Walking Tour: Changing West Side

This Saturday, May 5 at 11am I'll be giving a walking tour of parts of Tribeca, Soho, and the West Village. The focus of the tour, which is organized with the 92YTribeca, focuses on recent changes to the west side of Manhattan in these neighborhoods, particularly new residential developments. Click here or the image below for more information and to get tickets.

Monday, Monday

A Weekly Dose of Architecture Updates:

This week's dose features House in Piedra Roja, Santiago, Chile by Riesco + Rivera Arquitectos Asociados:


The featured past dose is the Concrete and Water Building in Cerro Blanco, Chile by Philippe Blanc C.:


This week's book review is (L:) Architecture of Authority by Richard Ross, (C:) The Raw and the Cooked by Peter Bialobrzeski, and (R:) Structures of Utility by David Stark Wilson:


american-architects.com Building of the Week:

27 Coltman Townhouses in Cleveland, Ohio by DIMIT Architects:


Unrelated links are now found in the left sidebar and on My Diigo Bookmarks page.

Cast in order of appearance - MA A+U Symposium 3 May 2012

COMSUMEDMCR

@consumedMCR

Today's archidose #581

Here are some photos of the Handelsbeurs Bridge in Gent, Belgium by Office Kersten Geers David Van Severen, 2008. Photographs are by victortsu. See more on the project at Public Space.





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Half Dose #103: sLAB Costa Rica

[All images courtesy NYIT/Holler Architecture]

sLAB Costa Rica is a design-build initiative of the School of Architecture and Design at New York Institute of Technology (NYIT) located in Nosara, Costa Rica. Led by Tobias Holler of Holler Architecture, the research-driven studio developed designs and held a competition in fall 2011 for a communal recycling center that the students will help build this summer. To aid in expenses for housing students and making a film by Ayana de Vos documeting the project, a Kickstarter campaign has been set up to raise $15,000 by May 21.



As the top image attests, the Costa Rica locale is a beautiful one, veering between lush forests in the rainy season (as pictured) and almost desert-like conditions during the dry season. What drew Holler to the area was the fact the natural beauty and its related eco-tourism is offset by a severe solid waste management problem. As the Kickstarter page explains, "over sixty percent of the 2,400 tons of waste produced daily are put into open, unregulated dumps and less than ten percent gets recycled." Therefore the design-build studio proposes a recycling and education center.



The design is the result of four competition-winning teams (the Facebook poll winner, two jury-selected winners, and one runner-up). They presented their schemes to the Nosara community in January, and then the various teams merged and refined a single scheme to the renderings and plan illustrated in this blog post. The one-story, linear building features two volumes: The larger space is semi-enclosed, used for sorting recycling; the smaller space includes an office area, small room for a bed, and a bathroom; the covered open space in between features a ramp and stair to negotiate the grade change. This last element also unites the two offset volumes, giving the building its distinctive kink.




Check out the Kickstarter page for more information on the project, which you can also follow via Facebook and Twitter. If you're in the NYC area, NYIT is hosting a reception and film screening on Thursday, May 3 at 6:30pm in the NYIT Auditorium on Broadway, 1871 Broadway (at West 61st Street).

Breaking Out and Breaking In Finale

[Image: Poster design by Atley Kasky of Outpost].

Although I hope to post again about the specific topics to be discussed at this event, I didn't want to lose any more time in announcing the Breaking Out and Breaking In final public event to be hosted at Columbia University's Studio-X NYC on Monday, April 30, featuring a unique and exciting panel of discussants drawn from the worlds of film, design, history, architecture, and the FBI.

Stop by to hear Special Agent Brenda Cotton, Bank Robbery Coordinator for the FBI's Bank Robbery/Kidnapping/Extortion Squad; Thomas McShane, Retired FBI Special Agent from the Bureau's Art Crime Team and co-author of Stolen Masterpiece Tracker; Scott Macaulay, editor-in-chief of Filmmaker Magazine, co-sponsors of the Breaking Out and Breaking In film festival; Matt Jones, designer and principal at BERG; and Jimmy Stamp, writer and editor at the Yale University School of Architecture and co-organizer of last year's symposium on the architecture of the getaway, the hideout, and the coverup.

