Skyscraper Museum Book Talk

In one week -- Wednesday, February 22 at 6:30pm -- I'll be giving a book talk at The Skyscraper Museum, which is located at 39 Battery Place in Battery Park City.



Of course the book I'll be talking about is Guide to Contemporary New York City Architecture (W. W. Norton, 2011). The talk will give a little bit of background on how I did the book, but the focus will be tall buildings, going hand in hand with the mission of the host museum. For those who can make it, please be sure to say hello before or after the talk (preferably before, as I'll probably be a bit nervous beforehand!).

Today's archidose #559

Here are some photos of the Alto de Pinheiros House in São Paulo, Brazil by Arquiteto Paulo Bastos and Associados, 1970. Floor plans: lower and upper. Photographs are by Flavio.



















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Monday, Monday

My weekly page update:

This week's dose features A, B, C Lecture Halls at Silesian University of Technology in Gliwice, Poland by Zalewski Architecture Group:


The featured past dose is Instituto Rafael Arozarena in La Orotava, Tenerife by AMP Arquitectos:


This week's book review is The Berlage Survey of the Culture, Education, and Practice of Architecture and Urbanism edited by Salomon Frausto:


american-architects.com Building of the Week:

Bikestation in Long Beach, California by Fernando Vazquez Studio:


Some unrelated links for your enjoyment:

ARThitectural
"A worldwide database of modern architecture." (Added to sidebar under Blogs » Architecture.)

Underconstructions
"Observatory of innovative architectural practice in Europe."

RNDRD
"Rendering the 20th century." (Added to sidebar under Blogs » Architecture.)

Half Dose #102: BIG♥NYC

For the fourth year in a row the Times Square Alliance has commissioned an architect to create a heart in Times Square just in time for Valentine's Day. This year's installation is by Bjarke Ingels Group (BIG) with FLATCUT_ and Local Projects and it is appropriately titled BIG♥NYC. As the placard next to it, visible in the photo above, describes it:

More people = more love. A BIG red heart pulses with glowing light in a grove of glass rods. A single person can activate the beating heart, but joining hands with others will make the heart beat even faster to create a brightly burning heart.

These 400 acrylic tubes -- a 20 by 20 grid -- create a 10-foot-tall cube that recedes or holds its own in the Times Square environ. The installation alters between these impressions depending on the glow of the LEDs in the center of the cube: Between "beats" the tubes almost disappear, but when glowing the heart shape is well-defined and it pulls one towards it. The above view is from a block sourth of Father Duffy Square, where the heart resides just south of the TKTS booth and steps.





The photos above and below are taken from the TKTS steps. These views are particularly interesting because they give a slight glimpse of the tops of the 400 tubes. Also, from the steps the immediate background for the heart is the crowd of people passing around it.





Just south of the installation is its interactive component, called out simply with a heart on a podium, the words "touch me," and some visual directions on how to make the installation beat faster. Upon touching the pad, the LEDs glow in a pulsating rhythm that speeds up when people hold hands or, supposedly, when they kiss. It's a neat idea, to link the intimacy of Valentine's Day with the impersonal crowdedness of Times Square and New York City. This occurs not only in the interactive part, but also in the way the heart -- physically something that each individual has -- is figuratively created by the density of rods.



While the three previous installations created hearts from matter -- metal, ice, fabric -- this one opts for immaterial light and the convergence of the color red in a mass of otherwise undifferentiated clear rods. In name BIG♥NYC may be as much promo for Mr. Ingels as it is a Valentine's display for New York City, but its qualities are undeniable and it is a welcome addition to the Times Square for its brief duration (until the end of the month).

Today's archidose #558

Here are some photos one of my favorite buildings I've never seen in person, the Jean-Marie Tjibaou Cultural Centre in New Caledonia by the Renzo Piano Building Workshop, 1998. Photographs are by Ximo Michavila.













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Buildings from a Boat

A couple months ago I went on the Around Manhattan Official NYC Architecture Tour run by AIANY and Classic Harbor Line. The tour, which starts up again in the Spring, launches from Chelsea Piers, heads south on the Hudson River towards the Statue of Liberty, and then travels east and north up the East River and counterclockwise around the island via the Harlem River, Spuyten Duyvil Creek, and again the Hudson River. Having been focused for the past few years on experiencing the city by foot, it was refreshing to take in many of the buildings documented in my book from the water. Below are some of those buildings (and one or two others), presented in order of the cruise, the stretch from Chelsea to Roosevelt Island.

Jean Nouvel's 100 Eleventh Avenue (left) and Frank Gehry's IAC Building in Chelsea:


The Standard Hotel by Ennead Architects in the Meatpacking District:


Marine Company 1 by CR Studio Architects:


Perry and Charles Street towers by Richard Meier in the West Village:


Trump Soho by Handel Architects:


200 West Street by Pei Cobb Freed (curving building at left); in front of it is Riverhouse by Ennead Architects (both are in Battery Park City); in the background is 1WTC by SOM (under construction):


The curved building in the center is The Visionaire by Pelli Clarke Pelli in Battery Park City:


Empty Sky 9/11 Memorial in Jersey City by Frederick Schwartz:



William Beaver House in the Financial District by Tsao & McKown (it's the black and yellow one in the distance):


Pier 15 at South Street Seaport by SHoP Architects:



Brooklyn Bridge Park by Michael Van Valkenburgh:


8 Spruce Street near City Hall by Frank Gehry:


Jane's Carousel in DUMBO, Brooklyn by Jean Nouvel:


Pencil Factory in Greenpoint, Brooklyn by Daniel Goldner (it's the checkerboard building in the middle):


United States Mission to the United Nations in Midtown by Gwathmey Siegel (it's the painted concrete tower with the small square openings on the left):


And finally the FDR Memorial on Roosevelt Island (under construction) by Louis I. Kahn:

To Do and See in NYC

A few things to do and see in New York City in the next couple weeks:

Doug Wheeler at David Zwirner Gallery:

[image credit: David Zwirner Gallery | image source]

Wheeler's immersive installation is on display until February 25, 2012 at 519 West 19th Street.

BIG♥NYC by BIG (Bjarke Ingels Group)with FLATCUT_ and Local Projects:

["A BIG red heart pulses with glowing light in a grove of glass rods." | image source]

The Times Square Alliance's annual heart installation is on display in Father Duffy Square (46th Street and Broadway) until February 29, 2012.

Metals in Construction 2012 Facades Conference: Creating the 21st-Century Facade: How architects and fabricators are advancing curtain wall design in the digital age:

[Day 1 Program | Click for PDF]

15 presentations culminate in a Key Note by Patrik Schumacher (Director, Zaha Hadid Architects) on February 16, 2012. Click for registration.

Check back for blog posts on all of the above in the coming weeks. And for more events in the city, check out the NewYork-Architects.com current events.