October generally brings to mind pumpkins, Halloween, and other autumnal decorations. It is also, however, the month of “Archtober”—the city’s official Architecture and Design Month, filled with a number of programs, talks, and exhibitions devoted to architecture and design.
“When we started thinking about creating a festival that stood for design, we were in dark days of recession. With all the unemployment of architects and designers, not business as usual, we wanted to strike a positive note,” Cynthia Kracauer, AIA’s managing director explained of the festival’s start five years ago.
The AIA and Center for Architecture held a preview for Archtober’s events at the Center for Architecture’s new exhibit space in the South Street Seaport Culture District.
“We tend to minimize [the Seaport District] and think of it as an old-fashioned, or picturesque place,” AIA’s James Sanders said, “if you know anything about it, you know it’s anything besides old-fashioned and picturesque. This is where New York became New York, the great capital that it is today.”
Inspired by the location in the Seaport District, the exhibit featured a panorama, “Sea Level: The Five Boroughs at Water’s Edge,” by photographer Elizabeth Felicella, and annotated with historical and geographical notes about each location by author Robert Sullivan. […]
