Archinect - News

Ground/Work: A Design Competition for Van Alen Institute’s New Street-Level Space

2013-05-17T19:02:00-04:00

Looking for a nice design competition to participate in this month? Our friends at New York's Van Alen Institute just announced the launch of Ground/Work, an international architecture competition seeking innovative designs for a new street-level venue to house the Institute’s work space and public programs. The competition started accepting entries earlier this week, submission deadline is June 13, 2013.

To Resurrect Penn Station, NYC Urges MSG to Move

2013-05-07T12:29:00-04:00

"While Madison Square Garden maintains that the arena special permit should continue in perpetuity, we believe the term is warranted due to the uniqueness of the site and the importance of Penn Station to the city," said Amanda Burden, the head of City Planning Department who also chairs the City Planning Commission.

The New York City Planning Commission has laid out a case for restricting a special permit to 15 years that allows Madison Square Garden to operate in the heart of Midtown. The move would hopefully restart negotiations to get "the world's most famous arena" to relocate, freeing up space to rebuild Penn Station and undo half a century of dismal train travel into New York. Jane Jacobs would be proud.

Previously:

Davidson Rafailidis Wins 2013 IDEAS CITY StreetFest Competition

2013-04-25T14:46:00-04:00

The submission "MirrorMirror" by Buffalo-based architecture practice Davidson Rafailidis has been selected by Storefront for Art and Architecture and the New Museum as the winning entry of the 2013 IDEAS CITY StreetFest Tenting Competition.

New York's Penn Station Makeover Faces Arena-Sized Obstacle

2013-04-10T13:06:00-04:00

Every day, more than 600,000 thousand rail commuters navigate the crowded maze of tunnels and tracks that is Penn Station. Mass transit advocates would like to replace the aging station with a world-class transportation hub. But there's a big obstacle: Madison Square Garden, the arena that sits directly on top of Penn Station. And the Garden's owners show no signs of moving.

Previously: Municipal Art Society Challenges Architects for New Penn Station Vision

NYC Reinvent Payphones Design Challenge Entry by FXFOWLE

2013-03-11T19:00:00-04:00

In our last post, we published the six finalists and category winners of New York City's ambitious Reinvent Payphones Design Challenge. Here is now the award winner in the "Creativity" category, the concept "NYC Loop" by New York architects FXFOWLE, in more detail.

Previously: Six Finalists of NYC’s Reinvent Payphones Design Challenge

Six Finalists of NYC’s Reinvent Payphones Design Challenge

2013-03-11T17:27:00-04:00

New York City leaders have announced the winning prototypes from the Reinvent Payphones Design Challenge which launched last December. [...] The competition had invited architects, students, urban designers, planners, technologists, and policy experts to create physical and virtual prototypes that imagine the future of NYC’s approximately 11,000 public pay telephones.

City of New York Announces Reinvent Payphones Finalists

2013-03-06T17:14:00-05:00

The City of New York invited students, urban planners, designers, technologists and creators to build physical and virtual prototypes imagining the payphone of the future. Judges selected the top six designs, now you get to decide which design will receive the Popular Choice Award.

You can participate in the voting for the city's future of payphones on Facebook.

Diller Scofidio Culture Shed Takes Shape

2013-02-06T11:23:00-05:00

Designed by Diller Scofidio + Renfro and Rockewell Group, the building is envisioned as a kuntshalle, essentially a museum with no permanent collection, that would accommodate shows from local and international cultural establishments. Its most dramatic feature will be a 140-foot retractable structure that when rolled into place will double the size of the ground-floor gallery.

The cultural anchor for the 26-acre Hudson Yards project, the Culture Shed is set to open in 2017, nestled within an apartment tower also designed by DS+R, abutting the DS+R-designed High Line. (These guys are taking over Manhattan!)

Selldorf Architects Designs 54-Story Faceted-Facade Tower Near WTC

2013-02-05T13:01:00-05:00

Reaching 637 feet, the tower features a faceted facade filled with 428 residential units. Last month the creative team at Selldorf posted a video showing the louvered façade system, a "second skin" controlled by each individual dweller, and described thusly: "Cloaking the façade, a system of operable terracotta louvers animates the building with its changing configurations and reflectivity."

