Archinect - News

Demolition work for Lower Manhattan's superjail is making Chinatown residents 'terrified'

2024-04-09T15:16:00-04:00

The demolition of ‘The Tombs’ Manhattan Detention Complex to prepare for the 300-foot ‘Jailscraper’ (aka the ‘Chinatown Jail’) in Lower Manhattan is meting out further headaches for residents around the Columbus Park area, the majority of whom are elderly, ABC7 reported recently.

Cracks and other noticeable damage are now beginning to appear in adjacent structures as the 900-bed behemoth is being taken down in advance of the construction of a controversial new facility that is promoted as being more ‘humane’ than its predecessor and the city’s Rikers Island facility — despite activists’ criticisms.

"We absolutely do not trust Gramercy Group with anything anymore," a member of the group Neighbors United Below Canal told journalists. "They violated the trust of this community. They violated the trust of the building next door. They've cracked their building. There's water seeping into this building as we speak."

In response, Councilmember Christopher Marte has asked the city's Buildin...

The crisis at Rikers Island could spark a radical shift in the way architects approach prison design

2021-09-28T09:00:00-04:00

The question of how to remake the city’s jails has sharply divided city officials, who are intent on maintaining lockups, advocates for prison rights and even architects. As the city pushes for new designs that might make its jails feel more humane, many activists and some city officials are pushing for the city to invest more in social services in underserved communities, which could keep people out of prison to begin with.

A total of twelve people have died at Rikers this year alone. Unsanitary conditions, overcrowding, and a staffing shortage have only added to the growing chorus of voices calling to shut down the 400-acre prison, which the city has announced plans to do by 2027.

The nearly $9 billion replacement initiative would add a borough-based jail system using updated guidelines that were crafted last year through a coalition of planners, community activists, and city agencies, although some architects continue to view prison reform as essentially a moral issue and not one that can necessarily be erased by better or more humane design techniques. The AIA officially updated its Code of Ethics in December to reflect some of the ascendent thinking surrounding the issue.

“You cannot make an unjust space more just by creating more natural light,” NOMA president Pascale Sablan said. The Times has more on the movement toward progressive prison design in New York City here.

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Architecture firm HDR is reportedly surveilling the activists who oppose their controversial projects

2021-08-18T17:02:00-04:00

According to documents obtained through a public records request and provided to Motherboard, a subsidiary of Vice, architecture and design firm HDR Inc. has been working with the government to monitor the social media of activist groups opposed to plans calling for the construction of jails and highways.

Through HDR’s STRATA team, a division that “leverages large data sets to visually display social and political risk nationwide”, it’s been revealed that the company has surveilled both public and private Facebook groups run by activists opposed to its projects, including those against a proposed $2 billion highway that would cut through the sacred Moahdak Do’ag mountain in Arizona.

Motherboard notes that the company also generated an “influencer” report, which is an analysis of public sentiment on social media platforms. It includes a geospatial analysis that places communities into categories such as “ethnic enclaves”, “barrios urbanos”, “scholars and patriots”, and “American dre...

Construction of New York City's first borough-based jail underway in Queens

2021-07-16T17:17:00-04:00

Construction on NYC's first borough-based jail is officially underway, Mayor Bill de Blasio has announced. Work on the Kew Gardens, Queens facility marks the first major move to build four smaller and "more humane" jails in Manhattan, the Bronx, Brooklyn, and Queens. The $8.3 billion effort comes via the Borough-Based Jails Program, a controversial plan passed by the City Council in October 2019, aimed at closing the 10 jails now in operation on Rikers Island.

The new, approximately 105-foot-tall structure will include a 25,000-square-foot, two-level, multi-purpose community space, along with a 600-car public parking garage. The 866-bed facility will replace the current Queens Detention Complex, which is located adjacent to Queens Borough Hall and the Queens Criminal Courthouse.

The parking garage and community space will feature a partially planted green roof, solar panels, and on-site stormwater retention. This portion of the project is expected to qualify for LEED Gold certification for environmental sustainability.

The NYC Department of Design and Construction (DDC) is managing the overall Borough-Based Jails program citywide. The Queens jail is being created by a design-build team consisting of Hunter Roberts Construction Group and architecture firms Marvel and Urbahn Architects. Work on the project is expected to complete in early 2023.

