Category: green landscape design

Victoria Meyers architect: vM.a_Studio

April 1st, 2023

Victoria Meyers architect has conducted investigations into WaTER and how WaTER affects architecture. Projects by vM.a_Studio that reference water. Research into aesthetic interpretations of WaTER include works by artist Karen Gunderson. Gunderson is an artist who devoted her art to revealing aspects of water, sky, and the natural world through the manipulation of oil on canvas, as well as through pencil drawings on paper. I've used Gunderson's paintings as teaching tools in architectural design studios at Columbia University, Cornell University, and elsewhere.

Karen Gunderson: Studies of WaTER

Above: Karen Gunderson: Water

Above: Water on display at Battery Park City's Teardrop Park. vM.a_Studio, with hMa/ with Michael Van Valkenburgh Associates. vM.a_Studio, with hMa, had design oversight for Battery Park City's North Neighborhood.

Above: WaterFall table designed by Victoria Meyers for vM.a_Studio.
hMa’s Won Dharma Center wins AIA Honor Award for 2013

April 4th, 2013

view of Meditation Hall from Administration porch : Won Dharma Center by hanrahan Meyers architects

hMa is pleased to announce that the Won
Dharma Center has won an Honor Award from the AIA NY Chapter. Won Dharma Center is a 28,000 square-foot spiritual and recreational retreat
in Claverack, New York for the Won Buddhists, a Korean
organization that emphasizes balance in one's daily life and relationship to
nature. The center is located on a 500-acre site on a gently sloping hill
with views west to the Catskill Mountains.
The buildings for the Center, including permanent and guest residences, an
administration building and a meditation hall, are sited as far as possible
from the local rural access road, and oriented west and south to maximize views
and light. The symbol of the Won organization is an open circle, suggesting
both a void without absence and infinite return. The buildings are
organized around the dual concepts of void and spiral.

view of Meditation Hall and Administration from west : Won Dharma Center by hanrahan Meyers architects

The 3,000
square-foot Meditation Hall is conceived as a simple rectangular void and a
lightweight frame to the natural surroundings. Its wooden structure is
exposed on three sides to form entrance and viewing porches, while the interior
offers expansive views of the mountains.

The
four residential buildings include the dining hall/ administrative building,
and three residential dormitories for guests and permanent residents. The
design of the residential buildings draws on the formal organization of grass-roofed
Korean farm-houses, loosely clustered and organized internally around a single
central void. The roof shapes of the 4,000 square-foot residence
buildings transform in section around a spiral organization, from a simple
slope in section to a complex triangulated geometry where the roof transforms
into an open-air entrance porch. The internal organization of the residence
buildings allows silent walking meditation from courtyard to courtyard.
The courtyards act as passive cooling systems, and when the sliding doors
facing the courtyards open, cross ventilation through the public areas and guest
rooms provides passive cooling. All of the residential buildings are wood
construction, like the Meditation Hall, and deeply shaded to the west and south
to allow natural daylighting without excessive heat gain.

view of guest residences 1 and 2 : Won Dharma Center by hanrahan Meyers architects
Water, Architecture and hanrahan Meyers architects: Water References

August 25th, 2011

hMa (hanrahan Meyers architects) is a great fan of water. Plain simple pure water.  Water symbolizes purity. The sound of water is soothing. Religious rites of purification revolve around water. The bulk of our body weight is water. Babies in the womb float in water.. Water is part of our nature.

In homage to this precious and threatened vital commodity hMa's collaboration with sound artist Michael Schumacher addresses water directly. Michael Schumacher has been commissioned to write a piece called: WaTER. WaTER is the basis for the facade of DWiP (Digital Water Pavilion), and our collaboration has been published extensively in previous postings. Visitors can check the blog history for other posts.

DWiP: Digital Water Pavilion by hanrahan Meyers architects click here to see more images of DWiP on www.hanrahanMeyers.com

We address ideas that pertain to water from other designers and thinkers in this posting,

First, we would like to commend WET Designs, who New Yorkers are probably familiar with from their design for the new fountain for New York's Lincoln Center. WET (Water Entertainment Technologies) was founded by Mark Fuller, and the company is based in Los Angeles. We are linking to an article about Mr. Fuller and his Lincoln Center fountain HERE.   Most people know Mr. Fuller from his amazing water works for Bellagio Hotel in Las Vegas.

