DEADLINES

 

October 4: Call for Entries: Ashes to Art - The Second International Juried Exhibition of Urns and Vessels for Funerary Ashes

 

October 10: International Architectural Design Competition

The Société immobilière du Québec (SIQ) is sponsoring a two-stage international design competition to create a permanent home and world-class concert hall for the Montreal Symphony Orchestra (OSM). In addition, the complex is intended to house the conservatory of music and dramatic arts, office space for the Quebec government, retail, and parking. The proposed budget for the cultural and administrative complex is $186 million (Canadian). The registration deadline has been extended until Thursday, October 10.

 

ON THE BOARDS

 

From Grim to Grand: The Winning Design for 55 Water Street Plaza

 

In July, a jury selected six finalists in the competition to redesign the elevated public plaza at 55 Water Street in downtown Manhattan (see ANN News 07/26/02). On Monday, the Municipal Art Society and the New Water Street Corporation announced the winner: the New York-based team of Rogers Marvel Architects and Ken Smith Landscape Architect. The proposals of all six finalists will be displayed at the Municipal Art Society's Urban Center Galleries October 21 - November 29, 2002.

 

Currently, the plaza is nearly invisible from street level, and its primary point of access is a dimly lit escalator (think “Logan’s Run” after curfew). The new design will transform the practically barren one-acre site into a truly grand public space. Plans include a series of dune-like spaces along a slope that rises as it approaches a terrace overlooking the water with panoramic views of New York Harbor from the Brooklyn Bridge to Governors Island. Areas of respite and recreation will be created to bring the park down to the street and the street up to the park. A new multi-story beacon will anchor the northeast corner and serve as a welcoming lantern visible from the East River piers and the Brooklyn Promenade. The glowing structure will provide an additional park entrance via a large capacity elevator. An event space to the west of the beacon will accommodate year-round programming such as ice-skating, film screenings, and evening parties.

 

You Can’t Keep a Good Rem Down

 

Toronto may have put the Office for Metropolitan Architecture’s work on Union Station on the shelf (see Globe and Mail article), but the Dallas Center for the Performing Arts Foundation has declared full-steam-ahead. OMA’s Rem Koolhaas is the Design Architect, Dan Wood of OMA New York City is Principal-in-Charge, and Hillier of Dallas is Architect-of-Record in the joint venture team for the Center's multiform theater. The theater will be designed to accommodate thrust, proscenium, and arena stages, and seat between 600 and 700 theatergoers, depending on the configuration.

 

OMA is currently collaborating on the master plan for the Dallas Center for the Performing Arts with Foster and Partners, the Margot and Bill Winspear Opera House architect. The master plan for the Center will be unveiled in early 2003.

 

Reservations S’il Vous Plaît

 

MyTravel Hotel is a 400-room resort hotel in Marne-la-Vallee (specifically, Disneyland Paris) designed by the London office of HOK with French partner Arte Charpentier. The distinctive forms of the hotel are based on the traditional buildings of the surrounding French countryside. A tower housing the reception area and elevators anchors the project. A glazed atrium, which covers the swimming pool, can be opened up to connect to an outdoor pool and lakeside garden during the summer. The £27.5 million resort is scheduled to open next March.

 

Feasibility Phase

 

The Stamford, CT, office of Flad & Associates recently completed the feasibility study phase for the City University of New York to design a renovation and addition to the Marshak Science and Physical Education Building at the City College campus at 135th Street and Convent Avenue in New York City. Among the recommendations of the study was the proposal for a 623,000-square-foot renovation and a 279,000-square-foot addition that will create new, state-of-the-art space for a variety of research programs, including physics, biology, and chemistry. Other project team members include GPR Planners Collaborative, Purchase, New York; Flack + Kurtz, New York City (mechanical, electrical, and piping engineering); and RSD Engineers New York City (structural engineering). Completion is projected for 2007, but is contingent on future availability of design and construction funds.

 

Border Station Shortlist

 

The General Services Administration (GSA) (Northeast and Caribbean Region, New York) A/E Evaluation Board has recommended a shortlist of firms for evaluation and recommendation by the GSA Regional Evaluation Board in selection of an Architect-Engineer for a new, 3,145-square-meter US Land Port of Entry at Massena, NY. The list includes: Architectural Research Office/Parsons Brinckerhoff; Hardy Holzman Pfieffer Associates; Smith-Miller + Hawkinson Architects (also designing a border station in Champlain, NY); and Vollmer Associates, LLP/Rogers Marvel Architect.

 

Accommodating Armed Forces

 

HLM Design, Inc. is a member of the team chosen as preferred bidder for the UK's Ministry of Defense's £1 billion ($1.5 billion) single living accommodation modernization project, known as SLAM. The consortium, led by Bovis Lend Lease and Babcock Support Services, was one of four short listed firms competing for the project. HLM Design's role in the project is Lead Architect for the Design Cluster. The first phase, the largest prime contract yet to be undertaken by the Ministry of Defense in the UK, will run for a period of five years and upgrade over 16,000 bed spaces as well as utility and common areas for service personnel at a minimum 50 bases in England and Wales to accommodate all segments of the armed forces. Construction will start during 2003-2004.