Selldorf Architects unveiled a prismatic tower design for a site just south of the World Trade Center at 22 Thames Street. The 54-story building would replace a 10-story brick structure that sold last year. The first five floors would hold retail and residential amenities, which would be topped by two floors for "performing arts," and the tower rising 637-feet above that.

New York Mayor Bloomberg Announces Winner of adAPT NYC Micro-Unit Apartment Competition

2013-01-22T15:12:00-05:00

New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg, together with city officials, announced today the winner of the adAPT NYC Competition, a pilot program to develop a new housing model for the city’s growing small-household population [...]. The winning entry, ‘My Micro NY,’ was designed by a development team comprising Monadnock Development LLC, Actors Fund Housing Development Corporation, and nARCHITECTS.

Foster + Partners Designs Tile Showroom on Madison Square Park

2013-01-17T14:30:00-05:00

Lord Norman Foster, the hyper-modern British Pritzker Prize winner, is having a moment in New York, with numerous projects underway across Manhattan. But his latest hews away from the slick techno-futurism for which Lord Foster is best known, instead embracing a city landmark at one of our most famous intersections.

Foster + Partners has picked up yet another project in New York, an 18,000-square-foot showroom for one of Spain's largest tile and ceramics makers. Located at one of Manhattan's most popular intersections, it is a strikingly understated building for the Pritzker Prize winner.

60-Story Twin Towers by SOM Break Ground in Manhattan

2013-01-16T12:51:00-05:00

“With today’s groundbreaking, we’re taking a major step forward in the transformation and rebirth of the Far West Side of Manhattan,” Mayor Michael Bloomberg said from the podium at the corner of 33rd Street and Ninth Avenue.

Hudson Yards is not the only megadevelopnment underway on Manhattan's Far West Side. Brookfield Properties (owners of the World Financial Center, Canary Wharf and Zuccotti Park), broke ground on Manhattan West, a 5.4-million-square foot development on a 5 acre site over a set of Penn Station rail road tracks. The centerpiece is two 60-story towers designed by SOM.

Float Over New York City at Dusk

2013-01-15T11:23:00-05:00

Aerial footage from Melisa Dunbar captures Manhattan's skyline at magic hour, just as lights come on and commuters flood the avenues. The gyro-stabilized camera, an Arri Alexa, creates the impression of weightlessness -- be sure to watch full screen to appreciate the effect. You'll only wish the video was longer.

Adrian Smith Will Design NYC, North America's Tallest Apartment Building

2012-12-17T13:08:00-05:00

He's already designed the world's tallest building (and highest apartments) at the Burj Khalifa, as well as Chicago's highest apartments (and second tallest tower). Now, Adrian Smith will be the architect of 225 West 57th Street, set to become New York City's tallest apartment building at 1,550 feet or higher. The project is years away, but it is already chasing a number of other 1,000-plus-foot projects onto the skyline.

Gehry’s 8 Spruce Street Wins Emporis Skyscraper Award

2012-12-12T14:45:00-05:00

The ten winners of the 2011 Emporis Skyscraper Award have been announced with New York City's 8 Spruce Street tower taking home the top place. The winners were chosen from over 220 skyscrapers completed in 2011. Now in its 12th year, the award program rewards ten skyscrapers completed in the previous calendar year.

One World Trade Center Spire: Workers Begin To Hoist Spire Atop City's Tallest Building

2012-12-12T13:07:00-05:00

Workers lifted the first section of the 408-foot spire to the top of One World Trade Center Wednesday morning. When completed, the spire will bring One WTC to a staggering 1,776 feet tall, making it the tallest building in the Western Hemisphere. (Though some skyscraper purists disagree.)

Home Sweet Shipping Container: NYC Creating Modular Disaster Housing

2012-11-21T14:43:00-05:00

Carved out of shipping containers, these LEGO-like, stackable apartments offer all the amenities of home. Or more, since they are bigger, and brighter, than the typical Manhattan studio. It’s the FEMA trailer of the future, built with the Dwell reader in mind.