The event is free, open to the public, and kicks off on April 30 at 7pm sharp. We'll be at 180 Varick Street, Suite 1610, on the 16th floor; here's a map. Stop by for a panel discussion and open Q&A about the spatial scenarios of real and cinematic crimes, from armored car heists to panic rooms, from Boston art thefts to Los Angeles bank tunnels, and from the internal layouts of financial institutions to the unanticipated criminal side-effects of urban design, exploring the built environment from the perspective of the crimes that can be planned and foiled there.

Happy Birthday - Frederick Law Olmsted Sr.

In honor of Frederick Law Olmsted Sr's birthday today, April 26 (1822, so let's call it a round 190!), I would remind folks to go out and read more about the man in the great 2011 biography 'Genius of Place' by Justin Martin  (Da Capo Press, 2011). Genius of Place traces Olmsted from his beginnings in 1822 up until his death in 1903.  While most well known as the creator of Central Park and in some circles as the father of landscape architecture, it's telling that much of Olmsted's life was spent in pursuits aside from park-making and design - in areas of farming, public health, journalism and the literary arts.  Martin does a solid job of showing the quirks and uncommon path that Olmsted took through his varied life - captured in the subtitle "Abolitionist, Conservationist, and Designer of Central Park".

Also worthy of reading is the 2000 biography by Rybczynski  'A Clearing in the Distance' and Erik Larson's more fantastical page-turner on the 1893 Worlds Columbian Exposion in Chicago in 'The Devil in the White City'.  Olmsted, as the father of the profession is featured in any manner of great landscape history books (i read a good portion of the entire 7? Volume 'Papers of Frederick Law Olmsted' in college) - but for the less nerdy and bibliophilic there's plenty of summary material and locations to delve into.

While we often question is pastoral scenic aesthetic sensibilities (he was a man of his time), there is much to learn in his tireless work ethic, social sensibility, and focus on ecological as well as public health -- providing models for issues that we still grapple with today.  We should also emulate his shrewdness in navigating messy politics to further his agenda and get things done, which is something we could use a lot more of these days in our somewhat timid, politically safe professional bunkers.

Celebrate the man and the profession, first by spelling the name correctly, and justly honoring his contribution to our profession, our cities, and our imagination.

Today's archidose #580

Here are some photos of the Oriel Mostyn Gallery in Llandudno, Wales by EllisWilliams Architects, 2010. Photographs are by Mr sAg.







To contribute your Flickr images for consideration, just:

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Kyoto Alleys

MA A+U student Wanxin Wu has returned from her field study in Kyoto where she made this film of the former capital's network of alleyways.

Lynette Jackson's iPhone Art

The folks at Spillman Farmer Architects tipped me off to the digital art of Lynette Jackson, whose images reside on Flickr. Jackson, of Atlanta, Georgia, attests that the images are "taken, edited, and processed with the iPhone." Knowing this, I'm more amazed by the images -- in many cases equal blends of architectural photography and illustration or painting -- that are appealing even without this process made explicit.

Below is a smattering of the 148 images (to date) found on Ms. Jackson's (aka Page67) Flickr account. Images appear to be created in short series of four, whereby colors, patterns, and sometimes buildings are consistent. Each is a free-form canvas with manipulations that tend towards the orthogonal. All of the images have an evident balance of parts and careful means of leading the eye. With the square format, I could see many of the images gracing album covers, if such things exist anymore.

The images below are presented without comment, but I interpret Jackson's images -- at least the ones with architectural subject matter -- as providing new ways of looking at buildings. The layering of photography, color, and pattern creates an emphasis on certain parts of a building, particularly details of facades. Most of the photos are of a vantage point from below, one we can all relate to, so the new way of seeing isn't literal; it derives from architecture used as a component in a piece of art. If anything, a stronger appreciation for architecture -- especially for modern architecture, which most people supposedly don't like -- should arise from looking at Jackson's iPhone canvases.


