1993.05_Discontinuous Spaces: Four Projects (070.1993), Press Release & Project Description

PRESS RELEASE

For Immediate Release 15 April 1993

EXHIBITION OPENS 8 MAY
MAY 8 - JUNE 8, 1993

Gallery Hours: Tuesday - Saturday 12-6 PM
Opening Reception: Saturday May 8, 6-8 PM

Discontinuous Spaces

Four Projects by Smith-Miller + Hawkinson Architects

The Storefront for Art and Architecture announces the forthcoming exhibition
“Discontinuous Spaces" which presents four projects by the office of Smith-Miller +
Hawkinson Architects:

Suspension at La Guardia Airport

with Guy Nordenson, Ove Arup & Partners
Design for a ticket canopy using structural composites.

Altered Residence for a Neurobiologist

A strategy for addition and expansion.

Imperfect Utopia: A Park for the New World

with Barbara Kruger, artist and Nicholas Quennell, landscape architect
Plan for an arts park for the North Carolina Museum of Art, with a convertible outdoor cinema
and amphitheater.

Un-Occupied Territory: An Economic Ecology

with Barbara Kruger, artist

Nicholas Quennell, landscape architect

Ove Arup Structural Engineers

Proposal for a Cultural Park in Los Angeles.

The exhibition display of models, drawings and constructions of four projects is designed to
highlight the spaces within projects, the spaces between projects and the projects within the
space of the gallery. Issues of contingency, discontinuity and interval are engaged by the
design of the exhibition and in the presentation of the projects.

Smith-Miller + Hawkinson Architects with principals Henry Smith-Miller and Laurie Hawkinson
is based in New York and Los Angeles. The firm approaches the programmatic demands of
projects by broadening the conventional definitions of functional concerns. Categories such
as public/private, nature/culture, and enclosure/discontinuity are examined through spatial
and material relationships.

Smith-Miller + Hawkinson's work has been published and exhibited internationally. Recent
publications include Sites Magazine, Quadems d'Arquitectura i Urbanism, Ga Houses, Lotus
International #66, Assemblage 10, Ottagono #98, DBZ, Cree, Bauwelt, Architecture,
Architectural Record, I.D. Magazine, The New York Times Magazine, and the exhibition
catalogue New York Architektur.

8MfTH-m LEF kAWI- : N

305 Canal Street New York New York 1C

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305 Canal SWMX New York New ftxk 10013 212/966 387b

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SMITH-MILLER+HAWKINSON

ARCHITECTS

TRANSMITTAL COVER SHEET

To:

Company:

From:

Company:

Phone:

Fax:

Date:

Pages including cover page:

SM+H Project #:
Comments:

Kyong Park

P.O. Box 101
Lewis, New York 12950
Dont Rhine

Smith-Miller + Hawkinson Architects (New York)
212-966-3875
212-966-3877
08/17/95 12:15
1

9500 Office

As mentioned in our package of materials dated
8/11, I am sending the enclosed CAD drawing from
the Continental Airlines project.

Again, please call if you have any questions.

Regards, Dont.

305 Canal Sueet New York New York 10013 212/900 36/5

SMITH-MILLER + HAWKINSON

ARCHITECTS

Flight Time

Facilities Design or Continental Airlines

Long distance air travel has become "time" travel, distances are no longer understood as
physical (miles, furlongs, or feet, but are expressed in a measureless abstraction; time, time
aloft, time zone change, etc.

The passenger aboard the contemporary jet airliner compresses distance and time in a manner
similar to that of satellite born media. The stretching of time with Westward travel and its
compression with Eastward, transcends the normative sense of day.

Once accustomed to the acceleration and de-acceleration of cycladic rhythms, the frequent New
York - Los Angeles flyer gains (and loses) borrowed time, expanding 24 hours to 27 through
westward travel, and compressing 24 to 21.

Thus the airplane becomes a "time machine" traveling from (time) zone to zone.

The new aircraft interiors program for the Continental Airlines fleet designed by Lippincott and
Margulies, a corporate image consultant in conjunction with the New York based architect, Frank
Spadaro, highlights this aspect of travel. The material and color palette selected for the airplane
responds to and reflects subtle changes in daylight. A chalk white interior coupled with a palette
of blues and grays, moves from a brilliant white at midday to deep gold at sunset. The interiors
personalize and offer an "intimate" environment for the time travelers experience.

