Category: Victoria Meyers and urban 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.
Hacker-Maker/ Meyers Studio student works

March 17th, 2023

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!

S

THE ROOF CAN BE ORGANIC

THE ROOF CAN BE DYNAMIC

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
Sklar Tibbits study using paper and color parallels the universe of Hacker-Maker form

March 17th, 2023

Hack-Make: Use origami paper to study form and color.
Victoria Meyers architect: Adventures from Flatland

March 3rd, 2023

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.
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
An Ecological Urbanist approach to Designing the City of the Future: The Green Urbanist

March 27th, 2012

The conversations taking place today about new approaches to designing cities of the future center around new urban ideas, including Moshen Mostafavi's discussion from the Harvard Graduate School of Design. Mr. Mostafavi's discussion of urbanism can be seen in his recently published book, Ecological Urbanism. Ecological Urbanism looks at how the world may be able cope in the future as cities become increasingly dense, using new strategies for urban and spatial design. As the need arises for sustainable dense urban development, including ecological and sustainable food sources grown locally within cities, new building types that incorporate landscape from the natural surroundings, will help mitigate the effect of millions of people living in very close and dense arrangements.

hanrahan Meyers architects (hMa) have been master plan architects for green city spaces since 1990, when hMa were hired as the master plan architects for Battery Park City's North Neighborhood. The BPC North Neighborhood was developed, under hMa's guidance, as the first high-rise green neighborhood in the world.

Idea Diagram : Battery Park City North Neighborhood Master Plan, Victoria Meyers architect for hanrahan Meyers architects click here to see more of this project on hanrahanMeyers.com. The Green Urbanist Victoria Meyers architect post

Teardrop Park South is an example of how even very dense urban spaces can still be experienced with natural light. The Park was laid out by hMa, and designed by Michael Van Valkenburgh Associates using Heliostat mirrors to beam light into an otherwise dark park. The final park offers an array of natural greenery, native New York stones, and water to create a space that feels part of the original Manhattan landscape. The park exists as a tiny envelop of green tucked into a dense high-rise block.

Teardrop Park south (photo from "Teardrop Park South Unveiled" article on tribecacitizen.com – click to read more). Victoria Meyers architect for hanrahan Meyers architects. The Green Urbanist Victoria Meyers architect post

hMa has been at the forefront of designing ideas for new ways of making cities of the future since 1990. hMa's approach to urban places includes radical new approaches to creating eco-systems within places that were thought to be unnatural and unsustainable.

Battery Park City North Neighborhood Master Plan : site plan showing parks. Victoria Meyers architect for hanrahan Meyers architects. click here to see more of this project on hanrahanMeyers.com. The Green Urbanist Victoria Meyers architect post

All of the buildings and parks in Battery Park City's North Neighborhood were designed using guidelines developed by hMa, to create green, sustainable urban living.

Click here to read another article on Teardrop Park on NYCurbed Blog.
DWiP: Digital Water i-Pavilion (Battery Park City Community Center) by hanrahan Meyers architects featured in Wall Street Journal

December 1st, 2011

aerial site photo of DWi-P/ Battery Park City Community Center in construction Post Victoria Meyers architect

Here is an excerpt from the article:

Battery Park City Wraps Up Building
By: Joseph De Avila

The center marks the completion of the Battery Park City Authority's role as the lead developer for the neighborhood—a role it has played for more than 40 years.

"We are closing one chapter as real-estate developer and opening a new chapter as a building manager," said Gayle Horwitz, chief executive of the authority.

The other project the authority is working on is the development of Pier A, which has been closed to the public for several decades. It will include food courts and performance space and is expected to be finished by the fall of 2012.

A rendering showing the complex at ground level. It is expected to be finished in September.

In 1968, the Battery Park City Authority was formed to oversee planning for the nascent neighborhood that was built on landfill from the excavation of the World Trade Center. In its early days, the authority put together a master plan for Battery Park City to manage the growth of the neighborhood.

Click here to read the full article on wsj.com
VIDEO: Victoria Meyers Lecture at BXMC for Iannis Xenakis: Composer, Architect, Visionary

October 10th, 2011

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).
Outside-In/ Inside-Out: Pratt Pavilion by hanrahan Meyers architects

September 29th, 2011

Pratt Pavilion by hanrahan Meyers architects plays a fun game of inside/ outside. Pratt Pavilion is a small pavilion with big ambitions, on the main Pratt campus in Fort Green, Brooklyn. The pavilion floats in the air, above a glass entry vestibule. The pavilion is a single room, which is used as the main teaching gallery for Pratt's Design Center, which houses all of the main design programs at Pratt Institute.

Victoria Meyers architect

The plan above shows the plan of the Pavilion, to the south of a new courtyard, to the north. The courtyard and the Pavilion Gallery were designed to occupy approximately the same area, with similar shapes: to be mirror images. 'Mirror' – meaning – that we include the distortions inherent in the reflection.

I would argue that the Courtyard could be seen as 'Inside-Out'; and that the Pratt Pavilion Gallery is 'Outside-In' – as a spatial experience.

Outside-In: hanrahan Meyers Pratt Pavilion Courtyard Victoria Meyers architect

Inside-Out: hanrahan Meyers architects: Pratt Pavilion Gallery Victoria Meyers architect

These dispositions and juxtapositions of what is normally outside, being inside, and, vice-versa, what is normally inside being outside, have a history in architectural design projects. This would include the vestibule at Michelangelo's Laurentian Library, which is very much an Inside-Out space, through its extreme height, and its details.
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.