MAS has much to celebrate and share with our members, friends and colleagues this holiday season. After more than 25 years in the Villard Houses, we are moving our headquarters to the Steinway Hall Building at 111 West 57th Street as of mid-January 2010.

So, join us on Thursday, December 10, from 6:00 p.m. for wine, beer, cocktails and hors d’oeuvres, music, and good cheer throughout the evening. President Vin Cipolla and Chairman David Childs will toast MAS and its future, and bid farewell Villard Houses and hello Steinway. Architectural historian and MAS tour leader Francis Morrone will give a brief talk about the history of the Villard Houses and of the Steinway Hall Building.

Then, from 8:00 -10:00 p.m., DJ’s will play, dancing will begin and party-goers can enjoy special discounts of 20% off all books in stock at the MAS bookstore, Urban Center Books, where staff will be on hand to offer personalized recommendations for holiday gift books and a complimentary copy of The Villard Houses: Life Story of a Landmark is available with each purchase. Intermittent tours of the building will also be given by Tamara Coombs, MAS director of tours and programs.

MAS Holiday Party
Thursday, December 10, 6:00 – 10:00 p.m.
At The Villard Houses, 457 Madison Avenue at E. 51st Street, MAP.
Tickets: Members $25 in advance, $35 at door; Non-members $40 in advance, $50 at door. Purchase tickets online or call 212-935-2075.

Growing out of the popular exhibit Unpacking My Library that looks at the book collections of some of the most influential architects working today is the new accompanying book Unpacking My Library: Architects and Their Books. Join moderator Barry Bergdoll, the Philip Johnson chief curator of design at MoMA, next Tuesday, December 8, at MAS, for the launch of this book and a fascinating discussion among renowned architects Stan Allen, Billie Tsien, Bernard Tschumi, and Tod Williams about their personal book collections and the importance of them to their careers.

Unpacking My Library is a publication of Urban Center Books, the MAS bookstore, and is published by Yale University Library. It is on sale now in the bookstore and copies are also available online at www.urbancenterbooks.org.

The exhibit Unpacking My Library is on display at MAS now through mid-January. For more information and gallery hours, click here.

Unpacking My Library: Architects and Their Books
Tuesday, December 8, 6:30 – 8:00 p.m., at MAS
$15, $10 MAS members. Reservations and pre-payment recommended. Purchase tickets online or call 212 935 2075. MAP.

Artist and editor of the new book The New York City Museum of Complaint Matthew Bakkom and Tamara Coombs of MAS take us on a nostalgic, yet grumpy, journey through New York City’s archives looking at letters of complaint to the Mayor from 1751 to 1969.

Ranging in subject from the removal of dead animals to lost baseballs to accusations of corruption, the book’s 132 letters not only chronicle issues affecting New Yorkers through the ages but also the development of their voice as citizens.

Join us on Tuesday, December 1, at 7:00 p.m. when Bakkom will be joined by director of the NYC Municipal Archives Kenneth Cobb and celebrated writer, poet and native New Yorker Philip Lopate who will read from selected letters from the book. Reservations and prepayment are recommended. Purchase tickets online or call 212-935-2075. A reception will follow the program during which signed copies of the book will be available from the MAS bookstore, Urban Center Books. Continue Reading>>

Frank Sanchis, MAS senior vice-president, will be joined by Nina Rappaport of DOCOMOMO/New York-Tristate and editor of Constructs, Belmont Freeman of Belmont Freeman Architects, Theo Prudeon of DOCOMOMO/US, and moderator Andrew Dolkart for Preserving 20th Century Modernism, a panel discussion at the Museum of the City of New York (MCNY) on Wednesday, December 2 at 6:00 p.m.

The panel will explore the preservation of the 20th century architecture represented by New York-area Eero Saarinen buildings such as the TWA terminal at JFK Airport, which MAS famously fought to preserve in 2003. The discussion is presented in conjunction with Eero Saarinen: Shaping the Future, currently on view at MCNY.

Visit the MCNY website to purchase tickets and to learn more about MAS’ involvement in preserving the TWA terminal, click here. Continue Reading>>

On November 3, the 2nd Annual Jane Jacobs Forum focused on the question of whether New York can (and should) try to become more sustainable and grow its own food. Expert panelists Dr. Dickson Despommiers of Columbia University, Nevin Cohen of the New School, Jennifer Nelkin of Gotham Greens, Dan Albert of Weber Thompson architects and Colin Cathcart of Kiss+Cathcart architects discuss how this could happen answering questions posed by moderator Neal Peirce of The Washington Post.

For more information about the forum and related issues, visit MAS.org/urbanfarms.

The annual Jane Jacobs Forum is sponsored by the Rockefeller Foundation.

