Category: Weblogs
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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 (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
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Victoria Meyers architect, hanrahan Meyers architects (hMa) partner, designs custom furnishings to fit clients' needs. Many projects result in spaces where off-the-shelf furniture doesn't fit. For White Space / Ash 4Ways, for example, this included most of the apartment furniture.
White Space / Ash 4Ways dining room table : hanrahan Meyers architects with Miya Shoji. Contact: info@hanrahanMeyers.com; Post: Victoria Meyers architect
For the living room hMa designed a coffee table that opens to become a bed. For the dining area, hMa worked with hMa collaborator Miya Shoji to design a custom dining room table that fit within the confines of a limited dining space. For the Bedroom, hMa designed a bed that incorporates storage and also elegantly controls the flow into and out of the room. The solution faces the bed toward the apartment's Central Park view. Closets lining the bedroom open to reveal an enclosed work desk. Tight New York spaces work when furnishings are customized to fit the space.
Master Bedroom custom bed : hanrahan Meyers architects with Miya Shoji. Contact: info@hanrahanMeyers.com; post: Victoria Meyers architect
In addition to designing elegant and beautiful solutions to everyday living, hMa designs award-winning, one-of-a-kind specialty furnishings. This includes WaterFall Table, hMa's winning design entry to the 'Wonder Women' furniture competition.
WaterFall Table by Victoria Meyers, available through Dune Furniture. Contact: info@hanrahanMeyers.com, Post: Victoria Meyers architect
WaterFall Table was designed as a simple slab of (sustainably harvested) ash, supported on two planar leg supports, so that you read the horizontal line of the table-top as a strong line, floating in space. At the two edges, steel beads make a translucent WaterFall. The table was designed to transport interior spaces into Nature.
Music Box: Designed for New York Composer Michael Schumacher; hanrahan Meyers architects. Post: Victoria Meyers architect
The Music Box, commissioned by New York Composer Michael Schumacher, was designed as a container for an ambient sound art installation. Schumacher's ambient sound pieces use everyday sounds to make compositions. Schumacher requested an object that would perform as the sound-art equivalent of Duchamp's urinal. To create a box that took the everyday, and force it into a new geometry, hMa designed an anamorphic cube. An Anamorph is a figure that appears randomly distorted, that pops into its normal shape when viewed from the correct angle. The Music Box is a distorted cube.
To read more about hMa's furniture designs, visit our website, www.hanrahanMeyers.com.
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view of sanctuary: Infinity Chapel by hanrahan Meyers architects click to view more photos. For information contact: info@hanrahanMeyers.com. All photos by Michael Moran.
hanrahan Meyers architects (hMa) are pleased to announce that Infinity Chapel is opening to the general public on June 30, 2010. Infinity Chapel is designed around mathematical ideas based on hyper-cubes and infinity.
The Chapel uses shaped walls, and openings based on precise mathematical forms: squares; golden section rectangles, and lines - to create a unique spiritual environment within the chapel: a perfect cube. Articulated lines, squares, and shaped apertures flood light into the Chapel from each of the cardinal directions. The mathematically precise apertures bring formally articulated areas of light into the Chapel sanctuary. The combination of curves and light create a symphony of form and light.
curved wall detail: Infinity Chapel by hanrahan Meyers architects. For information, contact: info@hanrahanMeyers.com. Photos by Michael Moran.
Located at 171 MacDougal Street, Infinity Chapel will be open to the General Public after June 30, 2010. The congregation welcomes visitors to the Chapel. To tour the Chapel, visitors would check in with the librarian at the Christian Science Reading Room, located in front of the Chapel, facing MacDougal Street.
The Chapel is visible from MacDougal Street. The front facade of the building is glass, looking into the Christian Science Reading Room. Beyond the Reading Room, separated by a floor to ceiling glass wall, is Infinity Chapel. Beyond Infinity Chapel, separated by a third glass plane, is an outdoor Chapel.
Standing on MacDougal Street, Visitors can see the Reading Room, the Chapel, and the outdoor Garden Chapel beyond.
sanctuary view looking toward Reading Room and MacDougal Street. For information contact: info@hanrahanMeyers.com. Photos by Michael Moran.
