ARCHITECTSNEWSPAPER NEW YORK ARCHITECTURE AND DESIGN WWW.ARCHPAPER.COM $3.95 ASIA SOCIETY UNVEILS TWO NEW FACILITIES I— 08 FOR HOUSTON AND HONG KONG LU ICA RISES SOUTH BY IN BOSTON O SOUTH EAS O 12 A SKYLINE GROWS IN QUEENS PORT AUTHORITY TO BUILD 17 EXPANDED FERRY DOCK NOMA'S TERMINAL SPANISH ACCENT CAPACITY 28 MARKETPLACE 30 CLASSIFIEDS The World Financial Center is set to receive a new floating, five-slip ferry terminal. Currently under construction in The Asia Society, the New York-based center in Houston—by two prominent internation• QUEENS BANK ROBBED OF a shipyard in Texas, the new $40 million for culture and commerce, was founded al architecture firms. HISTORIC DESIGNATION STATUS terminal was designed by the engineering by John D. Rockefeller III 50 years ago to The society already has several locations and architecture design division of the encourage dialogue about the far-flung in Asia and in the United States that are Port Authority of New York & New Jersey continent. Asia might not seem as far away administered locally. The organization has Landmarking (PA), and will replace a temporary two- today as it did in Rockefeller's time, but been operating for 15 years in Hong Kong slip facility currently in operation at the globalization has only deepened the need and 25 years in Houston, but increased inter• est and funding have made the expanded Battery Park City esplanade. Serviced by for greater understanding between East and Undone facilities the next logical step, according New York Waterways, the new terminal West. The nonprofit has commisioned two to Asia Society President Vishakha N. Desai. will continue to connect Lower Manhattan multi-million dollar exhibition and confer• Despite intense lobbying efforts of local Houston has one of this continued on page 4 to Hoboken and will increase passenger ence centers—one in Hong Kong, the other preservationists. New York's City Council capacity to an estimated 16,000 people recently overturned the landmark designa• per hour, up 7,000 from the temporary tion of the former Jamaica Savings Bank facility. In relatively short order, Terence Riley in Elmhurst, Queens. The Landmarks After the World Trade Center PATH vacated the post of chief architecture and Preservation Commission gave the 1966 station was destroyed during 9/11, ferry design curator of the Museum of Modern modernist building, by architect William service to and from Lower Manhattan Art (MoMA); Joseph Rosa left the San Cann, a landmark designation in June 2005. Francisco Museum of Modern Art increased dramatically. While the tempo• At the City Council confirmation hearing (SFMoMA) last summerto join the Art rary terminal served the extra traffic, the on February 15, the building's owner, BA Institute of Chicago, and his old position five-slip permanent facility was planned Property LLC, argued against landmark• remains unfilled; the Guggenheim, with before 9/11, in the late 1990s, according ing, citing the complaints of its current a major retrospective on Zaha Hadid and to Donald Fram, PA's chief architect. New occupant. North Fork Bank. The tenant another on Eero Saarinen on the horizon, York Waterways has run ferry service to claims the building is too expensive to The Philip Joh announced that it's in the market for a and from Battery Park City since 1989. operate due to its design, noting that the and Design Galleries at MoMA. senior architecture curator. And last month, This June, the 160-by-176-foot terminal utility bills are 50 percent higher at the Alice Rawsthorn, the gung-ho director of base will be tugged from Texas to the New Elmhurst location continued on page 3 London's Design Museum, abruptly—and York area via the Gulf of Mexico and the MUSEUMS NEED ARCHITECTURE per force—resigned. Jamaica Savings Bank, designed by Atlantic Ocean. In preparation for its ocean William Cann in 1966. voyage, the craft is being constructed with AND DESIGN CURATORS, BUT WHAT Who gets these jobs matters less than a deeper keel—making it more like a ship ARE THEY LOOKING FOR? the sea change they portend. Museums, than a barge. The base will arrive first particularly those with a broad sense in Brooklyn, where it will be outfitted of mission, have at long last noticed that with a pitched fabric roof and interior POSITIONS architecture and design are as capable of elements. The ferry terminal is expected mirroring the culture as any other art