AD Classics: Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum / Frank Lloyd Wright
Swelling out towards the city of Manhattan, the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum was the last major project designed and built by Frank Lloyd Wright between 1943 until it opened to the public in 1959, six months after his death, making it one of his longest works in creation along with one of his most popular projects. Completely contrasting the strict Manhattan city grid, the organic curves of the museum are a familiar landmark for both art lovers, visitors, and pedestrians alike.
More on Wright’s Guggenheim Museum after the break.
modeLab Scripting Parameters Workshop
modeLab will be conducting a Scripting Parameters Workshop in New York starting June 8. This workshop will introduce participants to the concepts and applications of parametric and scripted design logics in a fast-paced and hands-on learning environment.
The workshop will investigate iteration, evaluation, and algorithmic strategies in VB.NET within Grasshopper. Over five evening sessions and one weekend work session, participants will develop and prototype scripted design output in coordination with digital fabrication. Participants will gain a core understanding of the techniques and syntax of extending the functionality of Grasshopper through scripting in VB.NET.
As part of a larger online infrastructure, modeLab, this workshop provides participants with continued support and knowledge to draw upon for future learning. Attendance will be limited to provide each participant maximum dedicated time with instructors. For more information on this event, click here.
Controversy over NYU Expansion
NYU prides itself on providing its students with a real feel for city life by having them traverse to different parts of the campus, which is sprawled across Greenwich Village. And yet, the campus will become even more scattered as a 20 year development plan sees NYU as owning parts of Downtown Brooklyn, SoHo and even a satellite campus on Goverrnors Island. The plan, termed “NYU 2031: NYU in NYC “, will add over 6 million square feet of classrooms, labs, and dorms, increasing the building space by approximately 40%.
More images and more about the expansion after the break.
Williamsburg Waterfront Performance Venue International Competition
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?)
Eva Franch, new director for the Storefront Gallery
The Storefront Gallery is a nonprofit exhibition and events space in New York City committed to the advancement of innovative positions in architecture, art and design.
This has been reflected trough several initiatives, such as the White House Redux Competition (2008), Pike Loop (Gramazio & Kohler, 2009), the Reef (Urbana + Radical Craft, 2009), the itinerary Spacebuster (Raumlabor, 2009), and editing publications such as “49 Cities” by Work AC and Storefront Newsprints.
The Storefront Gallery has also hosted Postopolis!, a blogging/architecture event that has taken place in NY (2007), Los Angeles (2009), and this year at Mexico DF (June 8th-12th).
We participated in Postopolis! LA and got to know the SFG team, a group of highly motivated people (Cesar, Jose) directed by Joseph Grima (who we interviewed last year), who we saw again at CIP Talks (2009) in Croatia. But as you might already know, Joseph has stepped down from the SFG direction to become the editor for Domus starting next year.
The position will be filled by Eva Franch, Catalan architect, researcher, teacher and founder of OOAA [office of architectural affairs]. She has studies at TU Delft, ETSAB (Barcelona, where she received her Masters degree) and Princeton (Suzanne Kolarik Underwood Prize and her M.Arch II degree).
“To direct Storefront after visionaries like Kyong Park and Shirin Neshat, Sarah Herda and Joseph Grima is both an honor and a challenge I am relishing. I am delighted to join the institution par excellence that understands experimentation and risk as a priori conditions. New York is one of the most intense cities in the world and I am looking forward to working together with the board, the staff and the extensive network of thinkers involved in making Storefront the place that it is and that will be. I see my role within the legacy of Storefront as a stimulating experience and endeavor for the art and architectural communities inside and beyond cultural, geographic or institutional borders. My practice and my deep connection to the academic world has afforded me a global perspective and I look forward to unveiling, unearthing and spotlighting that which is on the “edge” in order to provide the new grounds from where to produce new “vectors of desire”.”
- Eva Franch
Eva will assume her position starting August 1st, 2010. We look forward to interview her, and to keep collaborating with the Storefront Gallery.
Edgar Street Towers / Iwamoto Scott
San Francisco based IwamotoScott sent us their latest tower development produced for the Greenwich South design study led by Architecture Research Office, Beyer Blinder Belle and Architects & Planners and OPEN. Contributing architects, artists and designers included Coen + Partners, DeWitt Godfrey, IwamotoScott Architecture, Jorge Colmbo, Lewis.Tsuramaki.Lewis Architects, Morphosis, Rafael Lozano-Hemmer, Transolar Climate Engineering and WORKac.
“Sukkah City: New York City” Competition
‘Sukkah City: New York City’ will re-imagine this ancient phenomenon, develop new methods of material practice and parametric design, and propose radical possibilities for traditional design constraints in a contemporary urban site. Twelve finalists will be selected by a panel of celebrated architects, designers, and critics to be constructed in a visionary village in Union Square Park from September 19-21, 2010.
One structure will be chosen by New Yorkers to stand and delight throughout the week-long festival of Sukkot as the Official Sukkah of New York City. The process and results of the competition, along with construction documentation and critical essays, will be published in the forthcoming book “Sukkah City: Radically Temporary Architecture for the Next Three Thousand Years.”
For more information, visit the competition’s official website.
Fort Tilden Field House Competition winners announced
suckerPUNCH announced the winners of their second international open ideas competition for the Fort Tilden Field House in Queen, New York.
See all the winners after the break.
University Center / SOM
Located in Greenwich Village, The New School is an artistic academic institution where thousands of students continue their education in varying facets of design, whether it be music, drama, jazz, liberal arts etc. Within the past few days, the school has unveiled their newest proposal for a University Center designed by New York based SOM. Adding over 365,00 sqf for academic and public programs, a new library and a 600+ student dormitory, the project will create a major campus hub at 65th Fifth Avenue between 13th and 14th Streets when it opens for the Fall 2013 semester.
