AIACNY

This house is a product of a unique client and site. The client came to the design process with several well-formed ideas. These included the use of materials normally seen in an industrial building: exposed concrete and steel, metal roofing, high ceilings, and radiant floor heat.

The site, on top of a tall drumlin, has a steep slope facing west. The house literally arranged itself with a view to the south and west, entry at the east, and garage to the north. Levels for living and entertaining eased naturally into the hillside with the ceiling stepping up and the living levels cascading down the hill, opening the view to the sky above and the bases of the trees below. The spaces of public and private are demarcated by a concrete wall which bisects the house and is perforated for circulation, the kitchen and views.

Natural light is guided and controlled in the various spaces. The kitchen is illuminated from above with a south facing skylight which is protected by an overhang. The west wall of glass in the living room is protected by a brise-soleil of concrete. The lower playroom uses its position nestled in the trees to achieve a natural solar control.

The house turns its back on the harsh north wind, and has small controlled light and views to the north and south. The result is a harmonious collaboration between client, architect and site.

Simple forms, geometry interesting, minimalist detailing. The jury admired the innovation brought into this residential project in form, materiality and execution. A considered relationship to site and a subdued palette create a strong sense of place.

The President's Message

I would like to wish a Happy New Year to the entire Central New York Architectural community. I hope you and your families enjoyed the festivities of the holidays and may the New Year bring lots of joy to all.

As your new president of the Central New York AIA chapter, I would like to introduce myself to you. I am Julia Hafftka-Marshall, an Associate of Holmes King Kallquist & Associates, Architects and a native New Yorker who has learned to enjoy (love) the upstate New York weather with my husband David and two children, Daniela and Noah. As a working architect with very active children’s schedules, our family balances ski racing and crew between our work schedules. Now I have taken on this leadership task to support a fantastic organization. I thank the board and the chapter members for having the confidence to elect me to serve as your President. A well-deserved thank you must also go out to the partners of Holmes King Kallquist & Associates who have encouraged and supported my volunteer efforts.

This past November at our banquet dinner, I met many new faces and I hope to encourage more participation on the part of our members and the recruitment of new members for future events. We are a very vibrant organization that should not only celebrate the work that we do, but use our voice as a platform to begin a dialogue between our members and our greater community. The work of the architectural community influences our community. I would like to encourage you to actively participate in our organization and volunteer on any one of the committees that serve the board.

The 2009 members of the board participated in a Leadership Retreat facilitated by Karen Harrison, Director of Component Support for AIA National this past November. The objectives of the AIACNY Planning retreat was twofold; Member development and Board Development. Specifically, we are reviewing the service areas that contribute to member value and address recruitment, retention in AIA, programs and participation of our members. Concerning specific goals for Board membership, we are working to develop our leadership, mentorship and training goals that are specific, measurable, attainable, realistic and timely.

We, as a Board, understand that our organization’s mission must add value to our profession as architects or we could not exist. We need to strengthen our commitment and use our organization as a catalyst to exchange ideas and enjoy the creative talents of each of our members. As volunteer leaders, we are responsible for the direction of this chapter. But, our members are responsible too! Please consider getting more involved today. I encourage you to contact me personally or any of our board members so that we can work together and have fun doing so.

American Institute of Architects Central New York Chapter
2008 Design Awards Program
Tomorrow’s Skyline Begins Today

It is safe to say that once again a good time was had by all at our 2008 AIACNY Annual Design Awards Celebration of Architecture – “Tomorrow’s Skyline Begins Today” held at the spacious Gordon Student Center on the campus of Onondaga Community College and one of last year’s design award winning entries from King & King Architects. Speaking of King and King, it would be a great disservice to not acknowledge their willingness to take over the role Lake Architectural has provided these past four years and take on the majority of the tasks required to put this show together. The bulk of this work was handled by King & King’s able body group of young ladies led by Lisa Maynard. When I asked for volunteers to take over the “nitty gritty” details of this affair, Lisa stepped forward and volunteered with great enthusiasm. Helping Lisa from King & King was Sarah Loele, Jennifer Wells and Aislinn Brackman and lending a hand from Lake Architectural was Jessica Haas and Diane Tracy. Thank you all ladies for a very wonderful evening. To the membership, when you next see one of these ladies please thank them in person and encourage them to take on this event again for 2009. We all need the encouragement to volunteer our precious time, especially for a good cause like the AIA/CNY Chapter. See you all at next year’s “Celebration of Architecture”.

SWINGING ON A STAR

Tis the time of year when old songs and cartoons appear. This year’s series theme follows an answer to the Bing Crosby question, “Would you like to swing on a star, carry moon beams home in a jar and be better off than you are, or would you rather be a Client?” The cartoon is the old different views of a tree swing.

