News And Updates
Live Architecture Network is an organization that directs global workshops on digital design and fabrication in architecture for academic and client-based projects. LAN brings their workshop to Cambridge next month for “Architectural Response: Time, Tech, Tectonics”.
Its clear in 2010 perhaps more than ever that significant shifts in economies and culture can occur extremely rapidly; climatic crisis can devastate enormous populations in seconds. Our architectural response time is critical. The architectural recourse of one crisis needs to be more than a temporary fix as it is often the only opportunity to implement further preventative measures for a future occurrence.
Parametric practices are moving architectural design on a micro-scale through dynanic modeling & on more significantly on a macro-scale towards a dynamic architectural medium–a Live practice. LaN asks you to abandon representation modes of design and practice LIVE.
“Architectural Response: Time, Tech, Tectonics” will be held April 12-14 and will consist of a combination lectures, instructionals, and directed worksessions. The workshop will take place at the Microsoft New England Research and Development Center (yes, that’s NERD) in Kendall Square.
Registration for the three-day workshop ranges from $255 for students who register early, to $395 for professionals. Want to go but can’t afford it? You can apply online for 1 of 2 available scholarships.
Microsoft NERD
One Memorial Drive
Cambridge, MA 02142
Le Corbusier was a pioneer in modern architecture, urban planning, and, of course furniture design. He thought about every aspect of how design — from the chair you sit in to how bulldozing Paris could help the underprivileged — can affect human existence. He’s largely credited with starting this crazy design thing called modern architecture.
But there’s one thing that, through all of his research, writing, and belief in “a machine for living in” that Le Corbusier overlooked: Children.
Children don’t prescribe to any set belief in how to behave, how to live, or how to sit. They’re imaginative. They take the limitations we adults try to impose upon them, and flip them around. (That’s my son, DesignKid, on Christopher’s LC4)
So designers, and design fans, remember: As great and thoughtful as your work and pieces and creations are, there’s an 11-year old somewhere that is ready to do something with it you’ve never dreamed of.
Yesterday afternoon, I took a walk around Charlestown with my camera. I walked along the Mystic, from the Charlestown High School playing fields down to the Navy Yard, taking photos of everything and anything that caught my attention (which is a lot).
After a couple hours of walking and shooting, my camera warned that battery exhaustion was imminent, so I started making my way home. Instead of back-tracking, I decided to walk by the Bunker Hill Monument — an omnipresent structure in the neighborhood. As I’m approaching Monument Square, I look a side street, and spot this:
I was stunned. A modern home in Charlestown? That seems as unlikely as one in Beacon HIll, what with all the Victorian brownstones and the historic gaslights in the neighborhood. On top of that, how have I not noticed it before? I’ve lived in Charlestown for almost two years, and I walk everywhere!
It’s a four-story, single-family home with a very open interior layout. There’s a balcony on each story, but they’re not carbon copies of the floor below. The first story is parallel with the road behind and the garage door, while the three above are angled to get the most of the morning light coming in over Boston Harbor. The fourth floor is set back further than the rest, providing additional privacy from what is presumably the master suite.
Intrigued and impressed, I just had to see what the front of this house looked like. When I curled around the block, what I found was not dramatically different from what the rest of the neighborhood looks like.
You’d be forgiven for thinking this was just another renovated brownstone. The metallic cladding on the dormer is the only giveaway that there’s anything different beyond the historic facade.
The renovation looks to be about 80-90% done. It looks like some interior details and finishing touches — a light at the front door, doorbell, and the like — are all that are needed.
Someone came out of a house a few doors down. I asked him if knew who owned the house, and he told me someone from a block or so away bought the house, but wasn’t sure who. He said the entire house was demolished, save the front facade. I asked a local realtor and found out the owner is a local business owner and his wife, lifelong Bostonians.
The house is beautiful, and incredibly unique for Boston. Yet for all of it’s modern updates, it blends in with the surrounding neighborhood very well. I’d love to get a walkthrough of the home when it’s finished. If that happens, you know I’ll be sharing with you.
What do you think? Does this home fit in with what you picture Charlestown — or Boston — to be? Can you see a street of modern brownstones being built, or is it just a one-off idea?
At SHIFTBoston, we saw the top 20 ideas presented by the expert panel, but what about the other 122 proposals? At least one firm is very proud of its proposal, and believe it would make a great addition to the city’s infrastructure.
Boston is a walkable city. I can vouch for this reputation, having walked from North Station to Brookline Village, and from the Back Bay to Ashmont Hill, in the past. But what about East Boston? Eastie is separated, physically and mentally, by Boston Harbor. Jamaica Plain-based OZIIO has a solution for this.
The Harbor’s Public Space, known as the Harbor Walk, follows the edge of Greater Boston from the North End and as far south as the ICA. The project proposes a Harbor Walk bridge to link both sides of the harbor and ultimately encourage reactivation of East Boston’s harbor edge. Scaling back farther, an argument can be made to connect the linear ‘green’ corridors that exist on both sides of the river. To make this connection the bridge will be sited on disused urban fragments such as the abandoned East Boston ferry terminal that has a direct connection to Maverick Square. Sargent’s wharf in the North End is chosen to be the Boston terminus transforming its function as a large-scale parking lot by giving the site new urban dynamism.