Procurement and early site preparation activities are ongoing for the other three Borough-Based...

Weiss/Manfredi to repurpose jail facility in Dallas for alternative uses

2020-08-20T15:37:00-04:00

New York City-based Weiss/Manfredi and Dallas-based Malone Maxwell Dennehy Architects (MMDA) have been selected by the Trinity Park Conservancy to redesign an existing jail facility in Dallas for alternative uses.

The project comes to the two firms, MMDA will serve as Architect of Record while Weiss/Manfredi works as the design architect, after a lengthy selection process that involved 45 other competitors and a shortlist made up of seven other firms. An announcement highlighting the team's selection explains that the project team will work with the Trinity Park Conservancy to "integrate the building and its surrounding neighborhoods" into Harold Simmons Park, a forthcoming 200-acre park designed by Michael Van Valkenburgh Associates that will eventually connect downtown Dallas to surrounding areas.

“We are inspired by the potential of 106 W Commerce to create a dynamic community destination and gateway to Harold Simmons Park, and are thrilled to begin work with the Trinity Park Con...

NYC issues RFQ for new municipal jail towers

2020-02-05T13:47:00-05:00

The New York City Department of Design and Construction (DDC) has issued a Request for Qualifications soliciting design-build teams that will create the city's $8 billion plan to create four new "Borough-Based Jails" tower complexes.

According to a press release, the project will bring into being four new jail facilities in Manhattan, Brooklyn, Queens, and the Bronx. These facilities will be designed to house 3,000 people. The jail tower projects represent the city's attempt to reposition its carceral system as the Rikers Island complex begins to close down.

Previously on Archinect: AECOM to build Rikers Island replacement facilities across New York's boroughs. Aerial photo of Rikers Island in New York City, Photo courtesy U.S. Geological Survey.

According to the press release, DDC is asking firms to submit a Statement of Qualifications (SOQ) in response to the RFQ that will be used to create a short-list of firms that will then be asked to respond to a Request for Proposals (RFQ)....

Interrogating the impacts of NYC’s Rikers jail replacement plan

2019-12-12T14:06:00-05:00

The height of the new jail towers was later slashed from 45 storeys to a maximum of 29, but the damage had been done. The images of these brutish concrete silos symbolised a rack’em and stack’em approach, attracting criticism from both prison reform advocates and the communities in which these fortified slabs were to be planted.

Writing in The Guardian, critic Oliver Wainwright examines competing visions for the future of New York City’s prisons.

Earlier this year, AECOM was selected to envision a dispersed carceral archipelago for the city that would take the place of the sordid Rikers Island prison. The plan has faced strong opposition from groups like No New Jails NYC and others who seek to have the city move away from mass incarceration and toward alternative forms of justice administration.

Los Angeles County cancels contract for $1.7 billion jail

2019-08-15T07:00:00-04:00

In a 4-1 vote, the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors agreed today to cancel a $1.7 billion design and build contract with McCarthy Builders that it had approved in February. “The contract with McCarthy Builders for a custody facility does not fit this board’s vision of a care-first model,” said Supervisor Hilda Solis.

Learning from Rikers Island: the future of carceral infrastructure in New York City

2017-12-08T13:36:00-05:00

Mayor de Blasio’s recent pledge to close the Rikers Island jail complex within ten years was met with celebration by many — and skepticism by others. After 85 years in the public imagination, it has become hard to believe that the East River behemoth could ever really be slain. But the reality of a post-Rikers future is coming into focus [...]. Rikers is toxic, and its era is done. A change is on the wind, it seems, and the island’s aura of inevitability is finally dispersing.

In their Urban Omnibus essay, "A Jail to End All Jails," authors Jarrod Shanahan and Jack Norton take a closer look at the history and a potential future of one of the nation's most notorious prisons and the greater jail infrastructure of a city where the average daily incarcerated population was at 9,400 in 2017.

"Following the recommendation of the Lippman Commission in calling for a system of local jails to replace the central complex, de Blasio has released a plan for Rikers’ closure and sought support from consultants and City Council members in siting new jails or expanding existing borough facilities to accommodate more prisoners. The logic goes that jails in the boroughs will be closer to courts, helping cases move through the system more efficiently, and closer to the support of family and social services, helping prisoners stay out of the system once released."

Justice in Design: redesigning NY's most notorious prison

2017-07-14T19:00:00-04:00

Today, the Independent Commission on New York City Criminal Justice and Incarceration Reform—a multi-disciplinary group of experts convened by City Council Speaker Melissa Mark-Viverito—released Justice In Design, a report that envisions an alternative to a single, centralized jail. It details how community-based jails, dubbed “Justice Hubs,” might function in an urban context to replace Rikers.

The Rikers Island Correctional Facility, a complex of 10 jails and about 10,000 detainees located northeast of LaGuardia Airport, has been one of NYC's most debated problems for decades—widely criticized for corruption, brutal mistreatment of detainees, and inhumane conditions.

Independent Commission on New York City Criminal Justice and Incarceration Reform—a multi-disciplinary group of experts is proposing to shut down The Rikers and advocates for alternatives to single, centralized jails. The group released Justice In Design, a report that envisions an alternative to a single, centralized jail and details how community-based jails, dubbed “Justice Hubs,” might function in an urban context to replace Rikers.

"Developed in partnership with the nonprofit urban think tank Van Alen Institute, the design-based findings are a follow up to a March report that recommended a system of borough-based jails to replace Rikers, among other reforms to the city’s criminal justice system."

The d...

Rikers Island proposed for Laguardia Airport expansion

2017-04-05T18:46:00-04:00

The Island is uniquely positioned to accommodate an expanded LaGuardia Airport that would reduce delays and could serve as many as 12 million more passengers annually.

Last week, New York Mayor Bill De Blasio announced that the city would close Rikers Island jail complex. The news followed a report by the Independent Commission on New York City Criminal Justice and Incarceration Reform which recommended such action. The report also included a number of innovative ideas for a post-jail Rikers, including expanding LaGuardia Airport onto the island and adding a new runway and more terminal space.

Prison design faces judgment

2013-09-04T18:04:00-04:00

And just as prisons in the U.S. are now designed to look not just secure and largely windowless but so nondescript that they practically disappear, architecture firms often coat their prison-design work in several layers of euphemism. Prisons and jails become "correctional facilities." On the website of the large corporate firm HOK Architects, which designed the 1997 Twin Towers Correctional Facility in downtown L.A., they are tucked into a broader portfolio of "justice buildings."

Prison Architect and the moral dilemmas of a prison simulator

2013-05-09T11:38:00-04:00

“Part of the research I did for that game is I went around to Alcatraz in San Francisco because I wanted to have a level where you break into a prison,” Chris Delay, one of Introversion’s co-founders said in an interview. “I started working on how to simulate a prison and how it was going to work. It was then that it occurred to me that building a prison was quite good fun, and that it shouldn’t be, but it is.”

DC's Lorton Prison to be converted into apartments

2012-11-26T15:38:00-05:00

At one time, the dorm housed as many as 40 or 50 prisoners packed together like sardines, according to Caperton. The plan is to convert the space into two or three one-bedroom apartments, which is a considerably more comfortable arrangement than the last residents of the building had. Caperton says that in the 1980s and '90s Lorton Prison had a reputation for being dangerously overcrowded.

Studio Visit: Takeshi Miyakawa

2012-06-12T17:54:00-04:00

After being takent to the precinct in Greenpoint, Takeshi used his one telephone call to contact, not a lawyer, but the office of Rafael Vinoly, as he was working on a project for them. But at 7AM, the only person around to answer the phone was a security guard. Takeshi proceeded to calmly dispense instructions for a project that was supposed to occur later that day. After jotting everything down, the guard – presumably confused and slightly bewildered – asked if Takeshi needed any help.

Takeshi Miyakawa, as you may recall, was recently arrested for his art installation that was mistaken as a planted bomb in NYC. Spoon & Tamago visits him in his studio to discuss his 5 days in jail, Milton Glaser, some new works as well as his current feelings about NY.

Jail break: Utah County suing architect for $1.35 million

2011-05-22T19:53:57-04:00

The drawings and specifications submitted by GSBS Architects contained “numerous safety, security and functional defects, including but not limited to Defective Work,” according to the suit filed Monday in state court in Provo.