All posts from A Daily Dose of Architecture

For the exhibition Still Action -- on view at the School of the Art Institute's Sullivan Galleries in Chicago until October 2nd -- Brandon Pass designed, built, and installed (the last two with Nick Bastic) a kinetic wall installation for artists Elissa Papendick and Libby O'Bryan to "challenge and broaden the curatorial process as an artistic practice."Inspired by anthropologist C. Nadia Seremetakis's concept "still-act" ("moments when a subject interrupts historical flow and practices historical interrogation"), on each Friday the gallery hosts different artists "who instigate aesthetic experiences that leave viewers with a heightened sense of awareness."As can be seen in the image at top, the wall installation is more of a work surface than an armature for artistic expression, fitting with Papendick and O'Bryan's focus on curating for their residency. Some relatively mundane activities take place when the wall is opened as a desk (meetings, coordination, etc.), but all of the curatorial elements are then tucked away when the wall is closed.These drawings illustrate how pieces hinge in plan and section, not just projecting from the wall but protruding through to modify both sides of the wall simultaneously. For example, the desk surface extends through the wall to become a small stand for a microphone and coffee or tea; curating and interviewing happen on either side but are interdependent on the same movable elements.Function in the realm of the exhibition and the artists' tasks aside, I prefer the image of the wall in the closed position. Over time it probably won't have the unadorned appearance of above, but the combination of panels, reveals, and hardware give it the appearance of a cabinet of curiosities, or something like Ben Nicholson's Teloman Cupboard. One may not envision a simple desk and other accoutrements when open, instead letting the mind wander to whatever slender artifacts may lie behind the plywood. Regardless it's a small but dynamic and influential element within its surroundings that addresses the needs of the curators and over time the other artists as well.

Here are a couple photos of St Henry's Ecumenical Art Chapel in Turku, Finland by Sanaksenaho Architects, 2005. Photographs are by peter and seija.To contribute your Flickr images for consideration, just::: Join and add photos to the archidose pool, and/or:: Tag your photos archidose

.flickr-photo { border: solid 2px #000000; }.flickr-yourcomment { }.flickr-frame { text-align: left; padding: 3px; }.flickr-caption { font-size: 0.8em; margin-top: 0px; }Heathdale House - Teeple Architects, originally uploaded by Scott Norsworthy.Heathdale House in Toronto, Ontario by Teeple Architects, 2005.To contribute your Flickr images for consideration, just::: Join and add photos to the archidose pool, and/or:: Tag your photos archidose

Here's a wrap-up of my 31 buildings/places in 31 days: #1 - Phyto Universe#2 - One Bryant Park#3 - Pier 62 Carousel#4 - Bronx River Art Center#5 - The Pencil Factory#6 - Westbeth Artists' Housing#7 - 23 Beekman Place#8 - Metal Shutter Houses#9 - Bronx Box#10 - American Academy of Arts and Letters#11 - FDR Four Freedoms Park#12 - One Madison Park#13 - Pio Pio Restaurant#14 - Queens West (Stage II)#15 - 785 Eighth Avenue#16 - Big Bambú#17 - Event Horizon#18 - Murano#19 - William Lescaze House#20 - Morgan Library and Museum#21 - MTA Flood Mitigation#22 - Wilf Hall#23 - Yohji Yamamoto#24 - NYU Center for Academic and Spiritual Life#25 - Nehemiah Spring Creek#26 - Longchamps#27 - 9th Street Residence#28 - Crocs#29 - Art et Industrie#30 - Tartinery Nolita#31 - Sperone Westwater GalleryAlso see my 31in31 Flickr set.

