NEWS
The concrete superstructure work at Opal Residences in Gravesend, Brooklyn was completed last week. The project, a 12-unit luxury ground-up for Redhoek+Partners, is a collaboration between J.L. Ramirez Architects, FAB 314 AW, and Pliskin Architecture.
With the pouring of the bulkhead slab, the structure was topped out, and construction crews have shifted focus towards the exterior envelope work. Check out the drone footage by LACUNA above, and a few stills of Opal Residences and Neighboring Onyx Residences after the jump.
Construction continues on Pliskin Architecture’s two-family development in Greenpoint, Brooklyn. Following completion of exterior masonry work, the scaffolding has been removed, allowing a glimpse of the facade that will join this quiet tree-lined street. The project, developed by LTNG, is scheduled for completion in the first half of 2024.
Excavation begins / photo by Emily Nguyen
Construction for panyc’s first multifamily on Avenue U in Gravesend began last week, with excavation getting underway. The project, a collaboration with J.L. Ramirez Architect and FAB314AW, is a 6-story ground up condominium for Brooklyn-based developer Redhoek + Partners.
We recently submitted our second group-up project in Bay Harbor Islands for review by the local Design Review Board (DRB). The project, a collaboration with FAB 314 AW for Redhoek+Partners, is an 18-unit condo building located on 100th Street on the east island of Bay Harbor Islands, and was very well received by the Board members and was approved unanimously.
Construction has picked up speed for the panyc designed restaurant on the Upper West Side. The restaurant, scheduled to open later this month, is the panyc team’s first project in the UWS as well as our first restaurant. The restaurant, a second location of a veteran Brooklyn establishment, will have 65 seats inside, and another 40 seats for outdoor dining.
The 2021 installation of the Manhattan Park pool murals features art by Melissa Dadourian and caps 7 consecutive pool seasons where K&CO and Pliskin Architecture have curated the project. Film by David Castillo, Patrick Mandeville, and Divided Line.
Excited that our D.C collaboration with SHoP Architects and K&CO has won an Interior Design Magazine Best Of Year Award in the Finance/Law Office category. The project is Pliskin Architecture’s first in Washington DC, and also our first ID Best of Year award.
To mark the occasion, we’re sharing a sneak peak of the space, with excellent photos by David Mitchell. We are quite proud of the space and and extremely happy with this win: it was a tight field, and we are humbled to have our work recognized by the competition jury.
The shock, pain, and anger brought on by the murders of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor and Ahmaud Arbery regrettably serve to remind us, practitioners, that our profession has repeatedly been complicit in supporting and implementing white supremacist systems, explicitly designed to subjugate black bodies in the public arena. Policing and mass incarceration, both enacted in public space, are a normalized form of state violence and we condemn their existence because they should have no place in a just society.
As we support and learn from our fellow citizens/protestors, utilizing open public space to communicate and demonstrate our collective rights, we are reminded that certain civic responsibilities are deeply entrenched within our profession. We are called on to examine our roles in society and join along with black and brown communities in demanding structural change and in disruption of white supremacist systems that exist within practice and public space.
We recently spent a weekend documenting our largest corporate interior project with the help of David Mitchell, and are happy to share a few behind the scenes photos. The project, for a large international law firm, was a collaboration with SHoP Architects and K&CO, and was completed earlier in 2019.
Our 2019 project in Downtown Portland was recently included in Design Milk, completed in collaboration with GBD Architects. The article features photos by Sally Painter, and highlights a project that was many months in the making. Check out the coverage on Design Milk, as well as a recent post on Officesnapshots.
Check out this year’s MP Pool Party video by Patrick Mandeville of Divided Line, featuring 2019 artist Elizabeth Sutton.
A few photos from the team’s visit at our latest project in North Carolina. This round, we’re collaborating with Tel Aviv based Gindi Studio and Tina Barnard Designs out of Morrisville, NC, and building out a 43,000sf space just outside of the Raleigh Durham airport, and directly across from our 2016 project in North Carolina.