More about the addition after the break.
AD Classics: Seagram Building / Mies van der Rohe
Located in the heart of New York City, the Seagram Building designed by Mies van der Rohe epitomizes elegance and the principles of modernism. The 38-story building on Park Avenue was Mies’ first attempt at tall office building construction. Mies’ solution set a standard for the modern skyscraper. The building became a monumental continuity of bronze and dark glass climbing up 515 feet to the top of the tower, juxtaposing the large granite surface of the plaza below.
New York Designs 2010: Call for submissions
Architects, landscape architects, engineers, and other designers are invited to submit projects to the Architectural League’s New York Designs series.
Projects of all types at any scale, either built (completed within one year of submission) or under construction in New York City, are welcome. Quality is the sole criterion for selection.
Seen at Architecture Week. More information can be found here.
Call for Papers / d3:dialog
d3:dialog is a hybrid publication that combines the depth and format of a journal with the flexibility of a magazine. Each issue will explore a focused aspect of current architectural theory and production.
The first volume of New York-based d3’s dialog series calls for work in architectural theory, design postulations, and built form that blurs the boundary between mapping and making of cities, buildings, spaces, and objects. Through d3:dialog>assemble, we shall collectively explore how such fusion occurs and how conventional methods remain relevant.
For more information click here.
Museum for African Art / Robert Stern Architects
What began in a rented townhouse on Manhattan’s Upper East Side has grown to become an internationally recognized preeminent source for exhibitions and publications related to historical and contemporary African art. The Museum for African Art will finally find a permanent home along Manhattan’s “Museum Mile” and will be open to the public next April. Designed by Robert A.M. Stern Architects, LLP, the museum will bring the prestigious row of museums of Manhattan to Harlem, one of the country’s most important centers of historic and contemporary African-American culture.
More about the museum and more images after the break.
Minds in the Gutter, exhibit and panel discussion in NY
The Stormwater Infrastructure Matters (S.W.I.M.) Coalition invites you to join in for the first view of Minds in the Gutter, a juried exhibit of stormwater management designs for the public right-of-way. We invite you to view the selected designs and participate in a panel discussion among expert dreamers and do-ers in the field of stormwater management.
Event will take place April 22 at 6:30 pm at The Museum of the City of New York. Tickets can be purchased here. For more information, visit the event’s official website.
modeLab Parametric Design Workshop
ModeLab will be conducting a Parametric Design Workshop in New York City, April 24/25. This workshop will engage the conceptual and technical domain of parametric design by introducing participants to systemic processes capable of registering and responding to a range of diverse ecologic criteria.
Emphasis will be placed on workflows that utilize constraint-based design, associative modeling techniques, and environmental influencers to discover novel and inventive design solutions. For more information and details, click here.
Urban Market / Kohn Pederson Fox
The 2010 AIA New York winners were recently announced (we’ll share the full over view this weekend with you), and this project by Kohn Pedersen Fox received a design award in the Unbuilt category. Just like the other winning projects, the design showcases New York talent and was chosen for its “design quality, program resolution, innovation, thoughtfulness and technique.” The project, entitled Urban Market, is for Tianjin, China. The urban center is a way to reinvigorate the river banks through new uses, such as cultural institutions. The hope it that the center will grow to establish “a new identity for the city that links its culture to its historic place of commerce.”
More about the winning project after the break.
Pixelated New York
Amazing video by Patrick Jean, produced by OneMoreProd. New York turns into a pixelated video game. Love the Tetris buildings.
East River Park Museum Competition Winner
The East River Park Museum Competition in Brooklyn, New York have just announced it’s winner. We really love it’s simplicity and good use of materials. We couldn’t find out who designed it, so if you know, please do tell us!
Proposal after the break.
100 11th Avenue / Jean Nouvel, video preview
Jean Nouvel‘s 100 11th Ave in NY is almost complete. Vernissage TV brings us a video preview of the building, featuring the mosaic like facade and the interiors:
In this video, we have a look at the building’s exterior by day (March 6, 2010), and its interior by night (March 4, 2010). For the VIP party / preview on March 4, 2010, Jean Nouvel created a collaborative installation with the French artist Jean-Charles Blais. The installation involved taking over an apartment and doing a temporary “intervention” in it.
Moving Toward Utopia: What Kind of City Lies Ahead?
A new concept of the city has emerged among contemporary urbanists. Architects and planners now frame the city not as a set of independently regulated functions but as a mesh of landscapes, spaces, and policies. Streets, paths, parks, and infrastructure are elements of a constantly shifting system that joins the particularities of place and overarching social goals.
In this new environment, planning tactics, management techniques, policy goals, and fiscal strategies continuously interact. Building on the Fall 2009 “Rights of Way” symposium, “Moving Toward Utopia” addresses questions of power, health, equity, and ecology that confront and are fueled by new design strategies. “Moving Toward Utopia” will bring together a distinguished group of urban thinkers to examine the implications of new approaches to the design of public spaces. What kind of city lies ahead?
Event will take place April 14, 6:30 PM at James Room, 4th floor Barnard Hall, Barnard College, NY.
Pio Pio Restaurant / Sebastian Marsical Studio
Architects: Sebastian Mariscal Studio
Location: New York, USA
Project Team: Sebastian Mariscal, Jeff Svitak, Carlos de la Mora
Project Manager: Jeff Svitak
Lighting Designer: Cooley Monato Studio
Project Year: 2009
Photographs: Paul Rivera
