George Lucas’s Passion Project

by Angela O'Byrne | Jun 1, 2017 | Amazing Buildings, Archives

As one of the world’s most successful filmmakers and boasting a net worth of more than five billion dollars, George Lucas enjoys a rare kind of creative freedom. If he is struck by a fancy, he can see it through without real impediment. But when he announced his grand plan to build and fully fund an ambitious new art museum, he faced unexpected opposition in two major American cities. And so, Lucas found himself in the truly unique position of being unable to find a home for his billion-dollar gift.

For at least seven years, Lucas has been pitching and lobbying for his Museum of Narrative Art, a sprawling monument to all visual art that tells a story, from ancient painted Greek amphora thru to modern digital animation. Lucas’s eclectic personal collection encompasses both high and low art, including original pages from the Flash Gordon comics, paintings by Norman Rockwell and Edgar Degas, and, of course, an extensive array of memorabilia and models from his Star Wars films. By presenting them all together, Lucas hopes to curate a populist and inclusive space and one that attracts those who might normally avoid a more traditional art museum.

Lucas’s first choice for a site was in his hometown of San Francisco. He had chosen a beloved area of the Presidio near Crissy Field, where locals gather for outdoor recreation and stunning views of the Golden Gate Bridge.

However, he encountered robust opposition to both his plans (some objected to the height of his design) and the content of the museum itself (too schlocky, some have speculated). And after an extensive and very public negotiation process, the Presidio Trust rejected the proposal in 2014. Lucas packed up and headed to Chicago, the hometown of his new wife, Mellady Hobson.

Finding a champion and a partner in Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel, Lucas decided to test his fortunes in the Windy City. He settled on an exceptional site next to Soldier Field, where the Chicago Bears play. While the site was only a parking lot—beloved only by diehard tailgaters—it was also near Chicago’s picturesque waterfront and within walking distance of several of the city’s foremost attractions, including the Field Museum and the Shedd Aquarium lakeside, positioning it ideally for field trips and convenience-minded tourists.

However, when Lucas unveiled the design for the building—a volcanic mass crowned with floating discs—the project was met with considerable backlash. In a city known for innovative architecture, the building was derided as “blob-like.” Eventually, public opinion soured, amidst a lawsuit from Chicago’s Friends of the Parks and a citywide conversation about public land and appropriateness.

With two strikes against him, Lucas decided to try something unconventional, essentially pitting two cities, Los Angeles and San Francisco, in competition for the project and its sizable endowment. Exhausted by negotiating, he instead let each of the cities’ mayors of each to court him with incentives.

On January 10, 2017, it was announced that Lucas had finally found his Hollywood ending. The site for the museum would be South Los Angeles’s Exposition Park, near the Natural History Museum and the campus of the University of Southern California. The area also falls within a Promise Zone— a Housing and Urban Development designation for high poverty communities selected for investment and improvement, granting the project an argument for meaningful community engagement.

In fact, the building would feel right at home in one of Lucas’s movies. The museum’s smooth, aerodynamic form recalls that of a perched intergalactic ship. Elevated above the park, it appears to be hovering, allowing curious pedestrians to walk under the building.

To preserve as much of the park’s atmosphere as possible, the building also boasts curving green roofs, a terrestrial touch to an alien structure. It is 275,000 square feet altogether, including 100,000 square feet for gallery space, and one can easily imagine the excitement and wonder it will stir up among visiting school field trips.

If there’s a lesson to be learned from the Museum of Narrative Art’s own story, it’s an old classic: that of hubris. Despite being self-sufficient for the project’s funding, the movie magnate still needed pesky civic approval to get his project off the ground. Opting for some of the country’s most prized public real estate likely didn’t help the cause. All of this serves as a reminder that a building isn’t just an idea and a bunch of materials. It’s also a contract, requiring the consent of many stakeholders.