Photo by Max Touhey
The annual installation at pool at Manhattan Park Apartments on Roosevelt Island was officially launched on Memorial Day. The installation, designed in collaboration with K&CO in 2015, enters its 5th year and features New York based artist Elizabeth Sutton, whose mural replaces the 2018 painting by Technodrome1.
Over the weekend, I spent an afternoon at our recently completed project in Portland with Sally Painter to document the space, and hereby present: random behind the scene shots…
The 2018 PA/KCO Holiday Party, in pictures.
Construction Update: our project in Portland is picking up steam, with work in the ceiling is wrapping up in advance of painting and acoustic treatments in the Portland Tech Office Pliskin Architecture is working on with GBD Architects. Check out the latest photos after the jump.
Last week saw an expansion of pa|nyc and K&Co’s 3D printing capabilities, with the addition of a Prusa i3 MK3 3D printer to the our shared office. Above is an in process shot of the printing of the first print on the new machine – of a schematic model of an upcoming project.
Our first ground-up residential building in Brooklyn is taking shape. With the structure topped-out, the site is being prepped for arrival of windows later this month. Additionally, drywall, HVAC, and plumbing trades are on site pushing towards a mid-2019 completion.
Snapshot of PA’s new interactive project map
It took a while, but with the help of Ori Raviv of lamalo.us, we’ve finally launched a new interactive project map to expand how our projects can be explored in our website. With projects broken up by status (completed, in-process, and unbuilt proposals), the map creates another portal through which people can discover our work.
Perspective section through mixed-use development, drawn by James Quick
Looking back through several years of work, and through different project typologies, a slight obsession with linework explorations is evident. We like lines, so it seems, and here are some of my favorites from the last 4 years or so.
The 4th year of the MP Pool Party murals, the K&CO and pa|nyc designed summer installations around a pool on Roosevelt Island, opened this past May, with 2018 Artist Technodrome1. Similar to previous years, a limited palette of bright colors were used to bring life to the pool, with each year taking its own character based on the artist’s unique style. This year’s video, created by Patrick Mandeville of Divided Line, chronicles the creation of this years mural, and presents the work through the artist’s voice.
The series, which is part of a larger renovation effort the team has taken on at the Manhattan Park Apartments, was first launched in 2015. This years work has been featured on Curbed, Timeout, and Untapped Cities.
July 2018 saw the first combined PAKCO Summer excursion, which included a day with roller coasters and an evening celebrating completed work, good food, and our growing team. Shortly following recent launch anniversaries, with the pa|nyc team entering its 6th year of existence and K&CO launching its 4th year, we were spent a sunny day together getting to know the recent additions and preparing for some of the upcoming departures.
Our shared office with K&CO got it’s first round of decorative lighting installed last week, adding another layer of personalization to our space. The largest addition to the office was the conference room, where two oversize dome pendants were introduced. The 4′ diameter lights, designed by Krista Ninivaggi, are pretty darn awesome, objectively speaking…
The Pool in 2014, before the MP Pool Party installations
The Manhattan Park Pool is opening for its summer this weekend, with a new mural by Technodrome1, so quickly before it opens, a recap of the MP Pool Party series thus far. Above, the pool in 2014, before the installations.
The 4th year of K&Co and Pliskin Architecture’s rainbow pool installations on Roosevelt Island is under way, this year featuring art by Technodome1 (a.k.a Takun Williams).
Our front entrance never looked better!
K&Co + pa|nyc office updates: shot over the course of two days, this timelpase follows Jon Bocksel of Hand Signs as he installs hand lettering on our front entrance, adding a personal touch to our suite number and painting an elegant description to go with our neon signs.
One of the last pieces for the office we designed in Paris was installed last week – an undulating partial-height acoustic divider that breaks up one breakout space into 3 smaller, quieter meeting spaces. The office, designed in Collaboration with Atelier 208, was completed over the summer, with a few pieces remaining to be installed.
