Victoria Meyers : Invisible Buildings

WaterFall Table and Miya Shoji collaboration: Victoria Meyers architect furniture design

with my future tatami (Photo credit: openalva)

Victoria Meyers architect designs in scales that vary from urban design, to furniture design.  Below is Ms. Meyers' collaborative table design for Ash 4Ways, in collaboration with Hisao Hanafusa of Miya Shoji. 

Minimalist Ash 4Ways Table, Victoria Meyers architect in collaboration with Miya Shoji.  Available through Miya Shoji, NY, NY. 

In addition to the minimalist table for Ash 4Ways, Victoria designed the WaterFall table, part of her Nature Table series.  WaterFall Table was selected by Dune Furniture to be featured at New York's International Contemporary Furniture Fair (ICFF).  The table is shown, below. 

WaterFall Table,Victoria Meyers architect;available through Dune Furniture, NYC. 

WaterFall Table is also featured in the post below, and we encourage readers to check out the post!

http://youngjf4.blogspot.com/2009/07/architecture-meets-fashion-theory.html. 

We encourage readers to visit Victoria Meyers architect's collaborator, Miya Shoji showroom (Hanafusa Hisao), in New York City:  145 West 26th Street, 212 243-6774. 

hMa Likes: Shonquis Moreno

Victoria Meyers architect (hMa) recommends writer/designer Shonquis Moreno and her website shonquismoreno.com.

Here is a short profile on Shonquis, excerpted from her website:

Brooklyn-based journalist Shonquis Moreno has served as an editor for Frame, Surface and Dwell magazines and writes on a freelance basis for publications such as T The New York Times Style Magazine (travel and design), Whitewall, Wallpaper, Metropolis, American Craft and Interior Design, among others. The lead author of Marcel Wanders: Behind The Ceiling, the designer's first monograph, Forefront, a book surveying international window display design, Eat Out! Restaurant Design & Food Experiences and Out of the Box: Brand Experiences Between Pop-Up & Flagship, she has also contributed to books published by Gestalten, Birkhauser and Frame on subjects ranging from architecture, interiors and furniture to product and packaging design.

Victoria Meyers to Participate in Spring 2012 Lecture Series at University of Texas at Arlington School of Architecture

Victoria Meyers of hanrahan Meyers architects will present a lecture on March 21, 2012 at the University of Texas at Arlington.  Ms. Meyers is teaching a class at the UTA School of Architecture this Spring as the Ralph Hawkins Visiting Professor of Architecture.

The Spring 2012 Lecture Series will also include James Carpenter, Alan Chimacoff, Randall Arendt, Sandro Marillero, Petra Kempf, Agus Rusli, Paul Goldberger, and David Dillon.  Click here to visit the UTA School of Architecture website.

pictured:  Infinity Chapel (2010) by hanrahan Meyers architects LLP click here to view more photos of Infinity Chapel at www.hanrahanMeyers.com

 

 

Before and After: hanrahan Meyers architects, Ash 4Ways

Victoria Meyers architect's (hMa) Ash 4Ways (also known as 'White Space') is shown in construction, and finished.  It is interesting to see works in progress, and to look at 'before' and 'after' images of architect's works.  As an architect, I often see the space more clearly when it's framed and without any sheetrock.  The possibilities are endless at that moment!  For the architects, it's sad to see things finish up!

Ash 4Ways :  BEFORE        in construction 09.14.2007.  Panels are unfinished post: Victoria Meyers

Above you see the apartment unfinished, in construction, but almost ready to occupy.  Below, you see the finished design, in its full glory, photographed in an iconic shot by Michael Moran.

Ash 4Ways :  AFTER      shot by Michael Moran, in 2007, after construction is finished. Post: Victoria Meyers

hanrahan Meyers architects have designed several unique residential projects including a new residential dormitory for the Won Buddhist organization which is opening in Claverack, New York, this week-end, with a grand opening ceremony on October 1 - 2. 

To see more of hMa's projects, visit our website:  www.hanrahanMeyers.com. 

hMa Recommends NYT : A Master of the Stone Wall Discusses the Perfect Fit

photo of Andrew Pighills: Suzanne DeChillo/The New York Times

Here is an excerpt from the article:

"Andrew Pighills has devoted much of his life to stone walls. He began building them as a boy, on his father’s farm in the Yorkshire Dales, in north England. Now, at 56, he is the North American representative of the Dry Stone Walling Association of Great Britain, a group dedicated to the art and preservation of dry laid stone.