 

Cheering From the Shore

 

USM Modular Furniture has been named as official supplier to the Swiss Team Alinghi in the 2003 America’s Cup nautical competition. As part of its sponsorship, USM has furnished all offices of Team Alinghi, including its base in Auckland, New Zealand, and its office in Geneva, Switzerland, with USM’s Haller Systems and eleven22, its newest product line recently launched in the U.S.

 

Artful Expansion

 

art4business, a U.S. art advisory firm that provides integrated, web-enabled services to the corporate and institutional market, recently opened its first European office in London. Sue Wiggins, Chairman and CEO, sees the London base as the ideal location to support existing relationships with U.S. corporations working abroad, and to extend the client base in the UK and on the continent. Kate W. Sweeney, who has been working in the art field in the UK for over three years, has been named Managing Director of art4business London.

 

STATISTICS

 

Maneuvering Marketing Dollars

 

A recent survey by PSMJ Resources, a management information resource exclusively serving the Architecture/Engineering/Construction (A/E/C) industry, just released findings from its new report, “2002 A/E Benchmarks for the Marketing Professional.” The numbers indicate that the design industry has decided to allocate more of its available funds to marketing activities that focus on direct client contact rather than to general firm promotion and advertising. Median marketing spending for promotional activities dropped with respect to last year to levels in the 6% to 11% range, while marketing spending for presentations increased into the 8% to 18% range. The good news, according to Dan Daniels, Series Editor of the PSMJ Resources surveys, is that proposal hit rates reversed last year’s decline and improved to 33% in 2002, up from 30% in 2001.

 

PEOPLE ON THE MOVE

 

Randall P. Ng has been promoted to president of New York City-based WalkerGroup/CNI. Ng, who joined the architecture and interior design firm in 1986, was named chief operating officer in 2001. In his new position, he is assuming the responsibilities of Mark Pucci, former chairman and CEO, who resigned to pursue other opportunities. Ng, who first worked at the company’s Los Angeles office and was appointed vice president in 1994, moved to New York in 1995 and was named executive vice president in 1997. Prior to joining WalkerGroup/CNI, he was an account executive with Chaix and Johnson, an architecture and retail design firm in Los Angeles.

 

Suzanne Harness, Esq., AIA, has joined the American Institute of Architects (AIA) as managing director and counsel responsible for the AIA Contract Documents team. Harness comes to the AIA from the law firm Seyfarth Shaw, where she served as an associate in the construction practice group in the Washington, D.C. office. She has more than 20 years' experience in architecture, property development, construction management, and law. Prior to private law practice, Harness was a project manager in the property development division of the U.S. General Services Administration. Before that, she worked with

Sequoia Building Corporation in Herndon, Virginia. She also has served as a project architect and project manager with nationally recognized architecture firms, including The Joseph Boggs Studio/Architects, Dewberry & Davis, and Chloethiel Woodard Smith & Associates.

 

Elisabeth Lynn, a veteran of business development for Tiffany & Co., has been tapped by the Frank Lloyd Wright Foundation to spearhead an ambitious retailing initiative for merchandise designed by one of the most famous architect of the 20th century. In assuming the newly established position of vice president of licensing, retailing and merchandising for the Foundation, Lynn's duties will include redefining the objectives of the retailing, merchandising, and licensing activities. The Foundation's inventory includes reproductions of Wright-designed furniture, decorative objects, and lighting (and a ubiquitous selection of ties, tableware, etc.). Hiring Lynn is part of an aggressive new campaign to increase awareness of the FLW Foundation in Arizona, across the country, and internationally that started last year with the appointment of Jim Goulka as president and CEO of the Foundation.

 

Maureen Cornwell has been promoted from Senior Associate to Principal at New York City-based Harris Smith Design. Cornwell has over 20 years of experience in all aspects of corporate and residential interior design in industries ranging from advertising and consulting to professional photography and the Internet. Previously, she spent 14 years as Senior Interior Designer at Charles Patten Architects.

 

Architects Janina Deppe and Paul Zamek have joined the Miami office of SB Architects (Sandy & Babcock International). Most recently employed with Borrelli and Associates. Deppe’s background includes a broad range of project types, such as the south terminal expansion for the Miami International Airport, and The Eco-Tourism Center, a mixed-use development in Costa Rica.  At SB Architects, she is focusing on mixed-use and residential design, and has joined the design team for One Shipyard Place, a new 100-unit, luxury condominium project in Jacksonville, Florida. Zamek has design experience working with firms such as Robert A. M. Stern Architects and Cooper Robertson & Partners. With an expertise in the planning and design of mixed-use, resort, and entertainment projects, he has worked on a number of new communities including Disney’s Boardwalk in Lake Buena Vista, Florida, Maritime Park in Miami, and Aspen Highlands ski resort in Colorado. At SB Architects, he has joined the design team for Marco Island, a luxury condominium development on Florida’s gulf coast.

