Chicago Architecture Foundation NEXT STOP: Designing Chicago BRT Stations

CAF
2013 BURNHAM PRIZE COMPETITION WINNERS

In March 2013, the Chicago Architectural Club and Chicago Architecture Foundation, in partnership with the Chicago Department of Transportation, the Chicago Transit Authority, and the Chicago Bus Rapid Transit Steering Committee, launched NEXT STOP: Designing Chicago BRT Stations.

The competition challenged designers to integrate innovative and compelling transportation design into Chicago's urban fabric by submitting designs for three different sites along representative corridors in Chicago's planned Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) System.
A jury that included architects, academics, and transit planners chose the winners on May 29.

First Place

Form vs. Uniform: Generative Chicago BRT Stations
Designers: Hesam T. Rostami and Bahareh Atash 

Design team's description:
Form vs. Uniform seeks a way to meet two completely opposite desires came out of the Public Transit Rider Survey. While most of the people of Chicago preferred bus stops to be designed completely unique to each neighborhood, people with limited abilities prefer a more uniform design.
This approach uses an almost uniform functional pattern to reduce the ambiguity and extra construction and maintenance expenses, while by generating an array of forms out of different topological variation of a simple wooden surface allows to create distinct formal alternatives, tailored to each site, to preserve the vivid polyphonic culture of the city.

See renderings, go to:
https://caf.box.com/s/yuzqog8wxxolsg4ztopc

Henri Labrouste: Structure Brought to Light MOMA Exhibition, NYC

Henri Labrouste (French, 1801-1875). Bibliothèque Sainte-Geneviève, Paris, 1838-1850.  Photograph: Michel Nguyen.

Henri Labrouste (French, 1801-1875)

MOMA Exhibition   March 10–June 24, 2013

The first solo exhibition of Labrouste’s work in the US, establishes his work as a milestone in the modern evolution of architecture. The exhibition includes over 200 works, from original drawings—many of them watercolors of haunting beauty and precision—to vintage and modern photographs, films, architectural models, and fragments.

Labrouste made an invaluable impact on 19th-century architecture through his exploration of new paradigms of space, materials, and luminosity in places of great public assembly.

for more go to:

http://www.moma.org/visit/calendar/exhibitions/1319

Center for Architecture NYC - Design Insider Series and other Public Programs

I took part in an adult program, part of the Design Insider Series, at the Center for Architecture in late April. Each session focused on a key component of the city's built environment, combining presentations with on-site explorations and design activities to foster an understanding of urban surroundings.

It was a casual, informative evening led by Jenny Lee, Landscape Architect, CFAF Design Educator & Scott Streeb, Landscape Architect, Senior Associate, Michael Van Valkenburgh Associates, Inc.

Jenny Lee gave us a brief history of landscape design and analyzed the design ideas behind specific NY projects like Central Park. Michael Van Valkenburgh’s landscape architecture firm is renowned for their transformational NYC projects like Brooklyn Bridge Park. Scott Streeb led us through the design process used by a landscape designer referencing the firm's city projects.



Participants were then asked to try their hand at creating a city green space in a model-making exercise. The location for the redesign was directly opposite the Center at La Guardia Place. We were given a written brief, a scaled plan of the area, reference material, access to the site and unlimited model making materials. The evening concluded with final design presentations over wine and snacks. I wish I had been in town to attend all three evenings in the series, which included the following:
   
How Buildings Stand Up

May 8, 6 - 8 pm
Learn about the structural systems that support buildings and how they work to resist gravity, wind, weather and earthquakes.  Test out your own structural models to get a first-hand understanding of how they really work.

Reading the Streetscape
May 22, 6 - 8 pm
Discover how to “read” buildings for information about the City’s growth and development and look at the city’s architecture from a design perspective.  You’ll never walk down the street the same way again!

 

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Center for Architecture Public Programs
http://cfa.aiany.org/index.php?section=public-programs

 

 

Upcoming Adult Programs at the Center include:

Sketching the City
June 1, 8, 15 & 22, 2013 (29th as rain date if needed), 10:30 am - 1 pm

This 4-session class is an introduction to architectural free-hand drawing through lessons at the Center and on-site sketching exercises outdoors. Topics will include sketching building façades, basics of perspective drawing, and techniques for showing light, shadow and rendering building materials.  Participants provide their own materials from our Supply List.
Price: $160/ person for 4 part series.
Register


What to Expect When You're Renovating
June 12, 6 - 8 pm

Aimed at homeowners contemplating a renovation project, this informative 2-hour session provides an overview of the process of renovating an apartment in NYC, from start to finish. Presented by a licensed architect with extensive experience in designing and managing residential projects and a legal expert, the program covers the steps in the process and code legal issues.
Sponsored by: Build it Green! NYC and Icestone USA LLC
Price:$35.
Register