A Weekly Dose of Architecture Books

This is a series for August 2010 which documents my on-the-ground -- and on-the-webs -- research for my guidebook to contemporary NYC architecture (to be released next year by W. W. Norton ). Archives can be found at the bottom of the post and via the 31 in 31 label . The Sperone Westwater Gallery , designed Foster + Partners , is nearing completion about a block north of the New Museum . This piece continues the transformation of the Bowery, from Cooper Union down to Chinatown. In the ten or eleven years since I stayed at a hostel on the Bowery the street has seen numerous new buildings as well as restaurants and shops, displacing the old flophouses and mainstays like CBGB's. I always liked to think of the Bowery as un-gentrifiable, a zone immune to the changes in neighborhing SoHo, NoHo, the Lower East Side, and the East Village. Of course I was wrong, but a nine-story building with a bright red elevator on its facade is probably the last thing I would have expected...

This is a series for August 2010 which documents my on-the-ground -- and on-the-webs -- research for my guidebook to contemporary NYC architecture (to be released next year by W. W. Norton ). Archives can be found at the bottom of the post and via the 31 in 31 label . Spotted at The Architect's Newspaper , Tartinery Nolita is a new restaurant located on Mulberry next to Spring Lounge. Designed by SOMA Architects , the facade is marked by deep-set, black-steel fins projecting from the storefront glazing. These fins -- spaced randomly across the elevation --work to hide and reveal the spaces behind. The shallow bar occupies the northern end (right in photos), and the double-height dining area sits to the south. The bar-code design is more interesting from across the street than from the adjacent sidewalk (the top image of the archpaper piece testifies to this). But from directly in front of the restaurant, the double-height dining area attracts the most attention....

Encyclopedia of Detail in Contemporary Residential Architecture by Virginia McLeod, published by  Laurence King Publishing , 2010. Hardcover, 416 pages. ( Amazon )   Even as BIM (Building Information Modeling) supplants CAD (Computer-Aided Drafting) as the primary means of producing construction documents on the computer, construction details continue to be important. Plans, sections, and elevations may be automatically created by the 3d model in the BIM software, but details still must be developed and drawn. Knowledge of construction is certainly crucial, but so is knowing how to convey the right information to the contractor and their subs. Virginia McLeod's series of Detail in Contemporary ... books are helpful in extending the knowledge base of architects beyond what they and their associates have worked on.   In this "Encyclopedia" focused on single-family houses, over 700 details are collected from p...

40R_Laneway House in Toronto, Ontario, Canada by superkül inc | architect Photographs are by Tom Arban Photography . Occupying buildings located off of alleys is one strategy for adding density to residential areas in cities and suburbs, but one illegal in many North American jurisdictions. Carriage houses -- or in this case laneway houses -- are typically smaller than the primary residence on a lot, but they can be just as comfortable, with design that intelligently deals with site, size, and other constraints. In Toronto's Summerhill neighborhood, superkül inc | architect converted a former blacksmith's shop / horse shed / artist's live-work space into a residence for an artist and her husband. The constraints of the project are many. Primarily the existing footprint allowed only two feet of expansion on one of the short sides of the 18' (5.4m) by 40' (12m) lot, and no additional openings could be made in the exterior walls. These pointed to a verti...

This is a series for August 2010 which documents my on-the-ground -- and on-the-webs -- research for my guidebook to contemporary NYC architecture (to be released next year by W. W. Norton ). Archives can be found at the bottom of the post and via the 31 in 31 label . Although completed a couple years before 2000, the former Art et Industrie sculpture garden is something I was intrigued about, so I searched it out over the weekend and took a close look at it. Designed by Architecture Research Office ( ARO ) and located at the corner of Thompson and Broome Streets, the meat of the project is basically two solid-steel fences that follow the corner. I'm not sure what Art et Industrie displayed in its indoor and outdoor galleries, but the fence is like a piece of Modernist sculpture: well-crafted, simple, and easy to miss. Painted a dark gray, thin sheets of steel (I'm guessing about 8' by 8') are welded to matching steel H-shape supports which double as deep r...

