Images and text (edited) from Archtober.com
Archtober is New York’s Architecture and Design Month, a festival of architectural design activities, programs and exhibitions that take place during the month of October.
Begun by the AIA (American Institute of Architecture) New York Chapter and the openhousenewyork in 2003 as New York City’s Architecture Week, the yearly event has grown to include 350 talks, tours, site-specific performances and family programs, introducing and re-introducing New York’s architecture to audiences near and far. Since 2010, the Architecture & Design Film Festival has joined the month-long program.
We are highlighting some of the spaces, exterior and interior, toured in the series Buildings of the Day.
WEEK ONE
The Fort Washington Branch of the New York Public Library is one of the original 67 New York City Carnegie Libraries. Designed by Cook & Welch Architects, it opened in April 1914.
The Center for Architecture. The Center is home to the New York Chapter of the American Institute of Architects (AIANY) and the Center for Architecture Foundation.
The IAC Headquarters is Frank Gehry’s first building in New York. It is a very personal-sized office building, built as-of-right, and opened to little in the way of the usual star-architect fanfare.
Top of the Rock at Rockefeller Center “epitomizes Archtober’s mission of raising awareness of architecture and design. By restoring public access, the project celebrates and embraces the ongoing life and vitality of Rockefeller Center.“ Michael Gabellini, FAIA
WEEK TWO
Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts, the crown jewel of John D. Rockefeller and Robert Moses’s Lincoln Square Renewal Project, the 16-acre campus was designed by modern architecture’s pantheon: architects Max Abromovitz, Pietro Belluschi, Gordon Bunshaft, Wallace K. Harrison, Philip Johnson, Eero Saarinen, and landscape architect Dan Kiley. After 50 years of service, the Center was modernized and revitalized by Diller Scofidio + Renfro, FXFOWLE, and Beyer Blinder Belle.
The Sheila C. Johnson Design Center at Parsons The New School clearly represents the New School’s commitment to the new.Materials are unexpected—one room is clad in bark, evoking a natural element otherwise absent in the urban agglomeration of hexagonal patterned aluminum cladding, electric dayglo green accents and student designed wallpaper.
The Museum of Arts and Design by Brad Cloepfil, AIA, of Allied Works Architecture. Buildings can have friends, that’s for sure, and the original structure counted among its devotees Tom Wolfe, Chuck Close, Frank Stella, Barry Bergdoll, and Robert A. M. Stern, FAIA.
Passarelle connecting 56th and 57th Streets, by Rogers Marvel Architects. Sticking with the black theme, they switched from glass to shiny black aluminum panels for the walls. The reception desk was glowing blue.
WEEK THREE
The Switch Building by nARCHITECTS. The “Switch” is the orientation of the bands of façade that rock back and forth like fancy toggle plates.
The Amsterdam Plein & Pavilion by Dutch firm UNStudio. The coffee shop cafe and info center greets tourists and at least 70,000 commuters a day, serving passersby with its four corners rooted in public space. The 450 square foot, 24/7 interactive space was commissioned by the King and Queen of the Netherlands as a Dutch gift to New York to mark the 400th anniversary of Henry Hudson’s arrival to New Amsterdam.
Madison Square, where 200 Fifth Avenue is located, is a palimpsest of the northward expansion of commerce and civilization in Manhattan. With the construction of the Fifth Avenue Hotel, (Griffith Thomas with William Washburn Architects, 1859) on the site of the current 200 Fifth, the area became the social, cultural, and political hub of elite New York in the years after the Civil War—think Edith Wharton.
The Visionaire, one of three Pelli Clarke Pelli Architects-designed residential towers (with Solaire and Verdesian), is distinguished by its sleek curving southwest wall.With its 4,500 square feet of integrated photovoltaic-paneled curtain wall chugging out 48 kilowatts of power, a terracotta rain-screen curtain wall with an R-value of 20 reducing energy usage by 30%, potable water use reduced through storm water harvesting for toilets….and so many more integrated sustainable features, the handsome Visionaire received LEED Platinum, the highest rating of the U.S. Green Building Council.
WEEK 4
Speron Westwater Gallery, by Foster + Partners and associated architects Adamson Associates. The seemingly translucent glass on the Bowery façade is created by vertical lines that further emphasize the vertical proportion. The corrugated black metal rear panels are also oriented so that the ribs are vertical.
The Laurie M. Tisch Illumination Lawn and Lincoln Ristorante at Lincoln Center. Diller Scofidio + Renfro authored the project in collaboration with FXFOWLE.
MTA Flood Mitigation Streetscape Design. Rogers Marvel Architects created banks of raised stainless steel grates that rise up into an undulating wave of slats and hammered speckled side walls. There are three typical grates designed for specific water overflow depths. They can be combined in a left- or right-hand fashion to create the continuous surface over the structural grates below.
Speron Westwater Gallery (interior) The graceful piano curves of the balcony above softly suggest the lightwells of the surrounding tenements, while at the same time allowing for a 27’ tall wall for larger works. A skylit slot at the back terminates the long box with a wash of natural light.
“We live in a wonderful world that is full of beauty, charm and adventure. There is no end to the adventures that we can have if only we seek them with our eyes open.”
- Jawaharlal Nehru
A bientôt,
Karin
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