
“There have been a lot of condos built on the lake shore over the past couple of decades, but this may be the first purpose-built facility coming to Toronto’s waterfront at which citizens will be able to (inexpensively) get their teeth cleaned”.
George Brown College in Toronto has commisioned Kuwabara Payne McKenna Blumberg Architects in collaboration with Stantec Architecture to design its new Urban Health Sciences Campus – aiming for LEED Gold on the waterfront building.

I was initially drawn to the renderings – which are sick, by the way – but the building seems to hold a lot of potential. Picking up on what could be considered a typical wharf building typology, the campus extends in a linear fashion towards Lake Ontario – connecting to a new waterfront park. A ‘public’ podium adresses the waterfront while ‘Health Sciences’ programs occupy the upper levels and the street-side volume, allowing the building to function both as a learning environment and a social hub.

The varying programs – namely the public VS private – are connected via a vertical circulation space that is meant to both connect the ground-plane to the building’s public green roofs, while also providing informal interior spaces for cross-discipline interaction between students, faculty, and visitors. See the section below.

I’d be really interest to see how the connection under the street to the second building is made – if it somehow captures the light and open qualities shown in these renderings, or if its a tunnel…
.:images+info->via Kuwabara Payne McKenna Blumberg Architects

Our ninja Matt K. – who has submitted a number of Ninja Arithmetic equations – sent me this image last week with the following explanation:
So, I had this idea for the Mercedes Benz building by UN Studio to be a Ninja Arithmetic submission after I saw this [YouTube video embedded below].
However, it turned out more like the image attached, so feel free to use that or make your own off the concept.
It begs the question: if building natural disasters into buildings is the next stage of excess-itecture, what’s next? Will Gehry have artificial tsunamis? Will Zaha build an earthquake simulator?
I think that stands on its own as a post. If any of your architectural musings seem interesting, don’t hesitate to drop me an email at architecture@myninjaplease.com.

To all our NYC ninjas:
As we’ve all heard, its been decided that the areas on Broadway from 47th to 42nd that were made pedestrian plazas will be permanently converted from streets to public space. While plans are being made for how this should be done, the city is looking for local artists/architects/designers/whoever to submit proposals for temporary surface treatments for all 5 plazas and ancillary spaces.
The final selected design shall be translated into a surface treatment by a contractor selected by the New York City Department of Transportation. The selected artist shall be awarded a design fee in the amount of $15,000 to be funded by the Mayor’s Fund.
The design is expected to be installed by mid-July. The temporary treatment will remain in place for approximately eight months and will be monitored and maintained by the Times Square Alliance. The deadline to submit proposals is Friday, April 16, 2010. Questions and answers will be posted to www.nyc.gov/dot. Details on how to submit questions are contained in the RFP.
The design competition is project of New York DOT in partnership with the Times Square Alliance. As Business Improvement District for Times Square and Broadway Theater District, the Alliance has conducted a number of studies regarding the pedestrian spaces of Times Square and produces public art projects and events. Information on these activities is available at www.TimesSquareNYC.org.
Good luck people – AMNP will post the winners when they’re announced.
.:reNEWable Times Square->

I noticed these images by Lebbeus Woods of his proposed High Houses popping up in a couple places on the interwebs yesterday and figured ‘why not on AMNP, too’. I realize many of you are probably familiar with the project – but I thought some eye candy would hold the site down for the day until I could get some new posts up. Enjoy.

The High Houses are proposed as part of the reconstruction of Sarajevo after the siege of the city that lasted from 1992 though late 1995. Their site is the badly damaged “old tobacco factory” in the Marijn dvor section near the city center.
The concept of the project is simple. The houses rise up high into the airspace once occupied by falling mortar and artillery shells fired by the city’s besiegers in the surrounding mountains. By occupying the airspace, the High Houses reclaim it for the people of the city. Balancing on scavenged steel beams welded end-to-end, they are spaces of a new beginning for Sarajevo, one that challenges—in physical terms—the city’s past and present, aiming at a future uniquely Sarajevan. Stabilized by steel cables anchored to the site, the houses, poised like catapults, fulfill the paradoxical desire to fly and at the same time be rooted in their place of origin.
These houses are not for everyone. Indeed, probably only a few could master their challenges. Yet each mastery would manifest a spirit of courage and inventive skill in the name of all who must reinvent a city transformed by destruction.

