The Second Studio (formerly The Midnight Charette) is an explicit podcast about design, architecture, and the everyday. Hosted by Architects David Lee and Marina Bourderonnet, it features different creative professionals in unscripted conversations that allow for thoughtful takes and personal discussions.
A variety of subjects are covered with honesty and humor: some episodes are interviews, while others are tips for fellow designers, reviews of buildings and other projects, or casual explorations of everyday life and design. The Second Studio is also available on iTunes, Spotify, and YouTube.
This week David and Marina of FAME Architecture & Design are joined by James Corner, Founding Partner of Field Operations to discuss his background; early interests; education in landscape architecture and urban design; the value of urban design; the difference between architecture and landscape architecture; design competitions; Field Operations' practice structure; the Highline Project; and more.
https://www.archdaily.com/1019416/the-second-studio-podcast-james-corner-founding-partner-of-field-operationsThe Second Studio Podcast
SITELAB urban studio and Field Operations have revealed a design proposal to reimagine San Francisco’s iconic Powell Street. The street used to be one of the busiest pedestrian corridors in its district and a popular tourist attraction, with cable cars running up and down the street and connecting Union Square and Hallidie Plaza. Across the most popular three-block stretch, the storefronts have become mostly vacant. According to the San Francisco Chronicle, one of the reasons was the Covid pandemic, which led to a further decrease in tourism and in commercial activities. Now a new project led by designers SITELAB urban studio and Field Operations aims to revive the now underutilized transit corridor and to catalyze a renewed interest in the area.
Presidio Tunnel Tops is San Francisco’s upcoming national park destination, set to welcome visitors starting July 17th. The project reconnects the park formerly split in two by the Doyle Drive by creating new landscaped land over the highway now moved underground. Designed by James Corner Field Operations, the firm behind New York’s High Line, the project brings 5.6 hectares (14 acres) of new parkland to the Bay Area, featuring trails, picnic areas, and scenic views over the city as well as a nature play area for kids.
After more than two years of ongoing conversations with residents, stakeholders, and entrepreneurs, the New York City Council has finally approved the River Ring master plan of the Williamsburg waterfront project. The revised proposal, developed by Two Trees Management with designs by Bjarke Ingels Group and James Corner Field Operations, includes more than 150 additional units of affordable senior housing, an environmental benefits fund, and dedicated YMCA community space "to enhance the connectivity of the public waterfront, reinstate natural habitats, elevate the standard for urban waterfront resiliency, and transform the way New Yorkers interact with the East River".
In this week's reprint from the Architect's Newspaper, author Patrick Sisson tackles the implication and participation of communities in New York in shaping their built environment, especially their waterfront. He also asks about the roles of representation and if "the city’s community boards and Uniform Land Use Review Procedure act more like gatekeepers than catalysts for equitable development?" especially that a lot of new developments are labeled as housing projects.
When Jane Jacobs famously said, “Cities have the capability of providing something for everybody, only because, and only when, they are created by everybody,” she might as well have been foreshadowing the successful partnership formed between SHoP Architects, James Corner Field Operations, and Two Trees Management. The team, who collaborated on the 11-acre Domino Park master plan in Williamsburg, Brooklyn, has been hailed for creating a benchmark standard in perfecting the process for designing and understanding what it means to maintain a park that actively participates in a two-way dialogue with the community.
While all public spaces around the world are trying to innovate and implement safety measures to open during the coronavirus pandemic, Domino Park has introduced a series of painted social distancing circles. This strategical urban design intervention ensures that people are “following proper social distancing procedures recommended by the CDC and government”.
Two Trees Management Company, a New York-based real estate development firm, has presented a master plan for the Northern Brooklyn waterfront, a new approach to urban resiliency. Designed by BIG and Field Operations, the project puts in place a mixed-use development and a resilient park.
A revised design has been released for the Oakland Athletics baseball stadium, designed by Bjarke Ingels Group, James Corner Field Operations, and Gensler. The new stadium will replace the Oakland A’s existing 51-year-old Oakland-Alameda County Coliseum, which the A’s share with the Oakland Raiders football team. The mega-ballpark includes a waterfront circular stadium at Howard Terminal and would turn the current Coliseum site into a tech and housing hub.
Under the redesign, the previous “diamond box” stadium is replaced by an open, circular scheme. Encompassing the playing field, a coliseum-like seating arrangement steadily bows own to the entrance area, topped by a landscaped green roof.
https://www.archdaily.com/912347/big-gensler-and-field-operations-revise-plans-for-oakland-athletics-stadiumNiall Patrick Walsh
Next year New York's iconic High Line will open a new public space for art designed by James Corner Field Operations and Diller Scofidio + Renfro, with artwork by Simone Leigh. The public space will be the newest section of the elevated park dedicated to a rotating series of contemporary art commissions. The first art project in the space will be Brick House, a sixteen-foot-tall bronze bust of a black woman by Brooklyn’s Simone Leigh.
