Broken Angel

One of my favorite qualities of New York City life is the ability to wander aimlessly around nearly any neighborhood in this vast metropolis and somehow stumble upon architectural treasures. I found this gem on a lovely Sunday afternoon stroll to a friend's abode.

Of course, after stumbling upon this enchanted castle-esque structure. I had to uncover the history behind such a building. This turned out to be almost as fascinating as observing the structure itself.

The building is located in the Clinton Hill neighborhood of Brooklyn, at the intersection of Quincy and Downing to be exact. For those of you who are unaware, this building served as the backdrop for the documentary film 'Dave Chappelle's Block Party' in 2006.

How did this house come into existence? Through a twenty-seven year commitment of labor by two artists, Aurthur Wood and his wife Cynthia. Together, they purchased the property in 1971 for an astounding $2,000 (as this neighborhood gentrifies, the lot has since skyrocketed in value). Aurthur is a self-taught artist, contractor, and architect. He dedicated the next twenty-seven years of his life to creating his ideal home. In a truly sustainable spirit, Aurthur and Cynthia reused items to create the structure, bottles, pipes, anything they could get their hands on was used to create an artistic oasis.

In this home, they cultivated a spirit of creation and experimentation. Many of the 'rooms' were exposed to natural elements. I read that they kept a jar full of water in their kitchen and when the water froze, they sent their son to stay warm with friends. Many of the 'stories' were simply half-formed slabs, precariously suspended from walls and ceilings. The Woods lived peacefully in their sanctuary until a fire in 2006 finally gave the Department of Buildings just cause to inspect the property. I don't know the details of what they found inside, but the building was vehemently disapproved for habitation, a risk to human life. What followed has become a battle of epic proportions between artist and developer, those who want to preserve and those who want to create a unified, condo driven street scape.

Of course, I am in support of such eccentricity and a strong proponent of preservation, if merely for the building's ability to invoke critical thought. A film was created by Margot Niederland and filmed at the Sundance Film Festival in 1991. She is quoted in an LA Times article as referring to Wood as "a crazy New York Gaudi". While this sentiment may draw a question mark for many architectural historians, there is something special at 4 Downing Street in Clinton Hill. Just last month, Cynthia Wood passed away after a long battle with cancer, the community has left this homage to her memory. I hope that the community can also find a way to create a lasting, and functional memory from this fascinating dedication to the built form.

I will leave you with this thought, from Aurthur Wood himself. It was said that Aurthur questioned whether people should live in the bottom of a cube of space. Rather, he questioned why people can't exist diagonally in this cube. Despite the apparent legal 'unsafe and unlivable' conditions that this sentiment provoked in the Broken Angel, the question bears cause for thoughtful contemplation and critical architectural thought.

A Vegetable Grows Here

A very important petition is underway. The citizens of New York are taking action, and working to show Mayor Michael Bloomberg that an organic vegetable garden in front of City Hall would not only improve the health and wellbeing of New York's urban population, but would also set a precedent for cities around the world.

The petition reads:

To Mayor Michael Bloomberg:

We, the undersigned people of New York City,

respectfully request that a vegetable garden

be planted in front of City Hall.

This garden will represent New Yorkers' commitment to

education, public service, healthy eating, and

environmental stewardship. This garden will be tended by

NYC public school students, in collaboration with the

NYC Department of Parks & Recreation and our region's

talented gardeners and farmers. The harvest will be

donated to a nearby food pantry to feed the hungry.

This garden will represent the vision of a more sustainable,

livable City for all New Yorkers, and will contribute

to achieving the intents of PLANYC by 2030.

As New Yorkers look to the first lady for inspiration, we are showing that we are ready to take the next steps in making New York a more sustainable, healthy city.

A post in New York Time's Diner's Journal highlights key points advocating for the garden and its beneficial elements. Please read and also sign the petition to make New York City a greener place: http://peoplesgardennyc.org/petition/

I look forward to updating on the progress of this petition and the garden that will soon grow in front of New York's City Hall.

Urban Density vs. Natural Landscape

A driving passion behind my architectural studies has always been the dichotomy between urbanity and the natural world. Can the two worlds exist together? Can an intensity of both concepts exist to support and even enhance the other? I have struggled with this concept for years, basing much of my thesis research around this harmonic notion.

The idea is a simple one in theory, yet it is so rarely found in American society. Usable open space often becomes overlooked and taken for granted in the suburbs and lusted after in dense urban settings.

So the battle becomes one of lifestyle choices. Does one forgo one luxury to achieve the other? Families flock to the suburbs to provide their children with safe outdoor areas, while giving up access to other areas of the city and the ability to travel anywhere without a car. Others value urban connectivity to the extent that they are willing to give up an abundance and freedom of outdoor space to stay connected to their urban roots and culture.

Ironically, my new home is located in an extremely accessible area of Brooklyn. My subway station is only one block away and I travel can from Lower East Side music venues to my bed in less than 45 minutes, I timed myself last night. I live in a six story building, yet can see Prospect Park from my writing desk! That's right, I have the delicate balance of dense urbanism and natural environments at my fingertips. So, this begins a series of posts dedicated to my continued study of the relationships fostered between inhabitants of this dense neighborhood and the sprawling natural environment to which we all enjoy access. How does it affect the lives of those who live nearby? How does it influence neighborhood connectivity and interaction? I intend to dedicate a portion of the following year finding out!

In addition, to show off how lovely this urban oasis is, I will update photos of the Park throughout the seasons. As you all know, we all got hit with a blizzard this week, thus follows the Park in all of its winter glory.