Just launched: the video documenting the 3rd year of summer installations dubbed MP Pool Party around a pool on Roosevelt Island. Located as part of the Manhattan Park residential community, the pool has become a key piece of the K&Co and Pliskin Architecture ongoing renovations to the 880-unit rental complex. The 2017 installation features an 8,000sf mural by Gregg V. Emery titled Waves off Roosevelt Island. The video was created by Patrick Mandeville of Divided Line Productions, and captures the transition from last year’s minimalist mural by Andrew Faris to Gregg’s layered interpretation of the over sized canvas, and through to the community’s embrace of the pool, the painting and the furnishing curated by K&Co’s Aaron Levy. The video features the music of Secret Creatures, drone footage by Amy Shell, and additional video footage by Andrea Fuma.
This year’s installation, labeled one of New York City’s most instagrammable summer locations, has been featured in TimeOut New York, the New York Post, DNA, untappedcities, curbed, and PureWow.
For the recently completed office space for the Parisian team of an international data security company, we embarked on the design and fabrication of a series of custom furniture pieces. The office, situated in La Defense, was designed by Pliskin Architecture and Atelier 208, and the furniture was fabricated by AMC at their facility in Brittany.
I spent a few days considering the recent withdrawal of the US Federal Government from the landmark Paris Climate Agreement – a decision that seems short sighted, narrow minded, and potentially catastrophic. However, among the immediate negative connotations, I found great relief in what has promptly followed – the outpouring of responses from world leaders, local government, businesses, and professionals in the building industries, committing to climate accountability at their respective areas of work and jurisdiction. This level of response, resistance, and awareness that the decision has generated has culminated in a resounding call to action, which in the absence of a National commitment, is the next best thing we can hope for.
Thank you Trump. You have provoked an unparalleled wave of support for Paris and determined resolve on climate action. Deeply grateful.
— Christiana Figueres (@CFigueres) June 2, 2017
The 3rd annual summer pop up at the Manhattan Park Pool Club on Roosevelt Island will launch next weekend, and preparations are underway:
This year, K&Co and Pliskin Architecture commissioned Gregg V Emery, pictured above, to create the 8,000sf mural that anchors the installation and that will act as a backdrop for the summer pool season. We’ve collected a few of the social media mentions of the mural here, creating a year 3 preview of sorts.
With construction underway on our first project in Paris, a pleasant side effect is a growing Parisian Album, assembled of urban moments and snapshots that have been captured throughout our social media feeds.
Construction has started on a new office space for the K&Co and Pliskin Architecture teams, in anticipation for the upcoming move of both firms to the Financial District in Lower Manhattan. After several years of growth at the Hudson River Collaborative in Tribeca, we are all ready to excited on the next chapter.
Work has begun on our new office project in Paris, and quite honestly, we’re excited. The space was designed in collaboration with Atelier 208 in Paris, and once complete, will be the home for the local team of an international technology company. This is will be Pliskin Architecture’s first built project outside of the US, and the Paris construction team is scheduled to complete the space by the end of May 2017.
We stopped by our construction site in Bed-Stuy to check in on the gut renovation of a Brooklyn Townhouse, and observed the fruits of several months of accelerated work on site. The work on this turn-of-the-century home has set out to restore it to its glory days, while creating a contemporary residence for a young family, with all the modern-day comforts.
Juno, a ride-sharing startup based in NYC, has recently moved into 1 World Trade Center in Lower Manhattan. Their new space, designed by Pitsou Kedem, Sigal Baranowitz, and Pliskin Architecture, occupies a north-facing suite on one of the highest floor in the new downtown super-tall tower.
The design team, together with photographer David Rahr, was back in the space to document it. We were in luck – we ended up shooting on a crisp day with excellent visibility, affording us the ability to capture the space and one of its most striking features: uninterpreted views to the east, north, west.
Work on the Pliskin Architecture designed apartment combination in Midtown, Manhattan has completed, with finishing touches going in during the last few weeks of 2016. Above is time lapse footage of the last 3 weeks of the year and of the apartment renovation, with lighting, millwork, audio/video equipment, and furniture coming together in the living room to complete the work.