Click here to view more photos of Infinity Chapel on hanrahanMeyers.com
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The Digital Water Pavilion (Battery Park City Community Center) is a new project by hanrahan Meyers architects (hMa) for Battery Park City Authority, in downtown Manhattan, across from Ground Zero. The project is a 550-foot long digitally interactive facade that will feature a sound composition, 'WATER', by New York Composer and hMa collaborator, Michael Schumacher. The Pavilion's glass facade will have interactive links, so that music (WATER), and the Pavilion's architecture will link directly to contemporary social networks, Twitter and Google.
sample of arcade wall pattern for Battery Park City Community Center, cover for soon to be released CD for WATER, composed by Michael Schumacher for the Digital Water Pavilion
hMa's Digital Water Pavilion (Battery Park City Community Center) will integrate the cloud into the architecture by using a smart phone app as an integrated part of the building's public facade. Pavilion's east facing facade is a 550-long glass wall engraved with a frit pattern representation of New York composer Michael Schumacher's sound piece: 'WATER'. This piece joins Pavilion visitors thru Twitter, Facebook and other social networks, integrating with them through a smart phone app that will allow visitors to use cell phones to read different parts of Schumacher's 'WATER' as they walk along the glass wall.
The Water Pavilion's main facade is imprinted with digital code, embedded with a digital soundtrack from the hMa / Schumacher collaboration, 'WATER'. Visitors will wave their smart phones at the Pavilion wall and 'play' the wall.
interactive wall detail : Digital Water Pavilion (Battery Park City Community Center) by hanrahan Meyers architects, collaboration with Michael Schumacher
For more information about hMa's Digital Water Pavilion (Battery Park City Community Center) visit hMa's website: www.hanrahanMeyers.com.
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Perspective Model of Queens Museum of Art concept. For more information, contact: info@hanrahanMeyers.com.
hanrahan Meyers architects (hMa) were one of four architectural firms selected to redesign the Queens Museum of Art in New York City. hMa's design is focused around the idea of building a new shell around the existing building that brought light into the existing building. The shell also incorporated screens that could be cut, bent and formed to create apertures for displaying art and events happening inside the museum on the building's new exterior skin.
Queens Museum of Art: Site Plan. Contact: info@hanrahanMeyers.com.
The site plan above shows hMa's building concept, of creating a building that reads in a series of layers as visitors walk from north to south, starting with a new free-standing paviling located at teh north end of the parking lot, through the lot, which is designed to incorporate planting as part of the layering of the building experience and the site experience, with the layering continuing as visitors walk through the building. the linear bands on the plan represent new 'light tubes' that would be installed on top of the existing building, to add gallery space, and to bring light through new roof top skylights into the building below. The site is the location of the 1964 / 65 World's Fair in New York City.
Perspective View: Queens Museum of Art, hanrahan Meyers architects. Contact: info@hanrahanMeyers.com
Bird's Eye View: Queens Museum of Art, hanrahan Meyers architects. Contact: info@hanrahanMeyers.com
hMa's design for the Queens Museum was featured on the cover of Concept magazine (No. 37) as the most innovative solution for the museum from the competition entries. For more information about the Queens Museum of Art, visit http://hanrahanmeyers.com.
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The BP (British Petroleum) oil spill is perhaps one of the worst ecological disasters of our century. The Oil Companies have been drilling ('drill baby drill'?) for oil, with one thing in mind: money. They've been cutting corners, and lying to the general public and to the U.S. Government about how safe their operations really are.
Drilling 5,000 feet below the ocean, in turbulent waters with highly variable conditions, including hurricanes (which can destroy oil rigs) and frigid temperatures at the ocean floor, combine to create a highly volatile, uncontrollable situation. It puts the world's oceans and the wildlife who live there, at risk. This is not acceptable. (Hint to DEMOCRATS: if you want to win the next election, why not post images of the REPUBLICANS chanting 'drill baby drill' from the last election, and post, right next to that, images of the disaster in the Gulf.).
If ever there was a siren call for the world to wean itself off OIL - we're there. This is a disaster.
The world's oceans are at grave risk. The oceans are a resource we need to treasure and protect. Oil Executives don't care about clean water, and they don't care about ocean wildlife. I think even REPUBLICANS ('drill baby drill') - may recognize that the time has come for them to back off from their attacks and intimidation tactics against environmentalists who have been calling for CLEAN ENERGY AND ENVIRONMENTALLY INTELLIGENT SOLUTIONS to our energy and living needs.
What can we as Architects do to support this conversation?
