When Vitruvius wrote about
dinocrates presenting to Alexander the Great in book 2 of his seminal treatise
Four Books on Architecture, he describes him as “a man of tall stature,
pleasing countenance, and altogether of dignified appearance. Trusting to the
gifts with which nature had thus endowed him, he put off his ordinary clothing,
and having anointed himself with oil, crowned his head with a wreath of poplar,
slung a lion's skin across his left shoulder, and carrying a large club in his
right hand, he sallied forth to the royal tribunal, at a period when the king
was dispensing justice. The novelty of his appearance excited the attention of
the people; and Alexander soon discovering, with astonishment, the object of
their curiosity, ordered the crowd to make way for him, and demanded to know
who he was. "A Macedonian architect," replied Dinocrates,
"who suggests schemes and designs worthy your royal renown. I propose
to form Mount Athos into the statue of a man holding a spacious city in his
left hand, and in his right a huge cup, into which shall be collected all the
streams of the mountain, which shall then be poured into the sea."
Although
the appearance for design architects has somewhat changed over the
centuries, architects definitely have cultivated a certain look. instead of
lion skins and wreaths... today thick rimmed glasses, sport jacket, styled
hair, crisp dark gray shirt is the codified dress attire. Like
architects from 220 BC, R. played the part and dressed in the designer uniform
for the meeting in front of the community board.
The presentation was 5
minutes and probably 90% incomprehensible to the masses. A series of plans,
FEMA flood maps, sections and technical drawings and renderings were
flashed upon the screen. R.’s attempt to translate simple architecture jargon
to laypeople fell flat. I’ve been at presentations where we received standing
ovations at the end... where the presenters were like dinocrates and the
audience members were sold on ideas and visions. at this presentation I felt we
had presented an enigmatic puzzle, raising more questions than answers. we
spent the next 50 minutes explaining and clarifying the design in a prolonged
question answer session with the board after the presentation.
Board member
seeking to beautify our building. “Can we add a little greenery, shrubs to the sidewalk by the
building” I thought about frank Lloyd Wright’s funny quote about how to
correct an architectural mistake. “A doctor can bury his mistakes, but an
architect can only advise his clients to plant vines.” I couldn’t tell whether
this board member opened up this line of questioning with a motivation to fix our
building which may be interpreted as a concrete bunker, or if they just wanted
to introduce plantings to the entry. R. tried to evade this question by
misdirecting the questioner to obscure street tree ordinances. All month, the
head of queens library, J., told us he didn’t want grass or planting in front
of the building because trash collects amongst the grasses. “There’s a series
of laws regulating the spacing of street trees on site.. “ “no, I’m talking
about vegetation along the building” here, R. tried to avoid the topic again
“We’d like to plant another tree, but because of the regulations” “no I get
it.. but I’m talking about the planting by the side of the building” R.
relented and conceded we would look into providing plantings.
Technocrat board member. Technical questions
are finite with easily definable answers. “will the skylight overload the air
conditioning system?” “The skylights will have motorized shades”
Confused board member. You cringe when
someone qualifies a question by noting how stupid it is. “This is a stupid
question but technically the addition is to the right of the existing library?
“Yes. The library will be built on the empty plot between the deli and the
existing library.” The board member revealed she watched the whole presentation
replete with plans and renderings without knowing where the project was. “My
next question is will you have a bike rack in front of the library?” “Yes and
it would be good to have a bike lane.” At this point the audience booed and hollered.
Apparently they like to bike without bike lanes there. At this point, to allay
the mob, R. joked “I have some free reusable bags to give out, they’re in my
car” the mob went from outraged to laughing.
Board member trying to see
the logic behind our building configuration. “I understand you’re building an addition
that will double the size of the old library... can you build your library on
top of the old library and save the expense of pile foundations?” “The existing
foundations can’t handle the load... and if we built on top of the old library
we would have to flood proof it which would have been cost prohibitive.” “Don’t
you have to floodproof the existing building?” “Technically no, if we build a
new building.” “Ok good luck”
Board member who asked the
only question we were prepared for. “What’s your timeline and what’s the
accessibility going to be like for the existing library?” “Our timeline to open
is winter or summer 2023. For the most part the library will remain open during
construction.”