Smith-Miller + Hawkinson were commissioned by Lippincott and Margulies in September of 1990
to develop "prototypes" for interiors of all Continental related facilities, from City Ticket Office to
Airport Check-in.

This program links present and future facilities worldwide, joining diverse structures (often
designed by different large Architecture/Engineering firms), by introducing specific and
recognizable design elements, easily associated with Continental.

Borrowing from the dynamic logic of aircraft design; the precision of surface and detail mandated
by technology, the architects questioned the normative idea of "styling" and examined the
programs of airport facility. Their program included an examination of the city, curbside and
airside experiences, offering an idea about the international carrier as an entity capable of
transcending distance and linking the diverse and sometime unfamiliar.

The prototypical components (and spatial agendas) developed for a City Ticket Office in
downtown Chicago are, with minor adjustment, also seen as appropriate for a new regional
airport, LaGuardia, or international hub, Denver,

Often seen as radical by the facility design/engineer/architect, the Continental program through
its highly specific and designed character, often masks and qualifies the airport facility
"architecture". It is the intention of the program to replace the individual and "one-off" character
of the city based or regional facility with an architecture which transcends a singular place and
offers an idea of simultaneity.

305 Canal Street New York New York 10Q13 212/956 36/5

SMITH-MILLER+ HAWKINSON

ARCHITECTS

HOUSE FOR A NEUROBIOLOGIST

Bating Hollow, New York

expansion, n. 1.: Act or process of expanding, or state of being expanded; dilatation,
expansionism, n. 1 . having a capacity or tendency to expand; diffusive; also, wide-extending.

2. Of persons, feelings, etc., unrestrained; liberal; comprehensive, esp. in sympathies.

3. Working by expansion. 4. Psychiatry. Characterized by exaggerated sense of well-being and
delusions of greatness.

The project, a "retreat" for a NEUROBIOLOGIST is located on a promontory. The narrow site
opens to a 270 degree view of Long Island Sound. An abandoned one room "summer cabin' 1 is
appropriated by the new project as a "kitchen building". The existing structure and its addition
occupy the widest point of the site; thus limiting access, making the retreat extremely private

While the built project advocates control of the site, the site governs the configuration of the
building and its occupation.

Weather

Time

Use

Building limits are continuously questioned and altered.

Outside decks are appropriated or abandoned.

Program dictates the orientation of the first level (CAD orange) to the west and second level
(CAD blue) to the east. An intermediate space - the pituitary - (CAD red) positioned in between
is extremely private, and is entered into only from above by ladder from the second level.

In winter, the house contract. Living, dining, bedroom and passages are tightly contained
indoors. The expansion connects to the cabin at an existing door, and is the only point
where new structure touches existing.

In summer the house unfolds. Living, dining, and bedroom occupy the outdoors. The passage
folds back and becomes a breakfast room in summer; covered and open. The kitchen is now
the entire cabin. The perimeter of the living and bedroom is altered with screens that pull down
from the overhangs and occur beyond the line of the perimeter glass.

The project is currently in construction documents; construction is scheduled for Summer 1993.

305 Canal Stieet New York New York 10013 212/966 38/5

SMITH-MILLER+ HAWKINSON

ARCHITECTS

THE TEXTUALIZED LANDSCAPE

Amphitheater and Outdoor Cinema for the North Carolina Museum of A
1992-1993

This project is the first phase of "Imperfect Utopia: A Park for the New World, a planning
proposal for an arts park on 160 acres of land at the North Carolina Museum of Art.

The Textualized Landscape melds the notions of SPECTACLE, SITE and TEXT into an inclusive
kind of public space which expands the museum's capacity for outdoor programs.

Engaging ideas of HISTORY, CULTURE, GEOGRAPHY and TOPOGRAPHY , this PUBLIC
SPACE provides an accessible place for a variety of experiences in the landscape.

THE BIG ROOF for the amphitheater stage has many functions. Its' sculptural form provides an
identity and focus for the amphitheater in the landscape. It accommodates an intimate gathering
under one roof - outdoors, and protects the performers from weather and sun. The Amphitheater
in it's maximum capacity can seat approximately 500 persons on fixed seating, an additional
1,500 on the grassy sloped surface and the shaded picnicking grove to the south.

