Longitudinal Slum

The Image Is Everything...

In what otherwise appears to be a well thought through master plan for Hudson Yards (pdf here), a series of cold and gloomy renderings manage to set the tone for the early public reaction to Extell's proposal.

Green Roof - A Case Study

Assistant professor of landscape architecture at Harvard University’s GSD Christian Werthmann uses Michael Van Valkenburgh Associates' design for the ASLA's headquarters in Washington DC as a green roof case study for a new PA Press title Green Roof - A Case Study. As green architecture, sustainability, and LEED have all become hot topics in the last few years - and the ubiquitous green roof a token component in many design projects - this case study sheds light on both the historical underpinnings and technical issues associated with the design of a green roof.

Early on a distinction is drawn describing the correct terminology when talking of a roof that supports vegetation and any supplemental activity:

Roof gardens are installed to be accessed and enjoyed. They are more cost intensive to construct, heavy in weight with deep soil profiles, and maintenance intensive... Most green roofs are inaccessible, and they are mainly installed for environmental performance and visual improvement.

Despite the recent infatuation with the green roof, this building component has a long history tracing back many centuries to Northern European vernacular architecture with an obvious insulating benefit grounded in fundamental building technology. The history of the green roof also traces through the early roots of Modernism where roof gardens were intended to occupy the flat roofs of Early Modernism and support the demand for "light, air, and sun." The current green roof trend accelerated with German research advances in the mid-seventies, coupled with a newfound green revolution. While fully embraced in Germany and other areas of Europe, the green roof is only now beginning to make an impact in the United States.

The featured case study project was a unique opportunity for the ALSA to showcase green roof technology through building a green roof hybrid - both a green roof and roof garden - through an experimental approach that could serve as a case study within itself. This case study portion does a thorough job of documenting the decision making process leading to the completed design, and the layers which compose the end product, including the roles and responsibilities for the design team - architect, landscape architect, structural and mechanical engineers.

Being a quick read, this is a good introduction to the history and fundamentals of the green roof. With both genuine and disingenuous interest in sustainability sweeping through both the schools and design community right now (being green is often supplanting other design considerations at the moment), this can serve as a quick education into what a green roof really is, when it is appropriate and what are its benefits, and the fundamentals behind its construction.

Green Roof—A Case Study [Princeton Architectural Press]
Green Grows the Roof [papressblog]
top image courtesy ALSA
bottom image courtesy Michael Van Valkenburgh Associates, Inc.

DS+R's ICA: Not So Hot?

Philip Nobel takes on the relationship between critic and architect with an honest look at Diller Scofidio + Renfro’s new Institute of Contemporary Art in Boston. Nobel writes that bad buildings by big names are usually let off the hook by critics in a continuing cycle of codependence between the two. While the ICA depends on a few iconographic gestures supported by early renderings and fashionable tricks recycled by today's current batch of hot architects, it suffers from a host of ills that make it a bad building. The rear facade which faces the buildings neighbors and serves as the approach to the building is poorly designed and under-whelming. The large cantilever creates a host of other problems, ranging from a 'miserably shaded' waterfront plaza, mis-placed galleries and poor circulation, and shoddy detailing in general.

Die Another Day [Metropolis]
image by Iwan Baan