Ever since Hurricane Katrina ravaged New Orleans six years ago, the Bloomberg administration has been quietly at work on creating a disaster housing that meets the needs of New York City's unique density and geography. They have created a model system using shipping containers, and while it will not be able to help those left homeless by Sandy, it should be ready by next year, for when the next major disaster hits.

The city’s vintage town houses aren’t getting any younger.

2012-11-15T00:14:00-05:00

“In historic districts, the commission always regulated the entire lot,” said Sarah Carroll, the director of preservation at the agency. “But in the last decade we’ve been seeing more applications for rear-facade changes, particularly in Brooklyn, where there hadn’t been as many changes in the rear yards as in the past. And so we’ve been focusing more on the interiors of blocks.”

Constance Rosenblum reviews a number of recent examples of "contemporary" brownstone renovations in NYC. The article refers to work by Michael Rubin Architects, Rafael Viñoly, Rogers Marvel Architects, Kinlin Rutherfurd Architects, David Hecht and Brendan Coburn Brooklyn architects. One basic point is that the town-house typology, proves very adaptable. However, there is a tension between flexible accommodation and rigid preservation-ism, in terms of aesthetic conservation.

Norman Foster Designs His First U.S. Apartment Building

2012-11-14T11:09:00-05:00

From William Zeckendorf’s work with I.M. Pei and Minoru Yamaski in the 1960s and ’70s to his grandsons’ projects with the likes KPF and, most notably, Robert A.M. Stern, who created both the brand new 15 Central Park West and the newly renovated 18 Gramercy Park South, the Zeckendorfs have a thing for high design.

Foster + Partners has just designed its second apartment tower in North America, and first in the U.S., for Zeckendorf Development. They are the same developer who worked with Robert A.M. Stern on 15 Central Park West, considered the best-selling condo building of all time. Can Lord Norman and his sleek 44-story tower top that?

New New Amsterdam: Would Some Giant Dutch Sea Gates Have Saved New York?

2012-11-01T11:46:00-04:00

“They really don’t treat the water in this kind of eggshell kind of way that they do in the United States,” Mr. Chakrabarti said. “They reclaim the land, use dredging material, do a whole variety of things to reshape the shoreline, like we first did when we were New Amsterdam. The Dutch have unrivaled experience in dealing with flooding. They really know how to shape the water’s edge, and I think we really have to rethink the way we deal with the water’s edge, given what’s happened with Sandy.”

Architect and planner Vishaan Charkrabarti, director of Columbia's Center for Urban Real Estate and a partner at SHoP, has a novel idea to save New York from the next big one: Build some giant sea gates around the harbor, like they have in Rotterdam. Also, a barrier island or two would be good.

Piezoelectric Energy-Generating “Scene Sensor” Wins the 2012 Land Art Generator Initiative Competition for Freshkills Park

2012-10-25T20:22:00-04:00

The Land Art Generator Initiative just announced the winner of its 2012 design competition moments ago in New York City. "Scene Sensor", designed by artists James Murray and Shota Vashakmadze, is a striking piezoelectric energy-generating art project designed to be installed above and below the surface of the Staten Island park.

Lord Foster Beats Rem, Zaha, Rogers for Unusual NYC Office Tower

2012-10-03T12:42:00-04:00

“We are grateful to each of the firms for the thoughtfulness and creativity they demonstrated throughout the process. There is no doubt that each group was fully capable of helping us realize our vision of a 425 Park Avenue tower that redefines the modern office environment while also respecting and enhancing the timeless allure of the Plaza district.”

In one of the most unusual assignments around, Foster, Rogers, Koolhaas and Hadid were asked to tackle a New York City office building on Park Avenue. A famous address with two famous towers, but really, the rest of them stink. The catch for 425 Park, one of those middcentury stinkers, is that the zoning for the existing 1957 building was modified a few years later so any new building on the site would be smaller than what is there now. The developer figured out that if he tore down most but not all of his tower and built back up from there, he could keep his zoning envelope. Check out Lord Foster's fascinating design for this challenging project.

