New at Pentagram
New Work: European Solidarity Center
As part of an international architecture competition sponsored by the city of Gdansk, Poland, Pentagram Architects has proposed a design for a European Solidarity Center (ESC) that would act as an international center of culture, housing a museum, temporary exhibition space and an academic research center. The project seeks to memorialize the organization Solidarity (Solidarno), the first non-communist trade union in a communist country founded in Gdansk in 1980. Solidarity was organized by workers from the Gdansk shipyard, the proposed site for the ESC, and was integral in helping establish the grassroots anti-communist social movement in Poland and subsequently, the rest of Europe.
James Biber’s team design, called the Interrex, celebrates the time between the end of one regime and the beginning of the next, a position Solidarity held in Poland in the late 90s as the government transitioned from communism to democracy. The proposal creates a literal space in the form of a massive covered gathering place below the building.
Montauk Screening Room Is Cool Hunted
The screening room designed by James Biber for the Montauk Residence is scouted by The Cool Hunter. The room was inspired by Radio City Music Hall and 2001: A Space Odyssey, writes Brendan McKnight, “and as in the Music Hall, the lights are positioned to glow away from the viewers—because we all hate to have lights in our eyes when watching the big screen.” The project was previously featured in The New York Times.
Pentagram Honored for Leadership in Pro Bono Service
Pentagram’s New York office was honored last night by the President’s Council on Service and Civic Participation for its work for nonprofit organizations. Paula Scher and Jim Biber were on hand to accept the honor during a ceremony held at the Harvard Club. Pentagram received the first annual “DNA” award for “its exceptional incorporation of pro bono service into its business culture.” Recent Pentagram pro bono projects include work for the Robin Hood Foundation, the Madison Square Park Conservancy, the Public Theater and the One Laptop Per Child initiative.
The award ceremony is part of a two-day Pro Bono Summit that has brought together 150 top corporate, government and nonprofit leaders to launch a multi-year campaign to dramatically increase the amount of skilled volunteering and pro bono service employees give to nonprofits and their communities. The leaders are discussing strategies for making the idea of “pro bono” as common in marketing, finance, technology, HR, logistics and other professions as it is in the legal field.
Speaking about the business advantages of doing pro bono work Scher stated: “A lot of the work we’ve done is outside, public, it’s very visible, and so clients will call us because they’ve seen the design. I can’t tell you how many jobs I’ve gotten through [pro bono work with] the Public Theater. We’re connected to virtually every cultural institution in the city. We are rewarded in recommendations; we’re included in groups where we find out information about things—it’s all very good business.”
Pro bono work has been part of the culture at Pentagram for decades as the partners and their teams donate their talents and time to enhance the design programs of cultural institutions and nonprofit organizations all over the city. “Pentagram Design is setting a powerful example of corporate citizenship that we hope other companies will follow,” said Jean Case, Chair of the Council. “Embracing a pro bono approach is good for employees, the community and the bottom line. America’s businesses have an extraordinary pool of skilled talent, and engaging corporate volunteers on a large scale could make a profound difference in the well-being of our communities and our country.”
The Council’s Pro Bono Award is given annually to six companies who are considered to be setting the standards of excellence in offering pro bono corporate skills to solve social challenges. This year’s other awardees are the Advertising Council; General Electric; Harvard Business School Community Partners; McKinsey & Company; and the Monitor Group.
New Work: 'Sex in Design/Design in Sex'
Designed for your pleasure: The exhibition Sex in Design/Design in Sex opens tonight at the Museum of Sex with exhibition design by James Biber and graphics by Michael Bierut. The show sets out to examine the subconscious, as well as the intended, sexual imagery in design as it is found in the objects we wear, live with and use for erotic pleasure. Design work such as Karim Rashid’s multipurpose lounger the Kairotic Karimsutra, Shiri Zinn’s quartz crystal dildo Minx and calibrated dilators by Rhett Butler of Kiki de Montparnasse are on view.
The intentionally austere exhibition design of Sex in Design/Design in Sex puts the objects in a context that more closely resembles the Museum of Modern Art’s Architecture and Design galleries than the Museum of Sex’s previous exhibitions. “This is the first truly uninflected look at these beautiful and occasionally quite strange objects,” says Biber. “And they are at their best in the rather deadpan environment we created. They didn’t need any help from us to look sexy.”
Light Show
The screening room in the Montauk Residence designed by James Biber is visited by the Home & Garden section of the New York Times, in a special feature about lighting for dark rooms. “Because the theater is in the basement, it shouldn’t imitate an ordinary, windowed room in the house, and so I looked for inspiration elsewhere,” Biber tells Elaine Louie. “That elsewhere turned out to be Radio City Music Hall, where the lighting is hidden in the arches facing the stage.”
