© Dave Revette Photography

Architect: QPK Design
Location: Utica, New York, USA
Project Team: Nicholas C. Lindabury, R.A., LEED AP, Partner-in-Charge; Paul Vaivoda, R.A, LEED AP BD+C, Project Designer; Matthew Klucznik, LEED AP, Project Manager; Erin Sirianni, NCIDQ, LEED AP, Interior Designer
Collaborators: Argus Engineering, PLLC, Plumb Engineer, P.C., John P. Stopen Engineering Partnership, Roth Consulting Group (Food Service), Charles A. Gaetano Construction Corporation
Project Area: 43,000 sqf
Project Year: 2010
Photographs: Dave Revette Photography,  Chris Pitulej

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© Herzog and de Meuron. Rendering for exterior expression.

Built in 1861, the Park Avenue Armory Park functioned as both a military facility and a social club for the prestigious Seventh Regiment of the National Guard of President Lincoln’s volunteer militia.  Now, the 210,000 sqf five story building (which occupies an entire city block) serves as the home for a not-for-profit cultural institution where visual and performing arts can take place within a not so traditional setting.  In 2007, the building began a comprehensive revitalization project as it had fallen into a state of disrepair with Herzog & de Meuron as the lead designers (by the way, have you seen their new website?).   Herzog & de Meuron have embraced the history, craftsmanship, and the inherent contrast of the Armory’s spaces to restore the interiors to their original elegance.   “Park Avenue Armory is a richly layered building of outstanding historical significance that we are treating like a monument, revealing the physical traces produced over time, preserving it for the future and above all reinventing it,” explained Herzog & de Meuron.

More about the restoration after the break.

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© John Dolan

Jon Piasecki recently received a 2011 Honor Award from ASLA for his Stone River project. The magic of this project lies in the details. You need to watch the video (after the break) to appreciate the painstaking effort and attention to detail that went into this project.

Video, project description, and more photographs after the break.

Landscape Artist: Jon Piasecki
Location: New York
Collaborators: Rob Davis
Text: Jon Piasecki
Photographs: Jon Piasecki, John Dolan, David Borden

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© Robert Barker

Architects: Pei Cobb Freed & Partners LLP
Location: Ithaca, New York, USA
Project Director: Cornell University
Structural Engineer: Leslie E. Robertson Associates RLLP
MEP Engineer: ICOR Associates, LLC
Project Year: 2011
Project Area: ~16,500 sqf
Photographs: David O. Brown, Robert Barker

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The New York Chapter of the National Organization of Minority Architects, nycobaNOMA, is excited to kick off their 2011 Membership Drive! Take the survey, win amazing prizes, and come out to support nycobaNOMA at their Fall Design Talk/Networking Mixer at Wilkahn’s Showroom October 25th!

For more information, please go to the event’s official website.

Courtesy of Storefront for Art and Architecture

On October 18th, starting at 7pm, Storefront for Art and Architecture presents Kissing vs Komplex, a Productive Disagreement Series Event with Sylvia Lavin and Hal Foster on conversation about contemporary relations between art and architecture, and the forces that bring them together.

For more information on the event, visit their website here.

Courtesy of Storefront for Art and Architecture

Architecture, in its most idealistic sense, is always geared towards the construction of the public good. Thus, the notion of architecture pro bono appears as a redundant affirmation. However, the real meaning lying behind the beautiful latinism of pro bono, is the contemporary capitalist counterpart and less exotic “for free” and more precisely, for free for those who are unable to afford it.

Architecture for Free!?, put on by Storefront for Art and Architecture on October 14th, aims to expose what is that that architecture offers pro bono and explore the possibilities lying within this rampant practice in order to see how architecture might be able to find new opportunities for reinvention and territories of exploration. For more information, please visit their website here.

Irene Neuwirth + THEVERYMANY. Photograher: Evan Joseph.

We introduced BOFFO’s fashion + architecture collaborative project, and began the week with the first installment by Nicola Formichetti + Gage/Clemenceau Architects.  As each pair of fashion designer and architect shows their project for  two short weeks, the second team of Irene Neuwrith and Marc Fornes is now in place.  Neuwirth, a leading US jewelry designer, has transformed the 1800 sqf space at 57 Walker Street into a crazy biomorphic playground to display her designs with the hep of  Marc Fornes, one of the leading figures in the development of computational protocols applied to the field of design and fabrication.

More about the temporary gallery after the break.  read more »

Courtesy of HAO

HAO (Holm Architecture Office), along with five other New York design offices, have been invited to participate in the re-design of the Coleman Oval Skate Park and the master planning of the Coleman Oval Park. The competition is sponsored by Architecture for Humanity.

The Coleman Oval Park, situated partly under the Manhattan Bridge, has long suffered from lack of exposure, little upkeep, and the “off the beaten path” factor. More images and architects’ description after the break. read more »

People have been communicating through storytelling since they lived in caves and sat around campfires. Today, businesses use narrative to convey their companies’ messages and stand out in an increasingly competitive marketplace. So how does storytelling apply to design firms? What distinguishes one firm from another is not only its portfolio, but messages conveyed through creative and compelling stories. These speakers will demonstrate how design firms can use multimedia tools and different platforms to create effective stories that boost marketing, communications, and public relations programs.

Presenters for this event include Denise Ramzy, LEED AP BD+C, Adjunct Professor, Parsons The New School of Design and Principal, Field Dimension, Richard Cook, AIA Partner, Cook+Fox Architects, and Helen Dimoff, Communications Director/Principal, NBBJ. The event takes place at The Center for Architecture in New York from 6:00pm-8:00pm.

