Victoria Meyers : Invisible Buildings

Sound Urbanism: Sound fields; Sound events; Silence and sounds of Nature

At the Won Buddhist Retreat designed by hMa, Victoria Meyers architect, there is a discrete split between the live spaces and the meditation space.  Meditation was seen by the Won Buddhist clients as a space of slience, and live as a place for the sounds of living. 

This difference created an extreme difference of Sound experience in the two spaces.  Within the Live Courtyards, there would be sounds of people talking, eating, preparing food, and discussing ideas about the lessons taught at the Center.

 

The Retreat was seen as an educational campus, where visitors would learn the ideas embedded within the Won Buddhist meditation techniques.  hMa also saw the Retreat as an example of the firm's ideas around Sound Urbanism:  the creation of spaces that frame different qualities of sound.

The Meditation Hall frames silence, as well as the sound of the Buddhist Abbot's bell, imported from Korea as part of the sect's importation of their very specific concepts around meditation.  The Residential buildings are arranged around courtyards, designed as areas for outdoor discussion, where visitors can share the day's lessons, and discuss the sect's philosophy.  Walking paths through the site, where resident monks and visitors can walk, and hear only the sounds of the Nature of the site.

Victoria Meyers architect has developed ideas around sound urbanism after several years of work with sound spaces, and after collaborating with sound artists, including Michael Schumacher (the composer who developed the sound piece WaTER, for the hMa building DWi-P in New York City);  and Stephen Vitiello, who Ms. Meyers worked with in New York prior to 2001, who she assisted in his first foray into Marfa, Texas. 

The Won Buddhist site was designed by hMa to have Zero Carbon Footprint, and is a mitigated Brownfield site.  The campus includes four Residential buildings that float as spiral pavilions in the landscape.  The Won Buddhist Retreat is located in Clavarack, New York. All buildings on the site are built using FSC cedar, and the project includes geo-thermal heat and cooling;  a solar panel field for electrical supply, and a central bio-mass boiler for hot water and heat.

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During the Spring semester 2013 Victoria Meyers architect will be teaching a course that includes and covers Sound Urbanism at the University of Cincinnati School of Architecture.  The course will review sound as it shapes spaces, both in buildings and in urban spaces.

hMa's North Neighborhood is supported by their sound urbanist building, DWi-P, defining the space of the Battery Park City Parks area, from the Western edge of DWi-P to West Street (see isometric above). 

DWi-P's interactive Sound Wall facilitates a deeper reading of the building, and extends the 'viewers' understanding of the Hudson River and water in the parks within the North Neighborhood to the edge of the site at West Street.

These and other concepts relating sound to urban space and architecture will be the focus of the course.

DWi-P is a 65,000 square foot community Center accessed from North End Avenue, between Murray and Warren Streets.  DWi-P features a 15,000 square-foot Green Roof, a community center program inside the building, and a 550-foot long Interactive Glass Wall. DWi-P is on track to receive a Platinum LEED rating. 

For more information about hMa, Victoria Meyers architect, DWi-P, and ideas about sound urbanism, and sound in architecture, visit the hMa website, www.hanrahanMeyers.com. 

 

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Ojai Pavilion was designed in the hMa office of Victoria Meyers architect, as a pavilion to project sound around curved walls. The Ojai Pavilion was commissioned by Ernest Fleischmann, former CEO of the Los Angeles Philharmonic.  The pavilion was not built when Mr. Fleischmann retired, the town of Ojai decided to go in a less creative direction with the design. 

Ojai Pavilion:  'Bent Sound';  Victoria Meyers architect. 

Ojai Pavilion design originated with a desire to design a building with bent walls, in order to preserve all of the trees on the Pavilion site.  The resulting pavilion shape became a bent wall with a roof, designed to curve around trees.  The curved walls also led to the idea that the pavilion would be an experiment about a music pavilion for 'bent sound'.

Ojai Pavilion:  Exploded Isometric /  Front and Rear Elevations.  Post: Victoria Meyers architect

Ojai Pavilion will be one of the projects featured in Victoria Meyers' upcoming book, 'shape of sound'.  'Shape of sound' will include concepts about sound in architecture, as well as 'sound urbanism' -  the idea that sound can be used to determine urban spaces. 

Sound Urbanism:  The distance that sound travels determines the 'event horizon' of the sound.  In the past, the 'event horizon' was the town limit.  In a crowded restaurant, the 'event horizon' can be the distance between two people at a table.  Post: Victoria Meyers architect.

Prior to the 21st century, the outer boundaries of towns were often established by the distance that important sounds could reach:  church bells;  factory whistles;  warning alerts for fire and other events.  The distance to which these sound events could travel established an 'event horizon', which, in turn, determined the outer perimeter of the town.

