Manhattan Grid 1811-2011 - Conceptual Urbanism - Grids, Words & Twitter Feeds

“The most courageous act of prediction 

in Western civilization: 

the land it divides, unoccupied; 

the population it describes, conjectural; 

the buildings it locates, phantoms; 

the activities it frames, nonexistent.”  

Rem Koolhaas 

"...The 1811 plan has demonstrated remarkable longevity as well as the flexibility to adapt to two centuries of unforeseeable change...”

Susan Henshaw Jones, 

Ronay Menschel Museum Director

In a separate gallery from the main show,

another section to the exhibition focuses on the Call for Ideas organized around seven themes. Manhattan Grid as a Template for Words was among those chosen to exemplify the grid's capacity to serve as a conceptual framework for more theoretical art and architecture.

Shan Jayakumar (concept + text + schematic design)

Barbra Tolentino (graphic design)

"The invention of writing is a profound legacy of the first cities that sprang up in the fertile delta of the Tigris and Euphrates Rivers of ancient Mesopotamia. Little else is left of this ancient civilization, Sumer, other than mounds in the desert and scattered artifacts. Yet we still have the texts that these early authors composed on clay tablets. Most famously, The Epic of Gilgamesh, King of Uruk, continues to resonate with readers today.

Like the cuneiform grids of the tablets that recount the story of Gilgamesh, so too the Manhattan grid evokes a landscape lush with text. From novels and poems along with essays and reportage to advertising, blogs, and Twitter feeds, we are enveloped by the glyphic, now often in digital form. The conceptual rendering in this exhibition presents the city as a multidimensional hub of expression, extending into virtual space..."

Shan Jayakumar, Design Statement 
Shan is currently co-project lead for Architecture for Humanity's 
Under the BQE project to evolve a safety plan with the community

Develop Audacity!

Saturday December 17 at 2pm 

Creating the Grid-Family Workshop

 is being held in conjunction with the exhibition 

The  Museum of the City of New York 

1220 5th Avenue

New York, NY  10029

212-534-1672

Links

www.mcny.org

www.afhny.org

http://www.upworld.com/shanjayakumar

Design Different - Center for Architecture - Buildings=Energy

"

Front window - NYC Electricity & Gas use from Buildings

"Understanding energy use and how to change it, is an enormous challenge to the buildings construction and maintenance industries..." 

Fiona Cousins, PE, FCIBSE, LEED AP BD+C

Principal ARUP

Front Window - Comparison of Building Materials

“We wanted to bring the role of energy in the built environment and key energy principles, to the forefront in a way that engineers, architects, students, and everyday New Yorkers could relate to these concepts.”

Donna Zimmerman, Curator

Energy Efficient Discussion Panels 

“.. You can change the market...because developers could build offices with energy and cost  efficiency that is totally integral to the process for a whole new wave of development  more like in Europe...which generates income for the city and jobs …” 

Robert W. Goodwin, AIA, LEED AP, Perkins+Will

Perkins Will Office Design for 30th St.,10th Ave Site

“…BIM.(building information modeling) utilizes photographic and accounting software that now allows teams to identify conflicts previously discovered on the site.  By identifying energy efficiency opportunities in advance, costs are reduced." 

R. Anthony Fieldman, AIA, LEED AP, 

Principal, Perkins+Will

Along with the exciting Perkins+Will office design, Buildings=Energy features nearly 30 case studies of active sustainable projects underway in New York City.  For a look at how energy use in buildings is now being quantified in real time, AIANY's Managing Director Cynthia Phifer Kracauer suggested the Energy Lab downstairs on view with other community and family programming exhibits throughout Archtober.  

For more information about Center for Architecture, contact Nicole Friedman, Communications Director at: nfriedman@aiany.org

*Archtober - Architecture and Design Month at the Center for Architecture - The inaugural month-long festival of architecture activities, programs and exhibitions in New York City

Back to School - Health Alert - FitCity 6

"Diabetes Type 2 under age 10, we never saw it before"

 Carlos Santos-Burgoa, MD, FitCity6

"Environmental design can play a crucial role in improving public health"

 Dr. Thomas Farley NYC Health Commissioner

Currently, 1 in 3 people born in the US will develop obesity, 33% of the adult population.   Childhood obesity is so rapidly growing, it’s epidemic. At the annual FitCity conference at the Center for Architecture, somewhat ironically, designers from elsewhere shared tips for New York to keep moving: 