“A dry stone wall is a wall built without mortar,” he said. Unlike a mortared wall, which those in his profession refer to as a “wet wall,” he said, “only two things hold a dry stone wall together: gravity and friction.”

Mr. Pighills, who lives in southeast Connecticut, creates landscapes of garden and stone for private and public clients and teaches walling at workshops throughout New England. We spoke with him about his work.

Why did you start building stone walls?

I am the son of a farmer, and I had to build walls to retain the stock on the property. And having had to do it, I found that not only was I good at it, but I also enjoyed it.

What brought you to this country?

I came over to visit a friend, literally for a couple of weeks, and he said, “Oh, no, you should stay at least a month or more.” So I asked him if he knew anybody who might like some stonework done, to pay my way, and he put me through to a gentleman who had quite a large property. I did maybe a week’s work for him. He invited me back the following year to repair all the walls on his property, and while I was there I met my now-wife and eventually moved over here to live full time.

You hold workshops in New England, where there are lots of stone walls. Why is that?

The original walls were nothing more than a heap of stone that was cleared from the land so farmers could plant; they’re what I call clearance walls. Then they became boundaries. Farmers would build a little better than clearance walls to retain the stock, and then, as farming became more profitable and farmers had a little more time — it was probably second or third generation before they got to this stage — they started building actual walls. If you walk through the woods in New England, you will see all three types.

Click here to read the article in full on nytimes.com

Victoria Meyers architect (hMa) presents two views of hMa's Holley House in Garrison, New York, incorporating an existing dry stone wall into its minimalist tableau.  The house features two stone landscape walls that grow out of the ground plane.  To either side of this three-dimensional occupied wall, pavilions project into the landscape.  The house is designed as an atmosphere of nature:  the ancient stone wall in the landscape becomes a centering device for dwelling.

Holley House, photo by Michael Moran. Post: Victoria Meyers architect

stone wall at Holley House click here to see more photos of Holley House on hanrahanmeyers.com

Architectural Digest Names Pratt Institute Among Top Ten Colleges in US for the Architectural Significance of its Campus

hanrahan Meyers architects' Juliana Curran Terian Design Center (Pratt Pavilion) opened on the Pratt Campus in 2007 click here to view more photos of the Design Center on www.hanrahanmeyers.com post Victoria Meyers architect

Here is an excerpt from the article on Archinect.com, click the link at the end for the full version:

"Pratt recently opened a 120,000-square-foot green academic and administrative building named Myrtle Hall at 536 Myrtle Avenue between Grand Avenue and Steuben Street that houses the college's Department of Digital Arts as well as several administrative offices."  This building, along with hanrahan Meyers architects' Pratt Pavilion, which launched the Pratt Design Center in 2007, have reshaped the Pratt campus.  Pratt Pavilion was the first project to initiate the redesign and refocusing of the Pratt campus, with buildings facing in toward the campus green, instead of facing out toward the neighboring streets.  

second floor gallery interior: JCT Design Center (Pratt Pavilion) click here to view more photos of the Design Center on www.hanrahanmeyers.com Post Victoria Meyers architect

The Juliana Curran Terian Design Center, opened in 2007 and designed by hanrahan Meyers architects brought together two older loft buildings with a contemporary bridging structure to create a 200,000-square-foot complex. The Center brings together Pratt's design disciplines -- interior design, fashion design, industrial design, and communications design -- under one roof that allows Pratt designers to better develop their creative processes.  hMa principal Victoria Meyers was the lead designer for the project, completed in 2007.

rear courtyard: JCT Design Center (Pratt Pavilion) by hanrahan Meyers architects click here to view more photos of the Design Center on www.hanrahanmeyers.com

The Juliana Curran Terian Design Center has received numerous awards including Building Brooklyn Awards from the Brooklyn Chamber of Commerce, which recognize construction projects that enrich Brooklyn's neighborhoods and economy.