By giving the bridge multiple, alternating layers and a corner midway across the harbor, the bridge provides more function than simply a connection from one neighborhood to another. “Through this urban deign concept, the unconventional bridge form evolves to be more than just a bridge but rather an urban landscape extending out over the water. By extruding the various organic and orthogonal lines emanating from the docks found on both sides of the harbor, the bridge begins to take on shape. Paths form where the lines intersect carving out surfaces of decking, concrete pavers, and green space.”
The bridge’s atmosphere offers both space for peaceful reflection and speedy transit. The bridge provides unobstructed views of Boston’s skyline as well as leisure space surrounded by indigenous trees and plant life. The injection of new functions such as urban market space and dedicated bike commuting paths provide a pathway that can be traversed in 2 to 15 minutes with activities to do in-between. Restructuring the space over the water as a new public forum allows the harbor bridge to play the roll of destination and not just means to get from A to B. By bridging the waterfronts we help further move the urban infrastructure of Boston away from car-centric travel and toward a true walking city.
OZIIO’s Justin Viglianti believes their proposal wasn’t selected as a finalist “because there were so many projects that took into consideration the water around the city and on a much grander scale. Yet our modesty might say something about how personally intimate we feel about such issues as connecting waterfronts and providing an infrastructure for the underprivileged.”
What do you think? Could you see a link between East Boston and downtown becoming reality? How could connecting the neighborhood with the city change either, or both?
Andrzej Zarzycki and Sapir Ng are moving from “What if?” to “Why not?” The winners of the SHIFTBoston competition in January were at PechaKucha Boston last Wednesday, where they introduced TUTS.
TUTS (Tremont Underground Theater Space) has a core team of Andrzej, Sapir and Tina Vaz, along with graphic/visual branding help from graphic designer Laura Nathanson. Beyond introducing the concept of TUTS to the PechaKucha crowd, Andrzej said, “We also talked about meetings we are initiating with various individuals from design, arts and social activism communities to develop broader support for our project.”
I missed their talk, but am very excited to hear how their efforts are progressing. Boston loves its history, and its theater, and this would fall in line perfectly with both of those.
One question I have: If this moves from beyond a concept phase and towards reality, how will they be able to mitigate the noise of the adjoining subway system — the Green Line to the west, and the Orange Line to the east — in order to hold theatrical performances? This will be an interesting challenge to see them address.
It often feels like design-minded people — you and me — have opposing values: We’re among the loudest voices calling for more environmentally-friendly buildings, but at the same time, we want well-crafted, comfortable, designed homes.
DWR on Tremont Street has called in a professional to help us with this dilemma. Steve Glenn, founder and CEO of the green development firm Living Homes will present “High Design, Low Impact: Building LivingHomes”.
The developer of the nation’s first LEED Platinum home, and with over nine LivingHomes in development that are designed to achieve LEED Platinum, Glenn is one of the more experienced builders of environmentally conscious homes in the United States. While LivingHomes uses the LEED program for external review and validation, the company has established its own Z6 sustainable building goals, which serve as development objectives for each LivingHome, insuring that they have as close as possible to zero negative impact on health and environment. The Z6 goals are Zero Water, Zero Energy, Zero Waste, Zero Emissions, Zero Carbon and Zero Ignorance.
Glenn will share his experiences working with leading architects, including Ray Kappe, FAIA, one the most celebrated modern architects in the US, and KieranTimberlake, the AIA 2009 Firm of the Year, to create LivingHomes. He will discuss the specific elements that go into a LivingHome to achieve the Z6 goals and the process of building a LivingHome – from its factory construction to on-site installation in mere hours. Attendees will gain new insights into sustainable design and prefabrication, and will be able to get any questions answered about building a LivingHome.
“High Design, Low Impact” will be this Thursday, March 4, starting at 6:30. Planning on attending? Please RSVP.
DWR Boston Studio
519 Tremont St.
Boston, MA 02116
Phone: 617-451-7801
I was recently walking down Tremont St, across the Mass Pike, when I was struck by the view above. Three hotels, all within a block or two of each other, yet clearly from three generations of Boston’s development: the concrete Radisson, the glass W Hotel, and the brick Courtyad by Marriott. (Click for a larger view)
These buildings speak to us about our city’s past as much as any brownstone, government building or office tower. You just need to look up every once in a while and appreciate the stories they tell.
Harvard GSD and ACTAR have recently released GSD Platform 2
Organized thematically, the publication identifies underlying congruencies among studio work, theses, research, lectures, conferences, and writings to unfold some of the many critical ideas and interests currently being explored in the School. Ranging in scope from detailed material fabrication to large-scale territorial and infrastructural strategies, the work spans a broad and diverse set of geographies and scenarios. In documenting this work, the publication archives and disseminates the rich intellectual momentum of the GSD.
