SoHo Synagogue / Dror
Architects: Dror
Location: New York City, New York, USA
Project Year: 2011
Photographs: John Hall
The SoHo Synagogue is the community’s first ever synagogue and represents a fresh vision that translates the inspiration of Judaism to a new generation. With a forward thinking approach, Rabbi Dovi Scheiner along with his wife Esty, founders of SoHo Synagogue,built a religious platform that invites the community to fully integrate their religion within their modern lifestyle. Mindful of the open mindset of lower Manhattan’s Jewish population, The SoHo Synagogue seeks to reinvent the synagogue as a comfortable and enjoyable setting for personal growth and communal connection.
Metal Shutter Houses / Shigeru Ban Architects + Dean Maltz Architect
The Metal Shutter Houses, designed by the internationally renowned Japanese firm Shigeru Ban Architects, are located on the south side of West 19th Street, between 10th and 11th Avenues in West Chelsea’s art gallery district, steps away from the High Line, the Hudson River, Chelsea Piers, and the Hudson River Park. The block offers a bold display of the new New York: the Frank Gehry-designed IAC Headquarters are next door and Jean Nouvel’s 100 11th is across the street. Low-profile warehouse buildings throughout the neighborhood allow for long city views, including the Empire State building, from each floor of the Metal Shutter Houses.
Architects: Shigeru Ban Architects + Dean Maltz Architect
Location: 524 West 19th Street New York City, New York, USA
Executive Architect: Montroy DeMarco, LLP
Structural Engineers: Robert Silman Associates, PC
Mechanical Engineers: ICOR Associates, LLC Consulting Engineers
Interiors: Shigeru Ban Architects + Dean Maltz Architect
Developer: HEEA Development LLC
Project Year: 2011
Photographs: Michael Moran
Video: Craig Dyker talks about 9/11 Memorial Museum Pavilion
We recently viewed an informative video about the 9/11 Memorial Museum Pavilion on Architecture Record’s website. In this video Snøhetta‘s principal Craig Dykers explains the pavilion’s various meanings and features. The exterior is slotted to be completed this September 11th and the interior is expected to open September 11th, 2012.
Manhattanhenge
Manhattanhenge, is the term used to describe a biannual occurrence in New York City when the sun aligns with the east-west streets of Manhattan’s main grid. Adopted in 1811 the famous street grid of Manhattan, the Commissioners’ Plan, was the original design plan for the streets in which the grid plan is offset at 29.0 degrees from true east-west. Twice a year photographers gather to witness this urban solar phenomenon, when the sun sets perfectly between the skyscraper corridors and illuminates the north-south facades of the streets. Tripods and pedestrians filled the crosswalks this past Wednesday to catch a glimpse of this moment.
NYC Port Authority Bus Terminal: The World’s Largest Media Façade
One of the New York City’s most forgettable buildings has been transformed into a model of modern technology. The Port Authority Bus Terminal (PABT), located in midtown Manhattan between 40th and 42nd street, now boasts the world’s largest transparent media façade completed by GKD Metal Fabrics which effectively covers the building’s outdated steel façade. More images and project description after the break.
Video: Robert Hammond on The High Line
Co-founder of Friends of the High Line, Robert Hammond shares on TED the transformation from abandoned elevated railroad line to one of the hottest spots in New York City. The High Line recently opened Section 2 of the park, which continues to provide a break from the chaotic city streets. The users have an opportunity to experience an elevated space with uninterrupted views of the Hudson River and the city skyline.
Delancey and Essex Municipal Parking Garage / Michielli + Wyetzner Architects
The existing five-story concrete Delancey and Essex Municipal Parking Garage is getting a face lift. The downtown Manhattan parking garage, nearly 40 years old, is a NYC Department of Transportation project that will receive a $4 million renovation including an impressive cable facade. Michielli + Wyetzner Architects designed a two layer 1/14″ diameter cable weave like pattern to create a three-dimensional open facade for the second to fifth floors of the garage.
