Design Selected for AIDS Memorial Park in NYC

A design that calls for a grove of trees reflected infinitely by 12-foot-long mirrors was selected today for New York’s first large-scale AIDS memorial.

The winning proposal, from Studio a+i, a Brooklyn, N.Y. architecture firm, beat out 474 other entries in the AIDS Memorial Park competition. Hosted by Architectural Record, Architizer, and the AIDS Memorial Park organization, the competition challenged designers and non-designers to create a park for an unused triangular lot in Manhattan’s West Village neighborhood.

The fenced-in site, which is next to the former St. Vincent’s Hospital―one of the first in the nation to offer HIV treatment―has 17,000 square feet on the street level, as well as 10,000 square feet below-grade, which the winning plan proposes to use as exhibition space. Connected by tunnels to St. Vincent’s, the site had been used as a loading dock as well as for storage of liquid oxygen tanks, until the hospital closed in 2010.

Unlike some other designs, which envisioned a sunken park there, Studio a+i’s design, titled “Infinite Forest,” treats the site as two distinct pieces.

The main piece is an above-ground park, which is ringed by 12-foot walls on all three sides with entrances at each corner. The sides that face inward, toward benches and a grove of 20 white birch trees, are reflective―an effect that could be achieved with highly-polished stainless steel, Studio a+i principals say. The mirrored walls are designed to create the appearance of boundless space inside the park.

The design has Chalkboard-like slate lining the sides of the walls facing Seventh Avenue, Greenwich Avenue, and West 12th Streets. Visitors would be invited to write messages on them with chalk, for impromptu tributes. Notably absent are any statues, signs, or plaques commemorating AIDS victims.

“AIDS is not a war, nor a disease conquered,” the firm wrote in its proposal. “There are no definite dates or victims.”

For the chalkboard idea, Mateo Paiva, a firm principal, took inspiration from a fence around a lot across the street, which was adorned with makeshift memorials after September 11, and which today has rows of similarly decorated tiles. “People want a place to express their loss, their emotions, and feelings,” said Paiva, who founded Studio a+i with Lily Lim in 2004. The firm will receive $5,000 for the win.

The design includes some AIDS-related programming at the site. A lower level, reached by ramps and stairs in two of the walls, has an exhibition space, though details will be hammered out later. (Entrants merely had to submit a single 11-inch-by-17-inch presentation with 500 words of description for the competition.) An interior space tucked inside the Seventh Avenue wall houses a bookstore and a café. “We wanted to create a space for school kids to stumble upon, or somebody trying to take a break from work,” said Lim. “It has to be for everybody.”

The 13-member jury included Museum of Modern Art chief curator of architecture and design Barry Bergdoll, Diller Scofidio + Renfro partner Elizabeth Diller, and actress and comedian Whoopi Goldberg. It was headed by Michael Arad, designer of the National September 11 Memorial.

The group also selected three runners up: “Forest of Memories” by Ooi Yin Mau of Malaysia, “Not Yet” by Rodrigo Zamora and Mike Robitz of Manhattan, and “The Village Red” by Jonathan Kurtz, Christopher Diehl, Katherine Ritzmann, Brant Miller, Mykie Hrusovski, and David Berlekamp of Cleveland.

For his part, Arad, who saw his own memorial design beset by criticism in the years after it was selected, said Studio a+i must be open to “conversation and collaboration” going forward, adding, “I have made it clear to them that I am happy to assist them.”

The park, which is slated to open in 2014, is to be paid for with donations as well as $10 million from the Rudin Organization, a developer, which is seeking to build a 450-unit condo complex across the street, at the former hospital.

That $800 million project, which has been dogged by controversy because it includes new towers inside an historic district, awaits final approval from the city, though it is expected to be granted in March.

Besides the park, the plan will refurbish the O’Toole Building, a 1963 Modernist edifice by Albert C. Ledner; it will become a 24-hour community health center.

Currently, there is only one AIDS memorial in the city, a 42-foot engraved stone bench in Hudson River Park completed in 2008. Yet Christopher Tepper, a co-founder of the AIDS Memorial Park Coalition, which organized the competition, said something high-profile was needed, as 100,000 New Yorkers have died from the disease in the past 30 years.

For Tepper, an urban planner, the best feature of the winning design is its mirrors, which will make a powerful point about the AIDS epidemic. “The reason it became a crisis is the real lack of acknowledgment of the problem,” he said. Reflecting the faces of people passing through the park could make them realize that “they are part of the problem, which is how real social change happens.”

