The Four States of Architecture

The work of New York architects Victoria Meyers and Thomas Hanrahan is remarkable for its interpretation of the modern world and minimalism, mixing ideas from philosophy and science.

Their palette of materials includes wood, stone, glass and metals and these elements are carefully woven into the projects in finished and raw states. This gives the work both a natural and an abstract quality. Their work has an intellectual rigour stemming from the history of ideas and the arts, while maintaining a precise formal vocabulary that has allowed them to craft buildings that work equally well in rural and urban settings.

The four states of architecture described in this book– horizon, light, atmospheres and ground – are derived from contemporary interpretations of matter, light and the natural world. This book features 14 of Hanrahan + Meyers′ projects, each of which is aligned with one of these states. The projects range in scale from individual residences to galleries, museums, and buildings for the performing arts. The context of ideas in which they are set crosses the boundaries that typically divide architecture, art, science and experience.

The projects represented – three performance spaces, three galleries, two museums, one urban design project and five residences – include:
∗ Holley Loft, New York
∗ Interpretive Center, Elise Chapin Wildlife Sanctuary, Chattanooga, Tennessee
∗ Museum of Women, Battery Park City, New York
∗ Ojai Festival Shell, Libbey Park, Ojai, California
Forewords by Billie Tsien, architect, and Terence Riley, Chief Curator of Architecture and Design at the Museum of Modern Art, New York

Foreword (Terence Riley)

Foreword (Billie Tsien)

Introduction

Horizon
projects inspired by geometry and the horizon line

Interpretive Center, Elise Chapin Wildlife Sanctuary, Chattanooga, Tennessee

Hudson River House, Nyack, New York

Singer Residence, East Hampton, New York

Colour of Light
spaces ′grown′ by light

Red Hook Center for the Arts, Brooklyn, New York

Michael Schrom and Company Studios, Long Island City, New York

Arts International Headquarters, New York, New York

Atmospheres
fields or voids activated by overlapping textures

Holley Loft, New York, New York

Sagaponack House, Sagaponack, The Hamptons, Long Island, New York

WaterLine, Urban Plan for the Future, New York, New York

Ojai Festival Shell, Libbey Park, Ojai, California

Ground
projects surrounded or constructed by surfaces or textures

Hunts Point Performance Center, Bronx, New York, New York

The Museum of Women, Battery Park City, New York, New York

Alves House, Northampton, Massachusetts

WaveLine –
Latimer Gardens Community Center, Queens, New York, New York

Firm Profile

VICTORIA MEYERS teaches at Columbia′s Graduate School of Architecture, New York City.

THOMAS HANRAHAN is the Dean of Pratt Institute′s School of Architecture, Brooklyn, New York.