NY notebook_23/11/12_30/11/12

New York City Notes

Carnet de Voyage / Travel Log

"Memory is the space in which a thing happens for a second time."
                                                                                        Paul Auster

 

 Ideally that might be so, but memory can be a tricky and deceitful thing. When remembering details and scenarios can change. Keeping a travel log observations become fixtures, data for studying and interpretation, making the log a valuable tool.

 

 

 

 

"By wandering aimlessly, all places became equal, and it no longer mattered where he was."

 

"On his best walks, he was able to feel that he was nowhere. And this, finally, was all he ever asked of things: to be nowhere. New York was the nowhere he had built around himself, and he realized that he has no intention of ever leaving it again."                                           

                                                                                                                                           Paul Auster

 

Being my first visit to New York City, it matters to me where I've been. Tracing my wanderings with the context of a tourist map (in the back of the notebook). I try to create a personal view of the city.

 





North west + east corner of Keap Street and South 4th Street, Williamsburg, New York

 

NY LOBBY ASSIGNMENT_28/11/12

New York Lobbies

Seagram

 

The Seagram Building is a modern office tower designed by german architect Ludwig Mies van der Rohe, in collaboration with Philip Johnson in New York, 1958.

This office skyscraper is in some ways the culmination of the purification process of expression, started decades earlier by functionalism. The high-rise building is a sign of the rationalist mentality of Mies van der Rohe. It illustrates the architect’s motto "Less is more", showing that a simple building can be just as surprising as a building with more composite designs. The Seagram Building is a refined synthesis of rationalist architecture, the socalled International Style and the american high-rise building composing the modern office building.

As usual in functionalism, the concept of the design was to develope form defined by function, reducing ornaments and everything else that was considered unnecessairy to minimum. Preferably the design was constructed from industrial massproduced parts using materials such as steel, glass and concrete. It constitutes an open architecture filled with light.

An opening, like a window in the wall, permits light the transition between the outside and inside of this wall. A lobby is a metaphorical window, a spatial opening, as it in itself is a space of transition between two spaces.

OPENING in relation to the physical connections – site/program/cirkulation

The Seagram presents itself as a bronze glas cube of simple elegance, which is slightly moved backwards from Park Avenue to free an open space, a kind of plaza in front of the building. This open space, which formes a kind of void, a pocket of air, between the tight skyscrapers of Manhattan, functions as a physical and mental transition between the street and the lobby. The fact that it is elevated three steeps from ground- and street level, makes one aware about the entering of a new kind of space.

Since the facade of the first level is fully glassed, it leads automatically across the plaza to the lobby and the clearly through steelframes marked entrancedoors. Entering the lobby and the otherwise empty entrance zone with a small front desk placed in the center, one immediately faces four white huge cubes which seem to penetrate the building from the groundlevel upwards. The cubes constitutes the transportation/cirkulation system of the building, deviding the space into three tall and slim passages whith four elevator shafts on both sides. In the farest part of the lobby there should be two doors leading to the staircases, but they aren’t visible unless passing the elevators. As the Seagram is a tall building, most of the cirkulation will be of vertical character and occure through the elevators, making the lobby the only link between the base floor and the other floors.

OPENING in relation to the visual connections

This connection of the lobby and the other floors is only spatial. There are no visual connections across the different levels, which makes them kind of isolated and private. As the bearing structure is inside the building it allows the use of a non-bearing facade, an open curtainwall. To make the construction still readable, the structure is only inferred by an I-beam steelframe in the facade giving the whole building a uniform harmonious look.

The more public area of the lobby is clearly emphasized through a slightly change into a fully glassed fasade creating visual connections between the outside groundlevel and the inside slightly elevated base level.

OPENING in relation to the atmosphere

Architecturally seen this building creates an open and public lobby space with a serious businesslike atmosphere knowing that it leads to other more private spaces. The structure expresses openness and the materials used on the ex- and the interior are clearly part of consideration towards the user. But in the experience it feels like an unachievable place with an elevated, exclusive and very private atmosphere.