Rs. 8.90 crore for renovation of Anna, MGR memorials

Chief Minister Jayalalithaa has sanctioned Rs 8.90 crore for renovation of the memorials of former Chief Minister C.N. Annadurai and M.G.Ramachandran on the Marina.

A State government press release said on Sunday that thousands of people visited these memorials every day and the government wanted to keep the places and the environment clean. An announcement to this effect was made during the debate on the demand for grants for Information Department in 2011-12.

The memorial of Annadurai will be renovated at a cost of Rs 1.20 crore and MGR memorial at a cost of Rs 4.30 crore. Besides, the government would spend Rs 3.40 crore for remodelling the facade of MGR memorial and for constructing a new wall around the memorial complex.

When Ms Jayalalithaa became the Chief Minister of the state in 1991, she remodelled MGR's memorial and it was opened in 1992. The memorial complex was laid with marbles.

The DMK government renovated Annadurai's memorial after it came to power in 1996.

After the tsunami struck the coastal parts of the State in December 2004, the two samadhis were affected. Subsequently, the authorities took up repair works at the cost of about Rs. 1.33 crore.

During 1996-1998, the renovation of the mausoleum was taken up at a cost of about Rs. 2.75 crore.

As part of the work, the original tusk-shaped entrance arch gave way to a structure with highly polished marble tiles. Pathways were also widened and ornamental octagonal mandapams built.

Know your room before picking a floor

Gone are the days when flooring choices consisted of linoleum in the kitchen and wall-to-wall carpeting everywhere else.

Today, homeowners have myriad options to choose from, including leather, cork, polished concrete, ceramic, carpet tiles and hardwood, just to name a few. And while many of these flooring options have been around for decades; they now come in dozens of styles, finishes and colours.

"There are a lot of products in the marketplace today," says Jimeen Thurston of Century Carpet One in the city's northwest.

"Some of them are redesigned or degenerated products that might have been around for ages. An example of one of these might be cork. Hardwood is another product that has been around for centuries, but now you can have it in a distressed, prefinished look with a beautiful aged patina, any colour of stain or an interesting washed finish."

With so many choices, how do you decide?

"The first step in selecting new flooring for your home is to determine the use of the space or the lifestyle of the people using the room. The activities and persons using the room will greatly help you in deciding if the flooring should be soft or hard," says Thurston, who is an interior designer at the popular Kensington store.

"Maintenance can also be a contributing factor when choosing floor-covering materials - your lifestyle may not allow you the time needed to maintain a beautiful floor. Your budget will also set parameters, thus eliminating materials that are either too expensive or fall under the quality you'd like to use in your home."

Pets, children, climate and even cooking style - messy or not - can help determine what will work for a certain space.

Kitchens and entryways tend to be high-traffic areas that are prone to spills, scuffs, drips and dirt. For these spaces, Thurston suggests "hard" flooring types, such as ceramic tile, natural stone, hardwood, laminate or linoleum.

"Laminate is a popular alternative as it is cost effective and its high performance, hard-wearing surface gives you the look of tile or hardwood without the drawbacks of those materials," Thurston adds.

Another perk of laminate flooring - in addition to being durable, easy to maintain and available in a wide variety of styles - is that it doesn't require a perfect subfloor, therefore preparation and installation are not as costly or time-consuming as other types of flooring.

Once you settle on a flooring type, interior decorator Alykhan Velji says it's important to maintain consistency from room to room.

"Think about what flooring is used in the rest of your space, as you want to be consistent with this, especially in open-concept homes," says the Calgary-based Velji, who has appeared on HGTV and Citytv. "I love the same flooring throughout a space, so if it's hardwood, I like to carry it through the whole house."

As a general rule of thumb, hardwood flooring in warm tones helps warm up spaces, as does cork. Ceramics, on the other hand, tend to cool off a room. Similarly, small rooms are better suited to a larger style of flooring.

"Smaller spaces look better with large format flooring. This means a wide-plank floor or large tiles will really help make the space seem bigger with fewer divides in the floor," said Velji.

"There should always be contrast in a space. If you have light walls or cabinetry, think about a darker floor. If everything is one colour in a room and there is no contrast, things tend to look boring."

Sea views - and a price cut - in Killiney

MOUNT AUBURN is a beautifully proportioned six-bedroom Victorian house on Killiney Hill Road, back on the market with a price cut of nearly 10 per cent.

