The Van Alen Institute plans to announce today that its executive director, Adi Shamir, is stepping down. Shamir cites an interest in focusing on her family and finishing several book projects as the reason for her resignation. She came to the organization in the summer of 2006, following the departure of Ray Gastil, who was there for nearly ten years. Joan Ockman, a VAI trustee and associate professor at Columbia’s Graduate School of Architecture, Planning and Preservation, will serve as interim director during an international search for Shamir’s replacement, which begins immediately. While the New York-based organization has a 100-year
Built between 1903 and 1905, the Darwin D. Martin House complex is one of Frank Lloyd Wright’s most celebrated residential designs. With six constituent pieces—the Darwin Martin House, the George Barton House, a pergola, conservatory, carriage house, and gardener’s cottage—the complex occupies a corner site in the prestigious Parkside East neighborhood of Buffalo.
Frank Lloyd Wright Photo courtesy Wikipedia Though Frank Lloyd Wright passed away decades ago—April 9 will mark the 50th anniversary of the death—two separate projects completed in recent years in New York owe their designs to the legendary architect. Massaro House Toward the end of his life, after enduring a few boom-bust cycles, Wright reached a remarkably productive stage of his career, often noting that he couldn’t shake buildings out of his sleeve fast enough. In 1952, the 85-year-old Wright designed a house and 300-square-foot guesthouse for Petre Island, located in Lake Mahopac, approximately 50 miles north of Manhattan. The
For more than two decades, the Battersea coal-fired power station, rumored to be the largest brick building in Europe, has sat dormant on the south bank of River Thames in London. The facility, built in 1939, was designed by Sir Giles Gilbert Scott, the architect responsible for the city’s iconic red telephone booths and the Bankside power station, which, in 2000, Herzog & de Meuron converted into the Tate Modern.
The Philadelphia chapter of the American Institute of Architects (AIA) recently opened the doors to its new Center for Architecture. The 8,000-square-foot center—located in an old factory near the downtown convention center—provides the growing chapter more space for offices, meetings, exhibitions, and its popular bookstore. One of the most noticeable advantages is a glazed storefront, which gives the center a public face. The AIA is sharing its new space with The Community Design Collaborative, an organization that helps nonprofits procure free design services. Photos courtesy John P. Claypool/AIA Philadelphia The new Center for Architecture in Philadelphia is located in an
One of New York’s most exciting cultural venues this summer is a vacant lot in Midtown Manhattan. There, the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA), which adjoins the site, is staging part of a new exhibition.
Photos courtesy Elizabeth Felicella Photography WORK Architecture Company recently completed its “Public Farm 1” installation at P.S.1, a contemporary art museum in Queens. Herbs and vegetables grown in the cardboard cylinders will be sold at a weekly farmer’s market. The cabbage has sprouted. The tomatoes are doing well. The farm in Queens is officially up and running. WORK Architecture Company, a New York-based firm, recently completed its installation at P.S.1, transforming the contemporary art museum’s two adjoining courtyards into a community agricultural project—and an imaginative architectural composition. This Saturday, July 5, the installation will become one of New York City’s
The results of two recent studies—one carried out by the New Buildings Institute (NBI), the other by CoStar Group—show that green building standards are not only effective, but also escalate property values. The post-occupancy studies, both released in March, attempted to measure the value of buildings with sustainability features compared to conventional buildings. They also aimed to demonstrate the effectiveness of third-party certification programs, specifically LEED, administered by the U.S. Green Building Council (USGBC), and Energy Star, managed by the Environmental Protection Agency and the U.S. Department of Energy. One study confirmed that new LEED-certified buildings use less energy than
