Here are some construction photos of the 2013 Serpentine Gallery Pavilion (opening June 8 until October 20) in London by Sou Fujimoto Architects, photographed by Laurence Mackman. See more photos at Mackman's London Architecture Blog.







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Earlier today I happened to be near the east edge of the World Trade Center site, and I noticed the first bits of steel rising above-grade for the Oculus of the Santiago Calatrava-designed WTC Transportation Hub.

Unfortunately the only camera on me was the one on my "dumbphone," so pardon the quality:

[Top: Photo by John Hill | Bottom: Screenshot from EarthCam (click "Oculus" at bottom)]

Below my snap is an aerial view of the construction site from a webcam, captured today at 11:56am. The arrow shows where the steel in the street-level photo can be found in the overall plan, what is the eastern end of the Oculus near Church Street. It's not much steel, but it should be interesting to see this thing rise in the coming weeks, when I'll make sure to bring along my camera.

Diller Scofidio + Renfro: Lincoln Center Inside Out: An Architectural Account by Diller Scofidio + Renfro
Damiani, 2012
Hardcover, 311 pages

On May 10, I attended a panel discussion at the Center for Architecture that followed the publication of Diller Scofidio + Renfro's account of the design and realization of Lincoln Center's transformation. This post is both a recap of that event and a review of the book celebrated that evening.



The panel consisted of five people: Elizabeth Diller and Ricardo Scofidio of DS+R; Anthony Vidler, Dean of the Irwin S. Chanin School of Architecture at the Cooper Union; Dana Polan, Professor of Cinema Studies at New York University; and moderator Edward Dimendberg, Professor of Film and Media Studies at the University of California. Dimendberg's presence allowed discussion of another book, his ten-years-in-the-making historical analysis of the firm, Architecture After Images, a book I enjoyed greatly.

Diller began the evening with a brief history of gaining the commission and of the book itself. In the case of the former she particularly praised Rebecca Robertson, former Executive Director of the Lincoln Center Development Project, for putting DS+R on the list after seeing their "Soft Sell" installation in Times Square. Bridging the project and the book was her statement that "buildings are one manifestation of architecture, books are another." With Lincoln Center, the book had to follow the project, because they were too busy during the process to work on the book, which they wrote, laid out, and even commissioned photos for, most by Iwan Baan. As we'll see, the defining characteristic of the book is how full-bleed photo-spreads alternate with gatefolds, or as Diller put it: "It's architectural porno (photos) mixed with a diary."


[L-R: Polan, Vidler, Scofidio, Dimendberg, and Diller.]

Dimendberg followed Diller, talking about what he discovered in the making of his book. He described both the book and the career of DS+R as narrative, something that grows from film. While Diller and Scofidio were architects on the margins when they began in the 1970s, four decades later (with partner Charles Renfro) they find themselves as architects able to maintain their integrity and be accepted as architects. This narrative arc continues post-Lincoln Center with projects in Los Angeles and Brazil moving forward.

Polan's contribution was fairly surprising and very interesting; he focused on "the theater of dining." He looked at the earlier Brasserie in the Seagram Building and the recent Lincoln Ristorante under the Illumination Lawn at Lincoln Center. Having written a book on Julia Child, and noticing how her set incorporated a dining room (a first) to link preparation and consumption/pleasure, Polan looked at each restaurant in terms of staging and visuality. For him, the Brasserie "puts objects into quotation," such as the blurring of wine bottles behind the bar. On the other hand, Lincoln Ristorante is luminous but varied, with three distinct zones and respective moods that arise from what can be seen, be it the kitchen, the bar, or the pool to the north.

Vidler analyzed the work of DS+R as a combination of two theoretical strands: program, based on John Summerson's 1957 article ("The Case for a Theory of Modern Architecture") on the architectural program as something based on science, technology, use, and nature; and image, based on Reyner Banham's writings, such as his contemporaneous take on "The New Brutalism." Like Dimendberg, Vidler finds narrative to be an important part of DS+R's work; for him, program and image are combined in unique ways through their use of narrative, of "remaking the story."