Our recent photo shoot in North Carolina, condensed and abstracted by Liam Frederick, Photographer, Filmmaker, and Waffle Lover.
The annual installations at the Manhattan Park pool club, dubbed MP Pool Party, are a finalist in the Outdoor Space category of Interior Design Magazine’s 2016 Best of Year Awards. Designed K&Co and Pliskin Architecture, the annual installation has featured work by HOT TEA and Andrew Faris, which tied into an overall redesign of the pool area, used to attract new audiences to the pool that is part of a growing community on Roosevelt Island. Launched in 2015, the installations run throughout the summer pool season from Memorial Day to Labor Day, and have garnered positive attention from both the real estate market and the local press.
As part of expanding the toolkit of design and communication tools, we recently embarked on another adventure with Liam Frederick, this time with immersive videos. Launching experiments in 360 time lapse videos, we positioned a camera in several locations in a recently completed Pliskin Architecture designed office space in Morrisville, North Carolina. The camera captured moments in the life of the office, as employees had breakfast around the bar in the pantry, and as they took a break from work to slowly fill up the over sized coloring wallpaper.
The tech office we designed just outside of the Raleigh-Durham is the latest to receive the Liam Frederick treatment. Over the course of several long hours, on a beautiful October Saturday, Liam jumped around between work and play spaces, chasing light and capturing several office employees as they fill the spaces with life and energy.
PROJECT CREDITS
Design – Pliskin Architecture / Lead Designer: James Quick
HVAC – E4P Consulting Engineering
General Contractor – TR Fox Contracting
Construction has started on a gut renovation of a Brooklyn Townhouse in Bedford-Stuyvesant. We’re restoring this turn-of-the-century classic to its glory days, or at least that’s the goal. A lot of the original woodwork has remained in tact, which allows us to create a parlour floor that is true in form to its roots, while still accommodating a state-of-the-art kitchen, new fixtures, and energy-conscious lighting and ventilation.
The bearded craftsmen of Gustav Mergins Woodworking were onsite, tinkering with the moving parts of over-sized pivot doors for an apartment renovation currently under construction. Covered in sawdust and equipped with the latest, um, beards, Gustav and crew were working on their pieces for a two-apartment combination project in Midtown Manhattan.
With only two weeks left to enjoy the pool season at Manhattan Park, we’ve added another way to enjoy this year’s installment of K&Co and Pliskin Architecture’s summer art series, featuring the 2016 mural by Andrew Faris titled Block Party. The video above, by Patrick Mandeville of Divided Line Productions, captures the transition from last year’s mural by HOTTEA to Andrew’s interpretation of the 8,000sf canvas on Roosevelt Island, and through to the placement of the lounge chairs, hammocks, and sun-brellas curated by K&Co’s Aaron Levy.
The video, which includes drone footage by Amy Shell (pictured above with Patrick, working through one of the sequences), was shot over the course of 3 weeks during the lead up to the opening in May of 2016. The video has been featured in the Architect’s Newspaper coverage of MP Pool Party year 2.
Our proposal for a music school in Mevaseret Zion in Israel, that was submitted as part of a design competition in 2016, was recently featured on ArchDaily, a prominent blog that covers architectural news and projects worldwide. The project site for this competition sits at an intersection of built fabric and open terrain, overlooking a scenic valley, and our entry focuses on feathering the transition between built and undisturbed land, by creating a public space that both creates the entrance to the music school and draws the public closer to Har’el Park. This is the first project of Pliskin Architecture to be featured on ArchDaily, and hopefully will lead to further exposure of our conceptual and unbuilt work to date.
For an upcoming workplace project outside of RDU airport, Pliskin Architecture has teamed up with Bull City Designs (BCD) to develop several custom pieces that will anchor the fit-out of the offices.
The signature piece will be the focal point of the employee break room, visible from most corners of the office, and allowing over 20 people to converge at the same time. Made of raw steel and barely finished ash wood, the table’s unique shape allows for groups of different sizes to congregate for breakfast, lunch, or beer.
