This capsule is made of welded stainless steel, and is described by the artist as resembling a flower. It contains diverse artifacts of the late 20th century and will be permanently on display atop a polished black granite base until the year 3000, at which time the capsule will be opened. Derived from a sculpture series that explores the formal properties of folded spherical frames, the form of the capsule has been sliced through horizontally, forming two halves. The four top segments are hinged to the bottom four. The cavities of the segments are hollow and together contain about 50 cubic feet of storage space, allowing four tall containers to be housed inside. The items were selected from suggestions by visitors to the Museum of Natural History and the New York Times web site. They were treated with preservative, surrounded with a layer of Nanopore insulation,  packed in special steel containers, and sealed.

Located in the entry plaza outside the Columbus Ave pavilion of The American Museum of Natural History

The New York Times Capsule

Jean Parker Phifer, NYC architect and author of Public Art New York, reads a selection about the New York Times Capsule, designed by Santiago Calatrava.

The new Gateway Center serves as both an initial expression of campus identity and a defining threshold to the College. The building will serve as a welcome center for the college at large, as well as provide dedicated spaces for language, fashion, business and professional development programs. The building is defined by two wings that embrace a green courtyard and are connected by a multi-story transparent glass lobby and welcome center. This daylit volume forms both the gateway to the campus and the entry to the building, and the transparency allows the landscape to visually extend into the building. The zinc volume that forms the upper level of the north wing appears to float above the ground plane, and daylight is filtered through a delicate steel sunscreen into a series of seminar rooms at its southern edge. A slender zinc-clad tower serves as a vertical punctuation within the overall composition. Sustainable design strategies were integral to the design, from the overall siting and building massing strategy to the incorporation of energy efficient systems and the development of details and selection of materials, including locally quarried stone, zinc and glass. The design minimizes disruption of the local ecology by setting the building into its natural slope and preserving existing trees. The building is designed to achieve LEED Silver certification.

Gateway Center

A new prototype in civic building, this branch public library is a primary cultural center at a prominent intersection in a vibrant multi-cultural neighborhood.&nbsp;Transparency is employed as a metaphor for universal accessibility: the architecture demystifies the library experience by making the facility’s collections, functional organization and user activity visually accessible from the street, facilitating public access to information and learning.The design emphasizes the asymmetrical qualities of its triangular site. The Main Street façade is a glass membrane: a stair and elevator core visible just inside the exterior glass wall connect three floors whose centralized free-plan is readily understood.&nbsp;

Flushing Regional Branch Library

This state-of-the-art multidisciplinary laboratory facility is situated within the scientific precinct of the New York Botanical Garden's 250-acre campus. A freestanding building at the northern edge of the garden, the new laboratory frames a gateway to the landscape beyond. A crisp rectilinear form is cantilevered on all sides from a central core. The lab appears to visually hover above the ground plane, allowing the landscape to flow beneath. Its organization encourages interaction among Garden scientists, graduate students and post-conference facilities and meeting areas, are used for teaching as well as for formal and informal gatherings. A floor-to-ceiling glass curtain wall, running the length of the laboratory, blurs the distinction between interior and exterior to visually extend the laboratory beyond the walls of the building. The complex program includes facilities for such diverse analytic approaches as molecular analysis, DNA sequencing, and comparative genomic research. 

Pfizer Plant Research Laboratory and International Plant Science Center, NYBG

This printing plant, which is highly visible to a million passing motorists each week, provides a new architectural identity and expands the newspaper’s production capabilities. The result of an intense collaboration among the client, the design architect, engineering firms and the construction manager, the design recomposes the typical industrial shed into a series of dynamic building forms, whose volumes are distilled from and dramatize the printing process. Distinct volumes express the paper storage, printing, sorting and distribution elements of the program. Expanses of glass afford views of the presses and of papers threading through the building. This device harkens back to the paper’s original facility in Brooklyn where the public could view the complete printing, collating and folding operations. Bold colors and graphics enliven the long highway facade, and the skin of the plant employs simple and inexpensive materials in unpredictable ways, becoming a vibrant billboard along the adjacent highway. 

