Culture,Sustainability

Bag Ban Sacked

WEDNESDAY , September 1, 2010 | BY  

 

By James Way

Yesterday, the California Senate shot down (26 to 14) a bill intending to ban plastic bags. Environmentalists hailed the bill, AB1998, while the plastic bag industry, of course, denounced the bill as a job killer.

poptech-chris-jordan-plastic-bags_treehugger

Seattle-based photographer Chris Jordan depicts 60,000 plastic bags, the number used in the US every five seconds. via Treehugger

The bill included using $2 million from an existing recycling promotion fund to help convert industry equipment to produce reusable recycled-content plastic bags. Another approach suggested eliminating plastic and charging consumers a 5-cent surcharge per paper bag; however, proceeds would have remained with retailers. Critics argued $2 million couldn’t ensure California manufacturing jobs and that the state should enhance recycling programs.

Meanwhile, the American Chemistry Council, which represents Dow Chemical Co. and ExxonMobil Corp., have been spending mad money lobbying against banning single-use plastic bags. Last year they helped defeat Seattle’s environmentalists, who wanted to impose a 20-cent fee on all grocery bags, plastic and paper alike.

Tim Shestek, the Council’s senior director of state affairs added insult to injury, “We congratulate Senate members for discarding a costly bill that provides no real solutions to California’s litter problem and would have further jeopardized California’s already strained economy.”

Others viewed the bill as attacking citizens as a way to “nickel and dime” shoppers, who critics of the ban don’t think are capable of bringing their own bags. Meanwhile the waste management system, landfills, and marine wildlife suffer more inconvenience than consumers. Why propagate disposable lifestyles when responsible lifestyles are needed in our society?

Following San Francisco’s 2007 lead, several California cities require supermarkets and large drug stores to offer recycled-content or reusable bags. More are expected to follow after this sad defeat. Despite the debate, it seems obvious that plastic bag manufacturers need to shift toward making non-disposable bags, or at least toward bio-degradable bags.

Californians use approximately 19 BILLION plastic bags each year, costing $25 million to gather and haul to landfills. However, ban critics noted that nothing biodegrades in landfills because they seal waste from water and air to prevent leaching into water supplies, which seems like a pretty good argument for putting less fill in the land. Some senatorial opponents preferred incentives before mandates. Get rid of the bags; I think a 5-cent surcharge adds up to an easy incentive to bring my own bags.

Resources:

Environmental Literacy Council

Heal the Bay

Earthday Network

Treehugger

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Culture,Sustainability

Where does your garden grow?

FRIDAY , August 13, 2010 | BY  

 

By James Way

Tattfoo Tan, who I’ve written about previously, assembled a panel to discuss urban gardening at the Arario Gallery. I showed up expecting that the afore-unidentified panelists would provide tips on starting, maintaining, and harvesting urban greenery. On that front, I left as ignorant as I arrived. But, what I did get were a handful of activists who have made urban gardens their projects, either as a sustainability issue, access to fresh foods, or reconnecting urban dwellers to the fundamentals of nature.

L to R: Andrew Casner, Aki Hirata-Baker, Derek Denckla, and Daniel Bowman

Andrew Casner, an artist and urban gardener, uses his city plot to grow food and make art through organic processes, such as the mounds of dirt and vegetation eroding paper.

Aki Hirata-Baker, co-founder of Adopt-A-Farmbox, builds and donates farm boxes—made from 100% recycled materials—to local schools and community institutions. The mini-farms reconnect people with food.  She cited a study that estimates approximately three million New Yorkers have limited access to fresh foods and are vulnerable to obesity, diabetes, and heart disease. The best way to overcome these risks is exposure to healthier food options. Focusing on gardening, she is convinced “food is a catalyst for learning about other forms of sustainable activities.”

Derek Denckla, an all-around green activist, advocates using empty lots, underused land, and rooftops for urban gardens. In his researching and exploring best practices in urban agriculture he launched Farm City as both an online and real time forum for workshops, events, and resources. While experienced with sustainable buildings, Derek focuses on food because “food has a daily impact beyond buildings— a massive environmental impact.”

