Jeffrey Sipprell

February 3, 2007

More News from Abu Dhabi

Here's a snippet of text from ArchNewsNow that describes the new Guggenheim in Frank's own words.

"Approaching the design of the museum for Abu Dhabi made it possible to consider options for the design of a building that would not be possible in the United States or in Europe. It was clear from the beginning that this had to be a new invention, and in my discussions with Tom Krens, the director of the Guggenheim, we explored what those inventions might be. We did not have a pre-conceived plan or an idea for a building, a museum of contemporary art, in place like Abu Dhabi. The landscape, the opportunity, the requirement to build something that people all over the world would come to, and the possible resources to accomplish it, opened tracks that were not likely to be considered anywhere else. The site itself, virtually on the water or close to the water on all sides, in a desert landscape with the beautiful sea, and the light quality of the place suggested some of the direction.

We started with very basic plan organization. The center core galleries are laid out forming a courtyard. Those galleries, of various height and sizes, are placed one on top of another to create four floors. These will be the more classical contemporary galleries, completely air conditioned with skylights where possible and a sophisticated lighting system. The next ring of galleries surrounding the core then radiating out of the center will be larger galleries in a variety of shapes and less formally constructed. The third ring of larger galleries would be less finished and more like raw industrial space with exposed lighting and systems. These galleries would be spawning homes for a new scale of contemporary art – art that would be, perhaps, made on site and of a scale that could not be achieved in other museums around the world.

This idea is based on the experience that Tom has had visiting artists’ studios in large industrial spaces. They have been able to create works that are way beyond the experience any of us have within the normal museum spaces. So in the end you create a cluster of galleries that allows for a tremendous amount of flexibility in organizing a great variety of shows. The different heights, shapes, and character of the galleries are something that will be studied and refined as the progress of the design continues.

We have been exploring with our consultants, TransSolar, a method of cooling outdoor spaces based on the very old idea of the open-top tepee that draws hot air out of the space. This led to a series of conical shaped tubes that becomes an element of focus for the surrounding galleries, creating an outdoor space. In some cases, the conical shapes are used as entry pavilions: a main entrance to the museum, a boat entry to the museum, and then as walkways out into the desert landscape. The use natural ventilation is inspired by its historical use in the region for many, many generations. Water walls in the main courtyard and other sustainable features now being explored have the intention of making an exemplary energy efficient building.

The exterior walls of the building are now being considered in stone with some variety in color and texture to highlight a particular museum pavilion. The museum will house contemporary art from all over the world, not just Western culture. And as the design progresses, it will be necessary to identify with the architecture and character of the art being shown. Two large Biennale art galleries have been added and brought closer to the main building as an introduction of the future Biennale buildings along the canal. These buildings would form a courtyard entrance from the central transportation routes on Saadiyat Island."

Another commentary from the New York Sun on the entire project can be found here.

Posted by jsipprell at 10:18 AM | Comments (0)

February 1, 2007

Gehry's New Guggenheim

The first project I worked on at Frank's office is now public. As part of a larger master plan by SOM in Abu Dhabi, a new Guggenheim museum was unveiled yesterday along with other cultural complexes by Novel, Hadid and Ando. The NY Times has a couple of articles - one covering the press release and one a commentary by Nicolai Ouroussoff.

I worked on the project from my initial hire on Sept 25 to just before Christmas - seeing the project through its final massing stages and then on to the shaping and structuring of the overall form. The picture above is from the smaller model that fit into SOM's master plan model - I cannot begin to tell you how long that model took to put together at that level of detail. I feel like I earned a masters degree in sanding.

So far it's been a very rich experience at the office to have the balance between the initial design of the museum coupled with the refinement and development of the Barclays Center project in Brooklyn. Hopefully as more of that becomes public I'll be able to post more about it.

Posted by jsipprell at 10:40 PM | Comments (0)

October 17, 2006

Atlantis Sentosa

Frank Gehry, Peter Arnell and Greg Lynn's collaboration with Kerzner CapitaLand went public yesterday in Singapore. It is a very exciting project and one which I hope will one day be realized. Here's a few snippets from the website link below (of which there are a few videos as well).

