MELROSE COMMUNITY CENTER, The Bronx, New York.
The South Bronx Community Center project provides a meaningful opportunity to reinterpret a social program that was originally implemented in the 1950's and 60's. Now reformulated, it responds to the contemporary social condition through an active dialogue with the local community. The Community Center is primarily geared towards teenagers, providing them with facilities for activities such as athletics, arts and crafts, videos, and computing. The project calls for a strong formal solution to play a symbolic role in the community. The design of the Bronx South Classic Center reflects a desire to avoid a fortress-like environment and instead provide the community with a building that conveys a sense of openness and accessibility. The symbolic aspect of the project is of major importance in its social function for the local residents who live amongst one of New York City?s highest crime rates; it has generated a point of identification and pride for the community.
The Melrose Community Center is composed of two main volumes enclosing programs, the bar and the oval gymnasium connected by a link which provides the entry space. The gymnasium, with its strongly recognizable form, is a symbolic element of identification for the entire community.
We chose to make the classrooms building as transparent as possible. Curtain wall glazing along the length of the bar exposes the interior to public view in both directions. The various activity rooms have a glass wall oriented towards the circulation corridor, enabling its users to see the activities of everyone else. This visual exchange creates a great sense of energy and excitement.
BREUKELEN COMMUNITY CENTER, Breukelen Houses; Brooklyn, NYC
The program for a Community Center for the Breukelen Houses, built in 1951 in the Canarsie section of Brooklyn, includes: sports, daycare, library, performance space, classrooms, food service, reception area, game room, computer center, etc. The goals of the project are as follows:
The Breukelen Community Center is composed of two main volumes enclosing programs connected by an atrium for informal gathering and circulation. The southern volume encloses the gym, and is transparent both to the atrium space and to the street. The northern volume is composed of a translucent curtain wall enclosure within which various freestanding rooms for administrative, classroom, eating and gathering functions are interconnected by a bridge-like circulation system on the second level. The space between these program volumes serves as a flexible place for undefined program activities that can occur in a more informal setting. The three exterior walls are made of aluminum-frame curtain wall with translucent glass to allow for light to enter while keeping a sense of privacy. The interior glass wall that opens to the atrium is made of transparent glass."; break; case "bldg1": proj_text = "
BUILDING I, Buenos Aires, Argentina, 1977
Building I develops the idea of an urban intervention that focuses on the relationship between buildings and between buildings and the city. This is achieved by conceiving Building I as more than one building, as two buildings juxtaposed and by taking the building code envelope restrictions as a basis for design. Building I is a double building, one structure set in front of another, separated by a courtyard and connected by vertical circulation. Their massing avoids the pragmatic configurations determined by the building code envelope by eliminating the setbacks in the first building and adding the volume to the second building within the allowed maximum height, producing two abstract volumes.
"; break; case "desmoines": proj_text = "VISION PLAN, Des Moines, Iowa
The Vision Plan is a design process based on an analysis of the specific form of a given city overlapped with an analysis of the specific economic development opportunities. One of the basic premises of this urban design process is our belief that the specific conditions that characterize the American cultural context imply the need for a radical critique of traditional urbanism.
"; break; case "ignacio": proj_text = "LAS CASAS FARM
Main Pavilion, Guest house, Stables and Riding Ring,
Jose Ignacio, Uruguay.
Site
This project is located on a thirty acre farm close to the Atlantic Ocean in Jose Ignacio, Uruguay. The existing farm?s main residence consists of a group of houses built in the local tradition of brick bearing wall construction.
The programs calls for a summer vacation residence and a horse farm. The Main Pavilion is an addition for the owners and the Guest House allows the use of the farm as a retreat for meetings as well as for friends.
The Main Pavilion consists of a master bedroom suite and a living room with an open gallery. The Guest house consists of two bedroom suites and a small covered outdoor gallery. The new stable provides place for 4 horses, one tack room, one feed room, and washing area.
Main House, Guest House
The approach was to create very simple structures that recalled some of the historic colonial ranches while being strong, modern, and playful at the same time. The project was conceived using local basic technology, materials and construction methods. A set of free-standing walls, which were added in order to frame the otherwise scattered existing buildings, create a series of green courtyards. The houses are located on either side of a hill opening to vast country views. On the other side, they achieve a greater degree of privacy as they are framed by the new walls.
Stables
Since the local climate allows for a structure that is not totally enclosed, a large roof structure ?floats? over the spaces where the horses live, emphasizing the horizontal of the vast horizon of the site.
HOUSE IN CAMINO ANCHO, Madrid, Spain
A house for a family of five, a couple and their three children, is located in one of the most beautiful suburbs of Madrid. The house divides the five acre lot with very open views extending to the Mountains on the North and Madrid in the distance to the South. Occupying one side of the site is a sculpture garden that preserves the local flora on the street side. A lawn and swimming pool pavilion are situated in the back.
The 25,000sq.ft. house is organized along a Z-shaped cleft yellow travertine wall to the front of the house, which defines the internal organization. While the front emphasizes privacy by use of the stone wall, the back side is very open through both glazing and volumetric configuration.
Parents and children occupy two separate wings of the house with respective stairs. The wings are connected by area overlooking the art gallery. The circulation area is enclosed for privacy.
The spaces inside the house are a series of lofts, holding the various activities in a way that allows both for the definition of each particular function and the continuous flow of space.
Guest quarters and a guest room complement the family spaces. A pool house serving two pools in the back garden supplement the house.
Circulation through the common spaces has been designed to provide for rich perceptual experiences. A sequence from the dining room to the living room, for example, through the courtyard and out to the porch is rich with the play of transparencies and reflections as one moves through the front to the back of the house. The entire house may be used and enjoyed in many different ways depending on the activities of each day.
"; break; case "sagpond": proj_text = "HOUSE ON SAG POND, Sagaponack, NY
Surrounded by fields, a summer and week-end house is situated on a seven acre lot facing Sagaponack Pond. The 8,500 square foot house suggests a cluster of ?found objects?, framing the agricultural landscape, rather than presenting itself as a solid homogeneous whole.
Six towers connected by bridges surround a 110 ft long vaulted space. The vault encloses public living spaces while the towers and bridges contain private rooms. These create two independent wings on the second floor one for the master bedroom suite on the South side and the other for the guest rooms on the North. Each wing has its own independent staircase. The mostly solid wood structure is always exposed as can be seen from the laminated wood arches springing from the heavy timber columns of the vault and the diagonal trusses and steel plates of the bridges.
The house is completed by a pool and pool-house and a burmed two-car garage covered with grasses. The House on Sag Pond resists stylistic, typological or linguistic classification, drifting between the abstract and the figural, between convention and idiosynracy.
"; break; case "poolhouse": proj_text = "POOL HOUSE, Sagaponack, New York
The pool house was finished in 1999
"; break; case "boulogne": proj_text = "BOULOGNE- BILLANCOURT MASTER PLAN, France.
Project for a new mixed use neighborhood in Boulogne- Billancourt, 30 minutes West of Paris on the Seine on the 65 acre site where the Renault Industries was located and across from the Isle Seguin.
