New York: The Latest Architecture and News

Storefront for Art and Architecture is pleased to present Manifesto Series 06: Finding Formless curated by Julian Rose and Garrett Ricciardi on Friday, September 23rd, 2011 from 6:30 to 9pm.

Impulses toward the formless, alternately understood as struggles to escape form as a manifestation of various norms and constraints, are as old as architecture itself. But the formless is also increasingly in the air today, whether explicitly as in discussions of the “formless” quality of the city, or implicitly in talk of atmospheric buildings, randomized structures, and the dematerialization (or increased mediation) of architecture. No doubt part of its appeal lies in the fact that the formless is frequently found at the intersections between architecture and other fields, those intriguing moments when architecture unravels and can perhaps be woven into other practices, from art to ecology or engineering. Nevertheless, the formless has not yet been theorized rigorously in architecture. More information on the event after the break.

Gowanus Lowline Competition: Connections will be exhibiting winning entries from the Open Ideas Competition on Thursday, September 15th, 6:00 – 9:00 pm at the SET Gallery in Brooklyn, NY. Check out the winners here: Gowanus Lowline Competition Winners. The competition was framed with the goal of inspiring projects that questions and confronted urban development in postindustrial sites. The open-ended program asked for a “pedestrian-oriented architecture” that engaged the canal and the watershed, long neglected as an industrial and manufacturing zone. This competition is a first of a series that focuses on the connections in and around the canal. As it is right now, the Gowanus Canal is just out of reach, and with its levels of contamination – which the EPA is begining to address – it may be for the best.

Studio Mode/modeLab is pleased to announce the next installment of the coLab workshop series: Hybrid Prototypes. As a follow-up workshop to the coLab workshop held in January 2011, Hybrid Prototypes is a two-day intensive design and prototyping workshop to be held in New York City during the weekend of September 24-25, 2011.

Ten years since the 9/11 attacks on the World Trade Center in New York, the National September 11 Memorial was dedicated in a private ceremony with the victims’ families. It was officially opened to the public as of today, September 12th. The opening of the 9/11 Memorial is a first step towards the closing of a long chapter of construction at the World Trade Center site.

Storefront for Art and Architecture will be host to Matilde Cassani’s Sacred Spaces in Profane Buildings, an archive and exhibition that unveils the secret sacred territory throughout New York. The exhibition will run from September 14 – November 5th with an opening reception on September 13 at 7pm. Cassani’s work explores the pluralism of religion as it manifests itself in contemporary non-traditional spaces – hidden away in the niches of the contemporary city. This exhibit will have a collection of analytical and speculative works, to be read as a public archive and exhibition.

Continue after the break for more on this exhibit.

Ten years ago the world was jarred at seeing a financial institution of a high urban city destroyed. Maybe at that moment we found ourselves second-guessing the security of our society and our government, of the stability of our ever-expanding cities, of the soundness of our buildings. But a decade later cities are still thriving: growing and rebuilding. Senator Daniel Patrick Moynihan predicted that our attitudes toward the value of urban development would remain unchanged, and he may have been right. So have we, as law-makers, designers and inhabitants of the urban environment learned from what ten years ago was considered a failure in our cities and government agencies? ArchDaily had the pleasure of interviewing Mr. Patrick Phillips, CEO of the Urban Land Institute (ULI), an international organization devoted to the responsible use of land and in creating sustainable thriving communities worldwide.

Read on for the interview after the break.

BMW Guggenheim Lab design architect Yoshiharu Tsukamoto, Co-Principal of Atelier Bow-Wow, discusses the importance of behaviorology and the crucial role that architecture can play in giving back a sense of autonomy of spacial practice to citizens.

The conference is presented in partnership with The Steven L. Newman Real Estate Institute, Baruch College, City University of New York, the APA New York Metro Chapter, and the ASLA New York Chapter. The discussions will feature a keynote address at 9:15am by Robert Ivy, FAIA, Executive Vice President and CEO, the American Institute of Architects (AIA).

The conference will draw upon the expertise of recognized leaders to examine the ongoing efforts of government agencies, private enterprise, and civic organizations that have been engaged in the design, creation, and development of the World Trade Center site and the surrounding area of Lower Manhattan. More information after the break.

Pratt Institute School of Architecture and Latin Pratt, a student research organization, will present “Breaking Borders: New Latin American Architecture,” an exhibition highlighting contemporary architecture of the past 10 years from 45 firms representing more than 10 countries in Latin America from September 8 through November 30, 2011, at the Hazel and Robert H. Siegel Gallery at 61 Saint James Place in Brooklyn.

The exhibition and opening reception from 6 to 8 p.m. on September 8 are free and open to the public. It is curated by Ivan Rumenov Shumkov, Ph.D., adjunct associate professor of undergraduate architecture, and Andres Chavez and Julio Martinez, both students in Pratt’s undergraduate architecture program and founders of Latin Pratt. More information on the event after the break.

