Olana Museum names consultant

The new Olana Museum and Visitor Center, planned as a 24,000 square foot facility adjacent to the 336-acre Olana State Historic Site in Hudson, N.Y., is moving on a track for expected completion in 2005 with the naming of key design team members.

New York-based Voorsanger & Associates, which specializes in designing museums, academic projects, and other institutional projects, is the architectural firm. Weidlinger Associates, NYC, has been awarded a contract to perform the structural engineering analysis and design for the addition.

The $20-million project will function as an addition to the existing Olana Museum and as a stand-alone museum at the site. The Olana campus includes the historic residence, outlying cottages, and landscaped grounds of renowned landscape artist Frederic Church. It was designated as a National Historic Landmark in 1966.

The center will feature visitor facilities, an orientation theater, and an exhibition gallery with temporary and permanent exhibits. It will also house classrooms, staff offices, research spaces, a museum shop, a restaurant, and custodial and security services.

Childhood center in Jersey City

The New Jersey Schools Construction Corporation has chosen an architect to design a new $4.8-million Early Childhood Center in Jersey City, N.J.

Sowinski Sullivan Architects, PC, of Sparta, N.J., will provide architectural services for the center, which will rise on a site on Laidlaw Avenue that now contains several industrial buildings. The firm's design will await extensive geotechnical and environmental testing for contaminants in the buildings and soil, including asbestos, lead-based paint, and PCBs, as well as a review of site maps dating to 1896.

The 35,000-square foot building will serve 255 students and staff as part of the Abbott School District, for which the state provides more than half of the funding. Sowinski Sullivan has previously been architect on improvements for nine other Abbott schools. It also designed a child care center in Dover in the renovation of a gutted, vacant building.

New (School of) Management in Syracuse

Syracuse University may have a new "front door" upon completion of the new 165,000-square-foot School of Management. That's the image that Bruce Fowle, Design Principal at Fox & Fowle, said he hopes the facility will evoke.

Fowle and Sylvia Smith, Managing Principal of the New York-based firm, attended groundbreaking ceremonies in July for the new building, which will house classrooms and auditoria as well as space for collaborative activity and research. Fowle and Smith's design integrates the most up-to-date technology and allows flexibility for future improvements. The building is one of the first major projects under a new campus plan.

[PHOTO IS Syracuse-groundbreak.jpg
Caption: (L to R) Sylvia Smith, principal, Fox & Fowle; Bruce S. Fowle, principal, Fox & Fowle; Col. David B. Berg, director of army programs, School of Management; Virginia Denton, director, Office of Design & Construction, Syracuse University; and James V. Breuer, president, Hueber Breuer.]

Building community in the South Bronx

The 13 row houses rising on East 150th Street in the South Bronx are not following a pattern of "poorly designed, under-detailed" single-family affordable homes that architect Murphy Burnham & Buttrick says has filled once-empty lots of the borough. Instead, the Manhattan-based firm has strived to "activate" the housefronts by raising fenced yards above the street and providing oversized stoops and landings with built-in seating. Residents are slated to move in this November.

The houses face a new neighborhood park, but still feature outdoor spaces with planters, garden areas, and views of the park, instead of plain blacktop for vehicles. The firm hopes the approach will draw people out of their homes and forge a greater sense of security and community.

Inside, however, the three-story units will be cozy, thanks to oversized windows and skylights, along with extensive insulation sealed under the direction of Steven Winter & Associates. Each house will be 1,560 square feet on land provided by the city's Department of Housing Preservation & Development. The general contractor is Maskow Masonry.

Home again for FT Knowledge

The 77 employees of NY Institute of Finance, now known as FT Knowledge, haven't been home since they had to flee the 17th floor of the South tower of the World Trade Center on September 11, 2001. While parent company Pearson immediately found a new space for them at their headquarters in midtown Manhattan, they had to recreate the business from scratch, including data and information.

Founded by the New York Stock Exchange in 1922, FTK, a leading financial training company, finally feels at home again thanks to a space makeover by MJS Design Associates, a Manhattan based architectural and interior design firm. The firm took on the challenging task of reconfiguring 10,000 square feet to permanently house the FTK staff, which had occupied a larger space at the WTC. It weighed many factors, including workflow, training and conference room needs, and disaster recovery plans. It designed the new space with an open-office format complemented by flexible "quiet" spaces usable for personal calls, writing, computer work, and formal or informal meetings.

Redevelopment in Old Bridge

The redevelopment plan will supersede the Township master plan, and after approval by the Township Council, will become the zoning ordinance for the tract.