form. to be completed at the end of the year, AVAILABLE, But are museums really welcoming archi• at which time it will be anchored to two tecture and design into the pantheon of steel piers at the continued on page 5 JOB UNKNOWN the arts or is this a continued on page 5 PRESERVATIONISTS SAY LMDC'S On March 13, a team of construction workers MEMORIAL PLANS ENDANGER began to prepare the site for the World Trace Center Memorial and Museum al (iround WTC FOOTPRINTS Zero. However, the work began under a cloud of criticism from an unexpected quarter: MIS-STEPS two well-regarded preservation groups. Only two weeks before, the National Trust for Historic Preservation (NTH?) and the Lower ON FOOTINGS Manhattan Emergency Preservation Fund joined the memorial's continued on page 3 • Succeed Beyond MeasureS M Be more productive, more competitive, more profitable Since 1994, only Microdesk has gone beyond CAD When you partner with Microdesk, you always get: implementation to help architectural firms develop new • Development and customization to provide a sources of revenue, dazzle clients, and win more complete range of AEC/GIS/FM solutions business. 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A new framework for development being implemented by the Corporation (LMDC). The groups urged ART DIRECTOR Department of City Planning (DCP) nods to that history, and is encourag• the Port Authority to hold off work on the silo Martin Perrin until the true nature of the museum s effects ing a similar pattern of "mixed uses, spaces, scales, densities and textures" SENIOR EDITOR on the original tower's footprints could be Anne Gulney throughout the boroughs. determined. The NTHP regards the footprints ASSOCIATE EDITOR The patchwork approach has clear benefits, as Shane points out, such as as a "direct, irreplaceable, and authentic link to Andrew Yang flexibility, responsiveness, variety, embodied by Amanda Burden's innova• the historic events of September 11,2001." PROJECTS EDITOR Aaron Seward tive micro-zoning. However, it has one obvious drawback, which is the lack In the February 24"' letter, the NTHP also ASSISTANT EDITOR of an overall vision of growth. We wouldn't dare suggest that the Mayor expressed grave concerns aboLit the LMIXVs Jaffer Kolb install a Robert Moses-like figure in his office, but that he simply consider review process to determine which elements DESIGN AND PRODUCTION of the site are worth preserving. According to a unified plan of action, like the 1992 New York City waterfront plan, which Christine Korokl Roberta Lane, program officer and regional SALES AND MARKETING DIRECTOR assessed and guided the development of the city's entire 587-mile water• attorney for the Northeast region of the NTHP, Karen Begley front. Such a plan might be able to do something about Queens West, a self- "The construction bids [for site preparation PUBLISHING ASSISTANTS Teresa Herrmann enclosed, suburban highrise district that echoes Battery Park City. It makes and footings] were due before our comments Katelyn Mueller little sense to offer planning incentives and tax abatements to build massive [were due], so the review process was mean• EDITORIAL ASSISTANTS towers on the waterfront, where development is likely to take place over ingless." Another issue is a lack of clarity: Gunnar Hand time without incentives and which has few links to public transportation. "From the way they framed their analysis [of Stephen Martin potentially adverse affects to the site], it is not EDITORIAL INTERN The truth is. Queens West responds more to Manhattan's squeezed resi• even perfectly clear what will happen to the Jesse Finkelstein dential market than to the real needs of the borough or the city as a whole. footprints," said Lane. "It may be fine, but the WEB CONSULTANT New York does need more housing at all income levels, but most new resi• Daniil Alexandrov plans are unclear, making it is hard to know." dential developments, like those at Queens West, are .squeezing moderate- The NTHP became involved in the rebuild• and low-income populations further out. We applaud the DCP's efforts to ing proce.ss when the WTC site was deemed CONTRIBUTORS save the "soul" of the area with its approval of the Hunters Point Mixed-Use eligible for protection under the National MARISA BARTOLUCCI/ALAN G.BRAKE/ Sub-District zone and its measures to transform Jackson Avenue into an Historic Places Act of 1966.