Archinect - News

Now Central Park has a (temporary) solid gold cube installation courtesy of a German artist

2022-02-02T17:30:00-05:00

This morning, joggers in New York’s Central Park may have come across a curious, rather illustrious sight. A cube composed of 186 kilograms of pure 24-karat gold, conceived by the German artist Niclas Castello who has billed it as a conceptual “socle du monde” (base of the world) sculpture for our time, was wheeled out to the Naumburg Bandshell this morning at around 5:00am.

The one-day installation has its own security detail and will sit aptly in the Gilded Age landmark designed by Calvert Vaux and Frederick Law Olmsted before a turn as the guest of honor at a special celebrity-laden private dinner being held later this evening on Wall Street. A special kiln had to be created in order to pour the tremendous volume of 2,012° F melted gold ore required for the 410-pound piece. The dimensions of the cube are about the size of a typical footstool, although its weight means it is worth over $11.7 million according to Wednesday’s market prices.

Photo: Sandra Mika/HoGA Capital AG

The installation coincides with the launch of a new NFT and not-at-all gimmicky cryptocurrency that the artist calls The Costello Coin. The project is meant to “be seen as a sort of communiqué between an emerging 21st-century cultural ecosystem based on crypto and the ancient world where gold reigned supreme.” Some might view its viral social media reaction as a preview of the splas...

New York's Central Park to become site for climate change research

2022-01-24T14:16:00-05:00

The Central Park Conservancy, the Yale School of the Environment, and the New York City-based Natural Areas Conservancy have teamed up to launch a new initiative and climate partnership to study the impacts of climate change on urban parks. Called the Central Park Climate Lab, the program’s mission is to work with cities across the United States to implement and advance urban park strategies to mitigate and adapt to climate change.

“With about 55% of the world’s population now living in urban areas, urbanization plays an increasingly important role in how we manage and mitigate the impact of global climate change,” said Professor Karen Seto, professor of Geography and Urbanization Science at the Yale School of the Environment. “This collaboration aims to use mapping and other tools to develop urban interventions to protect their urban parkland and use them to mitigate and adapt to climate change.”

Currently, there’s no national standard for characterizing and mapping urban parkland...

RAMSA is tapped for the New-York Historical Society's American LGBTQ+ Museum expansion

2021-07-02T20:13:00-04:00

Images of a regal new expansion effort at the New-York Historical Society have been released, showcasing the addition of the new American LGBTQ+ Museum to the 216-year-old institution’s Central Park campus.

The Historical Society has chosen RAMSA to lead the $140 million expansion effort, adding space for the new entity, which was granted a museum charter just two short years ago after being established by activists in 2017.

With nearly 70,000 square feet of new space, the museum comes along with new galleries for the Historical Society and added classroom space for the institution’s ongoing academic partnerships with CUNY and the public school system. A new storage area will also allow the Patricia D. Klingenstein Library to house its collection completely onsite for the first time.

An adjacent 10,000-square-foot vacant lot owned by the Historical Society since 1937 will host the expansion. The new museum will be hosted on the fourth floor of the expanded space featuring two galle...

Central Park's unjustly demolished Seneca Village honored with new plaque

2019-10-21T13:30:00-04:00

In Central Park, about a mile from land that was once home to Seneca Village, a mostly black community forced out by the park’s creation in the 1850s, the city is planning a privately funded monument to a revered black family from that time. The new addition to New York’s landscape, honoring the Lyons family, is part of the de Blasio administration’s push to diversify the city’s public art and recognize overlooked figures from its history.

The privately funded plaque, paid for by the Ford, JPB, and Andrew W. Mellon Foundations and the Laurie M. Tisch Illumination Fund, will become the second monument to Seneca Village in the park, following a public plaque erected in recent years. At its height, the village stretched from 82nd to 89th streets and was home to roughly 350 individuals, two-thirds of whom were Black.

The settlement is considered the first significant community in New York City made up of African American property owners; Seneca Village was demolished in 1857 to make way for what is now Central Park.

Northern end of Central Park to receive $110 million makeover

2019-09-19T14:30:00-04:00

The nonprofit group that manages Central Park is planning the largest project it has undertaken in its nearly 40 years: a $110 million investment in the mostly forgotten northern corner, which may not be on many tourists’ itineraries but which is a vital backyard to surrounding blocks where green space is scarce.

The renovation plan, according to The New York Times, has "resurrected questions about 'park equity' and long-running criticism from advocates who say that as money continues to pour into New York’s signature parks, smaller and out-of-the-way green spaces in modest neighborhoods remain neglected."

According to the Central Park official website, the new design is being undertaken by the Conservancy’s design office, which is led by Chief Landscape Architect Christopher J. Nolan, who will be supported by the architectural team of Susan T. Rodriguez Architecture|Design in collaboration with Mitchell Giurgola.

World's tallest residential building tops out in New York City

2019-09-17T13:15:00-04:00

The Central Park Tower, Adrain Smith + Gordon Gill's 1,550-foot supertall tower in New York City, has topped out.

The 131-floor, 179-unit complex, created for developer Extell, now reigns as the tallest residential building in the world, New York Yimby reports. Wrapped in rippled floor-to-ceiling blue-glass curtain walls, the tower is one of several new supertall structures currently under construction at the southern end of Central Park.

Ground-level view of 217 West 57th Street. Image courtesy of Adrian Smith + Gordon Gill.

