For Janson Goldstein. This 120,000 SF store was designed/built for high-end retailer Holt Renfrew. The design focuses on the architectural expression of the brand through the use of scale, articulated details, materials, patterns, light, and digital technology. The most striking design feature is the 600 LF facade, composed of 30 foot tall mirror-fritted glass with inlaid digital screens. These panels are then offset with a custom fin-shaped mullion to offset the glass panels and to allow rotation from panel to panel. This design will be the template for several more stores in the coming years.
Photography by Mikiko Kikuyama
Madera was founded with a clear objective: to offer high quality, beautiful and sustainable wood products for architecture and design, while having a positive impact on the environment and the local economy. By practicing a forest-to-floors approach and creating a direct link between clients and the source of the wood, carefully sourcing materials from sustainable sources, designing products in-house in their Brooklyn studio and manufacturing them locally in New York, they offer an alternative that is high quality, sustainable, and locally made.
In their recent expansion, Madera took over a turn of the century warehouse space just outside the Brooklyn Navy Yard in Clinton Hill. The existing structure was incredibly run down, but had the good bones and charm they desired. The design focused on maintaining the authentic character and detailing of the existing space while creating a boutique, almost “non-commercial” program and aesthetic throughout. The idea in many ways was to make the space a gallery for wood, rather than a sales floor. To that end, the simple use of natural sky lighting, highlighting the existing structure, and a subtle, yet powerful use of Madera’s own wood as a cladding material succeeds in making a modern space with much of the authenticity intact.
Programmatically, the design also challenges the traditional showroom experience. The office space is raised and out of view of the showroom floor, the space has an in-house wood shop for quick sampling, and the product is displayed in a minimalist (think Donald Judd) way. Upon entering the showroom one comes upon an art gallery within a repurposed industrial icebox named Cooler Gallery. The gallery serves to activate the space with a monthly exhibition and opening, but also to tie the Madera showroom to the surrounding eclectic and vibrant community.
For Specht Architects
Photography by Lauren Coleman
Cooler is an art gallery within a repurposed industrial icebox outside the Brooklyn Navy Yard — the physical border of large art, design, and manufacturing communities. The curation aims to reflect the essence of this intersection. Cooler Gallery seeks to be a breeding ground for thought at the crossing of fine art, design and manufacturing.
The design focused on showcasing art in an a-typical way. The small scale of the icebox paired with the large expanse of the showroom floor and the use of impactful materials are really what defines this project. Early on a decision was made to not try to create your typical white wall gallery. This has and continues to challenge artists showing at the space to take these constraints into consideration- to amazing results. Through site specific works and curated group shows, a feedback has begun to be seen between the art and the space itself.
cooler-gallery.com
For Janson Goldstein. This project was interesting because not only was it a 50,000 SF store plan and facade, but also because it was a complete brand launch and will now be the template for several more stores in the coming years. The design uses a combination of geometric patterns, dynamic lighting effects, and digital technology to create a wholly new retail experience defined by the architecture.
Photography by Mikiko Kikuyama
For Specht Architects
Photography by Lauren Coleman
For Janson Goldstein. This 100,000 SF Public-Private Indoor Lobby Park lies at the center of mid-town NYC. The design proposed a collonade of solid extruded glass columns that divide the space. Along the collonade are several programs; flower shop, coffee shop, music stage, newsstand, and restaurant. This project successfully created a very intimate experience for inhabitants within a large public space.
For the International Contemporary Furniture Fair in 2017. In partnership with Civilization and Visual Magnetics.
Artist Sheryl Oring commissioned this project to create an arch for her new exhibition at the McCormack Freedom Museum in Chicago’s Tribune Building.
The design is composed of just over 3000 self-fastening folded plastic modules. The pieces are scripted to seamlessly transition in scale/orientation; i.e. every component is unique.
Contributors: Ajmal Aqtash, Erin Bartling , DJ Kim, Erik Martinez, Roger Reichard , Richard Sarrach, Wendy Tang, and Peter VanHage
New York City’s Watershed is a site in crisis. Not only is there a larger demand for water due to the growth of the population, but due to further suburban development in upland areas, water catchment sites are not as hygienic as once thought. Within the Croton Watershed sits Carmel. This suburban town in Putnam County has large basins for water catchment integrated into a developed suburban community. The distributed system currently in place for the dispersal of sewage, though, has a very high risk of contaminating the watershed.
Based on a topological study using sand and cavities to represent the density and area of groundwater contamination risk, a landscape was generated. The areas that are highest upland have the highest ground water capacity and lowest contamination risk, and the areas downland have the lowest capacity and highest risk. This relationship is key to the remediation strategy, by creating a topography that channels effluent water to these specific sites. The exo-landscape is then populated with components that not only allow the material flow relationship but can also be modulated to allow for varying lighting conditions and the ability to contain soil and plants. This passive system is then activated by integrated pumps that draw sewage to biogas processing sites.
Using pastoral ideas native to the development of suburban landscaping, such as sweeping vistas, winding pathways, scenic overlooks and grottos, we develop the landscape to be a desirable recreation site.
Overlaid, layers of sewage, air, and water flow create a new material ecology within Carmel. Since the sites of highest contamination risk are protected, New York City’s Watershed is more protected than previously. Because the system is automated to deposit and process waste into the sites of highest capacity, the system as a whole has a larger capacity for sewage.
This project hopes to blur the boundary between what is considered clean and contaminated, synthetic and natural, and in doing so foster a modified suburban desire. This, through the intensification of existing conditions of a synthetic pastoral and the gizmo begins to challenge the boundaries that enabled the development of suburbia.
This project is one of several site-specific buildings designed for a developer in Toronto. Because of the historic residential site and the mixed-use program, an articulated screen was developed. This achieved the desired privacy and lighting conditions all while fitting in with the site context and creating an elegant architectural icon. For Janson Goldstein.