This is a series for August 2010 which documents my on-the-ground -- and on-the-webs -- research for my guidebook to contemporary NYC architecture (to be released next year by W. W. Norton). Archives can be found at the bottom of the post and via the 31 in 31 label.The Sperone Westwater Gallery, designed Foster + Partners, is nearing completion about a block north of the New Museum. This piece continues the transformation of the Bowery, from Cooper Union down to Chinatown. In the ten or eleven years since I stayed at a hostel on the Bowery the street has seen numerous new buildings as well as restaurants and shops, displacing the old flophouses and mainstays like CBGB's.I always liked to think of the Bowery as un-gentrifiable, a zone immune to the changes in neighborhing SoHo, NoHo, the Lower East Side, and the East Village. Of course I was wrong, but a nine-story building with a bright red elevator on its facade is probably the last thing I would have expected from the alternative scenario.Norman Foster's design is the antithesis of the New Museum, which made the Bowery cool for institutions with money to spend on buildings by name-brand architects. SANAA's stacked and shifted white boxes respond to the zoning envelope without making that legal device explicit; Foster's design rises to the maximum street wall and then sets back once. Done.Granted, the 20-foot-wide lot doesn't give much room for play, so Foster focuses on the skins. Facing the Bowery on the first five floors is an all-glass wall with laminations that allow light and views, but the latter are indistinct, yet not so much that the elevator's workings aren't apparent. One effect of the glass, which lies somewhere between transparent and translucent, is the band of light visible in these photos. It must be an unwritten code that new buildings must have a surface that blinds passersby!The side walls, facing north and south, are blanketed with black corrugated metal, the panels mimicking -- but oddly not following exactly, in size or spacing -- the glass on the front. The rear facade is similar to the top of the front, with a zipper of clear glass running vertically between what looked to be solid panels (not translucent like the front). Foster's design certainly has a strong presence on the Bowery, but its industrial elegance will pack more of a wallop at night when the glass box is illuminated and the red box glows.Previously:#1 - Phyto Universe#2 - One Bryant Park#3 - Pier 62 Carousel#4 - Bronx River Art Center#5 - The Pencil Factory#6 - Westbeth Artists' Housing#7 - 23 Beekman Place#8 - Metal Shutter Houses#9 - Bronx Box#10 - American Academy of Arts and Letters#11 - FDR Four Freedoms Park#12 - One Madison Park#13 - Pio Pio Restaurant#14 - Queens West (Stage II)#15 - 785 Eighth Avenue#16 - Big Bambú#17 - Event Horizon#18 - Murano#19 - William Lescaze House#20 - Morgan Library and Museum#21 - MTA Flood Mitigation#22 - Wilf Hall#23 - Yohji Yamamoto#24 - NYU Center for Academic and Spiritual Life#25 - Nehemiah Spring Creek#26 - Longchamps#27 - 9th Street Residence#28 - Crocs#29 - Art et Industrie#30 - Tartinery Nolita

This is a series for August 2010 which documents my on-the-ground -- and on-the-webs -- research for my guidebook to contemporary NYC architecture (to be released next year by W. W. Norton). Archives can be found at the bottom of the post and via the 31 in 31 label.Spotted at The Architect's Newspaper, Tartinery Nolita is a new restaurant located on Mulberry next to Spring Lounge. Designed by SOMA Architects, the facade is marked by deep-set, black-steel fins projecting from the storefront glazing.These fins -- spaced randomly across the elevation --work to hide and reveal the spaces behind. The shallow bar occupies the northern end (right in photos), and the double-height dining area sits to the south.The bar-code design is more interesting from across the street than from the adjacent sidewalk (the top image of the archpaper piece testifies to this). But from directly in front of the restaurant, the double-height dining area attracts the most attention. From the sidewalk the space extends to the cellar; an exposed brick wall behind mesh stands out at the southern end of the restaurant. A small tree also occupies this lower space, rising from the middle of a table. Previously:#1 - Phyto Universe#2 - One Bryant Park#3 - Pier 62 Carousel#4 - Bronx River Art Center#5 - The Pencil Factory#6 - Westbeth Artists' Housing#7 - 23 Beekman Place#8 - Metal Shutter Houses#9 - Bronx Box#10 - American Academy of Arts and Letters#11 - FDR Four Freedoms Park#12 - One Madison Park#13 - Pio Pio Restaurant#14 - Queens West (Stage II)#15 - 785 Eighth Avenue#16 - Big Bambú#17 - Event Horizon#18 - Murano#19 - William Lescaze House#20 - Morgan Library and Museum#21 - MTA Flood Mitigation#22 - Wilf Hall#23 - Yohji Yamamoto#24 - NYU Center for Academic and Spiritual Life#25 - Nehemiah Spring Creek#26 - Longchamps#27 - 9th Street Residence#28 - Crocs#29 - Art et Industrie

