If you had any doubt that New York is dead, the past weekend showed us that the city is very much alive. Across the boroughs, citizens in cars, on bikes, and on foot honked, yelled, cheered, sang, and broke out in dance to celebrate the victory of Joe Biden and Kamala Harris.
Since early voting began on October 24, more New Yorkers lined up at their polling places than ever before, with many waiting hours to cast their ballots. It was a remarkable, and perhaps unexpected, in-person turn out, considering the over one million mail-in votes from across the city.
Now that the election is over, we’re taking stock of how it all went down. Some of us encountered chaos at our polling sites. Others had surprisingly smooth and pleasant experiences. Following up on my query last month about the design of polling locations—or our electoral architecture—the Review wants to hear about your experiences voting in the city. What were your takeaways? What were the failures? The successes? How do you see the design of these civic spaces evolving in the future? Drop us a line and let us know!
- Alex Klimoski
Emerging - Word of the week?
It was crazy to think in, say, January, that there could be people literally dancing in the streets around a little girl jubilantly wielding a giant ‘JOE’ flag, but I witnessed precisely that Saturday night on Vanderbilt Avenue in Brooklyn. The lifelong public servant is emerging. Lesley Lokko writes about the word this week in The Architectural Review:
We use the word ‘emerging’ to describe conditions that are ‘in progress’, ‘en route’ but not yet fully ‘arrived’. Similar in some ways to the ‘developed/developing world’ dichotomy, it is a condition that is full of promise and potential, yet, in the wrong hands or context, can also be patronising, tinged with judgements that are inevitably subject to bias.
‘Emergent’ is also in fact the word used by the student led organization, Emergent Grounds for Design Education, that formed after our New Grounds for Design Education discussion last summer.
I would go further than Lokko and say the term emerging has some peril baked into it. Once identified as emerging, a voice or organization is saddled with expectations that can overshadow very real accomplishments. Ask Obama. Or as one of the Architectural League’s former ‘Emerging Voices’ once quipped, ‘once you emerge, all that is left is to submerge!’ At the same time, lofty expectations are sometimes a necessary risk. A force with recognized promise wields the ability to attract allies and energy, feeding fuel to its potential.
So with that, a toast (with coffee, of course) to our emerging President.
- Nicolas
Events!
11/09 | MONDAY
Sarah Workneh: Artist Talk
1:15pm | Cornell AAP
Europe: Christoph Schäfer & Renée Tribble in conversation with Anh-Linh Ngo
5:00pm | NJIT
Fall 2020 Sciame Series: Paulo Tavares
5:30pm | Spitzer
MAJORA CARTER Response by Mario Gooden
6:00pm | GSAPP
MAURICE COX
6:30pm | RPI
11/10 | TUESDAY
AFFORDABLE HOUSING AGENDA FOR 2021 WITH ERIC ENDERLIN, RACHEL FEE, DEBORAH VANAMERGONEN, MATTHEW WAMBUA & RICHARD FROEHLICH
12:00am | GSAPP
FDN TALKS: PERCEPTIONS ON THE UNFOLDING OF SPACE // CARLOS JIMENEZ
12:30am | Pratt
LORETTA LEES on the Gentrification of London
1:00pm | GSAPP
WHOSE VALUE? LAND VALUE RECOVERY AND THE EQUITABLE CITY BY PRATT CENTER FOR COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT
6:00pm | Pratt
ENTANGLEMENTS | HÉLÈNE FRICHOT AND NAOMI STEAD IN CONVERSATION WITH MICHAEL YOUNG: WRITING WITHIN AND WITHOUT ARCHITECTURE
6:30pm | Cooper
ZAHRA ALI, UP-RISING / انتِ ـ فاضة IRAQ AND THE FEMINIST IMAGINATION
7:00pm | Cooper
11/11 | WEDNESDAY
11/12 | THURSDAY
The Human, Humanities, and Human Rights by Judith Butler
12:30am | Parsons
lla Bêka and Louise Lemoine: The Experience of Space
5:15pm | Cornell AAP
Lesley Lokko: Look Back in Anger
5:15pm | Cornell AAP
Everyday Ecologies with Liz Barry, Ana Maria Duran, Matthew Seibert, Julia Czerniak
6:00pm | Spitzer
PRESERVEOKC: OKLAHOMA CITY’S HISTORIC PRESERVATION PLAN by KATIE MCLAUGHLIN FRIDDLE
6:30pm | GSAPP
J. Meejin Yoon: Designing the Future/The Future of Design
7:00pm | Cornell AAP
11/13 | FRIDAY
CLIMATE CHANGE, RACIAL JUSTICE, AND HOUSING EQUITY WITH GUEST SHANA GRIFFEN
1:00pm | GSAPP
HEALTH AND THE CITY CONFERENCE
1:00pm | GSAPP
Design and Technology Cloud Salon: Valencia James
3:00pm | Parsons
GLORIA CABRAL
5:30pm | GSAPP
STUDENT LECTURE SERIES | ALEKSANDR MERGOLD: UN-APPEALING
6:30pm | Cooper
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To see the complete list, go to nyra.nyc/events
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Made it to the end bonus: Table Sheds!
Innocuous outdoor tables and umbrellas have rapidly morphed into fully sprung pieces of architecture, with walls, roofs, and lots of heat lamps. We are interested in photos of your favorite specimens - and a proper review, if you would like to write one.
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If you would would like to write up an event for us - do it! See an example writeup here. Most write ups are incorporated into the column ‘SKYLINE,’ some become larger articles. All correspondents receive $30 and their name in the paper. Ask to cover an event: editor@nyra.nyc.
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