Ponte City's Transformation

A couple years ago I posted briefly about Ponte City, a 1970s high-rise with a distinct cylindrical shape and hollow core. Located in Johannesburg, South Africa, the building is undergoing a transformation from...



to...



Yes folks, it's New Ponte! While gussying up the concrete core with color and some balconies does little to betray the building's qualities, the exterior rendering below resembles a mediocre development in Chicago, New York, Vancouver, or some other North American city. The design and the marketing make me wonder how much else the South African development borrows from American precedents. From a brief look at New Ponte's web page, it looks like a lot, from the amenities package to the focus on "luxury" living and open floor plans.



Given the fact that Ponte City was a rough and tumble place that happened to have a unique design, the transformation is impossible to dismiss outright, though I'd contend that a development geared at a mix of incomes rather than solely the upper classes might make the transformation less contentious. But given the great swing of (social) change envisioned, architecture is just one piece of the puzzle.

What struck me as perhaps the most important (and unsettling) element in this transformation is the project's "urban renewal." While it's not clear if Johannesburg had the below charter pre-New Ponte, or if it was created with the input of developers to help these and other potential urban-renewal projects, the security element of the charter below appears to be another unfortunate extension of the American influence hypothesized above.

As the web page indicates: "The City of Johannesburg is committed to developing the Inner City as a place where people want to live. The Inner City Regeneration Charter commits the City to the following:

:: Highly Visible ‘bobby-on-the-beat’ system, by increasing resources to the South African Police Services, and the Johannesburg Municipal Police Department over the next three years.
:: Install 216 CCTV cameras in and around the Inner City, connected to a control center manned 24 hours a day by JMPD and SAPS.
:: Zero-tolerance to law-enforcement, including all by-laws.
:: Injecting R99-million into Pikitup in the 2007/8 financial year to build a new system of waste management and street cleaning in the Inner City.
:: Eliminate all Bad Buildings in the Inner City.
:: Eliminate all unlicensed and non-compliant liquor outlets by the end of 2009.
:: Upgrade all the city streets for pedestrians, through new paving, planting street trees, replacing and putting in new lighting, cleaning up litter etc."
[PDF link]

(Thanks to Juliet for the head's up!)

Today's archidose #148

Rooftop louver mock-ups for Art Institute addition, Renzo Piano, originally uploaded by Atelier FLIR.

Mock-up of the rooftop louvers for the Art Institute of Chicago addition by Renzo Piano Building Workshop.

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Monday, Monday

My weekly page update:

Courtyard House in Los Angeles by Ripple Design.

Some unrelated links for your enjoyment:

designverb
"Designverb covers elements in design that excite, inspire, captivate, and rattle our goofy creative minds through curious and refreshing finds in art, design, technology, food, culture, experiences, lifestyles, entertainment, and all the other mind-provoking ideas that come with it!" (added to sidebar under blogs::design+technology)

AndrewBlum.net
A collection of articles on architecture, urbanism, design, art, technology and travel from a contributing editor at Wired and Metropolis magazines. (added to sidebar under architectural links::criticism)

Photography of the Unexpected and the Neglected Architecture
A work by Yves Marchand & Romain Meffre.

Half Dose #38: Secret Sauna

The following text and images are courtesy vision division, a young Swedish architecture firm with a penchant for the clever.

"If you want to build something in Sweden, you have to neglect your architectural aspirations and desires, and build something comprehensible and conventional to please the Swedish building regulations with their obsessed traditional values."



"So at a first glance this sauna may appear to be an anonymous wooden cabin, with no architectural features or ambition. The front façade is windowless; a water proof drape covers the façade on the other side. The sauna has a pointed traditional roof as well, to accomplish this intriguing scam."



"The front façade is actually a door, and when it is opened, the cabin changes its appearance completely."



"Now you have a magnificent view over the archipelago, and the door/wall creates an intimate space with the guest hut next to the sauna."



