Inside the Williamsburgh Savings Bank

Image compliments of the NYPL.

In this video, architectural historian Christopher Gray, who writes the “Streetscapes” column for the New York Times, takes you into the Williamsburgh Savings Bank, built by Mancini•Duffy’s parent company Halsey, McCormack & Helmer in 1929. He also wrote a terrific, invaluable article for the New York Society Library called “A Guide to Researching the History of a New York City Building” which is a great starting point for anyone interested in doing just that. Go here for the website of Mr. Gray’s firm, the Office for Metropolitan History, which has a Building Permits Database that allows you to search NYC buildings that went up from 1900 to 1986. We love this guy.

Big Bambú

In a city where we rarely look up, the Metropolitan Museum of Art is giving us a reason to do just that; but watch your step!

Doug + Mike Starn, a pair of identical twins with a studio located in Beacon, New York, are transforming the roof of the museum one bamboo stalk at a time. Currently, they have organized over 40,000 bamboo shoots to feel, at one glance, like an organized chaos of sticks and ropes, but with the turn of the head suddenly the piece becomes an ebbing and flowing wave of sculpture.

The Starn Brothers, originally from New Jersey, bring from their previous photographic work the same transformative aspect of movement and honesty to their latest project, but this extreme three-dimensional work allows a more elaborative emphasis on the connectivity of the medium. There is no disguising the colorful loops and knots that keep you floating thirty-five feet over the roof.

The project’s stiletto-bamboo, structural members firmly rooted on the roof deck and the connecting ramps and steps were carefully planned by the brothers and a crew of architects and engineers using 3D modeling software. While the brothers still follow the growth of their art piece, they leave every detail of how each stalk continues to be attached and connected together to the sole discretion of the construction crew, who are not architects or engineers, but rock climbers who work on the project each weekday.

On my Memorial Day visit, this wave had reached only thirty-five feet above the Met’s roof garden, but by its close on October 31, 2010 it will reach fifty feet. Plan ahead as you must have a ticket to walk through the structure and there are several restrictions on what you may carry or wear on the tour. Check the Met’s website for more information.

The Ridgewood Savings Bank Turns 70

The Ridgewood Savings Bank in 1940.

The AIA Guide to New York City – which will soon have its fifth edition out, hurray! – called Mancini•Duffy’s parent firm, Halsey, McCormack & Helmer, “the deans of outer-borough bank designers.” Our best-known project along those lines is decidedly the Williamsburgh Savings Bank, a building whose four-sided clocktower acts as a beacon to guide many a Brooklyn transplant home at night. Slightly less known is the Forest Hills Branch of the Ridgewood Savings Bank, an Art Deco beauty that recently celebrated its 70th anniversary.

To read about the celebration, check out this article in the Queens Courier. For more images of the bank, have a look at the Rego-Forest Preservation Council’s very robust flickr photostream, which includes current photos as well as archival images such as the one above. And, compliments of the Neighborhood Preservation Center, if you go here, you can download a PDF of the Ridgewood Savings Bank’s Landmarks Preservation Commission report, which is a real treasure trove of information, containing everything from a quick history of bank design in the early 20th century to a précis about the source of the term Art Deco – the Exposition Internationale des Arts Décoratifs et Industriels Modernes, the Paris World’s Fair of 1925.

The Bag

On any given day, I would have my netbook, my nook, my notebook, a change of clothes, a bottle of water, a set of redlines and anything else that I might need that day. I live out of my bag, so I am always looking for the ultimate bag. A bag has to have a lot of pockets, a padded compartment for my tech, and a big central pocket for everything else. It's gotta look good and, because I call myself an architect, it has to be cost-efficient. So I've found this bag company, "Crumpler," www.crumplerbags.com – they are Australia-based and they have the best bag that I've come across: "the Dreadful Embarrassment". It comes in black and some funky colors as well, They will also custom build a bag for you as well. Check it out.

Street Sighting: Architectural Packaging Materials

Does anyone remember staying up all night trying to make these out of chipboard/resin/wax/plaster??

3/25/10 - Peter Miscovich @ Teknion

This morning Peter Miscovich gave a presentation at the Teknion showroom titled “Workplace + Technology: How will technology enhance workplace performance?” Key discussion points included mobility, the adoption of digital formats, and knowledge networks. The presentation referenced many of the “buzz” technologies we hear about in the news, but are never really forced to think about until they are right in front of us, on our phone, etc. Peter cited several technologies only recently available (mobile internet, microblogging) that are already having truly transformational impacts on the way we work, and the potential for those currently in development (cloud computing, social software suites) to really redefine work and life as we presently know it.

Mobile technology suggests that the workplace as we know it now will shrink, but maybe more interesting to imagine is how the spaces and places that we consider non-work will change and grow to compensate. Thirty-thousand-square-foot Starbucks, occupying a former post office building, with recycled systems furniture, on-site technology support, customer behavior policies, and – “Oh yeah, they stopped brewing coffee like five years ago”?

And what of the traditional workplace? A conference center, except with only one large conference room, an elaborate reception counter, soothing lighting, discreet branding concealed in architectural finishes, maybe some branded merchandise here and there, evocative music, and some really fancy coffee?

Is it possible?

Gallery Opening: Henri Cartier-Bresson at the MoMA

photo credit: Tony the Misfit's Flickr photostream

On Thursday, April 8th I had the pleasure of attending an opening party for the Henri Cartier-Bresson exhibit at the MoMA with one of my fellow MDers (Courtney Kemper). Cartier-Bresson was an influential photographer, who started his career in the early 1930s by capturing life as it was happening. The curator organized the show in groups of time periods of work in the US, as well as geographically documenting Cartier-Bresson’s travels in Europe and Asia. He was a photojournalist as well as an artist, and the National Geographic magazine and various newspaper articles featuring his photography were on display below the original prints. He captured some amazing celebrations and demonstrations, as well as candid shots of daily life around the globe.

For me, some of the most interesting shots displayed Cartier-Bresson’s ability to capture emotion with his shots; despair, happiness, surprise, indifference. It felt like you were looking at life in the 30’s, 40’s or 50’s through his eyes. To top it all off, the night was beautiful and cocktails were served out in the courtyard where we mingled with other patrons and sculptures. It was a great way to spend an evening.