Cloudform

I've always been frustrated by the fact that two dimensional projected patterns deform as they map over a given shape rather than respond intelligently to the geometry of the shape. What I wanted to do with Cloudform was to make a script that would map a geometrically consistent pattern on the surface of a complex form. It is simple in concept, harder in execution. After a bit of thought I realized the problem could be solved in a way similar to how faces are mapped in animation. By projecting a two dimensional pattern onto a topologically identical but flattened version of the form, then reassembling the form, the pattern actually folds with the form rather than distorts around it.

Making Music—and a Place to Rehearse—in Brooklyn

The Wall Street Journal, written by Melanie Grayce West

Kevin Dolan wanted a lasting, meaningful philanthropic project for his semiretirement instead of joining friends at the golf course and tennis courts. He's passing on the "adult summer camp" routine, explains the 60-year-old international tax attorney who previously worked at Merrill Lynch and continues to work part-time at a law firm.

Mr. Dolan decided to take on something a little less "adventurous." He's building a 13,000-square-foot performance and recording space on the corner of Wythe Avenue and North Sixth Street in the Williamsburg section of Brooklyn that will house the Original Music Workshop, a nonprofit that aims to help both aspiring and well-known musicians and composers. To get closer to the project, he moved to Williamsburg last month.

"It's an unbelievable neighborhood. It's almost like a block party," says Mr. Dolan. "I'm the only person here, I think, who lives here that is over 35 years old, so far as I can tell."

Though Mr. Dolan has experience fundraising and has volunteered with several nonprofits, the size and scope of this project—and the roughly $8 million he's committed—sets it apart. The Original Music Workshop will operate around the clock, allowing for performance, rehearsal, recording and broadcasting of any kind of music.

"Everyone says this is a great project. It makes tremendous sense and there's such a need," says Mr. Dolan. "And the next thing is, 'Are you crazy?' And the answer is, yea, you probably have to be a little crazy to do something like this."

Mr. Dolan estimates that the project and building—the building's core and shell should be done by the end of the year—will run about $14 million total. Now, he's looking for philanthropic investors to come in and seed some $6 million for the second phase of the project. Those investors would purchase equity in the building or provide interest-free loans. The hope is that the investors will ultimately donate their "shares" of the building to the nonprofit.

The Original Music Workshop is nearly five years into development. It began with a townhouse that Mr. Dolan wanted to convert into a performance venue. That space wasn't right and then the project morphed and grew. There was a long real-estate search for the right site and a few years of seeking building permits.

Part of what keeps Mr. Dolan moving forward on the project is his lifelong love for music. He enjoys classical baroque music, composes some of his own pieces and is an organist. "I can play at your wedding and do a pretty good job," he says.

Music is part of a person's DNA and, for some, it's "almost a salvation," says Mr. Dolan. "The notion has been for quite a while to help the musician and composer community, particularly the younger folk. If you support them you support the art form."

Jose Parla Goes Big at BAM

Jose Parla with his painting “Gesture Performing Dance, Dance Performing Gesture.”

Carol Vogel profiles my friend Jose Parla's new work in the New York Times:

For New Theater, BAM Commissions a Really Big Painting

A decade ago, when the Brooklyn Academy of Music restored its landmark exterior, the Brazilian photographer Vik Muniz decorated the scaffolding of the building’s second, third and fourth floors with images of a giant gingerbread house. It was a colorful confection: melted sugar outlined with giant jelly beans and slithering Gummi Worms recreated the building’s arched windows; giant M&M’s became its frieze.

Now, to enliven its newest theater – the Richard B. Fisher Building – which was unveiled in June and officially opens Sept. 5, the academy has asked the Brooklyn artist José Parlá to create its first permanent commissioned piece of public art for an interior space.

“Gesture Performing Dance, Dance Performing Gesture,’’ a painting measuring 37 feet by 7 feet, incorporates collage, acrylic, oil, ink, plaster and enamel and is slated for completion around the end of the month. The painting will cover the back wall of the lobby, which is visible from the street.

“This particular work will be informed by dance, movement and gestural communication,’’ Mr. Parlá said in a statement.

Cornelius Dufallo at OMW

In the third installment of In Situ, Cornelius Dufallo performs with his electric violin in the construction site of the Original Music Workshop. His looped tracks reverberate off the brick and offer the neighborhood a moment of wonder on a late afternoon in July.

Opening Night at Camp Bisco

We just completed a frenzied three days of construction on Outcropping, our installation at the Camp Bisco music festival. A couple of hours after we finished work, Skrillex opened the event with a wild two hour set. Here's a quick selection of photos of the first night's party by Isa Wipfli.