The New York Times' Printing Plant

The renovation of the 1953 Louis Kahn Art Gallery building restores many features of the original design and upgrades outmoded systems, including the complete replacement of the building’s original window-wall system, most dramatically along the west and north facades. The new system duplicates the appearance and profiles of the original while addressing the original wall’s technical shortcomings and accommodating the strict temperature and humidity requirements of a modern museum.  The renovation restores an open exterior courtyard that was roofed over in the 1970’s. With the removal of partitions, the galleries now reveal spacious, unobstructed vistas according to Kahn’s original vision. Other highlights include the refurbishment of the tetrahedral ceilings, designed to house the electrical and ventilation systems; the transformation of the first-floor lobby into a media lounge, an inviting information center and gathering place; and a complete upgrade of building systems.

Post-Renovation &copy;Elizabeth Felicella

 &copy;Yale University Art Gallery Archives

Yale University Art Gallery

 The Bing Concert Hall exemplifies the seamless integration of architecture, acoustics and technology with the goal of transforming the practice, study and experience of the performing arts at Stanford and provides a state-of-the-art venue for visiting performers as well as students. The program &ndash; the central element of which is an 842-seat vineyard style concert hall &ndash; includes a rehearsal hall, artists` suites, a music library and practice rooms. The hall is designed for unamplified musical performances, as well as spoken word, and jazz, electronic and experimental music. Variable acoustics, sound reinforcement, video projection, simulcast, and mixing and recording technologies are all incorporated. The site design responds to the arcadian quality of the surrounding Stanford Arboretum, bringing the landscape into the building so it feels more like a clearing in the woods than an urban building with hard edges. A forecourt leads to the entry portico and into the lobby of the hall, with daylight entering from all sides. Light wells encircle the concert hall volume, blurring the distinction between inside and out, while continuous glass walls open the fa&ccedil;ade to the exterior colonnades, a contemporary expression of a traditional Stanford typology. The hall is a vineyard style configuration, with seating sections split into terraces ringing the stage, creating a particularly intimate concert experience for both audience and performers. The low walls embracing each seating section are angled and articulated with wood walls whose textured surfaces strategically reflect and disperse sound. The series of large convex-shaped sails circling the hall are shaped to provide optimal acoustic reflection or absorption and are also designed as screens for video projection. Contrasting with the wood below, the lighter tones of the sculptural sail walls and ceiling cloud provide the higher region of the hall with an uplifting quality. 

 the Architect the Architect   the Architect

Stanford University, Bing Concert Hall

Bing Concert Hall

 Located in Manhattan`s Hudson riverfront Meatpacking District, the hotel responds to its context through contrast: sculptural piers, whose forms clearly separate the building from the orthogonal street grid, raise the building fifty-seven feet off the street and allow the horizontally-scaled industrial landscape to pass beneath it and natural light to penetrate to the street. The 18-story building straddles the High Line, a 75-year-old elevated railroad line recently developed into a new linear, public park. The two slabs of the building are &ldquo;hinged,&rdquo; angled to further emphasize the building`s distinction from the city`s grid and its levitation above the neighborhood. The low-scale environment affords the building unique visibility from all directions, and unobstructed 360&deg; views of the city. The juxtaposition of the building`s two materials &ndash; concrete and glass &ndash; reflects the character of the City: the gritty quality of the concrete contrasts with the refinement of the glass. The concrete grid provides a delicate frame for the exceedingly transparent water-white glass, the two materials unified in the continuous plane of the curtain wall. The curtainwall breaks with the traditional architecture of hotels, replacing opacity with transparency, privacy with openness and defining a new paradigm. 

The Standard, High Line

The Rose Center for Earth and Space redefines the identity of this venerable cultural and academic institution for the 21st century while respecting the historic architecture of the designated landmark. Along with the Arthur Ross Terrace, the Weston Pavilion and the renovated Theodore Roosevelt Park, The Rose Center completes the Museum’s north side. The iconic sphere, housed within a glass cube, contains the state-of-the art Hayden Planetarium and “Big Bang” theater, whose program describes the origins of the universe. The building itself is designed as a learning tool, as a visible expression of the science it contains. Its extraordinary curtain wall, structural system and lighting, its use of materials and color, its open planning and single, striking volumetric expression all reveal to the visitor an iconic example of building technology and science that makes this new building a worthy complement to the existing museum and an effective expression of the institution’s scientific and educational mission.