.:via->Lebbeus Woods

The winners have been announced for the 2010 eVolo Skyscraper Competition.
The winning entry – a ‘Vertical Prison‘ that isn’t actually vertical – looks like an oil rig suspended over a city and repurposed to house inmates. It’s not that the project isn’t interesting or lacks merit – but winner of the competition? My ninjas, please.
Seriously – I suppose I’m just confused as to what the competition is about, if ‘Vertical Prison’ takes first place. It seems to me that the value of this project lies in the sociopolitical implications of integrating our prison systems and our society in the proposed way, rather than in skyscraper design. Under different circumstances I’d actually feel entirely different about this project – but as the eVolo winner? It almost seems unfair to the other entrants that a competition that has been [let's face it] largely about form-making is going to change gears.
Any thoughts on this year’s winners?

[map of 8 major fast food hamburger chains in the US - via]
Well, my ninjas, the sun is shining and the weather is sweet, as the man said. My triumphant return to the land of the living [so, the workplace] has been met with sunny skies and mild temperatures here in the Bean, which I’ll go ahead and take as a good sign. And that’s about all I’ve got to say this week – except for a quick ‘f$*k you’ to Tom DeLay for accusing those of us who were [or are still, in many cases] unemployed of not actually searching for work – of “being unemployed because they want to be“. What a dick. Didn’t he step down because of money laundering? And aren’t prominent politricks from the Bush years [both parties] largely responsible for the unemployment numbers? And now he wants to talk shit? I hope DeLay can hide out for a while, because some unemployed factory worker with kids to feed and a little ninja in her/him is going to mush him in the mouth for that mess. Well, I hope so at least.
On a happier note, if you come across something on the interwebs that you think should appear on AMNP – as a post, as part of Ninjas on the ‘Net, or as a quick sidebar link – drop me an email at architecture@myninjaplease.com – or hit me up on Twitter(twitter.com/ArchitectureMNP).
- a graffiti battle in the making? [WSJ]
- Kotkin & the virtues of suburbia? [Next American City]
- interview with Kermit Baker, chief economist for the AIA [BSA Chapter Letter]
- Shauna Gillies-Smith & Mark Pasnik talk livable streets [BSA Chapter Letter]
- personal infrastructures competition [Bustler]
- more Steven Holl in China [Bustler]
- will LA cap its freeways with parks, a-la Big Dig? [Architect's Newspaper]
- RIP Raimund Abraham, 1933-2010 [Architect's Newspaper]
- ‘bottom-up planning‘ [City of Sound]
- young designers, recycled [Architecture Boston]
- 15 mind-blowing moon base designs [DVICE]
- Syria’s Stonehenge? [The Independent]
- Smout Allen’s proposal for the Grand Egyptian Museum [mammoth]
- complexity and contradiction in infrastructure [varnelis]

I have to say, I think this beats the Eames molded plastic rocker that I have in bright red. Drawn by hand, the custom designs for the chairs are done by NY illustrator Mike Perry – and are pretty feckin’ dope.


.:first seen over at Design Milk->

[Equation: Projector X steel plate = Henning Larsens Tegnestue's Danish Opera House]
Thanks to our ninja Tony for submitting this edition of Ninja Arithmetic.
If you’re inspired with an idea for a Ninja Arithmetic post by a project that you come across, don’t hesitate to contact AMNP! You don’t have to make the graphic yourself – simply explain the equation to me in an email, and I’ll handle the rest. Simply end your suggestion to architecture@myninjaplease.com, with “Ninja Arithmetic” in the subject line.
AMNP’s thoughts are with our ninja Guru, who has undergone successful heart surgery after suffering a heart attack.
And no – he ain’t dead, you fools.
.:full story->ALLHIPHOP
Posted: March 2nd, 2010
at 8:13pm
Categories: MNP
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