Peter Boyd

Peter Boyd is an awesome guy, an art collector, and now he makes wine. Marsha Lederman profiles the him in the Globe and Mail:

An art collection that pays homage to artists connected to the Canadian West

As soon as he left the University of Western Ontario and landed a job, Peter Boyd bought a car, some furniture and his first work of art.

He has since spent “hundreds of thousands” of dollars on his art habit, running out of wall space at home and keeping much of his collection in storage (necessitated, in part, by the 2009 sale of his oil-field seismic-services company Arcis Corp., and the subsequent disappearance of office walls on which to hang the work).
More Related to this Story

Influenced by childhood trips to the McMichael Canadian Art Collection in Kleinburg, Ont., he began his collection with historical work by artists such as David Milne, but has sold or gifted most of it and now exclusively collects contemporary art. His collection of about 100 works (it peaked at about 200) is populated with artists connected to the Canadian West, including Chris Cran, Douglas Coupland, Attila Richard Lukacs and Geoffrey James, but he also owns work by Robert Mapplethorpe and Eric Fischl. “You’re always falling in love with art if you love art,” he says.

His latest entrepreneurial venture is Genius Wines; its first release a pricey Sonoma County cabernet sauvignon he calls Creo. “It comes from the Latin word for creativity,” he says. “It’s my tribute to artists who are geniuses.”

Porsche Pavillion by HENN Studio B

Friends and former Asymptote co-workers, Martin Henn and Klaus Ransmayr of HENN Studio B, have recently completed the Porche Pavillion at the Volkswagen Autostadt in Wolfsberg, Germany.

Outcropping in Progress

Building an installation at the Camp Bisco Music Festival

We're working long days trying to assemble our installation in time for the opening of the Camp Bisco Music Festival.

Helga Davis at OMW

Helga Davis sings in this first edition of In Situ, a series of short films by Lena Rudnick documenting performances during the construction of the Original Music Workshop.

Gold Rush: The Brooklyn Based Architectural Firm Bureau V Pushes Art Beyond the Blueprint

Via Vault Magazine, written by Eric Newill:

We know what you’re thinking, so here’s the answer upfront: It’s a drawing. But the back story is so much richer than that.

Created by the genre-bending, Brooklyn-based architectural firm Bureau V, Everything Ornament was originally conceived as a three-dimensional performance space for the 2008 Buckminster Fuller retrospective at New York’s Whitney Museum of American Art. In collaboration with Lars Jan, BV produced this design as the set for a play to be presented in the institutions courtyard. Sadly, economics prevailed and the piece was never built, but, rather than put the idea back in the box, the firm found a new use for it. “We pursued our architectural vision for the project in the realm of drawing, pushing further into a reflective, refractive, and glowing atmosphere,” says Alexander Pincus, on of Bureau V’s principals alongside Peter Zuspan and Stella Lee. “We were after something like a Rococo Buckminster Fuller, where the rigor of formal organization meets over-the-top atmospheric effects.”

Physically enhanced and reworked with painted gold and silver leaf, Everything Ornament is in the tradition of architectural drawings designed to, in Pincus’ words, “anticipate the new, explore the unimaginable and project into the future.” Today, however, as most firms create “glossy renderings and advertising-ready images,” Bureau V embraces a more intellectual spin: “We find it more interesting to explore the potential of drawing. Not so much as a tool to sell a project, but as a means to find, develop and exploit more expansive opportunities in architectural possibility.”

Founded in 2007, Bureau V is now undertaking its most ambitious and complex project to date in Williamsburg, Brooklyn. Inside a former sawdust factory, the Original Music Workshop will serve as a venue for composers of new classical, jazz, and experimental music to perform and record their work. The centerpiece is a 200-seat, double height auditorium, combining “the crafted beauty of a European concert hall with the experimental programming and roughness of a blackbox theater.”

Meanwhile, at 30 x 60 inches, Everything Ornament is available to collectors hungering for a bit of smart bling. And at $6,000, it’s a bargain compared to Cartier.

Bureau V for Camp Bisco

Bureau V has been commissioned to design a large scale architectural installation for Camp Bisco, a three day music festival in upstate New York, July 12-14th, featuring acts including Big Boi, Skrillex, Crystal Castles and the Disco Biscuits.

Edward Sharpe Here

My old friend Alex “Edward Sharpe” Ebert, of Edward Sharpe and the Magnetic Zeros, is releasing a new album today titled Here and featuring the new single Man on Fire. Listen to them perform live on KCRW.

Original Music Workshop To Open Venue In Old Williamsburg Sawdust Factory

Via The Huffington Post,:

The non-profit group Original Music Workshop is gearing up to open a new music venue on Williamsburg's North 6th Street,already home to many of the neighborhood's favorite concert venues including Cameo, Public Assembly, and Music Hall of Williamsburg.

But unlike its neighbors, Original Music Workshop seeks to be somewhat of a mecca for the "21st century artist" by providing ample rehearsal and recording space for both emerging and established musicians to collaborate and learn.

