Class Trips: Exhibits

The works at 11 Rivington, inspired by its own sense of "randomness", felt like visual betrayal. "Nature" branding his works, seemed to me a little misleading: I could almost picture bees in a box, building around the metal framing that the artist provided, creating a curtain on an otherwise unspectacular site.

What really captured my curiosity, though, was the seductive sensibility that the evolution of these particular forms revealed. An evolution birthed out of some social process of building that created, within its remarkable symmetry, pockets of rebellion where a small group of bees decided to "build differently". In "Programmed Hive #8", I could see small bulges of nest built out of diligence, and perhaps frustration, reacting to those genetically-induced processes of building and growth that underly their existence.

Berseth's hives also induce me to contemplate nature as experimentation. BIOMIMICRY - a field devoted to understanding the relationship of biological processes to human design processes.  I wonder, what would have happened if Berseth, once the hive had been well established, moved it out of a box and into a tree, where elements of weather would have exposed the bees to a new context in which to create? What would living in a bee hive be like, if you constructed an entire small edifice out of their honeycomb? What happens around the same programmed aluminum frame if the artist turns it upside down? The project reflects the rawness of the pseudo-natural (after all, is anything natural once removed from nature?), and exposes the limited understanding I have of its ways.

More more Research

In 2001, NY Dept. of City Planning released a statement detailing the major redistricting effort around the Queensboro Plaza subway stop:


Not surprisingly, the aptly-named Sunnyside Yards appears as a giant white void, something to be avoided and forgotten, rather than confronted. It speaks to the political dynamics of the neighborhood, perhaps, that the north side of LIC will be the center for investment and development whereas across the tracks, the community will remain, flat. Not that there's anything wrong with that.

Some future plans?

Today, the Sunnyside Railyard is sometimes mentioned as the potential site of a new stadium, but it is currently being used jointly by Amtrak, LIRR and freight lines as a storage and maintenance facility. (Photo, left, by BobVogel )

[If the long-discussed East Side Access project, which would connect the LIRR to Grand Central Terminal, is ever constructed, a new Sunnyside station would be built in the yards under Queens Boulevard. Public transit projects like this and the Second Avenue subway are never a priority for state and federal funding, however. -- your webmaster]

I sort of imagine it to be the site of an "arena" though I'm curious as to what would take place? What if it became another type of bridge, where it became a stage for real human interaction and drama, rather than an uncomfortable medium for transition? What if it established a metaphysical, rather than industrial, function that linked the two seemingly alien parts of the LIC? What would this look like? Who would inhabit it? Who would stop? Would it be a place of experience or a means of transition?

More Research

Using Oasis, I discovered some really interesting data that backed up my observations at the site itself.

1. For one, within (roughly) a three mile radius of the site, there are three small playgrounds.
2. There are 0 state or city owned parks.
3. A strong storm would effectively flood the hell out of that enormous trench (looking for any empirical data that backs up that assumption.
4. "Green spaces" exist as unattended foliage and weeds, left to develop in concrete cracks and behind fences -- propped iron demarcating the private property of those who feel they need to protect ownership of their weeds.

All of these observations lead to interesting questions regarding demographics. My visit to the site showed plenty of activity: lots of cab garages, car chop shops, and contractors house themselves in low one or two-story buildings. The larger buildings adjacent to the LIRR train yard were obviously empty --> or so it would seem. Artifacts left around some sites suggest that someone (or, technically something) still wanders at least some of these buildings.

What should my Metaform address? What are the needs of the neighborhood? What do the inhabitants love/lack?

Maybe there are so few playgrounds in LIC b/c there are so few kids (of course, the analogy can work in reverse!). But where do the adults play? Besides a porn video shop, leisure in its most typical urban forms (bars and clubs, open playing fields, sit-in restaurants or cinemas) seemed utterly absent in my site visit. INdustry, in its various forms, dominates the topography. But I went in the evening, as the sun dwindled down, I felt myself overwhelmed by something more frightening then footsteps: Silence.

So I thought about creating an interactive game, something that draws attention to this unique geo-social void that developed a subway stop away from Midtown in Queens. Indeed, the neighborhood seems to have the heart, but the not the scale, of Midtown financial towers culture. Should I focus on creating a game that addresses the neighborhood's history? That relates to the neighborhood's infrastructure? This becomes the next question.

Maps

Class starts in a bit, I thought I could finish my new website but my domain name broker didn't finish the deal in time. Maybe next week.

About my idea.

LIC Area Code 11101.

Following: Density Map (courtesy of The Gothamist)

A land use map. Red means nooooooo access. The lines show transportation means around the map. The thick lines show active, medium and inactive usage of transportation mediums around the LIRR North train yard.

I call this the "X-ray". The flat maroon area, ironically, has the most heavy activity on the map. Dominated by monstrous building machines. An Amtrak employee I harassed told me this would be the underground network linking JFK and LaGuardia to the major Manhattan portals. LIC will not be a stop? It will be a shuttle past all of these communities?

