the Jewish Museum Berlin
(Courtesy Academy of the Jewish Museum Berlin)
Daniel Libeskind’s second contribution to the Jewish Museum Berlin since 2001, the Academy of the Jewish Museum Berlin, will open this Saturday, November 17. The 25,000 square foot Academy is located just across from the original museum and now houses the museum library, a growing archive, and will also house lectures, workshops, and seminars.
“Future Prentice” Proposals Imagine Reuse for Threatened Chicago Icon
The Buildings are sleeping, you should go and wake them up, she says. (Cyril Marsollier and Wallo Villacorta)
On the heels of a surprising, if tenuous, victory in court, preservationists gathered Thursday evening at the Chicago Architecture Foundation to celebrate the opening of Reconsidering an Icon: Creative Conversations About Prentice Women’s Hospital, an exhibition that showcases re-use proposals for Bertrand Goldberg’s threatened icon.
Some of the 71 ideas presented addressed Northwestern University’s stipulations for high-density wet-lab research space on the site, while some imagined other uses for the cloverleaf tower and its blocky podium.
SHFT+ ALT+ DEL: November 16, 2012, Extreme Accolades Edition
‘Tis the season for bestowing “Best Ofs”, and this edition of SHFT+ALT+DEL includes some of the recent laurels laid upon architects and designers by business and consumer press…
Zaha Hadid is named one of Glamour magazine’s Women of the Year for 2012. (Glamour seems to have latched onto Condé Nast sibling The New Yorker calling Hadid “The Lady Gaga of Architecture…”)
Across the pond, David Adjaye is at the tippy-top of the 2013 Power List, ranked number one in the annual publication’s list of the most influential black people of the UK.
This year’s Pritzker Prize winner, Wang Shu, gets tapped as 2012 Innovator of the Year in Architecture by The Wall Street Journal.
South of the border, GQ Mexico named Esteban Suarez of BNKR Arquitectura, pronounced Bunker, Architect of the Year.
Congratulations to them all! Meanwhile, back in the salt mines…
Photo of the Day: Hurricane Sandy Recovery on Staten Island
(Spencer T Tucker/Courtesy NYC Mayors Office)
National Guard troops help clean up the aftermath of Hurricane Sandy in Staten Island’s New Dorp Beach neighborhood this week during President Obama’s tour of damaged areas around New York. To get involved with recovery efforts in the region, please visit the NYC Service website to find groups seeking volunteers, supplies, and more.
Queens Mulls Opposing Visions of Its Own High Line and a Commuter Rail Line
Plans for Queensway park (Courtesy of Friends of the Queensway)
Two competing plans for an abandoned rail line in Queens, New York—a linear park and a commuter rail line—have neighborhood groups scratching their heads. Advocates for the proposed High Line-esque park called the QueensWay are slowly making some headway, but are still facing an uphill battle against a few community groups. The organization, Friends of the QueensWay, is pushing to transform the defunct LIRR Rockaway Beach Branch into 3.5 miles of new parkland that would stretch from Rego Park and Forest Hills down to Ozone Park. The Regional Rail Working Group, however, has another vision for those tracks, proposing a commuter train service to the Rockaways.
Pedal On, Columbus: Bike Share Contract Approved
Columbus will become the first city in Ohio to offer a bike share program. (Courtesy Gary Brown/Flickr & ser_lorenz/Flickr
Bicyclists, add Columbus to the list: the capital of Ohio approved a $2.3 million contract with Alta Bicycle Share on Monday. Starting in May, users will be able to pay $5 per day via credit card to roam the greater downtown area on a three-speed bicycle. Yearly memberships will be about $65, which will include unlimited 30-minute rides for the year, but they will have to pay more for longer rides.
Columbus is the first city in Ohio with such a program, but there has been talk in Cleveland and Cincinnati.
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