Archinect - News

Two historic NYC theaters in Times Square to be redeveloped

2018-09-20T14:59:00-04:00

Two historic New York City theaters are getting ready to shine brightly under the Times Square spotlight once again. This week, developers behind the Times Square Theater and the Palace Theater, unveiled ambitious renovation and expansion plans for their establishments.

The Palace Theater redevelopment includes raising the structure about 30 feet to accommodate retail space below and an 18,000 square foot wraparound sign. The existing DoubleTree hotel above the theater will be demolished to be replaced by a 46-story tower including retail, dining, and a hotel.

TSX Broadway rendering. Image: TSX Broadway.

The new complex, called TSX Broadway, also includes a 4,000-square-foot performance venue to be suspended 30 feet above Times Square. The new outdoor stage will be the only of its kind located in Times Square.

TSX Broadway retail section rendering. Image: TSX Broadway.

Nearby the Times Square Theater, which has been vacant for 30 years, will be redeveloped as a large retail venue. Architecture and planning firm Beyer Blinder Belle will restore most of the existing building while adding in two glass stories.

Times Square Theater redevelopment rendering. Image: Stillman Development International.

New additions also include a glass box overhang on th...

Diller Scofidio + Renfro present "The Mile-Long Opera" along the High Line this fall

2018-07-09T14:45:00-04:00

Diller Scofidio + Renfro together with Pulitzer Prize-winning composer David Lang present The Mile-Long Opera: a biography of 7 o’clock, a 5 night series of performances taking place along the High Line. Featuring 1,000 singers from across NYC, this extensive community engagement initiative will allow audience members to actively participate among choral work throughout the park.

Singers rehearsing for the The Mile-Long Opera. Image: Luis Paez.

Elizabeth Diller explains, “After working on the design of the High Line for over a decade and witnessing the rapid transformation of the surrounding area, I thought a lot about the life cycle of the city—its decay and rebirth—full of opportunities and contradictions."

The performances will take place from October 3-7, 2018. Admission is free, however advanced tickets are required and will be available at milelongopera.com starting September 5.

Christopher Hawthorne on when architecture and performance intersect

2017-06-30T12:06:00-04:00

This interest in performance among architects is less a style or a fledgling movement than a register, a way of working. It’s a means of sketching out a new set of priorities — and giving up older ones that are tarnished or compromised. It’s also open-ended, challenging the idea that a building can ever really qualify as finished. It makes room for perspectives that come from other fields.

According to Hawthorne, this new trend—seen in the work of architects from Andrés Jaque to Bryony Roberts—evidences the appeal of "impermanence and often...informality," putting the work in contrast to the ritzy architecture that seems to dominant these days.

WAF 2017 announces "Performance" as theme for this year's festival

2017-04-21T03:00:00-04:00

This post is brought to you by World Architecture Festival.

The only global festival that combines awards, live judging, conferences and networking, the World Architecture Festival, has announced "Performance" as the theme for its tenth anniversary edition.

The notion of "performance" in architecture will be central to this year's World Architecture Festival seminar programme. Plus, the architectural tours will also be focused on "performance," with visits to Berlin's top performance venues including Hans Scharoun's Berlin Philharmonie, which inspired the concept of listening to music in the round when it opened in 1963.

Revealing the theme for 2017, WAF Programme Director, Paul Finch, commented: "This year we will examine the multiple aspects of "performance" that architecture has to embrace: aesthetic, technical, economic, and psychological.

We will be discussing buildings designed for performance – for example, theaters and concert halls – but also the role that buildings play in th...

The resounding success of Allied Works Architecture's "National Music Center"

2017-02-16T20:39:00-05:00

Incorporating both physical and intangible elements of Canada's musical history, the National Music Center by Allied Works is a nine-towered, terra-cotta tile clad complex that not only ropes a 112-year old hotel/blues club into the mix, but creates the kind of spaces suited for gazing dreamily into one's future.

According to Brad Cloepfil, Principal at Allied Works Architecture, the structure was "inspired by the light, landscape and geography of the northern prairie."

He goes on to note that "Studio Bell was created to amplify the rich history and future possibilities of Canadian music. The building aspires to create a sense of wonder and mystery, inspiring the visitor to explore. Nine separate towers rise five floors above the street, each resonating with music and activity. The building is alive with the life of music throughout its exhibition, recording, editing, performance and education spaces. The distinct vessels of music are bound together by the space between them, moments ...

