Contract - September 2013 - (Page 77)
H3 Hardy Collaboration
Architecture designs
a theater that maximizes
flexibility in Brooklyn
the black box theater features
250 seats that can be set up
in multiple configurations, or
entirely removed from sight,
allowing the theater to morph
to accommodate many types of
performances. flexible HVaC
ducts covered in dark fabric
can be repositioned to not
limit the placement of lights
on the overhead grid.
Anchoring the Fort Greene neighborhood of Brooklyn as a cultural
mecca, the Brooklyn Academy of Music (BAM) is a true juxtaposition
of old and new. Its latest building, the Richard B. Fisher Theater (BAM
Fisher), epitomizes the fluidity and energy of the area.
BAM already occupies two massive turn-of-the-century
proscenium theaters renovated and restored by New York’s H3 Hardy
Collaboration Architecture, including the Peter Jay Sharp Building that
contains an opera house. The academy again called on Hugh Hardy’s
firm to create BAM Fisher by renovating an existing building and
designing a significant new addition.
BAM had acquired a 1928 Georgian revival building, formerly
a Salvation Army citadel, located immediately behind the Peter Jay
Sharp Building. During the neighborhood’s rougher years, the building’s
arched windows had been bricked over. Many interior elements, such
as the ceiling beams, had fallen into disrepair and could not be saved.
“It was like a fortress,” says architect Daria Pizzetta, a partner at H3.
“When you have an existing building, you never know what you’re going
to get when you open up the walls.”
The entire back half of the Salvation Army building was
demolished, leaving the façade and a streetside portion extending
back about 20 feet, which now serves as part of BAM Fisher’s first-floor
lobby. A new seven-story addition, which houses two theaters and
office space, rises behind the remainder of the structure. The
basement remains as the only continuous original floorplate.
bam fisher
52
By Adam Mornement
Photography by
Peter Clarke
transformation
flexibility drives function
The academy’s Executive Producer Joseph V. Melillo called for a space
with less than 300 seats in order to attract edgy, emerging performing
artists who might not be able to fill the larger BAM theaters. “I was very
clear when I made my pronouncement that we needed an intimate
theater, and the intimate theater needed to be a flexible theater,”
Melillo says.
The black box theater—actually painted dark blue—was built
with seats that can be set up in multiple configurations or collapsed
entirely under the mezzanine to maximize floor space. The railings,
contractdesign.com
september 2013
An Australian pub
incorporates an
unexpected structural
element to redefine
its street presence
Prahran
Hotel
Associates. Landscape:
Starr Whitehouse. Graphics:
Pentagram. Acoustician:
Akustiks. Theater: Auerbach
Pollack Friedlander.
what Wallcoverings: MDC Liqua
Pearl, Zolatone, Paint: Benjamin
Moore. Laminate: Formica.
Movable wall: Tectum Acoustical
Panels. Hard flooring: Allegheny
Mountain Harwood, Masonite.
Resilient flooring: Forbo
Marmoleum. Carpet/carpet tile:
Bloomsburg, Bentley Prince
Street, Custom Carpet designed
by Madeline Weinrib, ABC Carpet
& Home. Ceiling: Ecophon.
Recessed lighting: Gotham,
Winona. Track lighting: Lighting
Services, Inc., Gotham.
Fluorescent/industrial: Mark
Architectural Lighting, Axis,
Legion. Other decorative lighting:
LED stairs: Lightwild.
Architectural glass/glazing:
Bendheim, Wausau. Window
treatments: Mecho Shade.
Workstation/task seating: Knoll.
Auditorium seating: Jezet,
Netherlands. Upholstery:
Bernhardt, Maharam.
Conference: Knoll.
Prahran Hotel (page 58)
who Architect and Interior
Designer: Techne Architects.
IProject team: Justin Northrop,
project/design director; Steve
McKeag, project architect;
Alex Lake, architect; Melita
Kei, draftsperson; Francois
Claassens, draftsperson; Bianca
Baldi, interior designer. Builder:
Visual Builders. ESD: EnergyLab.
