New York: The Latest Architecture and News

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Morphosis has joined DesignClass, a growing collection of online classes featuring innovators from architecture, design, and creative leadership. Each class aims to build "curious and creative confidence" in future generations of creative professionals. Delving into design process, logic, and architecture, the new class focuses on how to translate ideas into dynamic architecture with one of the leading practices today. 

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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.

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A team competing to fill Site K, a vacant full-block plot of land directly across from the Jacob K. Javits Center in Manhattan between West 35th and West 36th Streets, has unveiled a scheme for a tower that, if built, would be Adjaye Associates’ tallest to date.

The NYC Civic Engagement Commission (CEC), Department of Cultural Affairs (DCLA), the Mayor’s Fund to Advance New York City and Public Artist in Residence (PAIR) Yazmany Arboleda officially kicked off The People’s Festival. This five borough series of outdoor events featured live performances, interactive workshops, and community information and resources. The festival was anchored by The People’s Bus, a retired city bus formerly used to transport people detained on Rikers Island.

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Following the Second World War, United States veterans and citizens were seeking a fresh start, a rightful place to live out their modern American dream. With a significant housing shortage looming around and fast-growing families, solutions had to be found to provide equitable living means for all. The development of new construction techniques and propagation of easy building materials promised an age of prosperity.

Skidmore, Owings & Merrill (SOM) and Brookfield Properties' Manhattan West, a six-building project, has opened to the public. Nestled in the heart of New York City’s Far West Side, the mixed-use development aims to link several New York neighborhoods and transform unutilized spaces above rail lines into new dynamic destinations.

SUMMIT One Vanderbilt is New York’s latest observation viewpoint, soon opening to the public on top of the KPF-designed tower. Featuring an observation deck, skyboxes, an all-glass elevator, complemented by a walk-through art installation, the entertainment space designed by Snøhetta provides visitors with a multisensory experience.

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Spanish architect and engineer Santiago Calatrava is rebuilding World Trade Center’s St. Nicholas Greek Orthodox Church and National Shrine in New York City. The church, which was destroyed during the 9/11 attacks, began its reconstruction process in 2015, and is finally reaching completion in 2022. The new structure's design is inspired by a mosaic of Istanbul's Hagia Sophia Grand Mosque, formerly the Church of Hagia Sophia, which was one of the fundamental factors in defining the original architecture of the St. Nicholas Greek Orthodox Church.

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Last year, architect Danish Kurani completed a new tech lab in New York City in partnership with Black Girls Code. As a place where young women from all over New York can come together to learn about technology, the revamp project includes 3,900 square feet of space at Google’s New York offices that were turned into a tech exploration lab.

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As architects face up to the need for ethical, sustainable design in the age of climate change awareness, timber architecture is making a comeback in a new, technologically impressive way. Largely overlooked in the age of Modernism, recent years have seen a plethora of advancements related to mass timber across the world. This year alone, Japan announced plans for a supertall wooden skyscraper in Tokyo by 2041, while the European continent has seen plans for the world’s largest timber building in the Netherlands, and the world’s tallest timber tower in Norway.

The potential for mass timber to become the dominant material of future sustainable cities has also gained traction in the United States throughout 2018. Evolving codes and the increasing availability of mass timber is inspiring firms, universities, and state legislators to research and invest in ambitious projects across the country.

In this week's reprint from the Architect's Newspaper, author Karen Kubey, an urbanist specializing in housing and health questions if the invention of Public Space is "Invented Or Agreed Upon?" Basing her ideas on a book by Mariana Mogilevich, The Invention of Public Space, the article asks if public spaces are a product of negotiation in the city.

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Skidmore, Owings & Merrill (SOM) unveiled its design for the New York City Public Health Laboratory, a ten storey building meant to strengthen the metropole's capability to respond to a variety of public health issues and future challenges. The laboratory is organized within a cubic glass volume stepping outward, which rises from a masonry-clad podium containing community-related functions. In order to give the new facility an active role within the Harlem neighbourhood, the design incorporates a training lab and an auditorium available to the community.

New York Governor Andrew Cuomo has announced that Adjaye Associates and Studio Zewde's proposals have been selected to redevelop the unoccupied part of the Kingsboro Psychiatric Center campus in the East Flatbush section of Brooklyn. The $400 million project is part of the $1.4 Billion Vital Brooklyn Initiative, and will transform 7.2 abandoned acres in central Brooklyn into an ecological development with residential and commercial facilities.