Rose Center for Earth and Space

Rose Center for Earth and Space at American Museum of Natural History

Todd Shlieman talks about the Rose Center for Earth and Space- a new paradigm for planetaria based on transparency, openness and connectedness. The architect shares his excitement about being able to provide a vessel and an inspiration for learning about the universe through the design of his building.&nbsp; &nbsp;

 Built in 1891 by the philanthropist Andrew Carnegie, Carnegie Hall immediately became the home of the New York Philharmonic and, by extension, one of the most prestigious music venues in the world. It presents about 200 concerts every year. This restoration and renovation posed an especially exciting challenge, given the building`s landmark status, a demanding construction schedule, and users` memories and expectations for America`s most venerated concert hall. An extensive restoration of Carnegie`s original details celebrates the hall`s rich history. New details&mdash;custom lighting fixtures, railings, graphics and a new marquee&mdash;which evoke the spirit of the original design, announce late twentieth century improvements without compromising the building`s historic character. Phases I and II included the new lobby, newly-created Kaplan Rehearsal Space, and completely renovated Main Hall and Weill Recital Hall, which together demonstrate how carefully-designed public spaces can range from the ceremonial to the intimate. Newly developed circulation systems facilitate transitions from public entry and gathering spaces to the performance halls. The design has transformed this late nineteenth century hall into a twenty-first century facility. 

Carnegie Hall

The expansion redefines and augments the exhibit sequence and rationalizes circulation throughout the building. The long, low volume of the new building, defined by luminous folded planes, is a formal counterpoint to the undulating vertical form of the original World’s Fair pavilion, defined by its iconic cellular concrete and dark cobalt cast glass frame. A space of muted white light, the exhibit hall hovers over a transparent base that furthers the museum’s goal of accessibility by allowing passersby glimpses into the interior. The Discovery Labs, adjacent and open to the new exhibition spaces on the upper and lower levels, are given visible identity and ambiguous thresholds to draw in visitors. Also connected to the new hall, an exhibition space for traveling shows provides a light-controlled gallery. A landscaped precinct is home to the renovated Rocket Park and accommodates outdoor programming. Current work includes exterior stabilization of the Great Hall and interior renovations.

New York Hall of Science

A green “intermodal” transportation facility, at the New York Botanical Garden - a parking garage that provides ample parking for the garden. The garage will serve as an inter-modal facility, that will connect to three different sources of transportation: rail, cars and buses. It accommodates garden visitors as well as commuters, community residents, and local businesses, with its parking for electric cars, spaces for bicycles. The exterior vertical gardens complement the Museum of plants.

Garage and Intermodal Facility, The New York Botanical Garden

 The Nordic Center in America is the leading center for Nordic culture in the United States. It offers a wide range of programs that illuminate the culture and vitality of Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Norway, and Sweden. Scandinavia House offerings include diverse exhibitions and film series, as well as concerts and other performances, readings, lectures, symposia, language courses, and children`s activities. Scandinavia House is the headquarters of The American-Scandinavian Foundation (ASF) and the site of ASF`s cultural and educational programming. There is a restaurant in the ground floor and a store selling Scandinavian merchandise.

Scandinavia House

The new building unifies the school, previously dispersed in five separate buildings throughout the upper east side of Manhattan.  Located on a thru-block site, the new building is comprised of two five-story structures connected by three full-lot floors and a north-south bridge at the second level with a central landscaped rooftop courtyard.  At each level, the central space acts as the heart of the Lycée, defining a French Cultural Center for the school.  Shared school-wide program spaces such as libraries, cafeteria, auditorium and gymnasia unify the school at the three lower levels. A series of grand stairways vertically link these major spaces within. The overall spatial organization of the building and its exterior articulation convey the rigorous ordering of the program and the classroom module and express the three-dimensional structural system of the building.  The building’s identity is a dialogue between north/south solar orientation and contrasting materials of glass and masonry that combine to express its cultural duality.

Lycée Français de New York

Founded by Tony Bennett and Susan Benedetto, this 1,000-student New York City public high school celebrates the school’s specialized curriculum in instrumental music, vocal music, fine arts, drama and dance in its overall design. The state-of-the-art facility creates a unique and powerful identity in the community, forging connections to the adjacent Kaufman Astoria Studios and Museum of the Moving Image. The transparency of the principal façade reveals rehearsal and studio spaces within, enlivening the street and conveying openness and accessibility.

