Why Color?


Jack Esterson
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We recently designed a pair of affordable residential buildings in the Bronx for Catholic Charities. A senior director there who was our day-to-day contact, Drew Kiriazides, was a highly educated, empathetic and thoughtful man who dedicated his all-too-short life to make the City a measurably better place for its citizens and neighborhoods. I admired him greatly. During the design process, we had many fascinating and unexpected conversations about urbanism and design, and the assumptions we make about poverty, assumptions Drew was always questioning.

My most memorable of our talks, surprisingly, was about color. Up until then, our building exteriors integrated color into the facades, with accent panels, glazed brick, or graphics. Sometimes there would be more than one color or material in contrast with the overall background, creating a polychromatic mosaic meant to delight the eye in an otherwise gray urban landscape.

Why color? Well, for me at least two reasons. My earlier background as a visual artist always skewed me towards color. Later, as an architect, color became an inexpensive path towards vibrancy. Or even happiness. Blue cost the same as gray. Our under-funded non-profit clients embraced the notion. It became a hallmark.

But back to Drew. When we presented our colorful facade options, he was pensive for quite a long time. And then he finally asked, politely, “Why color?” What is it with you architects? So much color everywhere!! I was stunned. How could anyone be opposed to color anywhere, anytime? What?

He goes on to explain. Wandering through New York's poorest neighborhoods, they are awash in buildings with blue, orange and yellow panels, materials, canopies, graphics and entries. One building has more than the next. But try walking down Madison Avenue, or a more monied part of chic Brooklyn. A colorful accent panel is nowhere in sight. The buildings are clad in low-luster materials of creams, grays and bronze, waiting for Calvin Klein or Hugo Boss to move in. Color be gone!!

So then what is our culture saying here, manifested through the well-intentioned hands of us urban architects? Why bright colors for low-income families and subtle beige tones for the wealthy, like well-curated symbols of an understated privilege and taste? Is there some unspoken or unconscious need to cheer people up as they approach their subsidized rental, looking up towards our gorgeous rainbows and think, “Maybe life's not so bad after all, when there's so much color in the World!”, as we remain oblivious to the unintended condescension.

I felt an inner shift, and we returned with facade designs devoid of bright colors, instead relying on the natural tones of brick, metals and woods. The subject matter became about form and proportion, and different ways light and shadow affected these surfaces - late afternoon sun bathing a beautifully textured brick as the surface glowed into dusk. Only at the main entry did we bring in a welcoming wood wall, a very special moment of color. Once.

Classic, muted elegance for everyone, working well with the existing urban fabric, not contradicting it. For the same price. We still use color, of course, in our design work, but I have never thought about poverty and color in the same way since then.

In gratitude to my friend and colleague Drew Kiriazides, and his never-ending questioning, this essay is dedicated to his memory.

Think! Moves Forward With ShareNYC Project


Isabel Ling
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Think!’s proposal with Ascendant Neighborhood Development and Ali Forney Center has been selected by NYCHPD as a part of its shared housing initiative, ShareNYC. Our project combines social services and four duplex shared units as well as one simplex shared unit affordable to low-income households.

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Jack Esterson's Brooklyn Brownstone Featured in Brownstoner


Isabel Ling
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An inside look of architect, Jack Esterson’s, brownstone.

An inside look of architect, Jack Esterson’s, brownstone.

When not hard at work at Think!, partner Jack Esterson is an ardent collector of mid-century Danish furniture and art by local Brooklyn artists. Recently, he gave a tour to Brownstoner of his Clinton Hill brownstone, where these two passions come into conversation. Click the image above to read the article and learn more about the design choices that went into creating this beautiful home.

BLUE BUILDINGS


Jack Esterson
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I’ve noticed something going on in our hometown, New York City, for some time, and I'm going to call it the blue building syndrome. The buildings are not really blue, but they look blue, a very light cool blue, they are huge and they are going up all over town. They are sleek, minimalist, elegant, expensive and rather bland. They are the default setting today for large-scale commercial development by the largest developers around. And the big architecture firms are falling in line producing them, including such distinctive names as Diller Scofidio & Renfro and Fumihiko Maki.. Go down to the re-built World Trade Center or to Hudson Yards. Its as if someone designed the perfect glass curtain wall system and everyone agreed its the thing to do, which leaves only the building shape as the variable - with their straight lines, or tapered walls, or curves, or even tilting towards collapse. The blue-ness comes from the glass reflectivity, and the walls blend into the sky in a way that makes them almost disappear, as if apologizing for existing. They take on an ephemeral quality, and a lightness that is somehow pleasing and stultifying at the same time. I would say that it began right after the attacks of 911.

