I consider myself a technological curmudgeon. I didn’t used to be. Back in the day I was quite the audiophile, with an auto-reverse cassette deck and one of the first CD players in the neighborhood. But all that changed with kids, bills, and the general press of life’s business. Well, as the oft-repeated adage goes, “What goes around comes around.”
It was bound to happen. I am surrounded by technologically adroit architects who have such wonderful digital toys to help them ply their craft, to make virtual, 3-D buildings appear full-blown from the ether before nary hammer contacts a single nail. And they can make that digital house dance the Hokey Poky, if they want to. Read More »
The original Yale Bulldog, Handsome Dan I (1889-1897), was the first live collegiate mascot, and this month he is reborn and then some. Larger than life and bronzed, he stands guard at Jensen Plaza outside the Yale Bowl – installed just in time for The Game against Harvard on November 19. The Bulldogs have lost to the Pilgrims nine of the last 10 games. Something monumental had to be done, and we were happy to help as part of our work on Yale’s Derby Avenue athletic campus.
Handsome Dan I (of 17 in toto) was acquired from a New Haven blacksmith for $65. He proceeded to take first prize in the Westminster Dog Show and see Crimson at Yale sporting events, before retiring to England. After Dan ascended into Blue Heaven, his master, a British Yale grad, had him taxidermied, and returned the fetching result to his alma mater. Dan has remained on display ever since in the Payne Whitney Trophy Room, under the dogged care of Yale’s Peabody Museum.
His successors have served bravely: They have graced the cover of Sports Illustrated; fallen off the dock at the Yale Boathouse (Bulldogs can’t swim); survived kidnappings by Cantabs; summered on Martha’s Vineyard; hobnobbed with Pulitzer Prize winners; been ejected from a Yale-Harvard Game (for attacking not just John Harvard, but a mounted policeman); and played dead (when asked if they would rather die or lose to Harvard).
Centerbrook’s midwifery in Dan’s rebirth has entailed no less of a whelping than his first emergence. Read More »
A short while ago, when coming down Prospect Street in New Haven, you would have spied a sleek, one-story, silver classroom and office building with horizontal metal siding and long patterns of windows that seemed to race by each other. It was an intriguing curiosity, boldly announcing that it was having fun. And yet its demure profile let it nestle neatly into a residential neighborhood. Long and sinuous, it meandered around a flagstone-paved entry court with floor-to-ceiling glass under a short porch, welcoming academics to enter.
There was more than a hint of acceleration. Designed a decade ago and constructed in only 9 months (and at half the going cost), this was a temporary building to house Yale’s Political Science Department, which was homeless following the demolition of its old digs and before the establishment of a permanent base. Read More »
"Psycho" photo by Audrey
The headline above could reference brand new edifices that preternaturally swoop and sway, hither and thither, as if a tornado had been an integral part of the design team. Or perhaps the “Orange Cube,” a commercial apparition in Lyon, France that appears to be a giant pumpkin-carving project gone awry (it’s actually more fun than frightening).
But, no, I am writing about a classic residence that literally was as scary as the horror movie it starred in. Alfred Hitchcock’s “Psycho” came out in the summer of 1960, when I was 10 years old. Our parents refused to take us to such a disturbing film, so my older brother Steve and I skimmed some cash from our paper route earnings and rode our bikes to the Madison Theater for a matinee.
I was terrified that the man would not let us in, but equally terrified when he did. Ratings had yet to be invented. Read More »
I touched on New York City’s High Line in my last post; now I am landing on it with both feet. Set atop an abandoned, elevated rail line, it is the planet’s longest green roof, stretching nearly a mile and a half. It is a remarkable, idiosyncratic pathway that commences in lower Manhattan’s West Side, at Gansevoort Street, and runs north to West 34th Street, augmenting an existing park system lining the Hudson River.
Along its merry way, the High Line provides city residents and visitors with an urban oasis as well as limitless perspectives on the surrounding natural and built landscape. For example, the Statue of Liberty, to the south in New York Harbor, is framed in one stretch, the Empire State Building looms to the north, while westward toward Chelsea is a Frank Gehry designed apparition. Its frankly amorphous and frosty facades fit the nondescript client, IAC (InterActiveCorp), to a tee. It’s hard to tell what either of them is supposed to be. Read More »
Photos: Derek Hayn
It seemed like the sociable thing to do, signing up for the Badminton Open at the home office, forming a team with my marketing colleague Chris. Show the departmental flag, what, what! Hail fellows well met on the playing fields of Centerbrook! Pip, pip, cheerio, and all that tommyrot!
How hard could it be? It was badminton – and we’d be playing against architects. Read More »
Examples of compelling architecture and exquisite craftsmanship are all around us. I have always admired the Deep River Town Hall, just one town north of the home office here in Centerbrook, Connecticut. The building was completed in 1893 on what was then the region’s major artery leading north from the beaches of Long Island Sound. The adjacent trolley line is evidence of that.
Designed by architect G. W. Cole, the town hall is a handsome Flat Iron building of the Romanesque Revival style, and was considered at the time to be quite avant-garde. In 1976 it was added to the National Registry of Historic Places. The exterior is fashioned of common and local clay brick (probably from New Haven), which is accented with granite foundation, sills, and water tables that serve both structural and ornamental functions. The graceful beauty of the building is in its detailing, execution, and uncommon footprint. Read More »
Villa Savoy, Poissy, near Paris, 1931: Le Corbusier’s iconic house incorporates his five points, pilotis, ribbon windows, flat roof garden, planar curtain walls, and free plan.
Like many architects of a certain age, I am sitting on a slide collection of innumerable images gleaned from many trips to architectural shrines and lesser destinations. I recently began to digitize some of these so I could more easily share them with colleagues and remind myself of old lessons. In the process I also learned some new ones. Read More »
Center for Community, University of Colorado Boulder, Photo by Casey A. Cass
Anyone who has remodeled a bathroom, or even a broom closet, knows that building projects tend not to proceed as planned. Surprises are common, and the work can take longer and cost more than expected – if one is not vigilant. Even when the execution goes smoothly, sometimes the basic concept is flawed: for example, the outdoor hot tub that nobody uses after the first month due to the resident black fly population and the astronomical electric bill.
Things didn’t go exactly as planned with the Center for Community (C4C) at the University of Colorado, Boulder, which is home to nearly 30,000 students. At more than 300,000 square feet, the new building is much larger than a broom closet and was designed to foster community on a sprawling campus among students, faculty and staff, and even individuals from the surrounding towns. That was the plan, anyway. Read More »
Guest contributor and Centerbrook extern Larry Chapman with his students
As a teacher serving a month-long “externship” at Centerbrook this summer to gain insight into “real world” applications of my curriculum, I was particularly interested in learning how the firm approaches academic design, which represents a substantial portion of its work. I teach pre-engineering courses, including architecture and design, at Old Saybrook High School, and I was at Centerbrook to observe how architecture is practiced today – as well as how I could make my classes more compelling by connecting the relevance of my course material to concrete examples (no pun intended). Read More »