The aluminum and steel structure of THE BIG SCREEN attached to the west side of the
museum is 40 by 60 feet, and angled for viewing from the sloped landscape in the foreground.
The cinema accommodates 1200 with an overflow area of an additional 1200 in adjacent areas.

THE RE-NATURALIZED LANDSCAPE incorporates principles encouraged in the Master Plan
such as REFORESTATION, GROVE and TEMPORARY PLANTINGS.

REFORESTATION begins at the existing treeline and extends down to and across the path
which borders the amphitheater. This area provides shade and allows for a regeneration of
native forest species edged with evergreen shrubs (Rhododendron, Mountain Laurel).

GROVE PLANTINGS, possibly of pines, define the edge of the amphitheater, provide shaded
seating where trees will not block views to the stage and create picnicking sites for times when
the amphitheater is not in use.

Fields of TEMPORARY PLANTING are used to further define the edge of the zone, to establish
the changing character of this part of the site and to encourage visitors to explore the site to the
south. These plantings illustrate aspects of Raleigh's natural and cultural history. In addition to
the native wildflowers used on the hillside, agricultural crops such as tobacco, cotton, or corn will
be planted.

The materials of the TEXTUALIZED LANDSCAPE are:

P An excavation
cut into landscape
ground is gravel,

retaining wall is landscaped cribbing
/ Sloped for seating to The Big Screen
Imprinted concrete

C A seating area for The Big Screen

Astro-turf, flush with grass, detailed with metal edge at grass

T A Concession/Reception area
finished asphalt
painted lines and reflectors

U An excavation

landscaped with grasses and aromatic vegetation

R A misted surface

Stone lined with river rock

Sprinklered with a misting system of (recycled?) water
from the pond.

£ A constructed letter

Built up with brick, 6 feet high
Some areas inscribed with text

T An overlook

Paved in stone and forming the amphitheater seating
Lavatories and storage area underneath

H A Skylight at The Big Roof and loading dock below for stage
Skylight - glass or lexan translucent material
Loading dock - integral color concrete

/ A sloped seating area for the Big Screen
Imprinted concrete

S A constructed letter

Rock out-croppings, stone, boulders

PERMANENT / TEMPORARY

An important component of the Amphitheater and The Textualized Landscape design is the
PERMANENT and TEMPORARY aspects of almost all of the program:

PROGRAM

PERMANENT

TEMPORARY

performance

The Big Roof

side walls, back walls

concerts

fixed seating, box seats

grass slopes

lectures

stage house table

equipment for stage house

informal gatherings

power grid

theatrical light fixtures
amplification equipment

lavatories

loading platform

picnicking

performance grove

wildflowers, annuals

cinema

The Big Screen

amplification
amplification equipment

ticketing area platform
power, water hookup

concessions stand

projection tower

projection

projection equipment

small performance, lecture

The Big Roof

covered seating and stage

informal seating or
folding chairs, lectern

power grid

theatrical light fixtures
amplification equipment

landscape

picnic grove

grasses (different varieties
for different areas)
reforestation
native deciduous tress
evergreen and shrubs

wildflowers, annuals
rotating crops
flowering tobacco
corn

cotton

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III

UN OCCUPIED TERRITORY: AN ECONOMIC ECOLOGY

ELEMENTS OF THE PLAN c; _

THE SITE

The plan for APTS PARK LA responds to the site's pash current and future conditions „

By literally separating the two functions of APTS PARK LA and flood control topographically at the level of the
predicted 100 year flood, we emphasize the site's physical relation to the Los Angeles River and Bull Creek as
wed as the necessity for flood control ,

The site's place within the iarger contest of the Basin and adjacent neighborhoods is reinforced by the removal
of the existing berms ♦ In opening up the site to its surroundings, both physically and visually we connect the
site to the open farm land to the west and the urban environment to the north > The transition to the developed
landscape east of the site is accomplished via the existing lake >

The two landscapes presented in the plan * the “Cultivated* and the “Natural" refer to the site's history as an
agrarian and agricultural landscape *

THE LANDSCAPE

The landscape of the Park is divided into two broad zones * the **Cultivated** and the “Natural".

