This Is Our River!

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Aug 172011

 

Bridge Huddle

AS / SHoP Architects

SHoP just completed a second successful year of “This Is Our River” Program at P.S.126! Lead by our dear friend Victor Papa at Immigrant Social Services, SHoP partnered with Lower Eastside Ecology Center and The River Project to teach an after-school program for sixth through eighth grade students.

The program aimed to bring a fun approach to learning math and science in tangible ways. The students participated in academic workshops where they enjoyed learning concepts and applying them to hands-on activities. While The River Project and LESEC taught students to compost and analyze aquatic life in the Hudson River, teams of architects and urban designers from SHoP held workshops which brought the kids closer to the waterfront and its architecture.

Workshops included constructing load-bearing bridges from a custom kit of parts, building the tallest possible tower from fifty sheets of paper, drawing maps, designing and racing rubberband-propelled boats, camouflaging the FDR, even calculating a real NYC zoning envelope! In a short introduction the students were familiarized with the basic physical or mathematical principles of the task at hand before setting off to tackle real-life problems faced by waterfront designers on a daily basis.

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F.I.T. - C2

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Jul 072011

AWM , HCH / SHoP Architects

The winning competition design for a new student center at FIT was clear enough; invert the existing campus topography by providing a transparent façade on 28th Street providing both views into the city from the campus and displaying the programs and activities of FIT to the city.

To accomplish this in as seamless way as possible SHoP employed a cable wall glazing system from the second floor to the roof allowing the entire glazed area to act independently of the buildings structural systems. Layered against the cable wall glazing is the building’s main circulation system of stairs corridors and three story express escalator that brings students to the 5th Floor Student Life Hall. A series of tubes form horizontal trusses that are supported off the main building structure enclosing and supporting the circulation elements and in some cases pull and push against the cable wall creating an undulation in the surface of the wall. The cable wall is a dynamic system, deflecting under wind loading, pushing and pulling on those cables in a non-uniform way creating areas where less deflection occurs introducing additional stresses to the glass panels that make up the façade. Continue reading »

Modular Screen

3 Responses »
Jun 152011

 

AS / SHoP Architects

Spotted:  A SHoP designed screen featured in the background of this photo accompanying a recent New York Times article about the invention of “Hashtags”.   This screen was one of several in a series we designed for a large office tenant fit-out, helping to personalize and give identity to the space.

The design of the screen is based on a simple tiling of cubes. The cube is modified by removing the material at two opposite corners along “bias” cuts. These modules are then mirrored and stacked into a configuration that looks solid in elevation but allows views through as one moves around the screen. Because the design is scalable, we were able to create a finer screen at the entry lobby, with the company’s logo applied to the varying surface layers of the screen. Viewed head-on the logo is clearly legible, but from an angle, the front desk personnel can see through the openings to the elevator banks behind, a critical requirement of the design.  A larger screen which functions as display shelving was developed for an adjacent lounge area.
Several fabrication strategies were tested including folding recycled HDPE and cardboard, dado-cutting MDF and break folding aluminum and metal composite panels. The final solution involved fabricating the modules individually. Each was made from six beveled edged triangles, precision cut from 1/4″ and 1/2″SDF sheets and painted for a glossy finish. These modules were then stacked and finally bolted together for structural rigidity.

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SHoP Designing Center for Global Design & Development

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Jun 102011

 

BMQ / SHoP Architects

The Graduate School of Architecture, Planning & Preservation [GSAPP] at Columbia University is developing a concept of a network of global research centers providing space to students, professors and professionals in the fields of architecture, planning, urban design and real estate development. This center for research is envisioned as a satellite just a few blocks north of Avery Hall at 1255 Amsterdam Avenue.

A variety of design options have been developed for the space. In the process SHoP has identified core questions, which the design addresses:

  1. How can SHoP create an identity for the GSAPP Center for Global Design & Development as a stand-alone conference and research hub dedicated to the future of the city?
  2. How can SHoP maximize branding opportunities to support a fundraising campaign for the development of the space?
  3. What is the appropriate balance between an academic and social environment within one facility?
  4. What is the latest interactive technology and how is this communication tool integrated as a core element of the design and concept of the Center for Global Design & Development?
  5. How can SHoP maximize multiple scales of assembly and allow flexible use of these spaces?

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BIH Auditorium Cladding Weave Studies

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Jun 082011

SDG / SHoP Architects

In designing the exterior shell of the auditorium and restaurant ceiling for the Bostwana Innovation Hub, SHoP has focused conceptually on the traditional woven basket of Botswana. Basketry, an integral part of Botswana agriculture for generations, has advanced as an art form through years of refined weaving techniques and an expanding diversity of designs. The cladding system currently under development draws inspiration from the craft, texture, and method of the distinct basket weaving systems. Using parametric definitions built in Grasshopper and in-house 3d print technology, the team has quickly generated and tested multiple potentials for pattern and assembly.

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East River Waterfront Construction Update

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Jun 062011

 

View From Pier 15 Upper Level

CGB / SHoP Architects

On a recent Friday afternoon about 60 SHoPpers made a site visit to view construction progress on the East River Esplanade South. Everyone on hand got their first taste of the transformed waterfront area near Wall Street and were among the first to test the Esplanade’s recently installed benches, railing bar seating, granite lookouts and green space. The office also visited Pier 15, a new double-decker pier at the foot of Maiden Lane to see the steel work and curtain wall installation underway. Construction continues to move forward on these two pieces that help make up the two-mile stretch of future park space. The first portion of Esplanade is substantially complete and due to open this summer. Pier 15 is also moving forward quickly with all structural steel work complete and pavilion spaces enclosed. It’s scheduled to open this fall.

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Weathering...In-Progress

6 Responses »
Apr 012011


BDS / SHoP Construction

Earlier this year ASI Limited, the facade contractor for Barclays Center, flipped the switch on for their custom built 2500′ linear conveyor system designed to accelerate the weathering process for the 12,000 individual panels and supporting rails that make up the weathering steel portion of the facade designed by SHoP Architects.  To arrive at this milestone, SHoP Construction began working under contract with ASI Limited in the summer of 2010.  A transfer of design information immediately began taking place between SA and SC where essentially the surface or wireframe model as we call it, began to go through a series of automated processes resulting in both the folded and unfolded panel geometry complete with material thickness, fastener locations and a 2d output that includes pdfs for the fabrication ticket and the cut files for each panel nested by SC delivered directly to the water jet on ASI’s shop floor.  The result of this collaboration is now hanging on the line…weathering.

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BIH Auditorium Sightlines Study

2 Responses »
Mar 212011

SDG / SHoP Architects

As part of the Botswana Innovation Hub auditorium study, SHoP developed a function utilizing Grasshopper and multiple interoperable software platforms to quickly visualize and evaluate audience sightlines to screen and presenter at each seat of the proposed 270-seat theater. The resulting performance tests of various seating rakes assisted in determining an optimized layout for the auditorium.

 

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New Renderings of the Botswana Innovation Hub

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Feb 222011

Some of the newest images of our design for the Botswana Innovation Hub in Gabarone, Botswana; the 57-hectare masterplan’s infrastructure is currently under construction, and this building is planned for completion in early 2014.

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SHoP Scores First Apartment Building at Atlantic Yards

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Feb 222011

SHoP will design the first tower at the Atlantic Yards site in Brooklyn, a 400-unit residential building adjacent to the Barclays Center at Flatbush Avenue and Dean Street.

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