For New York, Never Stop Moving"

Rosan Bosch, jumpUP, jumpDOWN, jumpZONE  

Interior use of natural light and open space demonstrates how local DNA supports its ever-moving dance community:

"Build for common activity, not just the individual one" 

Carlos Santos-Burgoa, MD  FitCity 6

:

“We need to make the healthy choice easy by changing the physical environment” FitCity 6

Under-the-BQE  AFHNY 

Volunteer/Contribute

www.afhny.org

*

According to the World Health Organization, at the time of this writing, incidence of obesity in the world is: 33,768,188 and US expenditures due to obesity related diseases in the USA are $1,117,237.  You can check the clock daily to see if it is slowing down:  http: //www.worldometers.info/obesity

Active design is green design, for Active Design Guidelines:

Amy Green, Associate AIA, LEED AP

LEED and Green Development Coordinator

Center for Active Design

30-30 Thompson Ave. LIC, NY  11101

UnderBQE following site survey (left)

AFHny project meeting at Van Alen Institute (right)
http://www.vanalen.org/

Links
Center for Architecture
http://cfa.aiany.org/index.php?section=center-for-architecture

Rosan Bosch
http://cfa.aiany.org/index.php?section=PE2011&expid=142

Dance New Amsterdam
http://www.dnadance.org/site/

Fit City 6
http://cfa.aiany.org/index.php?section=calendar&evtid=2523

AFHny
http://newyork.architectureforhumanity.org/

Department of Transporation
http://www.nyc.gov/html/dot/html/home/home.shtml

Active Design Guidelines
http://www.nyc.gov/html/ddc/html/design/active_design.shtml

Mother Nature Mentors - Biomimicry

“Seeing nature at work kindles our capacity to learn, to situate ourselves, to do more, better”    Randall R. Anway, New Tapestry, LLC


Time in nature brings clarity, as if our feelings and thoughts have been read in the way only a mother can.  With just a couple of weeks till the 80th birthday of the best Mom in the whole universe, thanks are due to Mother Nature.   How does she do it?

Innovators interested in the ways of nature find their way to the Biomimicry Guild for natural models to apply to today's  challenges in "commerce, governance, science, art, religion and the cosmos".   Randall Anway, Sustainable Building Advisor and Architect of New Tapestry LLC, focuses on these principals.


 “Life’s patterns matter..earth works without us, we need to learn from it.”    

For those of us interested in “doing more with less, handling change and uncertainty, dealing with persistent limitations, using what is readily available and creating abundance”, the mentor is Mother Nature.

Part of the challenge of teaching biomimicry is discussing it.   It needs a new language.  So much is riding on language now.  A recent article on preventative care for Alzheimers describes a void in the language of preventative treatment.  In legislatures, we are tripping over legal and religious language referring to natural human behavior.  All of this is being added to a system trying to educate, govern and heal in multiple tongues undergoing massive budget cuts.   

So what are we to do with this set of limitations?  Recently, I have been learning ways to recall musical rhythms.  This deals with the part of the brain that looks for patterns, the left brain.  Its favorite pattern is the list.  Rattling off a list is easy in your own tongue. Doing so in a new one, not so easy. We know the more languages you learn, the faster you pick them up.  Presumably this contributes to a faster absorption rate of patterns of all kinds.  

Replicating immersion helps language learning.   Once, despite broken French at the time,  I surprisingly recalled a poem from a new Arab friend met on the TGV.   Later, by forcing myself to sit in the front of class, I got an A in what I had anticipated to be a boring pre-Renaissance style class.  The same immersion was applied to grasping vocabulary of synthetic financial instruments, international tax, and computer coding.  

  

No need to wait on Washington here either, we can begin by again moving to the front, where new language is urgently needed and activate our pattern makers - "using information instead of energy" like mother and nature. 

www.new-tapestry.com/
www.biomimicryguild.com/guild_about_us.html 

"You don't know the power you have" Ed Mazria

Ed Mazria, Founder and CEO of Architecture 2030

“The building industry is responsible for 49% of the current carbon consumption; it is both the problem and the solution. ”

Ed Mazria's Architecture on the Brink, at the Cooper Union this past week, detailed how "with the stroke of their designers' pen", New York architects could redirect the tide of current global events tied to energy, economics and climate change.