Part of the $15.6 million makeover will create a space for musicians and artists to create and present work, and for audiences to enjoy performances and shows.

The Workshop will be taking over a century old, historic sawdust factory in order to make room for the venue's reported 13,000 square-foot of space.

Original Music Workshop founder Kevin Dolan told the The Observer

It’s amazing you can knock down anything and build whatever you want. I’m hopeful that at least the south side of this block will still maintain its feel into the future. I don’t believe in fate, but the location, the architecture, everything about it was just ideal. Even in the doldrums of the market, that real estate wasn’t cheap.

The venue is expected to open in late 2013.

In conjunction with building a 21st century-minded space, renderings for the future venue reveal a unique, modern vision and an edgy interior design.

New Music Venue to Open in Williamsburg, Brooklyn

WNYC featured the Original Music Workshop live on air and on the WNYC website.

Unveiled > An Acoustic Renewal in Brooklyn by Bureau V

Via The Architect’s Newspaper, written by Matt Shaw.

Brooklyn-based architecture practice Bureau V unleashed a spectacular design for the Original Music Workshop, a new non-profit arts organization which will open in 2013 with a wide range of musical programming, from classical to jazz to experimental sound. Located in the heart of Williamsburg, Brooklyn, the performance center was designed in collaboration with engineering gurus Arup and features state of the art acoustical technologies.

Like any good construction in Brooklyn these days, the building is a high-tech, state-of-the-art renovation of a disused industrial building on Wythe and North 6th streets, just one block from the East River. In this case, it’s an acoustic performance center with a series of variable acoustic treatments that allow the space to be tuned to specific instrumentation using acoustically isolated box-in-box construction, which minimizes background noise to studio levels inside the graffitied, hollowed-out remains of a sawdust factory. The result is a sublime collision of new and old: technology and ruin, progress and history, refinement and grit.

Bureau V principal Peter Zuspan explained that OMW came to them with a “two-fold request: the space needed to be both acoustically superior and a comfortable and visually compelling space, a departure from the standard black box theater.” The acoustically-driven, geometrically complex chamber hall will accomodate 170 chairs, or approximately 350 people standing. “The space is small enough to truly listen, while large enough to foster a sense of community,” said Bureau V principal Alexander Pincus. Because of its acoustical performance features, the space can double as a recording studio for up to 70 performers.

Williamsburg's Sawdust Factory To House New Music Venue With Lofty Ambitions

Brooklyn’s L Magazine features the Original Music Workshop, describing the design as “a futuristic, asymmetrical mesh cage of cross-beams and sophisticated lighting”.

Music Workshop Slated for Brooklyn

Via The Wall Street Journal, written by Pia Catton:

A new nonprofit that will nurture contemporary music is underway in Williamsburg.

The Original Music Workshop (OMW) will be built within the shell of an existing warehouse at 80 North Sixth St., organizers will announce Tuesday.

The project, which has been developing for three years, is led by founder Kevin Dolan, a former senior vice president and general tax counsel at Merrill Lynch & Co. Mr. Dolan, an accomplished organist, described himself as "a fan of musicians" and an advocate for music.

Juilliard-trained composer Paola Prestini has been appointed creative director.

Though OMW is scheduled for completion in late 2013, Ms. Prestini is lining up early, off-site performances, as well as artist residencies.

The inaugural residents will be new-music groups—the Knights, Brooklyn Rider, Talea Ensemble and ACME—as well as the multidisciplinary theater company Dangerous Ground Productions and the dance troupe Ballet Next.

"The idea is to keep an open mind to the trends going on," said Ms. Prestini on the inclusion of groups outside the new-music realm.

The $15.6 million, 13,000-square-foot facility—designed by Bureau V, with acoustics by Arup—will allow for performances to be recorded and broadcast. When not in use for performances, the space will be available for rehearsal. Additionally, OMW will partner with Creative Capital to provide resources to mid-career artists.

"It's pretty much like a new music utopia," said Alex Lipowski of Talea. "They're saying, 'Here's a room that will sound great. Here's time and resources. And you can do whatever you what.'"

Corrections & Amplifications
An earlier version of this article incorrectly identified Kevin Dolan a a faculty member at the New School for Jazz and Contemporary Music.

Is an Unconventional Music Venue with a Jagged Design the Last Hope for Williamsburg's Art Scene?

Via The New York Observer, written by Matt Chaban:

If Bedford Avenue is the main street of modern day Williamsburg, North Sixth Street is the hipster haven’s Broadway. Home to the first proper grocery store (Tops), concert venue (Northsix), swap meet (Artists and Fleas) and grotesque theme restaurant (Sea), North Sixth Street has long been the grand stage of Williamsburg.