A large conference table, pictured above in BCD’s shop, will span 18′ and is structured from an 80 year-old truss from an old water tower in Durham.
The table surface is made of solid heartpine wood, and has raw steel accents, and it will be fully wired to allow for different types of uses, presentations, and training to occur.
For the reception desk, a plywood carcass is wrapped with unfinished steel and 2,500 linear feet of cat6 data cabling, giving the office a pop of color when entering, and making the support engineers on site feel at home.
Construction has started on the offices we designed outside of the Raleigh Durham Airport (RDU) in North Carolina. The 14,000sf office for an international technology company is scheduled for completion by the end of July, and will feature a combination of colorful accents and reclaimed industrial artifacts. The work areas will have natural wood work surfaces, and the entire office will have a range of lounge, meeting, and communal spaces to accommodate many different types of interaction between employees.
The office, designed by Pliskin Architecture with the help of Tina Barnard Designs in Morrisville, will be fully operational this summer and will feature furniture fabricated locally by Bull City Designs in Durham.
The summer installations by K&Co and Pliskin Architecture at the Manhattan Park Pool have entered their 2nd year, with the 2016 being launched this past Memorial Day. Like last year, the new installation features an 8,000sf mural with a bright color palette, and will accompany the pools other design elements, ranging from lounge chairs, hammocks, sun-brellas, and more. This year’s mural is by Andrew Faris and is titled Block Party – it uses bright colors that are similar to those in last year’s installation, but re-imagines the pool in Andrew’s unique vocabulary. The mural and the pool have garnered the attention of local blogs and media outlets, including Curbed, Gothamist, Timeout New York, Architectural Digest, and The Architect’s Newspaper.
Work has been progressing on Pliskin Architecture’s renovation of the entrances to two residential towers on the Columbia University Medical Center campus in Washington Heights. The work includes new glass entrances and large metal canopies to create a seamless transition from the education campus to the student and faculty apartments that overlook the Hudson River and The George Washington Bridge.
The residential towers are set within two courtyards designed by SCAPE Landscape Architecture and are adjacent to the new Medical and Graduate Education Building by Diller, Scofidio + Renfro and Gensler.
Current work on site includes structural concrete and steel programs, which are nearing completion, and recently saw the start of electrical work and ceiling framing.
Work is scheduled to complete by June of 2016 and in advance of the 2016/2017 academic year.
Designboom recently featured our design for a midtown tech office, with photos courtesy of Liam Frederick.
With the help of TR Fox Contracting, construction has started on the gut-renovation and combination of two apartments in Midtown. We have left a tiny GoPro behind to chronicle tearing it down, and the video above provides a first peak behind the scenes. Stay tuned for more updates, both here and on twitter.
PROJECT CREDITS
Design – Pliskin Architecture / Lead Designer: James Quick
HVAC – E4P Consulting Engineering
General Contractor – TR Fox Contracting
Proudly rolling out our latest completed space, this time in video format.
The video chronicles the design and construction of a 15,000 sf office space for a technology company in Midtown. Documenting 10 busy months, the video follows an empty space through its design, visualization, construction, furnishing, and move-in of the 2nd phase of the expansion of the company’s global headquarters. The end results, both space and video, are the product of the hard work of a wonderful team and devoted collaborators – special thanks to all who made it possible.
FILM CREDITS
Virtual Reality – KX-L
Still Photography – Liam Frederick
Film – Workshopolis
SPACE CREDITS
Architecture – Pliskin Architecture / Project Manager – Travis Bunt; Lead Designer – Tom Heltzel; Design Team: Travis Bunt, John Buonocore, Tom Heltzel, Barak Pliskin, Mat Staudt, Switchaya Yingsree
Associate Designer – Lothan Architects / Dvir Daitch
MEP – AVCON Engineering
Lighting – Megan Pfeffer
Estimating – ELLANA
Graphic Design – Mel Lim Design
General Contractor – Plaza Construction
Furniture – Edge Office
To celebrate a fruitful, productive, and fun year, we gathered the designers from K&Co and Pliskin Architecture for an afternoon of pasta making at Haven’s Kitchen. It was first and foremost a holiday celebration, but it also marked 1 year since we moved our operation to the same space in Tribeca, and capping a rewarding period of collaboration on projects across New York City.