Originally Published in:

THE NETWORK / JUNE 2017 – Amazing Buildings

New York’s New Icon: The Rise of One Vanderbilt

by Angela O'Byrne | Mar 1, 2017 | Amazing Buildings, Archives

Even if you’ve never set foot in Manhattan, you can name some of its most notable buildings: the Empire State, the Chrysler, the Flatiron, 30 Rockefeller Plaza. Everyone knows about the Guggenheim’s great spiral and Grand Central’s breathtaking ceiling, and everyone knows what Carnegie Hall means-even if they’ve never been there. And so, to practice architecture in New York is to paint on one of our largest canvases. To triumph, there is to pass into the realm of American mythology.

If ever a building felt destined for iconic status, One Vanderbilt certainly qualifies. Located next-door to Grand Central Terminal, between 42nd and 43rd streets, the building’s address alone conjures expectation. As if that’s not enough, One Vanderbilt also promises to be one of the city’s tallest structures, a simple asymmetric silhouette towering high above Midtown Manhattan, visible for miles and miles.

Once completed [in 2020 if all goes to plan], One Vanderbilt will rise 1,401 feet, making it one of the 30 tallest buildings in the world. Rising 58 floors, the building will house 1.7 million square feet of prime office space, boasting top LEED-certified construction, dramatic light-filled interiors, and perhaps the city’s easiest commute, with the building’s tenants practically an elevator ride away from their suburban-bound trains.

The office space will undoubtedly become some of the most desired in New York. Rumors have already been floated that J.P. Morgan may relocate its headquarters to the skyscraper. The public will enjoy [likely paid] access to an indoor/outdoor observation deck, while the building’s well-heeled tenants will be able to close deals at the skyscraper’s exclusive Skybar, a cocktail lounge perched 900 feet above the city.

Groundbreaking for the project occurred in October 2016, after fifteen long years of political wrangling, zoning fights, and disputes over air rights. The skyscraper replaces five historical but less-than-remarkable buildings [tenants included a sporting goods store and a TGI Friday’s], held over from an era when the neighborhood was known as Terminal City.

Perhaps thanks to such a prolonged negotiation process, the building that has emerged is uncommonly accommodating, context-considerate, and planning­minded. While its form is certainly beautiful, its aesthetics pale in comparison to the genius of the project’s masterful concessions. Rather than merely towering over its Grand Central neighbor, One Vanderbilt almost defers to it, set ten feet back from the corner of 42nd and Vanderbilt Avenue. Its lower floors appear carved out, creating as much space around the famed train station as possible. The western side of the building, once bookended by blocky behemoths, will be showcased by comparatively mindful glass atria.

“It’s a great thrill to think about what will emerge on this site, but at the same time it’s a great responsibility,” said Jamie von Klemperer, President of Kohn Pederson Fox and the project’s lead designer. This acknowledged balance between corporate ambition and civic responsibility seems to be the project’s [very New Yorker] aim, and it’s clear that compromises have been made to allow the building to climb so high. It’s luxury up top, public good down below.

While the building will ultimately cost more than $3 billion, the figure includes $220 million in public improvements. The project will convert a section of Vanderbilt Avenue into a pedestrian plaza and will completely overhaul subway access, helping to relieve congestion in Grand Central’s crowded transfer area. All told, the project will represent one of the largest private contributions to the New York Metropolitan Transportation Authority’s infrastructure.

Building ambitiously in New York often requires an uncommon amount of maneuvering and deal-making. Every big move will inevitably draw some measure of complaint in a city with so many competing interests and desires. However, One Vanderbilt’s greatest accomplishment may be its ability to appease [if not please] all parties. Its effect on the public transit system will become even more essential in 2022 when a long-awaited extension of the Long Island Rail Road is expected to send tens of thousands of additional commuters through Grand Central’s halls.

New York seems to be enjoying a supertall renaissance, with at least ten buildings currently proposed or under construction topping out at over 1,000 feet. If the people behind these new icons hope to achieve true greatness, they won’t simply focus on building tall. They’ll look to One Vanderbilt for what it manages to accomplish at its ground floor.