The notion of the 'event horizon' as a means of determining town boundaries would be establshed by the shape of the landscape, features of the land area where the town was located, and other factors.  Sound 'event horizons' can be quite distant, as in the clear air of the Town of Ravello, Italy, where six Medieval churches with bells still dominate the landscape, both formally, and with sound. 

 

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Victoria Meyers architect is working on a new book that tracks hMa's works tracking the firm's contribution to conversations around Green Urbanism, Food Urbanism, and sustainable design practices, including Green Streets. 

Victoria Meyers working with hMa developed strategies to make the new North Neighborhood designed by the firm in Battery Park City into a demonstration project, with all buildings, streets, and parks designed to teh highest levels of green certification. 

North End Avenue, the main organizing street in the North Neighborhood, was designed as a Green Street, and features a new dog park, with Rogers Marvel on board as consultants for the design.  Green Streets are a specific designation, awarded to streets that meet green standards, including porous paving and planting to absorb rain water run-off, in order to divert rain water from storm sewers. 

The project includes Green Roofs on all buildings, including hMa's Ballfield Terrace, an occupiable Green Roof for their DWi-P, Digital Water i-Pavilion. 

Above:  the Hi-Line in New York City, next to a diagram for Food Urbanism

As cities around the world wake up to the new realities and challenges of the 21st century, including the need for water and energy management, New York City has been a leader in the development of sustainable Green Design Standards.  Battery Park City led the way in New York City, with their Green Standards for urban development publication in 2000.  Since that publication, and with the increase in Globalization, cities around the world have looked to Battery Park City, and New York City, as leaders in the changes to meet urban needs driven by forces including Global Warming, pollution, and the need for a more sustainable path for urban design.

The Irish Hunger Memorial, in hMa's BPC North Neighborhood, next to a map of Dublin:  Globolization

The Irish Hunger Memorial is a piece of the Irish countryside in New York City;  the new Dublin City Plan drew on concepts from the Battery Park City Green Guidelines.  Both projects are examples of the effects of Globalization on the dissemination of Green concepts.

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In 2007 hMa's Pratt Pavilion opened to public praise and attention.  The project has been recognized with awards from the Architectural League of New York City, the AIA NYChapter, and from Build Brooklyn.  In 2009, Pratt was included in the Phaidon Atlas of World Architecture. 

Pratt Pavilion:  showing hMa's 3-D design study, next to the finished project.  Post:  Victoria Meyers architect

Pratt Pavilion was designed by NY architects hMa, with design Principal Victoria Meyers looking at various precedents for the building.  These included projects where sculptural objects suspended above people who moved below them in the landscape.

Above:  hMa's Pratt Pavilion, next to Menashe Kadishman's Suspended, at Storm King Art Center.  Post: Victoria Meyers architect

For this reason, Victoria Meyers architect refers to the Pratt Pavilion as 'visceral space', as the building gives visitors the sense of walking beneath a suspended object. 

hMa's Pratt Pavilion, next to a photograph of Michael Heizer's 'Levitated Mass' at LACMA.  Post: Victoria Meyers architect

To see more information about Victoria Meyers architect, Pratt Pavilion, and hMa, visit our website:  www.hanrahanMeyers.com. 

View looking up at the Pratt Pavilion, from below, next to hMa's bird's eye view of the pavilion, during the design phase. Post: Victoria Meyers architect

 hMa's Pratt Pavilion was designed as the first building to fulfill the Pratt Master Plan, on the Pratt Institute campus in Brooklyn, NY.  The building is open to the public, daily. hMa were also part of the Master Plan design committee, and developed many aspects of the Pratt campus master plan, including design guidelines for all new buildings to be built on campus, from 2005 - the future. 

Clients for Pratt Pavilion include Juliana Curran Terian, Pratt Board member and the building's donor, as well as President Thomas Schutte, the President of Pratt Institute. 

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Infinity Chapel

Infinity Chapel is a project that demonstrates Victoria Meyers architect's researches into sacred spaces, including ideas of infinity, weightlessness, movement, space, light and sound.  Ms. Meyers' studies of sacred space extend to the Cluniac Order, including the writings of Abbot Suger, who is credited with building the first Gothic Cathedral.  Building on this history, and following the thread of architectural design of sacred space, through Le Corbusier's Chapel of Notre Dame du Haut in Ronchamp, Ms. Meyers's development of sacred space design followed a trajectory of developing architectural innovations that spring from a close reading of historical precedents. 

At Infinity Chapel, Ms. Meyers developed a sequence from street to chapel, led by light wells that beam light upward into the chapel, and down into a Sunday school below.  The skylights feature operable glass, and can be opened to allow sound from above to go to spaces below;  and, vice-versa, allows a chorus to sing in the lower level basement area, which serves almost as an orchestra pit, to allow sound to come up into the chapel, from an unseen source.