Bitter Board member. “So the library on 94th
street, Far Rockaway was promised to us for after hours use, but that never
came through... we see you’ve set up an after hours exit and
community spaces.. will you guarantee these spaces can be used by the community
after hours?” R. told me when the representative for queens public library,
Richard, answered this question for the team, the nature of the
presentation took a dramatic nose dive for the worse. Richard is a
lion with a thick gray mane from Pittsburgh. He grew up in the 1970s when steel
workers lived with pride, and a man’s honesty was his honor. You could imagine
Richard with blackened steel dust nose and hard hat. In design meetings he
always spoke his mind and was helpful. At the community board
meeting, all his positive traits became a liability.... he made the cardinal
sin of telling the public the truthful intentions of the library operations.
“The operations of the library will have to be discussed with operations... but
the main entry to the library will be through the existing building.” “A lot of
people commute to work and don’t get home till late so getting to the library
during traditional hours will be hard.”
After this point, the
floodgates opened for all sorts of questions we could’ve never
predicted. I couldn’t write my notes fast enough to record all the back and
forth dialogue. My notebook record of questions aimed at us defined the
collective dreams of what a community thought a library should be, and their
collective fears of how it wouldn’t meet their expectations... R. tried
valiantly to defend the design. “The deli on the corner is an eyesore. What can
you do for that property?” <we will suggest modifications for the neighbor’s
deli, perhaps offer ideas on signage changes> “Regarding global warming and
flooding. I think the building should be built a little higher.” <we can’t
make the building too high otherwise we’ll need an elevator which is
susceptible to floods and makes wheelchair people feel excluded> “How are you
relating the building to the beach community?” <we are using concrete panels
with the wood grain impressions to relate to the weathered wood shingle housing
vernacular> “The library is very small and it doesn’t allow for an expansion
for books. You might as well tear it down and build a new library 4 stories
tall. You don’t know what it feels like to go through a flood or a hurricane.
We need a place for kids to innovate. The community is expecting 20,000 more
residents and this library will not be able to accommodate everyone.”
<Libraries all around are questioning how much space to allocate for book
since people can read digitally now. Libraries are the last civic space. So our
community rooms will address that need. We understand your pain but
the budget for the building was not determined by us> “Can you include space
to exhibit local artists? How do local artists get involved?” <there is a
percent for art program where we will invite local attorney to compete>
“Will you utilize renewable energy?” <solar panels> “Will you have a
backup generator? <no> “Why not?” <Cost of maintaining it, cost of
wiring, lack of space on the roof> “Are you going to drive piles for the
foundations If so it will be very loud and disturbing.” <we will try to use
micro piles or drilled piles> “Why aren’t you floodproofing the existing
library?” <there’s a loophole in the code that states if you classify an
addition as a newly constructed separate building, you don’t have to floodproof
the existing building. Raising the existing building 4 feet would basically use
up all the budget for the project> “How are your ensuring the resiliency of
materials for flooding” <by using concrete, zinc, and concrete panels which
are durable> “what is your budget?” <8-10 million> “for that amount of
money I don’t think we’re expanding the library. You have spaces but no extra
books. People come to the library to read books. Now we’ll have 20,000 more
housing units projected here, how are we going to serve them?” After 40 minutes
of needling, R. finally broke down like a wounded animal and told the board his
personal experience with small expansions with life changing consequences.
<I’ve been living with my son sleeping in our room for the past 6 years.
Just this past month, we’ve finished incorporating an adjacent studio to our
apartment to give our son his own room. In giving him his own room, every other
room in our apartment has benefitted and the functionality of our space has
tremendously improved.>
Sensing R.
was bleeding, the board members circled like sharks. More questions
and concerns ensued. Everyone wanted to suggest a design. “Why don’t you move
staff to the new library to make community space in the existing library? ...
the last resolution at the meeting was to reconvene at a walk
through of the existing library site to discuss the plans with the board
members to talk about different options.
