Upcoming, 1-11-21
We are back! With the new year we are renaming our weekly e-mail (formerly the mouthful ‘This Week in New York Architecture’) after the print column it feeds, SKYLINE. Along with upcoming events, we are going to begin publishing ‘dispatches’, synopses of recent conversations filed by our contributors. We may also experiment with other sorts of content, such as mini-reviews and comics. We will also create more space for our community, including announcements - maybe even classifieds.
It is amazing how impotent architecture can feel on a news week like this one, but for all those who would like to spend some time away from contemplating our Republic’s mortal peril, we have some suggestions. This Monday Justin Garrett Moore delivers a lecture about Dark Matter University, on Tuesday Michael Kimmelman moderates a conversation about the future of streets moderated, and - also on Tuesday evening - Katie MacDonald and Kyle Schumann host a conversation on Material Cultures as part of the ‘Projecting Fellows’ series, which kicked off last week and will continue until February. On Thursday, Gideon Fink Shapiro - who in fact wrote the set of lecture notes we offer to aspiring contributors as a model for a good event write up - launches a writing course in which he may share his secrets. Find the details - and many more conversations - at the bottom.
- Nicolas Kemper
In the News
On December 22 the Trump administration issued an order, “Promoting Beautiful Federal Civic Architecture,” the draft of which led to such an uproar last year that we devoted much of issue no. 9 to ‘Style Wars.’ We reposted one of its stories, in which Zazu Swistel demonstrates that random New Yorkers off the street do, in fact, care quite a bit about federal building aesthetics. Neoclassical architecture also received a rather dark namecheck in media columnists Ben Smith’s column about an influencer gone mad off the temptations of viral content at any cost: “I was slow to realize that his interests weren’t journalistic, or even ideological, as much as they were aesthetic, thrilled by the imagery of raw power. In the tradition of authoritarian propagandists, he was awed by neoclassical buildings, guns and, later, Donald Trump’s crowds.”
On a more cheerful note, on January 4, Lesley Lokko won the RIBA Annie Spink Award for outstanding contributions to architectural education.
Housekeeping
People began receiving our last issue, non-No. 17, in the mail and have written nice things about it - especially Dank Lloyd Wright, which correctly discovered our obsession with canine square grids. We received so many new subscriptions and requests for the issue that we are going to print one more run - if you subscribe before the end of the month, we will send you non-No. 17.
Spitzer Student Giuliana Vaccarino Gearty wrote a letter replying to Tyler Survant’s article, ‘Noir Radical,’ about the resignation of Spitzer Dean Lesley Lokko, that we published in non-No. 16. We have appended both the letter and a response by Survant to the bottom of his original article.
Comics. We are going to begin publishing comics, under the able direction of our new comics columnist, Stephanie Jazmines. If you draw and have a sense of humor, or know someone else who does, tell us about it: editor@nyra.nyc.
Announcements
The Architectural League has a call for entries for the 2021 Architectural League Prize, ‘Housekeeping’ - due Monday, February 8.
Pidgin’s deadline for entries for its 29th issues is January 15.
Dispatches
12/17
“Hi-tech and Lo-TEK are not nemeses!” proclaimed JULIA WATSON in her lecture “Design by Radical Indigenism” at the ICAA. The most effective way to mitigate climate change, she argued, is not just by using expensive systems sponsored by first world governments that “favor fuel by fire,” but also embracing Lo-TEK, or Local Traditional Ecological Knowledge: age-old nature-based technologies used around the world to irrigate, feed, heat, and cool. Although the case studies were fascinating and human-scaled, WATSON did not have strong examples of how to implement these ideas on a macro-level. “Individual choices matter... but the scale of huge impact is at the scale of infrastructure and corporations.” Therefore Watson concluded by urging the audience to vote. - Lauren Cawse
12/16
NARADA GOLDEN presented a primer on NYC LOCAL LAW 97, which will have dramatic impacts across the city, affecting 60% of buildings. Passed as one of 6 bills in New York State’s ‘Climate Mobilization Act,’ LL97 will implement CO2 emission limits for buildings incrementally between 2024-2050, ultimately reducing emissions by 80%. Notably, the limits are based on operational measurements, not modeled or anticipated consumption, which forms the basis for current energy compliance through the New York City Energy Conservation Code. GOLDEN walked through the “7 Stages of LL97” which progressed from the reactionary “fear” and “confusion” — largely stemming from Mayor de Blasio’s proclamation that “We are going to ban the classic glass and steel skyscrapers” — to the necessary “acceptance,” “understanding,” and ultimately “action” which will see many building owners required to dramatically reduce energy consumption, purchase green power, participate in carbon trading, or face steep fines. - Edward Palka
11/13
In a Cornell University lecture titled “Look Back in Anger,” LESLEY LOKKO spoke optimistically of architectural education as a kind of fiction, “a means of exploring difficult, complex issues about who we are and who we want to be.” Describing her experiences teaching in South Africa and the US – both cultures with deep racial inequities – LOKKO borrowed from the South African writer Nadine Gordimer, asking if those in the academy could act as “guests from the future, prophets of the resolution of divided cultures.” - Tyler Survant
Events Next Week.
1/11 | MONDAY
1/12 | TUESDAY
KAREN JACOBSEN
1:15pm | GSAPP
WHAT MAKES AN EXHIBITION DESIGN STAND OUT: THE ROLE OF THE DESIGNER with Allen Wilpon
6:00pm | Pratt
FORUM Lecture featuring Justin Garrett Moore
6:30pm | Carleton
1/13 | WEDNESDAY
111 West 57th Street: Making the Impossible Possible with Cynthia Liu
9:00am | CFA
CHRIS JONES
5:00pm | GSAPP
Cold-Formed Steel: Emerging Technologies with Don Allen & Sal Forgione
6:00pm | CFA
Understanding the Past/Documenting the Present/Imagining the Future
7:00pm | Architectural League
1/14 | THURSDAY
Writing for Architects and Designers, Course taught by Gideon Fink Shapiro
4:00pm | CFA | ($400)
In Praise of Walking with Shane O'Mara
4:00pm | OHNY | $5
FF – Distance Edition: SITU
6:00pm | Architectural League
Racial Diversity, Equity and Inclusion in Senior Housing with Latisha Millard-Bethea, Jorge Chang, Roberta Washington
6:00pm | CFA | $10
1/15 | FRIDAY
New Research in Black Women’s History in Architecture with BEVERLY LORRAINE GREENE AND NORMA MERRICK SKLAREK
1:00pm | GSAPP
1/16 | SATURDAY
GRAPHICS PROJECT WORKSHOP DAY 1: WSDIA AND 2X4
6:30pm | GSAPP
1/17 | SUNDAY
GRAPHICS PROJECT WORKSHOP DAY 2: PORTFOLIO AND PHOTOGRAPHY with ANDREW KEUNG, JOSHUA JORDAN, & YOONJAI CHOI
6:30pm | GSAPP
Made it to the end reward!
…DLW’s ode to the canine square grid.
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If you would would like to write up an event for us - do it! See an example writeup here. Or above, in the ‘dispatches’ section. Ask to cover an event: editor@nyra.nyc.
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