Courtesy Gia Wolff

Gia Wolff’s latest architectural installation features a 25 ft diameter portal suspended above 2 Avenue between 36 and 35 Street in Industry City, Brooklyn.  As part of Superfront Public Summer, the site specific piece is a reaction to the existing typological conditions and explores potential scenarios for the future of Industry City. Finnish for ‘portal’, Portaali refers to the Scandinavian dock workers who used to occupy the buildings in the late 1900s.

More about the installation, including a video, after the break.

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Brooklyn based interaction designer Cooper Smith has created an amazing series of videos documenting pedestrian travel within Manhattan. By tracking the paths of 1000 Nike Plus (Nike’s new smart running shoe) runs, he was able to produce and distill a wide variety of data. The results are quite elegant in terms of graphics, and offer insight into the patterns of urban travel. For more videos visit Cooper’s website.

This summer design/build program for architecture students aims to get their hands dirty with both design and construction experience. Relocating from their Brooklyn studio home at Direct Design Institute students and professorers participated in a one week building work shop at the Five Sisters Farm in Perrysville, New York. Funded by Kickstarter (today is the last day to donate!) +FARM provides students with the opportunity to learn about “direct design” by observation and the physical act of making a movable Chicken Coop and restoring an old farm house to be later used as an artist colony and hunter’s house.

© Keith Sirchio

On display until January 2012 in the Brooklyn Museum is reOrder, an architectural installation by Situ Studio of Brooklyn. reOrder is located in the Great Hall of the McKim, Mead & White designed museum. The stately historical building served as both inspiration and site for Situ Studio’s imaginative spatial transformation.

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model

Construction is underway for the Greenpoint Emergency Medical Service (EMS) Station, designed by Michielli + Wyetzner Architects for Williamsburg, Brooklyn. The two-story, 12,400-square-foot contemporary design accommodates the Fire Department of New York (FDNY) ambulance crews and vehicles, and occupies a prominent site on Metropolitan Avenue near Bedford Street in the rapidly developing neighborhood. The station is part of FDNY’s plan to improve response time to medical emergencies throughout the city by increasing the number of stations and thereby reducing the distance and time ambulances travel to those in need. Completion is expected for June 2012.

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© Sean Hemmerle

Architects: Fabrica 718
Location: Brooklyn, New York City, NY, USA
Architect of Record: Melissa Cicetti, AIA
Project Team (Fabrica718): Julie Torres Moskovitz (principal), Minyoung Song, Kim Letven, Michael Brehmer, Michael Vanreusel, Omar Toro-Vaca, Natalya Egon, Viviana Wang, and Corey Yurkovich.
Structural Engineer: Anastos Engineering
Expediter: Schnall Consulting
Contractor: Dave Ramirez, Metal Fabricator: Daniel Bailey/Hard Decor
Project area: 2,300 sqf
Project year: 2010
Photographs: William Mebane, Sean Hemmerle

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© A-Frame Studio

Located only one block apart in a historical neighborhood in Brooklyn made up of mostly brownstones and brick row houses, the design of this two ground-up condominium buildings called for façades that would relate to each other while referencing their context, and while embracing the modern living standards of its future residents.

Architect: LOCAL
Location: Brooklyn, New York, USA
Project Year: 2008
Photographs: A-Frame Studio

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© Tom Judge Photography

Architects: Nandinee Phookan Architects
Location: Brooklyn, New York, USA
General Contractor: Giovannitti, LLC
Structural Engineer: Pennmax Engineering
MEP Engineer: Clifford Dias Engineering
Stair Manufacturer: Product and design metalwork
Project area: 3,700 sq. ft.
Project year: 2008 – 2010
Photographs: Tom Judge Photography

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Courtesy of Garrison Architects

Garrison Architects are completing designs for Red Hook Green, New York’s first sustainable zero-energy, live/work building. A completion date projected is summer 2011. This unique structure is expected to become one of the most distinctive architectural additions to up-and-coming Red Hook section of Brooklyn.

Architect: Garrison Architects
Location: Brooklyn, New York, USA
Project Area: 4,000 sqf
Renderings: Courtesy of Garrison Architects

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Courtesy of Della Valle + Bernheimer

Located on the third floor of a residential tower, this amenity space combines a fitness center with a diverse entertainment program including screening room, gaming area, and demonstration kitchen. The boundary between these two programs is defined by a folded metal structure. This luminous patterned surface intersects the residential corridor to form the entrance.

Architect: Della Valle + Bernheimer
Location: 80 Dekalb, Brooklyn, New York, USA
Project Area: 2,600 sqf
Project Year: 2010
Photographs: Courtesy of Della Valle + Bernheimer

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© Alexander Severin RAZUMMEDIA

Architects: Wasa/Studio A
Location: Myrtle Avenue, Brooklyn, USA
Partner in Charge: Jack Esterson, AIA
Project area: 120,000 sq. ft.
Photographs: Alexander Severin RAZUMMEDIA, Wasa/Studio A

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Courtesy of HTDSTUDIO

This community prototype, designed by HTDSTUDIO, calls for a targeted approach to true sustainability and a cost effective model as key residential, commercial, cultural and institutional components reside on the same one block site. It is a de-facto return to the true, urban planning model (at least from a practical standpoint) that came to prominence in the 19th and 20th Centuries. This model proved most sensible where most goods and services were locally provided to the neighborhood. The advantage is that residents would have essential elements of their neighborhood within walking distance of less than one city block; in this case the study is in the Gowanus – Red Hook section of Brooklyn, New York. More images and architects’ description after the break. read more »

Courtesy of Selldorf Architects

Situated near the entrance to the Gowanus Canal, formerly the site of a police impound lot, the 11-acre pier will house a new 125,500 sqf facility for recycling and education.  Designed by Selldorf Architects, the Sunset Park Materials Recycling Facility was not just conceived as a facility for recycling, but also as an active classroom.  The approximate 2.5 acres of green space, complete with grazing goats, 50,000 sqf of photovoltaic cells and hopeful wind turbine, will offer an observation corridor and educational classrooms for students. The site is currently being raised four feet by construction crews and a completion date of December 2011 is anticipated.