We left the Knights of
Columbus Lodge feeling as if we had been ambushed. The night was damp with
misty ocean air. You could see lights of planes trail just above the low night
clouds in the sky as they landed at JFK airport. Up till that point, Queens
public libary, and the public design commission had nothing but praise for the
library proposal. We were expecting a victory parade and ticker tape adulation,
but instead we were sent to the community board guillotine. R. was stunned at
what had unfolded. If the library project ends or is delayed, it would be
disastrous for the firm. R. worried about seeing newspaper headlines
"Architect relates new library to story of his apartment renovation where
gaining an extra room for his kid changes his life." Our train ride back
took an egregious amount of time. 16 minutes we waited on the subway platform
in the cold to get a train to Broad Channel. i kept thinking about the truth in
what the MAN WIITH THE 1.6 MILLION DOLLAR TRANSIT PLAN had in mind. it was
ridiculous the A trains didn't just continue along the far rockaway spur and
spare residents annoying wait times.
This was R.'s third community
board meeting experience. For the Bomb Squad job in the Bronx, which was put on
hold indefinitely due to costs, residents questioned the open firing ranges
where 27,000 officers would come and fulfill noisy bang bang outdoor target
practice. For Dia Beacon, the community meeting was held at an old courthouse
structure. "I didn't sleep or eat well before that meeting. I did a really
bad job. at one point, some guy from the audience asks if we could plant more
trees for the project. artist robert irwin was furious at this remark. Irwin
gets out out of his seat, exits the half size wooden swing doors from the
witness bench, and puts his face in the man's face and says "we planted
trees in the parking lot, trees on the site... we've planted so many goddamn
trees and you're asking for more? no way...." the man who asked the
question turned out to be the planning commissioner for the town of Beacon. he
got his revenge by making us plant trees up and down the road and reconfiguring
the intersection in front of the museum.
To console R., i told him
there was nothing we could do to prepare for this meeting. then i asked
"who came up with the program?" (how did we end up making 2 large
rooms of space for our library addition) i asked "initially, we put the children's
section into the new part of the library, but Queens didn't want to have the
staff to supervise it so they told us to put two lockable rooms in the new
addition space. we tried to put the circulation desk in the new wing, but
queens objected to that too. now, the community thinks we provided them 2
useless empty rooms, without books. it looks like it will not be useful to
their needs." In retrospect, i thought, we should've prepared
a stance and attitude about our approach to the library. not some meek
comfortable position like "let's just add more bookshelves and
space".... we should've made an argument that "the future of the
libary is a community space, a teaching space, a space to foster people's
ambitions through teaching and interaction." oh well.
Pondering worse case
scenarios, R. told me if we lost this job, we could divert our efforts to
marketing. To my knowledge, R. and L. have never done marketing. Jobs just find
them. a lighting renovation at a lincoln center library led to 3 library jobs
for them. before that, they were involved with artists after working on the dia
beacon museum. "the problem with working with artists is that they take
all the credit. for dia beacon, robert irwin took all the credit. for our
installation at the nytimes building, ben rubin took all the credit for the
kinetic text installation. we did a job for joan mitchell foundation"
"is she still alive?" i asked. "no, the manager there was a
nasty person on the outside and the inside... but she wore haute couture to somehow
mask her nasty personality.... artists or people who work for artists always
want architects to work for free. we did a good job for the joan mitchell
foundation.... but it was strange. after we finished the job, we asked to take
pictures of the building, which they alllowed. when i posted the pictures to
the internet, the manager had a fit. she cursed me out and said "how dare
you take pictures of my personal space and upload them online. and those
paintings shown in the pictures compromise our security! now all the criminals
can look online and see all the valuable paintings we have in our
collection." "we photoshopped all the pictures of the gallery,
blurring out all the people and whiting out all the paintings. i heard at a
dinner, the manager told ben rubin "R. and L. are very very bad
people."