Fountains of Bellagio by WET Design

Our other recommendation for water imagery and thoughts is Craig Childs' book: The Secret Knowledge of Water, published in March 2000. The Secret Knowledge of Water is a wonderful book and gives its readers a new respect for the qualities of water. For a preview of the book, see our exerpt below:

Cover "The Secret Knowledge of Water" by Craig Childs link to Amazon

'My mother was born beside a spring in the high desert, just north of where West Texas and Mexico meet along the Rio Grande. Born three months premature, she was kept alive in an incubator heated with household light bulbs. An eyedropper for feeding. The water from the spring bathed and filled her body, tightening each of her cells. It filled the hollow of her bones. Years later, as the water passed from mother to child, like fine hair or blue eyes, I grew up thinking that water and the desert were the same. …'

hMa pays homage to water with their collaboration with Michael Schumacher on WaTER.   WaTER will be available as an App being developed for the i-Phone as well as Android platforms.
Battery Park City Master Plan – North Neighborhood design by hanrahan Meyers architects – + the Visonaire win Urban Land Institute Awards : Urban Waterfront Design

September 29th, 2010

hanrahan Meyers architects (hMa) are proud to announce that the firm's Battery Park City Master Plan project has won a Heritage Award for Excellence from the Urban Land Institute (ULI). Since 1997 hMa have been the Master Plan Architects for Battery Park City's North Neighborhood. In that capacity, the firm has been a Leader in applying Sustainable Design practices. One of the firm's achievements includes writing the Green Guidelines for the Solaire - the world's first Green Residential high-rise Tower.

In addition to hMa's Green Master Plan winning a coveted Heritage Award, Battery Park City's Visionaire was also honored with a 2010 Award for Excellence from the Urban Land Institute. The Visionaire is a high-rise residential tower that received the top design Award from the ULI as 'America's Greenest Residential High-Rise Tower' - one of only 10 buildings in the Americas - and the only building to be recognized for Green Design in New York. The Visionaire received the US Green Building Council's highest rating for Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED Platinum).

ULI Awards for Excellence define the standard for real estate development practice worldwide. In its 32nd year, the awards program is the centerpiece of ULI’s efforts to identify and promote best Green practices in all types of real estate development.

aerial view of North Neighborhood, Battery Park City Master Plan. Post: Victoria Meyers architect

In 1997 hMa was hired as the Master Plan Architect for Battery Park City Authority’s North Neighborhood, the most forward-thinking Green urban master plan in the United States. The North Neighborhood is the location of the first Green high-rise residential tower in the United States (Green Guidelines by hMa) and is the first Sustainably designed high-rise neighborhood in the world (Green Guidelines by hMa). When the Master Plan is complete in 2012 it will include a total of 5 million square feet of sustainable buildings, an array of new technologies and operating practices and a unique integration with the spectacular natural features of New York's waterfront.

hanrahan Meyers Architects' configuration of the North Neighborhood buildings emphasizes the area's engagement with nature by creating an interweaving grid of outdoor spaces – including 4 major parks – with 11 residential and public buildings including Stuyvesant High School. Individual buildings are designed to complete the urban blocks by aligning with lot lines up to the 11th and 14th floors, after which towers are placed up to the 25th and 32nd floors in a complex pattern of offsetting alignments to open up view corridors to the Hudson River, and bring light and air into the parks below.

Read more about the ULI Awards competition and view other award winners at http://www.uli.org. Read more about hMa and their master plan designs by visiting our website: www.hanrahanMeyers.com, and go to: 'Master Plans and Landscapes'. To see more of hMa's cutting edge Green Designs go to 'Green'.

diagram : environmental standards for BPC Master Plan (click image to enlarge)
Architecture and Windows: Duchamp, Cage and Contemporary Architectural Production: Exploring the Window; Architecture, Scientific Determinism + Artistic Production

August 6th, 2010

hanrahan Meyers architects (hMa) are great fans of Marcel Duchamp and John Cage, and bring their enthusiasm for these two giants of the artistic avant-garde forward in time through hMa's on-going collaborations and conversations with contemporary avant-garde artists including Michael Schumacher, Bruce Pearson, Monica de la Torre, Roxy Paine, Joe Amrhein, and Susan Swenson, and including several other artists who we work with, mostly from the New York area.

Reunion by John Cage, featuring John Cage, Marcel Duchamp, and Teeny Duchamp playing chess. Post: Victoria Meyers architect

What hanrahan Meyers architects (hMa) love about Cage, Duchamp, and our contemporary friends in the arts, is how the most intelligent works in the fine arts foster on-going discussions about science, technology, and culture. Great artists look at culture as a whole, and create visual and sound interpretations of the technological changes of that period in time. This discussion places viewers and listeners into that conversation, through an incisive and intellectually challenging presentation of ideas.

hMa's architecture incorporates contemporary discussions into buildings and space design. hMa does this by bringing on-going discussion with artists who are making some of the most challenging contemporary art into the firm's design process. hMa invites artists whose work poses challenges beyond the ordinary to incorporate their works onto and into hMa's buildings.

three early versions of the 'WATER' score frit pattern by NY composer Michael Schumacher in collaboration with hanrahan Meyers architects. For information contact: info@hanrahanMeyers.com. Post: Victoria Meyers architect

As part of hMa's ongoing discussion with the arts, they are developing an interactive glass wall for their Digital Water i-Pavilion (DWi-P): Battery Park City Community Center in collaboration with Michael Schumacher. The facade will be activated so that Visitors passing by the building will be able to wave cell phones at the building's facade and receive sound samples of Michael's 'WATER' score, depicted on the facade as a bar-coded frit pattern.

