February Lectures

Lots of lectures, exhibitions and other presentations happening in New York City during the second month of 2009. Below is a list of some of those. Click the titles for prices, learning units and other information.

Tuesday, February 3
Step by Step: Building Schools in Africa, lecture by Diebedo Francis Kere
6:30-8:30pm @ Columbia University, Wood Auditorium, Avery Hall

Wednesday, February 4
Eco-Cities: Building Green on a City Scale, Eric Sanders will lead a discussion with Hillary Brown, Kate Orff and Ashok Raiji
6:30pm @ Museum of the City of New York, 1220 Fifth Avenue at 103rd St.

Conflicts, lecture by Thomas Leeser
6:30-8:30pm @ Columbia University, Wood Auditorium, Avery Hall

Monday, February 9
Advancing Architectural Research, debate with GSAPP Professors/ Lab Directors: David Benjamin, Living Architecture Lab; Jeffrey Inaba, C-Lab; Jeffrey Johnson, China Lab; Laura Kurgan, Spatial Information Lab; Scott Marble, Fabrication Lab; Moderated by Kazys Varnelis, Network Architecture Lab
6:30-8:30pm @ Columbia University, Wood Auditorium, Avery Hall

Wednesday, February 11
The Bank of America Tower with Richard A. Cook and Robert F. Fox, Jr, Cook + Fox Architects LLP
6:30pm @ Museum of the City of New York, 1220 Fifth Avenue at 103rd St.

Architecture and Context, lecture by Annabelle Selldorf
6:30-8:30pm @ Columbia University, Wood Auditorium, Avery Hall

Thursday, February 12
Peter Eisenman: University of Phoenix Stadium for the Arizona Cardinals, a film by Tom Piper, presented by Steven Holl
6:30pm - 9pm @ The Center for Architecture, 536 LaGuardia Place

In Situ Design: People, History, Place, lecture by George Ranalli
6pm @ Pratt University, Higgins Hall Auditorium

Friday, February 13
Current Work Grafton Architects, lecture with Yvonne Farrell and Shelly McNamara of Grafton Architects
7pm @ The Urban Center, 457 Madison Avenue

Book Launch: "Leven Betts, Pattern Recognition," by Leven Betts Studio
6-8pm @ 66 Fifth Avenue, Kellen Auditorium Lobby

Saturday, February 14
Urban China: Jiang Jun, presentation by the editor-in-chief of Urban China
3pm @ The New Museum, 235 Bowery

Monday, February 16
Material IMMATERIAL, Kengo Kuma and The Work of Kengo Kuma, Botond Bognar
Kengo Kuma exhibition begins, running until March 13
6pm @ Pratt University, Higgins Hall Auditorium

Crisis, debate and Volume Magazine launch with Benjamin Godsill, New Museum; Joseph Grima, Storefront for Art and Architecture; Jeffrey Inaba, Volume; Jeffrey Johnson, C-Lab; Jiang Jun, Urban China
6:30-8:30pm @ Columbia University, Wood Auditorium, Avery Hall

Tuesday, February 17
The Rebirth of the South Bronx with Majora Carter
6:30pm @ Museum of the City of New York, 1220 Fifth Avenue at 103rd St.

Wednesday, February 18
Interlaced Logic, lecture by Pei Zhu + Tong Wu
6:30-8:30pm @ Columbia University, Wood Auditorium, Avery Hall

Thursday, February 19
Process: Alice Tully Hall, Lincoln Center, with Charles Renfro, Mark Holden, Peter Rosenbaum, and introduction by Reynold Levy
12:30pm @ Alice Tully Hall, Lincoln Center

James Wines lecture
6pm @ City College, Shepherd Hall room 95

Steven Holl: The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, Kansas City, a film by Tom Piper, presented by Peter Eisenman
6:30pm - 9pm @ The Center for Architecture, 536 LaGuardia Place

Slenderness: New York | Hong Kong, super slender New York towers
6:30pm @ Steelcase Showroom, 4 Columbus Circle (@ 58th Street)

Friday, February 20
Hermitage 2014, lecture by Rem Koolhaas
6:30-8:30pm @ Columbia University, Wood Auditorium, Avery Hall

Situation Room, exhbition opening (running until March 31)
Storefront for Art and Architecture, 97 Kenmare Street

Saturday, February 21
Home Design in New York with Jean Nouvel, Craig Greenberg, James Archer Abbott, moderated by Donald Albrecht
1-5pm @ Museum of the City of New York, 1220 Fifth Avenue at 103rd St.

Wednesday, February 25
Book Launch: "Digital Modelling for Urban Design", new book by Brian McGrath
6-8pm @ 25 E. 13th Street, 2nd floor: The Glass Corner

New Urbanism for New Yorkers with Robert Yaro and John Norquist
6:30pm @ Museum of the City of New York, 1220 Fifth Avenue at 103rd St.

