New York Designs
Group Tour
Ben van Berkel, UNStudio
Introduced by Judith van Kranendonk, Under Secretary for Culture and
Media, Netherlands Ministry for Education, Culture and Science
Wednesday, September 9, 2009
4:00 p.m.
The Battery

This event is sold out.

Ben van Berkel, co-founder of the Dutch architectural design studio UNStudio, will lead a tour of New Amsterdam Plein & Pavilion. Located in The Battery, New Amsterdam Plein & Pavilion, opening to the public that week, will be a dramatic “outdoor living room” and intermodal transport hub for spontaneous and scheduled activities, public markets, seating and shade, and a pavilion for food and information to serve commuters, New Yorkers, and visitors alike.

As part of the NY400 celebration and in honor of the enduring relationship between New York and Holland, New Amsterdam Plein & Pavilion calls for a 5,000 square-foot, carefully programmed space located within The Battery’s Peter Minuit Plaza, named for the enterprising Dutch Director-General who in 1626 consolidated the early settlements at the tip of Manhattan – a grouping that came to be known as New Amsterdam.

This destination is, as Ben van Berkel notes, “the ideal site for a permanent commemoration of 400 years of Dutch history in New York, because it is steeped in a sense of a shared past and looks directly toward the harbor where Henry Hudson sailed, but is also entirely focused on the future by virtue of its role as a modern transportation hub within the constantly changing scene of Lower Manhattan. This is a site where history meets the future.”

To express the interplay of history and future, the landscape architects of New York City Department of Parks & Recreation Manhattan Capital Projects have conceived a stone-paved civic platform – plein, in Dutch – with walkways featuring engraved quotations from Russell Shorto’s acclaimed book The Island at the Center of the World. At the entrance to the Plein, a carved stone map of Castello’s New Amsterdam will provide historical context. Within the open space of the Plein, visitors will find UNStudio-designed seating and tables. These will surround a highly sculptural pavilion with an expressive, undulating roofline and curving walls. The pavilion will be equipped with an electronic facade LED system that allows for a constantly changing light show at night. New Amsterdam Plein will also feature berms and perennial garden planting beds, designed by New York City Parks & Recreation using the color palette of Piet Oudolf, who created The Battery Bosque Gardens and the Battery’s Gardens of Remembrance. Handel Architects of New York, will serve as associate architect on the pavilion, working in collaboration with UNStudio.

UNStudio, founded in 1988 by Ben van Berkel and Caroline Bos, is a Dutch architectural design studio specializing in architecture, urban development, and infrastructural projects. The name, UNStudio, stands for United Network referring to the collaborative nature of the practice. The office is composed of individuals from all over the world with backgrounds and technical training in numerous fields. As a network practice, a highly flexible methodological approach has been developed which incorporates parametric designing and collaborations with leading specialists in other disciplines. Drawing on the knowledge found in related fields facilitates the exploration of comprehensive strategies, which combine programmatic requirements, construction, and movement studies into an integrated design.

Based in Amsterdam, the office has worked internationally since its inception and has produced a wide range of work ranging from public buildings, infrastructure, offices, residential, products, to urban masterplans. Pivotal UNStudio projects within these fields include; the New Mercedes-Benz museum in Stuttgart (2001- 2006), the Galleria Department Store in Seoul (2005), the private family house VilLA NM in Upstate New York (2002-2007), the Agora Theater in Lelystad (2004-2007), and the Erasmus Bridge in Rotterdam (1990-1996).

Please email anderson@archleague.org for more information.

This program was made possible in part by public funds from the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs, in partnership with the City Council.

Images courtesy of UNStudio.