PAST EVENT - July 28, 2016
HAAUS toured the Via 57, a new rental building on the west side designed by Bjarke Ingles. Bjarke Ingles has described the unique massing as “the lovechild of a courtyard building and a skyscraper.” The structure reaches 32 stories and 460 feet into the air. The building hosts 709 apartments, 142 of which will rent for below market prices.
The tour was led by David Brown AIA, a Senior Architect at BIG, and one of the lead architects on the W57 project, Sydney Mainster Sustainability Manager for The Durst Organization and Olga Abinader Deputy Director of the Environmental Assessment and Review Division at the New York City Department of City Planning.
Tour Guide Biographies:
David Brown is an Associate and Senior Architect at Bjarke Ingels Group (BIG), which he joined in 2010 in Copenhagen before moving to New York in 2011. David was the project architect and lead interior designer for VIA 57 and has led projects for BIG across the United States and Central Asia. Prior to joining BIG, he worked for OMA in Rotterdam, NL and Beijing, CN.
Sydney Mainster serves as Sustainability Manager for The Durst Organization. She brings 10 years of professional and academic Architecture and Design experience to her role. Her current passion is defining strategies to transform the building product industry and resultant material waste streams. From 2010-2013, she served as Adjunct Faculty and Director of the University of Texas at Austin School of Architecture Materials Resource Center. She has professional experience working in Architecture, Structural Engineering, Construction, and as a Green Building Consultant to Texas and New York developers.
Olga Abinader is Deputy Director of the Environmental Assessment and Review Division at the New York City Department of City Planning. She has nearly a decade of professional experience in the areas of urban planning and environmental review. Prior to her role at the Department of City Planning, Olga worked as a planning and real estate consultant at Imai Keller Moore Architects in Watertown, MA. In 2008, Olga earned a Masters degree in Urban Planning from Harvard University, where she was a Presidential Scholar and focused her studies in Real Estate Finance and Planning. In 2005, she graduated Magna Cum Laude from Brown University, earning Honors in Urban Studies.