Actually I’ve only experienced it from the outside, since it is intimidating to have to climb three stairs, cross an open space, enter through one of the two entrances and pass the security just to face the front desk.

 

 

 

 

NY LOBBY ASSIGNMENT_28/11/12

New York lobbies

Ford Foundation

The Ford Foundation Building is an office building in Manhattan designed by architect Kevin Roche and his engineering partner, John Dinkeloo, in 1968.

The twelve-story high box represents a new approach towards the expansion of the limits of the International Style by exploring new architectural vocabulary. Kevin Roche and John Dinkeloo aimed to restore the social function of modernism, furthering the goal of human community through facilitation of effective charity by the Ford Foundation. Without abandoning the rationalist principles they learned, they added new ideas to the stagnating concept of the modern office building, which had been unchanged from the completion of the Seagram Building in 1958.

The Ford Foundation building occupies the width of a block, and has facades of about 60 meters on either side, creating a near-perfect square, out of which a large volume has been removed to create an atrium, a garden courtyard. The resulting L-shaped block is occupied by office space which opens to the atrium on one side and to the street on the other. The atrium was the first of it’s kind in Manhattan, and it is credited as setting a highly regarded example for indoor public spaces in office buildings.

The placement of the courtyard with it’s large windows is thought out as to maximize sunlight for the plants. Entering the Ford Foundation Building the lobby shows itself as an opening for the adjoining and tree-filled atrium. This opening seen as a transition between two spaces, makes the lobby a metaphorical window, as it in itself is a space of transition between the inside and the outside.

OPENING in relation to the physical connections – site/program/cirkulation

Situated on a hill, the architect has made an effort to integrate the Ford Foundation Building into the landscape and the neighborhood.

Walking by, one is almost automatically lead into the building by a back stepping facade. The movement of the exterior is expressed in the interior through terraces that lead up to and above the main entrance. The retraction of the lower floors towards the atrium mimic the curve of the site, creating a covered driveway and making the lobby open and free to public. Entering through the glassdoors, you find yourself at at the top of a wide stair moving downwards like the hillside, fusing together the lobby and courtyard garden. The front desk to the right is almost overseen, as one is attracted and invited by the green and open atrium space.

The courtyard is a space as high as the building itself around which all working cirkulation revolves. It is the most public space designed for visitor flow and recreation during workbreaks. As the lobby still is the only link between the public and the private/working area, the elevators and staircases that lead to the office and conference rooms are hidden to limit the accessebility and make them more private. This lobby is not as formed by it’s function as it is formed by the will of Roche. He wants the visitor to cirkulate on the base floor only, closing off the other floors by making the elevator something one has to ask for.

OPENING in relation to the visual connections

The facade of the Ford Foundation Building is composed by a structural steelframe, granite wrapping concrete elements and large windows filling the voids. The glass is a crucial element, reflecting both rationalist transparency and the visual experiences that Roche intended.

There are visual connections from all adjoining rooms to the open atrium, meant to cause occasional interactions between employee and employee, visitor and employee, and visitor and foundation. Even though much glass is used as an element of transparency, the visual connection between the inside and the outside of the building is vague as one has to enter it to locate the lobby and get a overview of the space.

OPENING in relation to the atmosphere

Entering through the glassed entrancedoors one finds oneself in a wide passage of about normal hight, walking further the hight of the space rises suddenly several stories up to the roof, while the groundlevel cascades downwards a stair like a hill. This open space filled with light (natural or artificial) is truly an architectural opening, somehow it is experienced like the end of a tunnel.

A private garden in the density of the city, surprising, green and inviting.