Starchitect Switcheroo: Christian de Portzamparc Ditched by Developer on Manhattan Megaproject

2012-09-24T15:28:00-04:00

Neither is this switcheroo exactly new. That is a big part of the reason the City Planning Commission works so hard to ensure certain design flourishes and details in ambitious projects like the Riverside Center.

Yet again—the World Trade Center, Atlantic Yards, the Williamsburg waterfront—a New York City developer has dumped his high design stalking horse when it actually comes time to build their project. This time, Christian de Portzamparc was used to get the eight-acre Riverside Center through the difficult public review process. Now, local hacks SLCE will be finishing the design work. Is this a Pritzker bait and switch or just how the game is played?

MORE IS RICH

2012-09-06T05:19:00-04:00

MORE IS RICH proposes a radical congestion of a selected landscape strip in the Fresh Kills Park. Hypothesis: Inverting Central Park, Manhattan’s urban release valve, to create a Freshkills Intense Landscape charging point.

A programmatic infill with various power generation proposals of the strip has been developed in which the grand urban context of New York is reflected, with an exuberance and joie de vivre that befits a true cosmopolitan setting.

The concept has a duality in its nature, it is an entity as a whole and it is a connector in its parts; it reinforces underlying landscape features. The end result is a rich tapestry of intense landscape forms in a dynamic composition.

Design by: Jvantspijker
Design team: Jaakko van 't Spijker, Paul van den Bergh
Location: Freshkills Park, New York City
Client: New York City's Department of Parks & Recreation
Program/Size: 6.056.000 KwH annual capacity of green energy

What do average New Yorkers think of 40 Bond Street?

2012-08-23T15:44:00-04:00

Since it was finished half a dozen years ago, Herzog & de Meuron's 40 Bond Street has become one the foremost icons of the current generation of New York City architecture. Or so the design cognoscenti think. But what about everybody else? Among average New Yorkers, opinions are mixed in this funny video. One guy who definitely does not like the place is a cranky old neighbor from down the block.

High Above Columbus Circle, a Living Room, TV Included

2012-08-12T22:40:00-04:00

Imagine you’re a New York City building official, and the mayor’s office has decided to let an artist build a living room six stories up in the air and wrap it around a historic statue of Christopher Columbus in the middle of one of Manhattan’s busiest intersections. Oh, and the plan is to have 100,000 people climb up stairs to view it.

New Renderings for 1 World Trade Center—But Where's the Spire?

2012-08-08T11:05:00-04:00

After all the wrangling over the updated designs for the Durst Organization-overseen 1 World Trade Center (we’ve heard there was a list of 20 changes the developer wanted from the Port, all eventually granted), new renderings have been released for the project. They show a building that looks a little sharper, perhaps a little less striking, but something still bound to dominate the skyline, as if that were not already abundantly clear from the just-about-topped-out tower.

New York CityVision Competition Winners Announced

2012-07-11T17:02:00-04:00

The winning projects have been rvealed in the New York CityVision Competition. Goal of CityVision Mag's latest design competition was to imagine New York City in the future if the manipulation of the urban context and its architectural objects, joined with its inhabitants, is influenced by SPACE and TIME.

AMERICAS DESIGN COMPETITION

2012-07-05T16:32:00-04:00

The Battery Conservancy invites students and professionals from the Americas (North, Central, South and the Caribbean), to design an iconic moveable outdoor seating element. The winning design will be fabricated for use in The Battery, the 25-acre park at the tip of Manhattan, which annually welcomes six million visitors.

DS+R's Design for Columbia's Medical and Graduate Education Building Unveiled

2012-06-27T18:08:00-04:00

The design centralizes all social and public spaces in a vertical stack at the south face of the building. This continuous space features a multi-story glass façade that maximizes light and offers exceptional views to the south. The interiors of the study cascade – a system of special alcoves reserved for social interaction – are complemented by outdoor gathering spaces and terraces that are clad in cement panels, wood, and other materials.