Kerzner CapitaLand has put in a S$5.28b bid for the integrated resort on Sentosa.

And the highlight of its proposal - the ability of human visitors to mingle and interact with next-generation robots in a natural environment.

Kerzner CapitaLand unveils an artist's impression of their version of the integrated resort on Sentosa.

From across the water, Atlantis Sentosa will feature glass structures that resemble sails, with F&B outlets and viewing points sitting on top of the existing jetty of the defunct ferry terminal.

"Sentosa island is beautiful already, so we try not to damage the character of it but fit a family-oriented, entertainment, and exciting place that adds to it and becomes part of it," explains principal architect and designer Frank Gehry.

The integrated resort will feature the theme of Atlantis - an underwater world - with some 150,000 marine life of 1,500 different species planned to be introduced to the property.

...

While Kerzner-CapitaLand is not, at this point in time, prepared to share with the public the design of its robotic community, the preliminary video footage shows that these are not your garden-variety of machines, but very advanced robots with artificial intelligence that can interact with the public.

Central to the Atlantis Sentosa architectural design is the 90-metre tall "sails", and a marine aquatic theme park that will occupy a major portion of the property.

"The combination of Sentosa in Singapore (is about) our exploration into the sea life and working with technology & visions for the 21st century and beyond.... In addition to the attractions that we have described, we believe that the resort is integrated, giving a full experience for people who come here," says Tensho Takemori, architect and partner at Gehry Partners.

Text courtesy Channelnewsasia.com

See and Read More!

Posted by jsipprell at 9:16 PM | Comments (0)

September 10, 2006

Back to the Professional World

Well that rent is not gonna pay itself so it's time to re-enter the professional architecture workforce. This September 25 I'll be starting a new job at Gehry Partners. Sure the hours will undoubtedly be long, but I'll get the chance to work on some world class projects with some really interesting people (even a few ex-classmates). Of course I have no idea which project(s) that will be as of yet and, non-disclosure agreements being what they are, I couldn't say anyway. Nevertheless the day can't come fast enough - summer and teaching are over and I can't wait to immerse myself in the next challenge in my always evolving education.

Posted by jsipprell at 11:34 PM | Comments (0)

May 17, 2006

Fabrication: The Fifth Ecology of L.A.

Architectural Record's website has a series of interviews conducted by Michael Speaks on several emerging practices based in Los Angeles. The series includes interviews with two people I've had the pleasure of working with here at UCLA - Jason Payne and David Erdman.

Posted by jsipprell at 10:37 PM | Comments (0)

April 5, 2006

UCLA Spring Schedule

Not a huge courseload this quarter as I'm only taking the bare minimum of studio and one elective - which is the buildout of the auditorium space reported on last quarter. Greg Lynn has released the details of our final project which will be sited in Los Angeles across from the Disney Concert Hall. Here is what the brief had to say:

Based on the design vocabulary you have developed the last two quarters including facades, interior volume, structural design, fenestration and promenade among others, quickly develop a massing proposal and a cross section due next Monday. A complete pitch should be made regarding the approach to structure, circulation, urban massing, functional relationships and adjacencies and building exterior and interior imagery. In addition to this, a massing model and diagrammatic plan and section of the buildings should be completed.

Based on the massing proposals and their revision the next two weeks will be devoted to designing a rigorous mathematical and geometric approach to the architectural design project. Just as a reminder, the initial ambitions for the research studio was: in the first quarter assimilate and simulate baroque effects through digital techniques; in the second quarter control and combine these techniques to formulate a palette of materials, lighting, structure, form, mass and texture as well as a discourse of beauty; and finally in the third quarter apply these principles to an architectural project.