The general concept of the project is that of a city/park, where the concept of the park that extends from the existing fabric of the adjacent district to the riverfront, permeates through the fabric creating zones of green that traverse it. This allows for a new type of morphological freedom and thus allows for a great variety of interventions.
Morphology
The concept is that of a continuous field with different types of green spaces alternating with the built structures, large green apertures, narrower walkways and courtyards. In this way the project multiplies the number of residential units facing a green space, an added value. This works together with the green courtyards to create the feeling of a ?city-park?. The curvilinear areas allow for a fluid relationship between the park, the new development and the city, giving these areas a particular identity.
The Park
A new Park with an esplanade on the Seine provides this new district with a façade on the river. The project works as a transition between the existing city and the new Park.
The park is placed centrally in order to better relate to the new fabric and existing neighborhoods which animate it at all times.
An undulating slow parkway delimits the park and alleviates the riverfront traffic allowing for riverfront public spaces and activities. Slightly higher than the park level it allows for an open view of the park while the change of level and the necessary parapet create a security border without the need of a fence along that edge.
There is great fluidity throughout the project created by the large green entrance spaces from the streets to the park that alternate with the more regular planted streets. These spaces are animated with programs that create a transition between park and city: a space for an artisans? market at the northern entrance and a direct connection to the existing round-point creates an axis which connects the park to the existing public spaces and to the Planetarium.
A large esplanade incorporating the Renault historic building and park as part of the green, opens as a large balcony to the riverfront promenade. This allows a visual connection not only to the isle Seguin but also to the green hill of Meudon on the other edge of the Seine visually connecting the new neighborhood with the existing one.
The movement of the tramway towards the bridge that covers 750 Parking spaces which will serve the aquarium. This programmatic positioning allows for very fluid sequences of vehicular or pedestrian movement linking the city, the park, the aquarium, the promenade and the Isle Seguin.
The Riverfront Promenade
We propose a large green promenade that varies in its depth depending on the various events along the edge, such as the bridge structure. In placing the great green esplanade along the ?Tramway Bridge? an integration between river, Promenade and Park is achieved. The Park while being central still offers a fluid opening towards the river.
XUJIAHUI CITY CENTER AND SURROUNDING AREAS URBAN DESIGN AND PLANNING PROJECT, Shanghai, PRC
Xujiahui is at a point halfway between an old city and a new city. It is made up of a patchwork of separate and distinct areas, such as a cluster of historical buildings, the Shanghai Sports City, the Design and Decoration Center, the Universities, the Medical Centers, and the Shopping around Xujiahui Square. This patchwork is further characterized by the lack of balance between the rapid growth and the quality of urban spaces. The future Xujiahui should hellp establish a new balance that would maintain certain existing elements and variety offered by the patchwork, while new elements would be created and overlapped to produce a new dynamic development.
While there is great potential, we also recognize that some problems have developed as a by-product of the great speed at which Xujiahui has developed. With the high densities produced by the development of the district in the last 10 years and the increased use of cars, traffic has become a serious problem for the fluid-functioning of the district. Traffic congestion, overlap of conflicting traffic functions, and parking problems are some symptoms. However, we consider that one of the major problems in Xujiahui is not traffic but the general lack in both the quantity and quality of pedestrian and public spaces.
Our project envisions Xujiahui as a green cultural district where museums, new public spaces, entertainment centers, cultural institutions, and hotels are organized as a network. Our Vision, based on some of the wonderful qualities of the district and on the city?s tradition and past, guides our plan as the road that should lead to its future. The various types of green will not only beautify the city and create pedestrian friendly spaces, they will also serve to bring sustainability to the city. Our project transforms the district into an International Urban Center, where the present centralized retail activities will be balanced and enriched by a cultural network of institutions and places as well as by a new Business Center.
"; break; case "shanghai": proj_text = "SHANGHAI 2000, 1996
Social Housing Revisited
A new town for 10,000 in the People?s Republic of China
This project, a new town of 10,000 people to be built near Shanghai, proposes a new concept of urban design that is informed by the conditions of its time (the end of the twentieth century), and its place (a modernizing China).
The issue at hand is in many ways a question of mediation: How does one transform the conflicting relationship between the traditional and the modern city into a dynamic and productive dialogue?
Three different conditions are collapsed onto the same site. Different scales and different temporal experiences of space are juxtaposed to create a complex urban condition. To distinguish between the three different conditions, we use the analogy of speed:
XUJIAHUI FILM CITY, Shanghai, PRC
The Film City is defined by programs related to a variety of film related activities: A School of Film or Film Production companies and their related businesses including a Cinematheque, a Film Museum, and a Film Center. This building consists of a glass envelope that encloses a group of old existing film studios, the new Museum of Film and a number of other related functions. It?s glass-clad envelope will also provide a large interior public space. It is framed by two towers forming an urban gate along Caoxi Road. These two towers are framed by a wall of lower residential and office buildings. Linked by several bridges across the road, they will contain a new luxury hotel, with conference facilities, a gymnasium, restaurants and cafes.
"; break; case "xjh-business": proj_text = "XUJIAHUI NEW BUSINESS CENTER, Shanghai, PRC
The proposed New Business Center will be located to the west of the Xujiahui City Center. One of the main concepts for this plan is to breakdown the scale of the super blocks by overlapping a grid sized to accommodate the footprint of a large tower. Our plan also allows for smaller footprints to create a scale more related to the pedestrian. This provides space for green areas of different sizes to punctuate the plan. Larger gardens surrounded with shops and restaurants can also provide a focus to the office area. We propose multiple building scales and programs (both commercial and apartment hotels) in order to create a 7 day/24 hour district. Finally, we propose the development of a major skyscraper.
"; break; case "xjh-sports": proj_text = "SHANGHAI SPORTS CITY, Shanghai, PRC
The Shanghai Sports City can become a citywide sports area serving residents throughout Shanghai. Our plan proposes a new major park that includes public and private facilities. The basic concept is to replace the present landscape that is mostly paving with a new green topography. This new topography is created by an undulating landscape of low hills, under which are placed a variety of sports and commercial activities, surrounding the existing main stadiums and gymnasiums. A 70 meter x 650 meter linear strip framing the north-east side of the park lies under a blanket of green and will include several private facilities that will offer an array of sports activities.
"; break; case "xjh-square": proj_text = "XUJIAHUI SQUARE, Shanghai, PRC
The Xujiahui Square is the most prominent space in the Xujiahui area, and as such, it embodies the identity of the district. It needs to become a symbolic space rich in character and activity. At present, both cars and pedestrians are plagued by a poor circulation system: heavy traffic congestion is accompanied by a set of complicated pedestrian links between the five corners that frame the intersection. This new Xujiahui Square will be framed on the northeast side by a semi-elliptical water basin with a fountain pedestrian bridge which crosses over Zhaojiabang Road, and on the northwest side by a large fountain shooting up to 40 meters into the air. The space around the fountain and underneath the bridge will have outdoor cafes where people can gather and rest.
"; break; case "manhattan": proj_text = "DUPLEX IN MANHATTAN, New York, NY
Complete renovation of a 5,000 square foot duplex pre-war apartment in Manhattan facing the western side of Central Park.