James Biber to Make AIGA/NY Small Talk
James Biber will present “2D/3D,” an AIGA/NY Small Talk taking place on Wednesday 6 February from 6:30-8:00. Biber will discuss the intersection between architecture and graphic design, his life at Pentagram, how he really feels about collaborating with graphic designers and what he considers to be the most influential movie about design ever made—and no, it’s not Helvetica. At the Bumble and bumble auditorium, 415 West 13th Street. Details here. THIS EVENT HAS SOLD OUT.
Montauk Residence in ‘Architectural Record’
The Montauk residence designed by James Biber and his team is featured in the October issue of Architectural Record. (Online with slideshow and audio interview with Biber.) Jane Kolleeny writes: “The elusive boundaries between the buildings and outdoor spaces pay tribute to the Case Study House program. Here, the architect considered not only his design’s visual impact, but how it would engage other senses, as well. In particular, he wanted the residential compound to embrace nature by capturing the omnipresent sound of the ocean. As Biber describes it, ‘The house is like a vessel for listening to the sea.’”
Pentagram Celebrates Julius Shulman and ‘The Russian Garbo’
On Wednesday night Pentagram Architects hosted a party to celebrate famed architectural photographer Julius Shulman’s 97th birthday and the publication of Pentagram Papers 38: The Russian Garbo, which features Shulman’s photographs of the Sten-Frenke House. The Santa Monica residence was designed by Richard Neutra in 1934 for the Ukrainian émigré actress Anna Sten (“The Russian Garbo”) and her husband, Dr. Eugene Frenke, and was restored by James Biber and his team at Pentagram Architects in 2005. Shulman, who photographed Neutra-designed houses for forty years, remarkably did not shoot the Sten-Frenke House until after the restoration was complete.
Continue reading "Pentagram Celebrates Julius Shulman and ‘The Russian Garbo’"
Robb Report Visits the Montauk Residence
The Robb Report features the Montauk Residence designed by James Biber and associate Michael Zweck-Bronner in the cover story of the September issue of Vacation Homes, out now. The residence was designed as “a case study house in New York” inspired by a trip Biber took to California to experience the original mid-century icons. The result is “a beautifully detailed, very elegant case study house” overlooking the Atlantic and with all the modern accoutrements.
Montauk Residence Wins American Architecture Award
The Montauk Residence, designed by James Biber and his team, has won an American Architecture Award for distinguished buildings. Sponsored by the Chicago Athenaeum: Museum of Architecture and Design, the award is co-presented annually by The European Centre for Architecture, Art, Design and Urban Studies and Abitare magazine to 35 new buildings either located in the United States or built abroad by American architects. The award serves to identify “the new cutting-edge design direction, urban philosophy, design approach, style and intellectual substance in American architecture today.”
Images of the award-winning projects can be found at the Chicago Athenaeum website.
New Work: Glass House Visitors Center and Identity
The exhibition wall of the Glass House Visitors Center features 24 monitors.
The much-anticipated public opening of Philip Johnson’s Glass House in New Canaan, Connecticut, takes place this week. James Biber and his team designed the off-site Visitors Center for this acclaimed addition to the National Trust for Historic Preservation’s family of sites. Michael Bierut and his team designed the project’s identity, promotional graphics and website .
All tours of the Glass House site, sold out until 2008, begin and end at the Visitors Center in downtown New Canaan. The center, a renovated 2,000-square-foot former truck loading dock conveniently located across from the town train station, accommodates an exhibition, on-site ticketing and a museum shop. Through the exhibition, visitors learn about Philip Johnson and the Glass House site before they take a short shuttle ride to the site where they embark on a 90-minute guided tour. After the tour, visitors return to the center where they can re-experience the exhibition with new insight.
Continue reading "New Work: Glass House Visitors Center and Identity"
Harley-Davidson Museum Topped Off
The Harley-Davidson Museum topping off ceremony.
On May 4th, the final steel beam was hoisted into place atop the 80-foot-high south tower of the Harley-Davidson Museum in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. James Biber and his team were on hand to celebrate alongside Willie G. Davidson, the company’s senior vice president and grandson of one of the founders, and other project collaborators.
The Pentagram-designed museum is slated to open in 2008. Construction can be followed via this webcam.
More pics after the jump.
Philip Johnson’s Glass House Opens
Homepage for the Glass House website designed by Pentagram.
