New at Pentagram
New Work: Riverways
Manhattan is an island—some would say a landlocked island—and grew to prominence because of its harbor, but like many American cities, New York seems to avoid its waterways. Over the past decades, ferry and water taxi service has made an impressive reappearance on the city’s rivers—but along the way an evident problem has arisen. By definition, ferry landings are located at the edge of the city, usually in windy, exposed waterside sites that offer an unpleasant and discouraging experience for passengers waiting for a ferry or for connecting surface transit.
This year marks the 400th anniversary of Henry Hudson’s arrival in New York harbor and discovery of the Hudson River. Over the past few years, under the leadership of the Hudson-Fulton-Champlain Quadricentennial, a consortium of New York civic groups—including the Metropolitan Waterfront Alliance and the Hudson River Foundation—have been developing plans for a system of “Quad Landings”: floating docks designed to allow access to and from the water for a wide variety of vessels, from ferries and water taxis to sailboats, kayaks, and other craft.
Building on this initiative, James Biber of Pentagram Architects and James Sanders of James Sanders + Associates have developed Riverways, a practical, economical, and flexible system of elements that allow water access where there is currently none, or enhance ferry and water-taxi landings that already exist. Though relatively small in scale, these elements are intended to provide crucial points of linkage, integrating the region’s water and land transportation into a single unified system, and opening the city’s waters for recreation to the immense populations adjacent to them. The proposal is designed to increase access to the water for communities frustrated by their proximity to magnificent waterways that can be seen but not touched.
Download a PDF of the complete proposal here.
New Work: ‘Amsterdam/New Amsterdam’
Four hundred years ago this September, the Englishman Henry Hudson, sailing for the Dutch East India Company, discovered what we now know as New York Harbor, Manhattan Island and the Hudson River.
Designed by Michael Gericke and his team, the new exhibition Amsterdam/New Amsterdam: The Worlds of Henry Hudson at the Museum of the City of New York examines Hudson’s historic journey and the cultural link between Amsterdam and New York that are an integral part of the city today.
Gericke’s exhibition design uses large, modern curvilinear forms inspired by Hudson’s ship de Halve Maen (the Half Moon) to create a compelling context for interpreting this rich history. The design was cited as a highlight of the exhibition in a review in The New York Times.
New Work: ‘Mannahatta/Manhattan’
What was Manhattan like 400 years ago, before the first settlers arrived? Designed by Abbott Miller, the new exhibition Mannahatta/Manhattan: A Natural History of New York City at the Museum of the City of New York reconstructs the ecology of the small wooded island originally known as Mannahatta (“island of many hills” as the Lenape Indians called it) before it became one of the most densely built places on earth. The exhibition is presented in collaboration with the Wildlife Conservation Society and is based on the Mannahatta Project, scientist Eric W. Sanderson’s decade-long research of the ecological history of the island, its geological features, as well as its flora and fauna. The exhibition has been mounted as part of the museum’s celebration of the 400th anniversary of the arrival of Henry Hudson in Mannahatta (September 12, 1609) and is on view through October 12.
Abbott Miller also designed Sanderson’s book about the project, Mannahatta: A Natural History of New York City, and like the book, the exhibition presents stunning visualizations of pre-settlement Manhattan rendered by Markley Boyer. Miller’s design of the exhibition highlights these visualizations to transport visitors to a Manhattan quite unlike the one outside the museum walls.
New Work: ‘Mannahatta’
The modern, manmade landmarks of New York are so familiar it is hard to imagine that before the city was an “asphalt jungle” it was a quiet wooded island called Mannahatta, or “Island of Many Hills,” by the Lenape Indians. In his new book Mannahatta: A Natural History of New York City, ecologist Eric W. Sanderson of the Wildlife Conservation Society considers what Manhattan was like a short 400 years ago, before the first settlers arrived. Abbott Miller’s design for the book helps make this serious scientific history accessible and emphasizes the startling contrast between the metropolis of today with the Manhattan Island of 1609.
The release of Mannahatta is timed to the 400th anniversary of the arrival of Henry Hudson in New York Harbor, and the book will be accompanied by the exhibition Mannahatta/Manhattan: A Natural History of New York City, also designed by Miller and opening at the Museum of the City of New York on May 20.
Let’s visit the real old New York.
Syndication feed