The overriding concept is that of the creation of a space of horizontal and vertical flow throughout the spaces of the apartment creating a variety of spatial sequences which incorporate the views of the city, both to the park and to the core of a rich Upper West Side typical block.
Great emphasis has been placed on careful detailing and quality of materials.
"; break; case "parkave": proj_text = "INTERIOR ON PARK AVENUE, New York City
This project establishes a sequence of spaces and rooms, marking transitions with a specific treatment of materials and surfaces. Except for the bedroom, bathroom, and closet, the apartment is a continuous space entered through a steel-faced, oval hall.
"; break; case "diana_old": proj_text = "DIANA AGREST, AIA
Diana Agrest is an internationally known Architect for her unique approach to architecture and urban design working both in practice and theory and their interrelation. She is a principal of Agrest and Gandelsonas Architects in New York, which was founded in 1980 and she is also running the studio Diana Agrest Architect in New York City.
Diana Agrest has been involved in the design and building of projects in the USA, Europe, South America and Asia ranging from urban design projects and master plans, institutional buildings, residential buildings to single family houses and interiors for which she has won numerous awards. Her most recently completed project, the Melrose Community Center in New York has won the Excellence in Design Award from the New York State AIA, the Excellence in Design Award from the New York City Chapter AIA. The MASterwork Award from the Municipal Art Society for the best Building in New York City and the Society of Registered Architects NY Chapter Award of Merit
She is a Professor of Architecture at The Cooper Union. She has taught at, Princeton University, Columbia University, Yale University and UP 8, Paris, France. She was a Fellow at The Institute for Architecture and Urban Studies in New York where she also was the Director of the Advanced Workshop in Architecture and Urban Form. She has lectured extensively and been the keynote speaker in conferences and symposiums internationally.
Her work has been exhibited in museums, galleries, and universities in USA, Europe, Asia and South America including The Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles; The Walker Art Center; The Dallas Museum of Contemporary Art; The Fogg Museum; Leo Castelli, New York; Center Pompidou, Paris; Milano Triennale; Frankfurt Architecture Museum, West Germany Both her work and writings have been widely published nationally and internationally in books, encyclopedias, journals and newspapers. Her work is featured in many books, and Encyclopedias of contemporary Architecture
She has published
MARIO GANDELSONAS, AIA
Mario Gandelsonas is a practicing architect in New York City. Since the mid-seventies he has designed and built a wide range of projects including houses, interiors, urban buildings, master plans and urban projects. He has been a principal of Agrest and Gandelsonas Architects since 1979.
Since 1984 he has developed techniques for the formal analysis of American cities that served as a basis for a new concept of Vision Planning. He was the director of the Des Moines Vision Plan from 1990 to 1992 and he developed a Vision Plan and Master Plan for Red Bank, New Jersey in 1994-95. He is currently developing a Master Plan for the Xu Jia Hui district in Shanghai, P.R. China.
He is currently the Professor Class of 1913 Lecturer in Architecture at the Princeton University School of Architecture where he has been teaching since 1991. He has taught at Yale and Harvard Universities. From 1971 to 1984 he was a Fellow at the Institute for Architecture and Urban Studies and the Director of Educational Programs. He was a fellow at the Institute of Architecture and Urbanism at the S.O.M. Foundation, Chicago from 1988 to 1990.
From 1973 to 1984 he was founder and editor of Oppositions, MIT Press. He was a member of the editorial board of Assemblage, MIT press. He is presently a member of the editorial board for 30 60 90 Magazine, published by Princeton Architectural Press.
His articles and designs have been widely published in many national and international magazines and in several anthologies including Progressive Architecture, Architectural Record, Architectural Design, Lotus, Domus, Design Quarterly, Space Design, A&U and Oppositions. His book, The Urban Text, The Chicago Institute for Architecture and Urbanism / MIT Press, 1991. The monograph Agrest and Gandelsonas, Works , Princeton Architectural Press, was published in 1995. X-Urbanism: architecture and the American city, Princeton Architectural Press was published in 1999. Shanghai Reflections: Architecture, Urbanism and the search for an alternative modernity, Princeton Architectural Press, was published in 2002.
"; break; case "mariopub": break; case "pappajohn": proj_text = "JOHN AND MARY PAPPAJOHN SCULPTURE PARK, Des Moines, 2009
The John and Mary Pappajohn Sculpture Park, (PSP) is one of the Urban Places proposed by the Vision Plan in 1990 and revised in 2006. This project is an example of research on public place. In this particular project the design addresses the question of an Urban Place seen at different speeds, both by the driver as well as the pedestrian. The design of this Public Space is based around the scale, views and human interaction. Scale is provided by the creation of virtual \"rooms\", through topographic elements or \"waves\" that create a partial visual enclosure where one has the possibility of focusing on a specific cluster of sculptures. The waves rise from the ground to a height of 8 feet at the highest point, descending in a natural slope to 5\' and 4\' that open the views. Because of their parabolic shapes the waves allow for a variety of views while partially screening the \"rooms\" where the sculptures are displayed creating a variety of perspectives and visual experiences as the viewer- driver or pedestrian- moves.
Flexibility is given by the generous size of the different \"room\" spaces and by the multiplicity of wide open spaces between them and to the edge of the park. This will allow adjusting the number and/or location of sculptures if desired in the future. Security can be provided by the semi-enclosed \"rooms\" which allow for the monitoring of the individual sculptures. Special floor treatments could indicate minimum allowed distances; other devices such as proper illumination in the evening would add to the security.
"; break; case "s_amboy": proj_text = "SOUTH AMBOY LANDCSAPE MASTER PLAN, South Amboy 2006
The city of South Amboy occupies a special place in NJ, because of its strategic location facing the Raritan Bay close to Manhattan. South Amboy presents a unique opportunity to create a new type of city that takes advantage of unique conditions: a solid and stable community, a transportation node in the proximity of NYC, a waterfront with unique views, unspoiled natural preserves and unique industrial structures with the potential of jumpstarting future development. In the last few years ambitious plans of a scale that very few large cities would envision have materialized in the form of a new neighborhood and the planning and implementation of a vibrant main street. Agrest and Gandelsonas is developing plans for a new internal Greenbelt unifying several scattered natural preserves. The Greenbelt will provide new public spaces for recreation and the infrastructure for future development."; break; case "newark": proj_text = "NEWARK URBAN GATEWAYS, 2008
The project addresses visitors to Newark who are not aware of the moment in space when they are entering the city, whether driving, by bus or train. It aims at projecting a strong and clearly recognizable image for Newark for a moving spectator. Speed, scale, perception and sequence are essential parameters to this project. The Gate signs work as multiple communication devices, symbolic elements, beacons, that communicate unique messages, through light, text and rhythm.
This concept is developed in two different modes depending on location i.e. context, speed, scale and distance. At the Highway ramps highway billboards transformed by virtue of the unusual superimposition of two standard elements - the typical billboard structure and the LED rolling text displays which can be perceived differently at carrying distances -- are proposed. The same elements are used as dynamic gates, visually permeable folded panels that work at the scale of urban streets.
