Kent Barwick

Livable-city activists celebrated the latest, coolest additions to the city’s urban landscape on Thursday inside the stark white interior of Frank Gehry’s first building in New York City, the IAC headquarters on 11th Avenue.

The occasion was the Municipal Art Society’s 2008 MASterwork Awards, which, according to the program, “honor the year’s top projects for their excellence in architecture and urban design, and their contribution to New York’s built environment.”

A motley assortment of New York bold-faced names showed up for the event, including Diane Von Furstenberg, there to receive a Best Historic Preservation award for the DVF Studio Headquarters at 440 West 14th Street in the Meatpacking District.

So did developer extraordinaire Jerry Speyer, who served on the awards committee and who presented the Best Building awards; and Ann Buttenwieser, who accepted a Best Neighborhood Catalyst award for her Floating Pool Lady, that pool-in-a-barge parked last summer at the foot of Brooklyn Heights.  read more »

In the midst of all the hype about, reconsideration of and admiration for Robert Moses comes news from the other side: The Municipal Art Society will hold an exhibit this September about his polar opposite, ur-urbanist Jane Jacobs, in conjunction with a new $200,000 prize that the Rockefeller Foundation will fund. The annual prize has been dubbed the Jane Jacobs Medal.

MAS President Kent Barwick couldn't say whether it would be as large as the Moses ones now under way in three separate venues (Jacobs would be the first to say that size doesn't matter), but he will certainly feel the pressure to make it as good.

"It was a complete coincidence that we are doing this at the time that the Moses shows are going on, but a great coincidence," Mr. Barwick told The Real Estate. "We are really enjoying the opportunity to work with scholars and revisit Jane Jacobs and to look at her with fresh eyes. This is not so much to weigh in against Bob Moses."

Asked for his own opinion of Moses, Mr. Barwick said, "That's like saying, 'How do you like the Himalayan Mountains?' It is a very big subject."

- Matthew Schuerman

In an otherwise critical sound-off on Atlantic Yards, Municipal Art Society head Kent Barwick tells StreetsBlog that there is still, in his eyes, hope for the mega-complex:

"I don't think this project is substantially designed in its later phases," he said, pointing out that it could be a decade before construction begins on much of the housing and retail space even if the ESDC rubber stamps the project this winter. "Battery Park City and Riverside South got redesigned several times before they got built," observes Barwick.

- Matthew Schuerman

In an otherwise critical sound-off on Atlantic Yards, Municipal Art Society head Kent Barwick tells StreetsBlog that there is still, in his eyes, hope for the mega-complex.

"I don't think this project is substantially designed in its later phases," he said, pointing out that it could be a decade before construction begins on much of the housing and retail space even if the ESDC rubber stamps the project this winter. "Battery Park City and Riverside South got redesigned several times before they got built," observes Barwick.

-Matthew Schuerman

• The Times profiles the Municipal Art Society's Kent Barwick, painting a rich portrait of Manhattan realty's professional "shin" kicker. What does Mr. Barwick think about this era of supersaturated condos and hondos and bloggers and Yardage? "There hasn't been a time, at least not in my lifetime, where New York City has seen so much development going on with so little public involvement." Does blogging count as involvement? (New York Times)
• But who cares about over-development when there's a bigger and better new borough? Yes, everyone, it's Newark, "the next place to get discovered." Our official prediction: Borough No. 8 is White Plains. Then comes Bridgeport. (The Sun)
• Just because Frank "Miss Brooklyn is his middle name" Gehry stepped down from the Pritzger Prize commission this year doesn't mean Renzo Piano won't join in on all the P.P. juror fun. The other newly-minted tastemakers are Tokyo's Shigeru Ban and New York's own Toshiko Mori. (Architecture Magazine)
• Jerry Saltz wonders what Chelsea's David Zwirner will accomplish with his new "half-block-long, triple-doored, brightly lit 30,000 square feet" that he couldn't accomplish in the old 5,000-sf Zwirner Gallery. Saltz's answer? "More of what he was already doing." That, of course, plus an "all-out bid for preeminence." (Village Voice)
• How do you stop a new 50-story (or 7-story?) Brooklyn condo? You don't--unless you have a statue surrounded by lots of dead people, and can argue successfully that they deserve an unobstructed view of the Statue of Liberty. In which case, presto, you'll have a national park instead of a local eyesore. (NY1)
- Max Abelson
• 0 comments

