VAN ALEN AND TIMES SQUARE ARTS PRESENT 2014 VALENTINE HEART COMPETITION

Van Alen is pleased to announce that we will partner with Times Square Arts to present the 2014 Times Square Valentine Heart Competition, which over the past six years has invited exceptional architecture and design firms to activate the iconic New York City public space with a romantic public art installation celebrating Valentine’s Day in Times Square.

This year’s competition will mark the fifth anniversary of the opening of the revitalized Father Duffy Square and completion of the TKTS booth, the result of Van Alen’s international design competition TKTS2K: A Competition to Design a New York Icon. In 1999, the Theatre Development Fund and the NYC 2000 Millennium Committee joined with the Institute to issue an open call to design a new TKTS booth, and with 683 entrants from 31 countries TKTS2K became the largest architecture competition in New York City history for its time. Australian architects John Choi and Tai Ropiha earned first prize out of a pool of wildly creative proposals in ‘99, and we look forward to continuing our involvement with Times Square to once again bring bold design to this exuberant site at the heart of NYC.

Previous winners of the Times Square Valentine Heart Design include: Situ Studio (2013); BIG (Bjarke Ingels Group) (2012); Freecell (2011); Moorhead & Moorhead (2010); and Gage / Clemenceau Architects (2009). The 2014 winner will be selected by a jury after an invited competition process, and announced in January 2014, with the installation presented to the public in early February.

JOIN REBUILD BY DESIGN FOR A FIRST LOOK AT RESILIENCY STRATEGIES

Rebuild by Design, a regional design competition to promote resilience for the Sandy-affected region, will host receptions in New York and New Jersey to hear the selected Design Teams discuss their research and the ideas born out of their work. These proposals follow three months of in-depth analysis and public outreach, including both one-on-one conversations with people living in affected areas and robust guided conversations with Design Teams and citizens. This research will lead up to a selection of projects each team will pursue in the design phase—the next and final portion of the competition. Sessions are free and open to the public.

Please RSVP at the links below for each of our October 28 events:

Breakfast Reception at NYU - RSVP
Monday, October 28, 8:30 to 11:00 a.m.
60 Washington Square South, New York, NY Kimmel Center, 4th Floor

Evening Reception at NJIT - RSVP
Monday, October 28, 6:00 to 8:30 p.m.
150 Bleeker Street, University Heights, Newark, NJ Campus Center, 2nd Floor
Parking available on MLK Blvd. and Raymond Blvd.
Also accessible via NJT/Light Rail

If you are not able to join us in person, we hope you will keep up with us on Facebook, Twitter, and at rebuildbydesign.org where starting on Monday, October 28, designs will be posted for public comment. Thank you for your support of Rebuild by Design!

CHANGING COURSE REQUEST FOR QUALIFICATIONS:
SUBMIT BY OCTOBER 25

Changing Course: Navigating the Future of the Lower Mississippi River Delta seeks multidisciplinary design teams interested in participating in an ambitious design competition to develop innovative design solutions for the Lower Mississippi River Delta. Changing Course is an independent effort led by Louisiana and national leaders, with the support and participation of the State of Louisiana and U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. Van Alen is working with the Environmental Defense Fund to support this competition, along with technical advisors from Happold Consulting. Registration will be accepted until the RFQ submittal deadline next Friday, October 25. Visit changingcourse.us to download the RFQ and learn more!

THE SEASON CONTINUES AT VAN ALEN BOOKS

Join us on Tuesday, October 29, when Rebecca Solnit and Rebecca Snedeker will visit Van Alen Books to explore their newest title, Unfathomable City: New Orleans Atlas, a volume comprised of more than twenty essays that draw on a remarkable diversity of voices to traverse the geography of New Orleans. And the lineup continues on Thursday, November 7, when we'll have architect Alexander Gorlin at the bookstore to discuss his book Kabbalah in Art and Architecture, a text that draws upon a wide array of historical materials and images of contemporary art, sculpture, and architecture to explore the influence of the Kabbalah and Jewish mysticism on modern design.

COMPETITIONS AND AWARDS FOR ARCHITECTS AND PLANNERS

The Stewardson Keefe LeBrun Travel Grant provides up to $15,000 in support toward travel for emerging and mid-career architects to explore a select topic of interest. Apply by November 1.

The Design Corps and the Social Economic Environmental Design (SEED) Network’s fourth annual SEED Awards for Excellence in Public Interest Design recognizes excellence in social, economic, and environmental design, selecting six projects through a competitive jury process to receive a $1,000 honorarium, and to present at the fourteenth international Structures for Inclusion conference, March 22-23, 2014, in New York City at Parsons The New School for Design. Apply by November 12.

UN-Habitat has announced a new international competition on the Urban Revitalization of Mass Housing, initiated by the Global Housing Strategy’s campaign on "Placing Housing at the Centre." The competition invites creative and innovative university students and recent graduates around the world to reconsider the development of mass housing through multidisciplinary approaches aiming at socially, economically, environmentally, and culturally sustainable urban solutions. Winners will be announced during the World Urban Forum in April 2014 in Medellin, Colombia. Schools of architecture, urban planning, and other relevant academic and research institutions are encouraged to include this competition in their course work. Register by November 15.

Registration is currently open for the Emerging New York Architects’ sixth biennial ideas competition, Queensway Connection: Elevating the Public Realm. The competition will support Friends of the Queensway and The Trust for Public Land in their efforts to transform an abandoned rail right-of-way into a greenway that serves diverse neighborhoods in central and southern Queens.

SUPPORT A NEW CHAPTER FOR VAN ALEN INSTITUTE

As we continue to launch new competitions, public programs, and research in the coming months, we invite you to become part of our community of designers, planners, policy-makers, and urban thinkers passionate about bringing the best design ideas to civic life. Our ongoing work is possible in large part due to the active participation of our members in all our programs and events.  Find out more about our membership opportunities and how you can join us here.