Press preview: Center for Architecture in New York and Amsterdam’s ARCAM collaborate on sustainable cities exhibition, Wednesday, June 8, 2011

News article | April 4, 2011

Architects and landscape architects imagine the future of two global cities and their waterfronts.

NEW YORK, New York, April 4, 2011 – On the heels of the unveiling of New York City’s Vision 2020: New York City Comprehensive Waterfront Plan, the Center for Architecture and ARCAM are thrilled to announce an international collaboration and exhibition: Glimpses of New York and Amsterdam in 2040. The exhibition challenges ten architecture, landscape architecture and design firms to imagine an urban future that includes new waterside cityscapes, neighborhoods, and transit systems. The exhibition will open in New York at the Center for Architecture, 536 LaGuardia Place, on June 8, and remain on view until September 10. The show will also be installed in Amsterdam, on view at the Amsterdam Center for Architecture (ARCAM) June 17 until July 30.

SUSTAINABLE WATERFRONT CITIES
Both New York and Amsterdam have extensive waterfronts, a strong entrepreneurial spirit and a long tradition of international collaboration and cultural diversity. The twenty-first century requires both cities to address new challenges: shifting demographics, changes in climate, energy transitions and evolving global economic patterns. With these changes, each city will have to consider the relationship between recreational and working waterfronts; the ecology, remediation and preservation of natural habitat; the control of rising water levels; the preservation and reuse of industrial infrastructure; and the role of transport in better connecting cities. These pressing questions are the foundation of the design exchange between the Amsterdam Center for Architecture (ARCAM) and the Center for Architecture in New York. This exhibition is the most recent in a long history of collaboration between Dutch and US partners in addressing urban water issues, and how we “live with water.” With a quarter of its landmass under sea level, the Netherlands has developed an internationally renowned strategy for water management, which they have shared with US communities from the Bay Area to the Louisiana Bayou.

Glimpses of the future can already be seen in our cities -- in emerging green industries, in local networks for energy production and in innovative forms of transportation. By presenting glimpses of New York and Amsterdam’s sustainable future, the exhibition will provide a platform for dialogue concerning critical planning and will explore how energy initiatives, economic incentives and educational programs can provide the means for current activities to grow and impact the future of our city.

“As City Planning Chair Amanda Burden said a few weeks ago, the water is our city’s 6th borough,” explained AIANY President Margaret Castillo, AIA, LEED AP. “I hope these glimpses of 2040, and the progress already being made, will inspire people to work incrementally towards a sustainable future for our city, and introduce innovative, scalable ideas that will work in other places, like Amsterdam, but also in all manner of waterfront cities around the globe. Change on our waterfronts and in our cities is inevitable – and imperative. Let good design lead the way.”

EXHIBITION STRUCTURE
The exhibition will be divided into five “glimpses,” based on necessities of 21st century urban life. The role of recreation (a section dubbed “Breathing”), food production (“Eating”), economic production (“Making”), transportation (“Moving”), and living spaces (“Dwelling”) will be explored in the context of both New York and Amsterdam. Within New York, firms will focus their attention on recreation on the Hudson River, expanding the food network of Bedford Stuyvesant in Brooklyn, commerce and development at the Bush Terminal in Brooklyn, Long Island City and Hunters Point, and the residential development of Newark, NJ. In Amsterdam, designers will focus on the development of the northern and southern IJ-waterfronts, examples of local food production in Amsterdam, the Public Library as a centre for knowledge developing into a ‘public domain work space’, South Axis Business District as a mobility hub with the first electric cars, and the Andreas ensemble as a high density housing estate within the city.

PARTICIPATING TEAMS – A GLIMPSE INTO THE FUTURE OF DESIGN
The exhibition will include the work of New York studios:
dlandstudio (http://www.dlandstudio.com/)
Interboro Partners (http://www.interboropartners.net/),
Solid Objectives - Idenburg Liu (SO-IL) (http://so-il.org/),
W Architecture & Landscape Architecture (http://www.w-architecture.com/)
WORKac (http://work.ac/).
Dutch firms:
Barcode Architects (http://barcodearchitects.com/)
Delva Landscape Architects (http://delva.la/)
Fabrications (http://www.fabrications.nl/)
Space & Matter (http://www.spaceandmatter.nl/)
Van Bergen Kolpa (http://www.vanbergenkolpa.nl/en/)
will complete visions for Amsterdam’s future.

A commonality between all the teams is that they are emerging firms that are already leaving a mark on their communities. Dlandstudio, a six-year old interdisciplinary landscape/architecture studio, has won AIANY, AIANYS and AIA National awards. Interboro Partners has won AIANY’s New Practices competition (2006) and was selected to participate in this year’s MoMA/PS1 Young Architects Program. In 2010 Fabrications was a finalist for the Prix de Rome. In both Amsterdam and New York, the design firms will be working with students, engaging architecture and landscape studios at the Harvard Graduate School of Design, Princeton University, the Amsterdam Academy of Architecture, and others.

Maarten Kloos, director of ARCAM, said “As designers, the most relevant form of reality is not what we see around us, but what is floating above and behind this image of today: plans, projects and visions for the future. We live with one foot in the future, and when we have the chance, such as with this great collaboration, we should study, and explore, the future of the future. I cannot wait to see what the participants in Glimpses produce.”