Würzburg Weingut Stein a , originally uploaded by david pasek . Weingut Am Stein (presentation and seminar rooms for winery) in Wuerzburg, Germany by Hofmann Keicher Ring Architekten , 2005 To contribute your Flickr images for consideration, just: :: Join and add photos to the archidose pool , and/or ::Tag your photos archidose

This is a series for August 2010 which documents my on-the-ground -- and on-the-webs -- research for my guidebook to contemporary NYC architecture (to be released next year by W. W. Norton ). Archives can be found at the bottom of the post and via the 31 in 31 label . View Larger Map For now the above street view shows what architect William J. Rockwell faced in turning a Tennessee Mountain restaurant into a Crocs flagship store, located at Spring and Wooster Streets in SoHo. Alterations to the early 19th-century, many-times-renovated corner house required Landmarks (LPC) approval. When compared with the photo below, taken earlier today, the changes were fairly minimal, occurring on the ground floor. The three-story garage behind the house was demolished, but then LPC turned down Mitchell's first design which resembled the old garage. Instead they recommended "a modern transitional glass piece," according to The Architect's Newspaper . The new piece has som...

This is a series for August 2010 which documents my on-the-ground -- and on-the-webs -- research for my guidebook to contemporary NYC architecture (to be released next year by W. W. Norton ). Archives can be found at the bottom of the post and via the 31 in 31 label . Across the street from the strange Germanic streetscape of NYU's Deutsches Haus is a full block of beige brick, setbacks, and balconies. Some of the last are filled in (bottom middle of photo above) to convert the outdoor "rooms" to indoor space. Most of these new enclosures are unexceptional, but a piece capping one of the setbacks is subtly different, channel glass walls rising behind the old guardrails. Designed by Rogers Marvel Architects , the 9th Street Residence combined two apartments into one; the glass enclosure is an extension that houses the living area. The channel glass wraps over the space, visible in the photo below through the horizontal vision glass that wraps the corner. Previo...

Here are some photos of the South Pond pavilion ( for yoga and other uses) at Lincoln Park Zoo in Chicago, Illinois by Studio Gang Architects , 2010. Photographs are by John (& Beth) Zacherle . To contribute your Flickr images for consideration, just: :: Join and add photos to the archidose pool , and/or :: Tag your photos archidose

This is a series for August 2010 which documents my on-the-ground -- and on-the-webs -- research for my guidebook to contemporary NYC architecture (to be released next year by W. W. Norton ). Archives can be found at the bottom of the post and via the 31 in 31 label . Double glass doors cut into an otherwise blank brick wall barely hint at the stunning space for Longchamp on Spring Street in SoHo. Designed by Heatherwick Studio and completed in 2006, a "landscape stair" is the defining element that ties the ground floor with larger second floor above. Longchamp makes handbags, among other things, so appropriately the continuous treads appear to be made of leather (they are rubber on steel plate). Black posts and handrails are the only other major visual element occupying the space (beside the goods); the glass guardrails--fabricated the same way as car windshields--disappear at certain angles and create blurry reflections at other angles. All is skylit, like a luxury stai...

This is a series for August 2010 which documents my on-the-ground -- and on-the-webs -- research for my guidebook to contemporary NYC architecture (to be released next year by W. W. Norton ). Archives can be found at the bottom of the post and via the 31 in 31 label . It was the end of last year that I drove around Nehemiah Spring Creek, the largest affordable housing development -- as planned -- in New York City; phase one is complete with phase two's construction underway. A recent NYTimes blog post by Jayne Merkel on the " Irrational Exuberance " of the last couple of decades mentions the project located in East New York, Brooklyn and designed by Alexander Gorlin Architects , and it spurred me to include it here. Merkel uses the development as an example of how "interesting housing" is not limited to luxury condos in Manhattan, like Jean Nouvel's 100 Eleventh Avenue and Herzog & de Meuron's 40 Bond. Comments on the post tend to be split into ...