Click here to read the article in full at www.archinect.com

To view the full list of recogized colleges,  please visit Architectural Digest's online slideshow at www.archdigest.com/go/campus

DWiP: Digital Water Pavilion on CURBED Blog

Digital Water i-Pavilion (Battery Park City Community Center), hanrahan Meyers architects.  Post: Victoria Meyers architect

Excerpt:

At the north end of Battery Park City down below the new Liberty Twins, where ice rinks and ball fields have been usurped by a couple of acres of raw dirt, a new fun spot is going in: The Digital [Water] i-Pavilion! This 550-foot arc of fritted glass fronting the amenity-filled BPC Community Center, aka the DWi-P, is from the creative minds at hanrahan Meyers architects. Aiming for LEED Platinum certification, the design is all about water and sustainability and the idea is made musical by composer Michael Schumacher. A bar code etched into the glass, activated by smart-phoning passers-by, will let them play the wall (here's a prelude). Holy Digitization! ... read full article on ny.curbed.com by clicking the link below:

http://ny.curbed.com/archives/2011/07/11/magical_musical_wall_going_in_at_new_bpc_rec_center.php

Digital Water i-Pavilion featured in Green Building and Design Magazine: "Revitalizing Existing Neighborhoods": Interview with Victoria Meyers architect

aerial view of DWiP in construction.  Post: Victoria Meyers architect

Excerpted from the article in Green Building and Design Magazine:

REVITALIZING EXISTING NEIGHBORHOODS
NEW YORK CITY, NY, USA New York City, the great metropolis, is rarely considered a place where you would go to connect with nature, but the inclusion of open space for all new developments has been a mandate—the first of its kind in the country—going back to the early 1970s. Today the trend is to go much further in converting and integrating cityscape with natural settings and parks. GBDM reached out to hMa Founding Partner Victoria Meyers to discuss her firm's involvement in changing attitudes toward urban design in the United States and elsewhere.  

In 2000, New York design firm hanrahan Meyers Architects (hMa) were hired as the master plan architects for Battery Park City Authority's North Neighborhood, an example of the redevelopment of existing urban sites. When completed in 2012, the neighbor-hood will include a total of 5 million square feet of sustainable community, 11 residential and public buildings, 4 major parks, and the renowned Stuyvesant High School. Nearly all of the construction and all of the landscaping will be under hMa's purview and meet LEED-certification standards. Each building aligns urban blocks at the 11th and 14th floors, and high-rise towers are placed up to the 25th and 32nd floors in a complex pattern of offsetting angles to open up view corridors and bring light and air into the parks below.

  Battery Park City North Neighborhood : isometric showing green roofs and parks.  Post: Victoria Meyers architect

The new neighborhood departs in many ways from the original concept—begun 45 years ago when the city first conceived of turning the Hudson River tidal-estuary shipping piers, at the southwest tip of Lower Manhattan, into a 92- acre planned community. "There was a general excitement then of advancing technology," says hMa founder and principal Victoria Meyers. "You had the World's Fair in 1964 with the machines of the future. The out-of-doors was not part of that vision. When the original Battery Park development started, it was based on some very vague ideas of urbanism, and that was a pot of not fully digested concepts. It was a time when people were still trying to figure out if trees were a good thing in the city or not. Was it better to have trees because they made things look good? Or mow them down so you could keep a better surveillance on crime?"

DWiP: view of north courtyard.  DWi-P is scheduled to open in September 2012.  Post: Victoria Meyers architect

Meyers credits the leadership of the former president and CEO of Battery Park City (now the COO of New York Authority), Timothy Carey, for the solid vision of North Neighborhood when her firm was hired in 1997. (And, naturally, once Carey joined the New York Authority, sustainable design went to the top of its priorities, Meyers says.) "Prior to coming to Battery Park City, Tim Carey singlehandedly created Energy Star," she notes of his impressively green legacy. "He called every manufacturer of appliances to Albany and said he would award whichever company could create an Energy Star appliance that would cost the same as regular appliances the biggest single contract in the country for affordable housing—and it happened." The politics of America's biggest city notwithstand-ing (though New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg is continuing Carey's allegiance to green design), there are many approaches to making things stick. Connecting to nature can come from different perspectives. "Tim Carey, with Governor Pataki, forged a powerful com-mon bond on the importance of nature in urban environments," Meyers says. "Their political base

Click here to see more images of Digital Water Pavilion on www.hanrahanmeyers.com

Click here to browse the full May/June issue of Green Building and Design Magazine.

