Capital New York

How 'The New York Times' controls architecture criticism in America, whoever its critic may be

All of these critics said that the idea that the entire architectural press had become caught up with the star architects, and object architecture, was not accurate; but that to the extent it was true, it was a monster the Times created over the last decade or more. The Times, the panelists seemed to agree, had the most influence over how the public perceived what was happening in architecture. And hiring Michael Kimmelman may make the pendulum swing too far the other way. More

Posted on March 1st, 2012 11:26am

American Girl: The Wallis Simpson story, told differently

If the story author Anne Sebba tells in her new book, That Woman: The Life of Wallis Simpson, Duchess of Windsor, is true, then the story of the Duke and Duchess of Windsor that has been passed down is very much a myth. The story Sebba tells is more like this: an emotionally and morally stunted prince, who never wanted to be king, and becomes a poor one, becomes so obsessed with a woman who—although she enjoys his attention, the jewelry, and the lifestyle—he essentially corners into marriage. More

Posted on February 17th, 2012 11:35am

Architects say 'net zero' is not a fantasy, if only people would stop with the air conditioning

A “net-zero” residence is a house, or a building, that produces as much energy as it uses.

It may sound like the sort of thing environmentalists or young architects like to talk about that's actually a distant goal, to be realized once the right technology comes along, or at least one that requires wealthy liberal clients who are willing to put their money where their mouths are. More

Posted on February 14th, 2012 5:49pm

Documents for artists, treated as art: Eugène Atget at MOMA

One photograph from this period depicts a group of people looking at the sky during an eclipse; it manages to look both communal and creepy, as if they were all waiting to be lifted off the earth. It was that image that Man Ray put on the cover of La Révolution surréaliste, but Atget was not credited, nor was he credited for the several images Man Ray put inside the journal. Atget wouldn't allow it. Though the Surrealists were interested in his work, it meant something to Atget not to be associated with avant-garde artists. More

Posted on February 9th, 2012 10:04am

Before the flood: New York City is just beginning to gird for the '100-year storm,' if it's not already too late

Recent efforts from the Bloomberg administration will significantly reduce the city's contribution to greenhouse gas emissions and climate change in the future. What they won't do—can't do—is reverse what may be very real dangers the city faces as a result of environmental changes already well underway. Specifically: Sea-level rise. More

Posted on February 3rd, 2012 8:47am

In Tchaikovsky's bible, an archivist finds a door to New York's distant past

Francesconi went to Russia first in 1989 (and twice again in years following), when the government was falling apart, to try to find material he could borrow for the opening of the museum.

“It was a little tense,” he said, “You didn’t know who was in charge from one day to the next. And the museums were scared to death, and I was more scared than they were.”

There was one thing in particular Francesconi wanted to see.

“At one point , Francesconi said, “I said, ‘Do you have his Bible?’ And she said, ‘Bible?’ and I said, Yes, the one he took to Niagara Falls.” More

Posted on January 31st, 2012 4:54pm

On making 'green' building in New York City a less terrible experience

Say you own an apartment building in New York City and would like to make it more energy-efficient.

One way to do this, in theory, would be to add insulation to the outside walls, which generally adds about four inches. But that would violate the zoning law that regulates floor-area ratio, which determines the maximum floor area allowed on the size of the lot. More

Posted on January 30th, 2012 2:04pm

Bloomberg's PlaNYC head on the 'challenge' of relying on state and federal money, and the importance of the humble bench

Earlier this month, David Bragdon, the director of Michael Bloomberg’s office of Long-Term Planning and Sustainability, was dispatched to a small grey-and-white lecture room in Avery Hall at Columbia University to talk about the administration's views on urban planning to a half-dozen smaller-city mayors.

The talk was part of the annual gathering of the Mayors' Institute on City Design, in which mayors from across the country convene for lectures and site visits, and also for closed-door sessions in which they consider the future of cities. More

Posted on December 26th, 2011 10:10am

Behind the scenes, M.T.A. engineer-in-chief Mike Horodniceanu builds a new transit system, as long as Joe Lhota can bring in the money

Of Lhota, Horodniceanu said that he “is a really smart man,” and that the two have already met twice.

It's plain to see why someone in his position might want help on the money score. Disinterest from the governor's office and a lack of funding to pursue major projects were among the reasons multiple reports cited for Walder's exit; they were also, according to the Daily News, the reasons Horodniceanu's predecessor, Mysore Nagaraja, left the post in 2008.

“He’s not a transportation guru, but, you know, that’s why we exist," Horodniceanu said of his new boss. "I’m an engineer, he doesn’t need to be an engineer. I need him to help me get the money. And that’s important.” More

Posted on November 1st, 2011 8:43am

New York's tallest apartment building, inside and out (and in between)

The building is made of 280 million pounds of concrete, and supported using a now-familiar "core-and-outrigger" method. The building's core makes up the main structural support, but at each level of the building arms reach out from the core and "grab" pillars near the perimeter of each floorplate.

But there is an important variation in the core-and-outrigger construction method involved here, because the shapes of the floorplates are so jagged, and so different from each other, that there is no straight line near enough the perimeter of the building that can rise consistently for the building's entire height. More

Posted on October 20th, 2011 11:02am