Victoria Meyers : Invisible Buildings

Architecture + Ecology:Ecological Design; Battery Park City Community Center; Chattanooga Nature Interpretive Center; Sustainable Design; Platinum LEED building design

ecological form         

By integrating nature and minimalism into their work, hanrahan Meyers architects (hMa) accomplish the most with the least means: extensive natural light, buildings set within the natural topography of the site, and energy supplied using locally available renewable energy sources and materials.  hMa's practice began when partners Victoria Meyers and Thomas Hanrahan came to international attention after designing the winning entry in the design competition for Chattanooga Nature Interpretive Center.  hMa's winning entry was arguably the first Green museum in the world (with a zero-carbon footprint), and set the tone for their practice and their ongoing dialogue between nature, art, and minimalism.

BATTERY PARK CITY COMMUNITY CENTER RENDERING BY BHCH, LLC
NEW YORK, NY

Above is hMa's design for a new Platinum LEED Community Center -  the 'Digital Water Pavilion' -  for Battery Park City, in New York. The project is in construction and scheduled for completion in January 2012.  Since 1996, hMa have been the Master Plan architects for Battery Park City's North Neighborhood.  hMa wrote all of the Green Guidelines for the North Neighborhood buildings, streets, and parks. hMa's work as the BPC Master Plan Architects has been recognized through awards and publications for their extraordinary efforts in creating a cutting-edge Green urban environment.  At Battery Park City, New Yorkers  live in state-of-the-art Green Buildings and experience Nature in acres of sustainably planted and maintained Green Streets and Parks.  In June, 2010, Battery Park City's North Neighborhood was selected to receive a 2010 Heritage Award from the Urban Land Institute in recogntition of the project's extraordinary contribution to the movement toward creating Green environments in the United States and worldwide.  Urban Land Instititute also gave a Design Honor Award to the Visionaire, a Platinum LEED residential tower, where hMa wrote the Green design guidelines.

CHATTANOOGA NATURE INTERPRETIVE CENTER MODEL PHOTOGRAPH BY ESTO

Chattanooga Nature Interpretive Center was one of hMa's earliest projects, and gave the firm international attention in 1987.  The project featured a large Solar Panel array which doubled as the building's entry canopy.  The building incorporated wind turbines and geo-thermal heat and cooling, and created 'Zero Carbon Footprint' on its site.  hMa's Chattanooga Nature Interpretive Center was arguably the world's first Green museum.

DUNE HOUSE

Dune House is a 'Zero Carbon Footprint' house hMa designed for clients on an ecologically sensitive site in East Hampton, New York.  The house featured Solar Panels to reduce electrical loads so that the house used less electricity than it generated.  All materials specified for the house were recycled or FSC wood.  The house used state-of-the-art Water Recycling technologies, with low flush toilets, washing machines, and faucets.  Grey water from the house was recycled for toilet flushes and site irrigation.  The house was designed to have a 'zero carbon footprint' on its site.

To read more about hMa and their ecologically sensitive solutions to design, visit their website: www.hanrahanmeyers.com, and visit our 'Green' section, under 'Projects'.

Green Office Design : hMa in Oculus Magazine Fall 2008

hMa is proud to be featured in the Fall 2008 Issue of AIANY's Oculus magazine.  The article focuses on the recent renovations of both hMa's office in NYC and the office of the firm NBBJ. 

Following is an excerpt from the article by Lisa Delgado:

"Victoria Meyers, AIA, partner of hMa, focused on boosting efficiency and interaction in a renovation of her firm's Chelsea office last year.  Before, the 2000sf space was divided by a conference room that had very little natural light; the firm's then eight employees were scattered on either end of the space, away from each other.  In such a small tight-knit office, the separation felt unnatural... 'Now, in terms of the workflow of the space, we're much more efficient', Meyers observes.  'Everybody's in the same space; everyone can see what everyone else is doing.'  Adds partner Tom Hanrahan, AIA, 'We tend not to make or design anything that doesn't get scrutinized by everybody in the office, so it's better that everything's out in the open.  It makes for a messy but dynamic environment.' 

Featuring energy-efficient flouorescent lighting and recycled nontoxic materials, the new space is also a better showcase for the firm's strengths in sustainable design."

HMA'S CONFERENCE ROOM FEATURING THE 'TOPO TABLE' DESIGNED BY VICTORIA MEYERS

Architecture and Artarchitecture and nature; art gallery design; award winning residential loft design

trajectories

hMa conceptually integrates architecture and nature by using essential forms and experiences in their works, like such as figures as Carl Andre, Mies van der Rohe and John Cage.  This integration is a complex cultural phenomenon belied by the simplicity of forms that are employed, relying on both the abstract and the natural.  hMa's work follows these different trajectories where they lead, resulting in project that are both abstract and richly layered in meaning. 

ARTS INTERNATIONAL
NEW YORK, NY

SCHROM TELEVISION STUDIOS
QUEENS, NEW YORK

PRATT PAVILION

HOLLEY LOFT

Architecture and Naturenatural architecture; architecture and ecology; nature and residential architecture; waterfall table

nature

hMa's architecture of abstract and minimal form both reveals and opens itself to nature by allowing natural spaces and materials to come into buildings.  It also reveals nature by contrast, where the single architectural gesture frames complex topographies and views.  In this way, the architecture of hMa both absorbs and measures nature. HOLLEY HOUSE
GARRISON, NY 2006

WHITE SPACE
NEW YORK, NY 2004

WATERFALL TABLE
NEW YORK, NEW YORK 2004

SEE-THRU HOUSE
DALLAS, TEXAS 2008

hMa Archive : Inside-Out House

 WATERCOLOR SKETCHES FOR INSIDE-OUT HOUSE; LEFT: MAIN ENTRY; RIGHT: BIRD'S EYE PERSPECTIVE

This project, a summer lake house, was commissioned for a location in Starlight, Pennsylvania just south of the New York border.   The house is a cube, which has been subjected to the action of carving.  This action has created a new space, which becomes at once interior and exterior.  Inserted into the exposed surfaces of the original solid are objects that mediate between the remaining cubic volume and the new inside/out space.  These mediating elements act as conduits for communication between interior and exterior spaces of the house; they also become accoutrements, or exterior furniture for the new inside/out space. This project was commissioned in 1993 and received a P/A Design Award and an AIA NYChapter Award the same year.

The materials for the house are concrete block and concrete slab, with painted steel and interiors which are sheet rock with a skim-coat of plaster.

See more of Inside-Out House on hanrahanMeyers.com 

LEFT: INSIDE-OUT HOUSE MODEL, PHOTO : ESTO; RIGHT: SECTION / MASSING DIAGRAM