Victoria Meyers : Invisible Buildings

Hollywood Hills House, Los Angeles, Ca.: hanrahanMeyers architects; How to work with an architect; Residential architecture; Modern Architecture; Los Angeles Architecture

Victoria Meyers architect (hMa) was hired to design a renovation and addition to an existing house in the Hollywood hills.  The house is at the top of a hill, and the edge of the site has commanding views of Los Angeles.  The client hired hMa based on their award-winning design for the Holley House, in Garrison, New York.  The client admired hMa’s handling of the site, and integration of nature outside and inside the house. 

hMa is showing initial design studies, to give a sense of how hMa works with clients.  hMa begins projects with working models, as well as 3-D renderings to capture the overall feel for the design.  hMa also has a reputation for Green Design.  As the Master Plan Architects for Battery Park City's North Neighborhood, hanrahan Meyers presided over the development of over 1 million square feet of green construcion, including the first ever built LEED certified residential high-rise building, the Solaire.

pool view: hMa's Holley House in Garrison, NY. Post: Victoria Meyers architect

‘starting point for design:  new living room, looking toward proposed pool / spa.  Post: Victoria Meyers architect

Looking back toward existing house, at edge of site.  Post; Victoria Meyers architect.

bringing water into the house – the hot tub enters the new study, adjacent to the new living room.  Post: Victoria Meyers architect

overlooking Los Angeles, at edge of proposed pool. Post: Victoria Meyers architect

These images are just partial materials for the design process, which includes a model, as well as plans and other drawings.  James Ackerman once said:  ‘to view an architect’s drawings is to look inside the architect’s mind, and understand how they think about design’.

Click here to view all images of Holley House on hanrahanMeyers.com

Conversations about DesignArchitecture and Philosophy; Shinzo Fukuhara

Below are photographs by Victoria Meyers that have been a meaningful design influence on hMa's work:

Great Salt Lake, Utah. Photo: Victoria Meyers architect

Haystacks in Colorado:  Photo:  Victoria Meyers architect

And a photograph by Shinzo Fukuhara:

The Inland Sea, Tomanoura, 1934.  Shinzo Fukuhara

All of these photographs have been used in hMa design conversations.

Green Design : Reducing your Eco- FootprintNatural Architecture; Ecology and Architecture; Green Architecture: Victoria Meyers architect

Would you like to leave a smaller eco-footprint with your daily life?

If you want to leave a smaller eco-footprint, Victoria Meyers architect (hMa) implements Green systems in ways that minimize her clients' eco-footprints.  hMa's Green systems do not increase costs or construction time and let hMa clients feel good about their impact on the planet.

Victoria Meyers architect is known for architectural solutions that incorporate Nature into award-winning designs. 

pool view :Holley House. Garrison, NY CLICK HERE TO VIEW ALL PHOTOS OF HOLLEY HOUSE ON WWW.HANRAHANMEYERS.COM.  Post: Victoria Meyers architect

Do you need award-winning design to distinguish your business or organization?

If you need award-winning design to distinguish your business or organization in the marketplace, Victoria Meyers architect (hMa) has a track record of producing award-winning designs that brand her clients' spaces.  hMa clients get award-winning designs that are unique in their Natural solutions to architecture.

 view of glass arcade : Digital Water i-Pavilion (DWii-P).   CLICK HERE TO ALL IMAGES OF DIGITAL WATER PAVILION  ON WWW.HANRAHANMEYERS.COM. Post: Victoria Meyers architect

Do you wish your home was more connected to Natural light and materials?

It is possible to live in extraordinary residences that receive international attention for unusual solutions to Nature and light.  Victoria Meyers architect (hMa) provides a full range of services to support the design of unique award-winning Natural homes.

Ash 4 Ways Apartment features custom-made 'floating' free-form ash slabs (shelf, stair and table top in photo) from local artisan Hisao Hanafusa of Miya Shoji and Interiors CLICK HERE TO VIEW ALL PHOTOS OF ASH 4 WAYS ON WWW.HANRAHANMEYERS.COM.  Post: Victoria Meyers architect.