Philip Johnson’s Glass House opens to the public for previews today for the first time. The iconic 1949 house and its 48-acre grounds in New Canaan, Connecticut, were bequeathed to the National Trust for Historic Preservation upon Johnson’s death in 2005.
Pentagram has designed an identity, promotional graphics, and a simple website for the project. A visitors center, also by Pentagram, will be ready in time for the site’s official opening on June 23.
New Work: Spruce House
Biber transformed a mid-century fixer-upper into a contemporary home.
James Biber has converted a mid-century modern house in desperate need of care into a modern suburban gem in Ann Arbor, Michigan. The finished project is featured in the April issue of Metropolitan Home.
Biber, Bierut and Scher Talk for IIDA/NY
If all politics is local, then all design is identity: As part of the IIDA/NY’s Pioneering Design Series, three Pentagram partners—James Biber, Michael Bierut and Paula Scher—will talk about how they create identities for buildings, build identities for clients and generally cope with their individual identity crises. Thursday, 22 March from 6:30 to 7:30 pm at the New School, 66 West 12 Street in New York. More info here. THIS EVENT HAS SOLD OUT.
James Biber at ‘Icon as Brand’
James Biber will speak at “Icon as Brand,” a panel discussion about iconic buildings as brand strategy, moderated by Ned Cramer, editor-in-chief of Architect. Other speakers include Mario Natarelli of FutureBrand, Lindy Roy of Roy Co. and Frank Sciame of Sciame Construction. Tonight from 6 pm at the Center for Architecture, 536 LaGuardia Place, New York City. Program and ticket information here.
Arizona Cardinals Stadium Opens
The Cardinals’ new home in Glendale, AZ
The new Cardinals Stadium opens this weekend with environmental graphics and interiors by Pentagram. Michael Gericke and his team (in collaboration with Entro) designed the building’s overall graphic program, including identification, wayfinding, large-scale thematic elements, sponsor graphics, scoreboards and end zone treatments. Jim Biber and his team designed interiors for the locker rooms, club lounges, corporate lofts, and AZone team store. The stadium was designed by Peter Eisenman and HOK Sport. The first preseason game—the Cardinals play the Steelers—is tomorrow; the regular season begins on September 10.
Updates: Press conference with the designers, including Michael Gericke. The new stadium scores with fans: AP wire. Red is the color for Unbeige.
First pics after the jump.
Beach Weekend
The Montauk Residence designed by James Biber was featured in Sunday’s New York Times Magazine. (Scroll down to “High-Water Mark” in Style.) Pilar Viladas writes: “It may look breezy and insouciant, but it’s quite serious in its solid, sumptuous materials and attention to detail, like a villa that has found itself at the edge of the sea.”
New Work: The Daily Show
(Click image for larger view)
James Biber and his team have redesigned the set of “The Daily Show with Jon Stewart,“ the Comedy Central program that has become the preferred source of news for millions of Americans.
Jim was a big fan of the show and welcomed the opportunity. “Some projects are simply command performances: I couldn’t bear watching the show each night with someone else’s set design,&ldquo he says. ”The show has evolved beyond mere parody into an almost Swiftian satire. It needed a set that gave it an identity of its own, not an amped up version of CNN.”
The first phases of the redesign launched last summer; in the year since, it has became a running joke on the show. Of the controversy, Jim says, “We will likely be remembered for removing the couch. Even John McCain mentioned it this week. Couches are so soft and ‘late night’ and this show is so sharp and primetime. To their credit, the producers have never looked back.”
Pentagram has shaped much of the show’s look. Paula Scher and her team are responsible for the on-air graphics, and of course, the bestselling America (The Book), which is out in an expanded, paperback Teacher’s Edition this September.
Jim and Jon after the jump.
Awards: AIA NY State Design Awards
The Montauk Residence designed by Pentagram Architecture has received a Citation for Design in the 2006 AIA New York State Design Awards. Project design by James Biber, Michael Zweck-Bronner, Alex Mergold, Suzanne Holt and Denise Ramzy.
Avant Garden
Jim Biber and Carin Goldberg’s modernist backyard is featured in this month's Domino. (Landscape design by Susan Welti.)
New Work: Harley-Davidson Museum
(Click image for larger view)
The plans for the Harley-Davidson Museum were unveiled today in Milwaukee. The museum is being designed by Jim Biber and his team at Pentagram Architecture, with exhibition design by Abbott Miller and environmental graphics by Michael Bierut. The project is slated to open in 2008.
More images after the jump.
Syndication feed