When dubious, he told them "you don't know the power you have with suppliers and services in the marketplace, not just in New York, but throughout the world." By way of encouragement, over 70 percent of the industrialized world was built before computerized three dimensional drawing.

 

The International Style architects that shunned climate controlled structures of the Renaissance and transformed pre-industrial Europe in the 20th century used French curves.

Today‘s computer technology offers designers abundant freedom to create, “amazing structures like the Beijing Opera House, but at what cost ?”

AIANY's Committee on the Environment is to thank for organizing this event.  For more information about this and  other award-winning programming http://www.aiany.org/   
Join Ed Mazria's industry challenge to bring the building industry to carbon neutral by 2030 visit http://www.architecture2030.org/.

Spring - Making Change Now

“The solution is not going to drop from the moon with a 20b dollar price tag….we need to get busy with what we  have now…”

Kate Orff, NY landscape architect, TEDWomen

 According to her design manifesto,Oyster-tecture the "albeit, small, modest" Eastern Oyster, could be our mythic hero if returned to New York Harbor to do what he does naturally - filter 50 gallons of water a day. Oh and the resources needed..fuzzy rope available at the convenience store. She suggests even using the proceeds from a "bake sale" . See below exhibit from MOMA's Rising Currents

Such handmade solutions don’t thrill investors.  Finance models promised at Urban Green Council’s  Expo are slow to take root.  Now, 2 years later, how would you value a “more sustainable, livable and delicious future"?


Health/Tech/Food hosted by Luminary Labs at the Paley Center during Social Media Week offered their wish list for a healthier New York: http://bit.ly/dW7v0g

One favorite would bring open source to broad health education -TED in the Park. With fuzzy rope balls at each screening, we could do the knitting ourselves at the movies.

Uptown, next to the Bronx museum, AFHny Studio http://bit.ly/AFHnyStudioSite designed, installed and planted ARTfarm last year for less than $10,000. A contest will bring a new mural.

“Its tough to get attention for what they (Architecture for Humanity) do - make a plan, get to work and get it done” treehugger.com

http://bit.ly/AFH-treehugger

Kickstarter is receiving donations for the new planting of ARTfarm which is requesting merely $1500. http://bit.ly/kck.st/ARTfarmGreen

“Keep your attention on the game….” Little League Dad

Strolling Carl Schurz Park, signs of new growth abound. A first day of Spring, following so many blizzards, I’ve new insight into baseball’s power to build concentration, despite Spring fever and compelling earthly chores.

2011 Top Ten - National Parks of NY Harbor

 



“….in the depth of winter, I finally learned that within me there lay an invincible summer…”

Albert Camus

It’s here, January and already the flood of new year, new you suggestions. Destination spas, gyms, personal trainers and getaways promising deliverance to greater fitness. Before you sign up for stair mastering, consider the “fun, beauty and challenge of paddling in New York Harbor with local organizations and outfitters."*


If paddling seems too daunting, how about taking the stepometer to the 10 National Parks comprising 23 unique destinations found in and around NY Harbor including N. New Jersey, Staten Island, Brooklyn, Queens, Manhattan and Westchester County.  All offer opportunity for you to relish your own island life right here:

St Paul’s Church

Hamilton Grange

General Grant Memorial

Theodore Roosevelt Birthplace

Lower East Side Tenement Museum

African Burial Ground

Federal Hall

Castle Clinton

Governors Island

Ellis Island

Statue of Liberty



Gateway

Floyd Bennett Field

Canarsie Pier

Jamaica Bay

Jacob Riis Park

Fort Tilden

Breezy Point

Fort Wadsworth

Miller Field

Great Kills Park

Fort Handcock

Sandy Hook

The National Park Service preserved unimpaired the natural and cultural resources and values of the National Park System for the enjoyment, education and inspiration of this and future generations.

National Park Service Mission www.nps.gov.npnh

For information on how you can get on the NYNJ Harbor water in 2011:

Local organizations:

www.goingcoastal.org*

www.bronxriver.org

www.downtownboathouse.org

www.eastrivercrew.org

www.floatingtheapple.org

www.friendsofbrookpark.org

www.hobokencoveboathouse.org

www.gowanuscanal.org

www.harlemboatclub.org

www.hrpg.net

www.inwoodcanoeclub.org

www.kayakstatenisland.org

www.licboathouse.org

www.nykayakpolo.org

www.nyoutrigger.org

www.getthenack.org

www.redhookboaters.org

www.rwalliance.org

www.rockingtheboat.org

www.sebagocanoeclub.org

http://www.nycgovparks.org/

www.villagecommunityboathouse.org

www.weerow.org

www.yprc.org

Outfitters

www.nykayak.com

www.manhattankayak.com

　

Dredge, the “Misunderstood Mineral” - 2010 Waterfront Conference*

“. ..think of it as the dirt and dust of far-off lands…”

Charlie Brown referring to “Pig Pen” in a Charlie Brown

Christmas http://bit.ly/gO5ERi

“Sort of makes you want to treat me with more respect doesn’t it?”