 

 

 

NY LOBBY ASSIGNMENT_28/11/12

New York lobbies

Mariott Marquis Hotel

 

 

The New York Marriott Marquis is a Marriott International hotel designed by architect John Portman in 1985. The hotel was born out of a controversy because five historic theaters, the Helen Hayes, the Morosco, the Astor, the Bijou, and the Gaiety were demolished to clear the site. The socalled "Great Theater Massacre of 1982" was a scandal, but went forward to make way for the hotel. By the time construction could begin, the original operators Western International Hotels (today Westin) had dropped out of the project and Marriott had stepped in.

The hotel was the first major project in the Times Square revitalization, and has been credited as the starting point for today’s development at Times Square. Now it is the eye and window of New York, an opening transitioning what has happened and what is to come. A lobby is a metaphorical window, a spatial opening, as it in itself is a space of transition. Entering the Mariott Marquis, the lobby shows itself as an opening for the hotel itself.

OPENING in relation to the physical connections – site/program/cirkulation

The New York Marriott Marquis hotel, located on Times Square, played a significant role in the revitalization of the theater district. The lower levels of the hotel offers facilities for conventions and other events, including the cities largest ballroom and its own Broadway legitimate theater.

It is a hall hotel or atrium hotel, which is characterized by being build as an enclosure around an open courtyard space. With the hotel lobby on the 8th floor, the present redevelopment of Times Square as an urban destination point has left the Marriott Marquis detached from the street. Portman has been criticized for creating a design that is turning its back to Times Square. However, at the time the hotel was built, the theater district was only beginning to turn around and Portman’s style of inwardly-oriented spaces made logical sense.

The whole building rising 45 stories to The View, New York’s only rooftop revolving restaurant and lounge, holds 36 guest room floors on the upper levels. The hotel atrium doesn’t only function as lobby, but contains also a bar, a restaurant and shops, it is a programmatic hybrid just like the rest of the building.

The Mariott Marquis is served by twelve scenic high-tech elevators, which face into the atrium that stretches the height of the hotel. The elevator cabs travel at 300 m per minute. In 2005 a modernization included reducing waiting times from originally more than 30 minutes, in the past, down to less than 5 minutes by introducing a computer technology, which allows people to key in their destination floor number on a keypad and get assigned an elevator to use afterward. As most important element of cirkulation the elevators are the key to the transitioning function of the lobby. The hotel is depending on the vertical movement to cirkulate arriving and leaving visitors.

OPENING in relation to the visual connections

Only a huge sign on the building indicates that the Mariott Marquis hotel is situated here, there are no other visible hints showing the lobby on the 8th floor. Entering the lobby through the glass cab elevators, visual connections are established once inside. The open space of the atrium wrapped with the insidely-oriented roomfloors, makes the hotel looking into itself, creating many visual connections between the lobby and other hotel floors. Only the sunlight indicates a connection to the world outside

OPENING in relation to the atmosphere

Occupying a full city block, being an enourmous canvas for commercials, the New York Marriott Marquis hotel externally reinforces the energy of Times Square, while the interior provides a retreat from the activity.

The lobby is open, airy and calm, however the interior atmosphere is detached from the life outside. The look inside is uniform and the interior materials are made to appear expensive like marmor ang granit. Having to take an elevator several stories to reach the lobby makes it feel like a very private, exclusive space only reserved for a chosen elite.

 

 

 

NY WINDOW SAFARI_23/11/12_30/11/12

NY WINDOW SAFARI

 

 

 

Transitions - between spaces (continued)

(. . .)These openings are like architectual eyes reminding us about what is left

behind or showing us a preview of what is waiting. . . . . . .
As agents of orientation and information, openings provide a visible link be-
tween spaces we know, spaces we don’t know and spaces we will be able to
see, but never to experience.

Like the metaphor of a trainstation seen as a window, so can a tunnel, a ventila-

tion shaft between two tracks or a door be contemplated so.

By opening our eyes to new imaginations of the window, we will be able to see

that life is taking place and revolving about different kinds of openings providing
transitions between spaces.

Imke Schubert

WINDOW EXPANDER

WIMDOW EXPANDER

First five probes, inspired by 19th and 20th century optical devices.