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...

LA ART releases draft environmental report for proposed Dodger Stadium gondola

2022-10-20T12:45:00-04:00

According to the environmental study, maximum capacity on the gondola system would be 5,000 passengers per hour, with an estimated end-to-end trip of seven minutes. Admission to the system is intended to be free with a ticket to a Dodger game, and rides would otherwise be set at the same price as a Metro fare.

The 1.2-mile-long system will be supported by three 195-foot towers and include stops at the stadium, Chinatown, and its origin point in Union Station. The three proposed stations will vary between 74 and 98 feet in height and between 174 and 200 feet in length. Johnson Fain is reportedly one of the local companies that will be affected by the demolition project required to enable the system’s junction structure at 1201 N. Broadway. Construction is expected to begin as soon as 2024, with a 2026 debut likely to coincide with that year's opening day.

Many residents are still active in their vocal opposition to the $125 million project. The full Environmental Impact Report can be accessed here.

LA's divisive Dodger Stadium Gondola proposal gets new management and an updated look

2022-08-11T14:10:00-04:00

The group behind LA's proposed gondola project that would run from Union Station downtown and terminate at Dodger Stadium has revealed new images and a strategic partnership for a project many in the area fear could be used as a tool for gentrification.

Earlier in the week, the Los Angeles Aerial Rapid Transit (or LA ART) made an announcement that the scheme would be handed over to the local non-profit Climate Resolve and their newly-formed subsidiary called Zero Emissions Transit, which claims to deliver “emissions-free public transit solutions in the Los Angeles region.”

Proposed Union Station/El Pueblo station. Image courtesy LA ART

The group’s announcement included a new batch of updated renderings of the cable cars, station entrances, and elevated platform structures. Their update comes in the face of continued local opposition and the installation of a mockup cabin in the stadium’s parking lot G last week.

Mockup cabin of the proposed gondola. Image courtesy Climate Resolve.

“Be...

Maya Lin discusses her new Museum of Chinese in America design in PBS special

2022-06-13T16:42:00-04:00

The famed Vietnam Wall Memorial designer and 2016 Presidential Medal of Freedom recipient took a studio visit with PBS correspondent Jeffrey Brown to discuss her designs for the new Museum of Chinese in America following its partial destruction due to fire in January of 2020.

“I don’t think you can be an Asian-American in 2022 and not be acutely aware of the anti-Asian sentiment,” Lin said at the outset, speaking of the appalling rash of hate crimes that have tormented communities both large and small, from coast to coast as part of our constantly deteriorating social fabric over the past two-plus years since the pandemic.

Personally, I found the concept for the expanded museum rather promising in spite of the criticisms that were wielded against it following the publication of the first batch of project renderings in early April.

The museum's structure gives a simultaneous nod to the universal task of ...

New York's Museum of Chinese in America reveals renderings of its Maya Lin-led revamp

2022-04-07T14:35:00-04:00

An important part of New York’s rich cultural fabric is coming into closer view after the Museum of Chinese in America (MOCA) revealed renderings for its new Maya Lin-designed permanent headquarters at 215 Centre Street in Manhattan.

The project will entail the expansion of its existing building into a 68,000-square-foot museum with classrooms, a research and genealogy center, theater, and exhibition spaces from Ralph Appelbaum Associates that will host up to 300,000 visitors a year.

In spite of some recent local opposition, Lin said she wants the museum to serve as an inspirational resource at a time when the community has seen an increase in the kinds of hateful acts that she personally reports to have experienced throughout her life.

Her de...

Opponents of Dodger Stadium's gondola project see it as a tool of gentrification, allege inside pitch

2022-03-25T08:30:00-04:00

“It’s just another way that we can’t own our neighborhood and feel safe and quiet here because literally you have something flying over your house all day long, forever, I guess.” said Tany Ling, a singer who offers private lessons at the home she and her sister bought in 2012. McCourt entities are buying up properties in the neighborhood, but the Lings don’t want to move. They started StoptheGondola.org to fight the project.

Frank McCourt, who owned the Los Angeles Dodgers from 2004 to 2011, began proposing the $125 million project back in 2018. The initiative has come up against stiff resistance, especially from those associated with the Los Angeles National Historic Park, which abuts Chinatown.

Previously on Archinect: Plans announced for a gondola to connect LA's Dodger Stadium with Union Station

Their side got help recently from a nonprofit called The California Endowment after it filed a writ of mandate in county superior court this week alleging that the Metropolitan Transit Authority chief Phil Washington had cut a sweetheart deal with McCourt’s LA ART company while acting as a lone intermediary. McCourt has maintained from the get-go that its plan is meant to reduce the legendary traffic caused by Dodger home games, but opponents say the overall effect will only wind up crippling the neighborhood while “[reaping] profit through the occupation on public land.”

Previously on Archinect: LA's propos...

LEVER Architecture unveils designs for a new mass timber structure in LA's Chinatown

2021-07-16T12:59:00-04:00

A former shopping center near downtown Los Angeles is getting a makeover thanks to an innovative new design that promises to take CLT building to brand new levels.

