In No More Play: Conversations on Urban Speculation in Los Angeles and Beyond, architect Michael Maltzan traces the transformations that have taken place in the city of Los Angeles since the early 1990s. Through a series of conversations with the city’s leading artists and intellectuals, Maltzan explores such issues as real-estate speculation and future urban development, infrastructure, resources, site density, urban experience, political structure, commerce, and community, attempting to transform our understanding of how each affects present-day Los Angeles. Join Maltzan and Los Angeles transplant, contributor, and Studio-X co-director Geoff Manaugh for a conversation about the book.
Thursday, May 17, 7:00 P.M.
Michael Maltzan, Geoff Manaugh
No More Play: Conversations on Urban Speculation in Los Angeles and Beyond
Thursday, May 24, 7:00 P.M.
Marilyn Jordan Taylor,
Cathryn Dwyre, K. T. Anthony Chan
Book Launch: DIRT
Dirt presents a selection of works that share dirty attitudes: essays, interviews, excavations, and projects that view dirt not as filth but as a medium, a metaphor, a material, a process, a design tool, a narrative, a system. Rooted in the landscape architect’s perspective, Dirt views dirt not as repulsive but endlessly giving, fertile, adaptive, and able to accommodate difference while maintaining cohesion. This dirty perspective sheds light on social connections, working processes, imaginative ideas, physical substrates, and urban networks. Join Marilyn Jordan Taylor, dean of the University of Pennsylvania School of Design, along with Dirt managing editor Cathryn Dwyre and designer K. T. Anthony Chan for a lively discussion about the newest book from viaBooks, PennDesign’s student-led publication.
Saturday, May 26, 1:00 P.M.
Chelsea and the High Line
with John Hill
Take in the new cutting-edge architecture in the Meatpacking District and Chelsea in this walk that traverses the length of the High Line, the impetus for much of the area’s dramatic change. Grab your walking shoes and join John Hill, author of Archidose Blog and the recently released Guide to Contemporary New York City Architecture for a two and a half hour tour that embarks from Van Alen Books and ends at the northern terminus of the High Line at West 30th Street and Tenth Avenue.
$15 General / FREE for VAI Members. Tickets can be purchased at Van Alen Books, please email rsvp@vanalen.org to reserve your spot.
Wednesday, May 30, 7:00 P.M.
PLOT
Launch Party: PLOT Volume 1
The Graduate Landscape Architecture Program of the Spitzer School of Architecture, City College of New York, is launching the first volume of its new student-edited journal, PLOT. Featuring submissions by students, faculty, staff, and friends of the Landscape Architecture program, Volume 1 explores the theme of the Marginal Street, developed by the second year MLA student editorial board in collaboration with faculty advisor Catherine Seavitt Nordenson and designed by Isaac Gertman. Contributions to this issue explore the fringes, cracks, and edges of urban terrain. Come celebrate PLOT’s debut issue and toast to the 2012 graduating class of Master of Landscape Architecture students.
Thursday, May 31, 7:00 P.M.
Eran Ben-Joseph, June Williamson
ReThinking a Lot: The Design and Culture of Parking
While the majority of us consider parking lots in functional terms, ReThinking a Lot: The Design and Culture of Parking asks: What can a parking lot be? How could parking lots become valuable public spaces? In this new book, MIT professor of landscape architecture and urban planning Eran Ben-Joseph argues that surface parking lots shouldn’t be treated as mere residual waystations in our built world. Instead, they can transcend a purely utilitarian role to embrace the parking lot’s historical significance, growing multitude of cultural uses, and potential for transformation. Ben-Joseph will be joined in conversation by June Williamson, Associate Professor of Architecture at the Spitzer School of Architecture, City College of New York.
PREVIOUS EVENTS
Tuesday, May 15, 7:00 P.M.
Jean-Louis Cohen, Richard Pare,
Asif Siddiqi, Xenia Vytuleva
ZATO: Secret Soviet Cities During the Cold War
Join Van Alen for a conversation investigating ZATO, sites of highly secretive military and scientific research and production in the Soviet Empire. Nameless and not shown on maps, these remote urban environments followed a unique architectural program inspired by ideal cities and the ideology of the Party. Panelists Jean-Louis Cohen, professor in the History of Architecture at NYU; distinguished photographer Richard Pare; Asif Siddiqi, Professor at Fordham University; and curator Xenia Vytuleva will discuss these “realized utopias” within a larger socio-political and artistic discourse.
Saturday, May 12, 1:00 P.M.
Madison Square to Bryant Park
with John Hill
The area just east of Broadway between 23rd and 42nd Streets hasn’t witnessed as much change as other parts of the city, but it still has some new gems worth discovering. Grab your walking shoes and join John Hill, author of Archidose Blog and the recently released Guide to Contemporary New York City Architecture for a two and a half hour tour that embarks from Van Alen Books and ends at Bryant Park, taking in stretches of Madison Avenue, Park Avenue, and 42nd Street.
$15 General / FREE for VAI Members. Tickets can be purchased at Van Alen Books, please email rsvp@vanalen.org to reserve your spot.
