Veritas et Venustas

Does LEED Lie?

WITOLD RYBCYZNSKI said so in a post on his blog. That upset a LEED consultant, who wrote in the comments, "This highly simplistic critique leading to such a conclusion is the lie."

I wrote in the comments,

We can debate the degree to which LEED “lies,” but there is no doubt it can be deceptive. That’s because it uses an additive point system. Add enough bike racks, solar panels, etc. and you can get a LEED Platinum building for something that in reality is not sustainable.

In the case of these glass buildings, there are two major problems. First, the glass is engineered to keep out ultraviolet light, keep heat gain down, have some insulation value, etc. The muti-layer window that results is sophisticated but requires a large amount of embodied energy to produce it. And to add insult to injury, the chemicals wear out over time, so the glass will all have to be replaced after an unknown period (unknown because the current experiments are still early in their life cycle). That’s more wasted energy. The best walls have a high R value, low embedded energy and are like the Energizer Bunny – they last, and last, and last.

The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse (December 21st is coming)

"Architecture is invention. All the rest is repetition and of no interest." - Oscar Niemeyer

“I like provoking people. It’s what you’re supposed to do.” - Thom Mayne

"Like other kinds of art, great buildings contradict everything else. They make us think. They start conversations, so people talk about what it means to fit in, what it means to have courage. It’s okay for some buildings not to work." - Gregg Pasquarelli

"Maybe that’s what a city is: confrontation and complication. In New York, the name of the game is to have one’s own envelope." - Bernard Tschumi, responding to Pasquarelli

V&V: Architects Say The Darndest Things!

Bonus quote after the jump - 

“The street wears us out. It is altogether disgusting. Why, then, does it still exist?” - Le Corbusier

This one's been forgotten about:

"If you know it is useful, and feel it is beautiful, repeat it." - Adolf Loos

Reserve Now for Your Wedding Ceremony

ALSO from Strong Towns: Conversation with an engineer

Fun

The opening is very serious, but they look like they're having fun.

An obvious question: Why not upzone around Penn Station instead of around Grand Central?

OY VEY UPDATE: Now I'm told that the area around Penn Station HAS been massively upzoned. What, the guys with buildings around Grand Central are upset because they don't get as much upzoning as the guys with buildings around Penn Station? Haven't they ever played Monopoly? The game is about buying and selling, not waiting for the government to upzone your land.

Midtown has been under assault by glass behemoths that are boring and that make mediocre streetscapes, but it still has many good blocks and streets. There is talk of preserving individual buildings in midtown, but good buildings are diminished by bad neighbors, and good streets can be turned into bad streets with new construction. Midtown should have a large historic district protecting streets like Vanderbilt Avenue from further encroachment. With the exception of the buildings that have been reskinned, the buildings around Grand Central are one of the best ensembles in New York.

The streets around Penn Station are not as good, and the buildings there are smaller and often undistinghuished. If the idea is that we need big buildings, why tear down the big buildings already in Midtown, which is already so dense that the sidewalks are crowded and the subway often overtaxed?

On the other hand, the West Side is getting the number 7 extension, development of the Hudson Yards, and a new boulevard that will provide good sites for new towers. The idea would be a natural extension of the development that has happened around the High Line from the Village to Hudson Yards. If there's one thing Manhattan doesn't need, in my opinion, it's another big boring glass tower. If the Mayor and his administration are going to insist that we get them, let's at least do it without spoiling the best of what's left in Midtown.

Last but not least, there is no current or foreseeable demand for these giant buildings. Larry Silverstein has been forced to give inexpensive leases to entice tenants into the Ground Zero buildings. In most cases the tenants are moving out of other giant towers, creating a game of musical chairs. Developers want to upzone now, however, because they know future mayors may not be as well disposed towards them as this administration. And once upzoning is given, it's very hard to go back.

V&V: The Shanghaiing of New York

Treme & Two Kinds of Music

"There are two kinds of music," Duke Ellington once said, "Good music, and the other kind." You see the same thing in the HBO show about post-Katrina New Orleans, Treme. Hip hop, be bop, bluegrass, traditional New Orleans jazz, the latest New York jazz and the latest pop - it's all good in New Orleans.

Architects could learn from musicians.