Originally Published in:

THE NETWORK / MARCH 2017 – Amazing Buildings

Shocking Growth! Tesla’s Nevada Gamble

by Angela O'Byrne | Dec 1, 2016 | Amazing Buildings, Archives

For decades, the title of “largest building” in the world by volume has belonged to the same owner: Boeing. Their factory in Everett, Washington employs more than 30,000 skilled workers, producing airliners from start to finish on vast assembly lines that buzz around the clock. That Boeing’s manufacturing colossus has remained the world’s largest for so long should come as no surprise; building airplanes is literally big business. But if all goes to plan, Everett will have a challenger in the [incredibly] appropriately named city of Sparks, Nevada-where one of the world’s most notorious billionaires is making a historic bet on the future.

To say that Tesla’s Gigafactory 1 will produce lithium batteries is an understatement. CEO Elon Musk’s plan for the massive plant is to produce three times the current global output of lithium batteries. By bringing battery production in­house, Tesla is looking to leverage economies of scale to reduce cost, spark giant growth in the electric vehicle market, and potentially change how we think about cars.

Until recently, Tesla’s focus has been on producing high-end, luxury sports cars, playing on techie cachet and an early-adopter mindset to move product. While Tesla’s offerings have been critical darlings, they have not yet challenged the core of the car manufacturing market-until now. Tesla’s next step is to go very big and broad, increasing overall production by more than fifteen-fold. At the heart of this strategy is the introduction of Tesla’s Model 3. Priced significantly lower than its predecessors [at $35,000] the car of the future has already been pre-ordered by more than 370,000 people [who have all paid $1,000 for the privilege]-even though the Model 3 won’t start shipping until late 2017. But the Model 3 cannot be feasible unless Tesla can reduce the cost of batteries and increase their availability dramatically-which is where the Gigafactory comes in.

Gigafactory I is still in its first phase-currently representing about 14% of its planned footprint. It stands stark in the middle of the red Nevada desert, on a giant section of leveled earth. Today, the factory is geared toward producing Tesla’s Powerwalls and Powerpacks, massive batteries produced for residential and commercial applications.

However, everything about the Gigafactory is geared for future growth. Its exterior walls are temporary in anticipation of expansion, and Musk has purchased 3,000 acres of land in total so that the Gigafactory can continue to grow in an incremental, modular fashion over the next decade.

When completed [predicted to be in 2020), the 13.6 million-square-foot building will be shaped like a diamond. From above, it will resemble a shiny, clean computer chip, covered entirely with solar panels and oriented toward true North. Unsurprisingly, one of the project’s key goals [and indeed central to all of Musk’s projects] is to be net-zero, using 100% renewable energy to drive production and recycling all industrial waste as effectively as possible.

The Gigafactory will be home to 6,500 employees and a massive fleet of robots, including automated guided vehicle-which roam the factory using digital maps and sensors. Raw materials will be transported into the factory on rail cars, making the transition from mine to finished product virtually seamless. At full force, the Gigafactory will produce enough batteries to support 1.5 million cars each year, both in the form of onboard vehicular batteries and in the form of stationary power storage, which will become more ubiquitous as the electric revolution takes over the country.

At least that’s the plan. Overall, the Gigafactory will cost upwards of $9 billion­ which explains the building’s four earthquake­proof foundations protecting Tesla’s massive investment. With such a large investment, a lot is riding on the next few years of Model 3 sales. If it succeeds, we may see more Gigafactories in the future-and the biggest change in automobiles since Ford rolled out the Model T in 1908.

As atmospheric carbon continues to climb, Musk is focused full-throttle on transitioning our energy sources toward sustainable alternatives, both with Tesla and SolarCity, where he serves as Chairman. While we’ve seen incremental growth in alternative energy sources with the slow adoption of wind and solar power, a massive and sudden paradigm shift hasn’t yet occurred. If it does, it may be ignited in a town called Sparks.