Thursday, February 26
Lebbeus Woods lecture
6pm @ City College, Shepherd Hall room 95

For more lecture resources, see also:
:: AIA/NY Calendar
:: newyork-architects
:: bustler

I'll be back...

Sorry about being MIA this past week as I've been under the weather. Thanks to everyone who sent me messages and well wishes! I'll be back as usual next week!
Image of Chateau de Chambord roof & gardens.

Chilean Facades: Consorcio + Concepción

A stunning new example of VIA (i think?) via Urban Greenery presents the The Consorcio Building in Santiago - with an amazing green wall system on significant portions of the facade - which recalls Ken Yeang's Bioclimatic structures in this tropical climate.




:: images via Urban Greenery

Located in Santiago, Chile - the green walls act as a vital environmental mitigation strategy: "The Consorcio Building in Santiago is one of the most sustainable office buildings, with up to 48% less energy usage thanks to its green wall, which turns red in autumn." An illustration of the shading microclimatic functions.




:: images via Urban Greenery

This interesting photo of the interstitial space between the facade and the outer vegetated screen - providing a cooling gap that allows for sun to be reflected, as well as for warm air to escape through the vertical channels instead of heating up the building.


:: image via Urban Greenery

Platforma Arquitectura offers some more imagery of the project - including the views from inside looking out (and follow the link for many more).






:: image via Platforma Arquitectura

I'm actually not sure what this image is trying to tell us for sure... i get the solar diagram, but the figure pushing on the facade is somewhat of a mystery.


:: image via Platforma Arquitectura

And there must be something good going on in Chile , as this project by Enrique Browne Arquitectos, which has been around for a while, has recently re-emerged on both Arch Daily and Inhabitat: "The office itself is composed of three elements. A vertical green wall constructed from locally-sourced wood shields the structure from the sun to the North, East, and west, and acts as a “double green skin” that insulates the interior. The structure’s south wall features a high-performance facade constructed from locally-sourced corrugated metal that helps to insulate the interior and render it highly energy efficient."


:: image via Inhabitat

We used this image a few years ago as a precendent image for a project in Seattle (when I was at my former employer) and it's good to see it again - as it is a stunning example of using a double facade system for cooling in hot climates. Some more pics and an illustration give a little more info to the story, including a glimpse at the plant list, which includes bougainvillea, jasmine, and plumbago.






:: image via Inhabitat

Queens Builds

On the heels of 2007's opening of the administrative/visitor center at Queens Botanical Garden, the borough I call home has a string of high-profile public projects in the works, many under construction. Below are some details.


[Museum of the Moving Image by Thomas Leeser | image source]

One of the borough's cultural gems is the Museum of the Moving Image in Astoria. An expansion designed by Leeser Architecture will double the museum's facilities, create a new entrance and courtyard, and fuse the architecture "seamlessly with the moving image." The three-story addition at the building's rear will be clad in pale blue aluminum panels.


[Museum of the Moving Image by Thomas Leeser | image source]

Work on the foundations and subsequent steel work began late last year. Neither the architect nor the client's web page indicate an opening date, though I'd guess sometime in 2010.


[Frank Sinatra School of the Arts High School by Polshek Partnership | image source]

Across the street from the Museum of the Moving Image is the Frank Sinatra School of the Arts High School, a new building by Polshek Partnership. The 1,000-student capacity school has a strong presence in the neighborhood, stemming from its scale as much as the articulation of the three main façades. I'm guessing from that since the building is almost complete it will open this fall.


[The Children's Library Discovery Center by 1100 Architect | image source]

A couple buildings for Queens Library are worth noting. The first is The Children's Library Discovery Center in Jamaica by 1100 Architect. The 14,000 sf building includes exhibitions, a "cyber center", story areas resources (aka books), among other things catering to kids and fostering their interest in learning. All are behind a simple, flat box that is punctuated by rectangles of vision glass in apparently random locations.


[The Children's Library Discovery Center by 1100 Architect | image source]

The Discovery Center is scheduled to open in late 2009.


[Kew Garden Hills Library Expansion by WORKac | image source]

Another Queens Library project is the expansion of the Kew Garden Hills Library in Kew Garden Hills by WORKac. I saw the project at a lecture by the firm's lead duo, but unfortunately neither they nor the client have images of the rather exciting design online. Basically the expansion of the corner building occurs at the two street fronts, like wrapping a square with an "L" in plan. This wrapper is clad in a solid, undulating wall of concrete that is lifted at the corners to reveal storefront glazing below, letting light in and allowing views out. The concrete wall is low at the entrance to mark its location and provide a peek of the green roof above. The shallow, V-shaped section also creates clerestories over the existing roof, providing even more light into the open-plan of the library. (I'll post images of the design as they become available.)


[Queens Museum of Art Expansion by Grimshaw Architects | image source]

Lastly are a couple projects in Flushing Meadows Corona Park. The expansion of the Queens Museum of Art by Grimshaw Architects will double its size to 100,000 sf. Residence will have to say goodbye to the World's Fair Skating Rink, since the expansion will extend into its area to the south of the existing building.


