Victoria Meyers : Invisible Buildings

Victoria Meyers architect, hanrahan Meyers architects, posts Master Plan Diagrams for Pratt Institute Campus Design

English: Pratt Institute main gate on Dekalb and Reyerson, looking north on a springtime late afternoon. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Pratt Institute logo (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Victoria Meyers architect is pleased to present a series of diagrams updating ideas from hMa's Pratt Pavilion. In 1999 hMa was hired by Pratt Institute to overview the development of a new campus master plan, and to design Pratt Pavilion, linking two 1890's brick warehouse buildings:  Pratt Studios and Stueben Hall. Pratt Pavilion was completed and opened to the public in 2007.  Pratt Campus Master Plan is ongoing.  The Main Walk will be reconfigured and repaved this summer, with work starting in June 2012. 

The plans below demonstrate the progressive changes to the campus, initiated in 1880, when the Pratt family began developing the Pratt Campus to educate young people in engineering and the arts, to maintain American competitiveness. 

Pratt Institute circa 1900 : Small Privately Owned Institute:  Three buildings with distinct programs: Library, Engineering, Art / Architecture Victoria Meyers architect post

Pratt Institute circa 1990 : Unplanned Dispersion Victoria Meyers architect post

-  Enlarged campus with diverse buildings
-  Programs dispersed randomly throughout various large, anonymous brick industrial lofts
-  No distinct image
-  Building Entrances oriented toward streets instead of campus

Pratt Institute circa 2007 : Convergence Victoria Meyers architect post

-  Rebranding of the campus, making campus mall the focal point
-  Programs focused into single building entities with entrances turned to face the mall
-  Original buildings plus new buildings and additions give a 'branded' image to the mall/ campus.

Pratt Pavilion, on the Pratt Institute Campus, by hanrahan Meyers architects: exterior view  click here to view all photos of Pratt Pavilion on www.hanrahanmeyers.com.  Post:  Victoria Meyers architect.

In 2007 hMa's Pratt Pavilion opened, to press and fanfare.  Pratt Pavilion was the first building constructed that begins to develop the concepts outlined in the Pratt Master Plan.  Pratt Pavilion creates a new main entry into Stueben Hall and Pratt Studios from the Pratt campus.  The original building entries were from DeKalb Avenue to the south.  With the opening of Pratt Pavilion, the Pratt campus became more cohesive and branded as Pratt Institute's main public space.  Pratt Pavilion was recognized with design awards from the AIA NYChapter, as well as the Architectural League of New York for design excellence. 

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In 2006 hanrahan Meyers architects (hMa) were hired by a public client to design a new Community Center adjacent to Ground Zero.  Victoria Meyers architect, the primary designer for the project, responded by designing a community center, DWiP (Digital Water i-Pavilion), that is a built landscape, a long horizontal expanse of public spaces with a Green Roof, and a glass wall facing the Ballfields.  The building is scheduled to open in October 2012.

DWiP, birds eye perspective Victoria Meyers architect post

The public face of the building is a 550-foot long glass wall, facing West Street. The Architects collaborated with composer and sound artist Michael Schumacher, who wrote a  composition, 'WaTER' , to be etched onto the glass façade as a frit pattern.  The Architects, in collaboration with Schumacher, selected WaTER as an appropriate image for a building designed with a Platinum LEED certification. Water is a huge issue in the contemporary world, where clean water is desappearing.  The frit pattern on the glass talks about water, both visually, and through Schumacher's composition. The glass wall is being designed with an App, so that visitors will be able to point smart phones at the glass, and hear the Schumacher piece.  

DWiP: in construction March 2012 Victoria Meyers architect post. Architectural space created by DWi-P's 550-foot long arc, facing the World Trade Center site, across West Street, in NYC.

WaTER on the façade immerses visitors to DWiP (Digital Water i-Pavilion), in a sound as well as visual experience as they walk from South to North, in an arc pointing toward the new wordl trade center buildings, and the park commemorating 9/11.  The walk in front of the building links to street crossings at West Street.  The glass façade will have three openings, where visitors can walk up from the Ballfields below, to an upper plaza, where the architects designed a Green Roof, in collaboration with landscape designers SCAPE.  A full-length version of Schumacher's WaTER will be available as a download after the opening of the building, planned for May 2012.