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Maybe this is OK. If one looks at old photos of the Lower Manhattan skyline in the 1940s, its a marvelous sprouting of consistent limestone spires. I think its the consistency of tone and the impossibly narrow towers that made it so breathtaking, and unlike anything that came before. So maybe vast clusters of the new blue buildings will be like an eruption of quartz crystals, a new glazed version of that old Lower Manhattan. Or maybe not, if the next thing will come to be before such a thing can ever materialize to critical mass.

Modular Construction Meets Design That's Just Right


Tani Sevy
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We have been fortunate to have had the recent opportunity to work on a number of modular residential projects.  These have ranged from small condominium buildings on infill sites in Manhattan to a recent proposal for a 160 unit affordable housing project on an open site in East New York, Brooklyn.  We’ve come away from these projects impressed with the possibilities this type of construction offers in terms of quality and speed of construction and we have also learned a number of lessons that will help us improve the process of designing modular projects going forward.  It appears that modular construction is on the cusp of much wider acceptance with a larger group of dependable manufacturers serving the New York City market.

Please take a look at a recent article from the New York Post about Think! and modular construction.  Just click on the image below.

Think! Wins Brownsville RFP


Tani Sevy
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Think! is excited to announce its Glenmore Manor Apartments as the chosen competition winner as part of New York City’s HPD Brownsville Plan. Along with the African American Planning Commission, Inc., Brisa Builders, and Lemle & Wolf; Think! designed a compelling building including 230 affordable homes for low income households, ground floor commercial space, and supportive spaces for young business developers and entrepreneurs.

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Beautiful Freeways


Jack Esterson
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Last year I was driving through Los Angeles with friends. I live in New York City, and don’t own a car, but have always been intrigued by LA car culture, and how it has shaped the city. I never really thought much about their freeway system except for the legendary horror stories of 12 lanes of bumper to bumper standstill traffic, featured so often in movies. But after years of taking New York’s highways, I realized how beautiful they can be in LA.  Why is that? Why so lovely? A freeway lovely?

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The grandeur of these poured concrete curving structures seems to celebrate the very idea of mobility, and their utter simplicity and power of form strike me as something Le Corbusier might have designed, or derived from some great temple at Luxor. While New York celebrates commerce though the invention of the skyscraper, beautiful spires marking the city like mediaeval churches, our highways seems to be a complicated tangle of steel, concrete and bad signage. They are a means from point A to B but hardly enjoyable to be on and one can’t wait to get off, and back into the civilized City. They are in opposition to New York, while in LA they are of the city. 

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I wonder why these freeways in LA appear so lyrical to me. Maybe it’s because the city is so much about the automobile, and when a city inhabits an idea so fully, the design it manifests is inevitably compelling.  Or did enlightened engineers take over at the local transportation department there at some point, or a mandate came from up high about how pure engineering equals beauty, or something? Or was it a larger idea of modernity or the zeitgeist of the 20th century metropolis that took hold when these roads were built? They are so compelling that the architecture firm Coop Himmelblau designed a high school hard by the Hollywood Freeway that looks to me to be homage to the freeway system. It seems that only in LA would that ever happen.

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Affordable Style


Jack Esterson
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New York City is awash in new residential building projects known as Affordable Housing, driven by Mayor De Blasio's push for 200,000 new or preserved affordable apartments and the need for middle class and lower income people to remain in the City. Architecture firms in NYC are building entire practices around this mandate. For years, actually, large swaths of the Bronx and Brooklyn are being rebuilt with new, publically financed structures. Due to various forces having to do with finances, regulations and a shear lack of imagination, these buildings blend together into a bland, predictable housing stock that adds little to the local community except for clean and decent places to live, no small task.

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But I ask, why does New York’s affordable housing have to look “affordable”? The attributes of this “style” are typical – the cheaper “jumbo” red brick, the horizontal stripes of contrasting brick, and the same relentless under-scaled windows. It has a mean-spirited look and its everywhere. It is creating a city of no character, no identity except an identity of scarcity.

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I believe everyone deserves inspired and innovative design and it’s our job as architects to test the limits of what can be done in this building type. Otherwise we are conveying the message that lower income people don’t really matter, and neighborhoods in outlying areas don’t matter either, and they do. With some ingenuity, thoughtfulness, and most of all, empathy, we can raise the bar of affordable housing design significantly, as it is in many other parts of the country and the world. Being in the midst of this building type now, we at think! understand how hard it is to negotiate innovation and quality within the confines of public agencies and their demands to maximize unit count and minimize construction budgets, all within an over-heated construction market. We understand the pressure that puts on architects to produce the same predictable outcomes – the lowest common denominator. But we can’t settle for that. We have to do better. Achieving quality and innovation in affordable housing is really hard – but is not a factor of high budgets. It’s a matter of imagination. And that's our job.