"; break; case "woodbridge": proj_text = "WOODBRIDGE T.O.D VISION PLAN, Woodbridge, 2007
In coordination with the SID, The Woodbridge Vision Plan proposes a solution for the problem created by the train. The train and the Woodbridge Train Station divide the town in half producing a problematic situation in relation to Main Street that at the same time opens up unique opportunities. The railroad and the station produce a split between Main street west of the railroad and the new Town Hall building east of the railroad that could be the beginning of the future development of Main Street. The plan intends to bridge the gap, to introduce a continuity between the two sides separated by the railroad by proposing mixed use (residential/retail) development stitching the gap. The train wall produces a similar division between Greene Street and Rahway Avenue and between Woodbridge Park and the Woodbridge Wetlands.
"; break; case "melrose_build": proj_text = "MELROSE COMMUNITY CENTER, The Bronx, New York, 2001
The South Bronx Community Center project provides a meaningful opportunity to reinterpret a social program that was originally implemented in the 1950\'s and 60\'s. Now reformulated, it responds to the contemporary social condition through an active dialogue with the local community. The Community Center is primarily geared towards teenagers, providing them with facilities for activities such as athletics, arts and crafts, videos, and computing. The project calls for a strong formal solution to play a symbolic role in the community. The design of the Bronx South Classic Center reflects a desire to avoid a fortress-like environment and instead provide the community with a building that conveys a sense of openness and accessibility. The symbolic aspect of the project is of major importance in its social function for the local residents who live amongst one of New York City\'s highest crime rates; it has generated a point of identification and pride for the community. The Melrose Community Center is composed of two main volumes enclosing programs, the bar and the oval gymnasium connected by a link which provides the entry space. The gymnasium, with its strongly recognizable form, is a symbolic element of identification for the entire community.
We chose to make the classrooms building as transparent as possible. Curtain wall glazing along the length of the bar exposes the interior to public view in both directions. The various activity rooms have a glass wall oriented towards the circulation corridor, enabling its users to see the activities of everyone else. This visual exchange creates a great sense of energy and excitement.
"; break; case "breukelen_build": proj_text = "BREUKELEN COMMUNITY CENTER, Breukelen Houses; Brooklyn, New York City, 2005
The program for a Community Center for the Breukelen Houses, built in 1951 in the Canarsie section of Brooklyn, includes: sports, daycare, library, performance space, classrooms, food service, reception area, game room, computer center, etc. The goals of the project are as follows:
The Breukelen Community Center is composed of two main volumes enclosing programs connected by an atrium for informal gathering and circulation. The southern volume encloses the gym, and is transparent both to the atrium space and to the street. The northern volume is composed of a translucent curtain wall enclosure within which various freestanding rooms for administrative, classroom, eating and gathering functions are interconnected by a bridge-like circulation system on the second level. The space between these program volumes serves as a flexible place for undefined program activities that can occur in a more informal setting. The three exterior walls are made of aluminum-frame curtain wall with translucent glass to allow for light to enter while keeping a sense of privacy. The interior glass wall that opens to the atrium is made of transparent glass.
"; break; case "ifc": proj_text = "INTERNATIONAL FILM CENTER, Shanghai. 2005, 2010
International Film Center, located on the site of the historic Shanghai film studios on Caoxi Road, will be one of the most important cultural centers in Shanghai. For many years, Shanghai has been a major film center in China. International Film Center will create a Forum for the development and exchange of work and ideas on Film.
The concept for this project is to create a recognizable structure to be identified with Film City that is not a Monument but also integrates with the rest of the area and creates a Civic Space, the Plaza, and a Park. The formal concept is that like film; it is a continuous strip that creates, like a montage, different possible sequences of content through the multiple programs: Hotel, Film Museum, Production Offices, Theaters, Film Street, Shopping mall and Parking.
"; break; case "xujiahui_build": proj_text = "XUJIAHUI BUSINESS CENTER, Shanghai, PRC, 2004
The proposed New Business Center will be located to the west of the Xujiahui City Center. One of the main concepts for this plan is to breakdown the scale of the super blocks by overlapping a grid sized to accommodate the footprint of a large tower. Our plan also allows for smaller footprints to create a scale more related to the pedestrian. This provides space for green areas of different sizes to punctuate the plan. Larger gardens surrounded with shops and restaurants can also provide a focus to the office area. We propose multiple building scales and programs (both commercial and apartment hotels) in order to create a 7 day/24 hour district. Finally, we propose the development of a major skyscraper.
"; break; case "buildings": proj_text = "BUILDING I, Buenos Aires, Argentina, 1977
Building I develops the idea of an urban intervention that focuses on the relationship between buildings and between the buildings and the city. This is achieved by conceiving Building 1 as more than one building, as two buildings juxtaposed and by taking the building code envelope restrictions as a basis for design. Building 1 is a double building, one structure set in front of another, separated by a courtyard and connected vertical circulation. Their massing voids the pragmatic configurations determined by the building code envelope by eliminating the setbacks in the first building and adding the volume to the second building within the allowed maximum height producing two abstract volumes.
The first lower structure is treated as a solid with perforated windows and an arcade at the base. A portal marks the public face of Building 1 engaging the first three floors emphasizing the door as the starting point in the formal sequence that articulates the two buildings. The sense of abstraction of the facade is heightened by deep recessed balconies. The second structure is a taller slab building with strip windows that presents a curtain wall in the top floors facing the street. The strategy of the double building blurs the opposition between front and back. The back of building 1 is the front of the second structure. The two buildings are separated by a courtyard and connected by a sequence of public spaces which transverse the double building from the street to a small garden in the back. The stair splits in two in the lobby and articulates the two buildings at the point of disjunction.
BUILDING II, Buenos Aires, Argentina, 1977
This building is conceived as three superimposed \"buildings\" that are syntactically articulated. The project is developed as an interpretation of the building code, which requires that the building be set back horizontally when it reaches a certain height. In this case the building has also been set back vertically, thus creating the effect of three buildings represented by three facades. These facades have been treated as though each one belonged to a different building with its own axis of symmetry. Each one in turn refers to a different surface and scale treatment. The first facade is a glass curtain-wall surface, where the scale of the openings is not obvious. The middle facade has square-shaped windows following the same grid used for the curtain wall, these are the only \"real scale\" windows. The third facade is a punched wall with windows the size of one of the modules of the curtain wall. This completely distorts the scale, creating nine windows to a room.
BUILDING V, Buenos Aires, Argentina, 1978
This small apartment building set between parti walls is treated as more than one building by unfolding the front facade into two superimposed facades to create a space in between them. The front facade, which follows the geometry of the city, is a \"pure\" formal facade and openings are simple perforations with no glass, having no real functional requirements. This facade is different from the second facade, which relates to the interior spaces of the building. The second facade, which follows the geometry of the building, is recessed from the first one and encompasses the actual apartment windows and openings. It has large gridded openings at the top and bottom. Its door is only a larger version of these gridded openings.