"The wall prevents the neighbors from peaking in as well."

What Came Before After

Part of the Urban Design program at City College last year was a class on the anthropology of space and place. Taught by Setha Low -- whose books I reviewed here and here -- the class was equal parts theory and practice; readings about the subject followed by research and field observations for a public space in the city. The team of which I was a part looked at Jacob Javits Plaza in Lower Manhattan's Civic Center area. Designed by Martha Schwartz, the plaza is known as being the site of Richard Serra's Tilted Arc, a curved wall of cor-ten steel that bisected the space and was removed only eight years after its supposedly permanent installation.

I'd written critically about the plaza design in the past, though this class gave me the opportunity to look at the success (or lack thereof) of the design from the point of view of use, in relation to design. This weekend I decided to reformat the final paper for the web and post it on my web site. So I give you Jacob Javits Plaza: Reconsidering Intentions. It's a fairly long paper, but one I'm particularly proud of. If you make it through it all, hopefully you'll find it worth your while.



An abstract of the paper might read:

This paper attempts to determine the success of Jacob Javits Plaza through the framework of the current design's historical relationship to what came before, via a historical analysis, a three-part mapping analysis of the space (seating population, movement, and use), and using internet “discussions” about perceptions of the space and the plaza design. These analyses follow histories of the Federal buildings that created the plaza; the selection, installation, and removal of Serra’s sculpture; the “in-between” period when temporary planters and furniture occupied the space; and the selection, installation, and reaction to Schwartz’s plaza redesign.

Today's archidose #147

Ordrupgaard Museum Extension - Copenhagen (Denmark), originally uploaded by dod:.

Ordrupgaard Museum Extension in Copenhagen, Denmark by Zaha Hadid.

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A Sense of Scale

On the left is a (modified) aerial of Kramer Junction (Google Earth link) solar electric generating station in Southern California; on the right is an aerial of Central Park (GE link, again) in Manhattan.



According to Nova's "Saved by the Sun," Kramer Junction powers approximately 150,000 homes, or the equivalent of just under two Central Parks at Manhattan's population density of 66,940 people per square mile. Or to put it another way, turning Central Park into a solar electric generating station, like Kramer Junction (assuming, magically, the same solar conditions as the Mojave Desert), would power approximately 8-10% of Manhattan's households. While I don't think this comparison deflates the solar potential, it helps illustrate the enormous areas required, with current technologies, to achieve a more suitable way of creating energy than burning fossil fuels. Of course, this comparison also ignores demand (what I see as a -- if not the -- key to the current energy "crisis"), in which case the 150,000 might actually increase in Manhattan's denser and more compact living conditions.

Today's archidose #146

wave, originally uploaded by base_gee.

Block 16 in Almere, Netherlands by René van Zuuk Architekten.

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Graphic Anatomy of Atelier Bow-Wow

Even without being the fan of Japanese super-duo Atelier Bow-Wow that I am, I still would have been blown away after perusing the drawings in their latest book, Graphic Anatomy, at a bookstore a couple weeks ago. The thorough mix of working drawing, perspective drawing, and entourage is a novel combination of well-established drawing conventions. They're beautiful in their own right.



While I resisted purchasing the book (how much longer I can, I'm not sure), it was great to find some super-large-scale images from the book on yusunkwon's Flickr page. Below are some strips from those images. Click the image to be taken to see the overall images, impressive even at a lower resolution. (For those not versed in navigating Flickr, click on the "all sizes" button above the image on the Flickr page to see the full, hi-res image.)

Monday, Monday

My weekly page update:

Termas Géometricas in Villarrica, Chile by Germán del Sol.

The updated book feature is Building a Century of Progress: The Architecture of Chicago's 1933-34 World's Fair, by Lisa D. Schrenk.

