New at Pentagram
Daniel Weil: Returning to the Light
From June 2004, I spent five and a half years designing the Samuel and Saidye Bronfman Archeological Wing of the Israel Museum in Jerusalem. When the wing was opened in July this year, to great acclaim, I felt proud and very privileged to have been part of the renewal and elevation of a great museum to world class status.
Returning there in November allowed me to see the wing from the point of view of a visitor - to experience the unique chronological narrative in its galleries. And what I saw most clearly was the story of light. The light of Jerusalem is the major protagonist in the Archeological Wing’s experience, as the journey of this unique history goes from dark to light, triggering the emotions of the visitor.
New Work: Clock for an Architect
Privately commissioned to create a gift for an architect, Daniel Weil created a one-of-a-kind clock that is both simple and complex. Reducing objects to their component parts has long fascinated Weil. The Radio in a Bag he created for his degree show at the Royal College of Art three decades ago is an icon of 20th century industrial design. This clock is the latest demonstration of his interest in investigating not just how objects look, but how they work.
New Work: Attenborough Studio at The Natural History Museum
William Russell and Daniel Weil have collaborated to create the physical environment and experience for the first augmented reality theatre in the world. The Attenborough Studio is a high-tech audio-visual venue on the ground floor of the Darwin Centre at the Natural History Museum. The space hosts events shows and films about all aspects of life on Earth and scientific discovery.
The project is the product of a partnership between the Natural History Museum and BBC Research & Development, and is the first time augmented reality—the blending of computer graphics into real life—is being used in a high profile public space in this way.
Continue reading "New Work: Attenborough Studio at The Natural History Museum"
Announcing Biber Architects
Congratulations to James Biber FAIA, who after 19 years as a partner at Pentagram opened Biber Architects on the auspicious date of 10/10/10.
Trained as an architect at Cornell, Biber has done design work unconfined by traditional disciplines since 1984, when he partnered with a graphic designer and an illustrator in his first Soho architectural office. Over his two decades at Pentagram, his work extended to include collaborations with the firm’s other architects, graphic designers, product designers and new media designers. Biber Architects will take the evolution of his practice to the next level. Being an innovator in the multidisciplinary design world gives James a perspective that few can exercise in the creation of a new design paradigm.
SEGD at Pentagram’s London office
Today Pentagram’s London office is delighted to welcome the Board of SEGD (Society for Environmental Graphic Design) in advance of their International Symposium at the V&A on Friday 22 October. The Symposium, entitled “Minding the Gap: Views from both Sides of the Pond”, features a session led by Michael Gericke and Daniel Weil who will discuss whether their approach to design differs according to which side of the pond they are on.
Following the meeting a drinks reception will be held for those attending the Symposium.
M&T Bank Rolls Out New Apicella Branch Designs
Construction is underway on a 4,500-square-foot branch of M&T Bank in central Brooklyn. The new branch designed by Pentagram’s Lorenzo Apicella is the first of three to be rolled out after the success of his flagship Southgate Branch in West Seneca, NY, which opened last April. The components of Southgate were designed to be adaptable for variable branch sizes and site contexts; in Brooklyn they have been configured to work within a prominent urban setting at the corner of Atlantic and New Jersey Avenues.
As with M&T’s other new branches the building will be constructed to Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design standards (LEED) established by the U.S. Green Building Council. LEED is a rating system distinguishing high-performance buildings with less impact on the environment.
New Work: Cass Art Hampstead Opens
Pentagram’s long-standing relationship with Cass Art saw the opening of a fifth store on 7 August. Under the brand direction of Angus Hyland and with interiors designed by William Russell the Hampstead store marks a new phase of expansion for Cass Art, which has seen business grow 20% each year over the last 3 years.
New Work: M&T Bank
Lorenzo Apicella was asked to design a new flagship branch building for M&T Bank that would capture the essence of M&T’s core values with a design that would endure well into the future, differentiating M&T from its competitors with a distinct and compelling image.
It was agreed that this flagship branch, located in West Seneca, New York, would be the model for all future branch construction and renovation. As an architectural prototype the branch design needed to be adaptable to variable future site conditions and business needs. It also had to meet M&T’s environmental goal of having a low carbon footprint, consuming as little energy as possible and producing minimal amounts of waste. The completed building is anticipated to achieve an LEED Gold rating.
New Work: Robert Welch
To mark the 40th anniversary of the establishment of Robert Welch’s Chipping Campden Studio Shop, Lorenzo Apicella was asked to undertake a major redesign of the space.
Pentagram has a long history of involvement with Robert Welch Designs having developed the graphic identity in the early 1970’s and designing the first mail-order catalogues as well as the book Hand and Machine.
The Glass House and Farnsworth House Inspire ‘Modern Views’
Philip Johnson’s Glass House and Mies van der Rohe’s Farnsworth House established one of architecture’s great formal dialogues. Both were designed and built during the same period—the Glass House between 1945 and 1949 (in New Canaan, Connecticut), and the Farnsworth House between 1945 and 1951 (in Plano, Illinois)—and Johnson and Mies were inspired by and responded to each other’s work, resulting in a pair of Modernist masterpieces. Both homes have been designated National Historic Landmarks and are now owned by the National Trust for Historic Preservation. The Glass House was given to the trust by Johnson in 1986 and opened to the public in 2007 (with identity and visitors center designed by Pentagram), and the Farnsworth House was saved at auction in 2003 and came under the management of the trust earlier this year.
Modern Views: A Project to Benefit the Farnsworth House and the Glass House is a new yearlong initiative to raise $1 million to help preserve the residences. The trust’s Center for Modernism asked 100 artists, designers and architects to create works that continue the dialogue between the two iconic designs. Among the participants are Norman Foster, Zaha Hadid, Diller Scofidio + Renfro, Thom Mayne, Daniel Libeskind, David Adjaye, Tadao Ando, Richard Meier, Michael Graves, Cesar Pelli, Ken Smith, Vito Acconci, Maira Kalman, Robert Morris, Ed Ruscha, Yves Behar, Annie Leibovitz, Constantin Boym and Pentagram’s James Biber and Paula Scher.
The works will exhibited in New York and Chicago this fall, culminating in an auction in each city. Proceeds from the auction will be used to restore the Brick House at the Glass House site and to repair damage to the Farnsworth House from a 2008 flood. Modern Views is being underwritten by Sotheby’s and was introduced at an event at the Four Seasons earlier this month.
Paula Scher’s print, titled Modernism USA, uses the footprint of the two houses at various scales to construct a map of the United States. The design will appear on the cover of a book of the collected works for Modern Views, to be published this fall by Assouline.
James Biber, who designed the visitor center for the Glass House, was inspired by the homes’ relationship to their environments: the Glass House is built of dark materials and is close to the earth, while the Farnsworth House is white and seems to float above ground, a world in itself. Biber’s drawing, called There It Begins, takes its title from a 1959 quote by Mies: “Architecture starts when you carefully put two bricks together. There it begins.” The drawing brings the two “bricks,” or houses, together.
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