OPENHOUSENEWYORK PRESENTS: 8TH ANNUAL WEEKEND CELEBRATION OF ARCHITECTURE AND DESIGN // Launch Party – Friday, October 8th 7:00 – 9:00 pm at The Centurion
Citywide Free Access to Over 300 Sites and Programs Including Hard-Hat Tours, Dialogues with Architects and Designers, Performances, and Family Activities – Saturday & Sunday, October 9 & 10, 2010
openhousenewyork (OHNY) presents the 8th Annual OHNY Weekend, a five borough–wide celebration of architecture and design. OHNY Weekend, which is becoming a New York City tradition, engages the public in the built environment by offering free access to hundreds of sites that exemplify New York City’s diverse architectural, design, engineering, and cultural heritage.
“This year,” says Renee Schacht, executive director of OHNY, “we will be touring places and opening doors to sites that span the history of New York – from Staten Island’s Conference House, the only pre-Revolution manor house still standing to contemporary public and private spaces including The Centurion, a midtown Manhattan residential building designed by Pei Partnership Architects with I.M. Pei.”
Among the many new to OHNY Weekend participating sites/programs this year include two hard-hat tours – 1 World Trade Center, formerly known as the Freedom Tower (SOM), and the Louis Kahn designed Four Freedoms Park on Roosevelt Island (to be realized by Mitchell/Giurgola Architects). The list also includes the first ever public tour of the newest and still closed section of The High Line (James Corner Field Operations and Diller Scofidio + Renfro), The Museum of Chinese in America (Maya Lin Studio with Bialosky + Partners), The Islamic Cultural Center (SOM), Rocking the Boat (WXY Architecture + Urban Design), Gowanus Canal Sponge Park (dlandstudio), the Motor Vessel Red Hook, New York City Department of Environmental Protection’s newest sludge boat, and an AIA Guide to New York City Walking Tour of Lower Manhattan led by the author Fran Leadon– list in formation.
In response to the New York City Departments of Design and Construction, Health and Mental Hygiene, Transportation, and City Planning, (with input from the Mayor’s Office of Long-Term Planning and Sustainability and other agencies) and the American Institute of Architects New York Chapter’s call for promoting physical activity through design, OHNY Weekend will feature several new projects that incorporate those goals: Bronx Museum of the Arts (Arquitectonica), Diane von Furstenberg Studio (Work Architecture Company), The East Harlem School (Peter L. Gluck and Partners), The Visionaire (Pelli Clarke Pelli Architects), and the Whitestone Branch of the Queens Library and Learning Garden (Marpillero Pollak Architects), and the aforementioned High Line.
“It is rewarding,” says Margaret Sullivan, OHNY board president and director of interior design at H3 Hardy Collaboration Architecture to offer New York City’s design professionals this opportunity to showcase their work, both completed and on the boards, and reach the tremendous audience that attends OHNY Annual Weekend. Simultaneously, the Weekend would not be as successful without the design community’s generous donation of time and effort.”
The Weekend also includes many family-friendly sites and programs such as Buildings on the Land/Arquitectura de Wave Hill, I ART NY at the Children’s Museum of the Arts, Kids Go Green on the roof of the new Diana Center (Weiss/Manfredi) at Barnard College, and creating Halloween costumes that look like famous buildings at the Skyscraper Museum. In addition, OHNY hosts an annual Family Festival with a variety of hands-on activities led by educational and design groups from around New York City such as the Japan Society, Solar One, Tenement Museum and Children’s Museum of the Arts.
Many perennial OHNY Weekend favorite sites and programs will once again be opening their doors to the public: Atlantic Avenue Tunnel, Chrysler Building, Duane Street Work/Loft, Eldridge Street Synagogue, Fairfax and Sammons Residence, Grand Lodge of the Masons, Kushner Residence, Richard Meier & Partners Model Museum, MTA Substation, Murray’s Cheese, Newtown Creek Visitor Center and Digester Egg Experience, the Old Croton Aqueduct Walking Tour, Tom Otterness Studio, the Waterfront Museum and Showboat Barge, and for the eighth consecutive year, the Center for Architecture will serve as the OHNY Welcome Center. Also returning is the OHNY Passport – for a donation of $150 participants plus one guest can get front-of-the-line access at all sites that do not require advance reservations.
Of special interest this year – engineering firm Arup will open their SoundLab, a space usually reserved for architects and musicians, and give visitors a rare opportunity to experience an environment where one can understand how spaces will sound, the Emerging NY Architects of Committee (ENYA) of the AIA New York Chapter, hosts of an international ideas competition for High Bridge Park will show how winning designers envision the restoration and reopening of the historic High Bridge in the Bronx, the New York Society of Renderers (NYSR) will demonstrate how an architectural renderer takes an architect or designer’s idea and transforms it into a work of art by hand and through the use of computer technology, and Room & Board will host a salon with atelier KleinReid, designers of handmade porcelain ware who will discuss their collaboration with design legend Eva Zeisel.
This year’s event guide will be inserted in the September 29th issue of Time Out New York and will also be available in limited quantities at the Center for Architecture as well as at NYC & Co. Information Centers. All listings, including changes and additions, will be available online at www.ohny.org beginning September 29th.
More than 185,000 people are expected to participate in the event that includes over 300 sites, programs, events and tours, which in past years has drawn audiences from beyond the five boroughs to encompass all 50 states and many nations around the world.
SAVE THE DATE: OHNY Weekend Launch Party – Friday, October 8th 7:00 – 9:00 pm at The Centurion.
The Centurion is a 17-story luxury condominium building designed by internationally renowned Pei Partnership with I.M. Pei. Located at 33 West 56th Street off Fifth Avenue in the epicenter of midtown Manhattan’s most exclusive shopping, residential and cultural centers, The Centurion contains 47 exceptional one- to four-bedroom residences, each designed with its own unique and distinct floor plan.
For up-to-date information about OHNY Weekend, please visit www.ohny.org.
About openhousenewyork
Founded in 2001, openhousenewyork (OHNY) is a non-profit organization dedicated to promoting a greater understanding of New York City’s built environment; broadening public awareness by exposing a diverse audience to distinctive examples of architecture, engineering and design; educating and provoking discussion of issues of excellence in design, planning and preservation; and showcasing outstanding new work as well as spaces of historic merit. In addition to its signature Annual OHNY Weekend event, OHNY hosts adult and youth educational programs throughout the year.
We appreciate the support provide by National Endowment for the Arts, New York City Department of Cultural Affairs in partnership with the City Council, Office of Manhattan Borough President Scott Stringer, New York State Council on the Arts, Hon. Daniel Garodnick, NYC Speaker Christine Quinn, Battery Park City Authority, Stephan Jaklitsch Architects PC, The Marrus Family Foundation, and The Whitman Foundation. Additional support provided by National Park Service, NYC & Company, NYC Department of Parks & Recreation, The Architect’s Newspaper, Room & Board, H3 Hardy Collaboration Architecture LLC, Center for Architecture, The Centurion, Govino, Architizer, Sorrento, Oxford University Press, Yelp, and HopStop. This year’s print media sponsor is Time Out New York, radio sponsor WFUV, and television sponsor WABC.