Winner of a 2011 NYC Design Commission Awards, the garage is part of Mayor Bloomberg’s Design + Construction Excellence Program which has been led by the New York City Department of Design and Construction since 2004.
Hotel Americano / TEN Arquitectos
Slated to open at the end of this month Hotel Americano, designed by Enrique Norten of TEN Arquitectos, is the latest building to be added to the Chelsea area. The first project for Mexican boutique brand Grupo Habita in the city, the hotel’s roof top provides a clear view to the newest section (part two) of the impressive High Line. Easily distinguishing itself from its neighbors, the exterior of the 56 room hotel is covered uniquely with yards of chain mail.
Architects: Ten Arquitectos
Location: New York City, New York, USA
Photographs: Paul Clemence
The Pitch: A Hands-on Workshop on Attracting a Client in Two Minutes or Less
We often think of Architecture as a profession within a vacuum, an idyllic world in which design is left to the imagination of the Architect and the possibilities of success are endless… so long as one finds a client. For as great as an Architects work is, or could be, without a client to realize those abilities with, an Architects work often goes unrealized and unappreciated. In a profession built on the visual and the tactile, the ability to verbally translate ideas and abilities serves as both the facilitator and denier. All Architecture school students have gone through the critique process, but presenting to someone within academia is wildly different than making a pitch to a potential client.
AIA New York is hosting an workshop for perfecting the architectural pitch in two minutes or less. The power of a two-minute elevator pitch lies in cutting your mission and values down to the essentials, capturing a client’s interest to make them want to know more about you and hopefully hire you.
Omonia Bakery / bluarch
This bakery is a brand new project for the family behind the renowned Omonia brand famous for its Greek pastries. It sells pastries and breads prepared on premises in the see-through kitchen.
Architect: bluarch
Location: Queens, New York City, New York, USA
Project Area: 1,200 sqf
Photographs: Courtesy of bluarch
Video: Global Conservation Center / FXFOWLE
This LEED Gold building is now the headquarters for the Wildlife Conservation Society. Designed by FXFOWLE, the Global Conservation Center sits in the middle of the Bronx Zoo. The building harmonizes so well with the site that the wild animals hardly give notice to its presence; they treat it much like they treat a natural rock outcropping in the landscape. This makes for interesting employee lunches where they spend their time observing wild turkeys, swooping Inca terns and many other creatures. The design capitalizes on this wonderful opportunity by drawing staff outside with generous terraces and a patio the size of the staff dinning room. From more information check out the video and read Laura Raskin’s article at Architectural Record’s website.
Source: ArchRecord
+ Pool / Family and PlayLab in collaboration with Arup
A 30-day Kickstarter campaign to raise funds for the continued development of + Pool is underway. From the creative minds at Family and PlayLab, + Pool is a collaboration to design a floating riverwater pool for everyone in the rivers of New York City. Beginning the next phase of the project, material testing and design, the online fundraising campaign hopefully will raise the initial $25,000 needed to begin physically testing the filtration membranes providing results to determine the best filtration membranes and methods to provide clean and safe riverwater for the public to swim in. A preliminary engineering feasibility report was initially conducted by Arup New York, which assessed the water quality, filtration, structural, mechanical and energy systems of + Pool.
Family and PlayLab launched a Kickstarter online fundraising campaign this month with the ultimate goal of generating enough support to prototype the filtration system by building a full-scale working mockup of the one section of + Pool. Research, design, testing and development will continue through the year in conjunction with permitting, approvals and building partnerships with community, municipal, commercial and environmental organizations.
Donation levels for the Kickstarter campaign range from $1 to $10,000 with the hope that everyone interested in cleaner public waterways can get involved. Donors can choose from a variety of incentives and gear up for a day at the pool. For more information about the project and the campaign or to donate click here. Or write to info@pluspool.org.
Follow the break for more details about this project and the history of floating pools in New York City, which date back to the early 19th century.