The school’s centerpiece is a five-story sky-lit atrium which cuts through the building to illuminate interior spaces and highlight the oval form of the Tony Bennett Concert Hall. This central zone of the building is framed by a perimeter of classrooms.  The five-story structure culminates in a rooftop landscape courtyard for gatherings and outdoor performances. 

Frank Sinatra School of the Arts

Susie Rodriguez, Design Architect at Ennead for the Project talks about the building

The design of this world-class ambulatory care creates an environment that promotes health and healing, while recognizing the stature of the College's eminent physicians and its state-of-the-art clinical services. The building integrates itself into the everyday fabric of the City and provides an elegant, reassuring and welcoming face for healthcare. Sheathed entirely in glass, which was selected for its open, transparent qualities and experiential richness, the building symbolizes the progressive identity of the institution. The water white ceramic fritted glass curtain wall, which is cut into long vertical facets, veils the building, generating a softness and depth for the building’s undulating reflective surface. From the interior, this translucent skin subdues the hustle and bustle of the city and gently shapes the flow of natural light. Accessibility and ease-of-use are supported by the incorporation of valet parking, and a high level of personalized service typically equated with a fine hotel. A series of water features, which enhance the sense of calm, and in combination with the diffused natural light, ease patient stress and anxiety, characterizes the main lobby. Natural materials, including wood, travertine and Cor-Ten steel, constitute the lobby’s material palette.

Weill Cornell Medical College, Weill Greenberg Center

In creating an accessible, secure and private facility, the design expresses the City’s progressive approach to homelessness. The program is organized in two distinct parts: the more public and active zones, accommodating intake and screening in physically and visually accessible spaces, occupy the first and concourse levels; administrative work spaces, client waiting areas and client interview rooms are located in large, loft-like, light-filled spaces on floors two through seven. North and south facades gesture to the scales and characters of their distinct context and unify them: terra cotta references the brick architecture of the residential buildings, zinc and metal trim tracery evoke an industrial aesthetic, and glass reinforces visibility and transparency.  High performance systems are integrated throughout: building skin (rain screen), rainwater collection and green roof technology. The building is designed to achieve LEED Silver certification.

Department of Homeless Services, Prevention Assistance and Temporary Housing

Integrated into the foothill slopes of the Wasatch Mountain Range, the building steps up the hill and cuts into it to mimic natural forms.  Its material palette recalls Utah’s rich geological and mineralogical history; on the exterior, a variegated pattern of copper panels extends from the volume at angles that reference the surrounding mountainous landscape and the geophysical processes that created it.  Three structural bays are organized along a central axis.  This organization reduces the perceived scale of the building and creates a central wedge-shaped public space called the ‘canyon.’ On the interior, exhibits are designed as a system of “trails,” allowing visitors to chose their own paths.  The new building provides advanced research facilities for Museum scientists and a venue for undergraduate and graduate training at the University of Utah.  

Natural History Museum of Utah

This high performance, durable, well-organized, maintainable “machine” is one of five special operations rescue facilities in New York City. In addition to firefighting, these elite companies respond to more specialized emergency situations such as building collapses, subway emergencies and scuba operations and thus have special infrastructure and equipment storage requirements. All spaces in the building are strategically located in relations to the centrally placed Apparatus Rig, the most important element in the house. Responding to the restricted site, functions are stacked: physical work areas and storage occupy the ground and basement levels; rest, study and dining are at the second level; and training and fitness spaces are at the mezzanine level. The primary design elements of the building’s east façade are oversized FDNY-red apparatus doors, which express the building’s identity as a FDNY facility and create an open, yet secure street presence.


New York City Fire Department, Rescue Company 3

Contrasting with the classical solemnity and monumentality of the original edifice, the glass entry pavilion and Eastern Parkway plaza create a new identity for the Museum. Generating principles of the design are firmly rooted in the formal and organizational strategies of the historic structure: its asymmetry, permeability and minimalism are counterpoints to the rigorous symmetry, opacity and decorative qualities of the original, and its stepped forms reference the original monumental entry stair. The hemicyclical geometry of the new entry pays homage to McKim, Mead & White’s design for the Museum’s unbuilt eastern entry and mediates between the frontality of the portico and the oblique axes of approach from the east and west.