Bjarke Ingels Group, James Corner Field Operations, and Gensler have released new renderings of the new Oakland Athletics baseball stadium and surrounding development. The new stadium will replace the Oakland A’s existing 51-year-old Oakland-Alameda County Coliseum, which the A’s share with the Oakland Raiders football team. The mega-ballpark includes a waterfront “jewel box” stadium at Howard Terminal and would turn the current Coliseum site into a tech and housing hub.
Work is set to begin on the Miami “Underline” project, a 10-mile-long park and trail under Miami’s elevated Metrorail tracks. Designed by James Corner Field Operations, the team behind the acclaimed Manhattan High Line, along with a team of volunteers and entrepreneurs led by Meg Daly and “Friends of the Underline,” the scheme has recently broken ground, set for completion by the summer of 2020.
As reported by the Miami Herald, the scheme will extend from downtown Miami to Dadeland, with an initial segment in the Brickell district measuring half a mile.
https://www.archdaily.com/906011/work-set-to-begin-on-miamis-answer-to-the-nyc-high-line-designed-by-james-corner-field-operationsNiall Patrick Walsh
The Oakland Athletics baseball team have hired Bjarke Ingels Group (BIG), James Corner Field Operations, and Gensler to lead the design process for their new ballpark and surrounding development in California. The new stadium will replace the Oakland A’s existing 51-year-old Oakland-Alameda County Coliseum, which the A’s share with the Oakland Raiders football team.
It has been reported by the San Francisco Business Times that BIG will lead the masterplan for the privately-financed ballpark, either at Howard Terminal or near the existing stadium, while Gensler will collaborate on the ballpark design. Field Operations will adopt the role of landscape architect for the development.
https://www.archdaily.com/900688/big-gensler-and-james-corner-field-operations-to-design-new-stadium-for-oakland-athletics-baseball-teamNiall Patrick Walsh
As the river offers a place of beauty and solitude to the people of Detroit, four international design teams have presented their creative schemes for the West Riverfront to extend this vibrant area in the city as part of an international design competition led by the Detroit Riverfront Conservancy (DRFC). The development of the 22-acre West Riverfront Park is expected to cost around $50 million to complete the DRFC’s ultimate vision for 5.5 miles of revitalized riverfront.
The innovative Cornell Tech campus has officially opened on New York City’s Roosevelt Island. Master planned by SOM and featuring buildings and landscapes by Morphosis, Weiss/Manfredi, Handel Architects, and James Corner Field Operations, the campus represents a new vision of a campus for the digital age. Two years after breaking ground in 2015, the campus now houses some of the most environmentally-friendly and energy-efficient buildings in the world.
With decaying infrastructure and a lack of viable public amenities, Hong Kong’s popular yet problematic waterfront is the focus of the latest undertaking by James Corner Field Operations, aiming to transform the site into an attractive tourist and local destination. Home to Hong Kong’s Avenue of Stars (the equivalent of Hollywood’s Walk of Fame), the Tsim Sha Tsui (TST) waterfront is in need of severe revitalization, with areas requiring demolition if not reinforced within the decade.
Part of a larger project known as Victoria Dockside, the landscape architecture firm’s vision incorporates new seating, shading and green space to reinvigorate the promenade while offering panoramic views of the city’s skyline as it guides visitors towards the harbor, allowing visitors to get closer to the harbor than ever before. Trellises will provide 800 times more shade than what is currently offered, while seating will increase 325-fold to encourage public engagement and interaction with each other and the space.
https://www.archdaily.com/870640/james-corner-field-operations-to-lead-much-needed-revitalisation-of-hong-kongs-waterfrontOsman Bari
Real estate developer Two Trees Management has unveiled new images of the James Corner-designed Domino Park to coincide with the announcement of the park’s opening date, slated for Summer 2018. Located along the East River in the Brooklyn neighborhood of Williamsburg, the park is a central component of the 11-acre Domino Sugar redevelopment site, which will feature several new residential towers and a transformation of the former Domino Sugar factory by the Partnership for Architecture and Urbanism and Beyer Blinder Belle.
James Corner Field Operations, the urban design and landscape architecture firm behind the High Line in New York City, has been selected by Georgetown Heritage to complete a similar transformation of a historic canal in the Washington D.C. neighborhood of Georgetown. Working with the National Park Service and the D.C. Office of Planning, the team will design a comprehensive master plan for a one-mile section of the Chesapeake and Ohio National Historical Park (C&O Canal NHP) to update the site from a historic location into a community asset.