Building Surveyor: Retro Building
Surveyors. Services Engineer:
BRT Consulting Engineers.
Downtown Mexico
CheremSerrano Arquitectos takes an
authentic approach in renovating a Mexico
City landmark into a new hotel and hostel
By Jean Nayar
Photography by
Jaime Navarro
and Undine Pröhl
The Downtown Hotel near Zócalo plaza in Mexico City is a
transformative presence in the capital. Designed by Mexican firm
CheremSerrano Arquitectos, the boutique hotel is housed in a
17th-century landmark building on a UNESCO World Heritage site,
and the firm’s principal architect, Abraham Cherem Cherem, along
with his late cofounder Javier Serrano Orozco, enlivened its rich
historical features with a few swift strokes of Mexican modernism.
CheremSerrano encouraged the hotel’s owners to push the
boundaries of the boutique hotel concept by introducing a high-design
hostel component, known as Downtown Beds. The combination is
intentional—to attract everyone from seasoned jetsetters seeking
out the next new thing, to budget-conscious backpackers. Because
much of the original structure was preserved and the new interiors
were crafted with local materials, eco-tourists are likely to find it a
sustainable destination, too.
“As we explored the best program for the structure, we talked
about uses for the ground level and decided to dedicate all of it to retail
and restaurants,” Cherem explains. “And when we talked about how
many rooms would work in the hotel portion, we got the idea that an
upgraded hostel would make a nice little brother for the hotel.”
The revamped Prahran Hotel in Melbourne, Australia, is more than
meets the eye. First, it is not a hotel, at least not the type with rooms
for rent; in Australian lingo, a hotel is a pub. And then there is its
eye-catching rear facade, punctuated by stacks of circles, which are
actually concrete drainage pipes. Instead of transporting liquids, the
pipes contain intimate seating areas that are visible from the street
and transform an otherwise inconspicuous suburban pub into one
of the most talked-about venues in the city.
occupiable pipes provide intimate seating
The project, which involved the renovation of a 1940s building and
a new three-story, nearly 6,000-square-foot addition, is the fifth pub
collaboration between developer Sand Hill Road (SHR) and local firm
Techne Architects. “It wasn’t that great of a joint when we bought it,”
says Matt Mullins, a co-owner of SHR. “But we could sense potential.”
While the original Art Deco–style building had good bones
and just needed some minor renovations, the real challenge of the
project involved reimagining a 1970s single-story addition at its rear.
The addition was poorly proportioned and inwardly focused, and
because SHR wanted the pub’s interior to have a stronger connection
with the street, the design team called for a new, dramatic addition
replacing the rear structure.
“The design of the new addition was guided by the Art Deco
exterior of the original hotel,” says Justin Northrop, project designer
and Techne director. “Of the patterns we explored, a circular motif
became dominant.” That conceptual design led to the idea of
implementing the concrete drainage pipes. The pipes lend depth to
the facade, have a sculptural quality, and also suggest a stack of kegs,
hinting at the festivities within.
Seventeen steel-reinforced concrete pipes, which range from
seven to seven-and-half feet in diameter, are stacked in four vertical
rows—rising the equivalent of three stories—from street level to above
the parapet line. Each row is offset from the one beneath to create
a staggered pattern. Most of the lower two levels of pipes are
occupiable—the ground floor pipes are nearly seven feet deep
seating options include cozy
leather-uphostered benches
within the concrete pipes
(right in photo) that penetrate
the facade of the addition,
as well as more traditional
bar-height tables (this page).
ViP booth seating occupies
a half culvert pipe elevated
by black steel posts.