TriBeCa Loft Residence / A+I Design Corp
Architects: A+I Design Corp
Location: New York City, New York, USA
Project team: Brad Zizmor, Anastasia Amelchakova, Eliane Maillot
Project area: 4,100 sqm
Project year: 2010
Photographs: Magda Biernat
Sustainable Vertical Neighborhood / Solus4
This project comes from architectural and urban planning firm, solus4 who has devised a set of principles that guided the design of the Sustainable Vertical Neighborhood. This “neighborhood” takes its form in an iconic 950 foot tall residential tower in New York City. Applying these principles to a vertical neighborhood requires the full engagement of the design team, the building team, the financing team and the owners.
Read on for more on this project after the break.
New York City Design Commission Awards 11 Projects with Excellence in Design
The New York City Design Commission held the 29th Annual Awards for Excellence in Design earlier this week at the recently renovated Museum of the Moving Image. Eleven public projects received this honor of distinction, which range from an animal shelter and a salt shed to a children’s museum and a library. Selected by an 11 member jury from hundreds of submissions the recipients ‘exemplify the highest standard of design’. A complete list of winners can be found following the break.
Holding Pattern, P.S.1 2011 Installation / Interboro Partners
A few weeks ago we shared with you photographs of this year’s P.S.1 Young Architects Program winning design, “Holding Pattern”, while in the process of installing its canopy piece. Now we are bringing you the completed structure which is open to the public through September 19th.
Designed by Interboro Partners, Tobias Armborst, Daniel D’Oca, and Georgeen Theodore, “Holding Pattern” is a community based design that incorporates both the program requirements and the communities needs. Stretching the funds, Interboro Partners will be able to serve two purposes; as the materials will be recycled, donating ping pong tables, benches, and flood lights, (a total of 79 items) to over 50 organizations in the Long Island neighborhood.
Gladstone Gallery 21st Street / Selldorf Architects
Located in Chelsea between 10th and 11th Avenues and situated between two other prominent New York galleries, this building is a secondary exhibition space for the Gladstone Gallery and was designed to house large installations of sculpture. Respecting the area’s industrial warehouse buildings, the façade is constructed of dark grey hand-cut brick of unusual proportions, laid with filled joints to underscore the monumental appearance. The façade features a large opening on the ground floor and ribbon windows on the upper levels.
Architect: Selldorf Architects
Location: 21st Street, New York City, New York, USA
Project Year: 2008
Photographs: Nikolas Koenig
Video: West 57th / BIG
West 57th, BIG’s design of a New York apartment building for client Durst Fetner Residential, takes shape in model form in this video. On display at the Louisiana Museum of Modern Art, the model is part of Living: Frontiers of Architecture III-IV exhibition. The exhibition which opened the first of this month and will run through October 2nd ‘is full of impressions and insights into the multiple ways we live in the world today’.
Queens Theater in the Park / Caples Jefferson
Architects: Caples Jefferson
Location: New York City, New York, USA
Project Year: 2010
Project Area: 1,077.67 sqm
Photographs: Nic Lehoux
EDUN Americas, Inc. Showroom & Offices / Spacesmith
EDUN is a progressive fashion company launched in Spring 2005 by Ali Hewson and Bono. In May 2010, Spacesmith was retained to design the lifestyle fashion brand’s new 8,600 square foot space to house offices; a showroom; design, production & marketing teams; and a sample room on the corner of Grand and Mercer Streets in Soho. The design intent was to keep the new construction to a minimum while allowing natural daylight to penetrate into the space and to embrace EDUN’s commitment to sustainability. It was fundamental to EDUN that Spacesmith design the space using reclaimed and salvaged materials and furnishings and to work with local vendors, craftsmen and craftswomen.
Architect: Spacesmith
Location: New York City, New York, USA
Project Area: 8,600 sqf
Project Year: 2010
Project Team: Jane Smith, Partner in Charge; Charles Patten, Design Principal; Ambar Margarida, Stefan Danicich
Photographs: Courtesy of Spacesmith
Video tour of the High Line Section 2
Justin Davidson, architecture critic for New York Magazine, tours the recently opened section 2 of the High Line and describes the city views you can see from there.
