An optimistic article in the November 29^th Observer – “AIA New York Has Shaped the City, But Can it Reshape City Hall?” – reports on significant new steps to disentangle projects from the City’s sticky approval process.

Real estate reporter Matt Chaban writes at length on efforts that the Mayor, his agency heads, and the industry have made to triumph over delays.  You don’t have to look beyond the first photograph to see Helpern Principal Margaret Castillo – in her guise as president of the American Institute of Architects/New York Chapter – “rubbing elbows with royalty”: Robert Tierney, chair of the Landmarks Preservation Commission; on the left, Robert LiMandri, commissioner of the Department of Buildings; and Mayor Mike in the middle.

As Margaret noted: “This has always been necessary … but … if things were slow at the Building Department, this would be the time to get in there. We also felt that the mayor was pro-business and -technology and –efficiency [and were] very motivated not [to] wait for another mayor to come in…”

The theme of Margaret’s presidency is Design for Change, which focuses on both sustainability and related active design.  Under her aegis, the chapter has presented exhibits, programs, and conferences that explore sustainability on a local and global basis.  This October, the major exhibition of her term is “Buildings = Energy,” which will illustrate how measures taken by architects, engineers, elected officials, and civic activists improve building performance and the environment.

The exhibit will be mounted through January 2012 at the Center for Architecture, where AIANY is headquartered.  According to Margaret, “It will bring to life the impact of energy code compliance, embodied energy analysis in resource selection, benchmarking of buildings, renewable energy systems, energy harvesting, and lifecycle cost and operations management.”

Other related exhibits mounted at CFA this year have compared “Glimpses” of the long-range strategies of water-based New York and Amsterdam in 2040, still on display; explained “Jugaad Urbanism: Resourceful Strategies for Indian Cities”; and promulgated “Fit City 6: Promoting Physical Activity through Design.” 

Margaret says she is “fortunate to have assumed the chapter presidency at a time when sustainability is an issue taken seriously by the City as well as the chapter.” She serves as an advisor to the Mayor’s Office of Long-Term Planning and Sustainability, which is responsible for the initiative “PlaNYC: A Greener, Greater New York.”  She has worked with the Mayor’s representatives and the NYC Department of Buildings to create a program to educate architects on sustainable building, and with NYSERDA (New York State Energy Research & Development Authority) to field a state-wide training program in the new Energy Code.

Further afield, she has represented the chapter at such sustainability-themed meetings as the fourth annual day-long Consortium on Sustainable Urbanization conference, hosted by AIANY at the United Nations last spring.  Her travels to promote sustainability have taken her to Rio de Janeiro, Amsterdam, and, shortly, Tokyo for the triennial International Union of Architects (UIA) World Congress in Tokyo.

Coverage of her advocacy and interviews have appeared in the New York Times, Crain’s New York Business, and Real News, just as her work has previously appeared in professional publications from Architectural Record to Planning for Higher Education.

AIANY is the national organization’s oldest and largest chapter.  Its address and that of the Center for Architecture is 536 LaGuardia Place, just below Washington Square Park.

Pictured with Margaret Castillo are (right) sustainability consultant Peter Arsenault, FAIA and (left) architect and energy expert Ed Mazria, CEO of Architecture 2030 and creator of the 2030 Challenge.  Margaret introduced Mazria’s provocative Earth Week 2011 lecture, “Architecture on the Brink,” at Cooper Union’s Great Hall.

The work is to stabilize and insulate the roof, restore the Sanctuary’s ceiling, reorganize and enlarge the church’s underused Concourse level, and modernize the heating and air conditioning system.  Marble gains a new chapel, permanent labyrinth for walking meditation in a room to be used as an event space, and columbarium. By the Christmas 2011 holidays, the Sanctuary will be finished, and the balance of the project will be completed in early 2012.

The 21,000-sf landmarked church – constructed in 1854 on Fifth Avenue and 29^th Street – is of early Romanesque Revival style with Gothic trim. The façade of the building is smooth white Tuckahoe marble – yes, at the time there was a marble quarry just upstate – which gives the church its name.

The Collegiate Church Corporation hired Helpern Architects in 1999 to undertake the master plan to improve the church and its adjacent administrative building. An extensive inspection of the building preceded the reconstruction, which began in earnest in early 2010.

The ceiling of the 900-seat Sanctuary needed conservation.  It is being retied to its lath and will receive plaster repairs and decorative painting over the whole surface.  New sprinklers and a fire alarm system are part of the work; threading this invisibly through Marble’s old infrastructure, then matching the sprinkler caps to the ceiling color, is challenging.

