Emerging Voices - Tatiana Bilbao + Molo

New Museum - 24 March 2010

Tatiana Bilbao spoke very swiftly and passionately about her work. It sounded as if her words could not keep pace with her thoughts. It's possible that was because English wasn't her primary language, but I have a feeling she would sound the same in her native tongue.

She described Mexico City as unplanned and developed as Responsive Urbanism.

She discussed the Talpa Virgin Pilgrimage Route. Her firm was responsible for the Master Plan that provided infrastructure elements along the route. She invited various artists and architects from around the world to create sites of contemplation.

She also discussed the Culiacan Botanical Gardens where again she serves as the master planner and mediator between the 35 world renowned artists invited to construct site specific pieces. Located in northwest central Mexico on the Pacific, Culiacan is currently one of the most dangerous cities in Mexico due to its drug trade.

Through these two projects, Bilbao paints herself as the multi-disciplinarian planner. She naturally heaps praise on her colleagues and delegates responsibility without compromise to her design sensibilities and ego.

In contrast to the frenetic Bilbao, Stephanie Forsythe + Todd MacAllen, the Molo principals spoke with a measured and patient rhythm. The Vancouver based architects opened with the Northern Sky Circle project, a carved snow space in Alaska. Unlike typical architects, they were closely involved with physically shaping the snow and carving the ice.

A project that looks promising is the Nebuta House in Japan--a house for big mystical paper lantern sculptures.

The firm is also know for the cool products that financially sustain their firm. The two come across as thoughtful and a bit like "hip" hippies. They search for a connection to our land as a source of design inspiration. They projected some photos of a surf trip spent following the upstream salmon breeding route.

Second Avenue Subway--Ongoing

AIA Center, NYC, 12 February 2010

A Brief Timeline

• 1880 - Elevated Line constructed on 2nd Avenue
• 1941 - Elevated Line torn down because of health reasons
• 1956 - Third Avenue El Demolished
• 2007 - Another ground breaking

Phase I - 96th Street to 63rd Street.

• Three New Stations at 72nd, 86th, and 96th.
• Two tracks stacked on top of each other.
• Tunnel Boring machine is scheduled to break through the Q line in 2011.
• New Stations are 70-90 feet below grade.
• Two main water feeds approximately 48" diameter are buried on 2nd avenue and supported by the ground; one was replaced with a new 36" diameter main.
• Stability issues with existing buildings that might not be able to handle underground blasting--DoB is verifying these cases and the owner is responsible for stabilizing.

Designs

• Entry Canopy - like South Ferry; access needs to be protected from weather by code
• Design theory--TBM boring at an upwards angle
• 12x12 Granite floor tiles in station with Porcelain wall panels.
• Five elevators at the 72nd Street Entrance on a corner lot probably through the fan plants.
• Fan plants mostly occupied by air shafts and emergency stairs.

Update

• 72nd Street Blasting as just started
• No TBM yet
• 63rd Street contract work to be awarded by the end of 2010
• One Billion still needed towards the end of completion date---should be provided by state government.
• 2016 Phase 1 Completion Date

The Thing about Zhan Ke Jia

I've always been drawn towards the quiet, contemplative and lingering films. Typically, they convey mood and narrative through meticulously composed cinematography and minimal dialogue. Distinctive works that that come to mind are Stranger than Paradise, Paris Texas, and anything by Andrei Tarkovsky. In all respects, Zhan Ke Jia's work could be included among them. However, his cinematography places the individual in scenes of diconnection and abandonment--resulting in an extreme sense of hopelessness.

Zhan Ke films take place mostly contemporary China and tend to focus on the daily and often monotonous life of the average citizen. The films' locations could be captured majestically--or even grandly imposing. Instead, he strives for a preponderance of ordinariness through the use of diminutive shots and dull color tones. While Wim Wenders characters find themselves lost in a grand and majestic backdrop, Zhan Ke undercuts any potential majesty in favor of banality.

Sanxia Haoren aka Still Life (2006)

The narrative traces one man's search for is wife paralleled by one woman's search for her husband. Ultimately, the two protagonists confront and accept the reality that their relationship had likely died so long ago. The setting is the valley flooded by the construction of the controversial Three Gorges Dam. The dam effectively serves as a dual symbol of disconnection--between the individuals themselves as well as there relationship to the egocentric whims of the state.