[No._408]


[MSCED_02262012_No._379a Remixed]


[MSCED_02092012_02a Remixed]


[No._351]


[MSCED_01302012_01]


[No._322]


[MSCED_01152012_04]


[No. 285 Mixed-Red]


[No._254]


[Mixed_003_01]


[Remix_The Theme Building at LAX_01.]

Going viral: Blurred Borders

I'm pleased to announce that Landscape+Urbanism will be featured along with some great company as part of the Voices Going Viral Exhibition and event developed by AIANY.   More information below.

The AIANY Global Dialogues committee has dedicated 2012 to “uncovered connections” with the intention to investigate issues that are similarly impacting multiple regions, cultures and individuals. Going Viral: Blurred Borders explores the impact that social media, technology and device culture are having on our design process, and ultimately the way we practice. How do we shape a global conversation? How are we changing the relationships between academia and the profession? What is the impact of hyper information sharing and critique? Throughout the evening, the topics of communication, research, collaboration, and data distribution will be addressed and debated.

Bjarke Ingels of BIG, Toru Hasegawa of Morpholio and Columbia University Cloud Lab, Carlo Aiello of eVolo, and David Basulto with David Assael of ArchDaily will come together for a lecture and panel discussion moderated by Ned Cramer, editor-in-chief of Architect. In addition, selected game changing blogs and websites will be exhibited as Voices Going Viral on the evening of the event. Please join us at the NY Center for Architecture on May 21st at 6:00 pm and online for further information and to RSVP.

The exhibit will feature a ton of great design blogs, so good company to share - and thanks to the curators for the inclusion, and of course thanks to all of you for reading.  Check out the full list in alphabetical order:

Apartment Therapy created by Maxwell Gillingham-Ryan and Janel Laban
ArchDaily created by David Basulto and David Assael 
Archidose created by John Hill
Archinect created by Paul Petrunia 
Architect’s Newspaper created by William Menking 
ArchitectureMNP created by Ryan McClain, co-founded by Kiye Apreala
Architizer created by Matthias Hollwich, Marc Kushner, and Benjamin Prosky
Archive of Affinities created by Andrew Kovacs
BLDGBLOG created by Geoff Manaugh
Blurr created by Ahmed Elhusseiny 
But Does It Float created by Folkert Gorter, Atley Kasky, & Will Schofield
Cooking Architecture created by Claire Shafer and Juan Jofre
The Cool Hunter created by Bill Tikos
Core 77 created by Eric Ludlum, Stuart Constantine, & Allan Chochinov
Culture Now created by Abby Suckle, Ann Marie Baranowski, Susan Chin, Diana Pardue, and Nina Rappaport
Curbed created by Lockhart Steele
Death by Architecture created by Mario Cipresso 
DesignBoom created by Birgit Lohmann & Massimo Mini
Design Sponge created by Grace Bonney
DesignReform created by CASE designreform.net Dezeen created by Marcus Fairs
e-Oculus created by the AIA New York Chapter 
eVolo created by Carlo Aiello
Inhabitat blog created by Jill Fehrenbacher
Landscape + Urbanism created by Jason King 
Mammoth created by Stephen Becker and Rob Holmes
Morpholio created by Mark Collins, Toru Hasegawa, & Anna Kenoff
Places Journal online created by Nancy Levinson, Harrison Fraker, William Drenttel, Jessica Helfand and Michael Bierut
Post Post created by David Jaubert
Project created by Alfie Koetter, Daniel Markiewicz, Jonah Rowen, & Emmett Zeifman

Credits: Global Dialogue Chairs: Bruce E. Fisher AIA and Jeffrey A. Kenoff AIA Event Co-Chairs: Elie Gamburg, Diane Chehab Design and Curatorial Team: James Kehl, Rebecca Pasternack, Ciara Seymour, Sarah E. Smith, Andy Vann 

World-Architects eMagazine

Yesterday saw the launch of a new eMagazine on World-Architects.com, something I've been working on for a while now and for which I serve as Editor-in-Chief. The eMagazine is sent out as a newsletter every two weeks -- alternating with the existing W-A Newsletter -- with an online version appearing simultaneously. The new eMagazine builds upon existing magazines for the Swiss and German platforms, but the World eMagazine is all in English, covering international topics.

