September 17, 2014
by Linda G. Miller
Archtober Festival Director Cynthia Kracauer, AIA, kicked off the Archtober press preview.Credit: Zoe Seibel
Darby Curtis, AIA, founding partner at Curtis + Ginsberg spoke about Building of the Day #18, Navy Green Supportive Housing.Credit: Zoe Seibel
Laura Miller, director of marketing at the Guggenheim Museum, talked about the Guggenheim Helsinki competition.Credit: Zoe Seibel
Michela O'Connor Abrams, CEO and president of Dwell, presented the Dwell on Design New York program.Credit: Zoe Seibel
Kyle Bergman, AIA, founder and director of the Architecture and Design Film Festival.Credit: Zoe Seibel
AIANY executive director Rick Bell, FAIA, spoke about partner organization programs at the Archtober press preview.Credit: Zoe Seibel

Four years ago, the idea of having an Architecture and Design Month in New York City was conceived to raise awareness of the value and abundance of talent that exists here in the architecture and design community. Every fall since, Cynthia Kracauer, AIA, AIANY managing director, dons her second hat as the festival director of Archtober. At a press preview held on 09.09.14, she, along with AIANY 2014 President Lance Brown, FAIA, and AIANY Executive Director Rick Bell, FAIA, announced this year’s festival – a jam-packed month of 120-plus events, including exhibitions, films, tours, and symposia with more than 30 organizations in and outside of the Center for Architecture.

Of note, this year’s brand new feature is Dwell on Design New York. Curated by the magazine’s editors, the program features three days of installations and onstage discussions focusing on contract design, public space, and infrastructure, plus a trade show that will be open to the public. Also new, the Architecture and Design Film Festival is taking to the streets. At its Short Films Walk on 10.07.14, ten design showrooms in SoHo will screen short films. The list of new programs, as you can imagine, goes on.

President Brown’s AIANY Presidential theme “Civic Spirit: Civic Vision” has been incorporated into Archtober 2014’s programming. The Building of the Day series begins on Archtober 1 at Ennead Architects’ renovation of the Public Theater, and ends with Cooper Joseph Studio’s AIANY Design Award-winning installation “Starlight” at the Museum of the City of New York. The tour series will include projects by winners of AIANY Design Awards and New Practice New York, and other inspiring projects of various typologies in all five boroughs. CultureNow will once again be producing podcasts of each building, and The Architect’s Newspaper will host the Archtober Building of the Day blog.

This year’s design evokes the urban grid in the layout of the number “4.” According to Kracauer, the theme expresses the orientation of Roman cities, with the cardo on a north/south axis and the decumanus on an east/west axis. At the intersection of the two is the forum “and that’s exactly what we have here at the Center for Architecture, a forum for the discussion of important urban issues.” To find out more about daily goings on, check the Archtober website and visit the Pentagram-designed Archtober Lounge located in the Helfand Gallery at the Center for Architecture.