Curatorial team: Marlies Buurman, ARCAM; Rosamond Fletcher, Center for Architecture; Maarten Kloos, ARCAM; Luc Vrolijks, UrbanProgress

ADVISORY COMMITTEES
New York Advisory Committee:
Chris Beardsley, Executive Director, Forum for Urban Design
Rick Bell, FAIA, Executive Director, AIA New York Chapter
David Bragdon, Director, NYC Mayor’s Office of Long Term Planning and Sustainability
Hillary Brown, FAIA, Professor of Architecture, CUNY and Principal, New Civic Works
Mary Burke, AIA, IIDA, Vice President for Design Excellence, AIA New York Chapter
Margaret Castillo, AIA, LEED AP, President, AIA New York Chapter
Ferdinand Dorsman, General Director for Cultural Affairs, Consulate General of the Kingdom of the Netherlands
Bonnie Harken, AIA, Co-chair, Waterfront Committee, APA New York Metro Chapter
Roland Lewis, President and CEO, Metropolitan Waterfront Alliance
Margaret Newman, AIA, Chief of Staff, NYC Department of Transportation
Howard Slatkin, Director of Sustainability, NYC Department of City Planning
Amsterdam Advisory Committee:
Wienke Bodewes, Chief Executive Officer, Amvest
Jaap Huisman, Researcher and journalist, Writing in de Volkskrant, Vrij Nederland, SMAAK, and de Groene Amsterdammer
Bjarne Mastenbroek, Chairman, Royal Dutch Architecture League (BNA)
Tracy Metz, Journalist for NRC Handelsblad
Paul de Ruiter, Founder, Architectenbureau Paul de Ruiter
Machiel Spaan, Head of the Department of Architecture, Academy of Architecture Amsterdam
Marcia Sookha, Freelance Advisor and Former Chairman of the Amsterdam Greenbuilding Taskforce

EXHIBITION ON VIEW
In New York:
June 8 – September 10, 2011
Center for Architecture, 536 LaGuardia Place, New York City

In Amsterdam:
June 17 – July 30 2011
ARCAM, Prins Hendrikkade 600, 1011 VX Amsterdam

Glimpses of New York and Amsterdam in 2040 is designed by Q Collective

PRESS PREVIEW
Media are invited to attend the press preview, Wednesday, June 8, 2011 10am-12pm at the Center for Architecture, 536 LaGuardia Place.
Write enemens@aiany.org or call 212-358-6126 to RSVP or set up an interview with featured architects.

EXHIBITION OPENING PARTY
The exhibition opening for Glimpses will be held June 8, 2011, from 6:00 – 8:00pm at the Center for Architecture, 536 LaGuardia Place, New York City. Free and open to the public.

EXHIBITION SYMPOSIUM
On Saturday, June 11, 11am-5pm, an exhibition symposium at the Center for Architecture will bring together designers from New York and Amsterdam to discuss their sites, and explore issues of waterfront growth, evolving urban systems, and design for a changing climate.

RELATED PROGRAMS
During the week of June 5-11 the Center will host a number of related programs: two evening panels organized by ARCAM, the opening of the related exhibition Swimming to Manhattan (student work from the Amsterdam Academy of Architecture), a program presenting the work of Archiprix workshop participants, and a discussion on “Urban Farming” organized in collaboration with the Dutch Green Building Council.

EXHIBITION SPONSORS
Glimpses is made possible with the support of the following sponsors:
Underwriters:
Consulate General of the Kingdom of the Netherlands
The Netherlands Architectural Fund

The Center for Architecture is a destination for all interested in the built environment. It is home to the American Institute of Architects New York Chapter and the Center for Architecture Foundation, vibrant nonprofit organizations that provide resources to both the public and building industry professionals. Through exhibitions, programs, and special events, the Center aims to improve the quality and sustainability of the built environment, foster exchange between the design, construction, and real estate communities, and encourage collaborations across the city and globe. As the city’s leading cultural institution focusing on architecture, the Center drives positive change through the power of design. For more information, please visit www.aiany.org.

ARCAM - Amsterdam Centre for Architecture was set up as a foundation in 1986 and concentrates its activities in Amsterdam and the surrounding area. ARCAM aims to reach the largest possible public in order to broaden architecture's appeal, while focusing on topical issues and developments in Amsterdam, so that the discussion about the future is constantly fuelled. ARCAM also serves as a coordination center and works with a large number of institutes to support and coordinate existing program and to initiate new activities. Operating out of an iconic René van Zuuk-designed building on Amsterdam’s waterfront, the Centre serves as an information point, exhibition center, and host to programs about architecture in Amsterdam and around the globe.

The Royal Netherlands Embassy / Consulate General in New York

For more than 400 years, the Netherlands and the United States have been joined by the values of freedom, justice and an entrepreneurial spirit. A vibrant economic force, the Netherlands is also the third largest investor in America and a reliable trade and investment partner to the U.S. The Royal Netherlands Embassy, Dutch Consulates General and Honorary Consuls in the U.S. promote strong bilateral relations between the United States and the Netherlands in the areas of peace and stability; international law; energy and climate; water management; international human rights; culture and creative industries. The Netherlands and the United States: Two countries, one spirit united by values, history and a vision of the future.
More information:
Royal Netherlands Embassy and Orange Alert

The Netherlands Architecture Fund implements various contribution program aimed at developing and exchange knowledge concerning the design disciplines and increasing interest in architecture, urban design, planning, landscape architecture, and interior architecture. Each year the Fund supports a large number of national and international unique and innovative projects. A total of 213 projects were supported in 2009 for a total sum of over 5.4 million euro.