Here is a snapshot of the first issue online; below the image is more information on the eMagazine and its parts.



The six parts of the eMagazine, keyed above, are as follows:

1 - Insight: A long feature, which includes interviews with clients, visits to architecture offices, and discussions with academics, curators, and other voices. The first Insight is an interview with Director Andreas Stadler on the 10th anniversary of the Austrian Cultural Forum's completion, the 20th anniversary of Raimund Abraham winning the design competition.
2 - Found: A short piece that focuses on a visual that struck our fancy.
3 - Headlines: Three bits of news from the previous week or two.
4 - Building: A Building of the Week feature from one of the national platforms. This week we feature a building in Claremont, California by LTL Architects.
5 - Film: A short clip related to architecture, but not always directly about a building or architect. The first once focuses on twin brothers Ryan and Trevor Oakes's attempts at creating a drawing machine.
6 - Product: A spotlight on a product and its application. For the first one we feature MDT-tex's Telescopic Umbrella in Topotek1's bright-red plaza in Berlin-Köpenick.

Please subscribe here if you'd like to receive the newsletter, and feel free to email me if you have any tips for eMagazine stories.

Next Van Alen Walking Tour: April 28

Looking forward to the weekend, it looks like Saturday will be a great day for a walking tour.



At 1pm I'll be giving a walking tour that starts at Van Alen Books (30 West 22nd Street) and heads south to Union Square Park, meandering past Gramercy and Stuyvesant Parks. Head to Van Alen's event page or Facebook for more information. Send an email to rsvp@vanalen.org to reserve a spot.

Monday, Monday

A Weekly Dose of Architecture Updates:

This week's dose features Family Crèche in Drulingen by Fluor Architects:


The featured past dose is the Hazelwood School in Glasgow, Scotland by Gordon Murray + Alan Dunlop Architects:


This week's book review is (L:) Architectural and Cultural Guide Pyongyang edited by Philipp Meuser, and (R:) Architecture 11: RIBA Buildings of the Year by Tony Chapman:



american-architects.com Building of the Week:

Claremont University Consortium Administrative Campus Center in Claremont, CA by LTL Architects:


Unrelated links are now found in the left sidebar and on My Diigo Bookmarks page.

Ephemeral islands and other states-in-waiting

[Image: Temporary islands emerge from the sea, via].

In the Mediterranean Sea southwest of Sicily, an island comes and goes. Called, alternately and among other names, depending on whose territorial interests are at stake, Graham Bank, Île Julia, the island of Ferdinandea, or, more extravagantly, a complex known as the Campi Flegrei del Mar di Sicilia (the Phlegraean Fields of the Sicily Sea), this geographic phenomenon is fueled by a range of submerged volcanoes. One peak, in particular, has been known to break the waves, forming a small, ephemeral island off the coast of Italy.

And, when it does, several nation-states are quick to claim it, including, in 1831, when the island appeared above water, "the navies of France, Britain, Spain, and Italy." Unfortunately for them, it eroded away and disappeared beneath the waves in 1832.

It then promised to reappear, following new eruptions, in 2002 (but played coy, remaining 6 meters below the surface).

The island, though, always promises to show up again someday, potentially restarting old arguments of jurisdiction and sovereignty—is it French? Spanish? Italian? Maltese? perhaps a micronation?—so some groups are already well-prepared for its re-arrival. As Ted Nield explains in his book Supercontinent, "the two surviving relatives of Ferdinand II commissioned a plaque to be affixed to the then still submerged volcanic reef, claiming it for Italy should it ever rise again." This is the impending geography of states-in-waiting, instant islands that, however temporarily, redraw the world's maps.

The story of Ferdinandea, as recounted by that well-known primary historical source Wikipedia and seemingly ripe for inclusion in the excellent Borderlines blog by Frank Jacobs, is absolutely fascinating: it's appeared on an ornamental coin, it was visited by Sir Walter Scott, it inspired a short story by James Fenimore Cooper, it was depth-charged by the U.S. military who mistook it for a Libyan submarine, and it remains the subject of active geographic speculation by professors of international relations. It is, in a sense, Europe's Okinotori—and one can perhaps imagine some Borgesian wing of the Italian government hired to sit there in a boat, in open waters, for a whole generation, armed with the wizardry of surveying gear and a plumb bob dangling down into the sea, testing for seismic irregularities, as if casting a spell to coax this future extension of the Italian motherland up into the salty air.