LEVER Architecture is bringing mass timber construction to LA's Chinatown with a sizeable new office building that will add four new levels to an existing 1990s commercial structure to create an oasis in a high-density urban setting.

Image courtesy of James Corner Field Operations

The 145,000-square-foot structure aims to push boundaries for the building material that is rapidly growing in popularity thanks to its reputation for safety and sustainability. Lever’s design layers a series of open-air spaces throughout the building in an attempt to connect users to the outdoors thanks to a landscape from Field Operations. The naturalistic element is further enhanced by a tiered internal courtyard garden that provides sectional variety and takes its visual cues from the Bradbury Building and New York’s Oneonta Gorge.

Image co...

Supertall towers in Lower Manhattan beat back legal challenge

2020-08-28T13:01:00-04:00

A group of contested supertall residential towers designed a collection of architecture firms, including SHoP Architects, Handel, and Perkins Eastman for sites in the Two Bridges neighborhood of Manhattan will be allowed to proceed as initially approved following a legal victory over challenges to the project by municipal authorities.

A recent ruling from the New York State Supreme Court found that approvals for the project were "rationally based in the record and not contrary to law," despite claims from Manhattan Borough president Gale A. Brewer and the New York City Council to the contrary. The decision allows developers JDS Development Group, CIM Group, L+M Development Partners, and Starrett Corporation to proceed with the four towers, which will sprout adjacent to the recently completed 72-story One Manhattan Square complex designed by Adamson Associates in an area largely devoid of tall skyscrapers.

The forthcoming towers are set to bring 2,700 residential units to the area,...

Museum of Chinese in America suffers devastating fire

2020-01-27T13:09:00-05:00

A facility used by the Museum of Chinese in America in New York City (MOCA) was engulfed by a devastating fire last week that likely destroyed the entirety of the museum's collection.

The impacted facility, at 70 Mulberry Street, is owned by the City of New York and consists of a repurposed former school that "educated generations of immigrants before becoming a cherished cultural landmark in the neighborhood," The New York Times reports, and is in fact separate from the museum's galleries, which are designed by Maya Lin Studio and Bialosky New York, opened in 2009, and are located several blocks away at 215 Centre Street. The museum's history dates back over three decades as the Chinatown History Project. One firefighter and a bystander were injured in the blaze with non-life threatening injuries.

Museum officials report that the museum's galleries at 215 Centre Street remain open for business and are very much welcoming visitors. A GoFundMe drive has been initiated to help suppor...

243 unit live/work development underway near Los Angeles State Historic Park

2019-11-04T12:56:00-05:00

Development is in the works for another park-adjacent parcel near the Metro’s Gold Line station in Chinatown. An LLC submitted plans on Thursday to the city to build 243 live/work units on a property on North Main and Sotello streets, a block away from Los Angeles State Historic Park.

According to Curbed, the site is currently in use as a produce distribution center.

The fate of Chinatowns: Can they survive displacement and gentrification?

2019-05-29T09:00:00-04:00

The specter of unwanted change has loomed over a quiet corner of Seattle’s Chinatown-International District for nearly the past four years. [...] Displacement is a genuine concern in Network cities, which, in addition to Seattle, include Boston, Los Angeles, Montreal, New York, Philadelphia, San Francisco and Toronto.

Several city staples like Chinatowns are facing the effects of gentrification and urban displacement. "White populations in Chinatowns grew faster, for example, than the overall white populations in Boston, New York, and Philadelphia, according to a study by the Asian American Legal Defense and Education Fund. The study also found that, though Asian Americans remain the largest ethnic groups in those Chinatowns, they no longer represented a clear majority."

Pacific Herb & Grocery, Chinatown International District, Seattle. Image © Curtis Cronn

Demographic transformations are rapidly growing throughout these "Network cities," which result in areas like Chinatowns to be vulnerable to gentrification, luxury development, and displacement. Using the city of Seattle as an example, a city study revealed that in 2016 the Chinatown-International District plus Little Saigon to the east had experienced redevelopment in some way. Already surrounded by an influx of transit hubs and sports stadiu...

Studio Gang's first LA project will be a wavy high-rise in Chinatown

2018-04-19T14:39:00-04:00

Chicago-based architecture firm Studio Gang has signed on to design an eye-catching 26-story apartment and hotel tower in Chinatown. The widely-respected firm has designed numerous projects in Chicago, San Francisco, and New York, including the expansion of the American Museum of Natural History. This would be its first in Los Angeles.

Studio Gang has released plans to design a high-rise in Los Angeles' Chinatown, a space near the rapidly evolving Arts District downtown. The developer Compagnie de Phalsbourg, a French real estate investment company, brought on the firm to design the mixed-use building.

The new project will house 300 apartments, 149 hotel rooms, as well as shops and open public spaces. The site is planned for 643 North Spring Street with the building rising 26 stories, yet only measuring 55 feet wide. This narrow design allows for each unit to receive air and sunlight, as well as preventing the building from feeling like a wall.