Brooklyn Museum Entry Pavilion and Plaza

The David H. Koch Center for Cancer Care at Memorial Sloan Kettering offers nearly every aspect of outpatient cancer care across many specialties, so most patients can get all their treatments in one place. The David H. Koch Center for Cancer Care at Memorial Sloan Kettering has been designed to help restore patients’ health and well-being, and offers chemotherapy, immunotherapy, radiation therapy, blood and marrow transplants, clinical trials, rehabilitation services, and much more.

Memorial Sloan Kettering

David H. Koch Center for Cancer Care

It underwent significant upgrades starting in 1998 to enhance its capacity by 50% and to comply with the U.S. Clean Water Act. The project, set for completion in 2014, included unique public amenities such as a visitors' center with a manmade waterfall, a nature walk along Newtown Creek, and aesthetic enhancements. These features were influenced by community involvement and a city law requiring public art expenditure for public works projects. The plant's sludge digesters, housed in egg-shaped structures, utilize anaerobic digestion to convert sewage sludge into fertilizer.The city appointed Ennead Architects, collaborating with environmental engineering firms Greeley and Hansen, Hazen and Sawyer, and Malcolm Pirnie. Artists and designers, including Vito Acconci, Hervé Descottes, and George Trakas, have contributed to the project's distinctive elements, such as the waterfall, lighting design, and nature walk.

The master plan for this wastewater treatment plant outlines $4.5 billion in new construction over 25 years, to replace an outmoded and environmentally unsound facility. Constructed in phases, the plant remains fully operational throughout the process. The design employs building forms, materials and color as well as perimeter fencing, aerial walkways and bridges as ordering devices to link the structures into a comprehensible and striking visual composition. Expanses of glass display and demystify the wastewater treatment process and provide natural light in machinery rooms. The need to balance the requirements of a large-scale water pollution control plant with the concerns of the surrounding community was critical. The master plan embraced the community’s desire for waterfront access: a waterfront park at the site was designed in collaboration with the artist and sculptor George Trakas, with provisions for extending the concept all along Newtown Creek as the area develops away from strictly industrial use.The Newtown Creek Wastewater Treatment Plant is the largest sewage treatment facility operated by the New York City Department of Environmental Protection. Since 2010, its eight metallic "digester eggs", which are 140 feet tall and dramatically illuminated with blue light at night, have made it a local landmark.

Newtown Wastewater Treatment plant

Newtown Creek Wastewater Treatment Plant

The Museum of the City of New York was founded in 1923 by Henry Collins Brown, a Scottish-born writer with a vision for a populist approach to the city. The Museum was originally housed in Gracie Mansion, the future residence of the Mayor of New York. Hardinge Scholle succeeded Henry Brown in 1926 and began planning a new home for the Museum. The City offered land on Fifth Avenue on 103rd-104th Streets and construction for Joseph H. Freedlander`s Georgian Colonial-Revival design for the building started in 1929 and was completed in 1932.

 Filip Wolak Courtesy Museum of the City of New York

 Filip Wolak,  Museum of the City of New York

 Coach made its first journey from Madison Square to Pelham on, May 1, 1876, thereby inaugurating the sport of coaching, in 1935  

The beautiful new&amp;nbsp;Georgian Colonial-Revival&amp;nbsp;building was dedicated on January 11, 1932, which provided the space to house, conserve, and showcase the extraordinary collection the Museum had amassed over the years.  

Donations started as low as $1 and came from a diverse group of contributors&amp;mdash;from well-known New Yorkers to even a scout troop! The fundraising goal was met, and just in time as this was right before the 1929 stock market crash and the subsequent Great Depression. The original plans for the building were scaled back, but construction began and continued throughout this turbulent era in New York City&amp;rsquo;s history.&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;  

In 2000, during the Giuliani administration, the Board of Directors voted to move the Museum to the newly renovated Tweed Courthouse in downtown Manhattan. However, in 2002 the new Bloomberg administration decided that the courthouse would instead serve as the headquarters for the Department of Education.  