[Queens Museum of Art Expansion by Grimshaw Architects | image source]

According to the museum, "new entrances on both the east and west sides of the building will welcome visitors into a large skylit lobby. A stunning etched glass panel running most of the height and length of the [west] façade (top image) will make the Museum highly visible to everyone driving along the Grand Central Parkway."


[Queens Theatre in the Park by Caples Jefferson Architects | image source left & right]

The nearby Queens Theatre in the Park opened last year in a renovation/addition Caples Jefferson Architects. The design includes a new cylindrical, glass structure flanking the 1964 World Fair's Theaterama by Philip Johnson and Richard Foster, which the Theatre also occupies. Even with a gently curving enclosure capped by a nebula oculus, the new digs have a hard time competing with the adjacent New York State Pavilion also by Johnson and Foster.

Veg.itecture: VIVA la Revolution

As promised, the counterpoint to the recent posts related to Veg.itecture in Action (VIA) are the more conceptual illustrative examples in the Veg.itecture in Visual Assessment (VIVA) posts - which offer a more sparsely informative overview of the visions of vegetated architecture and the many graphic forms that it takes. The dichotomy between vision and action will provide some interesting fodder for discussion - giving a more well-rounded overview of the phenomenon.

A project that has made all the rounds of the architecture blogs is the photoshop-genic projects that gets people talking - this project from Kjellgren Kaminsky for a large apartment project in New Heden. The projects iconic flowing hills are "...Envisioned as a “green lung” for Gothenburg, Sweden, the development will introduce a beautiful expanse of fresh green space to an area currently consumed by parking lots and football fields."






:: images via Inhabitat

Just as dynamic (or at least derived from dynamic processed), the envisioned Volcano Stadium in Guadalajara, Mexico by Jean-Marie Massaud seems to rise from the earth. Superbowl anyone?


:: image via SpaceInvading

A sinuous green parking lot, via Urban Greenery, of the such as the Green Corridor Indian Road Green Space in Windsor, Canada.


:: image via Urban Greenery

And the Community Enhancements and Green Facades... making roads and parking just a bit more pleasurable.


:: image via Urban Greenery

Staying on the topic of roadways for a bit - this intriguing project from Israel called Highway Habitat - which features multi-layered habitat for people and perhaps other things...?






:: images via World Architecture Community

A bit smaller scale, one of the Ordos 100 houses by RSVP has sinuous forms that wrap from ground to rooftop... as well as pockets of interior vegetation.






:: images via WAN

Another by SPRB arquitectos for the Bicentennial of the Independence Plaza, Mexico City, Mexico - comes via WAN. The inclusion of a rectangular green wall that will surround the and create: "...a great ritual space around the Concepción Chapel, symbolically dedicated to the Mexican Independence and Revolution, rectangular and long, isolated from the chaotic movement of the city by a “green wall”.






:: images via WAN

And finally, the silliness, via Jetson Green for an innovative new house that reminds me somewhat of a coconut with a parasol: "This conceptual proposal for a residence with combination solar panel and wind turbine offers the best of both worlds, with a dose of stage-like performance. Shaped to look like a rock, the dwelling stores water in its outer shell as an insulator to conserve energy. Furthermore, the transforming device embodies a playful spirit with its daisy-like shape that seems more like a toy rather than a high tech piece of equipment." Renderings and such from: Andreas Angelidakis.






:: images via Jetson Green

Greening the Rails

Portland is well-known for having one of the best light-rail systems in the country. Through an efficient combination of train and streetcar - served by a great bus system, makes getting around the region sans car relatively pain free. A recent post from Inhabitat definitely struck home a point regarding a retrofit that could make this green transportation system even literally more green. As opposed to a car, rail only makes contact at two thin points along the track alignment. By looking at these corridors on which the trains run - which have interstitial areas that are typically paved with a variety of surfaces, there is an opportunity to create less impervious surfaces through the incorporation of greenery.

Could Portland's rails evolve from this...


:: image via IgoUgo

...to something more like this?

It's not a surprise that this is a common practice in Europe, which is covered extensively in the Inhabitat post from around the continent. The images are self-explanatory and seem quite simple, and are summed up in the post: "...these swaths of green provide a host of benefits to any urban area, like reducing urban heat island effect, providing a permeable surface for storm water to infiltrate, and reducing pollution. And did we mention that it looks so much prettier than concrete or asphalt?" Agreed.

:: images via Inhabitat

There are obviously some maintenance issues with this type of installation - but with proper specification of plantings, the cost-benefit would seem to make a lot of sense to me. Plus, as we evolve to a more green-job centered economy, the additional dollars can be funneled towards maintenance of this and other green infrastructure facilities. And really, there's a natural entropic evolution of rail beds to deteriorate into a more verdant state, although perhaps not the type of vegetation one desires. By being purposeful in lower-maintenance planting in these spaces, there are miles of opportunity for greening the rails.

:: image via Space Invading