The project and research bring a prominent sound artist into collaboration with hanrahan Meyers architects to produce a visual artifact.  The interpretive process took many iterations as the Clients had several parameters for the design.  In addition to requiring the design to clearly demonstrate the WaTER composition, the architects also needed to identify a pattern that was not overly intrusive in visitor's view from inside the building.  The pattern acts as a solar screen, preventing solar heat gain and provided a point toward the LEED certification.

 
 













for more information about hanrahan Meyers architects and DWiP, visit hanrahanmeyers.com
 

 

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An Ecological Urbanist approach to Designing the City of the Future: The Green Urbanist

Victoria Meyers architect would like to respond to conversations taking place today about new approaches to designing cities of the future center around new urban ideas, including Moshen Mostafavi's discussion from the Harvard Graduate School of Design.  Mr. Mostafavi's discussion of urbanism can be seen in his recently published book, Ecological Urbanism. Ecological Urbanism looks at how the world may be able cope in the future as cities become increasingly dense, using new strategies for urban and spatial design.  As the need arises for sustainable dense urban development, including ecological and sustainable food sources grown locally within cities, new building types that incorporate landscape from the natural surroundings, will help mitigate the effect of millions of people living in very close and dense arrangements.  

hanrahan Meyers architects (hMa) have been master plan architects for green city spaces since 1990, when hMa were hired as the master plan architects for Battery Park City's North Neighborhood.  The BPC North Neighborhood was developed, under hMa's guidance, as the first high-rise green neighborhood in the world.  

Idea Diagram : Battery Park City North Neighborhood Master Plan, Victoria Meyers architect for hanrahan Meyers architects  click here to see more of this project on hanrahanMeyers.com.  The Green Urbanist Victoria Meyers architect post

Teardrop Park South is an example of how even very dense urban spaces can still be experienced with natural light.  The Park was laid out by hMa, and designed by Michael Van Valkenburgh Associates using Heliostat mirrors to beam light into an otherwise dark park.  The final park offers an array of natural greenery, native New York stones, and water to create a space that feels part of the original Manhattan landscape.  The park exists as a tiny envelop of green tucked into a dense high-rise block. 

Teardrop Park south (photo from "Teardrop Park South Unveiled" article on tribecacitizen.com - click to read more). Victoria Meyers architect for hanrahan Meyers architects.  The Green Urbanist.  Victoria Meyers architect post

hMa has been at the forefront of designing ideas for new ways of making cities of the future since 1990. hMa's approach to urban places includes radical new approaches to creating eco-systems within places that were thought to be unnatural and unsustainable.  

Battery Park City North Neighborhood Master Plan : site plan showing parks.  Victoria Meyers architect for hanrahan Meyers architects.   click here to see more of this project on hanrahanMeyers.com. The Green Urbanist Victoria Meyers architect post

All of the buildings and parks in Battery Park City's North Neighborhood were designed using guidelines developed by hMa, to create green, sustainable urban living.

Click here to read another article on Teardrop Park on NYCurbed Blog.

hanrahan Meyers architects recommends: 'The Fabric of the Cosmos'

Brian Greene (pictured) in an scene from the PBS series "The Fabric of the Cosmos"

PBS has a new series of shows titled 'The Fabric of the Cosmos', hosted by physicist Dr. Brian Greene.  Professor Greene teaches mathematics and physics at Columbia University, and is also a best-selling author of several books including 'The Hidden Reality:  Parallel Universes and the Deep Laws of the Cosmos', published in 2011. 

Victoria Meyers architect (hMa) appreciates Dr. Greene's books and his PBS series.  hMa's built works reference science and mathematics.  Shown below is hMa's Infinity Chapel developed in discussions with members of the Christian Science organization, relating sacred spaces to mathematics and science. Dr. Greene brings ideas about mathematics and science to the public in an accessible format, both in his PBS episodes, and his books. The PBS episodes are fantastic, and hMa purchased downloads for our i-Pads!

Click here to visit The Fabric of the Cosmos page on PBS.org

Infinity Chapel by hanrahan Meyers architects, developed in conversations about infinity, hypercubes, time, and light click here to view all images of Infinity Chapel on www.hanrahanmeyers.com

Urban Renewal and the Current Downturn: Levi’s leads the WayLevi's 'Ready to Work' campaign; Levi's 'Go Forth' campaign; urban renewal in Braddock, Pa.

Post by Victoria Meyers architect (hMa):

 

I often travel from New York City to Baltimore on Amtrak.  Whenever I take that train ride, I look out at an urban landscape that I refer to as the:  ‘Amtrak Urban Corridor’.  It starts at Trenton, New Jersey, and continues right through Baltimore, Maryland:  an unbroken corridor of urban decay and poverty.