As with an proper holiday party, we started with wine. This was also the last time the prep area was clean…
First stop for architects making pasta – dough from scratch.
From dense block to long flat sheet.
Prepping the filling.
Waiting for water to boil.
Selfie time…
Toasting to a great team, great work, and great food. Happy Holidays!
After a quick webex the other morning we were left with this beautiful drawing.
We like to think its delightfully childish nature emphasizes the collaborative nature of the meeting, yet ultimately belies the seriousness we sometimes pretend to have.
The recently completed expansion for an international technology company‘s New York City offices was the focus of a photo shoot by Liam Frederick. With the support of a large cast and crew, the photo shoot spanned 3 days, 2 sunsets, 2089 photos (educated estimate), 12 beers, and 3 pizzas. Some behind the scenes photos from a long weekend of shooting are included here, with the final photos expected in the coming weeks.
All the photos from the 3 days have also been condensed to an 84 second time lapse featured below:
In addition to Liam, special thanks go to Lee Altman, Travis Bunt, Julio Alberto Cedano, Annie Coombs, Thomas Heltzel, Jenny Joe, James Quick, Amy Shell, and Margaret Zyro, who added life to the photos and photo shoot alike.
In between shots on a midtown rooftop, moments of Zen courtesy of a smartphone and an egg timer.
As our Instagram feed readies to round 100 posts, a look back at some of our favorites. First, finishing touches of lights and furniture complete an 8-month sprint to shape the informal floor for a large tech company:
Cue gratuitous sunset photo, as seen from the Kosciuszko Bridge on Labor Day 2015:
By far the most popular post of the first 99, a dusk shot of MP Pool Party, the pool on Roosevelt Island designed by K&Co and us, with art by HOT TEA:
MP Pool Party, the summer pop up at the Manhattan Park Pool Club on Roosevelt Island, was used as one of the shooting locations for Jamie XX‘s latest video ‘I Know There’s Gonna Be (Good Times)’. The song, which features Young Thug and Popcaan, and was directed by Rollo Jackson, was shot over the summer in various locations in NYC and Jamaica. The scenes at the pool, which was designed by K&Co and Pliskin Architecture, heavily features the mural commissioned by the designers for the space, which was painted on the pool deck by street artist HOT TEA.
As we prepare to (sadly) bid summer farewell, here’s a look back at the making of MP Pool Party – the summer pop up pool for Manhattan Park in Roosevelt Island. With Design by K&Co and Pliskin Architecture, and a massive mural by HOT TEA, the pool was a huge success, drawing in curious people from all over the city. The project, a temporary installation in an old pool facility on Roosevelt Island in New York City, was completed in time for Memorial Day weekend and the start of the 2015 pool season.
The video , shot over the course of 10 days, documents the work by street artist HOT TEA, with help from the K&Co team, transforming the broken concrete pavement into a festive rainbow mural. The furniture includes simple chaise lounges, colorful Acapulco chairs, colorful hammocks, and bright yellow sunbrellas, was selected to work with the painted deck to complete a playful scene overlooking the Upper East Side just across the East River.
The design for the pool also received a wide range of media interest, from Curbed in NYC, through Wallpaper* in London, to The Iconist in Berlin. Additionally, the client, Roosevelt Island Associates, together with the design team, is currently working on a larger remodel of the outdoor pool area and other public amenities at the 8.5 acre waterfront rental community located on Roosevelt Island, which we hope will continue to make waves in the local real estate market.
Turns out, that being slightly off the Manhattan grid makes the Tribeca streets miss out on Manhattanhenge. But… we get to enjoy its smaller cousin, the far lesser known Tribecahenge.