Daniel Bowman Simon, who began composting as a Peace Corps volunteer, has been campaigning tirelessly for a people’s garden at Manhattan City Hall. I’ve seen him at Pecha Kucha, the The City We Imagined exhibition opening; if it’s somewhat related to architecture, design, horticulture, health food he’s there with petition in hand.

While I may have missed the planting season this year, I now have a list of resources where I can get further information.

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Design

Lincoln Center: Behind the Scenes

TUESDAY , August 10, 2010 | BY  

by Jessica Pleasants

We at FXFOWLE take pride in knowing that our buildings really shape how people interact with New York City—whether at the Bronx Zoo, in Times Square, or walking through Lower Manhattan. One of the perks of my job is having access to project architects who have spent hundreds of hours analyzing the site or designing details for a city-altering project. Not being an architect myself, I never thought I’d have the opportunity to see these buildings the way a member of the design team does. But lucky me! Our office organizes site visits to give staff behind-the-scenes looks at some of our works-in-progress.

I attended one of these site visits with Bob Katchur, project architect for Lincoln Center’s new public spaces. Regular patrons of Lincoln Center already will have noticed changes to the performing arts complex—a shaded tree grove, a sloped green lawn, and improved access from Columbus Avenue, Broadway, and 65th Street. But, nobody knows Lincoln Center like Bob!

The cavernous mechanical complexities beneath Lincoln Center.

He took us underground and walked us through an enormous, three-story below-grade building that spans the entire north-south length of Lincoln Center. Although I had heard about the extent of the work done to the Plaza Building, actually seeing it gave me a real understanding of the complexities of its program. Portions of the structural floor slabs were removed to maximize the 460,000 square feet of usable space. Long, winding tunnels lead to expansive mechanical rooms that extend city blocks. The ceiling of Lincoln Center’s steam and electricity distribution room was cut out to make room for a new elevator pit above—all done without disturbing current steam and electricity service. The average opera connoisseur or ballet aficionado would have no idea of the mechanical complexities keeping Lincoln Center operational. But now, I do.

One of thirty trees lifted over Lincoln Center Theater to plant Barclay's Capital Grove.

Here are a few facts I learned that I thought I’d pass along:

  • Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts comprises twelve separate constituencies; each was involved in the decision-making process. (Can you name them all?)
  • During a single night, Barclay’s Capital Grove’ s thirty trees were lowered into place by a 300-foot crane anchored on 65th Street that reached over Lincoln Center Theater.
  • The monolithic surface of the North Plaza actually slopes. It’s so subtle that you can only notice it when you examine the edges of the reflecting pool.
  • The unusual shape of the Illumination Lawn—geometrically a hyperbolic paraboloid—is a series of straight steel beams, each slightly more rotated than the previous. It slopes as much as 18 degrees in some parts.
  • The design team evaluated over 3,000 species of grass before choosing the color and durability of Tall Fescue Grass and Kentucky Bluegrass for the lawn.
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Culture,Urbanism

Water Street: Looking Back

FRIDAY , August 6, 2010 | BY  

  

By James Way

Last month the New York Times reported on an 18th-century ship found buried at the World Trade Center site, an amazing discovery that harks back nearly thirty years to our building site at 175 Water Street. 

In 1981, while digging the foundations, excavation exposed the wooden skeleton of an old merchant ship. The 100-foot hull was within view of the South Street Seaport Museum ship docks in the East River. Dating from the 18th century, the merchant ship was the first find from that period. 

 IMAGES FROM THE FXFOWLE ARCHIVES – 175 Water Street 

February 10, 1982: A view of the archaeological investigation of the 175 Water Street site in Lower Manhattan during the excavation of an 18th-century merchant ship.

March 1, 1982: An archaeologist holds a “depth sounding weight” found during the excavation.