Exhibition Design"Changing Hands: Art Without Reservation" at the American Craft Museum; Art Gallery Design; Art + Architecture

In 2002, Victoria Meyers architect (hMa) collaborated with the Museum of Arts and Design (formerly the American Craft Museum) in the design of their exhibition 'Changing Hands : Art Without Reservation'.  'Changing Hands' was the first in a series of three exhibitions to focus on and celebrate Contemporary Art created by the native peoples of the United States (including Hawaii) and Canada.

Click here to see more of the exhibition on hanrahanMeyers.com

exhibition view : Changing Hands : Art Without Reservation at the Museum of Arts and Design (formerly the American Craft Museum). Post: Victoria Meyers architect

second floor gallery : hMa's Juliana Curran Terian Pratt Pavilion in Brooklyn, NY, Post: Victoria Meyers architect

Victoria Meyers architect is dedicated to promoting the arts through the hMa architectural practice.  In 2007, hMa’s Pratt Design Center opened to international acclaim.  Pratt Design Center’s public face is hMa’s Pratt Pavilion, a 10,000 square foot building featuring a new gallery on the second floor and a sculpture garden on the ground floor courtyard, designed by hMa, to the south of the Pavilion entry vestibule.  Pratt Design Center is located on Pratt Institute's main campus.  

 

Arts International Headquarters, NYC; click here to see all photos of Arts International, Post: Victoria Meyers architect

In 2000 hMa’s Headquarters for Arts International received international notice, opening to reviews from publications in the U.S. and Europe.  The project received design awards from the American Institute of Architects and Architectural Record magazine, which gave the project awards for it’s design ideas, as well as its use of sustainable and recycled materials.  Arts International includes a 7,000 square-foot space for arts installations as well as performance.  Founded by Noreen Tomassi, Arts International sponsored arts exchanges between the United States and other countries.  Noreen Tomassi is currently the Executive Director of the Mercantile Library in New York City. 

Victoria Meyers architect's (hMa's) practice began in 1987, when the firm came to international attention for their winning entry for the Chattanooga Nature Interpretive Museum in Chattanooga, Tennessee.  hMa produced competition winning designs for the Queens Museum of Contemporary Art in NYC in 2002 in addition to several other arts related projects. 

hMa is a woman-owned business (WBE).  Their practice is known for award-winning Nature-based design, and their portfolio includes Platinum LEED rated projects, as well as several projects for clients in the arts, including custom homes for arts collectors.  For more information about hMa, please visit our website:  www.hanrahanMeyers.com.  hMa maintains a blog featuring several of hMa’s collaborative partners in the arts, www.culturalconversations.com. 

 

 

American Space / American Architecture Victoria Meyers architectArchitecture and film; Holley House; Minimalist Residential Architecture; Houses in Garrison, NY

John Ford on location in Monument Valley; reputedly his favorite shooting location

American filmmaker John Ford photographed the rough-hewn American landscape and inspired by creating film sequences that juxtaposed domestic interiors to vast exterior landscapes.  Victoria Meyers architect (hMa) offers clients access to the American landscape through carefully constructed interiors and exterior connections as well.

Intimate domestic interior; Holley House.  Post: Victoria Meyers architect

The stair at Holley House offers an element that engages a natural site.  The stair engages an outdoor path to the east of the house that wends its way west down, through the living room, past a rough hewn stone fireplace, and out through a living room door, and down to a pond 30 feet below. 

Opening to outside; Holley House.  Post: Victoria Meyers architect

Photos show two wall planes at the edge between the kitchen and dining area.  These planes engage a domestic aperture that – in the closed position - block the path and create an intimate, domestically scaled interior;  or open to allow the extension of the space of the house’s site.  The house was designed to open itself to its fifty acres of wooded landscape that extend the house boundaries into an unbounded landscape, but also to close itself off, when a more intimate setting is desired. 

Fully connected to Nature/ path; Holley House.  Post: Victoria Meyers architect

Minimalist vs. the Pop Star: White Space/ Ash 4Ways/ Minimalism/ Victoria Meyers architect Minimalist Architecture; Geometry and Architecture; Absolute Zero and Architecture

White Space/ Ash 4 Ways apartment in NY, NY was completed in 2005.  Click for more photos. Post: Victoria Meyers architect

Victoria Meyers architect (hMa) believes in designing architecture that features minimalist space, putting the emphasis on natural elements.  hMa's approach to architectural design is distinctly different from the work of architects who see architecture as an expression of popular culture.

left: Agnes Martin, The Islands, 1961; right: Andy Warhol, Marilyn, 1962

The baseline of any hMa design is like the Cartesian grid -  a device for marking the flow of time.  Incidents (spaces) along that line are where the figure interacts within that flow.

