McAuliffe + Carroll Architects

LightFair International 2013

It is about the light, not the light fixture:

The Orb Calls:

jm

The Barnes Foundation

The entrance sequence is really throughtful and well done. One has to walk around the east end of the building, through a stepped garden, and past the reflecting pool to the entrance recess:

The craftsmanship is pretty impressive:

The stairs are darkly sculptural- similar to the African objects the Dr. collected. They are also very noisy and hollow sounding- not so good:

Reclaimed boardwalk planks were used in the great room. The floor felt wierdly spongy:

The gallery gates:

The patio:

Photography is verboten in the galleries, and the guards are aggressive, but I did manage to get a shot of the classroom furnished ala Nakashima:

A little bit of Ando in Philadelphia:

jm

Midtown Walk Part III

Mies!:

The plaza-setback-skyscraper has become such a cliche these days, but back in 1958 it was a radical design. The elegance of Mies' design has held up, even on days when it is barren (the face off with McKim Meade White's Club across Park):

Everything here is so crisp and thought out:

The lobby:

On a snowy day:

The south side entrance:

Whiskey bronze:

jm

2nd Avenue BBQ

Our new project for Mighty Quinn's, on the corner of 2nd Ave. and 6th Street New York City, has begun construction and is moving along quickly. This front window will soon be a glass overhead door:

The building has an interesting footnote in rock history, as the Fillmore East was the neighboring building. A well know fire occured in our building, in 1968, causing the abrupt ending of a concert by The Who:

Mighty Quinn's, is setting up shop on the first floor after a very successful regular "gig" at Brooklyn Flea and Smorgasburg:

 

Grand opening is planned for around Thanskgiving. Jusrt outside the front door is a "historic marker" for the Fillmore created by the wonderful Jim Power, The Mosaic Man:

As for the Fillmore, not a trace remains:

jm

The Northeast Kingdom

No joke, this is what the area of northen Vermont is refered to. Some impressions of a week at lake Willoughby, no internet, no phone service, great biking, great hiking:

Paintings by Brian Brooks:

 

jm

Bustin' on the Lower East Side

It is not candy, nor a 3-D mural, but skate board wheels. For longboards specifically:

Bustin' Boards makes skateboards to order in Brooklyn. By chance, we met the founder, Ryan, on the PATH train in 2003 or so, with his longboard- the first I had ever seen. That encounter led to the purchase of boards for Cal and Ethan. The boards themselves, formed plywood, are fun sculpture. I wish I knew how to "carve":

jm

Buildings We Like: Foster

Ten minutes away from the convention center in Washington DC is the former U.S. Patent Office that now houses the National Portrait Gallery and the Smithsonian American Art Museum.

The original building was designed by Robert Mills, the first american architect born and trained in this country. The interiors have been sensitively renovated for the display of art and artifacts:

But the real stunner is the courtyard. Here Foster and gang enclosed court with a freestanding, undulating, structure that is barely visible from the outside, and thrilling on the inside:

Preservation and modernism can lead to great spaces.

jm

Grand Central Apple

Sure, Fifth Avenue might have the glass cube, but the new Apple store has this terrific view:

And, no doors to open. In fact you are in the store when you are in the station:

Killer space and display fixtures:

Less IS more:

jm

Buildings We Like: Schindler

Before Frank (Gehry that is), there was Rudolph. Last week, I had the opportunity to see the first Lovell House, on the boardwalk in Newport Beach. The view from 13th Street. Schindler designed the overhang for four bedrooms:

The view from the beach on a wonderfully sunny day. That would be the 2 story living space behind the large window:

The alley facade, like the others, is an interlocking form puzzle. The concrete frames are expressed on the rear wall:

The service entrance stairs. The stucco guards are only 3" thick:

Searching my library, and the internet, I found that there are no contemporary photos of the interior, except for two details from the 1986 HABS survey. The house was one of the first built on the peninsula in 1926, now it has neighbors galore.This was a real treat:

jm

Habitat House in Trenton

We just completed our plans for a new prototype house to be built by the Trenton affiliate of Habitat for Humanity. Breaking with their previous direction of a more suburban model, the Board of Directors and the Construction Committee both agreed to let us design a new, simpler model that is fast to construct and is very energy efficient. The exterior shell is constructed of 6 1/2" Structural Insulated Panels (or SIPs) which will provide a tight and well insulated enclosure. The use of SIPs should also decrease the overall construction time and allow Habitat to complete more houses in a year.
 This initial design is for a detached single family residence, and later iterations of this will include attached single family (or duplex) and a row-house model. This project is being sponsored by Bloomberg and we hope to start construction this summer, pending approval by the City of Trenton. Check back for updates!

RC