One-to-One #43 with George Tsypin, stage designer behind the 2014 Sochi Olympics' opening ceremony and "Spider-Man: Turn Off the Dark"

2016-10-24T15:29:00-04:00

You probably don’t recognize George Tsypin’s name, but you’re almost certainly familiar with his projects. After training as an architect in Moscow, Tsypin moved to New York to study theater design, and it’s now safe to say millions upon millions of people have seen his work. He’s designed stage sets for the MTV VMA’s, operas, Broadway plays, and the 2014 Winter Olympics’ Opening Ceremony at Sochi, among many others.

Tsypin's work is now captured in GEORGE TSYPIN OPERA FACTORY: Invisible City, released on October 18 by Princeton Architectural Press. We spoke about designing for theatrical and mass media performances, and how his architectural training grounds his practice.

Our interview begins with Tsypin's account of working in 5Pointz, the infamous graffiti building in Long Island City. Special thanks to Princeton Architectural Press for helping coordinate the interview.

Listen to One-to-One #43 with George Tsypin:

iTunes: Click here to listen and subscribe to the new "Archinect Sessi...

The architecture of grief: inside OMA's "An Occupation of Loss"

2016-09-15T13:09:00-04:00

In OMA and artist Taryn Simon's "An Occupation of Loss," professional mourners create unique performances of grief into an enormous sculpture of eight 45 foot concrete inverted wells that act as "a discordant instrument." It's not just for professional criers: during the day, visitors are encouraged to interact with the sculpture, exploring their own grief while recordings of the previous evening's performance are played in the background.

On display at the Park Avenue Armory’s Wade Thompson Drill Hall through September 25th, the sculpture will be moved to the Artangel in London next year.

As OMA's Shohei Shigematsu noted, “The design was sonically-motivated, focusing on the performative act of loss rather than its physical manifestation, which has been historically marked by multiple scales – from tombstones to the World Trade Center Memorial. The industrial wells were configured into a readymade ruin that responds to both personal and monumental dimensions."

For the latest on OMA:

OM...

Cutting across the Chicago Architecture Biennial: Andrés Jaque's "Superpowers of Ten" performance

2015-10-12T18:45:00-04:00

A sausage as tall as you are. A skin cell the size of a dinner plate. The universe, in a glittery fan. These are a few of the props used by Andrés Jaque, founding architect of the Office for Political Innovation, in his "Superpowers of Ten" performance – a play staged on the ground floor of the Chicago Athletic Association during the opening weekend of the Chicago Architecture Biennial. Inspired by the Eames’ 1977 “Powers of Ten” film (the same year the Biennial’s namesake conference was held), the under-an-hour performance investigates the power of design to scale up, or down, into historic social and cultural sea changes.

Initially developed for the Lisbon Architecture Triennial in 2013, “Superpowers” is staged like a super-polemical elementary school play: a narrator guides actors, dressed in cartoonish cardboard or papier-mâché costumes, through stories of 20th century design history. The opening act plays direct homage to the Eames’ film, recreating the zooming in and out on the...

A preview of the VIS-Á-VIS performance series at Materials & Applications in Los Angeles

2014-08-06T15:07:00-04:00

Materials & Applications in Los Angeles has some fun social Saturday night events lined up for the entire month of August! The four-part VIS-Á-VIS performance series will include dance, music, a video and sound installations, and a film screening.

Starting August 9, all events will take place in the Materials & Applications space at the La Cage aux Folles, a 346-piece metal pipe temporary playground installation designed by Warren Techentin Architecture.

August 9: LA Fort Presents: Daedelus (DJ set), Lawrence Lindell, Matt McGuire and Will Walden (StaG) - experimental + electronic music performance

August 16: Tracy Abbott Szatan / IN/VISIBLE - video installation and performance

August 23: bel-air / New York Memo - sound recording installation

AND Ear Cleaning Workshop with Greg Ruben, based on the teaching methodology by Canadian composer R. Murray Schafer (spaces limited)

August 30: Eugene Kotlyarenko presents: "Nobody Wants to Play With Me" (Werner Herzog)+rare feature film - a film screening curated by L.A. filmmaker Eugene Kotlyarenko.

