This past summer, the nonprofit design practice, PennPraxis, in partnership with The Fresh Air Fund, piloted a new program, Virtual Design Studio, that sparked the imaginations of nearly 150 students to show how design has the power to change the built environment. Their courses, which were taught by University of Pennsylvania Stuart Weitzman School of Design graduate students, generated multiple designs for a nature center operated by The Fresh Air Fund and public spaces in New York City and offered children an introduction to explore future careers in design that could have a lasting impact on their communities and the design professions for years to come. Over the course of seven weeks, these students committed over 150 hours to the program while also receiving a stipend.
New York City: The Latest Architecture and News
Héctor Zamora Drops an Architectural Barrier on the Met’s Roof in New York City
Although deploying four months later than normal (due to an obvious, unforeseen roadblock), the Metropolitan Museum of Art has revealed its 2020 Roof Garden commission, tapping Mexican artist Héctor Zamora to drop a timely intervention across the New York City institution’s outdoor terrace.
Outdoor Dining Could Become Permanent in NYC as Architects Innovate
Outdoor dining has proven to be something of a lifeline for restaurants not only in New York but around the country, as indoor dining remains far out of reach at this point in the novel coronavirus crisis. Faced with restrictive mandates, however, architects, planners, and restaurateurs across the U.S. have been forced to come up with creative ways to keep patrons uninfected while assembling aesthetically pleasing outdoor dining areas.
New York City on Pause: Why This is the Opportunity to Create an Equitable Future Through the Built Environment
It’s hard to imagine New York City without the packed subway cars, long lines, and overwhelming tourist crowds that felt essential to daily life. Once the fear of the COVID-19 pandemic has waned, the city, like others around the world, will become clouded and fundamentally altered even after economic prosperity has been restored. In what feels like a revolving door discussion, except now perhaps asked with a sense of urgency, what do we want cities to be like in the years to come?
Reimagining Brooklyn Bridge Competition Reveals 6 Finalists, Including a Proposal by BIG
Van Alen and the New York City Council have announced the 6 finalists for the “Reimagining Brooklyn Bridge” international competition, in both the professionals and young adults categories. Inspiring participants to rethink the iconic Brooklyn Bridge walkway, the contest gathered short-term interventions and longer-term proposals for a complete reconfiguration of the bridge. The 3 final teams in the Professional category include BIG + ARUP; ScenesLab + Minzi Long + Andrew Nash; and Pilot Projects Design Collective, Cities4Forests, Wildlife Conservation Society, Grimshaw, and Silman.
PAU Reimagines New York City Without Cars
PAU or Practice for Architecture and Urbanism revealed images for a proposal that imagines New York City without cars. The visionary N.Y.C. (“Not Your Car”) project unlocks the potential of the city’s streets, reopens the public space to people and bans private vehicles.
NYC Green Relief and Recovery Fund Announces Support for Parks and Open Spaces
NYC Green Relief & Recovery Fund has selected 62 grant recipients to support funding in parks and open spaces across New York City. The effort was made to support a coalition of national, family, and community foundations. As the first round of funding, the grants range from $5,000 to $120,000 to support essential maintenance, stewardship, public programming, and management of parks and open spaces across the five boroughs.
Paul Goldberger on Architecture, Cities, and New York’s Long Road Back
This article was originally published on Common Edge.
In recent weeks, we’ve seen an explosion of internet speculation about the “future of cities.” Apparently, they are either doomed—or destined to prevail. The office is dead (obviously), the office tower (especially tall ones) clearly a building type in need of a proper funeral. All kinds of chatter have subsequently ensued (we have time on our hands) about the dire outlook for public space, the impending collapse of public transportation, the inevitable return to the suburbs, even the (gasp!) demise of the luxury cruise ship. We’ll see; we’re still wandering around in the dark here and might be for some time. With that somber thought in mind, I reached out to Paul Goldberger, Pulitzer Prize-winning architecture critic and urbanist, for what I felt certain would be a nuanced and measured take on our presently fraught moment. (A note: we spoke prior to the protests, which have erupted in American cities in response to the murder of George Floyd.) For the most part, we resisted the urge to make sweeping and almost certainly premature predictions about our urban future.
Edgar Jerins: Photographing the Locked-Down City of New York
This article was originally published on Common Edge.
New York City: locked down, empty. It was heartbreaking, of course, but it was also beautiful. For artist Edgar Jerins, that revelation was something of a surprise. Who knew this bustling, chaotic, dirty, vibrant, profane, amazing city could look so … gorgeous when stripped of people and activity? For years, Jerins rode the subway to his studio near Times Square. When news of the spreading pandemic first surfaced—more as a vague, undefined threat, initially—he fled out of fear to the bus, and then, after the severity of the event became apparent and the lockdown began, he borrowed his daughter’s bicycle.
How New York City's Architecture Has Responded to National Emergencies over the Last 20 Years
New York City is the pinnacle hybrid between the vibrant and granular neighborhoods that Jane Jacobs once envisioned and the sweeping urban innovations of Robert Moses. However, its diverse population has experienced hardship over the last twenty years, forcing the city into a recursive wave of self-reflection to reevaluate the urban strategies, design trends, and global transportation methods that it had grown so accustomed to. After the September 11th and Hurricane Sandy tragedies, the delicate balance between promoting a sense of individual culture and the strength in unity that New Yorkers are so often known for served as the lifeblood for revitalization. New York City has consistently handled adversity, by always rethinking, redesigning, and rebuilding this city for a better future.
New York Map Highlights Sidewalks with Social Distancing Possibilities
As social distancing becomes the new norm in the fight against COVID-19, people are finding it harder to keep up with the six-foot rule in dense cities. Urban Planner Meli Harvey developed a map of New York that shows the width of sidewalks in the city, aiming to highlight public areas where social distancing can be maintained.
Adapting Existing Spaces: New York City’s Response to the COVID-19 Pandemic
As New York is facing unprecedented circumstances and as the numbers of infected people with the coronavirus are reaching new highs, officials are seeking fast and efficient solutions to generate useful spaces for patients. With a timeline of a few weeks, the city is looking into ways of altering the existing structures.
The BIG U: NYC Community Spaces as Barriers for Flooding
In 2012, Hurricane Sandy struck the eastern coastline of the United States and caused a level of flooding and destruction that was unprecedented for a major, densely populated city like New York. Storm surges brought a terrifying amount of water to the city streets, tunnels and subways; the National Ocean Service reported a 9.4-foot surge over Battery Park. Essential infrastructure was damaged in many areas, homes were flooded and people were trapped.
Building Empathy: Zarith Pineda on Human-Centered Design and New Territories
Human-centered design places people at the center of our cities. Using this philosophy to rethink traditional approaches to planning, the architectural and urban designer Zarith Pineda founded Territorial Empathy. Pineda's research lab specializes in mitigating urban conflict through architectural interventions. Over the last few years, her team has been working to create a deeper understanding of equity and empathy.