Certain moments warrant a quick break. Now back to work.
Here’s a look at some of the fun we’ve been having misusing a few of the render channels you can get out of V-Ray. The render ID channel gives you unique colors for each discrete object, while the normals channel colors objects based on orientation. A bit of overlay photoshop blending, and you end up with some pretty fun images.
For this last image, we decided to get really psychedelic-tropical and animate it. Its always interesting to find different ways to use the representational techniques at our disposal and play around with our tools every once in a while to test if we can get something different out of them.
Final pieces of the full floor renovation of the NYC tech office have started to arrive. With lights being installed throughout the floor, the second phase of the technology company’s NYC expansion, more of its unique features can now be understood.
The colorful kitchen, the collaboration desk, the open offices – between new furnishings arriving weekly, and electrical wrapping up, many spaces are almost finished, with only technology missing to get the spaces operational.
Color coordinated cables, colorful chairs, custom hardwood work tables, exposed concrete elements, and sweeping views, the design sets a different tone for the work and the workers on the floor.
The pantry’s main feature is a central bar that is made of recycled skateboard tops from the Focused Skateboard Woodworks in the Netherlands. The bar was custom made align with Pliskin Architecture’s Design for the pantry – we’re hoping for a central platform for exchanges between seated and transitory employees – a unique piece in the center of the new community on the floor.
A long, zigzagging table, partially suspended from the slab above, faces fabulous southern exposures, and allows for impromptu meetings or landing spots for employees from the company’s other global offices. The lights in this area are also elongated, and randomly scattered against the rigid backdrop of the waffle slab above.
Project Manager – Travis Bunt; Lead Designer – Tom Heltzel;
Project Team: Barak Pliskin, John Buonocore, Mat Staudt, Switchaya Yingsree, Tom Heltzel, Travis Bunt
Associate Designer: Lothan Architects
The week our client read the entire Plumbing Code:
Also in this installment of ‘Plumbing, Illustrated’, the difference between a Wye and a Tee:
With the bulk of construction done on the second phase of NY headquarters of a global technology company, finishes have started going up, and the floor has started taking shape. Ceiling have been painted, lights turned on, hexagonal carpets glues down, and multicolored data cables have been stretched throughout the office.
Acoustical tiles have been added within an exposed concrete slab, surprisingly dampening the noise within a bustling construction site. All in all, several dozen workers are finishing up their respective pieces, with millwork, glazing and painting happening in parallel.
Slight errors not withstanding, the construction crews have been on schedule throughout, with completion a few weeks out, specialty items have started arriving on site, including a custom OSB amphitheater.
The design of the space was done by Pliskin Architecture, with the help of Lothan Architects in Tel Aviv. The key players on the construction site are: General Contractor – Plaza Construction; Drywall – J.P. Phillips; Millwork – Four Daughters; Electrical – RBSamuels; HVAC – Admore; Glass – Edge Office and Mass Merchandising; Stone and tiles – Urban Construction.
Powering through logistical challenges, and trying to avoid construction crews at all costs, we installed a camera on site at Phase II of the tech office headquarters in midtown to capture the organized chaos! We missed the first few weeks as the painting of the ceiling could have done some serious damage to our camera. But once that hurdle was cleared, and with the help of some industrial grade adhesive, the action cam was up and running. The video here was shot over the course of 3 weeks and serves as a pilot for the final sequence editing. Stay tuned for more.
For its roundup of 2015’s best summer installations, Wallpaper Magazine surveyed temporary art installations from around the world. We were quite honored that our latest collaboration with K&Co for Manhattan Park’s refreshed pool club was included in this roundup. The summer pop up for this rental community on Roosevelt Island includes art by HOT TEA, colorful furniture, oversized sunbrellas, and is a whimsical intervention for the aging pool club, painting over the cracked concrete deck and attracting new visitors throughout the summer season.