For more information, visit their website here.

Michael Maltzan

The Architectural League of New York recently announced its Fall 2011 Lecture Series. Jeanne Gang, recently awarded a MacArthur Foundation “genius” grant, will give the annual Ulrich Franzen Lecture on Architecture and the Environment, delivered by an international figure whose work has significant implications for understanding and reconceiving the relationship between architecture and the environment. Past Franzen lectures have been delivered by Renzo Piano, Shigeru Ban, and Werner Sobek.

The League’s Current Work series annually presents prominent architects and designers, who help to shape current architectural discourse with their work and ideas. This year’s series includes Michael Van Valkenburgh, designer of the recently opened Brooklyn Bridge Park; Francine Houben of the Dutch firm Mecanoo; Jesse Reiser and Nanako Umemoto, the recent winners of the major international competition to design the Kaohsiung Port Terminal; Michael Maltzan of Los Angeles; and Bernard Khoury of Beirut. More information on the lecture series after the break. read more »

© Phipps, Rose, Dattner, Grimshaw

After winning the 2007 New York New Housing Legacy Competition, Jonathan Rose and Phipps Houses Group teamed with Grimshaw Architects and Dattner Architects to make “green” architecture for where it matters most.  Via Verde, the South Bronx’s newest affordable housing development, goes beyond the hype of creating a sustainable building for marketing purposes, and allows design to inform a healthy building for its occupants.    So, what constituents a “healthy” building? Well, in the minds of those from the South Bronx, that means a place that can address growing asthma rates, obesity, and the need for fresh produce.  In the 290,000 sqf project at Brook Avenue and East 156^th Street,  Via Verde is connecting to its neighborhood’s needs while not shying away from giving a community in the process of urban renewal an iconic piece of architecture.

 More about the project after the break.  read more »

WTC: Street Installation and Exhibition is a 4×28 foot montage comprised of closeups of the facades of the former Twin Towers- located on East 4th Street between the Bowery and Second Avenue. There will also be nine accompanying prints exhibited in the FAB Cafe across the street.

Opening reception is Wednesday, September 28th from 7-9pm, FAB Cafe 75 East 4th Street.

© Paul Clemence

In 1922 the Philadelphia Toboggan Company made a classic 3-row carousel with 48 carved horses and 2 chariots accompanied by wood carvings that are said to be among the finest of their kind. This historic carousel, the first to be placed on the National Register of Historic Places, re-opened to the public on September 16th. Jane’s Carousel, entirely restored including original scenery panels, rounding boards, crests, center pole and platform is nestled between the Brooklyn and Manhattan Bridges within a Jean Nouvel designed acrylic pavilion in Brooklyn Bridge Park.  Nouvel’s steel framed clear box can be opened on two sides providing an open-aired experience. At night white shades can be drawn and the shadows of the 48 horses dance across the walls.

Paul Clemence shared with us his photographs of Jean Nouvel’s pavilion and Jane’s Carousel.

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© Ty Cole

Though primarily known as Wiliamsburg’s only first-run movie house, this project is in actuality an expansive 23,000 square foot mixed-use building with three floors of residential apartments above the cinemas, bar, café commercial kitchen housed in the retrofitted brick warehouse below. All of the apartments have access to outdoor space in the form of private roof decks at the penthouse level and shared courtyard access for the floors below. Caliper Studio designed all phases of the project from the earliest design studies through the construction process. More images and architects’ description after the break. read more »

© Michael Moran

NEW YORK–Although the American Folk Art Museum has avoided dissolution thanks to a cash infusion from trustees and the Ford Foundation, the institution’s ongoing financial troubles raise difficult questions about the relationship between signature architecture and cultural capital.

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People have been communicating through storytelling since they lived in caves and sat around campfires. Today, businesses use narrative to convey their companies’ messages and stand out in an increasingly competitive marketplace. So how does storytelling apply to design firms? What distinguishes one firm from another is not only its portfolio, but messages conveyed through creative and compelling stories. These speakers will demonstrate how design firms can use multimedia tools and different platforms to create effective stories that boost marketing, communications, and public relations programs.

The event will take place on November 14, between 6:00pm and 8:00pm at the Center for Architecture, NY. For more information, please click here.

Courtesy of Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute

Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute recently announced the speakers for their fall 2011 lecture series which kicked off on September 7th with Joel Sanders and ends with Stephan Kieran on November 30th. Admission to all lectures is free and will begin at 6pm. The location is in the EMPAC / The Curtis R. Priem Experimental Media + Performing Arts Center. More information on the events after the break. read more »

Courtesy of Deborah Berke & Partners Architects

The Bard College Conservatory of Music has received a generous $9.2 million gift from Bard alumnus László Z. Bitó, class of 1960, for the construction of The László Z. Bitó ’60 Conservatory Building. This state-of-the-art teaching and performance facility addresses the growing needs of the Conservatory, brought on by its fivefold growth since its founding in 2005. With an anticipated completion date of January 2013, the building is scheduled to begin construction in October. The design of the building, by Deborah Berke & Partners Architects, supports the Conservatory’s dedication to providing top-level musical training in the context of a liberal arts education. More project description after the break. read more »

© Steve Hall of Hedrich Blessing

Architect: Flad Architects
Location: Stony Brook, New York
Project Year: 2011
Photographs: Steve Hall of Hedrich Blessing

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