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Celebrating the people, places and things that are positively impacting American culture.
Top 10 of 2011: Architecture
Dec 27, 2011
This year saw an increasing focus on creating communities. Buildings, parks, furniture, and some covert events all point to a trend: while we have these great cities, we do not always have powerful communities within them. The Character Approved thread running through all of this year's top selections is that new communities are being created, and not just in front of a computer screen on social networking websites. Architects, designers, and anyone interested in public space are utilizing the environment around them to manifest new groups of people meeting in the real world.
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- Secret Picnic NYC: On August 25th, New York City saw thousands of people, all dressed entirely in white, politely taking over a public space on the water at Battery Park City. They brought their own table, chairs, food, and white tablecloths. Le Dîner en Blanc, imported from France, came to the United States with a very polite, happy, and festive take over of public space. The space was left clean, and a new group was happily formed. [Image: Le Dîner en Blanc]
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- The 9/11 Memorial Opening: Shortly after the secret picnic, and not far from where it happened, another gathering took place, around the newly opened 9/11 Memorial. The space where the Twin Towers once stood is now the perfect balance of a reflective space for those who were lost, and a forward-looking monument for a city that is always creating the future. [Image: 9/11 Memorial]
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- The Flint Project: This growing project to transform Flint, Michigan by utilizing its rich (but somewhat abandoned) urban fabric has had success after success. On a tight budget, this group has been creating a grassroots movement to revitalize the city. [Image: Stephen Zacks]
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- rethinkLA: This exhibition brought together speculative designs for Los Angeles, while creating a workshop-like space for visitors to participate as well. Attendees left looking at that sprawling, car-driven city with ideas about how leftover spaces, disused infrastructure, or even highways might be used by the public anew. [Image: rethinkLA]
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- New Summer Parks: This year saw an explosion of new parks opening, and the ones we selected for a summer visit were all examples of the new thinking behind public space design. Each example connected parts of the city or gathered new communities together. [Image: Inhabitat]
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- Clip, Stamp, Fold: While not a public space, this book about radical architectural magazines of the 1960s and 1970s reminds us that creating communities is sometimes as simple as printing out words, images, and drawings, and stapling them together. This was by far the best architectural book of 2011. [Image: Storefront for Art and Architecture]
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- The New Skyscraper: If you want to look for the cutting edge of skyscraper design, go directly to the Vanke Center. Designed by American architect Steven Holl, this massive structure is oriented horizontally, floating above the ground and creating what is essentially a city in one large superstructure. [Image: Steven Holl Architects]
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- Building 2.0: Recycling office buildings was taken to new heights this year. The best example was architectural firm KPF's renovation of a drab 1980s structure in Iselin, NJ. Why build a new building when you can recycle your old one? [Image: Michael Moran]
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- The Architectural Bench: Our favorite manifestation of this year's theme is the Architectural Bench. Perhaps the simplest and most direct way to create community is to create places for people to sit. These benches turn and twist, encouraging people to use them for more than sitting alone and face-forward. People can see each other (if not chat), and make a place to share lunch--plus the benches are wonderful to look at. [Image: WXY Studio]
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- The New Market: The Covington Farmers Market is simple enough: a large, covered, open structure. Yet it was built by local design talent with local materials, much of it recycled. It is the perfect expression of what a local public food market is: small carbon footprint, inexpensive, and beautiful. [Image: © Jeff Goldberg/Esto]
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