August 11, 1982: The construction of the tower designed by FXFOWLE (Fox & Fowle).

Archeologists speculate that the ship sailed the Caribbean as part of the tobacco trade, but they are not sure how the three-mast merchantman ended up in Manhattan. Regardless, sometime around 1750 the ship become part of a retaining wall that extended the Lower Manhattan shoreline. We uncovered it 230 years later. And, while Bruce still has a piece as his trestle coffee table, the boat resides in storage in Norfolk, VA. Other noteworthy historical discoveries in Lower Manhattan are listed here.

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Sustainability

Tuning into ASHRAE 90.1

THURSDAY , August 5, 2010 | BY  

 

By James Way

I’ve been lollygagging on studying for my LEED exam so when I heard there was going to be a panel discussing ASHRAE 90.1, which provides a minimum standard of energy use in buildings and their systems (except low-rise residential), I couldn’t think of a better way to get back into it. It’s kind of like those vegetables you didn’t want to eat as a kid; they don’t taste so great, but they’re good for health.

ASHRAE 90.1 presented as part of the "101 Integration" lecture series at the Center for Architecture

The lecture, full of facts and charts, elucidated the standard shaping the future of energy efficient buildings. The third of five in the 101: Integration lecture series at the Center for Architecture, ASHRAE 90.1 101 brought together engineers Mike Waite, of Simpson Gumpertz & Heger, and Fiona Cousins, a principal at Arup, with our own Ilana Judah, who moderated the event, to give an detailed overview of one of our industry’s most valuable energy standards.

While giving background on the standard, such as that they were conceived and formalized within two years as a result of the 1973 oil crisis, the lecture surveyed sections 6 through 11, hinted at future changes, and cautioned about common mistakes, such as referencing them too late in the design process, ignoring thermal bridging, or using center-of-glass averages rather than the full light.

Even amidst the inventory of voltage drops, water usage, insulation requirements, orientation rotations, and prescriptive and load calculations the experts answered the audience’s questions on interpreting the standards and suggested best practices given various scenarios. One thing absolutely clear is that buildings use over 50% of our energy resources nationally and only a tiny fraction of that is renewable. Thus, ASHRAE 90.1-2010 targets 30% less energy usage than the 2004 version with increased stringency and an expanded scope. Considerations looming further in the future include on-site renewable resources, advancing technologies in glass, and more integration.

However, much sooner than later, expect the new version: ASHRAE 90.1-2010.

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Culture

I Spy Ballerinas at Lincoln Center

TUESDAY , August 3, 2010 | BY  

by Jessica Pleasants

Lincoln Center has always existed to me as a vaguely defined area near my friend’s apartment on the Upper West Side. As a kid walking by I was interested in which movies were playing at the Loews Theater or what was on sale at Tower Records, completely unaware that live music and dance performances were taking place right across the street at one of the city’s premier cultural arts venue. It wasn’t until I saw Center Stage, a movie about ballet set in the fictional American Ballet Academy at Lincoln Center, that I focused my attention on the entire complex, wondering to myself, “Where exactly did they film that movie?”

ballerina silhouettes

Ballerinas inside the Glorya Kaufman Dance Studio between performances

Anyone who has passed by Lincoln Center and the Juilliard School in the past year, regardless of an interest in architecture, would have to be oblivious not to notice the changes on 65th Street and Broadway. Most obvious is an expansion to the block between 65th and 66th Streets that extends Alice Tully Hall’s lobby to Broadway. An all-new curtainwall allows one to see Tully’s entrance and lobby as well as the rehearsal and circulation spaces of the Juilliard School above. That passers-by can see ballerinas keeping their muscles warm between performances, or “peek behind the curtain” as FXFOWLE’s Sylvia Smith, Partner-in-Charge of the renovations, put it, creates an intimacy between the viewer and the performer previously available only by private tour, or in my case, by watching actress Amanda Schull as Jody Sawyer make her way through the Academy.

