Staten Island Advance
May 23, 2002
Architects’ Group Presents Awards
A school library outfitted in stainless steel is recognized
By Karen O’Shea – Advance Staff Writer
The Staten Island Chapter of the American Institute of Architecture presented design awards yesterday to a school library outfitted in stainless steel, an early childhood center with a wavy ceiling, and an outdoor classroom that sits on the edge of a wetland park in Clifton.
The newly renovated New Dorp Library also picked up an award for good architecture as part of the local AIA’s second annual design awards program, held in the Hilton Garden Inn, Bloomfield.
The group kicked off the event last year as a way to encourage better design in buildings across the borough, especially in rapidly built housing and commercial developments today.
So far, however, most entries for the AIA chapter awards include public buildings, school renovations and hospital additions.
Still, architects said more entries this year were from smaller projects, and they believe the word is getting out to mainstream builders of homes and commercial properties.
Robert Englert, president of the local AIA chapter, says he is seeing changes in the types of color, roof materials and the kinds of facades builders are using in new homes.
“The message is, good design is available to everybody who is willing to partake in it”, said David Businelli, chairman of the AIA design awards committee.
The group selected Steven Holl, who designed the Kiasma Museum of Contemporary Art in Helsinki and a new dormitory at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, as the keynote speaker for yesterday’s luncheon.
“He is an important connector between the world of global architecture and our local practice”, AIA member Stephen Perrella said of Holl. “He is one of the leading architects in the world”.
In an interview after the luncheon, Holl said areas like St. George and Stapleton, because of their proximity to Manhattan, were jewels that has not yet been discovered. And he encouraged builders here to think more about the urban aspects of the borough when building new homes.
“To just build and encourage dependence on the automobile is what destroys the landscape”, he said
.
Those who were recognized yesterday out of a pool of 17 entries include Delle Valle & Bernheimer Design of Brooklyn, which received a merit award for interior architecture for its renovation of the PS 18 library in West Brighton.
The $1.5 million modernization was a pilot project funded by the Robin hood foundation and the Board of Education to create adequate library space in schools in low-income areas.
“Our school had a room called a library, but it was under lock and key and there were some books”, said Andrew Bernheimer, who used stainless steel to transform the entrance to the library. “We wanted to project some excitement in the hallway and mystery about what could be inside this stainless steel box”.
Marpillero Pollack Architects, Manhattan, captured an honor award for landscape architecture for the outdoor classroom at Eib’s Pond in Clifton. the open air structure was built with redwood from a sustainable forest and recycled plastic lumber.
Businelli and Stephen Perrella received an honor award for interior architecture for the expansion of the early-childhood development center at St. Clare’s Parish Center.
The center includes a curved, corrugated metal ceiling and incorporates a technique known as hypersurface, which allows walls to be multi-functional, with windows and furniture built into curved spaces.
Stephen Lepp and Associates were also recognized with a merit award for architecture for its renovation of the New Dorp Library.
The judges who selected the winners included Winka Dubbeldam, a principal in Archi-Tectonics, Manhattan, and George Ranalli, dean of the School of Architecture of City College of New York. Richard Nicotra, developer of the Hilton Garden Inn inside Staten Island Corporate Park, also served on the judges’ panel along with Alice B. Diamond.
Mrs. Diamond, wife of Staten Island Advance Publisher Richard Diamond, serves on the boards of the Greenbelt Conservancy, the friends of Alice Austen House and the Lynne Robbins Steinman foundation. She is also a former trustee representative of the Metropolitan Museum of Art.