Now performing on North Sixth Street (even if Northsix is long gone, replaced by a Manhattan concert conglomerate) is the Original Music Workshop.

Conceived by Kevin Dolan, a former tax attorney who also happens to be an organ virtuoso, the Original Music Workshop seeks to provide a venue bridging new and old Williamsburg, sustaining music of all types for all ages. As the rest of the neighborhood continues its inexorable gentrification, Mr. Dolan hopes to preserve a tiny corner of Williamsburg cultural past, as well as one of its historic industrial buildings.

“It’s amazing you can knock down anything and build whatever you want,” Mr. Dolan said in an interview. “I’m hopeful that at least the south side of this block will still maintain its feel into the future.”

The project began three years ago, in a small townhouse Mr. Dolan had hoped to turn into his perfect music space. He met local Williamsburg architecture firm Bureau V through a mutual acquaintance, and when they realized Mr. Dolan had far greater ambitions than his small site, they set about finding one. “A very interesting part of the project was that, after the house, we were, with the help of ARUP, very involved in the design of the entire concept,” said Alexander Pincus, one of the principals of Bureau V. “There was no programming, no building, no agenda for at least a year.” ARUP is the acoustical engineer on the project.

The designers set about scouring Brooklyn and parts of Manhattan until they found an old sawdust factory on the corner of North Sixth and Berry streets, a century-old sawdust factory—a painted sign near the roof still reads “NATIONAL SAWDUST,” which the facility produced at least until the 1940s, as old photos show. (For those confused by the concept of a sawdust factory, it was used for heating.)

“I don’t believe in fate, but the location, the architecture, everything about it was just ideal,” Mr. Dolan said. It was not an easy negotiation, though. “Even in the doldrums of the market, that real estate wasn’t cheap.” There were two other bidders for the property, which meant Mr. Dolan had to pay over ask, be he believes the seller ultimately chose him because of the project he planned there was more than another tear-down. “I think I got it on the merits of the use,” he said.

According to city records, Mr. Dolan paid $2.33 million for the former factory, and he said the entire project will cost about $15 million. The building had been vacant for a decade, but before that it had been producing those tiny colored pebbles that fill fish tanks, and was still full of them when the task of renovation began.

The former factory will continue to be a production facility of a sort. More than just a concert venue, Mr. Dolan is set on creating what he called an “A-to-Z support structure” for modern musicians. The space will also accommodate rehearsals and recordings, with room for up to 70 musicians during record sessions. For performances, a movable stage will accommodate between one and a dozen performers, with seating for 120 to 180 guests, up to 350 standing.

“It is a facility for which there is a tremendous need, it will be 24-hours a day, 7-days a week” said Paola Prestini, the celebrated young composer who was just named the creative director for the Original Music Workshop. Ms. Prestini said too often similar rehearsal and recording spaces were only open limited hours or had inferior acoustics. “What we’re trying to do with our project is serve the needs of the 21st Century artist,” she said.

The performers will cut across a wide artistic swath, from classical to jazz to electronica. The Observer suggested Le Poisson Rouge, the cutting-edge venue in Greenwich Village. Mr. Dolan responded that “that’s close, but we’re looking at one stratum down, the next big thing, though we will also be working with established artists from time to time.”

To that end, the Original Music Project is hoping to foster new talent through mentoring and residency programs, where artists can call the new space home for a series of time, working on new work or helping others form their own compositions.

This will all be achieved in a revolutionary space conceived by Bureau V. Mr. Dolan said he greatly preferred the old music halls of Europe. “I certainly do not want a black-box theater,” he said.

“Too often the space disappears, and Kevin did not want that, he wanted the space to be present, part of the performance” Peter Zuspan, another Bureau V principal, said. “With this, it’s kind of just a room—no fly space, no wings, no curtains, just a room. It’s a very classical idea.”

And yet the focus remains on new artists, new ideas, the cutting edge, which is certainly exposed in the design of the space. While the exterior of the building remains intact, inside is a mass of steel beams metal mesh, all with exacting perfomative standards. “This is not some historical pastiche,” Mr. Pincus said. “We’ve got 15-inch-thick brick walls, which you could never afford to build these days. The building is still very purposeful.”

Affixed to the brick interior is carefully crafted acoustic paneling, which is overlaid with the metal lattice. This not only supports the mesh but also contains all electrical, lighting, pass-throughs and all other elements required for performance and recording. The shape may look random, even haphazard, but it was all carefully tailored through hours upon hours of precise computer modelling, one of Bureau V’s specialties. (The firm is working on a similarly unusual residential development next door, which is still in the early planning stages.)

The bi-level space also includes a restaurant, still being developed. So the musicians and the crowd really do have everything. “We want to nurture artists who have not yet made it onto the other stages of New York,” Mr. Dolan said.