Category: urban design
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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.
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Prototype: Urban Outfitters Maker space, Philadelphia Navy Yard, Philadelphia, PA.
Studio Focus:Design the Roof /. Why the Roof? The Roof is the principal surface that determines the ability to 'Make' in the space. IE: It's very difficult to install a 15 foot high Digital Printing Machine in a space that has a ceiling lower than 20'. MaKE THE ROOF!
BE PREPARED TO MAKE DYNAMIC DRAWINGS THAT MAP YOUR ROOF CONCEPT!
BE PREPARED TO MAKE DYNAMIC DRAWINGS THAT EXPAND YOUR CONEPTUAL IDEA:
WHAT ENCOMPASSES THE IDEA OF 'ROOF'?
BE PREPARED TO WORK WITH NEW TYPES OF MATERIALS WHEN YOU BUILD YOUR MODELS
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Hack-Make: Use origami paper to study form and color.
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An exciting announcement!
Having moved my practice from New York City to Los Angeles, California, hMa has been dissolved as a practice. Victoria Meyers architect will practice as the design principal of v.Ma_Studio.
To reach Thomas Hanrahan you would need to contact him directly, in East Hampton, NY.
v.Ma_Studio has residential and institutional projects on the horizon. Victoria Meyers will continue research into materials, energy forms and sources, and current ideas from the fine arts.
v.Ma_Studio's newest focus? The Point/ Line/ Plane project from the original Cooper Union SOA curriculum founded by John Hejduk.
We've invited our friend and Cooper graduate, Paul Seletsky to offer words about the original Cooper curriculum which produced many of the finest American architects practicing today.
If this topic is of interest, read #Flatland. Flatland sets the stage for great investigations into SPACE.
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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
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Xenakis Simposium_Victoria Myers from BXMC on Vimeo. Victoria Meyers architect
Architect Victoria Meyers presents the work of hanrahan Meyers architects, and discusses the influences in the work from Iannis Xenakis. In particular, Ms. Meyers' talk focused on the firm's DWiP (Digital Water Pavilion), designed for Battery Park City's North Neighborhood, and scheduled to open in 2012. hMa is a firm that specializes in designing public buildings and masterplans for cities and campuses, incorporating state of the art green technologies, while also fostering collaborations with artists from around the world. hMa has collaborated with Michael Schumacher, David Teeple, and Jane Philbrick on various projects in the past. Jane Philbrick's latest site specific installation opened at Mass MoCA in September 2011.
About the Program: Iannis Xenakis: Composer, Architect, Visionary explores the fundamental role of drawing in the work of avant-garde composer Iannis Xenakis (1922–2001). One of the most important figures in twentieth-century music, Xenakis originally trained as an engineer and was also known as an architect, developing iconic designs while working with Le Corbusier in the 1950s. This North American premiere of Xenakis's visual work is comprised of samples of his pioneering graphic musings, architectural plans, compelling preparatory mathematical renderings, and pre-compositional sketches—in all, nearly 100 documents created between 1953 and 1984. The exhibition is accompanied by an exciting schedule of public programs, concerts, and symposia around New York City. Co-curated by Sharon Kanach and Carey Lovelace, the exhibition traveled to the Canadian Centre for Architecture (June 17 – October 17, 2010) and the Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles (November 7, 2010 – February 13, 2011).
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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.
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hanrahan Meyers architects' Juliana Curran Terian Design Center (Pratt Pavilion) opened on the Pratt Campus in 2007 click here to view more photos of the Design Center on www.hanrahanmeyers.com post Victoria Meyers architect
Here is an excerpt from the article on Archinect.com, click the link at the end for the full version:
"Pratt recently opened a 120,000-square-foot green academic and administrative building named Myrtle Hall at 536 Myrtle Avenue between Grand Avenue and Steuben Street that houses the college's Department of Digital Arts as well as several administrative offices." This building, along with hanrahan Meyers architects' Pratt Pavilion, which launched the Pratt Design Center in 2007, have reshaped the Pratt campus. Pratt Pavilion was the first project to initiate the redesign and refocusing of the Pratt campus, with buildings facing in toward the campus green, instead of facing out toward the neighboring streets.
second floor gallery interior: JCT Design Center (Pratt Pavilion) click here to view more photos of the Design Center on www.hanrahanmeyers.com Post Victoria Meyers architect
The Juliana Curran Terian Design Center, opened in 2007 was designed by hanrahan Meyers architects to bring together two older loft buildings with a contemporary bridging structure to create a 200,000-square-foot complex. The Center brings together Pratt's design disciplines — interior design, fashion design, industrial design, and communications design — under one roof that allows Pratt designers to better develop their creative processes. hMa principal Victoria Meyers was the lead designer for the project, completed in 2007.
rear courtyard: JCT Design Center (Pratt Pavilion) by hanrahan Meyers architects click here to view more photos of the Design Center on www.hanrahanmeyers.com
The Juliana Curran Terian Design Center has received numerous awards including Building Brooklyn Awards from the Brooklyn Chamber of Commerce, which recognize construction projects that enrich Brooklyn's neighborhoods and economy.
Click here to read the article in full at www.archinect.com
To view the full list of recogized colleges, please visit Architectural Digest's online slideshow at www.archdigest.com/go/campus
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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’.
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