Today's archidose #579

IMG_8342-43, originally uploaded by trevor.patt.

Galaxy Soho in Beijing, China by Zaha Hadid Architects, 2012 (under construction). The description from the architect's web page:

Five continuous, flowing volumes coalesce to create an internal world of continuous open spaces within Galaxy Soho – a new office, retail entertainment complex devoid of corners or abrupt transitions – a re-inventing of the classical Chinese courtyard which generates an immersive, enveloping experience at the heart of Beijing.

To contribute your Flickr images for consideration, just:

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Got History?

Hawthorne & 50th (1936)

Aerial View of Portland (1936)

My fascination with history and place is no secret.  While i am intrigued with urban history in many forms, there's always a desire for a connection with the place you inhabit.  Typically this fascination comes via maps, which have been well documented, but the timeline of the past 150 years plus of Portland is worth a bit of investment.   For folks on the go, there's also an app that highlights historical site - prepared by the Architectural Heritage Center.  Also a new site, WhatWasThere, is a crowd-sourced version that allows folks to upload history photos of their places.

In addition, there are a number of other sources that augmented by a number of great resources that are provided by city and other historical society archives.  Each has some overlap but occupies a unique and often personal niche for the blogger and site owner - to scratch their particular history itch, and all make for some great information.

A veritable decoupage of historical imagery awaits at Portland History - a no-frills site that organizes images, postcards, and a few words - sorted into categories like streets, amusement parks,  A good shortcut is to go the site map, which gives some links to the categories - but just randomly moving around the site isn't a bad idea either.

Council Crest, the Dreamland of Portland, Oregon

Lost Oregon is a great example of an engaging history tour, albeit typically focused on architecture and riddled with some really bad theme ideas like this one.  The site is simple and delves into some more details about some of the areas, buildings, and locations - which augments what is somewhat visually based on other sites.

A spinoff of Lost Oregon writer is PDX: Then/Now which juxtaposes historic and current photos of buildings and places.  Some show destruction or evolution, and some, such as the Union Bank Building in Downtown, are eerily similar over 40 years later.

Vintage Portland is another site 'exploring portland's past', through "...photographs, postcards, illustrations, advertisements, etc. ... It’s not a history lesson, it’s not an architectural critique. It’s a forum for displaying photos of the city’s past, to show how we lived, what we’ve lost (for good or bad) through progress and just to enjoy some wonderful camera work."

I particularly appreciate the 'mystery' posts - which show a building, corner, streetscape - with a question to help find where the site is.  Sometimes it's to fill in a missing link to an archival photo, but other times it becomes more of a game.  The context over time is fascinating evolution - and really highlights the impermanence/permanence of the urban realm.  This shot of MLK @ Ainsworth from the north - replace Texaco with Starbucks (old fuel/new fuel?) and Gilmore with Popeyes (old grease/new grease?).

Cafe Unknown is a new one for me, but author Dan Haneckow pulls you in with compelling history (more text than other sites) along with some good images.  A recent post on Mark Twain in Portland is a good read, and some of the trivial pursuits are great - like Will- vs. Wall- for our fair river (which subsequently ended up 'Willamette') are nuggets of pure gold.  Haneckow is a true historical writer - with the requisite head shots of historical figures quoted... along with some really solid writing and research.  These walking tour images were pretty interesting finds - along with the story of a missing sculpture found.  This stuff is priceless - and firmly about our place.

Check all of these resources out - It is true - you will be sucked in for a few hours/days/weeks - and might come out forever changed.   I feel like a landscape or at least urbanism oriented history site wouldn't be a bad endeavor - if someone is inclined to collaborate - look me up.  But the caveat on these sites, and historical maps, photos, and primary materials - it's addictive.  Don't say i didn't warn you.