"; break; case "cranbrook": proj_text = "CRANBROOK GATE, Bloomfield Hills, Michigan, 1992
The gate choreographs a minimal arrangement of architectural forms that announces the Cranbrook campus in both its material and symbolic dimension. A new designation of gate needs to be conceived of for this moment in history in which gates are made of cybernetic codes, in which non- physical communication pervades and forms modes of contact, where accessibility is independent from proximity, where the non-place opposes the place-specific urban realm. Instead of a frame holding a gate we propose a roof. Instead of accentuating the vertical plane and the recording of a passage, we privilege the horizontal. The place at the empty center of the gate is occupied by a wall and thus denies accentuating the movement in both directions. The gate becomes more than an \"object\" in the landscape; it \"frames\" the landscape and creates a place.
The gate to Cranbrook is not a static barrier: its forms are derived from the movement of cars coming and going in opposite directions. It is designed for the drivers, both those passing by on Woodward Avenue, and those entering and leaving the community. It represents the effect of speed on a built threshold. It is not just about space, but also fundamentally about time. It is not just about inside/outside or private/public, but about before and after, about coming to a stop and moving again, about sliding by a wall and about traversing the shadow of a roof.
The gate echoes the formal economy of the buildings and spaces of the Cranbrook campus. The double scale of the feature (in the booth and gate) refers to the two scales of Cranbrook\'s buildings and spaces: the grand scale of the classicist library and art museum, and the picturesque scale of the early buildings. At a syntactic level the gate opens up a rich symbolic field that slides through the twentieth century, focusing on the contemporary issues of time and speed. Finally, the galactic formations represented in the literal gate are given the symbolic role of linking its expression to the Arts and Crafts education while its content refers to the Institute of Science.
"; break; case "metro": proj_text = "METRO NORTH TRANSIT STATIONS, New York and New Jersey, 2002
A series of transit station prototypes were developed for the Metro North transit system, serving New York and New Jersey. Each station model expresses a different aesthetic in the roof and structure, which carries through from the platforms to the walkway bridges that span the tracks.
"; break; case "x_plan": proj_text = "XUJIAHUI MASTERPLAN, Shanghai, PRC, 2004
Xujiahui is at a point halfway between an old city and a new city. It is made up of a patchwork of separate and distinct areas, such as a cluster of historical buildings, the Shanghai Sports City, the Design and Decoration Center, the Universities, the Medical Centers, and the Shopping around Xujiahui Square. This patchwork is further characterized by the lack of balance between the rapid growth and the quality of urban spaces. The future Xujiahui should hellp establish a new balance that would maintain certain existing elements and variety offered by the patchwork, while new elements would be created and overlapped to produce a new dynamic development.
While there is great potential, we also recognize that some problems have developed as a by-product of the great speed at which Xujiahui has developed. With the high densities produced by the development of the district in the last 10 years and the increased use of cars, traffic has become a serious problem for the fluid-functioning of the district. Traffic congestion, overlap of conflicting traffic functions, and parking problems are some symptoms. However, we consider that one of the major problems in Xujiahui is not traffic but the general lack in both the quantity and quality of pedestrian and public spaces.
Our project envisions Xujiahui as a green cultural district where museums, new public spaces, entertainment centers, cultural institutions, and hotels are organized as a network. Our Vision, based on some of the wonderful qualities of the district and on the city\'s tradition and past, guides our plan as the road that should lead to its future. The various types of green will not only beautify the city and create pedestrian friendly spaces, they will also serve to bring sustainability to the city. Our project transforms the district into an International Urban Center, where the present centralized retail activities will be balanced and enriched by a cultural network of institutions and places as well as by a new Business Center.
"; break; case "x_square": proj_text = "XUJIAHUI SQUARE, Shanghai, PRC, 2005
The Xujiahui Square is the most prominent space in the Xujiahui area, and as such, it embodies the identity of the district. It needs to become a symbolic space rich in character and activity. At present, both cars and pedestrians are plagued by a poor circulation system: heavy traffic congestion is accompanied by a set of complicated pedestrian links between the five corners that frame the intersection. This new Xujiahui Square will be framed on the northeast side by a semi-elliptical water basin with a fountain pedestrian bridge which crosses over Zhaojiabang Road, and on the northwest side by a large fountain shooting up to 40 meters into the air. The space around the fountain and underneath the bridge will have outdoor cafes where people can gather and rest.
"; break; case "shanghai_urban": proj_text = "SHANGHAI SPORTS CITY, Shanghai, PRC, 2005
The Shanghai Sports City can become a citywide sports area serving residents throughout Shanghai. Our plan proposes a new major park that includes public and private facilities. The basic concept is to replace the present landscape that is mostly paving with a new green topography. This new topography is created by an undulating landscape of low hills, under which are placed a variety of sports and commercial activities, surrounding the existing main stadiums and gymnasiums. A 70 meter x 650 meter linear strip framing the north-east side of the park lies under a blanket of green and will include several private facilities that will offer an array of sports activities.
"; break; case "x_design": proj_text = "XUIJIAHUI YISHAN DESIGN DISTRICT, Shanghai, 2005
A new gridded plan will give a new identity to this area suggesting a modern version of a traditional Chinese garden at an urban scale. The new layout of blocks containing different types of gardens and courts allows for constant variation, while the grid makes it possible to create both streets for cars and pathways for pedestrians. We are also proposing a new building- façade on the west side of Yishan Road that will create both a physical and visual linkage to the New Business Center in the north. There will be a Museum of Decorative Arts located on the southern end of this new building façade long Yishan Road, which will act as a gate to the New Yishan Interior Design and Decoration Center. Yishan Road itself will be widened and transformed into a green boulevard. This area will contain an antiques market, restaurants, several malls dedicated to interior furniture, construction materials and arts and crafts, as well as providing ample space for pedestrian seating and movement. We also propose a new residential type -- loft apartments -- for this area. Artists, photographers and designers are encouraged to occupy these new types of residential spaces. Such residential lofts will allow for live/work situations and in some cases, they may be connected to small shops on the lower level where artisans can display and sell their work. Overall, this plan will give this area a unique character and identity.
"; break; case "manhattan_urban": proj_text = "MIDTOWN MANHATTAN WEST MASTERPLAN, New York City, 2003
The project for Manhattan West was sponsored by the Newman Real Estate Program at Baruch University, CUNY, and was part of a conference and exhibition including Harvard University/ Cobb, Fried, Columbia University/ James Polshek Architects and City College/ Davis Brody Architects.
The goal of our plan for Manhattan West is to define short and long term development strategies for the expansion of the Midtown Business district, the creation of a new waterfront and the planning of new residential districts. New York\'s midtown, the most important business center in the world, can only expand towards the Hudson river in the area defined by 31st and 60th street, 8th avenue and 12th avenue, known as Manhattan West. This is an area of extremely low density with large un-built areas and a zoning that does not reflect the dynamics of the present urban condition.
Our plan deals with the enormous complexity of the area related to the multiplicity of existing infrastructures and neighborhoods. Manhattan West includes Penn Station and Long Island Railway Station, the 40th street Bus Terminal, three urban renewal zones: the 42 street corridor, the Clinton district and the Hell\'s kitchen neighborhood. It is also the point of entry from New Jersey into Manhattan via the Lincoln Tunnel. The plan includes new important projects such as the Olympic stadium and Olympic village, the expansion of the existing Javits Convention Center and the redevelopment of the West Side of Manhattan.
