victoria meyers architects

Allen Ginsberg reading his poems to the crowd in Washington Square Park in 1966: Photo by Jack Manning / The New York Times

For more than a century, the East Village has been home to poets, jazz musicians, Vaudeville and Yiddish theatre, artists represented by blue chip galleries and those painting in the subways, rock stars, and performance artists. Building on this tradition and inspired by long time East Village resident Allen Ginsberg's epic poem, the HOWL! Festival was founded in 2003. The mission of HOWL! Festival is to honor, develop, create and produce. With an estimated 100,000 visitors last year, the many performances celebrate local cultural icons and lionize, preserve, and advance the art, history, culture, and counterculture unique to the East Village and Lower East Side. (from www.howlfestival.com)

The most recent Howl Festival took place last weekend June 3 – 5th. More photos and information on the festival can be found here and here.

hanrahan Meyers architects (hMa) is a unique architectural practice with partners, Victoria Meyers and Thomas Hanrahan, collaborating with artists from the New York area to create uniquely conceptual buildings. ‘We believe that architecture is an art, and that buildings should be three- dimensional renditions of ideas.’ (Victoria Meyers).

hMa’s conceptual approach to design involves the study of forms from Nature that the firm subjects to a critical analysis. hMa analyzes each project that comes into the office and works with the clients to discover an element that gives each project a unique direction. These interpretations are always tied to phenomenal interpretations of the natural world.

Infinity Chapel, in construction in downtown Manhattan, was originally inspired by the clients. The clients requested a chapel that was formed out of complex curve forms. hMa responded by constructing 3-dimensional klein bottles and moebius strips. The final form is based on a moebius strip. Infinity Chapel is scheduled for completion in September 2008.

INFINITY CHAPEL; KLEIN BOTTLE, INSET

WaveLine, a new multi-purpose pavilion in Queens, was designed based on natural wave forms. hMa collaborated with acoustic engineer Yasuhisa Toyota of Nagata Acoustics. hMa used physical models of wave forms, as well as computer simulations to determine the final building shape. The wave-form shaped roof is clad in Galv-alum.

WAVELINE AND SOUND MODELS

For Battery Park City Authority’s North Neighborhood site adjacent to the ballfields, hMa designed a new Platinum LEED certified Community Center. The building’s east facing facade is a 550-foot long arc of glass orienting visitors who walk along the façade toward Ground Zero, which is across the street from the site. New York Composer Michael Schumacher collaborated with hMa writing a ‘Birdsong Composition’ that will be etched on the glass facade, as a bar code. The visual image gives the visiting public access to the Birdsong both visually as well as aurally. The Birdsong will also be present aurally, through speakers mounted in exterior courtyards along the façade, and became the primary organizing feature for the building.

BATTERY PARK CITY COMMUNITY CENTER

view of arcade glass wall; composer Michael Schumacher's 'Birdsong' score, inset

Max Neuhaus: Elevators, Time-PIeces, and Sound art / Victoria Meyers architect and Sound Urbanism/ Sound Ecology

Rossville Library Design hanrahan Meyers architects hMa

Walking, Moving, Thinking: through an invisible building: hMa's DWi-P at Battery Park City

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hanrahan Meyers architects likes: “Howl Festival 2011” – City as Urban Theater

Mathematics, Waves, and Birdsongsnatural architecture; green architecture; sustainable architecture