Monday, Monday

My weekly page update:

Saginaw Art Museum in Saginaw, Michigan by Platt Byard Dovell White Architects.

The udpated book feature is The Architecture of Happiness by Alain De Botton.

Some unrelated links for your enjoyment:

Urban Decay
An extremely thorough web page by an urban planner/designer in Toronto documenting urban decay throughout North America. (added to sidebar under architectural links::planning/urban)

City of the Future
Voting has begun on the History Channel's competition/marketing gimmick.

Plataforma Arquitectura
Chilean architecture blog, in Spanish. (added to sidebar under blogs::architecture)

Structuring the invisible

[Image: Courtesy of NASA/ESA/MASSEY, via the BBC].

"Astronomers have mapped the cosmic 'scaffold' of dark matter upon which stars and galaxies are assembled," the BBC reports. Producing the map "involved nearly 1,000 hours of observations with the Hubble Space Telescope." But it was time well-spent: the map now "confirms that galaxy clusters are located within clumps of this invisible material. These clumps are connected via bridges of dark matter called filaments. The clumps and filaments form a loose network – like a web."
We are thus surrounded by structures of the invisible.
In an interesting analogy, we read that "the challenge of mapping the Universe has been described as similar to mapping a city from night-time aerial snapshots showing only street lights." But now they have the actual physical layout of the streets – or something like that.
Having said all this, let me admit to an outsider's sense that either 1) the astronomers are wrong: there is no dark matter; dark matter is just a calculational artifact of the current model used to represent universal space (and, thus, this map actually shows something else); or 2) they're right about all of it – except the use of the word matter, which is referentially misleading; it is not matter at all.

(Earlier: See Filaments of space-time, where you can read about "huge arc-bubbles of light colliding with themselves in glowing, superskeletal networks, filling space like translucent caulk").

30 in 30: #8

Another weekly dose feature that I'd yet to visit is the Ironworkers Local 580 Training Facility in Long Island City is by Daniel Goldner Architects.



Walking by it on a Saturday, I wasn't able to go inside but I could take in the facade, an important part of the design's conversion of a warehouse and auto body shop. The design is clearly layered over the existing building, self-consciously enough that it overlaps itself, most notably in the stainless steel mesh above and the stainless steel panels below.



The care that went into the design at the pedestrian level is the project's greatest attribute on the exterior. Fittingly, much less detail is expended on the mesh overhead. Instead, small openings with colored glass, various metal finishes, and other touches make walking by much more rewarding than with most storefronts.



Of course all of this makes sense, as the storefront is basically a showroom for the work of this ironworkers union. What makes the project work so well is the fit between the design and the execution, the former complex and varied enough to give the latter a chance to make an impression.



Directions:
The buildings is located on 30th Street, between 37th and 38th Avenues in Long Island City. Take the N,W to 39 Ave.

Previously:
#1 - Church of the Crucifixion
#2 - 40 Mercer Residences
#3 - Dichroic Light Field
#4 - Juan Valdez Flagship
#5 - IAC/InterActiveCorp
#6 - South Court of NYPL
#7 - Louis Vuitton Store

30 in 30: #7

Japan's Jun Aoki has so far created six shops for French fashion designer Louis Vuitton. Five of them are in the architect's native country, but one of them is in Midtown Manhattan.



Aoki's design basically skins an existing Art Deco building, wrapping five floors fully about the base and another six floors at the very corner. This asymmetrical wrapping is not arbitrary as it responds to the existing building's mass.



Much like the Hariri sister's design for Juan Valdez, this design veils the existing behind a thin layer of contemporary material. In the case of the coffee shop, stainless steel mesh is used. Here, a custom glass that is sometimes opaque and sometimes clear makes its greatest impression at the transition between the two. Two layers of frit are applied to insulated glass to create a layered effect that changes as one moves. It's an interesting effect both close-up and far away.



Directions:
The store is located on the NE corner of Fifth Avenue and 57th Street. Take the N,R,W to Fifth; F to 57th; 6 to Lexington.

Previously:
#1 - Church of the Crucifixion
#2 - 40 Mercer Residences
#3 - Dichroic Light Field
#4 - Juan Valdez Flagship
#5 - IAC/InterActiveCorp
#6 - South Court of NYPL

30 in 30: #6

The South Court is "the first permanent addition to the New York Public Library in 89 years ... a three-story infill structure," according to architect Davis Brody Bond (now Davis Brody Bond Aedas).



An illuminated bridge creates a transition between the old, staid library and the new infill piece. The contemporary structure sits in contrast to the library's old, neoclassical exterior walls.



The new stacked floors sit apart from this old wall, creating an interstitial space that is reminiscent of the Sackler Galleries at the Royal Academy of Art by Norman Foster.



Opened in 2002, the addition includes a visitor's theater, classrooms, and an auditorium, in addition to staff office space. While the design resists being too different from the existing building, it does just enough to create a tension between old and new and give the library an (albeit hidden) display of progressiveness so that it doesn't appear mired in the past.



Directions:
The library is located on Fifth Avenue between 40th and 42nd Streets in Manhattan. Take the 7 to 5 Ave; B,D,F,V to 42 St; N,Q,R,W to Times Sq 42 St.