The feature is called “The great outdoors: this summer’s most exhilarating installations” and includes work by Anish Kapoor, Janet Echelman, Santiago Calatrava, and SelgasCano. The pool has attracted quite a lot of press, giving Manhattan Park a big boost in presence, and overall the art, the artist and the design team have had a great reception throughout local and global design outlets.
Few things mark the pulse of New York culture like New York Magazine’s Approval Matrix. Having work featured in it marks relevance or at the very least momentary recognition, floating temporarily above some of the noise. So when our joint work with K&Co and HOTTEA on Roosevelt Island was featured on the Matrix, we were noticeably giddy with excitement. Furthermore – MP Pool Party landed on the matrix in the LowBrow /Brilliant quadrant, which, well, is kind of awesome altogether…
MP Pool Party Lands in the Approval Matrix
Culminating an 8-week design/procurement/execution phase, the revitalized pool opened on Memorial day, and was quick to get noticed. Both social media and local blogs picked up the installation at a quick pace (first posts surfaced before the pool had even been filled), and curious pool goers and art enthusiasts had started frequenting the pool. Open both through seasonal memberships and day passes, the Manhattan Park pool was happy to welcome the new crowds, and this season marked a spike in pool membership, reaffirming the client’s commitment to the overall revitalization of this Roosevelt Island Rental Community.
Pliskin Architecture’s latest collaboration with K&Co was recently covered on Curbed, a New York based real estate and architecture blog. The project, a temporary installation in an old pool facility on Roosevelt Island in New York City, was completed in time for Memorial Day weekend and the start of the pool season.
This Curbed feature covers one piece of a larger phased project. The client, Roosevelt Island Associates, together with of K&Co and Pliskin Architecture, is planning a larger remodel of the outdoor pool area at Manhattan Park, an 8.5 acre waterfront rental community, as well as new designs for the lobbies, hallways, and rental units. In the interim, the design team proposed a temporary, whimsical design installation called “pop-up pool party” that would last for the 2015 pool season. The pop-up pool club will feature new loungers, hammocks, beach-style lifeguard chairs, and other deck furniture, as well as other upgrades – all with an iconic, pop-art feel. Most notably, the redesigned space will feature a pool deck mural by noted street artist and “yarn bomber” HOTTEA. The design team consisted of Krista Ninivaggi, Aaron Levy, Carly Berger, Micah McKelvey, and Barak Pliskin.
The construction of the second phase of an international software company NYC headquarters is finally under way. Culminating a several weeks of negotiation, Plaza Construction were brought on board as the general contractor for what will hopefully be a 14 week sprint to the finish line.
First up – concrete work, final pieces of demolition, and layout. 6000sf of floor has already been polished, and next up are 19 columns that will be subjected to grinding by hand, which will expose the building’s original aggregate mix. We will be updating throughout, so stay tuned for highs and lows from the construction site.”
Not all clients are created equal. Specifically when it comes to visualizing a design before it is built. Plans, sections and other architectural projections describe space in almost clinical terms. 2D renderings, as advanced as they can be, are always flat, and almost always exaggerated – they can be a simplified and optimistic expression of our goals for the space. The combination of technical drawings and pretty renderings tell part of the story, and not all clients can piece together a full understanding of their space.
For the Phase II of the global headquarters of an international software company, we decided to test a new tool to try and bridge that gap. With the help of Kai Liang of KX-L and a Samsung Oculus VR headset, we took the client for a virtual test drive in the physical space. Kai’s team took our model and created 360° views of the entrance spaces and the open offices, which allowed the client to engage with space, furnishing, finishes and lighting, while surrounded by real views through the office windows. 4 different members of the client team tested this out – each reacting differently, and teaching us a thing or two about what our different tools are and aren’t able to communicate to an audience varied in architectural expertise.
The first phase of global headquarters of an international technology company is completed, and now has look book. Phase one is the formal space, and houses the company’s board room and the company’s top executives. Working against limited ceiling height on the one hand, and spectacular views on the other, the design uses a light color scheme and indirect lighting to create a neutral foreground to balance the striking backdrop outside of the space.