Date: September 24th 2008

Public and Private Space Around Us
Guido Hartray

Friday September 26, 6pm

Center for Architecture
536 LaGuardia Place
New York, NY 10012

Please join us for a discussion with Guido Hartray at the Center for Architecture.

Between Jose Luis Sert’s compilation of the principles of the Athens Charter in “Can our Cities Survive” (1939) and his projects and writings of the 1950’s including “Can Patios Make Cities” (1953), public space emerges as a prominent concern in Sert's work. This emergence is the result of the impact of local context on his work in South American cities with the Town Planning Associates, as well as his confrontation with the his own new environment as an émigré in New York. A reflection of this concern can be seen in the design of the Washington Square Village apartments completed in 1958 by Sert’s partner in the Town Planning Associates Paul Lester Weiner. In the same year Sert left the Town Planning Associates to become dean of Harvard and embark on the most prolific stage of his North American career. common room’s proposal to discuss the relationship between pu blic and private space in the surroundings of the Center for Architecture presents an opportunity to investigate the legacy of this period of architectural thought on our own public space as well as an opportunity to consider the tools to be employed in studying the relationship of public and private space.

Guido Hartray is an associate at Rogers Marvel Architects and is currently investigating the relationship of public and private space as part of Rogers Marvel’s work on a new park on Governor’s Island, as well as the Gowanus Green project, a development of new housing and a public park along the Gowanus Canal. Before joining Rogers Marvel, Hartray was a Fulbright Scholar in Barcelona studying the city’s public space projects and curating the exhibition “Sert, Arquitecto en Nueva York”. He has lectured on Infrastructure and Public Space at Miami University, Barnard College and the Center for Architecture.

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This discussion is taking place as part of the the common room installation for the New Practices New York/2008 exhibition at the Center for Architecture, which for the month of September addresses the theme Local context ‘Center for Architecture’.

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