• First the Related Companies brought us a "luxury high line condo" and an Iron Chef. Then came Related's hot-ticket midtown Veneto (plus Le Cirque). Now here's a pretty Hell's Kitchen lake, plus the potential for West Nile, at a vacant Related-owned lot. (New York Times)
• Donald "The Donald"/"The Trump" Trump is officially found "unpersuasive" and "without merit"--at least that's what a state Supreme Court has said about his big West Side lawsuit. The 20 counts of that suit (19 of which have been dismissed) charged his former Hong Kong partners for undervaluing the Riverside South properties, which were sold last year to the Carlyle Group in a record-setting residential land deal. Undervalued? Just like Don. (The Real Deal)
• The Municipal Art Society's Kent Barwick battles it out with ACORN's Bertha Lewis within the hallowed pages of City Limits. Mr. Barwick is against the current plan for Atlantic Yards, and he invokes "justice and equity" to tell us why. In support, Ms. Lewis relies on the old "we don't have the luxury of the word 'should'" argument. (City Limits)
• Who knew DUMBO had been gentrified? The luxurious green hands of Whole Foods will be grabbing up some space across the river--possibly ABC Carpet's old 40,000 square feet at 20 Jay Street. (Curbed)
• The Number 6 is somehow named the best New York subway line for the third year in a row. (The N, aka The Never--get it?--comes in last on account of its infrequency, seat unavailability, dirtiness, etc.) The victorious No. 6, on the other hand, gets a measly "MetroCard Rating" of $1.40: at least the MTA Podcast doesn't cost anything. (Newsday)
- Max Abelson  read more »
• 0 comments

The Municipal Art Society's president for communications passes on this communique from Kent Barwick, president of the M.A.S. (with spellin' lessons--our bad).

"The Municipal Art Society did indeed develop two alternative site plans for the Ikea project that would meet their publicized program needs while preserving the rich history of the site. And, it is true that Ikea rejected both of these alternatives, in one case for financial and political reasons and the other for newly disclosed operational reasons. Nevertheless, these two alternative plans demonstrate another fact we've long known: talented design professionals can develop creative solutions to challenging problems when there is a will to do it. But, so far Ikea has been unwilling to even try.

We continue to hope that Ikea will recognize that they can build their store and their parking lot, while saving Civil War-era buildings and a functional ship repair dry dock that dates to the Lincoln Administration. They can also save high-skill, high-wage jobs on the working waterfront by allowing the shipyard to remain open. When it comes to Brooklyn's historic past and its promising future, Ikea can be a hero in this matter and we hope they will be.

PS: I'd like to gently point out to the original writer that it's Erie Basin and Erie Canal, not Eerie.

Kent Barwick, President, Municipal Art Society"

-Matthew Grace

Preservationist group Save the Chelsea Historic District is sponsering a free symposium tonight, "Preserving the Integrity of the Historic District," at 7:30 p.m. at the German Evangelical Lutheran Church of St. Paul (315 West 22nd Street). Speakers include Kent Barwick, former chair of the New York City Landmarks Preservation Commission and president of the Municipal Art Society and State Senator Tom Duane, among others. -Matthew Grace

Don't miss this survey of the battle for the soul of the East River waterfront--both sides of the river, and of the argument--in Gotham Gazette.

A bit of context:

It has happened in many of the great old cities of the world. In London, a power station along the Thames River became the Tate Modern Museum. In Paris, a train station on the Seine became the Musee d’Orsay. In San Francisco, an old chocolate factory became Ghirardelli Square, an essential tourist stop.

Kent Barwick of the Municipal Arts Society probably has the right idea:

"It's not like all other rivers. It's a gritty, workingman's river. That's where the energy is. That's where the action is."

But what does that mean for development?  read more »

- Tom McGeveran