Some unrelated links for your enjoyment:

The Other City
An international exhibition in two venues (the Hungarian Cultural Center and the Romanian Cultural Insitute, both in New York) that "explores the ideologies behind the postwar initiatives of public housing projects, the conditions these buildings have provided for their inhabitants, as well as the agenda of those who support or criticize them." Running from Oct. 19 to Dec. 9.

Lebbeus Woods
New blog of the prolific, experimental architect, teacher, and artist. (added to sidebar under blogs::offices)

BMW Welt
This weekend saw the opening of Coop Himmelb(l)au's building for the German car maker. (via ecAr)

Top 100 Architecture Blogs
From out of nowhere comes this list of 100 blogs on architecture and urbanism, with a few new ones (to me) that will be added to this page's sidebar in the near future.

Half Dose #37: Nerman Museum of Contemporary Art

Yesterday saw the opening of the Nerman Museum of Contemporary Art in Overland Park, Kansas. Designed by Kyu Sung Woo Architects, the museum is a part of the Johnson County Community College and is built as an addition to the school's Regnier Center, giving the museum a prominent location on the campus's northeast corner.



The view above shows the building apparently reaching out beyond the campus, to the community beyond, as a sort of symbolic connection between the two.



According to the architect's web page, the museum "provides amenities for the entire campus. A café is provided in the atrium and a large multi purpose Lecture Hall serves the museum, campus educational needs, and has additional conferencing capabilities. Galleries are provided for both the permanent collections and for temporary and changing exhibitions."



The simple stone and glass exterior illustrates these functions, the more public facilities, such as the café, occupying the transparent ground floor, and the "serene" galleries located overhead in the primarily solid second floor. A pixelated ceiling over the entry makes for a dramatic entry space at night.



The exterior -- particularly the single window on the upper floor framing the distant landscape -- gives a hint at the design choices made within. Views across the galleries and atrium space are framed via openings that also connect with the surroundings, a suitable, though subtle gesture in the Midwestern landscape.



Links:

:: Nerman Museum of Contemporary Art
:: Johnson County Community College
:: Kyu Sung Woo Architects
:: Detail Magazine coverage

Do the Meier Mash

After seeing these images at Dezeen of Richard Meier's artwork now on display at the Louise T Blouin Foundation in London, I couldn't help but think about how they relate to his buildings. Where what he's known for are geometrically crisp, white and light-filled, his art is geometrically chaotic, black and dingy. The images also made me wonder what the art would look like in some of his spaces. So here's some "mash-ups" I made of the possible interaction of the two.


Museum of Decorative Arts in Frankfurt, Germany
Original image by darrell godliman


Museum of Decorative Arts in Frankfurt, Germany
Original image by Gabó


High Museum of Art in Atlanta, Georgia
Original image by Wizum


Ara Pacis Museum in Rome, Italy
Original image by DarkFrame

Today's archidose #145

gas natural, originally uploaded by MaLóL.

Gas Natural's New HQ in Barcelona, Spain by EMBT.

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Literary Dose #17

"Gaudi did for architecture what Lautréamont did for poetry: he put it through the bath of madness."

"He pushed the Baroque as far as it would go, but he did not do so on the basis of accepted doctrines or categorizations."

"As locus of risible consecration, one which makes a mockery of the sacred, the Sagrada Familia causes modern space and the archaic space of nature to corrupt one another."

"The flouting of established spatial codes and the eruption of natural and cosmic fertility generate an extraordinary and dizzying 'infinitization' of meaning."

"Somewhere short of accepted symbolisms, but beyond everyday meanings, a sanctifying power comes into play which is neither that of the state, nor that of the Church, nor that of the artist, nor that of theological divinity, but rather that of a naturalness boldly identified with divine transcendence."

Excerpt by Henri Lefebvre, from The Production of Space, translated by Donald Nicholson-Smith (1991).

Photos by (from top to bottom): MaLóL, panic-embryo, klaus dolle, T.SC, and Lou Rouge.