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Design

Getting It Pinned Down

WEDNESDAY , July 28, 2010 | BY  

 

By Jason Abbey

Having worked in our Javits office, I returned to the main office and realized I dearly missed our dry-erase magnetic white boards. I began wondering: Why do architects pin drawings to walls? Pins poke holes, eventually trashing the corners of drawings. Pins require thumbs of steel to drive them into the wall. Pin-up walls require frequent repainting to prevent the dirty appearance from pinhole shadows. Once up, a drawing requires re-pinning to align it with other drawings, thereby doubling, or tripling, the effort of the pin-up and increasing the number of holes in the wall. The pins (especially those red ones) stand out against any drawing, even more if completely mismatched in a hodgepodge of color, size, and protrusion depth. And, don’t forget the inevitable fingertip punctures from reaching too quickly into the pushpin bucket.   

A pin-hole riddled wall

A pin-hole riddled wall, photo by Coe Will

The magnet board easily resolves these issues with one simple system. Magnets are faster, easier, ultimately cheaper, and they don’t leave holes! Reuse drawings multiple times without the corners becoming tattered. Magnets don’t pierce the wall; magnetic attraction gently holds the drawing between the magnet and the board. Magnets sit uniformly against the board with a consistent shadow line without any weird angles. White magnets blend with the corners of most architectural drawings. Typically round, magnets pose no real threat to fingers. Additionally, magnet boards provide an erasable drawing surface useful for collaborative design sketches. Perhaps most important, they easily adjust once on the wall. Sliding drawings into place and adjusting them is easy. 

Strings and clusters of holes indicate efforts to reposition and align drawings, photo by Coe Will

Magnetic systems, however, do have flaws. Over time, as they snap to each other, magnets leave a dusty residue on drawing corners, which can be avoided by not playing with the magnets and only snapping them to the board. Cheap magnet wallpapers are no substitute for magnet boards: they are not easily cleaned; magnets have poor attraction; and, the wall appears bumpy and uneven. Finally, small magnets have less holding power than large magnets. As problematic as these issues are, they can be overcome. 

At the end of the day the most important argument is cost. Pinning costs the price of pins and periodic repainting of the pin-up surface (and occasional band-aids). Magnetic systems require magnets and boards mounted in the pinup area. While the initial cost for the magnetic system is significant, it is a pittance relative to the time lost by teams using a pin system. Even if magnetic whiteboard systems have a higher upfront cost, they would pay for themselves within a few years. Maybe I’m nuts, but it seems like a no-brainer.

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Sustainability

So Full of Worm Poop

TUESDAY , July 20, 2010 | BY  

  

By James Way

Tattfoo Tan, a social activist/artist practicing in Staten Island, works with the sustainability movement but combines an ironic approach to art history while embracing performance. One of several works on display is Black Gold, a parody of a 1961 work by Piero Manzoni (I’ll leave it to you to follow the link and find it), presents the efforts of composting taken to an artistic and economic extreme. Tan bottled his “secret recipe” compost and is selling it at the going rate for gold, although his website offers recession pricing. But don’t let this fool you; the artist is not full of sh*t when it comes to his mission: greening urban lifestyles. 

Tafftoo Tan demonstrates compost materials.

Tafftoo Tan demonstrates compost materials and methods.

Last week the artist, included in Irrelevant: Local Emerging Asian Artists Who Don’t Make Work About Being Asian, at the Arario Gallery in Chelsea, held a composting workshop on how to produce some of the finest, most fertile compost around. One of the missing components in many compost bins are worms: red worms, commonly known as red wrigglers, scientifically known as eisenia fetida. “Don’t forget the worms,” he warned. “They eat, have sex, reproduce, and poop all day. They’re great!” Worms can provide compost so fertile that some of your composting material may actually begin growing. He also warned against drowning or suffocating the worms. The artist’s website, under the Black Gold link, provides a basic overview on how to begin. 

Thursday July 22 at 8pm at the Arario Gallery he will provide an urban gardening workshop and round table discussion.