Set on approximately one-third of an acre of walled grounds, it’s for sale for 1.9 million through agent Colliers, reduced from 2.1 million.

The 424sq m (4,570sq ft) house sits on a secluded site punctuated by mature pine trees. Automatic security gates open onto a gravelled drive that leads up to granite steps and the front door. A pillared portico opens into a polished timber hall.

To the left is a dual aspect drawing room which has a marbled mantel with a tiled inset and a decorative centre rose.

It is a delightful room, boasting peekaboo sea views from above the property’s beech hedge.

A door leads from it into the duck-egg blue kitchen that has an Aga and a Belfast-style sink, as well as a decorative splashback featuring some Delft-style tiles.

An arch leads from the kitchen into a congenial dining room that is lit from above by an oval lantern-style roof light.

A bowed rear window with French doors lead directly into the west-facing garden and rockery. This part of the house was added in 2002.

On the other side of the ground floor, there’s a family room or den with ample study or office shelving. To the front is another dual aspect room used as a formal dining room. It does not have the same wealth of decorative period features.

The original rooms all have shuttered windows, a period feature that dispenses with the need for curtains, especially at ground floor level.

A set of open tread stairs takes you down into the semi-basement where there is a large family room with wood-burning stove.

Off it is an unused second kitchen, the site of the original kitchen in the house. It too has a wood-burning stove, and double doors lead to a small west-facing garden and patio.

There are two bedrooms at this level, one of which has an en suite shower room. There is also a utility room and a guest toilet.

Upstairs on the first floor, there are four bedrooms, two of which are en suite. The front bedrooms have sea views and three of the four rooms are doubles.

The main bedroom has views across Dublin Bay to Howth Head. A large en suite with a separate bath and shower is off the bedroom, along with a walk-in wardrobe.

A second double to the front, also with sea views, could be transformed into a self-contained suite with very little structural work.

It has an adjacent bathroom and an interconnecting door leading into a large single that could become a spacious dressing room. The house is within walking distance of Dalkey and easy reach of the village’s Dart station.

Disturbed Man Plucked From St. Jerome Belfry After Ruckus

Safety personnel from three agencies responded to St. Jerome Catholic Church in El Cerrito last night, Monday, and used a Taser to subdue and capture a man who had been acting strangely on the church roof, according to police.

After an hour-and-an-half ordeal in which the 25-year-old man threw roof tiles at emergency lights set up the illuminate the scene and threatened to harm himself with pieces of a stained-glass window that he had smashed, he was captured in the church bell-tower, said police Sgt. Ian Wong.

Police were dispatched at 6:18 p.m. to the church at Carmel and Curry avenues and found the man on the roof "suffering from a mental breakdown," Wong said. Police tried to talk the man down, but "he wasn't engaging in dialog and appeared to be a little bit out of it," Wong said.

Pieces of the stained glass window that the man had broken were in the street when police arrived, said Wong.

The El Cerrito fire department was summoned and placed a ladder up next to roof to gain access, but the man pushed the ladder away, Wong said.

So a ladder truck from the Richmond fire department was summoned. Unable to push that truck's ladder away, the man jumped from the roof to a tree, climbed to the top and reached the highest portion of the church roof, about 40 feet off the ground, Wong said.

When fire and police personnel gained access to the roof, the man was found hiding in the church bell-tower, again threatening to injure himself, Wong said.

A Taser was used to subdue the man, who was handcuffed and brought down on a paramedic transport board, Wong said.

"The man was transported to the hospital for evaluation and treatment of self inflicted injuries," according to a police news release today, Tuesday.

The incident ended shortly before 8 p.m., Wong said. The man was not placed under arrest, and he was not cited for any crimes last night, Wong said.

"I was impressed by the Fire and Police department," said René Bilodeau, who was among the gathering of onlookers at the scene.

"In so far as I could see, they were very professional with crowd control and very patient in the situation, especially considering he was actively tossing clay roofing at them," Bilodeau said in an email. "I did not see the final 'take down' (it was out of my field of view) but from what I could tell, they seemed very much in control of themselves and acted thoughtfully and professionally."

The police evidently knew who the man was and were calling out to him by name, Bilodeau said. They tried to calm him down and tell him his behavior wasn't appropriate, including telling him, "DO NOT throw the tiles!," Bilodeau said.

"While he was clearly not acting like a sane person, he also did not give me the impression of wanting to harm anyone," he said.