The main feature of the Concourse level is a new marble-walled, small (70-seat) chapel with light-colored wood pews. A new adjacent multi-function room will have a permanent labyrinth – used for prayer and reflection – inlaid in terrazzo on the floor.  Excavation on both sides of the church’s structure has made room for equipment and an expanded columbarium. 

Temporary steel beams added below grade ensure the integrity of the historic structure during excavation and reconstruction. Synthetic slate shingles acceptable to the NYC Landmarks Commission replace an asphalt roof from prior repairs, which has also received its first-ever insulation. “Sister” steel trusses added on either side of the original wood trusses stabilize the roof, so now the wood trusses support only the ceiling below.

Marble Collegiate Church is the oldest place of worship of the Collegiate Reformed Protestant Dutch Church of the City of New York, organized in 1628. It was built beyond the then city limits, and an iron fence that surrounds the building was needed to keep livestock out.   

Today, thousands of ribbons affixed to the fence honor those who have died in the war in Iraq. Known as “America’s Hometown Church,” Marble first reached national recognition when Dr. Norman Vincent Peale, the famous author of The Power of Positive Thinking, served as senior minister from 1932-1984. His hand-picked successor, Dr. Arthur Caliandro, now Minister Emeritus, initiated the restoration project. Dr. Michael B. Brown is currently the Senior Minister of Marble’s progressive and diverse congregation, one of the largest in New York City.

Of the four Collegiate Churches in New York City, Helpern Architects is restoring two. The other is Ft. Washington Collegiate Church in Washington Heights, in northern Manhattan.

In October 2010, St. Agnes was featured in the AIANY Chapter’s “Made in New York” annual subway display in the West 4^th Street and Sixth Avenue station concourse.  St. Agnes was later selected – along with 29 other projects by AIANY members – to be exhibited as an example of socially responsible architecture in the November 2010 Zodchestvo Architectural Festival in Moscow.

Through this month, it was on view as one of the two “best of” New York entries into National AIA’s “Design for Decades” online snapshot of current architecture.  For that exhibit, a portion of the St. Agnes children’s “Story Hour” nook was recreated in the Center for Architecture’s main Spotlight Gallery.

Along with this showcase, David Helpern presented the renovation at the “Design for Decades: Spaces for Learning” program at the Center for Architecture on January 19^th.  Ned Cramer, Editor-in-Chief of Architect magazine, moderated the program, which included David Holowka of the New York Public Library (NYPL) and Sergio Silveira of the New York City Department of Design & Construction, the two clients for St. Agnes.  Mr. Cramer led the discussion on how multiple clients influence the process and outcome of a project.  Mr. Holowka complimented Helpern Architects on creating a thoroughly 21^st-century community library and, at the same time, “restoring the library’s serenity.”

Architect magazine’s website now includes a slideshow of Design for Decades: Educational Facilities, which features “some of the finest educational facilities designed by AIA members.”  St. Agnes is one of only ten projects chosen for this feature.

Street-side view of the Design for Decades installation at the Center for Architecture featuring St. Agnes’ charming children’s reading room.

The American Institute of Architects New York Chapter celebrated the inauguration of its 2011 President, Margaret O’Donoghue Castillo, AIA, LEED AP, on Tuesday, December 7, at the Center for Architecture.

A principal at Helpern Architects since 2000, Margaret Castillo is the firm’s lead person for sustainability, particularly for existing buildings and historic preservation projects.  She is also a leader in sustainability initiatives at the AIANY Chapter.

AIA New York Chapter is the oldest and largest chapter of the American Institute of Architects, with almost 5,000 architects, allied professionals, students and public members.

Design for a Change

The theme of Castillo’s presidency is “Design for a Change.” “The ‘change’ in the title refers to essential, now unavoidable shifts in the way buildings are created and evaluated,” she explains. “We spend 90% of our time in buildings.  From the materials used to construct buildings, to the performance of their operations – each decision that design and construction professionals make has an impact on our health, our safety, our employment base, and our environment.  The City, our children, our neighbors all demand aggressive leadership from our community in solving problems regarding land, air, and water.  We are going to make that happen. Now.”  

AIANY Chapter fields 1,000 programs a year, and in 2011, many of these will relate to Castillo’s “Design for a Change” theme.  As part of AIANY’s ongoing collaboration with UN Habitat and also the Consortium for Sustainable Urbanization, she has invited global representatives to New York to share best practices and the most current ideas. 

“I am determined – as I carry the flag of AIANY – to change not just design procedures, but also attitudes, funding, and relationships,” Castillo says resolutely. “We have to realize that in two generations, 70% of the world’s population will live in cities.  How much more urgent can this discussion and action get?”