A historic colonial palace, reinvigorated
Located a few blocks from the Palacio de Bellas Artes in the historic
center of Mexico City, where the Aztecs—and later the Spaniards—first
settled, the hotel was developed within a former colonial palace known
as the Palacio de los Condes de Miravalle, which was designated a
UNESCO World Heritage site before it was purchased by the Sacal
family, renowned Mexican jewelers. To give the building new life, the
A courtyard divides the hostel
area from the hotel portion,
housed in a former colonial
palace. The hostel area
features colorful finishes and
furnishings, contrasting the
neutral tones used throughout
the hotel portion of the project.
64
contract
58
TRANFORMATION
phOTOgRAphy: jAIMe NAvARRO
By Cody Calamaio
Photography by
Francis Dzikowski/ESTO
transformation
contractdesign.com
sePtember 2013
Lighting: Light Projects.
Engineering: Parkhill Freeman.
Landscape: Ayus Botanical.
Acoustician: Burton
Acoustic Group.
what Precast concrete walls:
Cowan in Dulux ‘Luck’ finish.
Concrete pipes: Humes. Feature
timber wall to courtyard: Timber
Search ‘Spotted Gum’ hardwood
timber. Ceiling: Gyprock
‘Soundcheck’ acoustic
plasterboard. Bulkhead over bar:
Timber Search ‘Spotted Gum’
hardwood timber. Steel profile
windows: Windows on the World.
Steel profile doors: Windows
on the World. Floor tile: Classic
Ceramics. Timber floorboards:
Timber Search ‘Spotted Gum’
hardwood timber. Carpet:
Brintons Carpets. General
Lighting: Light Projects.
contractdesign.com
contract
sepTeMbeR 2013
contract
Suspended concrete pendant
over bar: Satelight. Bunker light:
Dunlin. Rattan tube pendant:
Quantum engineering. External
suspended lighting: Edison
Light Company. Outdoor tables:
Tait Furniture. Outdoor stools:
Corporate Culture. Indoor stools:
Schott’s Emporium. Table tops:
Timber Search ‘Spotted Gum’
hardwood timber. Banquette
upholstery: Instyle. Bathroom
basins: Caroma. Basin mixer:
Hansa. Wall tiles: Classic
Ceramics. Ceiling fan: Big Ass
Fans. Outdoor electric infrared
heaters: Celmec. Metal deck
roofing: BlueScope.
Downtown Hotel (page 64)
who Architect and Interior
Designer: CheremSerrano
Arquitectos. Architecture and
Interior Design project team:
Abraham Cherem Cherem,
Javier Serrano Orozco.
Contractor: Vigilante De La
Construccion. Lighting: Luis
Lozoya. Engineering: Max
Tenenbaum. Landscape: Verde
Vertical. Graphics: Manuel
Rodriguez Lozano (Ciudad
de Mexico, 1894–1971) “El
Holocausto”, 1945 Restaurado
por Monica Baptista.
what Wallcoverings and
flooring: Recovered original tiles.
Upholstery: Paul Roco. Task
lighting: Custom. Exterior
lighting: Metal halide wallwasher,
halogen uplights, LED uplights,
LED strip lights. Doors: Federico
Garcia, Alfonso Reyes.
Decorative glass panels/
partitions: Mauricio Ponce.
Lounge/reception seating: Paul
Roco. Other seating: Paul Roco,
Paulista Chair by Paulo Mendes
Da Rocha, Sling Folding chair
by Don Shoemaker. Plumbing
fixtures: Dorn Bracht.
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Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Contract - September 2013
Contract - September/October 2013
Contents
Editorial
Industry News
Columnist: Winning Work at the Interview: It’s All About Chemistry
Product Focus: Glow Sticks
Product Focus: A Touch of Yesteryear
Product Briefs: Products with a Sustainable Focus
Dropbox
Restoration Hardware
BAM Fisher
Prahran Hotel
Downtown Mexico
Lighting Lessons from an Artist
Competition: Design Is…
Designers Select: Eco-friendly Products
Sources
Ad Index
Interior Detail: A Flowing Aluminum Ceiling Symbolizes Water in a Japanese Beauty Salon
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