We can all get behind sustainable and green infrastructure in all of our projects, especially when it comes to energy sources in our projects.
hanrahan Meyers architects (hMa) are currently working with the Won Buddhist Organization of America to build a five-building project on a 700-acre site, that is GREEN and 100% 'off the grid'. Through a combination of geo-thermal wells, solar panels, and the implementation of wood-chip technologies, the Buddhists are doing their part to help the planet, and we, as architects, are doing everything we can to help them achieve that goal.
I would encourage all clients considering projects in their future - to heed this call to action. Support clean, green renewable energy solutions in your projects. Go 'off the grid'. Put money into the development of clean, sustainable, renewable energy sources for your new building or master plan.
America can take the lead in this change. Go green! Our future (and our future generations' futures) depends on it.
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Digital Water Pavilion (DWP) is planned to be a Platinum LEED building designed around principles of sustainable design. The conservation of water is a key issue of the new Pavilion, and the main facade of DWP will have a piece written by composer Michael Schumacher etched on the glass titled: WATER.
Schmacher's score for WATER will be etched on the façade as a bar code. The facade is a 550-foot long glass wall designed by hanrahan Meyers architects (hMa), and visitors will be able to activate and 'play' Schumacher's piece by aiming their smart phones at the wall, and using a custom 'app' to 'play' the facade. By 'playing' the facade, visitors will hear WATER through their cell phone earpieces.
Digital Water Pavilion: hanrahan Meyers architects (hMa). A new pavilion in construction at Battery Park City, facing the Ballfields. The facade is a collaboration between hMa and NY Composer Michael Schumacher called: Tonal Motion.
The use of water as a constantly circulating, regenerative natural element is explored inside the new Digital Water Pavilion, which features an Olympic length pool with filters that clean the water using minimal chemicals, and minimal water waste. The building features Grey Water recycling, and all plantings around the building are native species.
Visitors walking by the glass façade of the Digital Water Pavilion can wave smartphones toward the façade and read a signal, which will play part of Schumacher's piece, WATER, on their phones. Visitors can literally play the façade.
For information contact: info@hanrhanMeyers.com
Facade design by hanrahan Meyers architects www.hanrahanMeyers.com
Sound by Michael J. Schumacher http://www.diapasongallery.org/
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Since hanrahan Meyers architects (hMa) founded their architectural practice, the firm has collaborated with artists in other fields. The artist who hMa has the most long-running collaborative experience with is Michael Schumacher. hMa is showing 'Open Fabric', the firm's original design proposal for the redevelopment of Manhattan's West Side.
Michael Schumacher / hMa: Architects Design Music: Performance at the Kitchen, 2004. For information, contact: info@hanrahanMeyers.com
The hMa / Schumacher collaboration started with Victoria Meyers' proposal to San Francisco MoMA for a show titled: 'Sampling'. The show was to focus on the idea of using 'samples' to make architecture, art, and music. This preceded the Meyers – Schumacher collaboration, and included DJ Olive, painter Bruce Pearson, and sculptor Roxy Paine. After the 'sampling' collaboration, Michael Schumacher came on board as a permanent hMa collaborator.
For the Samples show, hMa proposed showing their master plan proposal for the development of Manhattan's West Side waterfront. hMa had produced a design titled: 'Open Fabric'. Open Fabric proposed a series of formally complex buildings to mediate the edge of Manhattan with the water. hMa's proposal included several areas with waterfront parks, and different developments to create a positive urban experience in approaching the water's edge.
diagram for 'Open Fabric' plan by hanrahanMeyers architects. For information contact: info@hanrahanMeyers.com.
In 2000 hanrahan Meyers were recognized as new New York design talent, winning the Young Architects award from the Architectural League of NYC. For the public lecture accepting their award, hMa presented their masterplan design for the West Side of Lower Manhattan, starting at Canal Street, continuing north to 34th Street.
site plan, ' Open Fabric' masterplan for NYC West Side development by hanrahanMeyers architects. For information contact: info@hanrahanMeyers.com.
After hMa's successful presentation of the Canal Street Masterplan, hMa were hired as the official masterplan architects for Battery Park City's North Neighborhood. Working with Battery Park City Authority, hMa was able to explore ideas around large-scale Masterplanning design incorporating cutting-edge sustainable practices.
Battery Park City: North Neighborhood at night. hanrahan Meyers architects, Master Plan architects since 1997
For more information about hMa's Masterplans and Landscapes, visit the firm's website: www.hanrahanMeyers.com. For more information about 'Open Fabric' contact: info@hanrahanMeyers.com.
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