Margaret joined Helpern Architects in 1996.  In her work for AIA, she has collaborated with the Mayor’s Office of Long-term Planning & Sustainability, the Department of Buildings, and the AIANY Chapter Committee on the Environment to create a program to educate architects on sustainable building.  And, she testified before the New York City Council on behalf of the new Energy Code to improve energy efficiency in existing buildings.  This year, she presented PlaNYC at the World Urban Forum 5 in Brazil, as a member of the United Nations Consortium for Sustainable Urbanization. 

Margaret has been involved with AIANY for many years, as chair of Historic Buildings Committee from 2004 to 2008, and the 2009 Vice President for Public Outreach.  She received a BA from Boston College and a MArch from Harvard University’s Graduate School of Design.

About AIA New York Chapter

AIANY runs the Center for Architecture, a storefront exhibition space in Greenwich Village, sponsors public programs, publishes a magazine, and works with its charitable affiliate, the Center for Architecture Foundation, to provide scholarship and educational opportunities. For more information on AIANY, please visit www.aiany.org.

Each October, the New York Chapter of the American Institute of Architects solicits and selects the best current work by the city’s architects and mounts an exhibit in an improbable location: the West 4^th Street and Sixth Avenue subway station.  This stop, one of the city’s most trafficked, is also a few blocks from the Center for Architecture.

There are 200 projects on view this year.  St. Agnes was chosen to appear right after the panel that identifies and explains the “Made in New York” exhibit.

At the same time, 30 of the best exhibits from the subway display are simultaneously being showcased at the current Zodchestvo Architectural Festival in Moscow as examples of socially responsible architecture.

Further information about the St. Agnes Branch Library appears here.  It explains why the president/CEO of the New York Public Library calls it “The best single renovation of a library branch.”

The children’s reading area at the St. Agnes Branch Library, which reopened in February after a 3-year-long renovation by Helpern Architects.

Margaret Castillo, Helpern Architects principal, will moderate the program, called “Geothermal Applications in an Urban Context: A Study of Options and Lessons Learned.”  The program will address whether geothermal is the readily-available alternative energy source for which everyone’s been waiting, what are the roadblocks to its wide acceptance, and how to identify opportunities and problems – very specifically in New York City.

Margaret’s panel will include a geotechnical engineer, a mechanical engineer, and – for the latest information on research, manuals, policy, and funding – representatives from the Economic Development Corporation, the NYC Department of Design and Construction, and the New York State Energy Research and Development Authority.

David discusses the history and significance of the city’s 59 Boards, and what applicants can expect to encounter during the selection process.  He also provides insight into Board members’ intense level of community engagement by describing several recommendations his Board has made about situations that range from the “mundane to the magnificent.”

Though this volunteer activity consumes no less than 12 hours each month out of his schedule, David believes that more architects should serve on Community Boards. He writes that he has learned much from his colleagues on CB8 and from his experience “on the other side of the table” from where Helpern Architects usually stands when it presents its client’s work. 

He also points out the mutual benefit: “I’ve explained zoning, architectural history, and design in ways that enable my fellow Board members to have a clearer understanding of the issues and process, and therefore make better-informed decisions.” 

Manhattan Borough President, Scott Stringer,  with David Helpern.  Mr. Stringer is a fierce advocate of the city’s Community Boards.

We were pleased to read a staff-written story on Knox Hall’s conversion on Columbia’s dedicated Sustainability website.  You can access it here.  Two awards, one “green” and one construction-related, already flag Knox Hall’s achievement.  They are from Environmental Design + Construction, a leading trade publication, and The Greater New York Construction User Council.  

The project called for the conversion of Knox Hall into an academic building from faculty residences.  The century-old building belongs to the Union Theological Seminary, a short distance from the main Columbia campus. As part of its long-term lease, Columbia committed to maintain the building’s historic character.

Helpern Architects encouraged Columbia to use geothermal wells – a first for any New York City institution of higher learning. This solution was chosen over placing conventional air chillers on the roof, which would have been unsightly atop this historically-significant building. The installation of the wells also contributes to the University’s goal of reducing its carbon footprint 30 percent by 2017 as part of the Mayor’s plaNYC “greener greater” initiative.

The Baroness’ generous donation enabled New York University to purchase the mid-19th century Winfield Scott House on Manhattan’s West 12th Street near Washington Square.  Appropriately, the home was built in the Anglo-Italianate style.  “Such a grand house!”  David begins, although he initially found it in a state of partial demolition and total disrepair. 

Helpern Architects restored the home to its original state, but altered it for the modern amenities essential for a center of Italian Studies to serve as one of the city’s principal destinations for Italian culture.  “We knew we could not recreate the house as it was, because the [residential] layout would not facilitate the new use” – that is, concerts, lectures, seminars, and offices, David writes.

At the same time, the renovation created an inviting space for students as well as the public.  David states that, “the warmth of the restored property would be just the kind of place where students could feel at home – even in the largest private university in the country.”