... .... ARCHITECTSNEWSPAPER 06_O4.04.2OO7 $3.95 NEW YORK ARCHITECTURE AND DESIGN WWW.ARCHPAPER.COM PROPOSAL TO MAKE 6'" AND 7'" CO ROGERS GETS AVENUES ONE-WAY SHOT DOWN I— 08 LU TSCHUMI'S PRITZKER PARKSLOPERS PLASTIC O The English architect Richard Rogers HAVE IT O BUBBLE has been selected as the 2007 Pritzker Architecture Prize laureate. Rogers, who 12 accepted a life peerage in 1996 and is BOTH WAYS known as Lord Rogers of Riverside, will In a boisterous public meeting on March GEHRY TALES be given a $100,000 grant and a bronze 15, Park Slope residents shot down a IN CHELSEA medallion on June 4,2007, at a ceremony Department of Transportation (DOT) pro• in Inigo Jones' 1691 Banqueting House posal to make the 7"'Avenue retail corridor 18 in London. and the mostly residential 6'" Avenue into Lord Rogers joins his compatriots one-way streets. Even though the DOT ELIOT NOYES James Sterling, the 1982 winner; his has abandoned this idea, questions per• GETS HIS former partner Norman Foster, who won sist about how civic groups in the upscale in 1999; and Zaha Hadid, who took the neighborhood will resist city efforts to DUE connect its tranquil streets to the planned honor in 2004. He gained early acclaim 06 IN DETAIL for his collaboration with Renzo Piano Atlantic Yards arena and highrise district. 10 AT DEADLINE Even though DOT staffers said the 16 DIARY on the 1977 Centre Georges Pompidou 19 MARKETPLACE in Paris and has long been recognized as rationale behind the proposal was to 20 PRODUCTS + RESOURCES one of the most accomplished architects make pedestrians less vulnerable to cars NEW PRATT BUILDING practicing today. Rogers was awarded the in turning lanes, residents argued that INTEGRATES DESIGN Royal Institute of British Architects' Gold the city is testing ways to disperse the thousands of cars expected to come with DISCIPLINES AND CAMPUS SPACE Medal in 1985 and, last year, the Golden Lion for lifetime achievement at the the development. Venice Biennale. continued on page 3 Two weeks earlier, the DOT had Under One Roof announced that collision-prone 4'" Avenue needed expanded turning lanes and For students and administrators alike, floated the plan as a way to absorb traffic the patchwork nature of the Pratt from the 4"" Avenue lanes that would be Institute's Fort Greene campus has always removed. After the advocacy site been a problem. Only within the last few Streetsblog.com continued on page 2 decades has the 120-year-old institution begun to emerge from the urban fabric of Brooklyn to become a coherent campus. The Juliana Curran Terian Design Center, which will be unveiled to the public on April 17, is the first in a handful of projects in the works that are tailored to further this process. (^/V editor William Menking is a professor of urban planning at Pratt.) On its face, the slender three-story design center is little continued on page 8 DDC NAMES FIRMS PROPOSED FOR SECOND ROUND OF NEW CONTRACT PROGRAM 1960 BUILDING IN BOSTON DODGES THE WRECKING BALL DESIGN PIANO VS. EXCELLENCE RUDOLPH FIGHT TAKES ROOT CALLED OFF KNUT HAMSUM CENTER The Department of Design and It was a bad week for Boston businessman- RESURRECTED IN NORWAY Construction (DDC) released its preliminary cum-developer Steve Belkin. Belkin owns SEE PAGES list of architects selected for requirement the Blue Cross/Blue Shield Building, contracts in the second round of designed by Paul Rudolph in 1960, and Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg's Design had planned to tear it down to make room and Construction Excellence Initiative for an 80-story tower designed by Renzo (D+CEI). With these contracts, firms are Piano Building Workshop (RPBW). not assigned a project, but prequalify for But on March 13, the Boston Landmarks DDC work over the next two years. Commission (BLC) issued a 90-day stay Of 32 firms named, 24 were selected against its demolition. Four days later, of $10 million and under, and eight for RPBW quit the project in a battle for projects budgeted between $10 and $25 creative control over the design. million. The new phase comes two years Piano said in a March 7 article in the after the pilot D-hCEl continued on page 2 New York Times that continued on page 3 CO f\J 3 O LLl THE ARCHITECT'S NEWSPAPER APRIL 4. 