The Cultivated

North of a newly formed palisade, which follows the 713 contour {the 100 year flood limitf, the site is made up
of man-made landscapes *

These include:

Cultivated Fields

Irrigated fields which will house ephemeral, varied and seasonal crops, such as tree farms , sod Helds and
pumpkin patches . They will serve as an outdoor extension to the Museum of Un-Natural History; a resource for
the harden Center; a recollection of the site's agrarian past ♦

Groves

Groves of trees between parking field and palisade provide a place for shaded picnicking, strolling, and access
to the Performance Glen.

Hydroponic Garden

A floating garden of water plants, vegetables, and flowers will gro w within the boundaries of the exis ting lake .
The Hydroponic Garden, its plants t paths and bridges as well as the open water of the lake provide another
environment for walking and learning, and together they demonstrate the nutrient-giving and cleansing aspect
of the lake's relationship to the treatment plant from which its water derives * At the edge of the Hydroponic
Garden sits an outdoor restaurant overlooking the lake.

Creek

Consistent with the cultivated character of the landscape the creek is channelized throughout this part of the
site ♦ A waterfall occurs as the creek drops to its natural elevation at the palisade *

The Natural

South of the palisade, the landscape shifts dramatically to one of control by natural forces> The upland areas
outside the creek beds remain as natural chaparral interspersed with pathways < The sides and bottoms of the
creek and river also remain in their natural condition with their steep side slopes free of concrete or rip-rap,
thus referring to their riparian origins > Both upland and rivers edge will be managed in a modest way to ensure
botanical diversity and interest.

Within the natural landscape, the existing lake is reconfigured slightly to express its man-made character .
Linked by the existing roadway which continues as its present elevation, the lake's edge rises above the
surrounding grade as the land slopes to the south, regraded to its original contour< At the southernmost tip,
the lakes edge is actually buttressed * propped up with concrete and steel to emphasize its relation to the
surrounding plain,

THE ARTSPARK
The Mali

The Mali, a long span, open-air structure, Is located at the Intersection of Balboa and Victory Boulevards , Placed
at the Northwest corner of the site, thereby respecting the right-of-way of the railroad, the open shed shelters
most of the ARTS PARK LA facilities and offers views to the passerby ♦

The split-level section of the building, mediating between Victory Boulevard and the large centralized parking
facility, joins two levels> thus offering extended frontage to its component parts .

A continuously expanding entity, the Mall, the project's nucleus contains the Arts Park Center , Performing Arts
Pavilion, the Children's Center, Restaurants end related service*. Grouped under one root\ the separate entities
may share common element* as well as services: auditor:*, performance, exhibition and studio spaces, and
administrative and community offices. The modular, long span, light-weight translucent canopy offers
opportunity for expansion, it anticipate* the communities' changing needs and at the same time suggests the
potential alteration and amplification of the ARTS PARK LA program.

On Victory Boulevard an on grade entry into the Mall offers access to the Travelator Stop, the Performing Arts
Pavilion, the Children** Center, and the major open air exhibition spaces of the Arts Park Center.

Within the Arts Park Center, The Showroom, five large pivot doors open to the great outdoor halt, the floor of
which contains a “garden” of skylights to the artists* workshops below. Multiple entrances to this major
exhibition space will facilitate the management of changing exhibitions and/or events>

Also at the Victory Boulevard Entry Level are the Arts Park Center Administration and Artists* studios. Located
at the southern edge of the shed with overlooks to the entire site, these facilities are connected by private
stair to the conditioned spaces of the Arts Park Center below *

A grand stair, elevators, and a ramp connect to the entry at the parking level offering access to the lo wer levels
of the Performing Art* Pavilion, the Children*s Center, and the major conditioned spaces of the Arts Park Center
The Public Entry and related functions, the Galleries, the Public Education facilities, the tOO seat Auditorium ,
and the Technical Support and Maintenance are to be found at this level

The Working Artist Program Spaces are located in workshops {storefronts} adjacent to the main gallery space.
The Artists* Workshops contain mezzanine spaces, service access on grade, and skylights to the open-air
exhibition above. Placed immediately to the north of the lower exhibition space and beneath the open air
exhibition, these workshops may be joined on special occasions to the lower exhibition space by means of a
series of very large pivoting panels ,

The Garden Cent er

The Garden Center occupies the northwest corner of the Park site. A constantly changing man-made landscape,
a site for trees, shrubs, and other plants which provide a mass of greenery at this critical junction, it will be a
place for buying plants grown within the Park site and a mobile botanical garden.

