(Text from Storefront for Art and Architecture)

What is it that an architectural drawing does and how does it do it? How can we distill beauty from cosmetics? How can new modes of representation produce new architectures and new sensibilities?

The centerpiece of the exhibition is a collection of 30 newly commissioned architectural drawings. Each drawing depicts the Storefront Gallery space at 97 Kenmare, from the perspectives of a diverse group of emerging and established architects worldwide. The drawings reveal a different aspect of the space and are representative of the generative properties of the architect’s drawing. The gallery space, wallpapered with sourced images of birds, axonometries, children, green and comics cut from drawings produced in the past five years, reflects on the specific graphic devices used by architects to ignite certain feelings and properties in their drawings that the architectural drawing itself is unable to convey: skies filled with birds to portray movement, axonometries as a mode of applied intellectuality, children as life generators, green surfaces as magic ecological surfaces, or comics as prosthetic communicative devices.

Storefront for Art and Architecture is first and foremost a center for the exchange of ideas, agendas, challenges, confrontations; it is a part of a larger infrastructure for dialogue about the role of art and design in the city and beyond. At the same time, one might argue that all storefront’s in the city possess that kind of cultural, economic and political power. They are often the nodes that localize the exchanges and interactions between individuals and communities, expose and facilitate patterns of behavior, commerce, and many of the frictions (and fictions?) of our day-to-day lives in the city. A storefront might be a place to practice religion or slaughter a chicken; a conduit for illicit trade or creative destruction. Storefronts are both wallpaper and newspaper.

VisionArc’s contribution to the Storefront exhibition sought to communicate this complexity and this vibrancy by subsuming the presence of the gallery proper (and it’s always recognizable movable facade panels) into the larger matrix of associations, events, spectacles, and mysteries emanating from this 1-story landscape. The news clippings, headlines, and stories are all culled from New York City’s circulars and tabloids and are each presented as snapshots of a moment where a storefront became a stage. In so doing we are giving a nod to the contribution of Storefront makes to the critical and creative landscape of New York City while paying equal tribute to the (sometimes unexpected) role that our less rarefied storefronts play in the ever evolving shape of the curious life of our city.

Published in Reports from the Field on March 28th, 2012
Reporting by Benedict Clouette, writer and the editor of e-Oculus.

Recognizing the need for fresh ideas to address these new risks to the city, a recent design charrette at the Center for Architecture brought together more than 50 architects, urban designers, landscape architects, planners, and educators to develop creative responses to the challenges posed by rising water levels and increasingly unpredictable weather patterns. The event, a joint project of the New York City Department of City Planning and the AIANY Design for Risk and Reconstruction Committee, called on designers to propose strategies to improve the city’s flood-resistance while also maintaining the vitality of New York’s streets.

The charrette’s participants were divided into groups, each addressing a different building typology (single-family homes, elevator apartments, mixed-use buildings, and multi-family row-houses), and were charged with producing solutions for similar buildings sited in low-lying and flood-prone areas. The brief asked that the designs respond to the anticipated water elevation levels of a 100-year flood, and prompted the teams to keep in mind the pedestrian experience of the street.

During the charrette, the participants crowded around tables, sketching their ideas over typical sections and elevations of their building types. Many of the teams produced several possible schemes, reflecting different trade-offs and priorities, all of which were discussed in a round of presentations at the conclusion of the charrette.

“The design charrette was a creative, collaborative, and dynamic step in addressing the risks that we confront as we move into the 21st century,” said Lance Jay Brown, FAIA, co-chair of the Design for Risk and Reconstruction Committee and an organizer of the event. “These members of the New York design community stepped up, voluntarily and on short notice, and donated their time, energy, and creativity in pursuit of inventive solutions.”

The afternoon ended with a call to continue to refine the ideas generated at the event, and the suggestion of future workshops to address a greater range of scales, moving from the building to the city and the region. The Department of City Planning is expected to issue a report summarizing the findings of the charrette this summer.

Other participants included:
Participants: David Piscuskas, FAIA, 1100 Architect; Richard Dattner, FAIA, Dattner Architects; Deborah Gans, AIA, Gans Studio; Lee Weintraub, FASLA, Lee Weintraub Landscape Architecture; Pablo Vengoechea, Pablo Vengoechea Architect; Mary Kimball, NYC Department of City Planning; Vincent Linarello, Alexander Gorlin Architects; Anne-Sophie Hall, AIA, Grimshaw Architects; Chris Garvin, AIA, Terrapin Bright Green; Julia Murphy, AIA, Skidmore, Owings & Merrill; Wids Delacour, AIA, Delacour & Ferrara Architects; Erick Gregory, NYC Department of City Planning; Jill Lerner, FAIA, Kohn Pedersen Fox; Basar Girit, Situ Studio; Bill Browning, Terrapin Bright Green; Maria Milans del Bosch, Mathhew Baird Architects; Denisha Williams, ASLA, Denisha Williams Landscape; Jeff Schumaker, NYC Department of City Planning; Beth Greenberg, AIA, Dattner Architects; Reid Freeman, AIA, James Carpenter Design; Eric Bunge, AIA, nArchitects; Carmi Bee, FAIA, RKTB; Allison Duncan, ASLA, Allison Duncan Design; Skye Duncan, NYC Department of City Planning; Peter Gluck, Peter Gluck & Partners; Jonathan Marvel, AIA, Rogers Marvel; Stephen Cassell, AIA, Architecture Research Office (ARO); Florence Schmitt, Matthew Baird Architects; Chris Holme, NYC Department of City Planning; Hayes Slade, AIA, Slade Architects; Marc Puig, nArchitects; Lisa Tsang, Obra Architects; Jamie Chan, NYC Department of City Planning; Leah Cohen, NYC Department of City Planning; Frank Michielli, AIA, Michielli + Wyetzner; Colin Cathcart, AIA, Kiss Cathcart; Matthew Berman, Assoc. AIA, workshop/apd; Claire Weisz, AIA, WXY architecture + urban design; Susannah Drake, AIA, ASLA, dlandstudio; Jessica Fain, NYC Department of City Planning; Michelle Valdez, NYC Department of City Planning; Pablo Castro, AIA, Obra Architects; James Slade, AIA, Slade Architects; Winka Dubbledam, Assoc. AIA, Archi-tectonics; Michael Kwartler, FAIA, Environmental Simulation Center; Tricia Martin, LEED AP, WE Design; Michael Marrella, NYC Department of City Planning; Colin Gardener, NYC Department of City Planning; Illya Azaroff, AIA, Co-chair, Design for Risk and Reconstruction Committee; Lance Jay Brown, FAIA, Co-chair, Design for Risk and Reconstruction Committee