Architects: Selldorf Architects
Location: Brooklyn, New York, USA
Client: Sims Municipal Recycling
Project Area: 125,000 sqf
Renderings: Courtesy of Selldorf Architects

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The Brooklyn Chamber of Commerce holds the annual Building Brooklyn Awards. Currently accepting nominations for the 11th Annual Buidling Brooklyn Awards, the event is a signature real estate industry event that recognizes recently completed new, and renovation construction projects, that have a positive impact on the borough’s economy and quality of life.

The event honors individuals who have made significant contributions toward enhancing the business conditions and economic climate of Brooklyn. This year’s awards ceremony will be held on Thursday, July 14, 2011, at the Steiner Studios in the Brooklyn Navy Yard.

More information and images from last year’s winners after the break. read more »

© Peter Knaup

Renowned architect Frank Gehry will speak as part of the Pratt Institute School of Architecture’s fall 2010 lecture and events series at 3 p.m. on Wednesday, November 10, 2010, in Memorial Hall Auditorium on Pratt’s Brooklyn Campus. The event is free and open to the public.  Seating priority will be given to Pratt students and faculty members with valid ID at 2:30 p.m. Members of the public will be admitted at 2:50 p.m. should seating be available.

Read on for more information after the break. read more »

 Jonathan Wallen

The 100,000 square foot new Sephardic Community Center on Ocean Parkway in Brooklyn, NY is a transformative expansion of its 30-year old original building. It is symbolic of the central role it now plays in the surrounding neighborhood as an inter-generational facility. It expands upon the first Center’s stated mission to preserve and nurture the rich history and culture of the Sephardic Community, it offers coherence to the Center’s ever-widening program of educational, athletic and social services, and above all it extends a legible, clear invitation to all for participation in community events.

More photographs after the break.

Architects: BKSK Architects
Location: Brooklyn, New York, USA
Partner-in-Charge: Joan Krevlin, FAIA, LEED AP
Project Architect: Julia Nelson, AIA, LEED AP
Project Managers: David Kubik, AIA, LEED AP, Harpreet Dhaliwal, AIA, LEED AP
Interior Designer: Stacey Jattuso
Contractor: E.W. Howell
Structural Engineer: Weidlinger Associates Inc.
MEP Engineer: Lilker Associates Consulting Engineers
Civil Engineer: Michael Wein Civil Engineer
Landscape Architect: H.M. White Site Architects
Project Year: 2010
Photographs: Jonathan Wallen, Jeffrey Totaro

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© Rafael Vinoly Architects

Earlier last week, the City Council of New York City decided to move forward with Rafael Viñoly Architects’ master plan for the New Domino in Brooklyn. While the historic sugar refinery complex, with its familiar yellow signage, has achieved landmark status and will be preserved, the 11.2 acre-site will be outfitted with 2,200 new apartments – 660 of which are affordable housing – and four acres of public park space including a riverfront esplanade along the East River in Brooklyn.

More about the master plan after the break. read more »

Check out this great video we spotted over at The Architect’s Newspaper Blog by Urban Omnibus.  The video’s subject, Mitch McEwan, speaks about Superfront, a space for architectural experimentation located on Atlantic Avenue in Brooklyn.  Throughout the video, McEwan emphasizes that the collaboration between the architect and interdisciplinaries is the way for architecture to break out of its isolated shell and affect the broader public.  As McEwan points out, architecture cannot become a contained subject that is purely debated and discussed by architects.  After all, in order to create places that suit the public, a vital relationship must be fostered between the designer and the community.  McEwan also calls to attention the fact that if we want to expand the influence of the architect, we have to, basically, make our “architecture not just about architecture all the time”.   We have to create something real and meaningful; our architecture must speak to the site, the local culture, and most importantly, those who will be occupying the space.  What do you think of the video and McEwan’s ideas?

Core.form-ula will begin its first intensive-hands-on craft series workshop at the de Castellane Gallery located in the heart of Brooklyn this August. The workshop will cover the use of Ecotect and Rhino/Grasshopper to develop techniques of evaluating performative form in architecture.

The goal of the workshop is to understand methods of translating geometry from Rhino/Grasshopper into Ecotect, and specifically, the process of shaping geometry that performs optimally within a specific location on earth. The workshop will begin by covering intro + advanced grasshopper techniques, followed by an introduction to using Ecotect to produce solar radiation studies, day-lighting studies, shadow analysis studies, climate analysis studies, and computational fluid dynamics analysis studies. The last stage of the workshop will cover the process of manipulating geometry in grasshopper via analysis/values obtained from Ecotect.

All levels are welcomed (students & professionals), the only requirement is knowledge of Rhino. At the end of the workshop, each participate will be asked to produce a 12in x 12in x 12in physical model along with flat art to be displayed at the de Castallane Galley for public viewing. For more information, click here.

East River Park

This open international ideas competition is for the integrated design of an innovative music venue in the East River State Park located in Williamsburg, Brooklyn.

The new park is the site of the ‘Jelly Pool Parties’ summer concert series which brings 10,000 fans to the site on sunday afternoons to enjoy free performances by progressive independent artists.

SuckerPUNCH challenges designers to develop a network of stages and facilities which can accommodate and enhance these performances through a progressive design strategy. For more information on submission, requirements, jury, awards and schedule, visit the competition’s official website.

(remember we told you about “another” competition on this same park a month ago?)