Thursday, May 10, 7:00 P.M.
Alexandra Lange, Chappell Ellison, Molly Heintz, Angela Riechers
Writing About Architecture:
Mastering the Language of Buildings and Cities
Writing About Architecture is a handbook on writing effectively and critically about buildings and cities. Each chapter opens with a reprint of a significant essay written by a renowned architecture critic, followed by a close reading and discussion of the writer’s strategies. Join Lange and three of her former students from the School of Visual Arts Design Criticism MFA for a discussion of teaching, learning, and writing criticism. Where do you start? What assignments work? And what forms can criticism take, once you’re out of school?
Saturday, April 28, 1:00 P.M.
Madison Square to Union Square
with John Hill
The area east of Broadway between 14th and 23rd Steets is the focus of this tour, an area defined by its parks: Union Square Park, Stuyvesant Park, Gramercy Park, Madison Square Park. Grab your walking shoes and join John Hill, author of Archidose Blog and the recently released Guide to Contemporary New York City Architecture for a two hour tour that snakes around these parks and highlights some of the recent architecture in their midst. The tour will depart from Van Alen Books.
$15 General / FREE for VAI Members. Tickets can be purchased at Van Alen Books, please email rsvp@vanalen.org to reserve your spot.
Friday, April 27, 7:00 P.M.
Andres Lepik,
Sarah Williams Goldhagen
Moderators of Change: Architecture That Helps
Moderators of Change: Architecture That Helps demonstrates how innovative design solutions can transform society. By directly including users in the planning, design and building process and working with new economic models, the designers featured in this volume have realized projects that have had profound, positive effects with minimum investment of money and materials: besides urban infrastructures, this volume presents model projects such as schools, libraries, gardens, converted buildings, and art projects. Join curator and editor Andres Lepik and critic Sarah Williams Goldhagen for a conversation on the social impact of architecture and the changing role of architects.
Thursday, April 26, 7:00 P.M.
Craig Buckley, Michael Bell,
José Rafael Moneo, Mark Wigley,
Gary Higbee, Mabel Wilson
Post-Ductility: Metals in Architecture and Engineering
Metals, as surface or structure, play a role in nearly every strain of modern architecture. Non-architectural metals in the form of automobiles and hard goods are the engines of our sprawling cities. Known for superior strength, metals allow us to build higher and span greater distances. However, they can also be soft, forgiving, and ethereal. In Post-Ductility, an inter-disciplinary group of architects, historians, theorists, and engineers collectively explores the past, present, and future possibilities of this essential building material. Post-Ductility includes works and essays by contemporary architects, engineers, and educators such as José Rafael Moneo, Steven Holl, Rory McGowan, Mark Wigley, Sylvia Lavin, Jorge Otero-Pailos, Paola Antonelli, Ana Miljacki, Hillary Sample, Galia Solomonoff and Theodore Prudon.
Saturday, April 21, 1:00 P.M.
Chelsea and the High Line
with John Hill
Take in the new cutting-edge architecture in the Meatpacking District and Chelsea in this walk that traverses the length of the High Line, the impetus for much of the area’s dramatic change. Grab your walking shoes and join John Hill, author of Archidose Blog and the recently released Guide to Contemporary New York City Architecture for a two and a half hour tour that embarks from Van Alen Books and ends at the northern terminus of the High Line at West 30th Street and Tenth Avenue.
$15 General / FREE for VAI Members. Tickets can be purchased at Van Alen Books, please email rsvp@vanalen.org to reserve your spot.
Thursday, April 19, 6:00 P.M.
Pippo Ciorra, Ada Tolla, Mark Robbins, Elisabetta Terragni
Re-Cycle: Strategies for Architecture, City and Planet
Join Van Alen to celebrate the U.S. release of Re-Cycle: Strategies for Architecture, City and Planet, the catalog for the major exhibition at Rome’s MAXXI museum devoted to exemplary projects involving the recycling of architecture, cities, and landscapes together with works by artists, photographers, and media producers. Senior curator Pippo Ciorra will be joined by contributors Ada Tolla of LOT-EK, Mark Robbins, dean of the Syracuse School of Architecture, and Elisabetta Terragni of Studio Terragni to discuss the practice of recycling as “one of the greatest generators of creative innovation.”
Wednesday, April 18, 7:00 P.M.
Julie Iovine, Suzanne Frank,
Diana Agrest, Suzanne Stephens,
Frederieke Taylor
The Institute as the Women Saw It
IAUS: An Insider's Memoir
At first affiliated with New York’s Museum of Modern Art and Cornell University, the Institute for Architecture and Urban Studies was intellectual home to architects, artists and historians who worked on creative design and conceptual projects that would shape the architectural conversation for decades, while bringing renown to all associated with it, from think-master Peter Eisenman, historian Kenneth Frampton, and young Rem Koolhaas, whose work on Delirious New York was spurred on by the Institute. Suzanne Frank’s new book IAUS: An Insider’s Memoir sets the stage for a conversation between IAUS alumni Suzanne Frank, Diana Agrest, Suzanne Stephens, and Frederieke Taylor, moderated by Julie Iovine of The Architect’s Newspaper.
