NEWS 07 There’s one question on everybody’s mind in New York this spring: What happened to Rick Bell? On March 27, without warning or explanation, the former executive director of AIANY and the Center for Architecture tendered his resignation, effective immediately, which AIANY’s board of directors promptly accepted. The unforthcoming announcement stirred up a steamy fountain of rumor and conjecture—very little of it fit for printing—over what could have precipitated Bell’s speedy departure, and AIANY’s continued reticence on the matter (there seems to be a gag order in place among its staff) hasn’t done anything to lessen the shear salacious heights to which the gossip has climbed. Bell, for his part, doesn’t seem to be very phased by the upheaval. Eavesdrop spotted him at the Storefront for Art and Architecture’s annual benefit party—held this year in the un-finished lobby of the Rafael Viñoly–designed 432 Park Avenue—wearing a T-shirt that read “I Am Still Alive” and smiling like the cat that ate the canary. Also like a cat, Bell has landed on his feet. On May 8, New York City Department of Design and Construction Commissioner Feniosky Peña-Mora announced that the agency had hired him as its executive director of design and construction excellence. Meanwhile, in an interesting game of musical chairs, the AIANY appointed David Burney, who recently left his post as commissioner of the DDC, as its interim executive director.
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THE BELL RINGS IN SILENCE
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that the plan is still evolving and these images are really more ideas than concrete plans. More finalized plans are expected when the two firms present to the Historic Preservation Review Board and the Fine Arts Commission in June. In early 2014, the District of Columbia Public The new images depict significant changes Library announced that the Washington, D.C.- from the first go-round, such as an undulating, based Martinez + Johnson and the Dutch firm one-story glass pavilion that would be used Mecanoo won the competition to reimagine for library programming, and topped by a green its central branch, the Martin Luther King roof. Interior spaces have also been retrofitted Jr. Memorial Library—a Mies van der Roheto accommodate educational technologies and designed building that opened in 1972. In the a wider array of programming, in addition to a teams’ submission, they pledged to “improve performance space and a Maker Space inside Mies in a contemporary Miesian way.” the building. Now, after about a year of feedback, the This project has a long way to go before library has released a new batch of images, construction starts. The Washington Business after a $208 million renovation. However, a Journal reported that most of the funds will not representative for Martinez + Johnson told AN be released until 2018 or 2019. HENRY MELCHER
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THE NATIONAL MEDAL OF HONOR MUSEUM The National Medal of Honor Museum Foundation has unveiled a design by Safdie Architects for the United States’ first-ever museum dedicated to telling the story of the Medal of Honor and those who have earned it. Located at Patriot’s Point in Mount Pleasant, South Carolina, on the east side of Charleston Harbor, the museum’s site has as its most prominent built neighbors the cable-stayed Ravenel Bridge and the aircraft carrier U.S.S. Yorktown, which itself is now a museum. Safdie Architects took these two icons of the region as contextual inspiration for its design. The concrete and glass structure has a similar gray-blue color as the Yorktown. Perched over its wetland site on pylons, the building rises to 128 feet high, standing above the surrounding trees and matching the height of the aircraft carrier. Five galleries radiate out to form a central atrium, levering out in section and creating a sense of tension and strength, much like that expressed by the
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bridge. Panels in the skylit ceiling of the atrium form a five-pointed star, the symbol of the Medal of Honor. The museum’s entry is housed in a green-roofed pavilion building that also accommodates a 240-seat auditorium, museum shop, curatorial and archival space, and administrative offices for the Congressional Medal of Honor Society, the Congressional Medal of Honor Foundation, and the National Medal of Honor Museum Foundation. A 140-seat chapel
overlooks the sea at the tip of the site, connecting to the museum by a two-level pedestrian bridge. Silver Spring, Maryland– based Gallagher & Associates is planning and designing the exhibition spaces. The museum is expected to cost $98 million and to open in early 2018. AARON SEWARD
Masaru Series
L A N D S C A P E C O N TA I N E R
Good design, fine craftsmanship, enduring material
Architect: Safdie Architects Client: National Medal of Honor Museum Foundation Location: Mount Pleasant, South Carolina Completion Date: 2018
COURTESY THE NATIONAL MEDAL OF HONOR MUSEUM FOUNDATION
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