"; break; case "boulogne_urban": proj_text = "BOULOGNE- BILLANCOURT MASTERPLAN, France, 2001
Project for a new mixed use neighborhood in Boulogne- Billancourt, 30 minutes West of Paris on the Seine on the 65 acre site where the Renault Industries was located and across from the Isle Seguin. The general concept of the project is that of a city/park, where the concept of the park that extends from the existing fabric of the adjacent district to the riverfront, permeates through the fabric creating zones of green that traverse it. This allows for a new type of morphological freedom and thus allows for a great variety of interventions.
Morphology
The concept is that of a continuous field with different types of green spaces alternating with the built structures, large green apertures, narrower walkways and courtyards. In this way the project multiplies the number of residential units facing a green space, an added value. This works together with the green courtyards to create the feeling of a \"city-park\". The curvilinear areas allow for a fluid relationship between the park, the new development and the city, giving these areas a particular identity.
The Park
A new Park with an esplanade on the Seine provides this new district with a façade on the river. The project works as a transition between the existing city and the new Park. The park is placed centrally in order to better relate to the new fabric and existing neighborhoods which animate it at all times. An undulating slow parkway delimits the park and alleviates the riverfront traffic allowing for riverfront public spaces and activities. Slightly higher than the park level it allows for an open view of the park while the change of level and the necessary parapet create a security border without the need of a fence along that edge. There is great fluidity throughout the project created by the large green entrance spaces from the streets to the park that alternate with the more regular planted streets. These spaces are animated with programs that create a transition between park and city: a space for an artisans\' market at the northern entrance and a direct connection to the existing round-point creates an axis which connects the park to the existing public spaces and to the Planetarium.
The Riverfront Promenade
We propose a large green promenade that varies in its depth depending on the various events along the edge, such as the bridge structure. In placing the great green esplanade along the \"Tramway Bridge\" an integration between river, Promenade and Park is achieved. The Park while being central still offers a fluid opening towards the river.
DES MOINES VISION PLAN 1, Des Moines, Iowa, 1989
The Vision Plan is a design process based on an analysis of the specific form of a given city overlapped with an analysis of the specific economic development opportunities. One of the basic premises of this urban design process is our belief that the specific conditions that characterize the American cultural context imply the need for a radical critique of traditional urbanism.
It was developed through a continuing dialogue with the local community, in collaboration with local planners representing the private and public sectors.
A basic goal of the Des Moines Vision Plan is to promote a physical environment that reflects and contributes to the visual culture. The virtual chaos of the metropolitan landscape is the result of the economic and political processes that generate cities through the accretion of object-buildings without any concern for the formal effect of their potential relationships. However, planning has both focused almost exclusively on economic and functional issues and ignored the formal and symbolic aspect of the physical city.
Another basic goal is to link the planning and design a discipline, and to promote the physical / formal planning of cities. A physical environment that reflects the formal-visual culture, and not only market forces, might become a reality if we re-establish the link between the planning and design disciplines that was broken in the 1950s. Architecture will then abandon its \"object-oriented fixation\" and focus on establishing relationship between buildings and changing its formal strategies and heuristic tactics, from structure to process, from static to dynamic.
"; break; case "dm_plan_2": proj_text = "DES MOINES VISION PLAN 2, Des Moines, Iowa 2007
Following the completion of the Des Moines Vision Plan 1, Agrest and Gandelsonas Architects LLP were hired to design Vision Plan 2. This latest masterplan expands on the previous project, to encompass all of the downtown Des Moines neighborhoods.
The Vision Plan represents a new strategy for the theory and planning of the American city at the turn of the millennium. The Vision Plan does not establish an \'image\' for the city seen as a still-life, rather it is a continuous process involving a partnership between the city and the business community where specific projects are developed and implemented. The traditional linear sequence of the stages of planning being followed by the implementation and financing of specific projects is abandoned for a non-linear strategy where implementation and financing are considered from the beginning, and where projects are being designed and developed along with the planning process.
The Vision Plan is a design process based on an analysis of the specific formal/aesthetic conditions of a given city which is overlapped and articulated to an analysis of the specific economic development opportunities. One of the basic premises of this urban design process is our belief that the specific conditions that characterize the American cultural, economic and political context imply the need for a radical critique of traditional urbanism. Instead of the traditional \'Master Plan\', the Vision Plan has developed a range of strategies from restriction to freedom, from determinate to indeterminate, from order to chaos, that focus on moments and not on a rigid plan.
"; break; case "liberty": proj_text = "LIBERTY HARBOR NORTH VISION PLAN, New Jersey, 2006
Liberty Harbor currently lacks a specific identity, something that would give it a unique character. What is memorable now are the views towards the outside- the statue of Liberty, the Science Center, the skyline of Manhattan- and not the inside, as there is nothing unique enough about the urban spaces and the relationship between buildings and urban spaces, particularly there is not enough interest at the street level.
In terms of scale, the townhouses are the buildings that provide a sense of scale but the large residential buildings need to be thought of in relation to the adjacent public spaces. The current project masterplan has not considered enough the perception of the pedestrian at ground level (which is essential to bringing life to the streets and to the district in general). The goal of this Study is to establish an identity through the development of special spaces and surrounding fabric as well as to integrate them with their surrounding context.
"; break; case "rodrigues": proj_text = "SERGIO RODRIGUES FURNITURE EXHIBITION, R 20th Century Gallery, New York, NY 2004
This design of this space is for an exhibition within the R-20th Century Gallery to highlight the furniture work of Sergio Rodrigues. The meandering circulation through the gallery space between softly illuminated sinuously curved podiums recalls the natural Brazilian forms that are so prevalent in the furniture of Sergio\'s work on display.
"; break; case "camino": proj_text = "HOUSE IN CAMINO ANCHO, Madrid, Spain, 2001
A house for a family of five, a couple and their three children, is located in one of the most beautiful suburbs of Madrid. The house divides the five acre lot with very open views extending to the Mountains on the North and Madrid in the distance to the South. Occupying one side of the site is a sculpture garden that preserves the local flora on the street side. A lawn and swimming pool pavilion are situated in the back.
The 25,000sq.ft. house is organized along a Z-shaped cleft yellow travertine wall to the front of the house, which defines the internal organization. While the front emphasizes privacy by use of the stone wall, the back side is very open through both glazing and volumetric configuration. Parents and children occupy two separate wings of the house with respective stairs. The wings are connected by area overlooking the art gallery. The circulation area is enclosed for privacy.The spaces inside the house are a series of lofts, holding the various activities in a way that allows both for the definition of each particular function and the continuous flow of space. Guest quarters and a guest room complement the family spaces. A pool house serving two pools in the back garden supplement the house.
Circulation through the common spaces has been designed to provide for rich perceptual experiences. A sequence from the dining room to the living room, for example, through the courtyard and out to the porch is rich with the play of transparencies and reflections as one moves through the front to the back of the house. The entire house may be used and enjoyed in many different ways depending on the activities of each day.