40 Bond Rumination #2

Not really a rumination, but a diversion until I can obtain some more information and images for the next post. This is a video of developer Ian Schrager discussing 40 Bond, from its design, its location, its amenities, to its architects. Obviously done before construction, it should be interesting to see how the finished work compares to his vision in later posts.



"It's as if someone took a skeleton and dipped it in a bowl of wet sugar and pulled it out" - Ian Schrager

Today's archidose #144

Malmö Eastern Cemetery, originally uploaded by jmtp.

The Chapels of St. Knut and St. Gertrude, 1935-43, at Malmö Eastern Cemetery by Sigurd Lewerentz.

To contribute your Flickr images for consideration, just:

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Monday, Monday

My weekly page update:

Montjüic Pavilion & Garden in Barcelona, Spain by Federico Calabrese.

The updated book feature is Organizing for Change: Integrating Architectural Thinking in Other Fields, by Michael Shamiyeh and DOM Research Laboratory (Ed.).

Some unrelated links for your enjoyment:

Stirling work, Chippers
Part IV's coverage of the official and unofficial results of the 2007 Stirling Prize. Oh, and Norman's got a new poll in the sidebar, the best archi-blogs of 2007.

ROADS LESS (BUT OFTEN) TRAVELED
"Architecture student and life enthusiast documents a semester abroad in Londontown..." (added to sidebar under blogs::architecture)

PYTR75
The blog of Pieter Van den Dorpe in Gent, Belgium. (added to sidebar under blogs::architecture)

Experiencing A Psychic Vacuum

As promised a few weeks ago, when I presented some pre-visit images of Mike Nelson's installation, titled A Psychic Vacuum, at the old Essex Street Market at Essex and Delancey in Manhattan's Lower East Side, here's some of my own images of the spaces, as well as some of my thoughts on the experience.



One enters from Delancey Street into an old restaurant that appears to be a found ruin, as if the artist barely touched the space. Visitors before me were enthralled with the detritus to be found in the front room and kitchen area, though I found it essentially to be a transition between the street and the installation itself. The view back to the entry above was especially nice, with the blacked-out windows, green neon framing, and glowing portal.



Once through a door at the back of the storefront restaurant, one entered the realm of A Psychic Vacuum. Immediately this is apparent as the spaces are much smaller than the albeit small restaurant, even much smaller than a typical bedroom, which many of the spaces recall in their construction, ceiling heights, and fittings. Its the contents, of course, that are what's important, in addition to the labyrinth of the rooms themselves.



Some rooms, like the second image above, are crammed with stuff that makes the resemblance of a barber shop, in this instance, an uneasy one. The extra artifacts complicate the thoughts of "this must be a barber shop as it has a barber's chair." While these and other spaces do recall certain real spaces (of which they are compiled), they seem to integrate these other artifacts in a manner like memories -- not clearly as clearly defined as the walls of the spaces themselves -- a la the installation's name.



My favorite spaces tended to be empty or shrine-like in their treatment of objects. Lighting is especially important in the installation, as once one is through the storefront restaurant, there is no natural light to be found. One walks from one room to another, some leading to dead ends, some into rooms with locked doors, some into rooms that are mirrors of other rooms. This last makes for an especially interesting experience of the work on an emotional level, as the feeling of "I'm not gonna be able to find my way out of this place" comes on upon entering the space, though leaves just as quickly when the distinction between it and its mirror is made apparent.



If my description is a bit vague or circuitous, this is unintentional but appropriate, as the installation is just that: vague in the space's purposes (past, present, and future), and circuitous in its path from entry to exit.



At the end of the labyrinth is a large space full of sand. The columns of the old meat market rise out of the sand to the roof and the skylights above. One is back in the land of daylight and the Modernist scale. The relationship between this space and the previous ones isn't very clear, though I like to think that some of the rooms are located under the tallest mountains of sand. This hypothesis may explain the waiver one signs when entering the installation, but on second thought it most likely pertains to the route's lack of a clear exit in the event of a fire.