Would you like to be a client?

A client takes many forms. They can be singular or a group. They can be government, non-profit, not for profit or profit. They may be simple, sophisticated, complex, demanding, etc. To the architect they are most important.

The client may take a form as a patron, customer, guarantor, surety and many other forms, some flattering and others not so flattering. We may discover what all this means by the end of the year.

Architects would love to have a patron. Examples of yor are Darwin D. Martin, F. A. Seiberling and Nelson A. Rockefeller. Their patronage provides a lasting view of American architecture through the 20^th century. The most impressive relationship was Martin and Frank Lloyd Wright. Martin was a true patron until death. He was instrumental of Wright receiving the Larkin Administration building in Buffalo . He then hired Wright to do his house in Buffalo . He did more than commission his architect; he provided money (loans) to Wright in his down times. Martin died a pauper and Wright at the time owed him $70,000. Where else have you heard of an architect owing a client money?

Seiberling was a different patron and the story go that he wanted an English manor house. He sent Charles Sumner Schneider to England to visit manor houses. Three years later and hundreds of sketches and water colors later Seiberling picked the best rooms from the portfolio and voila a Tudor, 65 room manor house was created by Schneider. It is opulent in character and puts the Newport mansions to shame. The music room has a floor of teak planks with rose wood spacers. It elegance is matched by the great room with it carvings and minstrel gallery. Again the owner became a recluse and stayed in an upper floor bedroom but slept on an unheated exterior porch next to the room.

After 1979 it is hard to come close to find patrons but Nelson Rockefeller fits a modern definitions as he used your money not his to become the patron of New York State . It is fitting that it is known as the Empire State Plaza . The plaza did to Albany what the Rockefeller Center did in New York City in the early thirties. Rockefeller became not only the patron of Harrison and Abramovitz but many architects across the State.

Where have all the patrons gone?

Opening of the Meeting: This meeting of the Board of Directors of the American Institute of Architects Central New York Chapter was held Thursday, November 13, 2008 at the AIACNY Resource Center . Joseph Piraino, AIA called the meeting to order.

We need to internalize this idea of excellence. Not many folks spend a lot of time trying to be excellent.
Barack Obama

By Dean A. Biancavilla, AIA, LEED AP, Holmes King Kallquist & Associates, Architects, Syracuse, NY dab@hkkarchitects.com

This month sees the 44th President take the oath of office. During an unprecedented and historic transition period from November of last year until this January, President-Elect Barack Obama has set the bar of expectations of his new administration very high in terms of a plan to tackle Global Warming.

The following is an article from Environmental Building News regarding one of the highest performance windows available today. Of course they cost more than the cheapest windows that you can legally install to meet the NYS Energy code, but they are up to 5 times better for heat loss. Since windows are the weakest point in a thermal envelope, increasing the R value of the windows makes sense. There is much more benefit in going from an R-2 window to an R-10 overall window than from going from an R-20 wall to an R-40 wall. And don’t forget that the code now legally requires that windows be rated based on their overall performance, not just the center of glass “U” value any more. Aluminum thermal break windows with double low E glass barely meet the energy code.

Rumor has it that Onondaga County is talking to Serious Materials about starting a plant here in Syracuse . I hope it works out.

—ThermaProof windows are the successors to the high-performance windows made by Alpen Energy Group, which was acquired by Serious Materials in June 2008 (see EBN Vol. 17, No. 8). Alpen’s windows were far more advanced than most other windows on the market, with krypton- or argon filled glazing units with suspended low-emissivity (low-e) films, set in insulated, low-maintenance fiberglass frames (see EBN Vol. 16, No. 10).

Serious Materials has taken Alpen’s glazing unit and added features of its own to create the ThermaProof line; these features include wider frames and glass spacing, a reverse double seal, a new type of spacer between panes, soy-foam insulation in fiberglass frames (vinyl and wood-plastic composite frames are also available) and triple-fin weatherstripping. Serious Materials claims a full-frame insulation value of R-11 for its best window—even better than the R-10 Alpen windows specified for Australia ’s Davis Station in Antarctica .

Less expensive options are rated at R-9, R-7, and R-5, still far superior to typical R-2 double-pane windows. For more information, visit
www.seriousmaterials.com.

ThermaProof windows from Serious Materials build on the excellence of Alpen Energy Group’s products, offering total-unit insulation values several times higher than those of typical units.

AIA New York Chapter’s public calendar is also a great place to promote both this Chapter’s events and other outside events: http://www.aiany.org/calendar/index.php