So with these thoughts from the panel discussion in mind, Lincoln Center Inside Out clearly tells a story. It is the penultimate narrative of the physical transformation of Lincoln Center, told by the architects but incorporating the myriad players into the story. (The last spread in the book is actually DS+R's "Chart of Accountability," which puts them in the middle but acknowledges the roles of every entity involved in the project.) In the most direct sense, the book tells one story in two ways (a mini-Rashomon): one through the photos and one through the gatefolds. The former is like a cursory glance at the place, akin to scanning a publication or website, while the latter is much more immersive and informative, due to the great amounts of text, drawings, and other images that lie within.

Appropriately these gatefolds remind me of DS+R's earlier book Scanning, in which many images are hidden but can be partly glimpsed through cuts in the perforated end pages. Readers can see the images in their entirety, but revealing them means defacing the book by tearing along the perforations (I've yet to do that to my copy). Lincoln Center Inside Out is not as much of a tease, but it does reconsider what a book can be through its gatefold structure. This unique approach results in an extremely rewarding book but one that made for difficulties in bookmaking; the first printing actually "did not hold," according to Diller in her talk.



The book's arrangement happens to be both geographical and (reverse) chronological, a condition that happens due to the lack of a master plan with the project, and therefore the construction of one piece after another. As Diller described it, the "project evolved in a very organic way," where smaller ideas were executed with a shared language. In my Guide to Contemporary New York City Architecture, I describe that shared language as "peeling," but Diller defined it as a "double function" found in all parts of the project: the roof of the restaurant is also a bucolic lawn, the third-floor extension of Julliard is also a ground-floor public space, and so forth.

After some oral histories covering Lincoln Center's inception and campus plan, the book moves onto a chapter on the bigger picture of transforming Lincoln Center, highlighted by a slideshow recounting DS+R's interview process. The chapters that follow focus on the Columbus Avenue Entrance, the North Plaza, the Street of the Arts, Julliard School, Alice Tully Hall, and the School of American Ballet, in that order.

The best parts of the book are definitely the gatefolds, as most of them are self-contained narrative details about the project. As Dimendberg noted, reading one gatefold each night before bed is a good way of taking in the book. The contents of each gatefold are unique, but in general they describe how some aspect of the project came into being and then document it in fine detail. For example, the gatefold devoted to the LED steps at Columbus Avenue addresses the oft-heard question of "How do I get to Lincoln Center?" (even as people were standing across the street from it, per the text), then delves into how the risers are detailed and how the lighting runs work. The most gatefolds are devoted to Alice Tully Hall, what Diller described as a project in its own right.

Not every piece of architecture deserves such a thorough and elaborate treatment, but it is definitely appropriate for Lincoln Center, given the scale and complexity of the undertaking, the modernist canvas on which the changes took place, and DS+R's creativity in making the place inviting to the public. Of course, it would not be enough for DS+R to publish just another book on a project, hence the innovative gatefold structure. In revealing what was hidden inside the guise of a coffee table book, Lincoln Center Inside Out parallels the project's double function, making it a joy to discover the changes that have take place over the last decade.

US: CA: UK:

Here are some photos of the Tchoban Foundation - Museum for Architectural Drawing (opening June 4, 2013) in Berlin, Germany, by SPEECH Tchoban&Kuznetsov; photographed by bcmng.











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A Weekly Dose of Architecture Updates:

This week's dose features The Public Theater in New York City by Ennead Architects:


The featured past dose is Clinton Library in Little Rock, Arkansas by Ennead Architects:


This week's book review is Where Are the Utopian Visionaries?: Architecture of Social Exchange edited by Hansy Better Barraza (L):

(R): The featured past book review is The Illegal Architect by Jonathan Hill.

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American-Architects Building of the Week:

Robinson Nature Center in Columbia, Maryland, by GWWO Inc./Architects:

Yesterday I stopped by Leslie Feely Fine Art on Manhattan's Upper East Side to check out the exhibition Frank Gehry At Work, on display until June 29. The exhibition collects about 30 process models, some for buildings that were completed, others as studies for projects never realized. Below are some of my photos and impressions.



