CultureNOW | A Celebration of Culture & Community

Architect David Fixler discusses the building of the MIT Alumni Pool.

David Fixler talks about the influence of Walter Gropius, who was important in raising the profile of Modernism in Boston and the United States which he developed at the Bauhaus in Germany.

David Fixler discusses Walter Gropius's house that he constructed. The irony is that Gropius wanted to throw out histories in schools, but now his house and designs are fully integrated as part of the cannon of architectural history. 

David Fixler discusses the beginning of Modernism, which arrived in Boston in the 1930s. 

David Fixler talks about the Baker House and his trip to Finland in 1996 where he discovered pieces of Alvar Aalto's design that were never implemented and that informed the subsequent renovation and preservation of the building. 

David Fixler on Baker House's history, starting with the appointment of Alvar Aalto as the Design Architect in 1946, the housing policies that were developed, the design process, and the contribution of his wife. He also points out some of the main changes and ideas behind the preservation and renovation project carried out by EYP.

Over the past several months with Kate McLean’s guidance, East Village residents and stakeholders explored their surrounding environment strictly through their sense of smell by smell catching, smell hunting and free smelling. The aggregated data has been visualized as a colorful Smellmap of Astor Place on view during event hours. Join McLean for a smellwalk at 9 am and 11 am each day. 

The George Washington Bridge Bus Station, which is located on both sides of Broadway in the Washington Heights community, opened on January 17, 1963.  It was designed by Dr. Pier Luigi Nervi, the noted Italian engineer-architect of the 1960 Olympic Stadium in Rome and other world-renowned structures.  

The GWBBS Redevelopment is a $183.2 million public-private partnership between the Port Authority and a private developer, the GWBBS Development Venture (DV), which resulted from an agency-wide evaluation of PA properties that could provide retail revenue.  It provides for both transportation improvements and destination retail in the resurging neighborhood.  The architectural design team was an innovative collaboration between Port Authority Staff, for the bus facility, and STV, as retail architect and program architect/ architect-of record.

At 2,200 acres, Freshkills Park is almost three times the size of Central Park and the largest park to be developed in New York City in over 100 years. It also has a significant history as the site of the former Fresh Kills Landfill, which was the largest landfill in the world before closing in 2001. Since then, the landscape has been engineered with layers of soil and infrastructure, and the area has become a place for wildlife, recreation, science, education, and art. As the park is built in phases, free tours and events provide early access for learning and exploration opportunities.

Brooklyn Grange Rooftop Farm's second location, installed in 2012, is located atop Building no. 3 at the historic Brooklyn Navy Yard. A massive 65,000 sq ft roof towering twelve stories over the East River, the farm overlooks sweeping views of the dock, downtown Manhattan, and the Williamsburg Bridge. Brooklyn Grange launched their business to connect and engage the community with food, agriculture, and nature, and improve the local urban ecosystem. Their green roof farms reduce the heating and cooling use of the underlying building's upper floors, alleviate urban heat island effect, and mitigate combined sewage overflow by managing almost 2 million gallons of stormwater per year. The farm hosts events, yoga classes, tours, and children's groups via their educational non-profit sister organization, City Growers; designs, builds, and maintains green spaces for clients all over the five boroughs, and consults on urban agriculture projects worldwide. Brooklyn Grange believes that social enterprise is a powerful driver of positive change, and that businesses should be a nourishing part of their community.