Previously:
#1 - Church of the Crucifixion
#2 - 40 Mercer Residences
#3 - Dichroic Light Field
#4 - Juan Valdez Flagship
#5 - IAC/InterActiveCorp

30 in 30: #5

Another major building in Manhattan nearing completion is the home of Barry Diller's IAC/InterActiveCorp by Frank Gehry on the far west side of Chelsea.



The curvy building is visible from a few blocks away, as its flowering top pokes above the adjacent rooftops. If we compare this building to another starchitecture design nearing completion, we can see how each responds almost the same way to the city's zoning (setting back at a certain height), though in stylistically different ways ("organic" vs. boxy).



If we analyze Gehry's building following this setback separation, the top is much more successful than the bottom. The image above illustrates how more curves are present in the top than the bottom. This extra detail above gives the building a more varied presence depending on the point of view. As well, the extra "curviness" of the top makes this area more dramatic.



The bottom, on the other hand, doesn't fail due to forms or curves but from the way it meets the ground. Schools of architecture are always teaching this aspect of design, but here it appears that Gehry ignored that consideration. Not only does the building just basically end at the sidewalk, it also is primarily impenetrable, indicating that it will not contain any pedestrian retail. Its location on the West Side Highway may have determined this decision, though nevertheless its presence at this lower level could have been handled better.



Directions:
The building is located between 18th and 19th Streets on Manhattan's West Side Highway. Take the C,E to 23 St.

Previously:
#1 - Church of the Crucifixion
#2 - 40 Mercer Residences
#3 - Dichroic Light Field
#4 - Juan Valdez Flagship

Fictional ruins from fictional worlds

[Image: Science Building, London, England, 2003, by Carl Zimmerman. From Landmarks of Industrial Britain].

In two beautifully realized and conceptually fascinating projects, Canadian artist Carl Zimmerman creates "architectural utopias, fictional ruins from fictional worlds."

[Image: Archives, Leeds, England, 2002, by Carl Zimmerman. From Landmarks of Industrial Britain].

Zimmerman's Landmarks of Industrial Britain, for instance, is "a photographic series of fictional public buildings derived from small scale architectural maquettes."
As the Art Gallery of Nova Scotia explains, the series "envisages a worker's state in Britain at the time of the Industrial Revolution."
Zimmerman himself writes that his work preys upon "the apparent willingness of the viewer to accept a fabricated past." In the process, the lost industrial utopia he's created – a false history convincingly rendered through the use of immense landscapes and architectural monumentalism – comes to look like a world designed entirely by Etienne-Louis Boullée.

[Image: Museum, Birmingham, England, 2002, by Carl Zimmerman. From Landmarks of Industrial Britain].

Zimmerman's earlier series, Lost Hamilton Landmarks (referring to Hamilton, Ontario), apparently kicked off the artist's ongoing interest in "Greek and Roman [architectural] prototypes." This "neo-classical architectural language," Zimmerman writes, attains much of its aesthetic power by "appealing to state authority and to instinctual desires for permanence and stability, security, sense of place, or even to the desire for the guidance of a parent."

[Image: Mount Hamilton Sanatorium, 1995, by Carl Zimmerman. From Lost Hamilton Landmarks].

Zimmerman thus uses the authoritative language of neo-classical architecture to help convince his audience that these buildings once actually existed – and that they now stand ruined somewhere, cavernous, sublime, and empty.

[Images: Mausoleum, Woodlawn Cemetary, 1996, and Mount Hamilton Hospital, 1996, by Carl Zimmerman. From Lost Hamilton Landmarks].

After all, these are not real buildings.

[Image: Public Baths, Manchester, England, 2000, by Carl Zimmerman. From Landmarks of Industrial Britain].

Quoting the justifiably enthusiastic reviewer Meredith Dault at some length:

[Carl Zimmerman] makes photographs of imagined architectural spaces. He builds models, photographs them, and then digitally manipulates the photographs, creating vast, impossible spaces. Sepia-toned and laid out flat on tables in the gallery space, the photographs read, at first glance, like historical documents – they feel very much like 19th century architectural engravings – until you realize they can’t be because they’re all dated in the present. A closer look reveals that the buildings are set in huge, almost surreal, bleak landscapes – their titles want you to believe, however, that these buildings are plunked down in ordinary cities like Manchester and Leeds.

Zimmerman's show at the Art Gallery of Nova Scotia appears to be over – but if it is still up, I would strongly recommend stopping by. Zimmerman's models were on display alongside the photographs, and the exhibition sounds like it was well worth seeing.
What seems particularly interesting, to me, is that Zimmerman achieves a sense of near-total ruin, but he does so not through the depiction of structural collapse – he simply shows us grandiosity and silence.

[Image: War Memorial, Leeds, England, 2004, by Carl Zimmerman. From Landmarks of Industrial Britain].

If you're feeling well-heeled, meanwhile, consider buying yourself some full-size prints of these images; you can do so at the frankly named buynewart. You can also see more deeply colored versions of Zimmerman's work by visiting Toronto's Stephen Bulger Gallery.

(Thanks, John Devlin! See also BLDGBLOG's earlier look at the work of Oliver Boberg and Thomas Demand).