Even Apollo loves his access to nature!

Crossing into the Park.

Excelsior!

Excelsior:

The New York State Motto.

The title of a poem written by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow.

A bar near my new home.

So marks a change in location and a new direction for this blog.
As I transition into a new life as a New Yorker, I carry the Latin translation of this word with me, and am reminded, 'ever upward'!

I leave you with the opening stanza to Longfellow's poem:

The shades of night were falling fast,

As through an Alpine village passed

A youth, who bore, 'mid snow and ice,

A banner with the strange device,

Excelsior!

I have recently uncovered my dormant passion for photography and discovered that scanning previous work into a digital format allows me to quickly and easily manipulate images digitally. Thus, enhancing and experimenting with what would have taken me hours and hours of dark room time to achieve. Of course, this is no ground-breaking discovery and does not replace the creativity that a true dark room inspires, but provides a way to archive delicate creations and experiment free of constraint.

It also allows me to post my work here and relive the creation of each image. I first created the above image as part of a series pertaining to duality. This was during a time shortly after Hurricane Katrina when a majority of my work centered around a comparison and contrast between my hometown of Chicago, to which I fled, and my adopted hometown of New Orleans. The above photograph symbolizes my struggle to merge the two places in my mind. As my heart and thoughts centered around the impending danger present in New Orleans, I was grateful for the comfort and familiarity I found in Chicago, but anxious and ready to return to New Orleans. Combining images from each place into photographic compositions helped me to understand the pull I felt from the two very different places.

City Views

UNStudio Pavilion

At long last, my account of the Burnham Pavilions constructed in Millennium Park this summer to commemorate the Centennial of Burnham's Chicago plan. I will keep this brief because quite honestly, I distinctly remember feeling underwhelmed upon my first viewing of the installments. Perhaps it is because I was so excited to observe the two projects, perhaps it is because I so want to hold Zaha atop an architectural pedestal and fall in love with everything she creates, or perhaps it is because the two pavilions appear so sleek and refined in photographs, but I held quite high expectations for my foray down to Millennium Park to finally see the projects in person.

In keeping with my expectations, I did snag a few intriguing photographs and enjoyed meandering among the spaces created by the unique forms. Yet, something about the presentation was unsettling to me. Both studios chose to work with pure white forms, which in theory would create a wonderful backdrop to the Chicago skyline and allow for a great play of color in the evening. However, in the reality of a harsh urban climate, the forms just came off as dirty and unkempt in the light of day. I had envisioned Zaha's pavilion to take on an ephemeral and light quality when I first saw it in photographs, but (and it pains me greatly to admit this) the form and materials looked rather cheep upon closer inspection. My last, and most upsetting, complaint addresses the lack of contextual expression present in the piece. Zaha's pavilion, aside from vaguely resembling the shape of the now iconic bean sculpture, really speaks nothing of Chicago to me. My mind simply does not connect the curvaceous stretched fabric and pliable form to a city built upon a rigid grid and unwavering working class values.

The UNStudio pavilion did entice me as an interactive urban structure. The stark planes interplayed beautifully with the sinuous support pieces, drawing visitors like the young boy above and myself to amble through the space, looking both at the structure itself and to the buildings beyond. In many ways, the UNStudio was able to integrate elegantly into the Chicago skyline. In the shot above, I admire the way the structure drew my eye through an elegant portal and into the city beyond. At the same time, I do note that despite the abundant number of noteworthy highrises visable from Millennium Park, this was really the only view I was able to capture through the sculpture's portals. Perhaps UNStudio meant to make a statement by choosing to highlight the newly completed Trump Tower. Is this the future of Chicago's historically innovative and vibrant architectural creations? Only time will tell.

Zaha Hadid Pavilion

Adaptive reuse....Uncovering hidden gems....Reinvigorating the past

No matter how you put it, this school is seriously cool.
Powerhouse High School, located in the North Lawndale neighborhood of Chicago's near Southwest side is a renovated component of what was once the powerhouse behind the mega company of Sears Roebuck and Company, literally.

When this looming structure was first inhabited at the turn of the 20th century, it served to provide electricity and heat to what was once the headquarters of the Sears franchise......including the original Sears Tower, long before Willis ever came along.



When Sears did move its headquarters to its now central Loop location, the building and much of the surrounding area lay vacant and decaying for decades. Then, someone (the government) came along and began evaluating the buildings one by one, as a way to determine how to renovate the buildings.

The Powerhouse, it was determined, would best serve the surrounding community as a high school. Thus began the long and arduous process of restoration. And so it happened that a building once used to process tons and tons of coal became a teaching tool of sustainability and growth to a new generation.

Top three design features of the new space:

1. The great hall, common space....once full of giant coal powered machines....



now where students gather before, after and between classes. Notice the original Tiffany tiles still adorning the walls, some things never go out of style.

2. The incorporation of original ductwork into classroom design....learning by observing.



3. Fire escapes, green roofs, geothermal energy....the most elegant threesome I've ever seen.



4. Ok, I lied, there were four 'top designs' ....but these teacher's work stations made from old tunnels are too cozy and intriguing to pass up.



My favorite aspect of this fascinating new/old learning environment? They are predicting it will achieve a LEED platinum rating for Existing Buildings, while also preserving what is now a National Historic Landmark building. In my opinion, this project highlights adaptive reuse of urban structures at it's absolute best.

This website has more great information and resources pertaining to the history and future of this great historic landmark: http://www.homansquarepowerhouse.com/