Archinect - News

Park named after Beastie Boys' Adam Yauch now open in Brooklyn

2013-05-03T16:52:00-04:00

This Brooklyn Heights playground is named for Adam Yauch, an artist, a filmmaker, an activist, and one of Brooklyn’s most influential musicians. Most famous as ‘MCA’ of the legendary Rock and Roll Hall of Fame inductees the Beastie Boys, Yauch grew up playing in this playground, then named State Street Park and later Palmetto Playground, as a child.

“Born and bred in Brooklyn the U.S.A./
They call me Adam Yauch but I’m M.C.A.”
- “No Sleep Til Brooklyn,” The Beastie Boys

NYC Parks & Rec. announced today that Adam Yauch Park, named after the Beastie Boys' late MCA, is now open.

Hello Dubai-on-the-East-River

2013-03-04T19:02:00-05:00

In recent years developers putting up a forest of residential towers have been accused of turning the Brooklyn and Queens waterfront into Miami-on-the-East-River. With his new plan for the 11-acre Domino Sugar refinery in Williamsburg officially unveiled on Sunday, Jed Walentas has crafted something that might better be described as Dubai-on-the-East-River.

Audacious new waterfront development designed by SHoP unveiled in Brooklyn. Transforms derelict Domino Sugar refinery into 24/7 community with designs the likes of which New York has never seen.

Architect/Contractor Couple Builds Home Out of Shipping Containers in Williamsburg

2013-03-01T12:54:00-05:00

The couple bought a 20-by-40-foot piece of land at 351 Keap St. in 2008, trying to get ahead of the wave of gentrification they feared would soon price them out of Williamsburg. Initially, they planned to build a tiny home out of bricks and mortar, but when they put out a bid, it came back as potentially costing half a million dollars.

After doing some calculations, they decided to make it work with shipping containers.

Creating Hipsturbia

2013-02-16T18:36:00-05:00

As formerly boho environs of Brooklyn become unattainable due to creeping Manhattanization and seven-figure real estate prices, creative professionals of child-rearing age — the type of alt-culture-allegiant urbanites who once considered themselves too cool to ever leave the city — are starting to ponder the unthinkable: a move to the suburbs.

Gowanus by Design: WATER_WORKS Competition Winners

2013-02-13T18:09:00-05:00

Winning projects in three categories have been announced in Gowanus by Design's latest competition, WATER_WORKS. The brief called for solutions specific to Brooklyn's Gowanus area that simultaneously explored the role of water in recreation, quotidian uses, and in contaminated urban environments, and demonstrated how a redesigned community center and retention facility represent a more progressive view of the city's infrastructure.

Atlantic Yards Will Be Getting 32-Story, SHoP-designed Modular Tower After All

2012-11-28T19:34:00-05:00

Modular construction has long been a dream of architects, for its efficiency and control, and now it could be a boon for New York City developers as well, since prefab methods can save 20 to 30 percent from traditional design methods.

Thanks to a deal with construction unions, the developer of the controversial Atlantic Yards project will move ahead with a 363-unit, 32-story prefab apartment building in Downtown Brooklyn. Designed by SHoP Architects, Skanska and ARUP, it is tentatively the tallest prefab tower in the world. (Until that crazy 2,000-footer in China gets built.)

The Barclays Center, in Brooklyn, Reviewed by Alexandra Lange

2012-09-26T19:31:00-04:00

The arena was always a Trojan horse: its stars (Jay-Z), its original starchitect (Frank Gehry), and its semi-public function (bringing pro basketball to Brooklyn) have been used to make the development of the Vanderbilt rail yard seem like a reward rather than an imposition. In 2009, Gehry left the project, adding his arena and tower designs to the long list of New York’s famous unrealized buildings.

A huge frog has landed in Brooklyn

2012-09-26T14:56:00-04:00

Brooklynites might consider themselves lucky. In Manhattan, Madison Square Garden’s owners are renovating, spending nearly $1 billion. Judging from results so far, it won’t be enough. The Barclays Center is no Garden disaster, just an extraordinarily expensive lost opportunity.

Game Time

2012-08-20T11:20:00-04:00

Ratner & Co. believe Brooklyn as a whole is already well on its way to super-premium status and will never go back. They believe Ratner has built exactly the sort of architectural showpiece and modern sports-and-entertainment megaplex that the newly gentrified Brooklynites want.

Will Leitch asks now that the fighting is over and Bruce Ratner’s Barclays Center is almost completed, will the crowds come? Additionally, Aaron Plewke recently snapped some photos of the building under construction.

Can a Kickstarter Project Turn the Broken Angel, Brooklyn’s Architectural Oddity, Into a Museum?

2012-08-10T11:53:00-04:00

One of the biggest pieces of outsider art in New York City, the Broken Angel, is confronting the latest stage of its gradual decline, from a 10-story distorted jumble of wood and glass, to a now more subdued house that still retains the creative energy of its builder, Arthur Wood. Wood’s son Christopher recently launched a Kickstarter project, with supporters paying for their original art to adorn the facade, the ultimate goal being to turn the building into a museum.

Rogers Marvel Wins Pier 1 Competition for Brooklyn Bridge Park

2012-06-20T17:08:00-04:00

As expected, a team of Toll Brothers and Starwood Capital won the right to develop Pier 1 at Brooklyn Bridge Park today. They will be building a new hotel of 200 rooms and a neighboring apartment building with 159 units, a complex that peaks near Fulton Street entrance and sloping down toward the park. The project is designed by Rogers Marvel Architects, whom Toll has initially tapped, with Dumbo-based Bernheimer Architects apparently getting the boot.

Rogers Marvel wins another marquee commission on the water in New York. These guys are becoming a bit of local favorites.

The Architecture of the Great GoogaMooga: David Rockwell Dishes on the Food Festival's "Carny" Design

2012-05-22T14:02:00-04:00

After 26 years of designing restaurants in New York City, David Rockwell has become a go-to for gourmands. [...] This weekend, however, Rockwell showed off his set-design skills at Googa Mooga, the massive two-day outdoor food festival that debuted Saturday in Brooklyn's Prospect Park.

The 21st century Navy Yards

2011-08-25T16:00:46-04:00

Curved buildings with mushroom roofs! Giant 3D printers spewing out ships! Swarms of high-tech workers making electric cars! It’s all part of “Super Dock,” a futuristic science park designed by radical eco-architect Mitchell Joachim. “There are no walls,” he said. “We’re merging architecture and land into the water. The entire area becomes a ballast for Brooklyn, so it can absorb water, clean it and filter it back into New York.”

Gowanus Lowline Competition Winners

2011-08-01T17:56:17-04:00

Six winning designs have been announced in the Gowanus Lowline: Connections competition, hosted by Gowanus by Design. [...] Gowanus Connections is GbD's inaugural international ideas competition, inviting speculation on the value of urban development of postindustrial urban lands, and the possibility of dynamic, pedestrian-oriented architecture that engages with the Gowanus Canal and the surrounding watershed.