Neighbors include KPF's 1,401-foot One Vanderbilt tower, the SHoP Architects-designed 1,066-foot 111 West 57th tower, and Jean Nouvel's 1,050-foot 53W53 tower.

When completed, the Central Park Tower will include a triplex penthouse totaling more than 17,000-square-feet in size. The base of the building will be occupied by a 320,000-square-foot Nordstrom flagship store that will occupy seven levels. Floors eight through eighteen of the tower will house the bui...

Exhibition examines the social concerns underpinning the works of Frederick Law Olmsted

2019-07-01T17:25:00-04:00

Big Plans: Picturing Social Reform, an exhibition currently on view at the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum in Boston, examines how landscape architects and photographers concretized contemporary social critiques through their work in American cities during the late 1800s and early 1900s.

Plan of Existing and Proposed Parks and Boulevard drawn by Daniel Burnham. Image courtesy of Harvard Libraries.

The exhibition highlights city plans, maps, photographs, and other archival materials to showcase how seminal urban design efforts by Frederick Law Olmsted, Calvert Vaux, Charles Eliot, and Daniel Burnham were inspired and shaped by the photographic works of Lewis Wickes Hine and by the cultural concerns of social reformer Isabella Stewart Gardner.

Photo by Lewis Wickes Hine showing children playing in a tenemenet alleyway. Image courtesy of Art Institute of Chicago.

Included in the exhibition are Olmsted and Vaux's plans for New York City's Central Park, Boston's Emerald Necklace, and Ch...

Central Park's long forgotten design alternative

2018-11-09T19:03:00-05:00

The iconic landscape of New York wouldn't be complete without a view of Central Park. But, what if the beloved New York staple could have looked different? It's hard to envision Central Park any other way, but after the uncovering of a long forgotten park plan was rediscovered renderings could prove otherwise.

Central Park Image © Airpano

Rendering of John J. Rink's Central Park submission Image © Budget Direct

In 1858, a design competition invited individuals to submit their ideas for the construction of, at the time, an area of unused space. For a prize of $2000, submissions had to include various features ranging from a fountain, skating arena, parade ground, four major cross streets, and a room for an exhibition hall.

Rendering of John J. Rink's Central Park submission Image © Budget Direct

After reviewing 33 potential park designs two individuals by the name of F.L. Olmsted and C. Vaux and their plan, "Plan Number 33," was selected. Thanks to their submission Central Park loo...

Bjarke Ingels to lead restoration of Shakespeare in the Park's Delacorte Theater

2018-11-01T14:18:00-04:00

The Delacorte Theater in Central Park, which has played host to the city's Shakespeare in the Park productions since opening, is getting a badly needed renovation. Public Theater, the arts organization running the popular summer programming, has announced an $110 million upgrade for the decaying amphitheater, to be led by Bjarke Ingels, the New York Times reports.

Over its 56 years, the theater has only seen minor upgrades and subsequently, is showing signs of aging. Revitalization of the 1,872 seat theater will focus on improving accessibility, expanding facilities, providing greater protection against outdoor elements, and increasing comfort and resources backstage. It is expected to complete in 2022.

The renovation is also seen as a way for the theater to extend its programming. The Public is consulting with BIG as well as climatologists to figure out how to make the theater more hospitable in different climates so that their season can run into the spring and fall.

The climatic ...

DFA proposes 712-foot observation tower to clean Central Park reservoir

2017-09-14T15:36:00-04:00

Creative studio DFA is proposing a 712-foot public observation tower in Central Park that would double as a sustainable filtration system to clean the hazardous Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis Reservoir and turn it into a non-toxic, useable freshwater pond. Though meant to be temporary, the prefabricated tower would be the world’s tallest timber structure if completed, featuring a 56-foot-wide viewing platform and a glass oculus that showcases the tower’s functional elements.

Via DFA

Artificial nature: Frederick Law Olmsted and the invention of landscape architecture

2016-08-30T12:52:00-04:00

An unmistakable irony creeps vinelike through Olmsted’s landscape theory: It takes a lot of artifice to create convincing “natural” scenery. Everything in Central Park is man-made; the same is true of most of Olmsted’s designs. They are not imitations of nature so much as idealizations, like the landscape paintings of the Hudson River School. Each Olmsted creation was the product of painstaking sleight of hand, requiring enormous amounts of labor and expense.

For more on Olmsted and his parks today, check out some past articles:

When innovation runs shallow: What's the commotion with eVolo winner New York Horizon?

2016-04-08T20:46:00-04:00

“New York Horizon” would be virtually impossible to implement in the real world, given the actual urban landscape of the proposed site, which includes some of NYC's subway lines for starters. That being said, the criticism “New York Horizon” has sparked in recent weeks raises bigger questions — particularly involving the rise of “meme-tecture”, the cultural value of landscape architecture, and re-evaluating the setup of open ideas competitions.

Previously on Archinect:

2016 eVolo Skyscraper Competition winners revealed

2015 eVolo Skyscraper Competition winners imagine the potential of vertical architecture

2014 eVolo Skyscraper Competition Winners

Too Late, Community Mobilizes to Save Central Park from Skyscraper Shadows

2014-02-20T15:00:00-05:00

Last night, nearly 500 New Yorkers gathered at the New York Public Library’s main branch for a forum on the wave of skyscrapers that are rising along the Southern edge of Central Park. Skyscrapers that will, depending on whom you ask, either transform Central Park into a gloomy airshaft or create shadows as fleeting and insubstantial as a cloud moving across the sun. Concerns were raised, grievances aired and oligarchs denigrated.