Pig-Pen

Like sole supportive Charlie Brown, the panel showed us how to look at mud differently ...

“This is a problem that can be solved…we need to learn from the recycling industry how to better engage people. People don’t realize all dredged material is not contaminated”

Suzanne Mattei, NYS Dept of Environmental Conservation

Did you know the first of four levels of dredge is classified “not dirty”? In the Chesapeake Bay such clean material was used to restore an island!

"People need to lead the process, helping all stakeholders.” Rick Sheckles, ExoLogic Group Inc.

There were 130 stakeholders that worked together to lead the process, identify community benefits and set institutional policy in the Chesapeke Bay. Only when there was a split in the Port of Baltimore, between Seaports and the Corps of Engineers, did the initiative loose control of the rhetoric and momentum.

Grey Hartman explained there are two types of dredging 1) pipeline dredge, 90% of which is water and 2) mechanical to barge. A case study from Tacoma demonstrated the process of treatment of contaminated material (PCBs) within a confined aquatic disposal (CAD). The issues are transportation, maintenance and political - though not in that order.

For the most dreaded dredge - level four, NYNJ now has a plan; that's the good news. The bad - it’s expensive and requires a regional process facility. Most tough, there needs to be a behavioral shift in public and private partnership for it's implementation.

Thinking differently, illuminates opportunity:

“With regard to the containment of sediments, many ports & harbors are at the same place. The bi-state character of the port of New York New Jersey could provide a valuable implementation model to this global challenge.”

Eric Stern, ERM

Historically, a working port has counter cycled Wall Street with 50,000 indirect jobs and 20 million to the region - even more if environmentally friendly valuations are applied.

Funding, we were told, will be there when timing and appropriate needs are met.

"Fast decisions are as often wrong as they are right…we need to identify those issues people can get behind to make progress…for example somebody needs to pay attention to the mix and match of materials. ..no one wants to come back and see the same material in five years.”

Peter Davidson, Empire State Corporation

We can agree we don't want to see the same material in NYNJ Harbor in five years.  And mixing users and matching materials sounds like a job for an aggregator, no?  So... all you developers out there, got a Holiday app for that?

Moderator: Scott Douglas, NJDOT http://www.state.nj.us/transportation/
Peter Davidson, Empire State Development Corp.
 http://www.empire.state.ny.us/
Greg Hartman, MWH Global
http://www.mwhglobal.com/
Suzanne Mattei, NYS Dept. of Environmental Conservation
http://www.dec.ny.gov/
Rick Sheckells, EcoLogix Group Inc.
http://www.ecologixgroup.com/
Eric A. Stern, Environmental Resource Management (ERM)
http://www.erm.com



*About the Metropolitan Waterfront Alliance The Metropolitan Waterfront Alliance works to transform the New York and New Jersey harbor and waterways to make them clean and accessible, a vibrant place to play, learn and work, with great parks, great jobs and great transportation for all.(www.waterfrontalliance.org) Nearly 400 civic, companies, utilities, union locals and more, united to make the New York and New Jersey Metropolitan Waterfront everthing it deserves to be.

2010 Waterfront Conference presented by the Metropolitan Waterfront Alliance

(First in a series on 2010 Waterfront Conference)

"Great news, by way of major re-zoning, we now have new populations living at the water's edge and we will be piloting a new ferry service on the East River" Amanda M. Burden DCP Commissioner

If the energy and excitement of a vibrant port is not motivation enough to learn the key issues with regard to the NY-NJ waterfront, consider this, an MTA study projects over 4 million people from '05-'30 and 3 million jobs, growth rates of 17% and 25%. Those people will need jobs and without water transportation alternatives, they will further burden already aged roads and congested mass transit.