I'm currently working on a map of churches, DVD porn shops, police stations, and condos. I want to get an idea of the spatial relationship of deviance to authority.

I'm also working on a 3D density model. Will upload pics after class.

Kyle

The Interview Ctd.

So I get in. I meet a woman in the the company's woodshop named Jenny T. She can't answer my questions, but she's chatty. We discuss relatives in Brasil, and she tells me about megablocks in Brasilia and favelas in Sao Paolo. She's confident and charming. I offer her the wine, she sets it aside uninterested. Here's the interview, transcribed from memory, off the cuff:

Q: What is it, specifically that you do up here? (Note: her and staff remain tucked in the deepest corner of an enormous 3-floor office space.)
A: Well, we put together models (gorgeous accent). People bring us their designs, we make them 3-dimensional.
Q: What are your favorite kinds of designs to work on?
A: Residential mostly, though we get very few of those here. One partner keeps getting commissions to build residences in _________ (insert ritzy Connecticut community name here). All of the detailing and the trimming...we make doll-house sized models that you can really look into and get a feel for.
Q: What about the larger-scale models that the firm does for institutions or big-pocket developers.
A: Some of them go elsewhere for modeling. Most of the work we do in here, with styrofoam, wood, plexi, particle board, chip board...a lot of elevations and topographical models.
Q: Why do you think models of the bigger projects require less detail?
A: Because they are designed with less detail [laughs]. It's an aesthetic. We try to do solid work here, good work that lasts a while. This is a serious firm: renovations, historical preservation. It is good work.
Q: Do you produce exclusively for BBB?
A: No, we bounce around, and we rent out office space to other firms [Note: she takes me afterwards to visit the workspace of a certain Pritzker Winner to see the work he is up to] so in certain situations we help out other studios. I worked at _______ ________ Group for a while. [Really? I thought they were a developer, or property manager?].
No, they are actually...well, they are very trendy, but they don't make work that lasts. You know, they do the designs -- casinos, restaurants and bars -- and the concept is only meant to be glitzy and lit up, but it's not meant to last. They operate as if they intend everything to be torn down eventually. And it always is. I have a problem with that, consciencely, but to each his own.
Q: Do you experiment a lot in here?
A: Yes, we do [breaks out sample boxes, shows off laser cutter].
Q: Who does the actual production of the scale buildings? Who discusses fabrication techniques with contractors and builders?
A: I don't know, that's a good question. The project manager?
Q: Do you ever give an architect or designer feedback on a project?
A: Well, yes, I'll ask them, "Well how are you going to do this" and "Are you sure that's going to give you the effect that you want"? It's pretty open here, I guess you're expected to sort of stay quiet, but the Swede in me just can't let it go, I think all of the girls in here are pretty open about projects. The quiet thing is a corporate thing, I think, but it's good.

We share stories on the way out of the office. She needs an upholsterer, I know a guy, she gives me her e-mail. I see the partner on the way out. He's busy, no time to talk.

The Interview

It really didn't go as smoothly as I had originally hoped. An open-ended survey to 10 of the prominent architecture + design magazines went unanswered. The survey, and the ultimate methodology underlying it:

10 Questions: Power in Architecture

Please articulate how you, in your capacity as a professional within the 'field', see each concept's relationship to architecture?
1. Progressivism
2. Relevance
3. Irrelevance
4. Radicalism
5. Urbanism
6. Tolerance
7. Eroticism
8. Sterility
9. Equality
10. You

An open-ended survey grants the interviewee (and therefore her audience) the possibility of a confrontation with her own sense of sef; as both lover of architecture and professional operating within its power structure as the discriminator of information. The terms are loaded, often with sexual motifs, or terminology utilized excessively within movements of justice. How does the mind, upon establishing the perspective ("capacity as a professional") analyze these loaded terms? What underlying logic drives the response? Was this done by committee or was this done independent of others within her work culture?

So I transitioned: could I manage to touch bases with a senior partner at a prominent architecture firm? The questions:

1. How does your position within BBB shape your understanding of architecture as an academic or theoretical philosophy?
2. What makes architecture relevant?
3. irrelevant?
4. Which came first, the architect or the academic?
5. Who comes first: the client or the community?
6. Who comes last: Fred the person or Fred the architect?
7. Which is larger...your model shop team or your marketing department?
8. Is there any building, development, community, or law that you would encourage (or have actually lobbied for) the removal of from the physical or political landscape of NYC?
9. What would you replace it with?
10. Define radical architecture.

And I received the interview. But not in time. Important people have things to do. I can't wait until Friday. I show up unannounced. He is on meetings the receptionist tells me. Who am I? I'm the guy holding a bottle of wine looking for this guy to do my goddamn interview. I start to name drop...

Manifesto

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Inspiration: