<p>Cocktails &amp; Conversations pairs an architect and a critic, journalist, or curator. Of course, it wouldn't be Friday night without a suitable beverage. A custom drink inspired by the architect's work was created especially for the occasion by bartender and author Toby Cecchini or Eben Klemm. The first program was held on Friday November 16th, 2012. Programs are scheduled about once a month.</p>

Center for Architecture

Cocktails & Conversations: Moshe Safdie and Donald Albrecht

In this podcast, the architect Moshe Safdie discusses the Peabody Essex Museum's design. 

 The rebuilding of the Yad Vashem Holocaust Museum includes a new visitors&rsquo; center (Mevoah), a new history museum replacing the existing museum constructed in 1953, a Hall of Names, a synagogue, galleries for Holocaust art, an exhibitions pavilion and a learning and visual center. In addition, new underground parking and facilities for tour buses are located adjacent to a new entrance piazza. The overall program quadruples the permanent exhibition space. The mevoah is an arcaded concrete pavilion roofed by skylights and trellises, which cast everchanging shadow patterns. It is reminiscent of a Succah. The lower level accommodates a restaurant and other public services. The historic museum consists of a mostly underground prismatic structure 16.5 meters high and 183 meters long (54 x 600 feet) that cuts through the Yad Vashem hillside, penetrating from the south and protruding to the north. A network of skylit underground galleries lines both sides of the prism. The Hall of Names, located toward the end of the historic museum, is a conical structure extending upward 9 meters (30 feet) and housing the personal records of all known Holocaust victims. A reciprocal cone, penetrating deep into the Jerusalem bedrock below, echoes the upper chamber and commemorates those whose names will never be known. The 20-hectare (50-acre) site also includes the Children&rsquo;s Holocaust Memorial and the Transport Memorial, designed by Moshe Safdie and completed in 1987 and 1995, respectively, as well as the Hall of Remembrance, administrative offices, an education and archival center and the Valley of the Communities. 

Crystal Bridges is both a museum and a cultural center. The project is located in a ravine with a creek fed by Crystal Springs. Two suspended-cable-and-wood buildings span the ravine, creating two ponds. These structures serve as dams as well as bridges.

The design aims to protect the natural beauty of the site while emphasizing a strong sense of place, and certain materials – wood, fieldstone and limestone aggregate – are drawn from the region. Building walls are architectural concrete with wood inlays, and the roofs are composed of a system of laminated wood beams. The liberal use of glass throughout the complex provides great transparency and enhances views of the site.

The museum comprises a number of independent structures that form a series of pavilions over and alongside the ponds. The two bridge buildings are located at opposite ends of the north pond. Galleries are contained in the Gallery Bridge while reception, dining and hospitality facilities are housed in the Entry Bridge. The great hall, a multipurpose public space, is surrounded on three sides by the south pond. Additional structures are nestled into the sloping terrain on both sides of the ravine and contain galleries, function rooms, classrooms, a library, curatorial spaces and administrative offices. In contrast to the convex roof forms of the bridges, the concave roof forms of these structures visually retain the steep slopes.

 Donald Albrecht, Curator of Architecture and Design at the Museum of New York speaks about the Museum. 

Cocktails & Conversations: Moshe Safdie and Donald Albrecht

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