2007 PARK SLOPERS HAVE IT BOTH WAYS CO This year's Pritzker Prize laureate, Richard Rogers, almost became a dentist. Diana Darling continued from front page posted the plan, TOITORS While it goes without saying that it is a profession that we can't—and O residents packed a Community Board 6 trans• Cathy Lang Ho wouldn't want—to do without, we are probably not going out on a limb to William Menking portation committee meeting where deputy say that Rogers has brought much, much, more innovation and beauty to ART DIRECTOR commissioner Michael Primeggia made a Martin Perrin LU the practice of architecture than he would have to that of dentistry. formal presentation of the idea. At the over• SENIOR EDITOR Richard Rogers was born in Florence, Italy in 1933. His parents had emi• crowded forum, Primeggia said, "I don't Anne Guiney grated to Italy, and lived there until the threat of war forced them to back want to bring non-Park Slope drivers to Park ASSOCIATE EDITOR Slope," prompting derisive calls that he was Aaron Seward London. Richard was immediately sent to a boarding school in Epsom, and ASSISTANT EDITOR speaking no English, struggled enormously in his first encounter with the a liar. "You mean, unless there's a game," someone yelled, referring to the Nets arena. Samantha Topol British educational system. According Roger's biographer Brian Appleyard, COPY EDITOR Those yells—and the nearly 500 residents "Academically he was progressing [at an] alarmingly slow rate," and "could Lisa Delgado spilling into the street—hinted at a deeper DESIGN AND PRODUCTION not keep up with his class in reading and writing and was unable to learn concern about Atlantic Yards. Many residents Dustin Koda anything by heart." His schoolmasters despaired of his ever passing the uni• SALES AND MARKETING DIRECTOR at the meeting said the proposed develop• versity entrance exams, and so his parents began planning a career for him Karen Begley ment, which borders Park Slope to the north, ASSISTANT TO PUBLISHER as a dentist, as his grandfather had been. will overwhelm public transit and send cars Masha Panteleyeva Thankfully, Rogers discovered architecture on a trip to Italy and with into the brownstone communities around it. EDITORIAL ASSISTANT meetings with his distant cousin Ernesto Rogers (a noted Milanese mod• They were concerned at the official silence on Stephen Martin the matter. "You left out the 800-pound gorilla," EDITORIAL INTERNS ernist), and he enrolled in the Architectural Association when he returned Matt Chaban to London. The rest, of course, is history. The academic problem that Rogers Park Slope Civic Council president Lydia Carl Yost experienced as a youth and which could have derailed this path is now Denworth told Primeggia afterthe presentation. The DOT declined to say before or after the widely known as dyslexia; It is something that he still struggles with on a CONTRIBUTORS hearing whether Atlantic Yards contingencies daily basis. But among architects, he is far from alone. There are no official ALEC APPELBAUM / MARISA BARTOLUCCI / had informed the Park Slope proposal. DAN BIBB / ALAN G. BRAKE / ARIC CHEN / studies on dyslexia and architecture (at least none we know of) but anec• Sam Schwartz, a traffic consultant who has DAVID D'ARCY/MURRAY FRASER/ dotal experience would indicate that it is surprisingly common. Some peo• RICHARD INGERSOLL/JULIE V. lOVINE/ worked on Atlantic Yards-related issues, told LIANE LEFAIVRE/LUIGI PRESTINEN2A PUGLISI/ ple think that le Corbusier may have had the disorder, and others have AN \n an interview that he did not see a con• KESTER RATTENBURY/ D.GRAHAME SHANE/ argued that there may be a relationship between dyslexia and certain kinds nection. "Nobody from Forest City Ratner ALEX ULAM/GWEN WRIGHT/PETER ZELLNER of creativity, because the brains of those who have it are typically larger in or their consultants recommended this," said EDITORIAL ADVISORY BOARD the right hemisphere, which has been linked to skills in art, 3-D visualiza• Schwartz. "My understanding is that they're PAOLA ANTONELLI/RAUL A. BARRENECHE/ tion, and music. In fact, in order to teach at design colleges in the England, proposing it for safety, not traffic flow." But M. CHRISTINE BOYER/PETER COOK/ residents didn't buy it. "The city is wrong WHITNEY COX/ODILE DECO/TOM HANRAHAN/ new faculty are required to take a short course in the subject because so about enhancing pedestrian safety," said SARAH HERDA/CRAIG KONYK/REED KROLOFF/ many students in college suffer from the disorder. JAYNE MERKEL/LISA NAFTOLIN / SIGNE NIELSEN / Sam Moore, a 7'" Avenue resident. "Also, Rogers figured out how to use his strengths and obvious visual abilities HANS ULRICH OBRIST/JOAN OCKMAN/ two directions makes it easier to drive to a KYONG PARK / ANNE RIESELBACH / and developed his own ideas about the practice of architecture. He is liv• store." As a rule, merchants believe two-way TERENCE RILEY/KEN SAYLOR/MICHAEL SORKIN ing proof that dyslexia is not simply a learning disability but a different way streets facilitate parallel parking and mean• GENERAL INFORMATION: INFOdiARCHPAPER.COM of processing information. Roger's success is undoubtedly due to a num• dering on the sidewalk. The Park Slope EDITORIAL: EDITOR®ARCHPAPER.COM ber of factors, not the least of which is innate talent, but his dyslexia gives Chamber of Commerce came out strongly ADVERTISING: KBEGLEY(?'ARCHPAPER.COM SUBSCRIPTION: SUBSCRIBEdiARCHPAPER.COM us even more respect for Rogers' achievement, and hope to everyone against the DOT proposal.