 

 

abandoned factories and warehouses:  the Amtrak Corridor. Post: Victoria Meyers architect

This landscape is an urban map that describes many of the things that have gone wrong in American society.  What is really concerning, first and foremost, are the empty and abandoned warehouses and factories.  In between the abandoned and ruined industrial buildings, are blocks and blocks of neighborhoods that are half abandoned, where the residents are obiviously impoverished, and could use the jobs that have left from those factories.   This country could reuse and recycle these warehouses to build up a new industrial base for the 21st Century.  What happened to the American spirit?  How could we have allowed this to happen?  If one of us is impoverished and in need, all of us feels that condition.  We are all without. 

 

What is needed here is a plan.  An Urban Corridor Master Plan!  A Master Plan that links new 21st Century start-up businesses with abandoned places.  A Plan that links unemployed people with jobs. 

 

People in these neighborhoods need the jobs that these factories could create if some smart or philanthropic investor would provide the start up money, coupled with a smart entrepreneur with new technologies to be assembled.  America needs to rebuild.  Our Cities represent who we are and define us.  Abandonment is not a pretty legacy. 

 

abandoned brick row houses:  Baltimore, MD.

President Obama has led the thinking on a lot of the innovations in urban renewal, with his push for a new ‘Green Economy’, with a new, post-industrial jobs base building the components we need to develop Solar, Geo-Thermal, Wind-Power, and Bio-Fuel technologies.  In the 21st Century, the country that solves the current energy crisis is the country that will emerge as a super-power.  The consequences of not changing the United States' energy-based economy to sources other than oil is evident right now in the Gulf of Mexico.

 

 

There was a very interesting article in the June 23, 2010 New York Times, titled:  ‘Levi’s Features a Town Trying to Recover’ -  that deals with many of these issues.  Levi’s has ‘adopted’ the town of Braddock, Pennsylvania:  a town trying to pick itself back up after losing its industrial base.  Levi’s is doing a great thing by doing this, and deserves credit for their foresight.  Levis is making a difference not just in the lives of the people in this small American town, but also in the overall recovery and re-invigoration of the American psyche and Vision.  The campaign slogan:  'Ready to Work' - is a tagline for America in the current downturn.  The campaign also states:  'we are all workers'. 

  

Braddock, Pa.:  Levi's 'Go Forth' campaign and urban renewal

We all could use the Vision that Levi’s is bringing to their ‘Go Forth’ campaign.  I encourage anyone reading this blog post to visit the Levi’s campaign website, and watch some of the film clips there:  http://www.levistrauss.com/news/press-releases/levis-proclaims-we-are-all-workers-launch-latest-go-forth-marketing-campaign.  The campaign shows many images similar to the ones I've been describing along the Amtrak corridor, and includes some very smart film clips by very talented filmmakers, including one short that won an award at Sundance Film Festival this year. I have just one complaint.  If Levi's is really sincere about this campaign -  they'll also renovate one of the abandoned factories in Braddock, and install a new Levi's factory.  (Levi's -  I'm throwing down my glove).

 

 

hanrahan Meyers architects (hMa) is an internationally known design firm with experience designing sustainable master plans and landscapes for urban centers (hMa are the Master Plan Architects for Battery Park City's North Neighborhood, winner of the 2010 Heritage Award from the Urban Land Institute);  small town centers (hMa designed a 550-acre zero-carbon footprint site plan and master plan in Claverack, New York), as well as private, residential landscape design (Holley House landscape layout and design).

 

 

 

 

Battery Park City, North Neighborhood:  Teardrop Park. Master Plan design by hanrahan Meyers architects. Post: Victoria Meyers architect

 
hanrahan Meyers architects (hMa) is a full service Master Planning and Design firm.  We bring expertise and experience to landscape and master plan projects.  hMa has successfully laid out site topography, overviewed the installation of site services, including electrical, water, sewage, and gas.  hMa has advanced expertise in integrating high-energy use, traditional site planning with the latest sustainable ideas and services, to create an integrated approach to achieving LEED certified design goals, and Zero-Carbon Footprint site designs.

 

 

For more information about hanrahan Meyers architects, and their innovative and green ideas for cutting edge 21st century Master Plans and Landscapes, visit hMa’s website:  www.hanrahanMeyers.com;  go to ‘Projects’:  ‘Master Plans and Landscapes’.