Head over to Bustler to learn more about each event.

Joanna Warsza Curates Architecture Between East and West

2014-07-10T13:23:00-04:00

Buildings perform a variety of functions: They shelter, illuminate, and obscure surrounding people and landscapes. The fundamentally pragmatic purpose of architecture endows edifices with a wide range of functions, but rarely does architecture speak. Curator Joanna Warsza, however, organizes performances and interventions that implore architecture to speak back.

Oren Safdie's play "False Solution" finishes up its 3-week run this weekend in Santa Monica

2014-05-07T17:36:00-04:00

Oren Safdie, architecture-turned-playwright (and son of Moshe Safdie), has taken his play False Solution to Santa Monica, after a run in NYC last year. False Solution, Safdie's 3rd architecture-themed play, following Private Jokes, Public Places and The Bilbao Effect, follows German-Jewish architect Anton Seligman (played by Daniel J. Travanti) as he designs a new Holocaust museum in Poland. Linda Johansson (played by Amanda Saunders), a first-year architecture student, brings sexual tension as she challenges his work.

I met up with Oren at his home in Venice Beach to talk about his work as a playwright. You can listen to our conversation below...

I also had a chance to record a read-through between leads Daniel J. Travanti, whom you may recognize as the captain from Hill Street Blues, and Amanda Saunders.

Tickets to False Solution can still be purchased for the final four performances this Thursday to Sunday.

NY Transit Museum wants you to wax poetic about public transit

2014-02-14T13:38:00-05:00

Inspired by the engineering, intricate choreography, and impromptu interactions of your daily commute? Wish there was an open mic night for historians and urbanists? A show-and-tell for your creative musings on mass transit? Looking for a public platform to present your ideas to a captive audience? Us, too. That’s why we are excited to announce PLATFORM, a new series of cross-disciplinary programs created by the public for the public. Have an idea? We’ll give you a platform.

The New York Transit Museum is launching an open exhibition program, accepting proposals for projects devoted to any and all aspects of public transportation. The aptly named Platform program will exhibit the first winning proposal in its subway station home in downtown Brooklyn, on Thursday, April 10.

Projects can take any performative or static form -- whether you're choreographing a ballet inspired by metro drivers, making Metro-card origami or curating a gallery of subway maps, Platform wants your submissions.

Questions regarding Platform can be sent to programs@transitmuseumeducation.org. Submissions will be reviewed by the NYTM through Tuesday, February 25 at noon (EST).

Gehry and Salonen discuss ten years of music at Disney Concert Hall

2013-10-16T16:15:00-04:00

To celebrate Disney Hall’s tenth anniversary, architect Frank Gehry and Conductor Laureate for the Los Angeles Philharmonic Esa-Pekka Salonen reminisced on the building’s inspiration last night, at a discussion held at the Hammer Museum. Co-hosted by the LA Phil, far from the actual concert hall and its spotty downtown L.A. environs, the discussion’s moderator Nicolai Ouroussoff (former architecture critic for the New York Times) tried to tease out the relationship between architecture and music. While Salonen touched upon questions of classical music’s relevance, Gehry didn’t delve too deeply into the particulars of his design.

As Music Director for the LA Philharmonic from 1992-2009, Salonen oversaw the orchestra during its transition from the slightly-stuffy Dorothy Chandler Pavilion over to Disney Hall, and is highly regarded for whipping the Philharmonic into shape as a progressive and formidable cultural institution. The trajectory of the LA Phil is largely wrapped up in b...

"It Reflects Her Obsession": OMA's Shohei Shigematsu on Building Marina Abramovic's Performance Palace

2012-02-23T11:23:00-05:00

All the headlines talk about Marina and Rem, but his involvement is quite minimal, isn’t it? He’s involved, but I’m running the New York office. You know the media always has to say Rem just to catch people’s attention, but I appreciate if you don’t repeat that laziness. Of course Rem is involved, but as you can see he’s not here.

Dutch Design Awards 2011: Live Performances + Call for Public Vote

2011-10-12T14:15:53-04:00

With the announcement of the prestigious Dutch Design Awards 2011 being only days away, we're happy to share videos and photos from three live performances created by Rotterdam-based Studio Dumbar. The performances are to promote the Dutch Design Awards categories: Spatial-, Product- and Communication Design.

See the videos of all three performances on Bustler.