The design proposals will be a new Los Angeles Music Center on the site directly adjacent to Disney Concert Hall. The program is vast and the functional and technical issues of designing these spaces is complex. As a starting point, you should select plan and section typologies that are given and locate them in the project to gain a sense of orientation, scale and spatial proportion. The programmatic areas are given as guidelines and rather than start with specific areas it is best to begin with existing opera, theater, dance, drama and experimental theater typologies.

The site includes the complete area between Grand Avenue & Hope Street and Temple Street & 1st Street.

Posted by jsipprell at 9:10 AM | Comments (0)

January 18, 2006

UCLA Winter Schedule

Winter Schedule is now finalized, though I'm only enjoying it with one hand. Here's what it's shaping up to be:

Advanced Topics Studio - Roger Sherman: An If-Then design studio that examines the Sacramento River Delta as a highly charged political, economic and environmental area. The goal of the studio is to create an architecture, embodied in a house(s), that will situate itself within a multitude of futures - meaning how does a design respond to the variety of social and environmental forces acting on it today as well as those that will possibly happen in the future. It seeks not to illicit change, but rather engage it actively. This studio will also be paired with a GIS seminar that will attempt to exploit the potentials of geographic databases in the intent of mapping and forecasting change.

Research Studio - Greg Lynn: a continuation into the study of contemporary baroque - more on this soon

Synesthesia: Sound and Vision - Jason Payne and Heather Roberge: the design and construction of an acoustic ceiling\wall treatment for the auditorium space within the UCLA AUD known as the DeCafe. Initial design teams are to explore felt, curtains, and surface patterning as a way to work within the parameters set forth by the school - $20k budget, Noncombustible materials and above improved acoustics within the space.

Anxious Aesthetics: Surveillance as Cultural Form - Thomas Levin: a seminar in media theory that will explore teh paranoid logic of surveillance across a series of architectural, theoretical, photographic, cinematic, and televisual manifestations in order to unpack and track the vicissitudes of a category that is at once a political tactic, a narrative strategy, a theory of the subject, an architectural model, a mode of spectatorship and, quite possibly, the key logic of the cinematic medium.

Posted by jsipprell at 11:47 PM | Comments (0)

January 16, 2006

Out of Commission

On Tuesday January 10 I was t-boned by a car travelling about 10-15 mph. This student, in my opinion, did not stop for the stop sign that was posted there and struck me in the middle of the street. She caught me dead on and was i landed on top of her hood and went up and over the corner of the car as she braked landing on my right hand, left elbow and left foot. Immediately I got up and surveyed myself and realized nothing was broken, but my right hand was severely cut and scraped with tendon hanging out the ring finger. A passerby saw the crash and helped me with the bike while the motorist was very apologetic and frantic about the situation.

She raced me to the ER on campus where I had to wait for admittance while bleeding profusely in the waiting room. Finally they got me in but I would wait an hour before being seen by the attending doctor. He was concerned about the ring finger so he sent me for x-rays and alerted the hand specialist. X-rays were negative and the hand specialist arrived, after another hour. He tested my mobility and strength and everything appeared to be normal. Confident that I would not need the shredded tendon, he snipped it off and started to stitch me up (after shooting me with novacaine to the point where you could see the liquid bulging parts of my hand and fingers.

I received 1 stitch in my index finger and 3 in my ring. I watched the whole thing though I became light headed and nauseous at the end, probably from the blood loss and trauma. They gauzed me up with a giant mitten and sent me on my way with painkillers and antibiotics. Stitches are to come out on Tuesday Jan 17. Hopefully I'll have most of my mobility back. School has been on hold for a bit. I attend class and that's about it. Getting hit by a car is no easy thing let me tell you - had it been an SUV I probably would be in intensive card. In the driver's defense I didn't come to a full stop at my stop sign either, though I did arrive first. I didn't have a light as this happened at approx. 8:45 pm local time. But she's been super nice so far and has paid for everything I've asked so hopefully it won't go to litigation.

Here's some pics, not for the squeamish:

Full Hand
Close Up
Mitten

Posted by jsipprell at 6:34 PM | Comments (5)