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Culture,Design

ReViewing Two Nights of ReSource

SATURDAY , July 17, 2010 | BY  

 

By James Way

It was an exciting year for the Architectural League Prize for Young Architects and Designers (formerly known as the Young Architects Forum). This year’s theme, ReSource, asked entrants to assess their approach materials, methods, theories, technologies, techniques, and practices in their work. The results were as varied as you could imagine.

Jason Austin and Alexander Mergold of Austin+Mergold led the presentations by juxtaposing their respective specialties: landscape and architecture. This confrontation formulated the witty Sural™—a combination of suburban and rural, with a nod to surrealism—and pervades the firm’s work from theory to practice. Marc Frohn of FAR frohn&rojas focused on material interests—aerated aluminum, ballistic cushions, and bomb screens. This led to a surprisingly welcoming and stylish competition entry for an embassy in Belgrade that incorporated attack degradation as part of its design—seriously integrated security. Their suitcase-sized installation for the exhibit reveals their working process—repurposed off–the-shelf products combined with custom detailing. Humorously closing the first evening’s presentations, Bittertang’s Michael Loverich and Antonio Torres showed beautiful renderings, simple diagrams, and piñatas all bound together with a hilarious narrative. Their designs begin as Rococo baby-informed mutant bodies and culminate with the landscapes they would inhabit, or repopulate. However, I overheard one attendee at the reception, “Is the joke on us or on them?” Perhaps a little premature for the prize, but it was refreshing to see attention to detail, texture, and humor in design work.

L to R: Austin+Mergold, FAR frohn&rojas, Bittertang

The second evening kicked off with Emily Abruzzo and Gerald Bodziak of ABRUZZO BODZIAK ARCHITECTS who mine the conventions of various typologies and skew their materials and form, such as a modular dwelling inspired by yurts. For the Arts Union Beacon they built the cupola’s negative space as an inversion of the historical. Bodziak confessed, “I had Eisenmann for a lecture, and he said something about the presence of absence, the absence of presence, the presence of presence, or the absence of absence…it goes on and on.” ESKYIU, Eric Schuldenfrei and Marisa Yiu, highlighted their interest in sustainable materials and urban greening, which led to interactive installations and events and pinnacled with BYOB, Bring Your Own Biennale for the Bi-City Biennale between Hong Kong and Shenzhen. They were one of the few to acknowledge, if not exploit, the fact that architecture ultimately is social: in use, networking, and getting things built. The final presenter, Keith VanDerSys of PEG landscape + architecture fuses the rift between ecology and aesthetics in landscape by combining form, structure, pattern, and vegetation. Their Mies Van der Rohe Plaza best exemplifies this approach with planter of undulating surfaces that direct run-off to the plants.

L to R: ABRUZZO BODZIAK ARCHITECTS, ESKYIU, PEG landscape + architecture

Regardless of styles and processes, the presentations were refreshing to see ideas explored rather than iterations of form dominate.  View the exhibition through August 6 at Parsons The New School for Design gallery at 66 Fifth Avenue.

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Urbanism

Artistic and Waterfront Neighborhoods, Migration and Densification

WEDNESDAY , June 30, 2010 | BY  

By James Way

Last weekend I walked across the Williamsburg Bridge and couldn’t help but think of all the hub-bub around waterfront development. Manhattan’s west side has been transforming for years in that stretch between the West Village and Hell’s Kitchen, with the more celebrated development revolving around the High Line in Chelsea. Now that development is growing up along the East River, and the hotbed of debate there, settled yesterday, has been revolving around the Domino Sugar Refinery in Williamsburg. Congestion, affordability, and infrastructure were among the top points of contention, in a largely political debate aesthetics were not.