Given the focus on Gehry "at work," the models range from messy to really messy—tape and hot glue are evident where needed to hold the metal, plastic, paper, wood, and even cloth into Gehry's distinctive forms. Easily my favorite piece is the one done in lead (below photo); even though it is undeniably Gehry, the fact it is made from one sheet of lead and is self supporting (no wood armature like the model above) brings it closer to a piece of art than the others.





Some of the models are more like presentation models than process models, such as these above and below. Yet as a close-up of the above photo reveals, globs of hot glue are still evident, as if capturing the forms in whatever means necessary is more important than craft. Another model I like seeing is a fairly well developed model of the IAC Headquarters near the High Line, accompanied by a photo of the completed building. In particular it's the entrance canopy in the lower-left corner that interests me, for I've always felt that the entrance and relationship of the building to the surrounding sidewalks is one of the weakest parts of the design (if not his whole oeuvre). But this small gesture, if realized (the entrance is on the north, or right side of the model), would have shifted the center of gravity and sidewalk presence of the building most dramatically.





Gehry's paper model for Beekman Tower (what was later named 8 Spruce Street then "New York by Gehry") is also interesting, for it shows much more variation happening from floor to floor, rather than the subtle shifts that happen at the perimeter of the completed building. Obviously this earlier iteration is much more expensive than what was built (remember, one full elevation of the tower is completely flat), but it's good to see Gehry working out what a tower could and should be.

Here's a photo of The Shed (2013) in London, England, by Haworth Tompkins, photographed by Andy Matthews.



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Last night at the Harvard Club was the announcement of the Harvard University Graduate School of Design's 2013 Wheelwright Prize winner. For the first time since its inception in 1936, the $100,000 Wheelwright Prize (formerly known as the Arthur Wheelwright Traveling Fellowship) is open to architects beyond the walls of Harvard GSD. Nevertheless the winner, Brooklyn-based architect Gia Wolff (who was chosen from among 231 applicants from 45 countries), graduated from the GSD in 2008.

Her winning proposal, Floating City: The Community-Based Architecture of Parade Floats, can be seen as an extension of a practice focused on performance through set designs, installations, and other creations. K. Michael Hays, a juror for the prize, spoke of the strong connection between her portfolio and proposal, something not always evident in other applicants. Wolff described her work—in particular with the Phantom Limb Company and its marionettes—as "dress rehearsals for architecture," a thinking that she will apply to the study of community-based parade floats in Brazil, India, France, Italy and Spain.

So, in the vein of "Where's Waldo," where's Wheelwright Prize winner Gia Wolff in this photo of the Gordon Reading Room?

[Click photo for answer.]

In his remarks, GSD Dean Mohsen Mostafavi pointed out something that separates the Wheelwright Prize from others (such as Wash U's Steedman, which I've entered a few times but never won): The prize does not require any outcome; it does not require anything to be produced. Wolff does not have to make a book, give a lecture, do anything based on her travels. But Mostafavi said this means the "gift" has "incredible ethical values." At the least, Wolff's travels will inform her practice; beyond that, it could produce just the things that the prize does not require.

We'll have to wait and see what comes of Wolff's travels, though Storefront for Art and Architecture director Eva Franch i Gilabert had a good idea: When she's done in two years, Wolff should come knocking on one of the Storefront's panels and propose something for the next IDEAS CITY, since there is a synergy between the way large-scale parade floats activate the streets of cities and what the biennial festival is trying to accomplish.


[The stair hall outside of the Gordon Reading Room. This was my first—and, who knows, maybe my last—time visiting the Harvard Club.]

Wolff's Floating City proposal is very intriguing, especially framed through images she showed of floats that approach the size of buildings. Below is a section of a video that really gets across the scale and performance aspects of Rio's Carneval, one of the places where Wolff will be traveling.

I took a walk at lunch and snapped a few photos of Morris Adjmi Architects' recently completed building at 254 Front Street at the South Street Seaport.











