Subway architecture exhibit: 'Made in New York,' but felt around globe

Photo credit: Samuel Lahoz

An unusual exhibit at a Greenwich Village subway station has turned spaces normally reserved for advertising images into a subterranean gallery showcasing 200 projects from New York-based architects and other design professionals.

The project, “Made in New York,” features recent or planned projects whose scope stretches from an obscure Bronx block to the burgeoning skylines of the Pacific Rim and everywhere in between.

The West 4th Street station show is curated by the New York City chapter of the American Institute of Architects, which runs the nearby Center for Architecture on LaGuardia Place. Part of what’s unique about the show is that it wasn’t juried — what professionals submitted made the cut.

“They give a panoroma of not only what’s happening in New York, but what New York architects are doing worldwide,” said executive director Rick Bell.

The show takes a page from station-saturation campaigns, but it’s not sneakers or soft drinks being hawked.

“If some private company can push a product or or a movie, we can push architecture,” Bell said. We can tell people “why design matters, why architecture matters.”

Here’s a look at five of the projects on display. For the other 195, swipe your MetroCard ASAP. The show ends Oct. 31.

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1.) Horizontal Skyscraper — Vanke Center, Shenzhen, China
Architects: Steven Holl Architects/CCDI
Engineers:  CABR/CCDI
Why it matters: Bell said this project shows it’s not just about tall buildings, it’s about density, size and integrating a building into its environment.

2.) Poets House,
New York
Architect: Louise Braverman
Engineers:  Liam O’Hanlon Engineering/Plus Group Consulting Engineers
Why it matters: Braverman  submitted two projects — one in Portugal, and this one, Poets House, in Battery Park City. Even a small city firm can have a global impact, Bell said.

3.) Toni Stabile Student Center, New York
Architect: Marble Fairbanks
Engineers:  Plus Group /Robert Silman
Associates
Why it matters: This “disciplined project” produces “a new space between existing buildings,” Bell said.

4.) SIMS Municipal Recycling Facility, Brooklyn
Architect: Selldorf Architects
Engineers: Moffatt and Nichol/RRT Engineering
Landscape architect: Vaccaro
Why it matters:  Bell praised Annabelle Selldorf’s project as “really lovely.” A tycoon’s sleek beach house? No — a marine garbage transfer station.

5.) 1070 Anderson Avenue, Bronx
Architect:  Magnusson Architecture and Planning
Engineers: Ettinger Engineering Associates/GACE Goldstein Associates Consulting Engineers
Landscape architects: MPFP/M. Paul Friedberg & Partners Landscape
Why it matters: “This is very good design,” said Bell of this affordable housing complex. It blends in well with its environment.

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