This all reminds me of a panel in May, IIDA NY’s “Residential Forum: Art & Design in Artistic Neighborhoods.” The event, subtitled “Potential Growth of Residential Waterfront Real Estate and the Artists Behind the Transformation” gathered Mark Strauss, Senior Partner of FXFOWLE; Brian Lewis, Senior Associate of Andre Kikoski Architect; and Julie Pham, Senior Vice President of Corcoran Group as three constituents of the forces transforming waterfront neighborhoods: the planner, the architect, and the broker, respectively. I thought any moment someone would accuse one, if not all, of the panelists of destroying the artists’ neighborhoods. It came a lot later than I had anticipated.

L to R: Julie Pham, Mark Strauss, Julie Iovine, Brian Lewis, Hans Galutera

Conspicuously missing from the panel was a developer or an artist, especially as the forum was to highlight artists’ roles in new neighborhoods and how architects and interior designers envision new waterfront residential buildings. Without an artist, or a developer, the discussion was fairly one-sided. Granted, Strauss gave a sweeping history of migrating art-centric neighborhoods—LES, Chelsea, WeVil—and the zoning affecting development. This led to waterfronts, whether in Hell’s Kitchen, Williamsburg, or Hunts Point, and their increasing role in the city, which begins to court controversy. While touching on FXFOWLE’s projects, including Northside Piers (adjacent to Domino) and the Helena (Hell’s Kitchen), he focused on the political factors involved and the need to maximize mixed-use, diversity, and vibrancy as possible. Lewis used his firm’s work in Williamsburg, Bushwick, and the Wright restaurant at the Guggenheim Museum as examples where context informs the project. However the latter, neither residential nor waterfront, seemed moot (but it did win a James Beard award that evening). Pham’s delivery begged the most vehement reaction from the crowd, but she emerged unscathed from the fallout that would soon emerge. Listing a litany of recent High Line-associated projects by starchitects—Lindy Roy, Jean Nouvel, Shigeru Ban, Neil Denari—that fetch up to $4,600/sf for prime penthouse real estate, she speculated that the units are occupied a mere month or two out of the year; however, she indicated that the waterfront market remains strong even in the economic downturn. Furthermore, these prices have established “Manhattan as a gated community” beyond the reach of most artists.

Moderated by Julie Iovine, Executive Editor Architect’s Newspaper, the Q+A started quite innocuously until one young attendee, who has been living in Williamsburg, lamented the development along the waterfront and sporadically further inland, which is effectively pricing-out young designers, artists and those caught between affordable and “market-rate” housing. This caused the proverbial other shoe to drop when another accused the panel, Mark Strauss in particular, of destroying the community fabric of “artist neighborhoods.” Architects, he responded, cater not to developers, but are inextricably tied to the politics and economics that realize projects. Plus, this push of the market causes exploration of other neighborhoods such as Astoria, Clinton Hill, Washington Heights, or, yes, even Staten Island, a whole untapped borough.

Which brings me back to the controversial 2.8 million-square-foot Domino. The developer and politicos have been debating the proposal’s “appropriateness” and establishing its program. Supporters praise the inclusion of playgrounds, a four-acre park, riverside esplanade, a school, a supermarket, and 30% affordable housing, sadly needed even in an economy leaving many neighborhood units vacant. Those expressing concern cite the plan’s density, 40-story towers (which have come down to 34, see the Architect’s Newspaper for coverage) and the limited public transportation. As an L-train rider, I fully understand this rush hour concern. However, beyond mere pros and cons, widely-published writer Stephen Zacks criticizes the plan for supporting the status quo of development and lacking the vision and creativity deserving of New York and the designer.

photo by Eugenio Pastor

The issues are well-worth debate as the waterfront is a commodity and resource increasingly attracting, even demanding, attention and development. The debate, quantitative for city officials and the developers and qualitative for the design profession and public, could very well be a turning point in how we approach integrating design with market forces and public policy. While many cities have developed their waterfronts with high-rises and public parks (the more successful tend to front beaches), New York must accommodate mixed-use, accessibility, amenities, affordability, and diversity, as well as expand notions of and approaches to planning, development, and design. Our city certainly has the talent. Let’s not sugar-coat it.

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