Going Green in Greenwich: "The Energy Conscious Home" Green Energy Forum on April 2nd, 2011

 Victoria Meyers architect's (hMa) first project to receive national attention was the Chattanooga Nature Interpretive Center, which featured green design way ahead of its time in 1990  click here to see more of Chattanooga Nature Interpretive Center on hanrahanmeyers.com

Greenwich Connecticut is finally giving meaning to the GREEN in its name with its first energy forum: The Energy Conscious Home  www.GREENGreenwich.com on Saturday, April 2 from 10AM - 3PM at the Greenwich High School.  Victoria Meyers architect (hMa) has been invited as an expert to participate.  Ms Meyers will consult on accessible emerging technologies.

Steven Hall of Chandler www.chandlerllc.com in Greenwich and also a resident extended the invitation as a member of the program committee for the Energy Task Force. Mr. Hall will deliver the opening remarks for the event.  He will point out that every home matters. If all homes 10 years or older reduce energy use 30%, it would release more energy annually than from all the oil pumped from the Gulf of Mexico. The 30% reduction is considered a reasonable and very doable goal that significantly reduces homeowner costs, is a large cut in carbon emissions and perhaps most importantly is a big move towards U.S. energy independence. The recent events in Japan and the Middle East are exclamation points to the urgency of action.

Chandler managed the development of this “Green” home started in 1995, 5 years before the first LEED projects and 14 years before the launch of LEED for Homes.  The house uses orientation, fenestration, shading, thermal mass and a ground source heat pump system and an early incentive program as well as local materials.  A prefabricated wooden bridge (pictured below) was selected for site access over a pristine stream to avoid damage by mass grading and featured on the cover of the magazine, Bridge Builder. It was applauded by the local conservation commission and has become a local landmark click here to see more of this home on Chandlerllc.com. Mr. Hall was also responsible for retrofitting the Princeton Club in NYC to meet LEED standards.

DWiP :Digital Water Pavilion by hanrahan Meyers architects

 DWi-P: Digital Water i-Pavilion (Battery Park City Community Center) designed by Victoria Meyers architect (hMa) click here to see more photos on hanrahanmeyers.com

DWi-P is a public building conceived as four ideas:  architectonic form and structure; landscape; public art work; and as a demonstration of sustainable design.  DWi-P is a 65,000 square foot pavilion at the edge of the ballfields in Battery Park City’s North Neighborhood. DWi-P is a community center promised to the Tribeca neighborhood when NYState took over the landfill site at the tip of Manhattan with a vision of creating Battery Park City in 1979.  DWi-P is scheduled to be a Platinum LEED certified building, with a 550-foot long interactive glass wall, and a 1/4-acre Green Roof, the two principal Public Components of the building, scheduled to open October 1st in NYC. 

Site Plan: DWi-P by Victoria Meyers architect (hMa) 

Architectonic form and structure create DWi-P’s façade, a 500-foot long arc of fritted glass panels with steel columns and beams and concrete slabs, marking an edge to the Ballfields. DWi-P’s fritted glass wall is a fabricated landscape that presents digitized water as an edge between the community center and the Ballfields.  hMa principal Victoria Meyers commissioned New York sound artist Michael Schumacher to write a score about water and this was the basis for a collaborative design of a frit pattern etched on the glass as digitized water. The commission can be heard through speakers on the Ballfield Terrace or through cellphones. The community center itself will have Platinum LEED certification with several design initiatives:  black water recycling; rain water recovery for plants; grey water loop to rooftop cooling tower; UV disinfectant for pool water; high efficiency condensing boiler; UV disinfectant for pool; 35% below ASHRAE lighting use; maximum use of daylighting; glass frit pattern for Audubon Soc. bird protection; 24% below ASHRAE energy use; Ballfield Terrace (DWi-P’s roof) planted as an occupiable Green Roof with a low Albido.

DWi-P Studies: Formal/ structural study of concrete and glass wall pavilion; water beads on glass click here to see more photos of Digital Water i- Pavilion on hanrahanmeyers.com

The community center program is conceived as a series of voids behind the digital water wall for the main program spaces: the pool, the gym, and the entry hall.  Three courtyards perforate the digital water wall to make public gathering spaces. DWiP’s roof is an occupiable Green Roof, the Ballfield Terrace, with planted areas and bench seating areas for viewing the Ballfields.

DWi-P: bird's eye view from northeast:  Victoria Meyers architect (hMa)