Friday, April 13, 7:00 P.M.
Tom Angotti, Paula Horrigan,
Sally Harrison, Clara Irazábal
Service Learning in Design and Planning:
Educating at the Boundaries
This rich collection of case studies by design educators critically explores the current practice of service-learning in architecture, landscape design, and urban planning. Join editors Tom Angotti, Paula Horrigan, and chapter authors Sally Harrison and Clara Irazábal for a conversation on the pedagogical framework advanced by the book and their set of examples, ideas, and guidelines that will help educators, professionals, and students develop a truly generative and inclusive design process.
Thursday, April 12, 7:00 P.M.
Joan Ockman, Stan Allen
Architecture School: Three Centuries of Educating Architects in North America
Rooted in the British apprenticeship system, the French Beaux-Arts, and the German polytechnical schools, architecture education in North America has had a unique history spanning almost three hundred years. Architecture School provides the first comprehensive history of North American architecture education with six essays, and a “lexicon” of more than two dozen topics that have figured centrally in architecture education’s history, from competitions and design pedagogy to research, structures, studio culture, and travel. Join editor Joan Ockman and dean of the Princeton School of Architecture Stan Allen for a talk on the issues of architecture education that this history highlights.
Saturday, April 7, 1:00 P.M.
Madison Square to Bryant Park
with John Hill
The area just east of Broadway between 23rd and 42nd Streets hasn’t witnessed as much change as other parts of the city, but it still has some new gems worth discovering. Grab your walking shoes and join John Hill, author of Archidose Blog and the recently released Guide to Contemporary New York Architecture for a two and a half hour tour that embarks from Van Alen Books and ends at Bryant Park, taking in stretches of Madison Avenue, Park Avenue, and 42nd Street.
$15 General / FREE for VAI Members. Tickets can be purchased at Van Alen Books, please email rsvp@vanalen.org to reserve your spot.
Friday, April 6, 7:00 P.M.
MASS Design Group
Book Launch: Empowering Architecture
Join us for the launch of MASS Design Group’s Empowering Architecture, their first publication showcasing the recently completed Butaro Hospital in Rwanda. Celebrated as a case study in designing for social justice, the project uses architecture as a means to deliver innovative design solutions that improve health care services and positively impact the surrounding community. Empowering Architecture features an introduction by Partners in Health Founder and President Dr. Paul Farmer, and images by renowned architectural photographer Iwan Baan.
Friday, March 30, 7:00 P.M.
PIDGIN Magazine
Launch Party: Issues 11 & 12
Published to make work generated at Princeton School of Architecture accessible to fellow students and the outside world, PIDGIN Magazine features submissions by students, faculty, staff and friends of the school. Visit Van Alen Books for the launch of issues 11 & 12 and a screening of The Box, a short film by Reyner Banham featured in PIDGIN 11. Topics discussed in the latest issues include rereading Landscape Urbanism, a visit to Dubai, a Constructivist steel town, imaginary freeways, and more. Join PIDGIN in celebrating their latest release.
Thursday, March 22, 7:00 P.M.
Susan Morgan, Gabrielle Esperdy
Piecing Together Los Angeles: An Esther McCoy Reader
This new reader is the first collection of the writings by the groundbreaking architectural historian, author and curator who articulated the concepts and vibrant character of West Coast modernism as it was being created. The volume includes out-of-print essays, articles, and short stories, as well as hitherto unpublished lectures, correspondence, and memoirs that together illuminate the breadth and complexity of McCoy’s work. Join Editor Susan Morgan and architectural historian and critic Gabrielle Esperdy for a discussion of the development and diversity of McCoy’s writing and the region that inspired it.
Wednesday, March 21, 7:00 P.M.
Lori Brown, Peggy Deamer, Dagmar Richter, Despina Stratigakos
Feminist Practices: Pedagogy
For our third Feminist Practices event, Lori Brown is joined by Dagmar Richter, Chair of Pratt Institute Undergraduate Architecture Department; Despina Stratigakos, Professor at University of Buffalo School of Architecture and Planning; and Peggy Deamer, Professor at Yale University School of Architecture, for a conversation on the state of architectural pedagogy.
Thursday, March 8, 7:00 P.M.
Deborah Schneiderman, Anita Cooney
Inside Pre-Fab: The Ready-made Interior
As an inherently sustainable and affordable building method, prefabrication has enjoyed a revival in recent years, attracting clients and architects alike. In Inside Prefab, author Deborah Schneiderman offers a fascinating history of prefabricated interior design, followed by twenty-four contemporary case studies. This first book-length discussion and showcase of the prefabricated interior environment includes projects by established architects such as Shigeru Ban, Atelier Tekuto, and Greg Lynn, as well as up-and-coming firms. Schneiderman will be joined in conversation with Anita Cooney, Chair of the Department of Interior Design at Pratt Institute.