Joseph Auld joins Think! as Director of Client Development


Martin Kapell
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Joseph Auld has joined Think! as our director of Client Development. In that role Joe will work with the firm principals to develop new client opportunities and to actively maintain ongoing client relationships. Joe trained as an architect and has spent the majority of his professional career working as a project manager for private and institutional clients. He brings his wide background in development, construction and management to his role at the firm.

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New Staff


Martin Kapell
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We welcome the following new staff to the Think! team.

Waterfront Development Wins SARA Design Award


Martin Kapell
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We are proud to announce that we won the Society of American Registered Architects National Design Award for our waterfront complex plan in Newburgh, New York, in the urban planning category. This multi-building residential complex, with its landscape components and new ferry terminal, is meant to help economically revive this old Hudson river city.

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REACT Center Opens


Martin Kapell
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On June 16 the Roosevelt Educational Alcoholism & Counseling Treatment (REACT) Center, designed by Think!, opened its doors to the community. Director Carol Jobson praised the new Center's design, filled with natural light, color and natural materials, as being a reflection of renewal and hope for their clients in outpatient treatment. The project included a total interior and exterior renovation of a dark and dilapidated warehouse.

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Think! wins Mott Haven RFP


Martin Kapell
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After months of deliberation, the NYC Housing Authority has selected the team of Think!, Lemle & Wolff, Alembic Community Development and The Bridge for their Betances VI site in Mott Haven, the Bronx. This 15 story, 101 unit building will consist of affordable family units, housing for formerly homeless veterans, support space for The Bridge and a significant retail component on Willis Avenue.

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Oosten Wins Brooklyn Builds Award


Martin Kapell
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We have been honored by the Brooklyn Chamber of Commerce, who gave our 215 unit condominium in Williamsburg, Brooklyn their 2017 Brooklyn Builds Design Award, residential category. This full-block, 500,000 square foot, high-end residence comprises multiple unit types wrapped around a large central courtyard. The street facades are each designed to integrate into the low-rise neighborhood, while mitigating the enormity of this building's scale.

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267 Rogers Ave is Completed


Martin Kapell
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Our 165 unit rental building in Crown Heights, Brooklyn has recently been completed and is occupied. Designed to be a simple but elegant and cost-effective solution, our client, Heights Advisors, self-built the project.

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Long Island City Hotel Tops Out


Martin Kapell
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Our new 133 key, extended stay hotel for Marriott has recently topped out at ten stories. The hotel is located in an industrial area in Long Island City that is quickly transforming into a hospitality district. Our overall design approach on this project, as an unexpectedly contemporary design, has expanded the Marriott brand to appeal to a sophisticated demographic. Completion is expected in December 2018.

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Pratt Film & Video Wins AIA Design Award


Martin Kapell
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We are pleased to report that our design for Pratt Institutes's new Department of Film & Video has won a design award from the New York State chapter of the American Institute of Architects. Think! principal Jack Esterson, class of '75, attended the awards ceremony in Saratoga Springs, NY.

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Don Flagg Joins think!


Martin Kapell
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This Fall, Don Flagg has joined the Think! team as our Studio Director. Don has devoted much of his thirty years of design practice to major public works that have had a profound impact on the lives of New Yorkers, including the revitalization of Grand Central Terminal. With his expertise in master planning, preservation, interior planning and construction, Don is committed to creating architecture that creatively responds to the user's needs, intelligently engages its urban context and achieves design quality of the highest caliber.

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Queens Passive House Project Tops Out


Martin Kapell
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Our affordable senior residence, designed for the not-for-profit Hanac Inc., has topped out in Corona, Queens. This 68 unit project has been designed as a Passive House building, and includes intergenerational and active design principles, as well as a high degree of sustainability, to create a new model for this building type.

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Odyssey House's George Rosenthal Center for Recovery Opens


Martin Kapell
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On May 11, Odyssey House Executive Director Peter Provet presided over the opening ceremony of their newest and largest residential treatment center on Wards Island, NY, designed by Think!. Converted from an abandoned hospital, the new facility houses 240 men, women and teens in substance abuse recovery in what Dr. Provet describes as a national model for what therapeutic recovery centers can be.