Between the Mall and the Garden Center, a driveway provides short-term parking, drop-off, bus parking and
service access along the northern edge of the building.

The Parking Lot and Dri ve-in-M ovie

The main parking lot south of the Mail's open shed provides a large open space for diverse community and
facility use. Visible only from the access drive, the tilted plane becomes the floor of the drive-in movie and
^ performance spaces and the roof of the Museum of Un-Natural History.

The Mus eum of Un-N atu r al Histor y

The Drive*in Movie Projection Booth {tower) marks the center of the parking area and serves as the major entry
to the Museum of UnNatural History. The museum is seen as a continuously expanding spiral structure capable
of adding future history (and space) through time.

2. A SHORT GUIDED TOUR Of THE PARK

One enters the park from Balboa Drive, via one of two routes: (1) a ramped roadway which rises to the main
floor level of the Mali (where passengers may be dropped off) and then continues in a broad arc which turns
and descends, passing under the giant screen of the Drive-in Movie to the level of the parking lot or (2) a ramped
roadway which slopes down directly to the parking level. The majority of the parking required by the Park is
contained within this space , which slopes gently up from west to east toward the movie screen. Beyond the
parking area itself the roadway exits from the parking level and ramps up to the level of Balboa Drive.

The parking lot serves other important functions » ft is an open-air * mercade” where people wifi be encouraged
to come for outdoor community events, ms well as after dark movie shows* The lot will also be the site for
temporary landscapes — masses of trees in movable pots; vine-covered trellises on wheels; growing plants
which may be relocated when other needs arise.

The center of the parking lot is occupied by a raised projection booth which also serves ms the entrance to the
Museum of Un-Natural History , The Museum is literally carved out of the ground beneath the parking lot, in a
spiral form which can expand as its needs grow* The Museum is also reached by underground passages Unking
it to the Mall and the Performance Grove.

Drivers can also continue north on Balboa and access the Garden Center via a drive-through street which runs
in front of the Mail, and serves also as the main service route for deliveries.

Not everyone comes to the Park by car. in fact the plan makes every effort to ensure that people may come to
the park by other means . The existing railroad right-of-way (future Metro) has been re-routed south and now
takes a straight path from east to west, crossing through the heart of the Park. This shift is intentional as it
brings Metro passengers and commuters across and into the Park and gives them a full view of its various
components. The ART PARK LA's Metro station straddles the chaparral and provides a fink to the travelator , a
open air moving sidewalk . The travelator joins the residential neighborhood to ARTS PARK LA and the existing
recreational facilities to the South. Intermediate stops on the travelator offer access to the Mall, the Parking
Lot (and Museum of Un-Natural History}, and the Performance Glen.

The linkage of the ARTS PARK LA (and the San Fernando Valley) to other regional cultural centers such as
downtown Los Angeles and Santa Monica via the anticipated Metro offers anew vision for greater Los Angeles t
a consolidation of means and an integration of assets - an economic ecology.

303 Cm& Nv* 'Y&k N<”iV YO-JK =00:3 O'3-900 36/6

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SMITH-MILLER + HAWKINSON

Un-Occupied Territory: An Economic Ecology

Competition Proposal lor LA Arts Park. 1989
with Barbara Kruger, artist
Nicholas Quennell. landscape architect
Ove Arup and Partners, Guy Nordenson

The difficulty of dealing with the extreme condition of both economic wealth and
drastic depravation is the problem posed by the conditions of most American urban
areas today

Executed in 1989, this project attempts to suggest other answers to the difficult
questions of how cities are constructed and how their inhabitants are either
empowered by its social constructions or, "as usually is the case", are further
disenfranchised by them.

This project for LA Arts Park, is a counter-proposal to the original competition master
plan which encouraged a series of buildings spread over the site in a typical
suburban description of zones and minimal densities

(see attached project description)

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