Last September, we shared the news of Louis Kahn’s memorial park for the southernmost tip of Roosevelt Island. Kahn had designed the park in the 70s, but after his sudden death, the plan was forgotten until 1992 when the MoMA featured the scheme in an exhibition. Upon learning of Kahn’s thoughtful and architecturally compelling ideas to commemorate FDR and his Four Freedoms speech, the public quickly advocated its completion. As we reported earlier, at the end of Kahn’s axial tree-lined triangular “Garden”, a 72 sqf “Room” will contain excerpts from the text of President Roosevelt’s Four Freedoms speech. This room, contained by 12 foot high granite columns, is meant for contemplation and remembrance as Kahn’s stoic material palette, clear formal attitude, and forced perspective of the skyline will create, what we imagine will be, a quiet and peaceful atmosphere. With Kahn’s simple gestures, the memorial will preserve a time in American history where FDR’s leadership inspired hope to endure the Great Depression and the second World War. We’re excited for the memorial to be completed and we’ll keep you up to date with its progress.

A great sample of construction photos and renderings after the break.

Gia Wolff’s latest architectural installation features a 25 ft diameter portal suspended above 2 Avenue between 36 and 35 Street in Industry City, Brooklyn. As part of Superfront Public Summer, the site specific piece is a reaction to the existing typological conditions and explores potential scenarios for the future of Industry City. Finnish for ‘portal’, Portaali refers to the Scandinavian dock workers who used to occupy the buildings in the late 1900s.

More about the installation, including a video, after the break.

In the wake of Hurricane Irene it only seemed appropriate to take a second look at Rising Current, an exhibit that was featured at the MoMA just last year. To give you a refresher, the exhibit was a cohesive showcase of five projects tackling the lingering truth that within a few years, the waterfront of the New York harbor will drastically change.

Team Zero, comprised of ARO and dlandstudio, specifically took a look at the lower Manhattan landscape, proposing to develop a new soft and hard infrastructure solution paved with a mesh of cast concrete and engineered soil and salt tolerant plants. This would create greenways that act as absorptive sponges for rainwater. The porous green streets address daily tidal flows and storm surges with 3 interrelated high performance systems (network of parks, wetlands and tidal salt marshes). These systems stop sewage overflow, block higher sea levels and mitigate storm surge.

Rising Current provided an emphasis on how to re-think the city, relevant before, and even more pressing now after the flooding from the hurricane. Let’s hope that the ideas for solutions that were generated from the exhibit can now be considered for implementation. More about Rising Currents and Team Zero’s solution following the break.

Local New York architect Gregg Pasquarelli of SHoP Architects recently gave a speech at the Association of Collegiate Schools of Architecture’s Teachers Seminar 2011. He addresses numerous issues that are currently being debated within the profession where the theme of the three-day seminar was “Performative Practices.” The roles of the architect and builder, the architect and engineer, etc. The roles of architects as instruction makers who outsource to specialists in façade or fabrication may not be as clear as in previous generations. His own firm is prime example of the shifting of roles. SHoP has branched off with its own SHoP Construction subsidiary that is managing the fabrication of their design for the new Barclays Center rusted steel skin. More details after the break.

To say New York’s High Line is a successful project is putting it very lightly. From the moment the overgrown landscape opened, thousands have flocked to experience the amazing public space and dozens have been inspired to incorporate similar urban reuse attitudes in their cities. Ruth Samuelson shared Mexico City’s inspired project which seeks to apply the New York High Line’s sense of serenity to a busy intersection by mid-2012. “The High Line in New York seemed to me a fresh breath of air, completely. Mexico City just needs – within so many streets, so many avenues – respite like this,” explained Daniel Escotto Sánchez, the general coordinator for the city’s Public Space Authority.

More about the project after the break.

Boffo is a New York City non-profit organization focused on culture and the arts. Through events and exhibitions Boffo draws attention to artists and designers while often giving them an opportunity to display their work. Boffo recently announced the winners of their Boffo Building Fashion competition, an open competition that called for architects to pair with fashion designers to build temporary spaces displaying both talents. Find out who the architects and designers are after the break.

Storefront for Art and Architecture will present Sacred Spaces in Profane Buildings: a New York Archive, a project by Matilde Cassani opening on September 13th. The project unveils the hidden spaces within New York dedicated to the different beliefs of its citizens.

As part of an upcoming exhibition, they are developing a New York Archive of Sacred Spaces in Profane Buildings and they need your help. This is an open call for contributions that explain either a story or the memory of a visit, a sketch of a known space, a photograph of a street sign, a location in a map, anything that might help us construct the most comprehensive guide to the sacred unknown of New York. To participate, you are encouraged to submit any material at their website.

More information on the exhibition after the break.

After patiently evolving the design of 837 Washington Street, the Meatpacking District’s newest addition, New York-based Morris Adjmi Architects are happy to announce the project’s recent approval from the Landmarks Preservation Commission. The new office and retail building, which will rise from a 1930s warehouse, will be Adjmi’s fourth building in the Meatpacking District. The project has been struggling to gain approval, primarily due to its height, as the building was originally conceived to stand 100 feet tall; however, the most recent design scheme shows the building measuring just below 80 feet, allowing it to blend more graciously with its surroundings.

More about the project after the break.