But the idea of an above and a below, two sides of the same coin if you will, is very appealing. A labyrinth and an open space. A compressed space and a release space. Perhaps this notion is just a way for me to make sense of the two types of spaces being part of one installation, though I'm guessing I'm not the only one thinking that might just be the case.

The Visionaries

Need a primer on the most famous and prolific architects working today? If so head on over to concierge.com and flip through it's Visionaries in Style + Design feature on eleven (twelve if you count Herzog & de Meuron as two, and too many to count if you start to consider employees) international architects.



Admittedly geared to travelers, the piece gives a brief lowdown on why they're so famous, followed by a project "on the horizon," such as Frank Gehry's New World Symphony Hall in Miami Beach, pictured above. For many it may not offer anything new, but for others it helps get 'em up to speed on the big names in the bizness right now.

The list includes:

1) Norman Foster:

:: Claim to Fame: Reichstag dome, Berlin
:: On the Horizon: Terminal 3, Beijing Airport

2) Diller Scofidio + Renfro:

:: Claim to Fame: Institute of Contemporary Art, Boston
:: On the Horizon: The High Line, New York

3) Frank Gehry:

:: Claim to Fame: The Guggenheim Museum, Bilbao
:: On the Horizon: New World Symphony hall, Miami

4) Renzo Piano:

:: Claim to Fame: Auditorium Parco della Musica, Rome
:: On the Horizon: Shard London Bridge, London

5) Jean Nouvel:

:: Claim to Fame: Torre Agbar, Barcelona
:: On the Horizon: Koncerthuset, Copenhagen

6) Santiago Calatrava:

:: Claim to Fame: Ciutat de les Arts i de les Cièncias, Valencia
:: On the Horizon: The PATH Terminal, NYC

7) Zaha Hadid:

:: Claim to Fame: Rosenthal Center for Contemporary Art, Cincinnati
:: On the Horizon: Opera House, Guangzhou

8) Richard Rogers:

:: Claim to Fame: Terminal 4, Madrid Airport
:: On the Horizon: Leadenhall Building, London

9) Thom Mayne:

:: Claim to Fame: Hypo Alpe-Adria Center, Klagenfurt
:: On the Horizon: Phare Tower, Paris

10) Rem Koolhaas:

:: Claim to Fame: Prada Epicenter, New York
:: On the Horizon: Dee & Charles Wyly Theatre, Dallas

11) Herzog & De Meuron:

:: Claim to Fame: The Tate Modern, London
:: On the Horizon: Olympic Stadium, Beijing

40 Bond Rumination #1

This is the first in a series of posts on 40 Bond, the residential building in Manhattan's NoHo neighborhood designed by Herzog & de Meuron and developed by Ian Schrager. It is one of the most celebrated new buildings in New York City that I can think of in recent memory, even though it isn't yet complete. It's been on display for a multitude of admirers (including me) for a while, most recently the lobby, ground floor "screen", and the townhouses behind it.

Walking by the other day -- the first time since mid-summer -- what strikes me is that the apparent novelty of the whole thing is in fact a high-end update on numerous ideas that have been implemented in various ways by various people in the past. With an ultra-high budget and an aggressive housing market for the super rich living, and wanting to live in Manhattan, the building is able to appear new, while being ultimately a collage of pre-existing ideas executed in the Swiss duos notably artistic manner. I'll hopefully have a chance to address how, and if this differs from the work of other architects working today.

Briefly, this first rumination offers a comparison of a photo-realistic rendering of one of the 40 Bond townhouses with a photograph from a book I'm reading on the Chicago World's Fair in 1933.


"These are the first townhouses built in New York for generations." - Ian Schrager


The Masonite House by Frazier and Raferty.

Unfortunately, for me the comparison is based more on a first-person view of the ground floor townhouses, which differ from the top view in the orientation of the stair, (more in alignment with the bottom photo). I'll try to snap a photo of one in the next couple of days and add it to this post.

Update 10.14: While I