The DWi-P collaboration takes the idea of the 'normal' glass window which has been 'altered' by being selected for interpretation by the artist (and – in this case - by the architects) and uses that otherwise mundane and everyday piece of the built fabric to generate an architectural armature that works as a building - but also as in interactive work of art.

scale mock-up of the frit pattern seen on-site of the Digital Water Pavilion: Battery Park City Community Center, with WATER composition shown as a bar code. For information contact: info@hanrahanMeyers.com. Post: Victoria Meyers architect

Above, we are showing a full scale mock up of the glass - fragments of a future 550-foot long glass wall – in our office for on-site installation - at the building site at DWi-P. hMa will keep Visitors to the blog updated on progress with the WATER score / glass installation. DWi-P is scheduled to receive a Platinum LEED rating.

More to come….

for more information about the hMa / Schumacher collaboration, visit our website: www.hanrahanMeyers.com. Contact: info@hanrahanMeyers.com
Urban Renewal and the Current Downturn: Levi’s leads the WayLevi’s ‘Ready to Work’ campaign; Levi’s ‘Go Forth’ campaign; urban renewal in Braddock, Pa.

July 10th, 2010

Post by hanrahan Meyers architects (hMa) principal, Victoria Meyers:

I often travel from New York City to Baltimore on Amtrak. Whenever I take that train ride, I look out at an urban landscape that I refer to as the: ‘Amtrak Urban Corridor’. It starts at Trenton, New Jersey, and continues right through Baltimore, Maryland: an unbroken corridor of urban decay and poverty.

abandoned factories and warehouses: the Amtrak Corridor. Post: Victoria Meyers architect

This landscape is an urban map that describes many of the things that have gone wrong in American society.  What is really concerning, first and foremost, are the empty and abandoned warehouses and factories. In between the abandoned and ruined industrial buildings, are blocks and blocks of neighborhoods that are half abandoned, where the residents are obiviously impoverished, and could use the jobs that have left from those factories.   This country could reuse and recycle these warehouses to build up a new industrial base for the 21st Century. What happened to the American spirit? How could we have allowed this to happen? If one of us is impoverished and in need, all of us feels that condition. We are all without.

What is needed here is a plan. An Urban Corridor Master Plan! A Master Plan that links new 21st Century start-up businesses with abandoned places. A Plan that links unemployed people with jobs.

People in these neighborhoods need the jobs that these factories could create if some smart or philanthropic investor would provide the start up money, coupled with a smart entrepreneur with new technologies to be assembled.  America needs to rebuild. Our Cities represent who we are and define us. Abandonment is not a pretty legacy.

abandoned brick row houses: Baltimore, MD.

President Obama has led the thinking on a lot of the innovations in urban renewal, with his push for a new ‘Green Economy’, with a new, post-industrial jobs base building the components we need to develop Solar, Geo-Thermal, Wind-Power, and Bio-Fuel technologies. In the 21st Century, the country that solves the current energy crisis is the country that will emerge as a super-power. The consequences of not changing the United States' energy-based economy to sources other than oil is evident right now in the Gulf of Mexico.

There was a very interesting article in the June 23, 2010 New York Times, titled: ‘Levi’s Features a Town Trying to Recover’ – that deals with many of these issues. Levi’s has ‘adopted’ the town of Braddock, Pennsylvania: a town trying to pick itself back up after losing its industrial base. Levi’s is doing a great thing by doing this, and deserves credit for their foresight.  Levis is making a difference not just in the lives of the people in this small American town, but also in the overall recovery and re-invigoration of the American psyche and Vision. The campaign slogan: 'Ready to Work' – is a tagline for America in the current downturn. The campaign also states: 'we are all workers'.



Braddock, Pa.: Levi's 'Go Forth' campaign and urban renewal

We all could use the Vision that Levi’s is bringing to their ‘Go Forth’ campaign. I encourage anyone reading this blog post to visit the Levi’s campaign website, and watch some of the film clips there: http://www.levistrauss.com/news/press-releases/levis-proclaims-we-are-all-workers-launch-latest-go-forth-marketing-campaign. The campaign shows many images similar to the ones I've been describing along the Amtrak corridor, and includes some very smart film clips by very talented filmmakers, including one short that won an award at Sundance Film Festival this year. I have just one complaint. If Levi's is really sincere about this campaign - they'll also renovate one of the abandoned factories in Braddock, and install a new Levi's factory. (Levi's - I'm throwing down my glove).

hanrahan Meyers architects (hMa) is an internationally known design firm with experience designing sustainable master plans and landscapes for urban centers (hMa are the Master Plan Architects for Battery Park City's North Neighborhood, winner of the 2010 Heritage Award from the Urban Land Institute); small town centers (hMa designed a 550-acre zero-carbon footprint site plan and master plan in Claverack, New York), as well as private, residential landscape design (Holley House landscape layout and design).