 

Eric Lippincott recently joined the Albany, NY, office of Einhorn Yaffee Prescott, Architecture & Engineering, P.C. (EYP) as Principal and Corporate Controller. He has more than 20 years of business and controllership experience, most recently as Corporate Controller for Encore Paper Company.

 

OF INTEREST

 

A Pocket Full of Secrets

 

It seems that more people are traveling to more places – but finding less and less time to explore, discover, and enjoy. City Secrets New York City is the most recent installment in a series of innovative guides to architecture, art, food, shopping, and all manner of cultural and historic landmarks. The City Secrets series, edited by New York architect Robert Kahn, is the ultimate insider’s guide, offering a collection of personal recommendations and favorite places from those who know a city best. Contributors include architects Michael Graves, Charles Gwathmey, Richard Meier, and Frederic Schwartz; journalists Anna Quindlen and Kurt Andersen; artists Frank Stella and Brice Marden; playwrights David Hare and John Guare; novelists Michael Cunningham and Rick Moody; gourmets Danny Meyer and Marcella Hazan; MoMA director Glenn Lowry; poet laureate Mark Strand; author and neurologist Oliver Sacks; and many, many others including historians, urban archaeologists, curators, actors, and filmmakers. The series includes: City Secrets Rome, City Secrets Florence, Venice & the Towns of Italy, and City Secrets London.

 

 

National Building Museum Needs Volunteers to Teach Inner-City Teens Basic Design Skills

 

The National Building Museum in Washington, DC, is seeking 16 professionals and university students in the fields of architecture, art, design, urban planning, and engineering to volunteer for CityVision Fall 2002, a three-month program that uses design as a framework to teach "at-risk" middle and junior high school youth how to critically and creatively examine their neighborhoods. Volunteer applications need to be received no later then Thursday, October 10 and training for volunteers will begin on Saturday, October 12.

 

The Museum is also seeking nine volunteers and 20 youth participants for the Design Apprenticeship Program VI - Portfolios; the sixth in a series of short-term projects designed and built by local youth. Design Apprenticeship Program (DAP Squad) projects allow students to expand their design and art experience through hands-on projects that they control from concept to completion. This project is free, and open to students 13-19 years old. Applications are required for both youth participants and volunteers, and are due by Wednesday, October 23.

 

In addition to the reward that comes from helping kids learn new skills and build confidence, local professionals get credits for community service needed for professional registration and a small stipend. University students may receive up to three credits for independent study. All volunteers get Museum member benefits for participating, which include reduced fees for lectures and symposia, and a discount at the Museum shop. For more detailed information call Mike Hill or Stacy Kerr at 202-272-2448 or by e-mail at mmhill@nbm.org or skerr@nbm.org

 

National Endowment For The Arts Announces Funding For 13 National Design Competitions

 

The National Endowment For The Arts’ the third annual New Public Works initiative is providing up to $75,000 each to 13 organizations to help fund national design competitions for a range of public projects. This year, particular emphasis was given to the design of innovative schools with eight of the projects involving elementary, secondary, and university buildings. Grantees include: Archeworks (on behalf of the City of Chicago); City of Trenton (New Jersey); Fashion Institute of Technology, New York City; Kent State University Urban Design Center of Northeast Ohio; Local Initiatives Support Corporation (on behalf of Livable Places), Los Angeles; Nature Conservancy, Waipahu, Hawaii; and others. Click 2002 New Public Works Awardees for the complete list of grant projects including proposed jurors and invited designers.

 

This is the final year of the initiative, although applications for future design competitions may be submitted in the NEA's Creativity category. Check out the NEA’s Cultural Funding: Federal Opportunities site for more details.

 

Paper Dolls Were Never This Fun (or loud)

 

For an eye- and ear-popping cyber experience, visit Cybercouture.com. Wend your way to the Interactive Studio, and you can customize a dress by fashion designer Pia Myrvold using textiles designed by Karim Rashid (remember Colorform dolls?). The textiles, which can be combined in swatches of patterns, originated as Wolf-Gordon contract wallcoverings designed by Rashid as part of the “Digital Nature” collection. By the way, after you’ve created your “hypermix” interactive dress, you can order it for only € 525!

 

EDITOR’S NOTES: Just a reminder that we now have both simple and advanced site search feature on the home page.

 

New events and deadlines have been added to the ANN Calendar…if you haven’t looked recently, check it out!

 

E-mail news and JPG images with Subject “WhoWhatWhen” (or simply “WWW”) to: kristen@ArchNewsNow.com