BAUMANN ARCHITECTURE | COMPETITION

BALTIMORE

(In response to a call for submissions to rejuvenate a derelict neighborhood in Baltimore)

Our competition entry proposed to regenerate an abandoned 20-square-block area of East Baltimore not by the insertion of Beaux-Arts-inspired tree-lined promenades, but rather by the introduction of a refugee population there, in this case the Kosovars--political refugees previously confined to makeshift barracks at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. A refrigerator--as seen in a fictional Kosovar home of ten years future--was used to convey the totality of the refugee assimilation and the resultant neighborhood transformation. (Download New York Times Article)

Competition Team: Philippe Baumann, Karl Jensen, Nina Mehta, Susa Templin
3 Cibachromes, 30" x 40". 2001.

EAST RIVER

(A competition for designs for the East River and its immediate surroundings)

A vision for New York in the 21st Century is encapsulated in The IPA Commemorative Postcard Pack, a retrospective collection of images of New York City in the first 50 years of the new millennium.

"New York City-Return to Greener Pastures" is a pack of postcards printed in the year 2048 to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the Interborough Park Authority (IPA), a governing body endowed with the care and development of the park system throughout New York City's five boroughs. The fictional establishment of the IPA in 1998 coincides with the renaming of the East River to Middle River and the reclaiming of vast tracts of land along its banks for the creation of Middle Park. As a resource shared by all the boroughs, Middle River and its parks unite the city by shifting the focus of New York from its present center, Manhattan, to a more common ground. The creation of links from park to park further transform New York's nature from a city with parks to a city within a park.

A sampling of the perceptual shift which has occurred, both in the attitude of the city's inhabitants and in their appreciation of their urban environment, is reflected in the postcard pack: evidence of the fundamental changes which follow the urban restructuring. Reproductions of the IPA Commemorative Postcard Pack were disseminated to politicians, business and civic leaders throughout New York in an attempt to initiate discussion of visions for New York in the Third Millennium.

Competition Team: Philippe Baumann, John Herrera, Karl Jensen, Leslie Neblett.
1 Postcard Pack, 16 Postcards, 4" x 5-3/4". 1999.

STEEDMAN

(A project done as partial completion of the requirements of the Steedman Travelling Fellowship, which asked that a Center for American Architecture be designed to occupy a site between Saarinen's Memorial Arch and the symbolic center of St. Louis, Courthouse Square)

My design adds a component to the program of the Center for American Architecture--an Architect in Residence Program.
The design can then be conceived of as a bridge, both between downtown St. Louis and the Memorial Arch, but also as a conceptual bridge, linking the lives and endeavors of the artists and architects who populate the large hall---really an extension of the park, and the visitors who interact with its inhabitants as they weave their way through this space. The social interaction creates the architecture.

2 Boards, 30" x 40" Graphite. 2000.

A copy of the text as it appears on the boards:

1. Center for American Architecture
This room houses a selection of work produced by the Architects in Residence. A monolithic concrete ramp rises gently to provide access to the room, a diaphanous exhibition space suspended enticingly above Memorial Drive. Vehicular views of the Jefferson Expansion Memorial are maintained while the highways and byways indispensable to westward expansion continue unobstructed.

2. Architect in Residence
This room is a laboratory used by an international selection of architects. They produce work here. Visitors experience the creative process viscerally and interact directly with the work as they circulate through the building, and out to the park.
Like the steel mills and ship building halls of our industrial past, raw material is transformed here. This room is the heart of the building; a living, breathing, generative Center for American Architecture, the link between St. Louis and the world.

SUN SHELTER

(The competition brief asked for designs for a sun shelter for Pier 41 in Manhattan)

The area occupied by this pier is one of few left in Manhattan that is both spacious and undeveloped, with phenomenal unbroken views to the water. This sets it apart from the bulk of the intensively developed and priceless New York City real estate and provided the motivation behind the solution, two etchings of different views of the Hudson River as clouds roll in from the west to shade the pier.

Competition Team: Philippe Baumann, Karl Jensen

2 Etchings, 24" x 32". 1997.

The etching text:
We at the Committee for Clouds (and Sun) would like to express our fundamental opposition to the Sun Shelter proposal for Pier 54. As the encroachment of the built environment reaches its final stages on the island of Manhattan, the pier provides a rare escape: any overt attempt to provide shade here compromises this refuge. To avoid the negative psychological impact of yet another choreographed urban intervention, we propose that clouds be deemed sufficient to meet all future sun shade requirements at this site.
-We are the CFC.

TKTS

(A proposal in response to a call for designs for a new ticket booth for Times Square)

We propose two distinct fronts for the TKTS Pavilion: the northern face for ticket distribution and the southern face as spectator seating for the urban theater of Times Square. The major public component of the project--the raised observation platform, is positioned as terminus of Father Duffy Square and to embrace the entirety of Times Square. We have introduced a number system--a modernized version of the deli-counter number dispenser--to dissipate the enormous lines that form during ticket sales and allow customers to roam Times Square freely during their wait.

Competition Team: Philippe Baumann, Karl Jensen

2 Boards, 30" x 40". 2001.

PARIS PRIZE

(A proposal in response to a call for designs for a temporary information exchange center on the northern end of Wall Street)

A levitating green space served as the conceptual underpinning of this project. Serving as both protective roof for the information systems below and urban park, the sod would be returned to the environment after the building was deconstructed. Easily demountable scaffold-like structure was chosen to facilitate construction and removal.

1 Board, 30" x 40". 1998