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A few weeks ago I found myself in West Harlem and decided to check out the progress on Columbia University's Manhattanville project, designed by Renzo Piano with SOM and James Corner Field Operations. The 17-acre project is controversial for its use of eminent domain, but that's ancient history and the first phase of the development plan is full steam ahead. In this view looking north from the 125th Street elevated 1-train station, the white steel of the Jerome L. Greene Science Center can be seen rising:


Here is a view looking east from atop the Riverside Drive viaduct (per the Manhattanville project's first-phase site plan, that boarded up building in the foreground will be coming down):


My reason for being in the area was a "Changing Architecture" panel hosted by GLUCK+ (formerly Peter Gluck and Partners) in the Malt House, a factory building they are transforming on West 126th Street. The evening focused on transforming the process of architecture through architect-led design-build, which GLUCK+ (and very few other firms) practices. Parts of the evening felt like an exercise in branding—with a series of "What's your plus?" queries starting the evening, and "Our plus is (blank)" being in lots of responses to other questions—but Peter Gluck, his son, and the three other principals made some convincing arguments for their process, which was strengthened for me after getting a tour I got of their office a few doors east.



While I like the idea of architect-led design-build, I understand the trepidation that most architects would have with abandoning traditional practice and delving into the relatively uncertain waters of the process, where each architect serves as architect and construction manager. In this vein, I'd argue that employees at GLUCK+ should serve a maximum of 3-5 years, thereby learning enough about the process to then embark on their own and "spread the gospel" of architect-led design-build. To really have an impact this alternative practice needs to expand beyond the confines of firms like GLUCK+, and this is one way to accomplish that, just as firms like OMA have served as a place for educating a certain type of architect before they start up their own companies.

To bring this post back to Manhattanville, one of the (many) positive attributes of Gluck's firm is the way it is invested in the welfare of its community, but in a much different way than Columbia University. Small projects like the Malt House have a major impact in the area, without the displacement of buildings and people and the bullying associated with that. This investment can be shared by more traditional architects, but the design-build aspect of GLUCK+ extends that, especially when combined with the strong relationships they have with local developers, one in attendance on the panel. More discussions are planned with GLUCK+ in West Harlem, and based on the first they will be highly recommended.

Here are some photos of the Musée du Louvre-Lens (2012) in Lens, France, by SANAA, photographed by shift.A.









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A Weekly Dose of Architecture Updates:

This week's dose features Phipps – Center for Sustainable Landscapes in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, by The Design Alliance Architects:


The featured past dose is Children's Museum of Pittsburgh in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, by Koning Eizenberg Architecture:


This week's book review is Building in Bloom: The Making of the Center for Sustainable Landscapes at Phipps Conservatory and Botanical Gardens by Mary Adam Thomas (L):

(R): The featured past book review is Flow: The Making of the Omega Center for Sustainable Living by Bob Berkebile, Stephen McDowell, Laura Lesniewski.

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American-Architects Building of the Week:

Beach Pavilion in Kennebunkport, Maine, by Carol A. Wilson Architect:

Here are a few photos of the Temporary Car Park Morspoort (2012) in Leiden, Netherlands, by Paul de Ruiter Architects, photographed by Klaas Vermaas.







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For the third time (first time, second time), here are a couple photos of the Harpa Concert Hall and Conference Center (2011) in Reykjavik, Iceland by Henning Larsen Architects, Batteríid Architects and Studio Olafur Eliasson, 2011, photographed by Pawel Paniczko. This post comes as Harpa is named the winner of the European Union Prize for Contemporary Architecture - Mies van der Rohe Award 2013.





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Head on over the Monocle to hear me talk about my 5 least favorite buildings in Manhattan and make some suggestions on what to do with them. "Monster Mash" is episode 82 of Monocle's The Urbanist radio show, which airs every Thursday.

Over at Architectural Record, Fred Bernstein laments how New York City is "permitting continuous walls of glass to erase the city’s history and leave its citizens with little to reflect on but reflections." The example he uses to describe this phenomenon, "where relentless repetition of glass facades leads to a numbing sameness," is Fumihiko Maki's office building nearing completion at 51 Astor Place.