Museum of the City of New York

Gracie Mansion

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

 Located on the southernmost parcel in Battery Park City overlooking New York Harbor, this tower is comprised of the Ritz-Carlton hotel on the lower 12 floors with 26 condominium floors above. It also serves as the home of the Skyscraper Museum. 

Ritz Carlton Downtown Hotel Condominium Tower

 The new Staten Island Courthouse and 660-car parking structure are located on the site of the nineteenth-century New York Marine Hospital, an immigrant quarantine facility. In accordance with preservation standards, the new Memorial Green space that fronts the facility is built above the hospital cemetery to ensure that its interred remains are left undisturbed. The raised green created an opportunity for monumental stairs along the diagonal paths that lead to the building`s entry plaza. The hilltop location overlooking New York Harbor also includes a Percent for Art component, The Passage: A Moving Memorial, by Mary Miss Studios that comprises 16 &ldquo;Art Columns&rdquo; on the east side of the Memorial Green. The $220M LEED Silver project includes native plantings, and the parking structure is clad with vertical planting screens featuring five vine species to soften the facade. Also contributing to the LEED rating is the capture of stormwater from the courthouse and Memorial Green.  The captured water irrigates the plantings and lawn on the elevated green. Low maintenance landscaping also covers approximately 50 percent of the roof, helps cool the building, absorbs rainfall, and provides an attractive view for people within the courthouse. 

Staten Island Courthouse, St. George

 This large-scale renovation of the 2209 seat New York City Center will reinvigorate the identity of one of New York City`s most venerable performing arts venues. The neo-Moorish building was originally constructed as the National Mecca Temple for the Shriners in 1923. In the late 1930`s, Mayor Fiorello LaGuardia purchased the hall to become the &ldquo;people`s performance space,&rdquo; as opposed to the more elite Carnegie Hall. The building has continued to serve this function for the past seventy years, providing a wide range of popular entertainments &mdash; dance, musical theater, music, and drama &mdash; and filling an essential role in the cultural landscape of New York City. The goal of our design is to preserve the essential character of this beloved New York City institution, albeit beautifully restored and dramatically enhanced with modern patron amenities. The design addresses and resolves numerous functional problems of the original building while retaining its distinctive and quirky appeal. A new marquee on the exterior with additional exterior lighting and signage will announce the theater`s presence more visibly on the street and define the building more dramatically within its urban context. On the interior, the original box office lobby and mezzanine lobby will be faithfully restored, and several dramatic new spaces will be introduced. In addition to the careful restoration of many of the spaces, our new design insertions have been based on a careful study of the underlying geometric motifs of Islamic architecture, reinterpreted to be complementary but not imitative of the existing fabric. The goal has been to create a vibrant new venue, with all of the conveniences and amenities that contemporary patrons expect, but one that is still &ldquo;City Center,&rdquo; beloved by generations of New York City theatergoers. 

New York City Center

The architect talks about the challenges of renovating the building

The Astor Library was a prominent free public library in Manhattan's East Village, established through the efforts of (funded by) John Jacob Astor and Joseph Cogswell. It was designed by Alexander Saeltzer and opened in 1854 as a non-circulating research library.&nbsp;

W. B. Astor donated land for the expansion of the Library.&nbsp;

John Jacob Astor III donated three lots of ground adjoining the northern side of the library's lot for an addition on December 5, 1879.&nbsp;

In 1895, the Astor Library merged with the Lenox Library and the Tilden Foundation, forming the New York Public Library (NYPL). The library played a crucial role in the development of public access to knowledge in New York City.

The Hebrew Immigrant Aid Society acquired the building.&nbsp;

The building was threatened with demolition. The New York Shakespeare Festival convinced the city to save it for theater use.&nbsp;

Renowned architect Giorgio Cavaglieri led its conversion between 1967 and 1976. The building was designated a New York City Landmark in 1965.

A major $35 million renovation of one of the first non-profit theaters in the country, The Public Theater. The design preserved the historic structure, which had fallen into disrepair, an enlarged lobby, and modern patron amenities. A new glass and steel canopy and a lighted facade above.