"; break; case "las_casas": proj_text = "LAS CASAS FARM, Jose Ignacio, Uruguay
Site
This project is located on a thirty acre farm close to the Atlantic Ocean in Jose Ignacio, Uruguay. The existing farm\'s main residence consists of a group of houses built in the local tradition of brick bearing wall construction. The programs calls for a summer vacation residence and a horse farm. The Main Pavilion is an addition for the owners and the Guest House allows the use of the farm as a retreat for meetings as well as for friends. The Main Pavilion consists of a master bedroom suite and a living room with an open gallery. The Guest house consists of two bedroom suites and a small covered outdoor gallery. The new stable provides place for 4 horses, one tack room, one feed room, and washing area.
Main House, Guest House
The approach was to create very simple structures that recalled some of the historic colonial ranches while being strong, modern, and playful at the same time. The project was conceived using local basic technology, materials and construction methods. A set of free-standing walls, which were added in order to frame the otherwise scattered existing buildings, create a series of green courtyards. The houses are located on either side of a hill opening to vast country views. On the other side, they achieve a greater degree of privacy as they are framed by the new walls.
Stables
Since the local climate allows for a structure that is not totally enclosed, a large roof structure \"floats\"
HOUSE ON SAG POND, Sagaponack, NY, 1990
Surrounded by fields, a summer and week-end house is situated on a seven acre lot facing Sagaponack Pond. The 8,500 square foot house suggests a cluster of \"found objects\", framing the agricultural landscape, rather than presenting itself as a solid homogeneous whole.
Six towers connected by bridges surround a 110 ft long vaulted space. The vault encloses public living spaces while the towers and bridges contain private rooms. These create two independent wings on the second floor one for the master bedroom suite on the South side and the other for the guest rooms on the North. Each wing has its own independent staircase. The mostly solid wood structure is always exposed as can be seen from the laminated wood arches springing from the heavy timber columns of the vault and the diagonal trusses and steel plates of the bridges.
The house is completed by a pool and pool-house and a burmed two-car garage covered with grasses. The House on Sag Pond resists stylistic, typological or linguistic classification, drifting between the abstract and the figural, between convention and idiosynracy.
"; break; case "c_park": proj_text = "CENTRAL PARK WEST APARTMENT, New York, NY, 1989
Complete renovation of a 5,000 square foot duplex pre-war apartment in Manhattan facing the western side of Central Park.The overriding concept is that of the creation of a space of horizontal and vertical flow throughout the spaces of the apartment creating a variety of spatial sequences which incorporate the views of the city, both to the park and to the core of a rich Upper West Side typical block. Great emphasis has been placed on careful detailing and quality of materials.
"; break; case "21_st": proj_text = "21 STREET, New York City, 1983
in the design of three floors of offices in a Lower Manhatten loft building, the transformation of similar spatial sequences and their manipulation with light are variations on a theme. The theme is developed within the existing confines of the raw loft space, which provides the framework for a progression of private and public space organized from front to back: private offices overlooking the streets, reception lobby off the elevator, a freestanding public room in the middle, and an open working area in the back. The progression is organized to develop different degrees of openness and enclosure. The sequence of space and objects create places that have a definition and identity while still being part of a larger perceivable whole.
This theme is varied by exploring the formal tensions between opposing conditions of symmetry and room vs. open plan. In each floor these conditions are inspected and criticized in different ways through a series of related spatial permutations. The lobby of the building is conceived as a confrontation between elements that define different notions of space: the girded slate wall and the granite walls and door frame. While the first wall, an abstract plane, suggests a flow of space, the second wall wraps the space, suggesting the enclosure of a room.
"; break; case "rodrigues": proj_text = "SERGIO RODRIGUES FURNITURE EXHIBITION, R 20th Century Gallery, New York, NY 2004
This design of this space is for an exhibition within the R-20th Century Gallery to highlight the furniture work of Sergio Rodrigues. The meandering circulation through the gallery space between softly illuminated sinuously curved podiums recalls the natural Brazilian forms that are so prevalent in the furniture of Sergio\'s work on display.
"; break; case "charivari": proj_text = "CHARIVARI, New York City
This project implied the complete renovation of an existing store incorporating a number of small apartments on the second floor and incorporating the basement as part of the sales area of the store.This implied penetrating through the slab both upwards and downwards and creating a continuous whole.
In the connection between ground level and second floor the existing structure was used to create a more dramatic effect by exposing it and surrounding it with a curvilinear mahogany and stainless steel stair. In relating the ground floor to the lower level, a window was opened in the otherwise blind facade of the building and another mahogany and stainless steel stair was placed in axis with the window. All the furnishings and furniture for the store were designed buy our office. Materials were, mahogany paneling and stairs, stainless steel and terrazzo floor with metal joints.
"; break; case "wooster": proj_text = "150 WOOSTER STREET, New York City, 1989
This interior for a Brazilian restaurant in downtown Manhattan presented the opportunity to inspect the possibility of generating formal arrangements and configurations that allow an exotic theme to be read without resorting to direct representation; instead a strategy of metonymic montage was used throughout the project.
Materials, primary colors and abstract minimal shapes have been selected to that the play in at least two symbolic \"registers\", they propose a syntactic reading of the surfaces and at the same time recall Brazilian outdoor urban spaces. The syntax distorts the reading of the box by means of folded and overlapping walls, suggesting an urban space rather than the potential metaphoric reading of an outdoor room or courtyard. This is reinforced by the blue and yellow tile floor that recalls the sidewalks of Copacabana in Rio de Janeiro; the disruption of scale and the size of the floor titles result in an image that is familiar but slightly distorted, as if it were on a computer screen.
The façade of the building, including the rolling garage door, is preserved, complete with graffiti. A glazed security garage door is the only addition.
"; break; case "robinson": proj_text = "BILL ROBINSON SHOWROOM, New York City, 1985
The showroom is an architectural statement on various modes of framing: perspective space (theater) vs \"accelerated\" space (film), the contrast between the theatrical effect of suspense staged by the long \"silent\" gallery versus the cinematographic (unresolved) tension produced by the accelerated space of the main area. A pyramidal pivot provides a moment of stasis between the entry gallery and the main space. It articulates these two spaces through a change in axis and acts as a shifter between different modes of framing.
This project for a 5.000 sq.ft showroom for men\'s fashions is located in a Fifth Avenue office building. Two kinds of spaces were required : 3.000 sq.ft. for public use - general display area and individual sales areas and 2.000 sq.ft. for private offices and the designer\'s studio. In the reception area, a 50 feet long limestone and stucco gallery, three limestone benches are used both for seating and as bases where live models exhibit clothes in fashion shows. A truncated open pyramidal volume articulates, mediates and frames the entry gallery and the main space of the showroom. Clothes can be displayed in the corner spaces between the wood structure drum and limestone stucco volume.