I was in the area the other day and decided to snap some pictures of the building. Here is a view looking from the west, where the building reflects Daniel Burnham's Wanamaker department store:


I have not really studied the design of Maki's building, and I'll admit I did not fall in love with the early renderings of it, but I don't think it's the best (or would that be worst?) example of what Bernstein is criticizing. The faceted massing and variety of glass and framing types push the building a notch above most glass-wrapped buildings in the city. If anything, it's a glass building made even glassier by its small trapezoidal site, which lets it be seen prominently from at least three sides, and by the adjacency of the old stone buildings of Wanamaker's and Cooper Union's Foundation Building—the latter is visible on the left side in this view looking north up Third Avenue:


In these views from the south and east (above and below), the double-sided nature of Maki's design comes across. On the west, where it reflects Burnham's 1905 building, 51 Astor Place appears to be a glass slab, akin to a small-scaled Miesian office building. But on the east it reads as three masses: the tallest black slab, a truncated triangular section in the middle, and a four-story base that fills just about the whole block, minus a plaza on the southeast corner (the massing can be seen best in this model view). This sculpting of the glass building is fairly diagrammatic, but it's made better by the articulation of the exterior wall—the diagonal change from dark, butt-glazed panels to lighter glass with vertical fins gives the impression that the middle section of the building peels away from the taller slab. I'll grant that this is a visual conceit, but it's one that somehow manages to work well.

Here is a view looking from the east, with Charles Gwathmey's earlier glassy "Sculpture for Living" in the background:


Where I disagree with Bernstein is the fact he lumps so much scorn on Maki's building but goes pretty easy on Gwathmey's earlier building—its undulating wall is seen in the middle of the photo below, a view looking north on Lafayette toward 51 Astor Place. If there is one notable glass building in New York City since 2000 that I cannot stand, it is Gwathmey's tripartite tower. The clunky tower does the same things as Maki's tower (reflecting/refracting its surroundings, breaking up the mass, using different types of glass and framing), but in a much less elegant way. The faceted curves that make up the portion of the tower above the two-story base is one of my least favorite anywhere. Maki's building has a much bigger footprint than the Sculpture for Living, but I'd argue that the later building works better with the neighborhood, in terms of massing and articulation of glass, than the earlier one.



In terms of Bernstein's general argument—glass as the default wrapper for new buildings needs to be reconsidered—I'm in agreement. It's something I've actually talked about in the past, though to me the issue is about the design and articulation of glass walls as much as their prevalence. If all glass walls were given the care of 51 Astor Place (the area above the entry on Lafayette is seen below), or a building like 7WTC (not 1WTC, which is bland in comparison), then the "glazing over of New York" would not be so objectionable.



One example Bernstein uses that I am in total agreement with is 3 Columbus Circle, a 1928 that was literally glazed over with what the developers call a "New Glass Sleek Façade" to create a new image for a building that occupies a similarly small and trapezoidal site (but in a more vertically crowded context) to 51 Astor Place. If, as Bernstein says, "it takes both old and new, working in concert, to keep a city from becoming a suburban office park," then arguing to maintain the historical qualities of buildings like 3 Columbus Circle makes more sense than decrying 51 Astor Place's attempts at fitting into its context.

The new World-Architects eMagazine includes "A Short Survey of Architectural Publishing," made up of some Q&As I conducted with ten publishers. Click the link above or image below to read the piece.

What is the state of architectural publishing today? How, if at all, are publishers responding to the changes to reading brought on by digital technologies, such as E-books and E-readers? These and other questions are the focus of our Short Survey of Architectural Publishing, in which we asked publishers of books on architecture a series of questions about publishing, technology, and the books they produce.

A Weekly Dose of Architecture Updates:

This week's dose features 101 Spring Street in New York City by Architecture Research Office:


The featured past dose is Art et Industrie in New York City by Architecture Research Office:


This week's book review is Translucent Building Skins: Material Innovation in Modern and Contemporary Architecture by Scott Murray (L):

(R): The featured past book review is Contemporary Curtain Wall Architecture by Scott Murray.

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American-Architects Building of the Week:

Week of April 29: Riverview Park Visitor Service Building I in Louisville, Kentucky, by De Leon and Primmer Architecture Workshop:


Week of May 6: Rosa F. Keller Library and Community Center in New Orleans, Louisiana, by Eskew+Dumez+Ripple:

The following text, photos, and video are courtesy Oyler Wu Collaborative for their Stormcloud installation, as part of SCI-Arc's 40th anniversary celebration.