DOPIUM.LA: Big Art Little Chinatown

2017-11-14T20:16:00-05:00

Only a dream can kill a dream.

Developed with some of the minds behind One Night Stand LA, DOPIUM.LA aimed to preserve the original beauty of Chinatown, while showing its inspirational influence on an emerging community of creatives in Los Angeles.

For one night, a group of artist, architects and atmospheric maestros turned the Mandarin Plaza into a space to remember; into an experience sparking the thrill of pleasure and inspiration - like Dopamine through the brain, and Opium* through the vein.

Two spectators enjoying their shadowed existence.

”Opium” as a part of the name is a reference to the organic relief it originally provided as a natural form of medicine, and is in no way making light of controversial issues. We aim for this event to represent art as a creative catharsis, our own way of expressing ourselves as means to escape the climate we’re in for one day, at least.

Image: Dopium LA

Featured artists created original pieces to bring the plaza (aka the "Canvas") to life through mixed media, from sculpture...

“Gateways to Chinatown” initiative accepting proposals for a new landmark at NYC's Canal Street Triangle

2017-04-20T12:34:00-04:00

“Gateways to Chinatown” is a newly launched initiative seeking design proposals for a new neighborhood landmark at New York City's Canal Street Triangle, between bustling Chinatown and the southern entrance to Little Italy’s Mott Street. The NYC Department of Transportation, the Chinatown Partnership, and Van Alen Institute are inviting design teams everywhere to submit their most innovative proposals for the new landmark and public space.

Initiated by the Chinatown Partnership, the project responds to decades of neighborhood advocacy and planning and a widespread desire for an iconic district marker along one of NYC's busiest thoroughfares.

Views of the Canal Street Triangle. Photo credit: Sigurjon Gudjonsson, NYC DOT.

In August 2016, the three organizations hosted a public forum to allow community members and stakeholders to share their opinions for a suitable district landmark. Following the forum, NYC DOT Street Ambassadors reached out to residents and visitors on-site to gather ad...

This Is What the Lower East Side Skyline Could Look Like, More Tall Towers Planned

2016-07-26T18:44:00-04:00

Preliminary plans have been revealed for two more residential projects that together “would add more than 2,100 residential units and 1.7 million square feet” to Two Bridges, the area along the East River where the Lower East Side meets Chinatown. A building at 271-283 South Street may rise 60 stories, while another at 260 South Street could reach 66 stories. See how this planned and under-construction new development will alter the LES skyline through CityRealty.com's Google Earth rendering.

How Chicago's reviving Chinatown is building upon its history

2016-02-23T21:02:00-05:00

Most modern Chinatowns are serving less as a singular manifestation of Chinese-American life than as a central gathering place for people to experience Chinese culture...And indeed, Chinatowns themselves were often built on the ground of former ethnic enclaves that had organically dissolved...But as Chicago’s Chinatown demonstrates, this is not a predictable story. More than a hundred years after its founding, the neighborhood has a dynamism that can’t be neatly scripted.

As Chinatowns across the U.S. succumb to gentrification and shifting cultural preferences, writer Anna Clark spotlights the particular booming growth and expansion taking place in Chicago's Chinatown.

Art + Architecture: Jimenez Lai's 'Beachside Lonelyhearts' at Jai & Jai Gallery

2015-07-08T19:35:00-04:00

“Is there a line between architecture and art?” Sylvia Lavin, the influential architecture critic and scholar, asked Jimenez Lai, the architect-cum-artist, during a “Pillowtalk” reopening of his ongoing exhibit at Jai & Jai Gallery in Los Angeles. It’s a question that hovers over the rest of their open conversation, documented in videos posted below, as well as the show itself.

Beachside Lonelyhearts is the name of Lai’s immersive art installation, but it also encompasses what could be considered a durational performance or an architectural intervention. In fact, it’s a show that seems to inevitably precipitate such reflections about the status and relevance of genre distinctions – in no small part because of the distinction-defying oeuvres of both the artist and the gallery.

On the other hand, it’s an installation that has the capacity to grip you in its dizzying embrace, initiating a momentary lapse into a near-fugue state as you’re overcome by its byzantine array of black lines an...

Why American Chinatowns Must Change

2012-08-10T18:04:00-04:00

To stay relevant, Chinatowns must transition to places that attract second and third generation Chinese Americans, people like Frank Wong. Wong grew up in the Sunset District, an outlying neighborhood of San Francisco. The Sunset District is also heavily Chinese, but Wong says newer Chinese communities in outlying districts can never replace the original downtown Chinatowns. “I would like to keep it the way it is, it’s a symbol of who I am, and my culture.”

Previously on Archinect: U.S. Chinatowns lose residents to suburbs

U.S. Chinatowns lose residents to suburbs

2012-01-23T12:36:00-05:00

Today's the day the Chinese welcome the Year of the Dragon, which you'll probably notice if you live anywhere near a Chinatown. Those Chinatowns remain symbolically important to Chinese-Americans. But not as many are calling them home.