Pylonpublication of Aia Brooklyn May / Jun 2020
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PUBLICATION OF AIA BROOKLYN PYLON MAY / JUN 2020 facebook-square AIA Brooklyn instagram aiabrooklyn MAY / JUN 2020 COMMITTEES NOTES EDITOR IN CHIEF COMMUNICATIONS COMMITTEE Talisha L. Sainvil, AIA 1 Letter from the Editor Talisha L. Sainvil, AIA CONTINUING EDUCATION COMMITTEE Marshall Shuster, AIA 4 Getting to Know You COVER CRAN COMMITTEE David Cunningham, AIA; Kimberly Neuhaus, AIA 9 Discussion Photo of Williamsburgh Savings Bank Tower top from DESIGN AWARDS COMMITTEE David Flecha, Assoc. AIA S. Oxford Street by Beyond My Ken / CC BY-SA. Panel Summary EMERGING PROFESSIONALS COMMITTEE Nicole Gangidino, Assoc. AIA DESIGN 9 Upcoming Events KUDOS Design Collaboratory™ MEMBERSHIP COMMITTEE Pamela Weston, Assoc. AIA For future issues, we welcome submissions from our PROGRAMMING COMMITTEE Susana Honig, AIA 10 AIA National Announcements members that further our goal of supporting and SPORTS COMMITTEE Gaetano Ragusa, AIA guiding our community. Articles and notices may be submitted to the editor at [email protected]. URBAN DESIGN COMMITTEE Jane McGroarty, AIA 13 Say Anything Material printed in the Pylon is for informational WOMEN IN ARCHITECTURE COMMITTEE Nicole Gangidino, Assoc. AIA purposes only and should not be relied upon as legal 14 Community Notes opinion or advice. The Pylon is published by the AIA Brooklyn Chapter. BROOKLYN ARCHITECTS No portion may be reproduced without permission. COMMITTEES © 2020 SCHOLARSHIP FOUNDATION INC. PRESIDENT Ida Galea, AIA 16 Design Awards Committee: VICE PRESIDENT Vincent Nativo, AIA Showcasing the Built EXECUTIVE BOARD TREASURER Jane McGroarty, AIA Environment That Makes Brooklyn PRESIDENT SECRETARY Anthony Marchese, AIA John H. Hatheway Jr., AIA DIRECTORS Ray Mellon Esq. Hon., AIA; David Flecha, Assoc. AIA; Pamela 17 Communications: [email protected] Weston, Assoc. AIA; Nick Raschella, Assoc. AIA; Joseph Tooma AIA Brooklyn Still Needs You! VICE PRESIDENT Raymond T. Peebles, AIA 18 Urban Design: [email protected] CONTRIBUTORS W.I.M.B.Y. TREASURER SARAH KAVANAGH is a Brooklyn-based Architectural 24 Membership Jane McGroarty, AIA Designer, a graduate of Lehigh University and she holds a [email protected] Masters in Architecture from the Rhode Island School of Design. She has worked at a number of notable Architecture SECRETARY firms in New York City including Robert A.M. Stern Architects, FEATURES Talisha L. Sainvil, AIA Bright Architecture and David Cunningham Architecture Planning. Sarah is currently a Project Manager at Kushner [email protected] 25 AIA Brooklyn: Studios in NYC; A Writer for PYLON; A Logistics Coordinator for the AIA Brooklyn Backwards arrows-h Exhibition Committee (AIABKx) and in pursuit of love, life and her license. DIRECTORS Forwards David Cunningham, AIA JANE MCGROARTY has had over thirty years of experience Sarah Drake, AIA 24 Interview with an in architecture and historic preservation. She is the Treasurer David Flecha, Associate AIA Architect: ChoShields Marshall Shuster, AIA & Chair of the Urban Design Committee of AIA Brooklyn and Principal of Jane McGroarty Architect. Jane has also taught Pamela Weston, Associate AIA 44 Special Feature: design at NY Institute of Technology and the NJ School of Down the Rabbit Hole ADMINISTRATIVE DIRECTOR Architecture; researched and created various walking tours of Brooklyn and is an avid writer. Susana Honig, AIA 64 Beyond the [email protected] Built Environment MICHELLE DUNCAN is a Trinidad-born design enthusiast and story-lover who has called Brooklyn her home for over AIA NYS REPRESENTATIVE 67 Just One More Thing a decade. Michelle holds a master’s degree in Historic Jordan Parnass, AIA Preservation from the Pratt Institute and was previously the Media Coordinator at Robert A.M. Stern Architects. Intrigued by stories of design in its many forms, Michelle is especially taken by narratives involving the convergence of history, the built environment, and the human experience, all within a cultural and social context. INCORPORATED IN 1894 TO UNITE, REPRESENT, PROMOTE, AND ENHANCE THE PROFESSION AND PRACTICE OF ARCHITECTURE IN THE BOROUGH OF BROOKLYN LETTER FROM THE EDITOR In A Sentimental Mood I was all prepared to write this letter about brusquely pulled out of the fantasyland memories and nostalgia. I was going to called Equality, back to the reality that not spin a yarn about the blistering hot all of us have ever been in this together. summers spent in Haiti, the sensation of Marginalized people have always been the handmade wooden rocking chairs on treated as if our identity is a virus that the front porch of my family home and must be eradicated before it plagues the about how the harmonic calls of the variety pristine environment of ‘superior’ human of ‘Marchans’ (street vendors) used to fill life. And people often wear masks to hide the air in much the same way the Mister what they truly feel, wash their hands of Softee truck tune does here in the States. situations that they might not want to But now that’s changed and speaking contaminate themselves with and isolate “ I remember that I’m about seashell filled beaches and peanut themselves because what you don’t see, invisible and walk softly brittle, at least for the moment, seems a may not exist. So, while I have a lot of fond so as not to awaken the little frivolous. Having had a little more memories of people, I can’t help but think sleeping ones. time to reflect over the past 3 months and about how many people I’ve met who have Sometimes it is best not after the resurgence of the Black Lives ever really seen me and how important a to awaken them; there Matter movement, I have found myself sense of belonging truly is. I now challenge are few things in the thinking a lot about the memory of people. you to think about who you’re in this world as dangerous as I have tried to guesstimate how many together with and whether or not you will sleepwalkers.” thousands (if not hundreds of thousands) wake up to this new dawn. — RALPH ELLISON, of people I might have had any level of The theme of this issue is about the INVISIBLE MAN interaction with — from the strangers I exploration of the unknown, which seems might smile at while passing on the street appropriate after we have been turned on to the family I was born into. I have been our heads as a result of a global pandemic. pouring over memories of when we used to When you think about it, our lives have do things together and daydreaming about turned into an Alice Through the Looking fun times together with old friends and Glass-esque tale of the bizarre. I hope you colleagues. I guess you can say I’ve been will take a moment to go Backwards arrows-h in a sentimental mood. But maybe not so Forwards while reading the story of 2 AIA much because I’m craving social Brooklyn Presidents and their journey interaction as much as I realize that I through their education and careers as might be longing for that sense of well as the enthused In Cho and Tim community. Living through a pandemic Shields account of how they met, started and subsequent mandated quarantine has their office and continuously aim to turned life upside down and has both provide value to the profession. Don’t miss isolated many of us and brought some of the opportunity to go Down the Rabbit us closer together. The murder of George Hole by reading tales of resilience during a Floyd and the ensuing protests and pandemic, exploration and curiosity, conversations has done almost the same salacious intrigue and walk through the thing. Over the past few months, we have past few years of celebrating People of all heard a lot of messages about how Color practicing within the built much we’re in this together. I understand environment. this message was meant to give us all the I hope you enjoy this issue! feels so that we understand that we, as human beings, are in fact a community. I’ve always been acutely aware that the [email protected] color of my skin has made me an 718-797-4242 automatic outsider in many circles and TALISHA L. SAINVIL, AIA WWW.AIABROOKLYN.ORG after the events in Minneapolis, I was EDITOR IN CHIEF 11 AIA BROOKLYN’S STATEMENT ON RACIAL INEQUALITY #BlackLivesMatter Dear AIA Brooklyn Members – At the AIA National Convention in 1968, Whitney M. Young, Jr. addressed the audience as the Keynote Speaker and said: “You are not a profession that has distinguished itself by your social and civic contributions to the cause of civil rights . You are most distinguished by your thunderous silence.” In honor of not remaining silent, and along with so many people around this nation and globally, we mourn the death of George Floyd in Minneapolis and the distressingly long list of black people who have senselessly been killed due to racial injustice. As an organization of professionals and as human beings, we should demonstrate that we are willing to rise to the challenge that this moment in our history has presented. As such, AIA Brooklyn stands up for and stands behind black people by denouncing ALL racial inequality and violence. Often, “our racist history” as a nation is deplored as the cause of current strife, but the word “history” does not convey currency. In fact, the racism that stretches back to our founding, is alive and thriving today, everywhere. This racism is a current, daily degradation of the human spirit that has caused people to reach a breaking point — a breaking point begotten from a sense of hopelessness and despair, from fear and unfathomable frustration, from sadness, from a knowledge that you do not matter as much as others.