Designed and built by the office of Oyler Wu Collaborative along with students of the Southern California Institute of Architecture, Stormcloud is the third project in a series of installations designed for SCI-ARC. The previous two installations, Netscape and Centerstage, were designed for the school's graduation ceremonies in 2011 and 2012, respectively.


With SCI-Arc celebrating its 40th anniversary, the school commissioned the new pavilion for the after-party of its April 2013 gala. Tasked with the challenge of revamping the existing Netscape pavilion, Oyler Wu Collaborative saw the project as an opportunity to take a completely different approach to the problem. By removing the ten miles of knitted ropes that once hung between the soaring steel trusses, the project was transformed both volumetrically and materially. Using a minimal amount of new steel elements and cable supports, a spandex fabric was stretched between the elements, giving the pavilion a new life and an unexpected volumetric presence.


Geometrically, the project involves a series of funnel-like forms that extend from the rectilinear canopy structure above to a series of rings that are hung from the columns at around eye level. In the original conception of the project, the rings were simple geometric loops, but this relatively straightforward geometric approach presented a difficult problem in terms of fabric patterning. At the heart of the problem was the dramatic difference in the circumference between the upper portion of the canopy and the lower rings.


As a way of dealing with the problem, the eye-level rings were converted to more eccentric shapes made of bent-steel tubing. With the circumference of the eccentric shapes carefully sized to match the circumference of the upper canopy, the strategy effectively eliminated the need for patterning of fabric, while producing an undulating, curtain-like effect on the surface of the funnels.


One of the more striking features of the scheme is the oscillation between the reading of lines (in the structural system), surface (revealed at the base of the funnels), and volume (most present in the overall external view of the pavilion). What begins as a reading of volume ultimately reveals a system of deep spatial cavities through which an intricate structural system moves in and out of view. Both natural and artificial lighting effects accentuate these qualities further.


The thinness and lightweight color of the fabric produce a changing set of effects as natural lighting conditions change throughout the day. The fabric is at times translucent with a ghostly network of structure revealed beyond, and at other times opaque with dramatically warped shadows cast across the undulating surfaces. The lighting for the after-party was an opportunity to take that one step further, using changing color gradients to highlight the eccentric forms at the bottom funnels.


Project Design and Fabrication Team (Oyler Wu Collaborative): Dwayne Oyler, Jenny Wu, Mike Piscitello, Huy Le, Sanjay Sukie


Project Fabrication and Documentation Team (SCI-Arc): Sandra Reyes, Justin Tan, Jennie Sun, Dan Lu, Daniel Lee, Helena Yun, Noni Pettinger, Jonathan Bruen, Jocelyn Basseporte, Justin Kim, Vaishail Shah, Adam Fujioka, Arnold Kim, Melody Javahevian, Jacky Huang, Patrice Chang, Cody Miner, Shawn Rassekh, Bailey Shugart, Ryan Roark, Chuck Diep, Jennifer Diep, Cathy Qu, Elliott Freeman, Matt Pugh, Deysi Blanco, Stephen Rafferty


Structural Engineering: Nous Engineering, Matt Melnyk


Photography: Scott Mayoral, Art Gray, Clifford Ho, Dwayne Oyler


Video Production: Luisa Martinez, Mike Piscitello, Patrice Chang, Adam Fujioka, Dwayne Oyler, Jenny Wu

For the 2012 Venice Biennale, Swiss architect Valerio Olgiati curated a selection of "Pictographs—Statement of contemporary architects." The inspirational images from well-known architects were displayed on a large table in the Arsenale, and soon they'll be collected in a book published by Quart.

I asked architects to send me important images that show the basis of their work. Images that are in their head when they think. Images that show the origin of their architecture.

In this book we find 44 individual "musées imaginaires". The most unique architects living today each present up to 10 images to explain the autobiographical roots of their oeuvre. The images are explanations, metaphors, foundations, memories and intentions. They are poetic and philosophical avowals. They reveal a personal perspective on thoughts. They show the roots of architecture and expectations concerning projects. Conscious and unconscious.

This book has the format of a reader. As little as possible is said. The images are small, legible and interpretable as icons. As individual collections, they present a personal view of an individual world, while as a whole they provide a universal view of the perceptible origin of contemporary architecture.

Valerio Olgiati