Victoria Meyers : Invisible Buildings

hanrahan Meyers architects: Archive: Arts International

Arts International is an Art Gallery and Performance space designed by Victoria Meyers architect (hMa) in 2000. The project was recognized with a 2000 AIA NYChapter Design Award, and was published in Architectural Record.  

view of main gallery space - Arts International click here to view more photos of Arts International on www.hanrahanMeyers.com Photo post Victoria Meyers architect

The project was an idea about treating an interior space as a landscape.  hMa designed a free-floating 'conference room', which could double as an Event Space.  The Conference Room was a free-standing box, with Glass at one end, and one side opening  toward the open gallery with two full-height pivot doors, capble of pivoting open 180 degrees.  This flexibility allowed the not-for-profit organization who hired hMa to use the space for a large variety of arts events.

main gallery space - Arts International click here to view more photos of Arts International on www.hanrahanMeyers.com photo posted Victoria Meyers architect

The project included offices for staff, designed by hMa as miminalist framed boxes.  

view of offices at Arts International click here to view more photos of Arts International at www.hanrahanMeyers.com photo posted Victoria Meyers architect

hanrahan Meyers architects has a reputation for designing minimalist projects featuring natural materials, and space.  For more information about Arts International, and other works by hanrahan Meyers architects, visit our website:  www.hanrahanMeyers.com.

North American Wood Design Honor Award for hMa's Won Dharma Retreat in Claverack, New York

Victoria Meyers architect (hMa) is pleased to announce that the Won Dharma Retreat in Claverack, New York, has received an Honor Design Award from the 2011 North American Wood Design Awards program. 

"Ottawa, ON, January 13th, 2012 – The Wood Design & Building magazine is pleased to announce the award recipients for the prestigious 2011 North American Awards Program. Sixteen projects were hand selected from over one-hundred entries by an esteemed jury panel: Andrew Frontini from Perkins+Will, James Cutler from Cutler Anderson and Robert Hull from Miller Hull.

The caliber of entries was extremely high this year, making the selection process challenging for the jury who based their selection on considerations such as creativity, appropriate use of wood materials, ability to satisfy the client’s building and site requirements and the overall aesthetic appeal for the use and application of wood." 

Click here to read the full press release from the Canadian Wood Council.

The Won Buddhist Retreat is a small, five building, retreat located in upstate New York, on a 500-acre campus, also designed by hanrahan Meyers architects (hMa).  All of the buildings are FSC wood, and the building compound is designed to make a 'zero carbon footprint' on the site.  

model: aerial site view from south click here to view more photos on Won Dharma Retreat on www.hanrahanmeyers.com  post Victoria Meyers architect

   

The compound of five separate, formally connected, buildings was designed to occupy an area that had been used as a quarry for crushed stone.  By siting the buildings in the area where there had been quarrying activity, hMa were able to mitigate a brownfield site where they sited the buildings, and restored that area of the site.  Site work included removal of layers of crushed rock, and the installation of organic topsoil, to prepare the area to be replanted as a natural meadow, with New York native species.  

Won Dharma Retreat: Meditation Hall from west click here to view more photos on Won Dharma Retreat on www.hanrahanmeyers.com post Victoria Meyers architect

The site was graded the site for proper drainage, and the architects developed a plan with the clients to plant trees and other New York plant species.  So far, the Clients have planted 100 trees.

site view from Guest Residence One.  click here to view more photos on Won Dharma Retreat on www.hanrahanmeyers.com  post Victoria Meyers architect

site view showing hanrahan Meyers architects' master plan with zero carbon footprint. Post Victoria Meyers architect

hanrahan Meyers architects Likes "Amazing Timelapse of a 30-story Building Constructed in Only 360 Hours!"

Repost from Gizmodo:

 

hanrahan Meyers architects Likes the 530 Shop!

Today's New York Times (January 8, 2012) features a story by writer Sabrina Tavernise about 'the 530 Shop'.  It seems that Art Oehlke, of Lorain, Ohio (near Cleveland) - is doing something that hanrahan Meyers architects (hMa) wishes that more people had the courage to do.  He's standing up to urban blight and flight, by opening up a shop in Lorain, where all of the other storefronts are empty.  Mr. Oehlke's shop, and Mr. Oehlke himself, are taking a stand to maintain and retain an original American town's central shopping district, in  defiance to the local malls, which emptied out the town. 

The 530 Shop in Lorain, Ohio  photo: Michael McElroy for The New York Times

This same issue of the NY Times featured a very intelligent story by Michael Kimmelman, 'Paved But Still Alive', which deals with issues that stem from the same kit of parts: communities where poor to no planning and / or vision result in deserted strip malls.  In Mr. Kimmelman's piece, he looks more closely at an 'abandoned' mall, and finds life in several alternative uses and tenants who have taken over what appeared as an abandoned mall, but which in fact is fostering life, albeit with a very different vision, and set of users than the original developers had planned to support.

Yann Arthus-Bertrand/Altitude  (re-posted from Nytimes.com)

hMa believes that the pathologies that lead to deserted towns and abandoned strip malls, come out from a culture with little to no foresight or planning.  hMa believes in Green design, and we promote and support Green Roofs, Green Streets, and the LEED certification process.  

hMa is an architectural practice that has produced several successful master planning projects, including Battery Park City's North Neighborhood, one of the most far-sighted Green communities in the world, where all of the buildings and Parks are LEED certified, as well as the Won Buddhist Retreat in upstate New York, where the construction used 100% FSC Woods, and the 550-acre wooded site was designed with five buildings, which had 'Zero-Carbon' footprint on the site.  

Won Dharma Center by hanrahan Meyers architects click here to see more photos of the project on hanrahanMeyers.com

To read more about the two articles noted above, please go to the following links:  'A Dimly Flickering Light In a Darkened Downtown:   ;  'Paved But Still Alive':  . 

To read more about hanrahan Meyers architects and their works, visit our website: www.hanrahanMeyers.com.  

Best Wishes for 2012!

 

Infinity Chapel by hanrahan Meyers architects  photo credit : Michael Moran / ottoarchive.com Post Victoria Meyers architect

Victoria Meyers architect (hMa) would like to thank hMa's clients, friends, and colleagues for a great 2011. We send best wishes to all for 2012.  We invite everyone to see our new works on our website, www.hanrahanMeyers.com.  hMa is a collaborative design studio with a 20-year track record of designing and building projects that are distinctive for modern minimalist and green design.  

To learn more about hanrahan Meyers architects, and to see more images of the Infinity Chapel, visit our website:  www.hanrahanMeyers.com.  hMa stands for the partners names (Victoria Meyers and Thomas Hanrahan), as well as h = hortizon line, and Ma = space.  hMa also specializes in unique solutions to lighting design.  To read more about hMa's approach to incorporating light into their projects, check out hMa Principal Victoria Meyers' book, 'designing with light':   www.designingwithlight.us.