Oculus - Spring 2015 - (Page 9)

first words Letter from tHe President ©Andy Ryan Repositioning All Around A IA National is now well underway "repositioning" the organization, streamlining its leadership structure, revising its institutional framework, and sharpening its operational focus. The goal is to make a better, stronger, more responsive AIA, and to develop a communication strategy that helps the public appreciate our role in delivering true value to society. At AIANY, we are also working on our own parallel, bottom-up strategy. Subtly, but in meaningful ways, AIANY and the Center for Architecture have initiated a joint and mutually beneficial repositioning strategy to be implemented in 2015. You may walk into the Center and not notice anything different, but organizational changes are already underway to increase the impact and effectiveness of our collective research, outreach, advocacy, and programming. At the beginning of year, the Center for Architecture Foundation (the institution) and the Center for Architecture (the place) merged into a single 501c3 not-for-profit entity, with aspirations to become the preeminent institution for architectural education and discourse geared to improving the social, cultural, and environmental aspects of the public realm - locally and globally. While it remains a sister institution to AIANY, the Center for Architecture now has its own autonomous Board of Directors and a unique mission rightly distinguished from a membership-driven organization like AIANY. As its formal mission statement is being crafted, we should think of the Center for Architecture as a bona fide cultural institution with the purpose of sharing critical architectural ideas and content with a broad public audience. Our committees are the lifeblood of our programming and shall remain central in the development of content at the Center. But the relationship between AIANY and the Center needs a new vocabulary. I would like us to see AIANY as the "think tank" for advanced architectural research, and the Center for Architecture as the "public portal" for the broad dissemination of our innovative Dialogues from the Edge of Practice ideas. Utilizing the Center to communicate with the lay public can further elevate the role of design in public life and ensure that our ideas benefit from interdisciplinary interaction with non-architects. Communicating our value increases the stature of the architect in the public's eye. As my presidential theme, "Dialogues from the Edge of Practice," unfolds, I intend to sponsor a monthly forum on a topical issue related to the discipline, and on the architect's expanding role into new modes of practice. We will use the Center to broadcast these ideas to a larger audience. Please join me in "repositioning" the architect, reclaiming lost disciplinary territory, and entering new frontiers of providing value in the built environment. We have always pursued a robust political advocacy agenda, most often by lobbying. This year we've tried something new: we let the mayoral administration know that if its goals resonate with our institutional mission and advocacy priorities, we can help forward its agenda. I hope that elected and appointed officials will be encouraged to approach us freely to help deliver a more ideal urban environment for the citizens of NYC. The fantastic, crazy idea that NYC would benefit from a Center for Architecture has proven true. Now, almost 12 years since opening, it is time to reevaluate whether we need a larger center, polycentric centers in other boroughs, or a totally new concept of what a center should be. A task force has been organized to address this, and my hope is that we will be able to announce a bold plan at the National Convention in NYC in 2018. For AIANY, 2015 is a year of transition, experimentation, and joining together to make the Chapter an even greater force in the advancement of architectural research and culture. And through collaboration with a reconceived Center for Architecture, we can make sure that our city and the general public understand how design can improve lives and create a better society. See you at the Center! Tomas Rossant, AIA 2015 President AIA New York Chapter Spring 2015 Oculus 9

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Oculus - Spring 2015

First Words Letter from the President Repositioning All Around By Tomas Rossant, AIA
Letter from the Editor The Edge of New By Kristen Richards, Hon. AIA, Hon. ASLA
Center for Architecture Center Highlights
One Block Over Rough Waters: Squalls continue over the redevelopment of South Street Seaport By Claire Wilson
Opener: Thinking Into Other Boxes By David Zach
Mars in the Bronx CASE gets new environmental technologies out of labs and into buildings at (relative) warp speed By Jonathan Lerner
Spinning Research Into Practice Intense experimentation with digital technologies is yielding remarkable designs and products by ARO By Lisa Delgado
A Results-Oriented Think Tank Defining architectural practice broadly enough to include research, theory, and public discourse, Grimshaw’s Urban Research Unit is a full-circle activity leading to a richer built environment By Bill Millard
The Resilience Factor Perkins+Will is making resilience design and planning a growing area of practice and income By Richard Staub
Socrates at the Drafting Table REX champions a slow thinktank architecture of methodical problem-solving By Janet Adams Strong
Architecture in the Social Data Era Transforming our practice to engage new data sources and design intents By Melissa Marsh
Museum as Incubator The New Museum hatches a multidisciplinary workspace to nurture creative entrepreneurs By Julia van den Hout
When Bottom-up Meets Top-down The benefits of community engagement in post-disaster rebuilding plans By Deborah Gans, FAIA
In Print Bricks & Mortals: Ten Great Buildings and the People They Made By Tom Wilkinson Tales of Two Cities: Paris, London and the Birth of the Modern City By Jonathan Conlin Visionaries in Urban Development: 15 Years of the ULI J.C. Nichols Prize Winners By Trisha Riggs, et al. American Urban Form: A Representative History By Sam Bass Warner and Andrew H. Whittemore Preservation is Overtaking Us By Rem Koolhaas, with a supplement by Jorge Otero-Pailos Reviews by Stanley Stark, FAIA
31-Year Watch Architectural practice once embraced dinner plates and candlesticks produced by Swid Powell By John Morris Dixon, FAIA
Last Words Eve of Construction By Rick Bell, FAIA
Index to Advertisers Alphabetical & Categorical Index

Oculus - Spring 2015