Originally Published in:

THE NETWORK / DECEMBER 2016 – Amazing Buildings

Reverse Development: The River’s Disappearing Act

by Angela O'Byrne | Sep 1, 2016 | Amazing Buildings, Archives

One of the great goals of contemporary American architecture has been to create meaningful harmony between buildings and their natural environment. Some structures incorporate lines and forms from their surroundings while others aim for minimalism and transparency to better emphasize their contexts. When the Grace Farms Foundation-a group of neighbors and friends seeking to protect a pristine swath of rolling Southwest Connecticut farmland from subdivision development-decided to build a non-profit community center, they decided to go even further. Their goal was to build a structure that nearly disappeared.

Situated in the midst of 80 beautiful acres of meadows, forests, and wetlands in New Canaan, Grace Farms’ centerpiece is an 83,000-square foot serpentine structure aptly called the River. While the River is influenced equally by the work of modern American architects [and rivals] Frank Lloyd Wright and Philip Johnson [whose Glass House is just a stone’s throw away], the building is neither American-designed nor particularly modernist. Designed by Kazuyo Sejima and Ryue Nishizawa of the prestigious Japanese firm SANAA [winners of the Pritzker Prize in 2010], the River may be the country’s most spectacular multipurpose facility, sparing no expense in creating an environment of extravagant tranquility.

While the River strives for naturalism, it’s far from a primitive space. All told, the ambitious project cost $120 million, including the sizable bill that comes with purchasing 80 acres of some of the country’s most valuable real estate. Conceived as a community center where “people can experience nature, encounter the arts, pursue justice, foster community and explore faith/’ Grace Farms is open to the public and features non-denominational Christian services.

While shades of a religious focus continually pepper Grace Farms’ publicity statements, the owners have been careful to stress that Grace Farms is not a church. Instead, it exists as a kind of intentional public space meant to foster exploration and examination. It houses a permanent art collection and access to many acres of wilderness for the public’s exploration and meditation.

However, thanks to the River’s distinctive design, many of Grace Farms’ pilgrims are of the architectural variety. With five glass-walled enclosures located at varying points on a winding pastoral slope, the River meanders back and forth, feeling both inside and out, both airy and enclosed. The River strives to be as minimal as it can possibly be, erasing itself where possible and offering organic textures where it must, wooden ceilings, glass walls, and concrete floors. The interior has the effect of a contemporary art museum: decidedly neutral.

The River’s pod-like enclosures include a basketball court, a 700-seat auditorium, a tea pavilion, discussion rooms, and a dining room. The single roof that covers the entire is lined with aluminum panels that reflect the changing Connecticut skies. If you were to fly over the River, you’d be forgiven for mistaking it for another body of water rather than a building-which is, of course, precisely the goal.

By following the slope of the land [the River has a change in grade of 43 feet over its course) and by eschewing traditional expectations of design [it has no clear entrance), the building is non-hierarchical and unobtrusive, encouraging visitors’ exploration of the nature around it. It’s not that the River has a lot of windows. It’s that the River is supposed to be one big window.

Herein lies the irony of the project. It’s an incredible, even ostentatious building that’s meant to be ignored-a spectacularly unobtrusive piece of architecture. The entire building is like a Zen koan. It’s more of a provocation or a meditation than an argument.

The current owners of Grace Farms purchased its 80 acres as a kind of statement. A developer was eager to bulldoze an existing equestrian facility and erect yet another subdivision of McMansions. This is a common story in this region of Connecticut, caught as it is between rural and outright suburban and very much prized for its proximity to New York City.

Grace Farms could have been yet another nature preserve. They’re a common enough way of maintaining green space and encouraging us all to get in the rare hike. However, Grace Farms and their flagship River building do something different. They ask fundamental questions: What should our relationship to our natural environment look like? Can a manmade structure blend seamlessly into its environment?

Originally Published in:

THE NETWORK / SEPTEMBER 2016 – Amazing Buildings