 Victoria Meyers' Lightscore, written for Architects Design Music, Victoria Meyers architect

Geometry as minimalism is a system for reducing or distilling all forms to their point of absolute beginning.  The reason for us to find that ‘point of beginning’ is its freshness.  This is a space of zero occupation, where anything is possible. No matter how many times you come to find that moment in time -  it is the most authentic incarnation of any object:  the object as a newborn, with no imprints from the wear and tear of time.

A minimalist finds and uses objects onto which the context of any specific site has been removed.  By removing traces of origin the object becomes pure ‘form’: form that is timeless, and siteless.

Holley House. Victoria Meyers architect.

Unlike the pop artist who studies the ready-made for its anecdotal qualities, the minimalist seeks to isolate the formal structures of any and all objects.  This is accomplished by stripping the object of its anecdotal meanings. The minimalist object, as a result, is like the newborn – whose appearance changes daily as its body struggles to give genetic specificity to her/his form.

To see more minimalist works by hanrahan Meyers architects, visit our website:  www.hanrahanMeyers.com. 

close-up view of stainless steel pavilion, Juliana Curran Terian Pratt Pavilion:  Victoria Meyers architect

Victoria Meyers architect: Weather Report: Absolute ZeroUniversity of Texas, ArlingtonChattanooga Nature Interpretive Museum; Dune House; Battery Park City Community Center

A storm rolling in over West Texas. Photo: Victoria Meyers architect

On October 07, 2009 Victoria Meyers architect (hMa) will give a lecture presentation at the University of Texas, Arlington.  As a native Texan, Victoria always welcomes opportunities to visit her home state. 

Victoria Meyers architect will be speaking about the weather, specifically addressing issues related to Absolute Zero.  This seemed an appropriate topic for a state where the temperatures have been setting records, albeit for high temperatures.  Absolute Zero addresses issues of seamlessness, a philosophy of design that hMa brings to their works.  Seamlessness relates to how hMa has tried to marry sustainable and green design to cutting edge, contemporary and modern architecture. hMa’s Seamless initiatives strive for ‘invisibility’ with regard to environmental footprints.  The idea of invisible footprints relates to past hMa projects, including Chattanooga Nature Interpretive Museum, Dune House, and the Battery Park City Community Center. 

model photo: Chattanooga Nature Interpretive Museum. Victoria Meyers architect (hMa)

Seamlessness and Invisibility also tie hMa philosophically to the late John Cage, and his notion of ‘silence’, within music and sound art.  In an effort to tie all strands of their practice back to a larger conceptual field of operations, hMa also aligns their work with contemporary arts practitioners, including Michael J. Schumacher, whose ‘BirdSong’ forms the basis for the design of the BPC Community Center’s façade.

Dune House rendering showing the swimming pool.  Victoria Meyers architect 

hMa's Battery Park City Community Center: view of glass arcade with 'BirdSong' frit pattern.  Victoria Meyers architect

The Battery Park City Community Center grew out of hMa's work with Battery Park City Authority as Master Plan Architects for Battery Park's North Neighborhood.  In this capacity, hMa presided over the guidelines for over 1 million square feet of construction, including the first LEED certified high-rise residential tower, the Solaire.  hMa's Battery Park City Community Center is scheduled to have a Platinum LEED rating, and is planned as a showcase for Green Design in the City of New York, and beyond.

Victoria Meyers architect: WaterFall Table Dune Furniture ICFF Exhibition; furniture design

Victoria Meyers architect:  WaterFall Table on view at Wonder Women exhibition, 2004

Victoria Meyers architect, founding principal of hanrahan Meyers architects, had her WaterFall Table presented by Dune Furniture as a winning entry for the ‘Wonder Woman' competition, an international furniture design competition.  Victoria's WaterFall Table was selected from an international field of entries. Dune Furniture is a celebrated, New York based contemporary furniture design studio and furniture manufacturer.  Each year Dune presents a new furniture collection by noteworthy designers from around the world at the International Contemporary Furniture Fair in New York City (ICFF). 

Eva Zeisel was hosted as the special honoree of the event.