Results tagged “americaninstitute”

Plans to construct a glass addition to the top of the Battery Maritime Building moved a little closer to fruition this week with the approval of Community Board 1. The New York Post reports that the Board was a little concerned about the scale of the glass addition that will be added to the century-old structure, but that something productive had to be done with the building to ensure its continued existence. Plans by the Dermot Company include the installation of a 140-room boutique hotel, a restaurant, a lounge, and a specialty foods marketplace.

The American Institute of Architects is looking to supplant the idea of replacing the Gowanus Expressway with a tunnel, and instead proposes a suspended highway and formation of a Gowanus Greenway. In 2006, the Dept. of Transportation gave a green light to a $12.8 billion proposal to build a 3.5 mile, seven lane tunnel underneath the Brooklyn Waterfront and then destroying the elevated highway. The plan for a Gowanus Tunnel appears to be in perpetual stall though, and would take approximately 15 years to finish.

This week, reports the Downtown Express, the Landmarks Preservation Commission recommended that architects incorporate elements of the Battery Maritime Building's original architecture into a proposed plan to renovate and expand the ferry terminal. The Dermot Company seeks to develop a glass boutique hotel (complete with roof lounge) and specialty foods marketplace above the Beaux Arts ferry terminal.

This morning, the NY Times takes a look at the Mayor's $7.5 billion affordable housing plan four years since he announced it and one year since he expanded it to 165,000 units of low- to moderate-cost housing. About one third of the projected units, or 55,000, have been financed to date, and 41,366 have been completed.

The results are in for the 2007 Design Awards from the American Institute of Architects (AIA) New York Chapter. The jury, composed of notable architects and designers from around the world, reunited for a public symposium and discussion panel last night at the Center for Architecture. The judging criteria were defined as "Quality of design; resolution of the program or idea; and innovation, thoughtfulness, and technique."

10. Vietnam Veterans Memorial - Maya Lin with Cooper-Lecky PartnershipNew Yorkology has a list of the NYC structures in the top 150, and looking at what both the public and architects (they made some pre-selects), the rankings are all over the place. Sure, the Brooklyn Bridge is #20 and the Woolworth Building is #44. But the Apple Store on Fifth Avenue ranks #53, higher than the Flatiron Building (#72). Heck, even the new Hearst Tower ranks ahead of the Flatiron!

In its 14th year, Canstruction, hailed as the most unique food drive in the world, challenges 42 top New York City architecture and design firms to turn donated cans into creations. On display through Wednesday, November 22nd at The New York Design Center (200 Lexington Avenue at 32nd), cans are meticulously stacked and color coordinated into creative designs. Where else can you pretend to play a Canned Piano, courtesy of ads Engineers? Take Cansportation designed by Guy Nordenson and Associates? Or see a CANphibian from STV in a new habitat (surrounded by chairs)?

The Department of Tranportation revealed prototypes of the public toilets that are part of the $1 billion street furniture deal the city struck with outdoor company Cemusa last fall. While the papers are detailing the minutiae of doing your business in a this toilet (pay 25 cents for 15 minutes in the stainless steel and frosted glass water closet; door will open after 15 minutes), Gothamist wondered how this preview worked if you couldn't actually use the toilets. In fact, the NY Times had a quote from the American Institute of Architect's NYC executive director Frederic Bell, who thought it "elegant and functional":

"I saw it and I really wanted to use it. Whether you're sitting on a toilet or buying a newspaper, design matters."

And design matters when you're reading a newspaper on the toilet! The head of Cemusa Toulla Constantinou said, "Cemusa is committed to bringing New Yorkers the world-class street furniture they deserve." Um, street furniture that'll survive various forms of defacement and debasement? The DoT's press release, though, said that Grimshaw Architects's "distinctive design will enhance and enliven the streetscape while standing up to the rigors of sidewalk life in New York City," so we can only imagine the kind of focus groups and user testing they conducted. Overall, these toilets look beautiful, but we are skeptical how nice they'll look after one week. And we bet there will be lines outside of them.

BBQ NYC, which is on Saturday, is already sold out, but you can still get your ribs on at the Sixth Annual Blues, Barbecue and Fireworks on Sunday. This year's participants include Daisy May’s BBQ U.S.A., plus relative newcomers Dinosaur Bar B Que, RIB, Smoked Barbecue, and Spanky’s BBQ. Gothamist on last year's event.

Freedom Tower's redesign is apparently something the NYPD can okay. The NYPD's counterterrorism head told the City Council, "We have positioned ourselves exactly where we should be to ensure that the Freedom Tower is the beautiful, elegant, secure, safe, robustly designed project that we all want it to be." Somehow, Gothamist doubts that it'll be a beautiful and elegant building that *we* all want it to be, but after reading yesterday's NY Times story about the rebuilding, we're okay with "secure, safe, robustly designed." Mainly, because of this quote:

In publicly available reports, [Defense Department, the Federal Emergency Management Agency and the American Institute of Architects] advise that attention-getting architectural symbols are prime targets and should be located far from potential vehicle-borne bombs; glass facades can be lethal in a blast; train stations and underground garages are especially vulnerable to attack; and spacious, column-free interiors under other structures may be liable to collapse.

And there's a great "scare people to the core" graphic from with diagrams of how big an explosion from bombs of different sizes would be - it's a fascinating and frightening look at terrorism, engineering and public safety. Anyway, with the NYPD proclaiming that Freedom Tower will be the "safest big building" in NYC, should people working and/or living in other big buildings (any midtown skyscrapers, for instance) feel crappy?

Red is definitely one of Gothamists' favorite colors - especially in wine. Just combine some top-notch red vino with some top-grade red meat and we're ready to kick up our heels at a bonafide Bordeaux and bovine ball.