September 14, 2012
by Linda G. Miller

2012 AIANY President Joseph Aliotta, AIA, LEED AP, introduces the program.

Daniel Fox

Wendy Goodman, Design Editor, New York Magazine, and Roberto Guerra, Director (along with Kathy Brew) of “Design is One: Lella and Massimo Vignelli,” to be shown at the 2012 Architecture & Design Film Festival.

Daniel Fox

Gina Pollara, Executive Director, FDR Four Freedoms Park, with Abby Suckle, AIANY Board Member and President of cultureNOW, an Archtober participating organization.

Daniel Fox

Event: Archtober Press Preview
Location: Center for Architecture, 09.10.12

The Center for Architecture and AIA New York Chapter have a lot to wave their flags about. Now in its second year, Archtober (pronounced ARK-tober), is the month-long, city-wide festival involving more than 45 collaborating organizations (up from 33 last year), and an expanded menu of programming.

“This year Archtober is Architecture 101 – a 31-day course of architecture every day meant to illuminate the general public on the value of design, the values of our professionals, and the great wealth of design in New York City,” said AIANY Managing Director and Festival Director Cynthia Kracauer, AIA, LEED AP, at a press conference held at the Center on September 10.

Throughout the month of October, the Center for Architecture will turn into Archtober “central.” The Archtober Lounge will transform the Helfand Gallery with a giant calendar marking all of the more than 220 events taking place in and outside of the Center, such as the Architecture and Design Film Festival, Designers & Books Fair, the special opening of Louis Kahn’s Four Freedoms Park, the Bits and Mortar Conference with Frank Gehry, FAIA, and Nicholas Negroponte, among other leading technologists, and exhibition openings. On October 6, the Center is the place to celebrate Le Corbusier’s 124th birthday with a special one-day-only installation of his classic furniture.

The popular “Building of the Day,” a series of lunchtime tours of recent design award-winning projects led by architects and design professionals, is being reprised – starting on October 1, with a visit to Spruce Street School PS397, led by Joe Aliotta, AIA, LEED AP, Swanke Hayden Connell’s partner-in-charge and the Chapter’s 2012 president. All of these can be taken virtually, complete with podcasts delivered by architects, via CultureNow’s “Museum Without Walls” app at culturenow.org.

“New York City is home to nearly 40,000 architects and design professionals, which is the largest pool of design talent in the country,” says Aliotta. “Archtober continues to demonstrate this sector’s powerful impact, and draws global attend to one of New York’s leading exports.”

For more information about Archtober, visit www.archtober.com, or pick up an Archtober Guide inserted in Dwell’s October issue and New York Magazine’s September 26th issue…and, of course, at the Archtober Lounge.

Linda G. Miller is a contributing editor to Oculus and e-Oculus.