Center for Architecture
Look around-- you may even be inside an architect's vision as you read this.
One would assume that the Center for Architecture would be housed in some sort of stately, imposing building but in fact it is so easy to miss that I walked right past it and had to double back to find the door. Amidst the skyscrapers and historic facades of New York City it nestles into a narrow venue on LaGuardia Place in Greenwich Village and lets those that want to know more find their way inside.
The Center For Architecture first opened in October of 2003. It was designed by Andrew Berman, a Greenwich Village native with an unusual architect’s stance against new construction. In its twenty years of operation it has been a constant cultural presence inviting New Yorkers and visitors to learn more about the constructed world around them.
Until September 2nd, the Center for Architecture is displaying the exhibit Campus Aula: Educational Architecture in Latin America, which focuses on the modernist structures of Latin American Universities built within the last ten years. One campus building from one university each in Brazil, Colombia, Chile, Mexico, Paraguay and Peru is on display, complete with photographs and a written description of how the structure interacts with the surrounding landscape.
Across from a wall perplexingly just labelled “Architecture” was a display of the winners of the 2023 AIANY Design Awards. I found myself particularly compelled by a poster on the New York Housing Authority’s efforts to construct buildings with the possibility(or likelihood) of flooding or heat events in mind.
On their garden level floor, until October 31st the CFA is also displaying the exhibit Janna Ireland on the Architectural Legacy of Paul Revere Williams in Nevada. Paul Revere Williams was the first licensed African-American architect and quickly rose to prominence, earning the nickname “architect to the stars” and contributing works to such landmarks as the LAX airport and the Beverly Hills Hotel. In this exhibit, contemporary African-American photographer Janna Ireland explores work from earlier in his career scattered across the state of Nevada. She takes an intimate approach to the photography, focusing on details that would normally be missed in sweeping architectural photos. Through her work, Williams’ structures feel lived in, loved— and even lonely.
On a very surface level, one thing that every museum I have visited so far has in common is that they are housed in a building(or even in the case of the Brooklyn Botanic Garden, feature a building, the one that encloses the greenhouse). I live on an island with a surface area of something like 60-70% buildings, and am even typing this substack up from the inside of a building even now. It’s fantastic to be in a museum celebrating something so every day— something that I now see very slightly differently.
ADMISSION: Free
GIFT SHOP: No
BATHROOM: Yes
WHEELCHAIR ACCESSIBLE: Lol, no, look at this nonsense:
September 3: City Island Nautical Museum
September 10: BRIC House
September 23: Bronx River Arts Center
September 29: Brooklyn Seltzer Museum
I love this one! Just walked by this building yesterday with my coworker and he said that he used to work there and do the A/V stuff. Small world huh... :)
COULD your life be any more like a Wes Anderson movie?
p.s. way to look out for the wheelchair accessablity in a real way, you are all class