Press

Interview, Press |

May 26, 2016

| by Dmitriy Shenker

Meet The AIA Local Chapter Presidents

Meet The AIA Local Chapter Presidents

By Bill Millard for Oculus Magazine

Heights of modernity

Posted in Press |

May 26, 2016

| by Dmitriy Shenker

Read full version

Press |

May 26, 2016

| by Dmitriy Shenker

Gowanus Expressway Corridor Tunnel and Neighborhood Revitalization Concept

The Gowanus Expressway overshadows a corridor between the Verrazano-Narrows Bridge and the Brooklyn Battery Tunnel. The neighborhoods that boarders the Gowanus Expressway have long wished for a solution that would improve their quality of life. The plan will unify the communities that have been fractured ever since the construction of the Expressway. After consulting with borough, community, and business leaders, AIA Brooklyn has begun a master planning initiative that centers on rerouting the elevated roadway and addressing multiple issues in the neighborhoods bordering the corridor.

One of the major focuses is addressing the greening of the 3rd Avenue corridor. It removes the Gowanus Expressway and relocates the vehicular circulation via a state of the art cable suspended expressway along 1st Avenue within an existing manufacturing area. When the project began, AIA Brooklyn looked at a prior proposal and supported a tunnel scenario that would take the place of the Gowanus Expressway. However, during the planning process we decided to present an alternative to the tunnel and recommend a cable suspended structure along 1st Avenue and the manufacturing corridor. Other features of the plan are:

A major shipping terminal
A freight tunnel from Brooklyn to New Jersey
Development of commercial space
Expansion of open space
A waterfront park
Connection to the waterfront
Expansion of the existing hospital
Residential development
The scope of the project is vast and AIA Brooklyn’s efforts continue to develop and refine a vision to appeal to a broad public interest. At the commencement of the project, we conducted meetings with elected officials, community leaders and the public. We then engaged the Chapter, professionals, architectural students and the public to develop the plan to date. At this point the objective is to take the progress back to the communities/parties of interest to achieve a greater level of participation and mutual support. The process will continue through 2008 and will be refined along the way. Drawings and an accompanying narrative will be compiled into a book, providing citizens and public officials with information to realize these visions and bring new life to the neighborhoods.

Shenker Architects played leading role in the development of this publically significant project.

Source AIA-150

Awards, Interview, Press |

May 26, 2016

| by Dmitriy Shenker

Make Gowanus Go Away Architects Say Ax The Highway, Build a Greenway

By Jotham Sederstrom / DAILY NEWS STAFF WRITER

The notoriously congested Gowanus Expressway in Brooklyn would be demolished and replaced by 4 miles of greenery under a plan being floated by a leading architectural group, the Daily News has learned.

Designs drafted by the American Institute of Architects call for replacing the deteriorating Third Ave. expressway with a glitzy cable suspension roadway on First Ave. and filling the gap with miles of trees and bike paths.

“The Gowanus Expressway is an aesthetic blight to the communities it straddles,” said architect Glen Cutrona, a former president of the Brooklyn chapter of the AIA who spearheaded the project with other local architects.

“When it was constructed, it fractured the community,” added Cutrona. “And while we’re aware that Third Ave. needs to be a vehicular corridor, it also lends itself to greening.”

The project, which began in 2005 in anticipation of the group’s 150th anniversary last year, has yet to be approved by city or state officials but could get a lift when architects pitch the design over the coming weeks.

The expressway, which connects the Verrazano Bridge with the Battery Tunnel, has been a sore spot ever since it was expanded in the 1960s, when construction tore through neighborhoods and forced the condemnation of homes.

A separate plan to replace the expressway with a tunnel has also been studied by the state Transportation Department for more than 20 years but has yet to become a reality.

“It will be less expensive than a tunnel and it will also be more user-friendly,” said Community Board 10 member Larry Stelter, who said the plan is among the most viable.

Rep. Jerrold Nadler, who has fought for a freight tunnel that would begin near the Gowanus Expressway and connect to New Jersey, was also optimistic about the plan.

“I certainly welcome the AIA’s plan to help revitalize the [area],” said Nadler (D-Manhattan).

“I have long supported studying replacing the expressway with a tunnel, and I am hopeful we can ultimately devise a plan that benefits everyone.”

Source: NYDailyNews.com

————————————————————————————-
Shenker Architects played leading role in the development of this publicly significant project.

Press |

May 25, 2016

| by Dmitriy Shenker

Industry Magazine

In the still mostly traditional design environment of Dyker Heights, an architect with an appetite for the contemporary makes his statement

by MATT SCANLON

When Dmitriy Shenker, owner and principal of Shenker Architects, was debating designs for his Dyker Heights home, he knew that one consideration prevailed above all others. In the still mostly Italian community, with its profusion of either plain-faced façades, odes to Mediterranean villas, or riffs on Northeastern Traditional, he wanted an injection of practical modernism. After years of budget juggling, work distractions, and wrestling with the city’s rigid neighborhood zoning restrictions, the payoff is this 4,900-square-foot, fourbedroom, six-bathroom multilevel exercise in expansive interior spaces, virtual and actual connections to the backyard grounds and pool, and making full advantage of the southeast facing rear of the home (by far the more coveted of the neighborhood exposures).

Shenker is originally from Kiev, Ukraine, but studied architecture in the former Soviet Union, moved to the United States in 1992, and established his eponymous firm in 1996. In its nearly 20 years of operation, Shenker Architects has tackled everything from small-scale commercial (pharmacies and other retail) to single-family and multifamily residential, all the way to a mixed use commercial/residential multistory tower occupying a full block in Queens. Among its honors is a 2010 Award of Excellence from the American Institute of Architects Brooklyn Design Competition for an ultra-modernistic Tottenville, Staten Island single-family residence, so clean, uncluttered lines and witty intersections of space is nothing new to the owner. Still, he admits that this home had an unmistakable personal significance about it, along with no shortage of challenges.

Read full version