October in NYC

October in New York City means two things, at least to architects: Open House New York (OHNY) and AIANY's Archtober. I've been too busy to post about these events far in advance, so below are highlights for open-access OHNY sites and some events drawn from Archtober and other sites that I'm pretty sure aren't sold out. Everything is free, unless noted otherwise.



All October, Center for Architecture
Close to the Edge: The Birth of Hip-Hop Architecture
Hip-Hop Architecture produces spaces, buildings, and environments that embody the creative energy evident in hip-hop’s first four elements: deejaying, emceeing, b-boying, and graffiti. Close to the Edge: The Birth of Hip-Hop Architecture exhibits the work of students, academics and practitioners at the center of this emerging architectural revolution.

Various days throughout October, Guggenheim Museum
The Guggenheim Celebrates Archtober This Fall
The Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum is excited to offer special tours, workshops, and public programs that highlight Frank Lloyd Wright’s iconic building design.

Opened October 4 (Thursdays through Sundays until November 18), The Modulightor Building
Paul Rudolph: The Personal Laboratory
An exhibition, on the occasion of Paul Rudolph’s Centennial, of models, drawings, photographs & artifacts exploring his residences—designed by himself, for himself—that served as his laboratories for the psychologically & aesthetically compelling spaces which Rudolph developed throughout his career.

Opened October 4 (Mondays through Fridays until February 8, 2019), CCNY Spitzer School of Architecture
Unfinished
The Unfinished exhibition, presented in the Spanish pavilion at the 2016 Venice Architecture Biennale and winner of the Golden Lion, seeks to direct attention to processes more than results in an attempt to discover design strategies generated by an optimistic view of the constructed environment.

October 9, 5:15pm, Chelsea Piers
NYC Waterfront Zoning 25th Anniversary Boat Tour: Accessing the Edge
This tour, an adaptation of AIANY’s Lower Manhattan Architecture Boat Tour, will celebrate the 25th anniversary of Waterfront Zoning and feature special guest speakers Claudia Herasme and Michael Marrella from the Department of City Planning, who will highlight several sites that were developed pursuant to Waterfront Zoning.
General Public: $48 / Students: $32

OHNY SITES
Both October 13 & 14:

• Brooklyn Army Terminal, Sunset Park, Brooklyn: A 100-year-old industrial building by Cass Gilbert I visited back in OHNY 2012.
• Flushing Quaker Meeting House, Flushing, Queens: A 17th-century religious building still in use.
• Greater Astoria Historical Society, Astoria, Queens: My neighborhood.
• Mmuseumm, Civic Center, Manhattan: Mmuseumm tells contemporary stories about humanity through vernacular objects from around the world -- housed in former freight elevator and loading dock.
• Noguchi Museum, Astoria, Queens: Go for the courtyard, stay for the Jorge Palacios exhibition.
• Rockefeller University, Upper East Side, Manhattan: Tours of the "world-renowned center for research and graduate education in the biosciences."
• Stickbulb Showroom at RUX Studios, Long Island City, Queens: The newly opened gallery, studio, and production facility for Stickbulb in the old Empire City Iron Works.
• Westbeth Artists Housing, West Village, Manhattan: Guided tours by residents will include highlights of The Bell Lab era of the building, the conversion to artists housing, and information on the artists of Westbeth.

October 13 only:

• City College of New York | The Great Hall, Hamilton Heights, Manhattan: My alma mater and "one of the largest rooms in all of New York — not to be missed."
• Dime Savings Bank of Brooklyn, Downtown Brooklyn: Open to the public not too long, now under construction as part of a supertall residential tower by SHoP Architects next door.
• General Society of Mechanics and Tradesmen of the City of New York, Midtown, Manhattan: The second-oldest library in the city and one of only three remaining private membership circulating libraries.
• Lehman College, Jerome Park, Bronx: Buildings by Marcel Breuer and Rafael Viñoly on this historic campus.
• Manhattan Borough President's Map Display, Civic Center, Manhattan: A complete set of Randel Farm Maps, executed by John Randel in 1820 and only displayed in full once before.
• Sunset Park Material Recovery Facility, Sunset Park, Brooklyn: Building designed by Selldorf Architects and made almost entirely from recycled steel.

October 14 only:

• Jefferson Market Library, West Village, Manhattan: Climb 149 steps to the top of the library's tower and 360° views of Greenwich Village.
• CUNY Bronx Community College | Marcel Breuer Buildings, University Heights, Bronx: Highly recommended, what I visited during OHNY 2017 (photo at top).

October 16-21, SVA Theatre & Cinepolis
Architecture & Design Film Festival
A half-dozen standouts from the 10th anniversary of the annual ADFF:

• Do More With Less, a film from Ecuador presenting student-built projects in Latin America that "are changing the paradigm by offering a new understanding of the way architecture interacts with society."
• The Experimental City, on the Minnesota Experimental City, a domed metropolis for 250,000 residents that "didn't quite go as planned."
• Frank Gehry: Building Justice, which "tells the story of architect Frank Gehry’s investigation into prison design as a subject for the best architecture students in the United States."
• Mies On Scene. Barcelona in two acts, on the famous pavilion "surrounded by myths and stories, statements and questions."
• Parallel Sprawl, which looks at the urban sprawl of "two diametrically opposite case studies on the European continent - Switzerland and Kosovo, the former extremely rich and old, the latter extremely poor and young."
• The Power of the Archive, which "delves into the archive of the Renzo Piano Foundation and their workshop...drafts, sketches, models, renderings, drawings are all housed in a ... converted factory in Genoa."

Opening October 23, The Cooper Union
Archive and Artifact: The Virtual and the Physical
This exhibition celebrates The Irwin S. Chanin School of Architecture’s experimental and influential pedagogy by presenting undergraduate thesis projects completed at the school over the past 50 years, and includes the beta launch of an online database of its Student Work Collection.

October 24, 8pm, 92Y
Makers of Modern Architecture: Maya Lin in Conversation with Martin Filler
Architecture critic Martin Filler chose Lin's portrait for the cover of his latest book, Makers of Modern Architecture, Volume III, which examines the crucial role that personality, character, and temperament play in professional practice. Lin, who faced sexism and racism while she pursued her singular career path as an artist-architect, will speak with Filler about the challenges and opportunities she encountered during her rise to international fame.
Tickets: $35