Last week, at the 2nd Annual MAS Jane Jacobs Forum Re-Imagining New York: Designing Urban Farms to Feed our City, moderator Neal Peirce of the Washington Post and panelists Jenn Nelkin of Gotham Greens, microbiology Professor Dickson Despommier of Columbia University, landscape designer Dan Albert of Weber Thompson architects in Seattle, Colin Cathcart of Kiss + Cathcart architects in Brooklyn, and environmental studies Professor Nevin Cohen of The New School, engaged in a fascinating discussion of the future of food production in New York.

Representing a variety of perspectives on sustainable agriculture, architecture and planning, and touching on issues as diverse as zoning, organic farming, national agricultural policy, and climate change, the panelists addressed the question: Can New York, a city with a growing population and shrinking acreage, eventually grow enough food within its boundaries to become self-sufficient?

The podcast above is an edited version of the full discussion. A short video of the Forum as well as a full transcript of the discussion will be available soon at MAS.org/urbanfarms. Continue Reading>>

Pioneering architect, planner and theorist Denise Scott Brown brings her singular perspective to MAS on November 12 for what is sure to be a lively evening. Ms. Brown, who was educated in the 1940s and 1950s at Witwatersrand University in South Africa, the Architectural Association, and the University of Pennsylvania, has taught and led her Philadelphia firm, Venturi Scott Brown and Associates since the 1960s in collaboration with Robert Venturi.

“I have come to feel like a grandmother in architecture, a guardian of its institutional memory who knows its pitfalls and where the bodies are buried.”
– Denise Scott Brown

Following a short talk about her new book, Having Words, Denise Scott Brown will be joined by architects Sarah Whiting and Hilary Sample for a panel discussion moderated by Paola Antonelli, senior curator of architecture and design at MoMA.

Denise Scott Brown: 40 Years of Evolving Architectural Imagination
Thursday, November 12, 6:30 – 8:00 p.m., at MAS, 457 Madison Avenue
Free, but reservations required. Reserve your place online or call 212-935-2075. MAP.
This program is underwritten by Elise Jaffe + Jeffrey Brown.

Dr. Dickson Despommier, panelist at the upcoming 2nd Annual Jane Jacobs Forum Re-Imagining New York: Designing Urban Farms to Feed our City, recently spoke to Tamara Coombs of MAS about why he sees urban “vertical farms” as key to the future, not just of cities, but of the planet.

Ten years ago, Columbia University microbiology professor Despommier began investigating different approaches to agriculture that would feed the additional 3 billion people that are estimated to be born in the next 50 years. This research project, which he conducted with the help of his students, has grown into a popular website The Vertical Farm Project, an op-ed in The New York Times and a new book coming out next year, and garnered attention from municipalities (Newark, NJ), architecture and engineering companies, and the Obama administration along the way. Continue Reading>>

Ahead of the upcoming 2nd Annual Jane Jacobs Forum — which encourages New Yorkers to re-imagine their city with urban farms, MAS’ Tamara Coombs and forum panelist and greenhouse director at Gotham Greens Jennifer Nelkin, discussed the prospects of developing commercial-scale agriculture in New York City and how to grow fresh produce at the South Pole.

Join us at the Jane Jacobs Forum on November 3 to delve into the economic development and urban design implications of the fundamental question: Can New York, a city with a growing population and shrinking acreage, eventually grow enough food within its boundaries to become self-sufficient?

Moderator Neal Peirce of the Washington Post, will be joined by Ms. Nelkin and other expert panelists including, microbiology Professor Dickson Despommier of Columbia University, landscape designer Dan Albert of Weber Thompson architects in Seattle, Colin Cathcart of Kiss + Cathcart architects in Brooklyn, environmental studies Professor Nevin Cohen of The New School, and Ian Marvy executive director of Added Value in Red Hook, Brooklyn.

The Jane Jacobs Forum is sponsored by the Rockefeller Foundation. Related to the forum is the exhibition Re-Imagining Cities: Urban Design After the Age of Oil — currently on display at MAS through Friday, December 4. Visit MAS.org/exhibitions for more details.

On September 24th, an intrepid group of Richard Morris Hunt patrons gathered for a private boat tour of the Gowanus Canal. The tour was a rare opportunity to visit a historic waterway and see some of Brooklyn’s most interesting historic industrial buildings and travel through the “museum” of historic draw bridges still in operation on the canal.

The discussion on the boat focused on the fact that the canal and the adjacent manufacturing area is currently at the center of a debate about how to best clean New York’s polluted waterways and sensitively develop in its manufacturing zones. The tour leaders, Lisa Kersavage, Senior Director of Advocacy and Public Policy at MAS, Dan Wiley, Community Coordinator for US Congresswoman Nydia Velázquez, and Josh Verleun, Staff Attorney/Investigator of Riverkeeper, a NY-based nonprofit that advocates for clean water, all brought different perspectives to those issues. Continue Reading>>