"The Department of Architecture at the University of Pennsylvania School of Design presents New Aging , an international conference on aging and architecture," taking place October 1-2 in Philadelphia. More details: New Aging is a uniquely strategic conference, complemented by hands-on workshops, matchmaking sessions, and open houses at collaborating institutions. Guests within and outside of the design profession will provide the professional and visionary background of the conference, leading to a manifesto on "New Aging" in architecture. New Aging will investigate recent advances in architecture and urbanism dealing with age-related challenges; ones that assure the best utilization with the utmost dignity for age. Confirmed speakers, as of today: Jose Colucci Jr . – Health and Wellness Director, IDEO Joseph F. Coughlin – Director, MIT AgeLab Daniel Cinelli – Principal, Perkins Eastman Madeline Gins – Initiator, Architecture Against Death Dr. Aubre...

This is a series for August 2010 which documents my on-the-ground -- and on-the-webs -- research for my guidebook to contemporary NYC architecture (to be released next year by W. W. Norton ). Archives can be found at the bottom of the post and via the 31 in 31 label . Until 2009 the Holy Trinity Chapel, Generoso Pope Catholic Center at NYU (above, 1964, Eggers & Higgins) occupied the northeastern tip of Thompson Street across the street from Washington Square Park. The concrete, brick, and stained glass structure wasn't exactly beautiful, but it was nevertheless appealing, especially as NYU's surrounding buildings grew to dwarf it. Taking its place is the university's Center for Academic and Spiritual Life , a six-story building designed by Boston's Machado and Silvetti Associates , now under construction. [View from Washington Square Park | image source ] Framed by Washington Square Arch, the north facade presents what looks to be a stone lattice that is v...

This is a series for August 2010 which documents my on-the-ground -- and on-the-webs -- research for my guidebook to contemporary NYC architecture (to be released next year by W. W. Norton ). Archives can be found at the bottom of the post and via the 31 in 31 label . Early discussions with my editor led me to remove most retail, restaurants and other ephemeral projects from my guidebook. They come and go so quickly that designs might disappear between handing in the manuscript and when the book finally hits the stores. But the boutique junya.ishigami+associates designed for Yohji Yamamoto near the Meatpacking District was an exception, mainly because it's a building, not just an interior. The architect cleverly split an existing brick building in two, also giving the tip a curve and setting frameless glass into the brick walls. Simple yet powerful. Yet what did I see over the weekend (below)? Brown paper over the lower portion of the storefront glass and a sign that the spac...

Basics Landscape Architecture: Urban Design by Tim Waterman and Ed Wall, published by AVA Academia, 2009. Paperback, 184 pages. ( Amazon )   The first of AVA Academia's Basics series on landscape architecture focuses on urban design, the hard-to-define but increasingly accepted field that overlaps architecture, landscape architecture, planning, and other disciplines immersed in giving form to cities. That this book falls into the landscape architecture series and not architecture is an important distinction. For the better part of the fifty-plus years since urban design was articulated as a unique discipline, its focus has been on architecture. This certainly isn't surprising, given that most of the participants in the first Urban Design Conference at Harvard University in 1956 were architects. In the ensuing years urban design was basically synonymous with big buildings, megaprojects. We find that characteristic continuing until ver...

Audenasa Corporate Building in Noain, Spain by Vaillo + Irigaray Photographs are copyright Jose Manuel Cutillas. Gabions -- wire cages filled with earth or stones -- are typically used as retaining walls near roadways, or for other uses in civil engineering. Architects have co-opted the construction method -- most notably Herzog and de Meuron's Dominus Winery -- and in the process raised questions about their role in builings. Do gabions become merely aesthetic elements? What is the advantage of using gabions over some other construction? Sarah Wigglesworth's house and studio is a good case in point: The gabion walls used could not be load bearing, due to fire concerns (the wires melting), so steel columns were embedded in the walls. Gabions as decoration. So if gabions can no longer serve their role as structural construction elements when used in buildings, what do they become? What defines them? These and the above questions come to mind upon first glance at the r...