GSD Platform 2 is a chance to look into the work of tomorrow’s design leaders. It’s a hefty book, weighing nearly 2 pounds and containing 300 pages in full color and B/W, in a variety of different papers.
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The pinkcommagallery has issued a call for entries for their inaugural Design Biennial Boston 2010 exhibit, a review of “design works that represent creative approaches and solutions to issues in contemporary design.”
Design Biennial Boston will be a “juried exhibition of the most significant emerging voices among Greater Boston’s early-career design talent (including practices working in architecture, landscape architecture, graphic design, industrial design, and interior design).”
To be considered for the exhibition, a designer must meet the following criteria:
Applicants must practice in Greater Boston, including the metropolitan area and suburbs;
Applicants must have graduated from a design or architecture program;
Applicants may work in another firm, but the work presented must have been completed
independently;
Applicants must have been in independent practice for fewer than 10 years or may be anyone
up to 45 years old, no matter how long they have been in practice;
Applicants may be a collaborative team or a firm if all applicants meet the criteria above.
Selected participants will be presented at the Design Biennial Boston 2010 exhibition at the pinkcommagallery and showcased in an accompanying pamplet publication.
The jury comes from across the spectrum of design in Boston:
Mark Pasnik, Chris Grimley, Michael Kubo, pinkcomma gallery.
Stefane Barbeau, Vessel.
Beate Becker, DIGMA.
Eric Höweler, Höweler + Yoon Architecture.
Fritz Klaetke, Visual Dialogue.
Dennis Kois, Director, DeCordova Sculpture Park and Museum.
Amanda Lawrence, PRAXIS.
Beth Whittaker, MERGE Architects.
Interested in submitting for the Design Biennial Boston 2010 exhibition? Get all the details and application here, but hurry – all entries must be received at the gallery by 4:00pm on March 12. The exhibition will take place in late spring.
Every year, the American Institute of Architects awards the Young Architects Award. Young Architects are defined as professionals who have been licensed 10 years or fewer regardless of their age. This award honors individuals who have shown exceptional leadership and made significant contributions to the profession early in their careers.
For 2010, the AIA is honoring nine architects with the Young Architects Award. The best part? Three of the nine are from Boston.
The first is David Grissino, AIA of Goody Clancy.
Grissino began his career in design at the University of Massachusetts, where he graduated cum laude with a Bachelor of Fine Arts in Interior Design and helped to establish the Design Student Group, the predecessor to the current AIAS chapter. He earned his Masters in Architecture from the University of Pennsylvania. After returning to Massachusetts, Grissino immediately joined the Boston Society of Architects (BSA). He became part of the Urban Design Committee’s South Boston Waterfront Task Force to review and analyze redevelopment initiatives for the waterfront. While participating in the city-wide dialogue for the waterfront plan, Grissino was working on the design and permitting of two project for William Rawn Associates. Grissini then began work with Goody Clancy in Boston, where he is currently a Senior Urban Designer working on a wide range of architecture, urban design and planning projects. He is also a leader in the firm’s campus planning practice, involved with the marketing, business development, project management and design aspects of nearly every campus planning project in the office.
Next, is Gregory Minott, AIA, of Elkus Manfredi Architects.
Minott was born in Jamaica where he also began his professional career as an architect and continues to consult. In 1999 Minott moved to the US in order to continue his education at the New Jersey Institute of Technology. After acquiring a Master of Architecture and Master in Infrastructure Planning, he continued to work in the northeastern regions, becoming a member of the Boston Society of Architects (BSA). In his current role as a project architect at Elkus Manfredi Architects, Minott has made significant design contributions to award-winning transit-oriented and urban renewal projects throughout the country. Minott is a committed mentor to Boston inner-city youth programs. He conducts design studios, promotes careers in design, and cultivates long-term relationships as a role model. Regardless of the project, whether it be a daycare center or a city hall, it is clear that Minott aspires to hear and translate the dreams and desires of others.
Third is Anthony Piermarini, AIA, co-founder of Studio Luz Architects.
Piermarini received his Bachelor of Architecture from Cornell University and went on to receive a Master of Architecture II at the Harvard Graduate School of Design. He is a founding principal of Studio Luz Architects (SLA). SLA is an agile, forward thinking practice that strives to link social responsibility and sustainable construction practices with built material expression. SLA has garnered many awards including being named one of Architectural Record’s Design Vanguards in 2006. Piermarini’s service extends beyond the community and into the classroom as a Critic at the Rhode Island School of Design where he teaches courses on representation. He has also taught at Cornell University, Northeastern University and the Boston Architectural College in design studio and courses in digital fabrication. Committed to social responsibility through practice, Piermarini is responsible for initiating SLA’s participation in the 1% pro-bono program which has contributed to projects such as the Campus D’Espoir for Hope for the Children of Haiti a 501 (c)(3) Non-Profit.
The 2010 Young Architects Award will be presented to the recipients at the 2010 National Convention and Design Exposition in Miami this June.
Congratulations to all of the recipients!
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