Infinity Chapel's clients were the Tenth Church of Christ, Scientist congregation.  Tenth Church of Christ, Scientist are a Christian Science congregation, following the teachings of Mary Baker Eddy.  Infinity Chapel was developed in close conversation with the Tenth Church congregation, and the design evolved out of a close reading of Ms. Eddy's writings and beliefs.  Many of the concepts in the chapel came from the congregation's desire to have the chapel reflect Ms. Eddy's belief in her specifically scientific reading of the New Testament. 

Infinity Chapel is located in New York's West Village, adjacent to Washington Square Park.  The area is dominated by New York University, whose buildings surround the park.  The Christian Science Reading Room for the new church was designed to have a friendly, Starbucks atmosphere, faces MacDougal Street, with a floor to ceiling glass facade where Christian Science books are displayed on wood shelves by long time hMa collaborator, Miya Shoji. 

In October 2012, Infinity Chapel received an Award of Design Excellence from the Pennsylvania chapter of SARA (Society of American Registered Architects). 

To read more about Infinity Chapel, visit hMa's website:  www.hanrahanMeyers.com.  To see more information about Victoria's on-going role as hMa's design principal, follow our blog, www.victoriameyers.com. 

 

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WaveLine is a small pavilion in Queens, New York, designed by Victoria Meyers architect, with hMa.  The building opened in 2007, and was designed as a 'sample' wave form, in collaboration with Disney Hall acoustician Yasuhisa Toyota.  The pavilion was designed as a multi-purpose sound space, for music, spoken word, and sport. 

hMa's client for the building was the New York City Housing Authority.  The project developed over a five year design period, that included the design of a faceted metal roof that bent in response to sound wave forms.  The building was designed with acoustical wall pads that can be removed to increase the resonance of the room.  The building is used for music, public meetings, and sports.

WaveLine is a building developed after the architects spent time studying wave forms.  The roof shape was studied in various configurations before the architects settled on the final faceted form. 

To see more information about WaveLine, visit hMa's website:  www.hanrahanMeyers.com. 

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In 2001 hMa submitted the above design to the Los Angeles Philharmonic, and to the town of Ojai, after Victoria Meyers architect was hired to redesign the existing Ojai Festival Pavilion, by Ernest Fleischmann, then CEO of the organization.  The design, shown above, was revolutionary in that the structure was designed to allow sound to bend around the pavilion walls.  The curved wall of the pavilion was created in response to trees on the site, as the town of Ojai has laws against removing existing trees.  The idea for 'bent sound' followed the development of the pavilion's shape necessitated by site conditioms.

hMa's pavilion had a unique curved design that would allow experimental 'bent sound' pieces to be performed.  The pavilion included a wall at the rear of the stage, allowing for conventional performances as well as experimental sound explorations.

Victoria Meyers designed the pavilion in collaboration with Yasuhisa Toyota, the acoustician for Disney Hall.

Victoria will be featuring her design for Ojai Pavilion in her upcoming book, 'shape of sound'.  Since 2000, Victoria has collaborated on sound projects with sound artist Michael Schumacher, who wrote the score, 'WaTER', inscribed on the facade of DWi-P, hMa's latest building, scheduled to open in November 2012 in Battery Park City's North Neighborhood.

For more information about the Ojai project, please visit hMa's website:  www.hanrahanMeyers.com.

 

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Victoria Meyers architect (hMa) has spent years studying the effects of enhanced walls systems. Enhanced walls and other architectural surfaces create different reactions in people who encounter the constructions.  These systems need to be studied in a manner that moves the discipline of architecture forward. By enhanced walls, I am referring to walls, like the wall at DWi-P, with Digital and/ or Biological systems embedded within the traditional construction system, enhancing the experience of the wall or surface, making it more immersive.

Marcel Duchamp’s Large Glass set the stage for many of the changes in 20^th and 21^st century architecture.  An intervention using emergent digital and biological systems, developed thoughtfully, would similarly affect how the art of architecture moves forward as an art.

Working with my firm, hMa, I will be constructing wall studies with embedded sensors and study how these embedded systems alter people’s experience and reaction to architecture.  The enhanced walls would have effects that exceed their physical area, and I would also propose to map their geographic area of influence, and demonstrate how perceptual thickness and materiality can be altered through these new interactive interfaces. This work would be performed as part of the hMa Research component of our practice.  Look for future postings mapping hMa's progress with this area of research.

This is research about the future of architecture. There has been a great deal of advancement in the integration of visual information in buildings through the use of LED and other technologies.  Sound has not been as studied, or as seamlessly integrated in architecture.  With the ubiquity of cellphone use, sound and visual information as a fourth dimensional expression of architectural space is an emergent possibility.  I will be mapping the possibilities of sound in architecture in my upcoming book, 'shape of sound'. 

The most important research in sound and architecture to date was by Leon Theremin.  At EMPAC, Johnannes Goebel overviewed the development of an amazing building dedicated to sound, using the latest technologies.  EMPAC is located on the Rensselaer Polytechnic campus, in Troy, New York.