To divert his attention I
asked him what the carriage house was. I’ve seen models in the
office, and it had a strange name. “it is an exhibit space for old horse
carriages. it's a barrel vaulted exhibit space made of corrugated metal. the
contractors were so bad, when they poured the sidewalks, the concrete sloped
into the building instead of away so much we couldn't even open the doors.
during rains, water came pouring into the exhibit space damaging 1/2 of the
carriages beyond repair. to allow the door to open, the contractors had to jack
hammer away a depression into the concrete. the guy in charge of the project,
benjamin, was talented, but not detail oriented. during construction, he
didn't notice the corrugated metal siding was supposed to overlap at the center
highpoint. anyways, water started leaking through the joint. we used sprayfoam
insulation on the inside for thermal insulation... so it's impossible to trace
where the leaks are now. the water just shows up on the ground. the structural
engineer said we're lucky the structure didn't fall down because the siding was
supposed to overlap.” I imagined a jackhammered quarter circle of concrete in
front of a door.... “as if this wasn't bad enough, for some reason. the intake
fan was supposed to be mounted high, but it was mounted low. bugs would descend
into the fan like kamikazes and then be sliced up into pieces and blown into
the space leaving an unsightly slime of bug guts on the floor."
Ok, maybe talk of previous
construction was not the best topic... I then asked how his weekend went. “i
went upstate hiking with the family on Sunday. we saw an old mine. my poor
sister, she got really sick (i found out today she went down with pneumonia)."
as he showed me pictures of his hike i told R. about some nice abandoned
railway lines that run upstate through forests that have been converted into
bike trails. at their terminus were quarries for the stone used to build the
brooklyn bridge. i asked if he was close to his sister, Peg. I had seen R.'s
sister at his christmas party. she looked like R. except female. slender and
tall with sunk eyes like R., she was a reserarcher of epinephrine
neruortransmitters and parkinson's disease at NYU who straight talked with a
oklahaman drawl. i told him, I talked biology for a long time with her at his
christmas party. I noted to R., certain biologists are very verbal, and relate
biology through stories. every molecule, every pathway are like characters playing
a part of a story and can be verbalized. (i'm not that type of biologist) he
chuckled at my observation. he had previously renovated her lab that was an old
bellevue hospital room replete with odd surgical tools. these surgical tools,
which look like gynecological implements with weird snippers sit in a metal can
in our model shop in the office. R. answered my question, "ever since my
son was born, my sister and I hang out a lot. before that, he had renovated her
apartment in 1999 and they didn't speak for 10 years. i couldnt get my
preferred contractor to work on the job, so i got some czech guys somebody
recommended. everytime her bathroom would clog, she would call me to
complain... also, my sister also didn't like the fact they took 10 days to tile
her bathroom when it should've only took 1. i met with the czech contractors
and my sister in a coffee shop. they said to us they better be paid, or else.
my sister stormed out and threatened to call the cops. i asked my friend at
diller scofidio who was czech and asked him what he would do in my situation.
he said "pay the czechs... otherwise they'll sabotage your apartment, snip
some wires.... or come back for revenge." i paid them." Every
conversation ended in some sort of construction misery. 2 hours in a train was
like our therapy. R. would miss the rest of the week of work — Probably
suffering pneumonia and community board agony.
After the meeting I’ve been
working hard, trying to just complete the design documentation milestone phase
of design so R. and L. can get paid for their services. In my spare time, I’ve
been scouring the internet for news or reported accounts of our disastrous
community board meeting... nothing. instead I find miserable tidbits of
previous community board meetings like this. “Two Far Rockaway residents said a
serious problem is developing as absentee landlords are buying up bungalows on
Beach 25th Street. They say these are being used to house up to 20
ex-convicts and discharged mental patients per unit, with no supervision.
This includes a number of sexual predators, they said.”
 |
| Dinocrates presenting to Alexander the Great |
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