Battery Park City, North Neighborhood: Teardrop Park. Master Plan design by hanrahan Meyers architects. Post: Victoria Meyers architect

hanrahan Meyers architects (hMa) is a full service Master Planning and Design firm. We bring expertise and experience to landscape and master plan projects. hMa has successfully laid out site topography, overviewed the installation of site services, including electrical, water, sewage, and gas. hMa has advanced expertise in integrating high-energy use, traditional site planning with the latest sustainable ideas and services, to create an integrated approach to achieving LEED certified design goals, and Zero-Carbon Footprint site designs.

For more information about hanrahan Meyers architects, and their innovative and green ideas for cutting edge 21st century Master Plans and Landscapes, visit hMa’s website: www.hanrahanMeyers.com; go to ‘Projects’: ‘Master Plans and Landscapes’.
Battery Park City Master Plan wins Urban Land Institute Heritage Award : Urban Waterfront Design

July 10th, 2010

hanrahan Meyers architects (hMa) are proud to announce that the firm's Battery Park City Master Plan project has won a Heritage Award for Excellence from the Urban Land Institute (ULI). Since 1997 hMa have been the Master Plan Architects for Battery Park City's North Neighborhood. In that capacity, hanrahan Meyers have been Leaders in applying Sustainable Design practices to Master Plan and Landscape Design. One of hMa's achievements includes writing the Green Guidelines for the Solaire - the world's first Green Residential high-rise Tower.

In addition to hMa's Green Master Plan winning a coveted Heritage Award, Battery Park City's Visionaire was also honored with a 2010 Award for Excellence from the Urban Land Institute. The Visionaire is a high-rise residential tower that received the top design Award from the ULI as 'America's Greenest Residential High-Rise Tower' - one of only 10 buildings in the Americas - and the only building to be recognized for Green Design in New York. The Visionaire received the US Green Building Council's highest rating for Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED Platinum).

ULI Awards for Excellence define the standard for real estate development practice worldwide. In its 32nd year, the awards program is the centerpiece of ULI’s efforts to identify and promote best Green practices in all types of real estate development.

North Neighborhood, Battery Park City Master Plan, hanrahan Meyers architects. Post: Victoria Meyers architect

In 1997 hMa were hired as the Master Plan Architects for Battery Park City Authority’s North Neighborhood, the most forward-thinking Green urban master plan in the United States. The North Neighborhood is the location of the first Green high-rise residential tower in the United States (Green Guidelines by hMa) and is the first Sustainably designed high-rise neighborhood in the world (Green Master Plan by hMa). When the Master Plan is complete in 2012 it will include a total of 5 million square feet of sustainable buildings, an array of new technologies and operating practices and a unique integration with the spectacular natural features of New York's waterfront.

diagrams showing park spaces, green roofs and green landscapes – Battery Park City North Neighborhood Master Plan, hanrahan Meyers architects. Post: Victoria Meyers architect

hanrahan Meyers Architects' configuration of the North Neighborhood buildings emphasizes the area's engagement with nature by creating an interweaving grid of outdoor spaces – including 4 major parks – with 11 residential and public buildings including Stuyvesant High School. Individual buildings are designed to complete the urban blocks by aligning with lot lines up to the 11th and 14th floors, after which towers are placed up to the 25th and 32nd floors in a complex pattern of offsetting alignments to open up view corridors to the Hudson River, and bring light and air into the parks below.

Irish Hunger Memorial – Battery Park City North Neighborhood Master Plan, hanrahan Meyers architects. Post: Victoria Meyers architect

When the Master Plan is complete in 2012 it will include a total of 5 million square feet of sustainable buildings, an array of new technologies and operating practices and a unique integration with the spectacular natural features of New York's waterfront.

Read more about the ULI Awards competition and view other award winners at http://www.uli.org. Read more about hMa and their master plan designs by visiting our website: www.hanrahanMeyers.com, and go to: 'Master Plans and Landscapes'. To read more about hMa's Green Designs, visit our website, http://www.hanrahanMeyers.com, and go to: 'Green'.

Teardrop Park – Battery Park City North Neighborhood Master Plan, hanrahan Meyers architects. Post: Victoria Meyers architect