The main space has been formally organized so that it serves both as a place for selling and also for presentations and fashion shows. It is defined on the south wall with pilasters and columns and on the north side by a series of receding brick parallel planes perpendicular to that wall which while defining the sales areas create an \"accelerated\" perspective, a very dynamic condition of movement as opposed to the \"natural\" perspective of the entrance gallery. The spaces between columns and pilasters on the south wall are used for photographic or actual clothing displays or as spaces where live models or mannequins stand. A tongue and groove solid maple plane \'cutting\' through the brick walls further emphasizes the perspectival effect. These wood planes open so that the sales areas can be totally integrated for events where there is great movement of people such as seasonal presentations or fashion shows. Within the large doors there is a smaller door for everyday use. The lighting provides a stage like quality and further emphasizes the formal configuration of the space.
The overall feeling of materiality, and in particular the use of outdoor materials- brick, limestone and cement - evokes an urban space and refers to the increasing interiorized nature of public space. It further suggests the need to constantly question the established definition of \"interiors\" and \"public space\".
"; break; case "diana": proj_text = "DIANA I. AGREST, Principal, FAIA
Diana Agrest is an internationally renowned architect well known for her unique approach to architectural and urban design practice and theory. She is a practicing architect in New York City and a founder and principal of Agrest and Gandelsonas Architects. Diana Agrest has been involved in the design and building of architecture, urban design projects and master plans in the USA, Europe, South America and Asia, since 1975 and has won awards for various projects. She was the Design Director of the Des Moines Vision Plan. She is cur?rently a Professor of Architecture at The Cooper Union for the Advancement of Science and Arts in New York City.
She has published: Agrest and Gandelsonas Works, Princeton Architectural Press, 1995; The Sex of Architecture, Ed. Agrest/Conway/Weisman, Harry N. Abrams, 1996; Architecture from Without: Theoretical Framings for a Critical Practice, MIT Press, 1991 (Also translated in Japanese published by the Kajima Institute); A Romance with the City: The Work of Irwin S. Chanin, The Cooper Union, 1982.
Her work is featured in many books and encyclopedias including: Encyclopedia of Twentieth Century Architecture, Ed. Routledge, New York, 2003; 1000 New York Buildings, Ed. Bill Harris, Jorg Brockmann, Judith Dupre, Black Dog & Leventhal Publishers, 2002; World Cities New York, Alan Balfour, Academy Editions, UK, 2001; Architects on Architects, Ed. Susan Grey, Wiley and Sons, 2001; AIA Guide to New York City, Norval White, Elliot Willensky, Three Rivers Press, 2000.; American Architecture 2, Ed. P. Jodidio, Taschen 1998; Dictionnaire Encyclopedie de l\' Architecture du XX Siecle, Hazan editeur, Paris, 1998; Oppositions Reader. Ed. K. Michael Hayes, Princeton Architectural Press, 1998; Architecture Theory Since 1968. Ed. by K. Michael Hays, MIT Press, 1998; The Architect: Redefining her Practice, Ed. Francesca Hughes, MIT Press 1996.
"; break; case "mario": proj_text = "Mario Gandelsonas, Principal, FAIA
Mario Gandelsonas is a practicing architect in New York City. He is currently a Professor at the Princeton University School of Architecture and the Founding Director of The Center for Architecture, Urbanism, and Infrastructure. He has taught at Yale, Harvard, the University of Illinois and the University of Southern California.
He has published: The Urban Text, MIT Press, 1991; X-Urbanism: Architecture and the American City, Princeton Architectural Press, 1999; and Shanghai Reflections, Princeton Architectural Press, 2002.
From 1973-1984 he was founder and editor of Oppositions (MIT Press). He is presently a member of the advisory board for 30/60/90 published by Princeton Architectural Press. His work has been widely published in many national and international publications including Progressive Architecture, Architectural Record, The New York Times, Lotus, Domus, Casabella, Architecture d\' Aujord\'hui, Assemblage, A+U, and Oppositions.
Among the museums and galleries that have exhibited his work are the MOCA, Los Angeles; Whitney Museum of American Art; The Fogg Art Museum; the Walker Art Center; Centre
"; break; case "firm": proj_text = "AGREST and GANDELSONAS Architects
PRINCIPALS
Diana Agrest FAIA, Mario Gandelsonas FAIA
BACKGROUND
Agrest and Gandelsonas, Architects is an internationally renowned New York partnership that was formed by Diana Agrest and Mario Gandelsonas in 1980. Since the 70s their work has focused on Architecture, Interior Design, Urban Design and their inter-relationship, particularly in New York City.
PHILOSOPHY
Agrest & Gandelsonas\' projects emphasize a high quality of design that is unique in comparison with most architectural firms, combining sensitive consideration of the particular historical and contextual conditions of each project, combined with clear understanding of the programmatic, technical and budgetary parameters; the firm, paying particular attention to the quality of materials and detailing.
AVAILABILITY AND RESOURCES
The success of their firm is due to personal commitment to Architecture and Urbanism in its entire complexity from cultural context and concepts to tectonic possibilities. This dedication has allowed them to satisfy the economic and technical requirements without losing the integrity of their approach and excellence in design.
EXPERIENCE
Agrest and Gandelsonas Architects\' projects are of very different character and scale: Urban, institutional, commercial, residential, interiors, in the USA, Europe, South America, and Asia. To provide a wider range of services, Agrest and Gandelsonas often work in joint venture with other firms. Agrest and Gandelsonas has been a proponent of Green Urbanism since 1990 developing a number of green designs, including the Boulogne Masterplan, France, Midtown West Proposal Manhattan, NY, the Xujiuhui Masterplan, Shanghai, China the South Amboy Greenbelt, NJ and the John and Mary Pappajohn Sculpture Park, Des Moines, Iowa (for which construction will be completed in the summer of 2009). They have garnered numerous awards for their work.
AGREST and GANDELSONAS Architects
PRINCIPALS
Diana Agrest, AIA Mario Gandelsonas, AIA
BACKGROUND
Agrest and Gandelsonas, Architects is an internationally renowned New York partnership that was formed by Diana Agrest and Mario Gandelsonas in 1980. Since the 70s their work has focused on Architecture, Interior Design, Urban Design and their inter-relationship, particularly in New York City.
PHILOSOPHY
Agrest & Gandelsonas' projects emphasize a high quality of design that is unique in comparison with most architectural firms, combining sensitive consideration of the particular historical and contextual conditions of each project, combined with clear understanding of the programmatic, technical and budgetary parameters; the firm, paying particular attention to the quality of materials and detailing, provides unique contemporary design solutions to problems of varying scales.
AVAILABILITY AND RESOURCES
The success of their firm is due to personal commitment to Architecture and Urbanism in its entire complexity from cultural context and concepts to tectonic possibilities. This dedication has allowed them to satisfy the economic and technical requirements without losing the integrity of their approach and excellence in design.
EXPERIENCE
Agrest and Gandelsonas has been involved with projects of very different character and scale: in recent years commercial and residential interiors and buildings in New York City, houses in Southampton, NY and Short Hills, NJ, buildings for academic institutions (Princeton University and Cranbrook), Hotel in Tampa, Florida,Community Centers in New York City a residential neighborhood in Des Moines IOWA, physical planning and landscaping for the Des Moines Airport, the Red Bank Vision Plan, and the Des Moines Vision Plan-- an ongoing Master Planning process.