Madison Square Garden wants Farley alterations before moving to make way for Moynihan Station

penn_station_dev_C_tower_map

Madison Square Garden, is requesting significant alterations to the James A. Farley Post Office interior as part of an agreement to move MSG into the building’s western annex, say two people who participated in a state-sponsored tour last week.
The most striking change would be the installation of a huge glass wall between the proposed train hall and MSG, which the Garden wants in order to better advertise events. Garden officials also want to expand two large arches that lead from the post office area into the train hall, and create four arches instead.

Read more: MSG wants Farley alterations before moving. The glass wall is alluded to can be made out in the below rendering from the Draft Environmental Impact Statement (pdf):

The alterations could also jeopardize $250 million in federal tax credits if the National Park Service decides that they trample on historic preservation rules. The building’s exterior would be largely unchanged.

Again, as every large New York City development deal, discussions are made in the back rooms and the public is rarely let in. A new EIS is expected this month, stay tuned.

Recycling the Whole House

return for refund.return for refund., originally uploaded by D.James

Due to rising landfill costs, tighter recycling guidelines and the growing trend toward ecologically sound building methods, this sort of home “deconstruction,” as the practice is called, is starting to catch on. About 1,000 homes a year are disassembled this way, according to the Building Materials Reuse Association, a nonprofit educational group in State College, Pa., which reports growing interest in the practice.

Recycling the Whole House

Guggenheim’s exterior: buff yellow or off-white?

FLLW_guggenheim_color

The Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum is getting a facelift and among the most pressing dilemmas is what color to paint the building’s exterior.
There’s buff yellow, the original color of the exterior selected by Frank Lloyd Wright, the museum’s architect.
There’s also a shade of off-white that, with slights variations, has been the museum’s public face over the years.
Warm yellowish beige, cool grayish white? Powell buff or London Fog?
Some preservation groups, pointing out that Wright abhorred white, favor restoring the building to its original color while some neighborhood associations prefer the museum’s proposal to keep it a shade of off-white.

Guggenheim’s exterior: buff yellow or off-white?
For me, this is akin to Gottfried Semper’s revelation that all of the famous Greek buildings were adorned in polychrome so completely hideous, that we should thank the hands of time for eradicating makeup fit for the red light.
Similar thanks be to black and white film, which recorded the bulk of Frank Lloyd Wright’s work, who’s color choice is equally suspect. While FLLW is a master in tectonic materials – stone, wood and brass – his later Taliesin West years strayed into a palette which we would today call “Scottsdale Pastiche.” With heavy emphasis on Redwood, rammed earth and primary colors his later work was revolutionary, and we can imagine highly copied; but from today’s vantage point, dated is the word due to the misuse (paging Taco Bell) of this palette in suburban houses around the world.
Which is to say, that the color choice is a difficult one; thankfully the Landmarks Preservation Commission has the final say over what paint the Guggenheim will wear for the next twenty years: the authentic paint color which evokes an Arizona tumbleweed, or the inauthentic slightly drab color we all know.

Solar Decathlon 2007: Cincinnati House

Solar Decathlon 2007: Cincinnati HouseSolar Decathlon 2007: Cincinnati House, originally uploaded by Inhabitat

What’s multi-colored, solar-powered, and green all over? The University of Cincinnati’s zero energy home at this year’s Solar Decathlon. The student team’s solution is not only a stylish-looking residence (the multi-colored “tiles” are recycled Formica), but is also easy to transport, scale, and modify in any way shape or form. Throw in some very green materials and systems, and you’ve got yourself a solar powerhouse!

See Solar Decathlon 2007: University of Cincinnati and accompanied Solar Decathlon 2007 Flickr Set and video, In the nation’s capital, a village powered by the sun.
A critique, Apollo-Soyuz: The Aesthetics of Engineering at the Solar Decathlon:

There are few things more exciting than the idea of living off the grid. Access to power, water and food is historically a function of interdependence: it takes whole societies to build infrastructure for the creation, maintenance and distribution of these necessities.
…
What’s missing here (apart from the conspicuous and regrettable absence of several well-known architecture schools) is the kind of intention and aspiration that can give engineering an emotional impact.

Apollo-Soyuz: The Aesthetics of Engineering at the Solar Decathlon.