Originally home to NYC’s first free library, this building is considered one of the best American examples of German Romanesque Revival, or Rundbogenstil. It currently houses the Public Theater, founded by Joseph Papp and known for launching the original production of Hair.

In the latter half of the 19th century

This Library Open Every Other Monday from 9:58 am - 10:00amCartoon by Chip from the January 7, 1892, issue of the first Life magazine satirizing the opening day of the Astor Library

Public Theater

Originally home to NYC’s first free library (funded by John Jacob Astor), this building is considered one of the best American examples of German Romanesque Revival, or Rundbogenstil. It currently houses the Public Theater, founded by Joseph Papp and known for launching the original production of Hair.

This impressive museum was built in the Romanesque Revival style with pink granite, a barrel-vaulted ceiling, and marble floors.

The Richard Gilder Graduate School at the American Museum of Natural History houses the Museum’s new graduate program in comparative biology, the first museum program in the United States to grant PhDs. Occupying the top floor of the historic 1891 museum building designed by Josiah Cleveland Cady, the School includes a student lounge, a 25-person teaching lab, administrative offices, and a 50-person lecture hall. The project provides a home base for graduate students now scattered throughout the complex as well as a new identity for the program within the restored historic fabric of the building. The School is located along the “Golden Corridor of Science,” the monumentally scaled hallway that stretches more than 600 feet of the Museum’s upper floor. The heart of the complex is a double-height student lounge, ringed with a mezzanine with individual study carrels. A glazed wall opens the lounge to the corridor.

The original Hayden Planetarium, built in 1935, at the American Museum of Natural History was the fourth planetarium in the US. Designed by Trowbridge and Livingston, it sported an Art Deco concrete copper-covered dome, reflecting confidence in scientific progress. Inside, the planetarium housed state-of-the-art instruments, including the Zeiss II projector financed by Charles Hayden. The dome's interior was acoustically remarkable. The structure also featured an array of murals and an auditorium that projected past and future skies. The shows, blending science and optimism, aimed to soothe Depression-era fears. In WWII, the planetarium also assisted in training military personnel.&nbsp;

The Rose Center for Earth and Space redefines the identity of this venerable cultural and academic institution for the 21st century while respecting the historic architecture of the designated landmark. Along with the Arthur Ross Terrace, the Weston Pavilion and the renovated Theodore Roosevelt Park, The Rose Center completes the Museum’s north side. The iconic sphere, housed within a glass cube, contains the state-of-the art Hayden Planetarium and “Big Bang” theater, whose program describes the origins of the universe. The building itself is designed as a learning tool, as a visible expression of the science it contains. Its extraordinary curtain wall, structural system and lighting, its use of materials and color, its open planning and single, striking volumetric expression all reveal to the visitor an iconic example of building technology and science that makes this new building a worthy complement to the existing museum and an effective expression of the institution’s scientific and educational mission.

The Richard Gilder Center for Science, Education, and Innovation, the latest expansion of New York's historic American Museum of Natural History, responds to the urgent need for better science understanding and access to education. Created from within, the design enhances the Museum's functionality and visitor experience throughout the campus. The project establishes a new, accessible entrance and a strong east-west axis, creating over thirty connections between ten buildings and replacing former dead ends with continuous circulation. The Gilder Center introduces new exhibitions, education, collections, and research spaces, unveiling previously behind-the-scenes functions to the public and revealing the Museum's diverse collections and ongoing scientific research. Inspired by natural processes, the architecture mirrors a porous geological structure shaped by wind and water, with a central five-story atrium welcoming visitors. The atrium is supported by structural walls and arches that carry the building's load. Constructed with shotcrete, a technique used for infrastructure, the building boasts a seamless, visually unified interior that extends outward, harmonizing with the park and neighborhood. The atrium promotes energy efficiency by channeling light and air, and passive cooling is achieved through stone cladding, shaded windows, and vegetation. The Gilder Center, with its advanced environmental strategies and commitment to the natural world, exemplifies the Museum's mission.

AMNH Special Collections, Photographic Transparency Collection, 4 x 5

The American Museum of Natural History in New York City is one of the world’s preeminent scientific, educational, and cultural institutions. The new Richard Gilder Center for Science, Education, and Innovation, designed by Studio Gang and set in Theodore Roosevelt Park, connects 10 buildings across the Museum’s four-block campus, establishing continuous pathways to enhance visitor circulation.

