Reference Page: May 2006

Streetless in Seattle
For us at Reference, sitting snugly in our Manhattan office, the concept of woonerfs (pronounced voonerf ) still seems like a foreign notion; usually, pedestrian-traffic interaction spells imminent death. But we do concede that in a quainter city environment, they might be worth investigating. To start, visit the City of Seattle’s Terry Avenue homepage, www.ci.seattle.wa.us/transportation/terryavenuenorth.htm, and download a copy of the 40-page “Terry Avenue North Street Design Guidelines,” which feature planning details ranging from the curb height to public art displays. The guidelines also include recent pictures of Terry Ave. and pictorial renderings of the planned woonerf design.

The Incredible Shrinking City
Youngstown is “a city with a vision” and “a city with a plan,” according to Youngstown 2010. See the plan and the vision at the initiative’s Web site: www.youngstown2010.com. The Toronto-based firm Urban Strategies, www.urbanstrategies.com, which was commissioned to develop the 2002 vision from which Youngstown derived its plan, has worked with municipalities ranging from Lyon, France, to Halifax, Nova Scotia. Information on upcoming lectures and programs at Kent State University’s Cleveland Urban Design Collaborative, whose Shrinking Cities Institute holds an annual charette, is at www.cudc.kent.edu. Bruce Springsteen briefly turned his attention to Youngstown in 1995, when a song that he penned about the city appeared on “The Ghost of Tom Joad.”

Ground Zero’s Saving Grace
MacArthur “genius” grant winner James Carpenter’s linear-lap spandrel facade for 7 WTC puts another feather in a cap already heavy with plumage. At his firm’s Web site, www.jcdainc.com, you’ll find descriptions of recent work, including the atrium at the Time Warner Center on Columbus Circle. Architectural-glass fabricator Viracon, www.viracon.com, manufactured the low-E coating—VRE13-59—that helps to give the tower its distinctive oceanic look. The German firm Schlaich Bergermann und Partner, 7 WTC’s structural engineers, have many interesting projects in the offing, including a bridge to the French isle of Mont Saint Michel; they also describe how a bicycle wheel and kitchen sieve provided the inspiration for some of their complicated, large-scale projects. Go to www.sbp.de for more information. Photographs from last November’s Architect’s Newspaper party at 7 WTC are hosted at www.archpaper.com/feature_articles/partypics2.html.

Fear Factor
Creative Time, the public-art foundation that had to move some of its programs from a space beneath the eaves of the Brooklyn Bridge because of post-9/11 security concerns, still presents a host of fantastic installations around the city. Keep tabs on upcoming projects, like video art in Times Square, by visiting www.creativetime.org. Rogers Marvel Architects, www.rogersmarvel.com, the architectural firm responsible for the bronze-plated concrete-and-steel NoGos, is designing a branch of the New York Public Library in a onetime chocolate factory. The NoGo was featured in last year’s MoMA exhibition Safe: Design Takes On Risk, which can still be seen at www.moma.org/exhibitions/2005/safe/safe.html.

POTUS Typographicus
Were you all too pleased to add gaudy signage to your list of grievances against President Bush? Well then, you should see these typographic monstrosities for yourself. Go to www.whitehouse.gov/president/gallery/photoessay to explore images of the president standing in front of his message—in case jumbled words alone don’t suffice. And though the president’s background decor doesn’t rate highly on the typographic design scale, you can wash away the bad taste by taking the White House virtual tour narrated by White House Curator William Allman: www.whitehouse.gov/history/life/video. Clearly the classy interior design just isn’t rubbing off on him—or his banner designers.

Up to Speed
Since you’re reading the Reference page, you’re probably ready to hop onto Google and do some further research. But wait—if you go to www.goodsearch.com, a charity-based search engine powered by Yahoo!, you can help Acadiana Outreach Center, www.acadianaoutreach.org, by indicating them as your charity of choice. Whenever you use the search engine, revenue is generated for Acadiana. The center has already distributed more than 700,000 pounds of supplies to about 4,600 evacuees of Hurricanes Rita and Katrina. The latest news on Acadiana’s partner in do-gooding, the Building Institute, can be found at buildinginstitute.louisiana.edu.

Pedal Pusher
Oh, the benefits of the bike. To get in on them, you’ll want to download a copy of Chicago’s Bike 2015 plan, www.bike2015plan.org, start lobbying for similar bike-friendly initiatives in your city, and dust off your two-wheeler. What a perfect month to do so: May is National Bike Month, and www.bikemonth.com features plenty of events, including information on “Bike to Work Week.” If you’re still hesitant about kicking off the training wheels, er, hubcaps, consider the convincing arguments about pollution reduction and peak physical fitness offered by the League of American Bicyclists, the largest bicyclist advocacy organization in the country: www.bikeleague.org. Or you could just check out the price of gas today: www.fuelcostcalculator.com. Gulp.

Return of the Prodigal Son
The fruits of Alexander Brodsky’s extraordinary collaboration with Ilya Utkin are gathered in Lois Nesbitt’s Brodsky & Utkin: The Complete Works (2003, Princeton Architectural Press). The book, an updated version of the 1990 edition, collects the paper architects’ meticulous etchings, which might come across as Edward Gorey drawings on a larger scale. Mark Lamster, a PAP senior editor and author of our Brodsky profile, also wrote Spalding’s World Tour: The Epic Adventure That Took Baseball Around the Globe—And Made It America’s Game, published by PublicAffairs in April. At Brodsky’s baffling Web site, www.brod.it, a discarded condom pollutes a lake in which the reflections of such totemic structures as the pyramids at Giza and the Sydney Opera House shimmer like hazy ghosts. New York City’s Public Art Fund has a few murky images of Brodsky’s eight-week-long subway-station installation: www.publicartfund.org/pafweb/realm/96/brodsky_a_96.html.

Built in Context
The Florida-based architecture firm BEA International, www.beai.com, is working with Huff + Gooden Architects on the museum at Virginia Key Beach Park. Walter Hood, who is responsible for designing the site’s gardens and grounds, recently helped to merge the new de Young Museum, www.thinker.org/deyoung/index.asp, in San Francisco, with the surrounding Golden Gate Park. Virginia Key Beach Park Trust was established in 1999 by the Miami City Commission to manage development at the island site. Updates on the project and details of the master plan are online at www.virginiakeybeachpark.net. For now, Huff + Gooden’s bare-bones Web site, www.huffgooden.com, offers little more than contact information and a mesmerizing, interactive solar system of orbiting nodes.

Objects of Affection
Don’t be jealous you aren’t in Ross Lovegrove’s house, sitting in Lovegrove’s Go chair, bathed in his System X lighting, or privy to the sight of his solar-powered Swarovski car. Pretty soon most of it will be available to you too. Lovegrove’s 8 chair, which debuted at the Milan Furniture Fair, is to be distributed by Thonet, www.thonet-vienna.at, and the Go chair is featured at www.bernhardtdesign.com. VitrA—the Turkish bathware company, not to be confused with Vitra, the German furniture company—couldn’t be more excited to display the Ross Lovegrove bathroom collection: http://uk.vitra.com.tr And if you’re in need of radically shaped fluorescent lighting, you can get it at www.yamagiwa.co.jp. As for the solar-powered Swarovski-crystal concept car, for that you’ll have to improvise. Perhaps you could load up on crystals at www.swarovskisparkles.com and bejewel your beloved Toyota Prius—if you’re really that vain.