My weekly page update:This week's dose features 40R_Laneway House in Toronto, Ontario, Canada by superkül inc | architect:The featured past dose is Courtyard House in Toronto, Ontario, Canada by Studio Junction:This week's book review is Encyclopedia of Detail in Contemporary Residential Architecture by Virginia McLeod:**NOTE: The next "weekly dose" will be 2010.09.13.**Some unrelated links for your enjoyment: The Bankruptcy of ArchitectureSee the results of "an intensive 10-day studio 18-27 August, Chania, Crete, Venetian Arsenal."round housesNot square, round. (added to sidebar under blogs::architecture)Things Organized NeatlyJust like the title says.World Landscape Architect"A weblog to provide built environment news and information for landscape architects and built environment professionals." (added to sidebar under blogs::landscape)

This is a series for August 2010 which documents my on-the-ground -- and on-the-webs -- research for my guidebook to contemporary NYC architecture (to be released next year by W. W. Norton). Archives can be found at the bottom of the post and via the 31 in 31 label.Although completed a couple years before 2000, the former Art et Industrie sculpture garden is something I was intrigued about, so I searched it out over the weekend and took a close look at it. Designed by Architecture Research Office (ARO) and located at the corner of Thompson and Broome Streets, the meat of the project is basically two solid-steel fences that follow the corner.I'm not sure what Art et Industrie displayed in its indoor and outdoor galleries, but the fence is like a piece of Modernist sculpture: well-crafted, simple, and easy to miss.Painted a dark gray, thin sheets of steel (I'm guessing about 8' by 8') are welded to matching steel H-shape supports which double as deep reveals.The posts stop a little bit short of the panels, allowing the thinness of the latter to be legible. Visible below, the corner overlap puts the simple construction of the two elements on display.The adjacent storefront space is empty, and a peek through the space reveals a pleasing garden. But in an area surrounded by mid- and high-rise construction, what is the future of this outdoor space? If I'm reading it right, a recent DOB filing points to an "eating and drinking establishment," something easy to imagine working well here, indoors and out.Previously:#1 - Phyto Universe#2 - One Bryant Park#3 - Pier 62 Carousel#4 - Bronx River Art Center#5 - The Pencil Factory#6 - Westbeth Artists' Housing#7 - 23 Beekman Place#8 - Metal Shutter Houses#9 - Bronx Box#10 - American Academy of Arts and Letters#11 - FDR Four Freedoms Park#12 - One Madison Park#13 - Pio Pio Restaurant#14 - Queens West (Stage II)#15 - 785 Eighth Avenue#16 - Big Bambú#17 - Event Horizon#18 - Murano#19 - William Lescaze House#20 - Morgan Library and Museum#21 - MTA Flood Mitigation#22 - Wilf Hall#23 - Yohji Yamamoto#24 - NYU Center for Academic and Spiritual Life#25 - Nehemiah Spring Creek#26 - Longchamps#27 - 9th Street Residence#28 - Crocs

.flickr-photo { border: solid 2px #000000; }.flickr-yourcomment { }.flickr-frame { text-align: left; padding: 3px; }.flickr-caption { font-size: 0.8em; margin-top: 0px; }Würzburg Weingut Stein a, originally uploaded by david pasek.Weingut Am Stein (presentation and seminar rooms for winery) in Wuerzburg, Germany by Hofmann Keicher Ring Architekten, 2005To contribute your Flickr images for consideration, just::: Join and add photos to the archidose pool, and/or::Tag your photos archidose