Over the last decade the Port of NYNJ has experienced healthy growth generating thousands of jobs and billions of dollars. Despite the recession, most believe port volume will increase substantially over the next decade. To ensure NYNJ makes the most of this opportunity, changes all along the waterfront are underway. For example, in the past, piers have been built without ballard and cleats! You wouldn’t think something so rudimentary would have to be specified, but experts explain such is the disconnect we have with our port.

Another obstacle, difficulty permitting, for recreational or industrial boats, also deters people from bringing boats to the Big Apple waterfront. Again, “land centric” thinking isn’t going to work so well with the increasing competition from other U.S. and global ports. We have to get with it.

To help us all rewire our brains, the waterfront,“the water trail” or “blue highway” as it has been named, is now being referred to a the 6th borough that's a whole other geography, people and economy - right.

In the time it takes to implement the recently crafted comprehensive plan for the waterfront through the layers of stakeholders, the nearly 400 organisations of the Waterfront Alliance have another strategy underway. Simultaneously, through the masterful dexterity of the WFA, a new generation of kids will all have an experience of New York as a waterfront town.

“Every child on the water” is one of the solutions proposed to ensure all populations understand the city is surrounded by water and we live on islands and peninsulas. As anyone that’s been tutored by a child about recycling and mac apps, this may indeed prove the fastest race to accurate sea level.

With appreciation to the generous conference sponsors who've helped return the port to the public, the public to the water and show us what our waterfront can really be:

Con Edison, New York
New Jersey Harbor Estuary Program,
Entertainment Cruises,
National Parks Conservation Association,
New York Container Terminal,
The Durst Organization,
HDR Engineering,
Hudson River Foundation,
New York City Economic Development Corporation,
New York Shipping Association,
Port Authority of New York – New Jersey,
Statue Cruises,
AKRF,
Bimmy’s Food Made With Love,
Halcrow Group,
McLaren Engineering Group,
MWH Global, and
SF Marina USA.
　
About the Metropolitan Waterfront Alliance The Metropolitan Waterfront Alliance works to transform the New York and New Jersey harbor and waterways to make them clean and accessible, a vibrant place to play, learn and work, with great parks, great jobs and great transportation for all.(www.waterfrontalliance.org) Nearly 400 civic, companies, utilities, union locals and more, united to make the New York and New Jersey Metropolitan Waterfront everthing it deserves to be.

NY Premier "Dharavi, Slum for Sale" - School of Visual Arts/Center for Architecture

“.. Nothing is wasted in the slum, each button, piece of plastic, all is used but out of need, not choice. What we can learn from this and other ways of surviving density is part of the interest in Dharavi.”

Aroon Shivadasani, Exec Dir Indo-American Arts Council

"Dharavi has come to the attention of urbanists and architects worldwide for this dilemma” Lutz Konermann, Dharavi, Slum for Sale

As the world’s largest democracy, India’s process in addressing its urban design is being closely observed and the subject of the upcoming exhibition, Jugaad Urbanism, Feb 10-May 21. The documentary Dharvai, Slum for Sale, follows the redevelopment project that is still suspended due to opposition...

US trained architect, Mukesh Mehta returned to Mumbai after a 10 year career in New York to usher in public/private partnership model for slum rehabilitation in Mumbai’s Dharavi, one of the most densely populated areas in the world with over 800,000 residents. Mehta’s vision for the redevelopment of the slum and opposition to it is the subject of this documentary. By following the day-to-day lives of both slum dwellers and Mehta’s circle, the film presents a largely balanced view of the various stakeholders. Capably going forward themselves, in spite of government delays, active residents of Dharavi have already created their own businesses and schools. They understand what is driving current developer interest and are alert to whether the public/private redevelopment plan will indeed “take care of them”.
Having shot and edited the documentary over several years, Konermann’s view that the redevelopment does not benefit all the residents of Dharavi grew over time which he discussed with Aroon Shivadasani following the screening.

For further information about the film and upcoming exhibition:

Center for Architecture
http://cfa.aiany.org/index.php?section=calendar&evtid=2444
Dharavi, Slum for Sale on Facebook:
http://on.fb.me/dKqpSx
Lutz Konermann

Lutz Konermann: http://www.konermann.net/dharavi_en.html

Aroon Shivdasani, ED & Founding Member of Indo-American Arts Council,

http://www.iaac.us/Bios/AroonShivdasani.htm
School of the Visual Arts
http://www.schoolofvisualarts.edu/
Jugaad Urbanism Curator: Kanu Agrawal
k. agrawal@gmail.com