Interior - early illustration -1877. New York City. The Presidential Visit - President Hayes participating in the opening ceremonies of the Museum of Natural History, Manhattan Square, Eighth Avenue and Seventy-Ninth to Eighty-First Street, on Saturday, December 22nd

Verso: The Theodore Roosevelt Memorial at the American Museum of Natural History was erected by the people of the State of New York as a tribute to a famous son who served as its Governor and later as the 26th President of the United States - a man who was renowned, also, for his interest in natural history and conservation. The architecture of the Memorial is in the classic style, the facade of which is set off by four iconic columns 54 feet high. Surmounting these columns are statues of Boone, Audubon, Clark, and Lewis, pioneers in the early exploration of our country. A bronze equestrian statue of Theodore Roosevelt by James Earle Fraser stands in front of the entrance. Giant Post Card. The American Museum of Natural History, New York, USA. Series Code: 77746-B. Publisher: Dexter Press, Inc.

Verso: Mr. and Mrs. J Meade, Oak Island, Babylon, Long Island Dear Mr. and Mrs. Meade: We sent you a bag of stale bread for your chickens. Keep in a dry place. We are all well and hope you are the same. Louise

AMNH Special Collections, Photographic Transparency Collection, 35mm

AMNH Special Collections, Photographic Negative Collection, 8 x 10

AMNH Special Collections, Photographic Negative Collection, 4 x 5

AMNH Special Collections, Photographic Transparency Collection

AMNH Special Collections, Photographic Negative Collection, 5 x 7

Drawing of Hayden Planetarium interior, by Hugh Ferris of Trowbridge and Livingston, Architects, New York, May, 1934

American Museum of Natural History

Queens Borrough Public Library

Frank Sinatra High School of the Arts, on 1st, 2nd, 4th and 5th floors.

The Center for Feminist Art is located on the 4th Floor of the Brooklyn Museum

Brooklyn Museum

Common Ground Community, Schermerhorn House

Visitor Center at the Newtown Creek Water Treatment Plant

Stanford Law School, William H. Neukom Building 

High School of Law Enforcement and Public Safety

IS HS 43 - Jerome Parker Campus

Ennead Architects LLP is a New York City-based architectural firm. Previously known as Polshek Partnership, the firm's nine partners renamed their practice in 2005. The 150-person firm offers architecture, master planning, historic preservation and interior design services. The majority of the firm’s work is for cultural, educational, governmental and scientific not-for-profit institutions.

Ennead and their consultants designed a new copper roof to protect the 120 year old Guastavino tile dome over the Cathedral's crossing and restored the interior of the dome. Our tour would include looking at the dome from street level, inside the Cathedral, and up close from an adjacent roof (that requires a 17-story climb).

Cathedral of St. John the Divine Crossing Dome Roof

Ennead Architects

Architect Wendy Evans Joseph talks about  new look for the central entry space of the Museum of the City of New York.  The proposal included three main elements: a seating area, a temporary café on the 2nd floor and a light installation.

Starlight replaces a 19th century chandelier, with the intention of not just providing light, but as part of a greater ideal of making the entry lobby the core experience for public gathering and to encourage visitors to use the monumental circular stair as primary circulation instead of elevators. But beyond these practical notions, the light sculpture symbolizes the museum’s engagement with modern life in the city. It links its great historic tradition with current technology and thinking.

Dynamic rather than static, Starlight activates the space in which it sits. Designed with a precisely uniform 3-dimensional grid pattern (5 ¾”), the geometry seemingly changes as the viewer ascends the stairs. Bursts of star pattern change your perception forming perforated veils to the classical architecture. Each pixel is constructed from a double-sided circuit board, on which LEDs are mounted above and below. They are held at the center of a 3-strand stainless steel wire assembly.

In true elevation, the installation is a circle form. As one enters the museum from the Fifth Avenue, the lower half is visible. Reciprocally, the view of the lights from the cafe on the 2nd floor is predominantly of the upper region of the circle, then completed artistically by the reflection in the white marble floor. As you ascend the stair, you perceive the form in its entirety.

Ennead Architects

SITES

PLAYLISTS CURATED by Ennead Architects

Podcasts