This is a series for August 2010 which documents my on-the-ground -- and on-the-webs -- research for my guidebook to contemporary NYC architecture (to be released next year by W. W. Norton). Archives can be found at the bottom of the post and via the 31 in 31 label.Across the street from the strange Germanic streetscape of NYU's Deutsches Haus is a full block of beige brick, setbacks, and balconies. Some of the last are filled in (bottom middle of photo above) to convert the outdoor "rooms" to indoor space. Most of these new enclosures are unexceptional, but a piece capping one of the setbacks is subtly different, channel glass walls rising behind the old guardrails. Designed by Rogers Marvel Architects, the 9th Street Residence combined two apartments into one; the glass enclosure is an extension that houses the living area. The channel glass wraps over the space, visible in the photo below through the horizontal vision glass that wraps the corner.Previously:#1 - Phyto Universe#2 - One Bryant Park#3 - Pier 62 Carousel#4 - Bronx River Art Center#5 - The Pencil Factory#6 - Westbeth Artists' Housing#7 - 23 Beekman Place#8 - Metal Shutter Houses#9 - Bronx Box#10 - American Academy of Arts and Letters#11 - FDR Four Freedoms Park#12 - One Madison Park#13 - Pio Pio Restaurant#14 - Queens West (Stage II)#15 - 785 Eighth Avenue#16 - Big Bambú#17 - Event Horizon#18 - Murano#19 - William Lescaze House#20 - Morgan Library and Museum#21 - MTA Flood Mitigation#22 - Wilf Hall#23 - Yohji Yamamoto#24 - NYU Center for Academic and Spiritual Life#25 - Nehemiah Spring Creek#26 - Longchamps

Here are some photos of the South Pond pavilion (for yoga and other uses) at Lincoln Park Zoo in Chicago, Illinois by Studio Gang Architects, 2010. Photographs are by John (& Beth) Zacherle.To contribute your Flickr images for consideration, just::: Join and add photos to the archidose pool, and/or:: Tag your photos archidose

This is a series for August 2010 which documents my on-the-ground -- and on-the-webs -- research for my guidebook to contemporary NYC architecture (to be released next year by W. W. Norton). Archives can be found at the bottom of the post and via the 31 in 31 label.Double glass doors cut into an otherwise blank brick wall barely hint at the stunning space for Longchamps on Spring Street in SoHo. Designed by Heatherwick Studio and completed in 2006, a "landscape stair" is the defining element that ties the ground floor with larger second floor above. Longchamps makes handbags, among other things, so appropriately the continuous treads appear to be made of leather (they are rubber on steel plate). Black posts and handrails are the only other major visual element occupying the space (beside the goods); the glass guardrails--fabricated the same way as car windshields--disappear at certain angles and create blurry reflections at other angles. All is skylit, like a luxury stairway to heaven. It is one of the best retail environments in Manhattan, because it finds inspiration in the product and fuses its expression with its function as an armature for displaying merchandise.Previously:#1 - Phyto Universe#2 - One Bryant Park#3 - Pier 62 Carousel#4 - Bronx River Art Center#5 - The Pencil Factory#6 - Westbeth Artists' Housing#7 - 23 Beekman Place#8 - Metal Shutter Houses#9 - Bronx Box#10 - American Academy of Arts and Letters#11 - FDR Four Freedoms Park#12 - One Madison Park#13 - Pio Pio Restaurant#14 - Queens West (Stage II)#15 - 785 Eighth Avenue#16 - Big Bambú#17 - Event Horizon#18 - Murano#19 - William Lescaze House#20 - Morgan Library and Museum#21 - MTA Flood Mitigation#22 - Wilf Hall#23 - Yohji Yamamoto#24 - NYU Center for Academic and Spiritual Life#24 - Nehemiah Spring Creek