| Metropolis Observed |  | | The Politics of Pleasure | | | The Van Alen Institute’s latest exhibition is a scenic argument for the importance of recreational spaces in cities. | | | By Stephen Zacks | | | Posted September 11, 2006 | |
Most people
don’t think of urban areas when imagining that idyllic set of
conditions sometimes referred to as “la dolce vita,” “la vie en rose,”
or the good life. Despite exaggerated associations with luxury, cities
such as New York, London, and Paris are equally renowned for
overcrowding, traffic, and claustrophobic density. Chicago may have its
Lake Michigan beaches, Los Angeles its perfect weather, and Miami its
spandex-friendly strip, but when it comes to leisure we normally head
for more remote and peaceful destinations.
This month New York’s Van Alen Institute leaps into this breach with The Good Life: New Public Spaces of Recreation,
an exhibition at Hudson River Park’s Pier 40 showcasing dozens of
projects either planned, under construction, or already realized that
insert the rare combination of scenic refuge and pure pleasure into the
hurly-burly of cities. “People are just desperate for these sites,”
senior curator Zoë Ryan says. “Not everyone can escape the city during
the summer, so this sort of destination has become increasingly
important.”
Designed by Amale Andraos and Dan Wood, of WORK AC, with display
graphics by Project Projects, the exhibition assembles urban
recreational spaces from around the world as video installations
grouped thematically and projected onto screens embedded into a fabric
wall curving through the four-and-a-half-acre warehouse. The projects
include new twists on more conventional cultural venues, such as David
Adjaye’s 2005 London library recast as an Idea Store, and Srdjan
Jovanovic Weiss’s proposed conversion of a handball stadium in Novi
Sad, Serbia, into a new media center. Others rethink the use of
waterfront areas, such as SHoP’s concept for a mixed-use glass pavilion
on the East River, and Weiss Manfredi’s Olympic Sculpture Park, in
Seattle—opening next month—in which a gently sloping landscape zigzags
over the roadway and rail lines impeding access to the Puget Sound. The
exhibit shows off some fantastic temporary solutions to waterfront
access as well: for the past four years Jean-Christophe Choblet’s urban
beach on a riverfront expressway in Paris has brought a bit of the
French Riviera to the Seine, and next September Jonathan Kirschenfeld’s
shipping barge retrofitted with an Olympic-size swimming pool will
import a touch of the Hamptons to the docks of New York City.
Ryan also gives those transient events that momentarily open up the
imagination of city dwellers their due in a section on “The Fun City,”
featuring urban treasure hunts, mass pillow fights, and interactive
games—among them Metropolis
art director Nancy Nowacek’s Karaoke Ice project with Katie Salen and
Marina Zurkow. The Van Alen even commissioned Kevin Slavin and Frank
Lantz of area-code to develop an urban game to be played out on the
city’s streets every weekend using global positioning systems on mobile
phones. “Many of these things are very temporal,” Ryan says. “They come
and go, but it’s a chance to show the totally wide range of
possibilities for animating public space. Some of them are very small
but they canhave a really amazing impact.”
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|
 | | | Vito Acconci’s concept for an oceanfront park in San Juan, Puerto Rico, merges pedestrian areas with skateboarding elements. | |
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 | | | Inside Outside’s “Library of Trees,” in Milan, draws urban traffic through the park. | |
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 | | | Jonathan Kirschenfeld plans to dock his Floating Swimming Pool in New York. | |
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