2007
Open House New York Weekend
The truth in one free afternoon
This year at Open House New York I visited two architect’s offices, Peter Eisenman's disorganized office near Madison Square (pictured below) and Perkins + Will's architecture factory near Union Square. Both were complete opposites. Eisenman's office was small (12 to 14 people), had no security, was insanely disorganized looking (I'd fit in rather well there), used very old computers and furnishings and showcased stellar work, Perkins + Will was, well, completely the opposite on every count. The truly worthwhile Eisenman tour was led by the firm's archivist who showed us the scattered office models (including a new Pompeii rail station and a just submitted competition entry for a French Rugby Stadium) and then gave a quick slideshow featuring the Berlin Holocaust Memorial and the Arizona Cardinals Stadium projects, among others. A real treat and highly recommended if you're interested in architecture or just want to steal things- I seriously could have taken Mr. Eisenman's signed Amtrak Acela Business Class tickets to New Haven that were lying unguarded and ready for the taking atop the piles and piles of papers atop his desk.
On West 23rd Street (right near the Sixth Avenue subway station) is the Grand Lodge of Masons, a barrage of incredibly detailed and colorful rooms dedicated to all those overly secret ceremonies that all those overly secretive and creepy (but outwardly friendly) Freemasons like to engage in behind closed doors. Lots of strange things going on there, secret symbols, mysterious altars, allusions to the Temple of Solomon, that kind of thing. Worth a visit even though the tours may be a little more thorough than you might have liked.
I had actually gone out to McCarren Park Pool in super trendy Williamsburg earlier this year to see a Modest Mouse concert, but decided to return to enjoy its vastness without being blocked by a crowd rocking out to "Tiny Cities Made of Ashes." The pool (it was originally designed for 6,000 local swimmers) is a magnificent ruin, and waiver free access was allowed to the dangerous, dirty, handrail free upper level of the entrance pavilion. Fun.
Still in Brooklyn and back at one of my alma maters, this is Steven Holl's redesigned Higgins Hall at Pratt Institute in Brooklyn, New York. Since I received my MArch degree over 10 years ago I had not been back to the campus or Higgins Hall, whose center section burned down sometime after I left (I had nothing to do with it and no one can prove otherwise). When I attended, the historic building was a dive, now it's actually quite nice though not especially spectacular. The center section is now open, the scars of building and renovating are intentionally everywhere and the stairs are now no longer too dangerous to safely ascend- from the inside the building is barely still recognizable.
I have never been to Roosevelt Island before, despite many trips over it on the Queensboro Bridge and many trips underneath it on the E train. Just like you're supposed to, I took the tram over (its a $2 Metrocard ride) and when we landed it felt like we landed in a different country. Maybe Canada, it's hard to know for sure.
On Roosevelt Island the Southpoint Smallpox Hospital is a hollowed out ruin that looks like a cross between something you might find in Dresden and something you might find at Ta Prohm. Open House New York visitors were not allowed inside (I vaguely recall hearing something about totally unsafe conditions and/or certain death) but we were treated to a tour by young architects who explained the history of the surrounding park, the possibility of still building the Louis Kahn designed memorial and the current plans to make it all somehow just a little more habitable. And while the Southpoint Smallpox Hospital remains in ruins, at the very tip of the island (and on part of the future Louis Kahn FDR Memorial site), there is a temporary art installation called "The Encampment" by artist Thom Sokoloski, a field of white tents that are really designed to be viewed more from Manhattan than from Roosevelt Island.
The big, five star attraction this year was the all reserved, sold out walking tours on the High Line, specifically on its still developer endangered northern section around the Hudson Yards from West 34th Street down to about West 30th Street. It was the first time ever that the public was allowed on any section of the High Line, most of which is currently being rebuilt as a public park designed by Diller, Scofidio + Renfro, with its first section opening as early as Fall 2008. The section I was allowed to walk (after signing many, many waivers and releases) is the only section still in peril, its fate is tied to the fate of the Hudson Yards themselves and is expected to be decided relatively soon.
The walk was one way, starting over by the Javits Center and looping around the LIRR rail yards, which we were not supposed to photograph, even though there was nothing that looked especially sensitive about a railyard of sleeping trains.
Walking this was one hell of a great experience. Thanks Open House New York.
At the end of the tour, we climbed up and over a temporary stair with a view of the future High Line Park being prepared for construction. I am really looking forward to seeing this and I still sometimes find it hard to believe that it’s even getting built.
Keep going back in time. Open House New York 2006 is next.
