The Post-Sandy Initiative

An Interview with Ouliana Ermolova

What is the project background?

The Post-Sandy Initiative project was born out of the necessity to share expertise and practical knowledge in the wake of Superstorm Sandy. The architecture and planning community of New York came together in a collaborative effort and used their experience to make thoughtful recommendations. The project was organized by AIA New York Chapter (AIANY) and the AIANY’s Design for Risk and Reconstruction Committee (DfFRR) in collaboration with a group of like-minded professional organizations; it involved development of the report, creation of the exhibition  (which has been on view at the Center for Architecture since this past May) and a website.

The content was developed from volunteer working groups that were organized by specific areas of investigation: transportation and infrastructure, housing, critical and commercial building, waterfront, zoning and codes.

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Street Smarts

By David Gibson

I'm sitting in the window of a restaurant in Chelsea looking out at the streetscape, reminiscing about a great little restaurant that used to sit across the street. Called Eighteenth and Eighth, it was a cozy place in a handsome early nineteenth-century brick row house. That building was a fragment of old New York. Alas it and its two neighbors have been replaced by an ugly bank that adds nothing to the neighborhood and looks like any bank anywhere.

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Placemaking in Provo

 An Interview with Sharmi Patel

Two Twelve was recently selected to develop a comprehensive wayfinding and signage system for the city of Provo, Utah. Sharmi Patel is a Senior Designer who has been at Two Twelve for 3 years and is a senior designer on the team for the Downtown Provo City Wayfinding project.

What were you doing in Provo?

We went to Utah to kick off the downtown Provo wayfinding project. Our first step in all downtown wayfinding projects is to conduct site surveys, interview stakeholders, and generally get to know the town in order to proceed with our wayfinding analysis, strategy, and design. One of the groups we met with in Provo was the Strike Force, a group comprised of city government officials and others who meet regularly to work on initiatives to better Provo. One of the gentlemen on the Strike Force told us that we happened to be in town on the first day of the new FrontRunner suburban train service. The ribbon cutting was happening later that day and he invited us to attend. This was a great opportunity for us to witness first hand how the community runs and what the people and culture of Provo are like.

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212 Day

Today is February 12th, 2013 - in other words 2/12/13. For us, that makes it Two Twelve Day. Sometime in the mid 1980's I realized that this company, founded at 212 York Street in New Haven and located for almost thirty years in the 212 area code, could lay claim to one of the days in the year and make it ours. So what does it mean? Is it just another day? After all one day can seem much like all of the others on the annual calendar...

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Everyone + Pool

Today's special guest blog courtesy of Jeffrey Franklin, Archie Lee Coates IV, and Dong Ping-Wong, the creative team behind + POOL.  Two Twelve is passionate about making public spaces accessible and enjoyable for everyone and is a proud supporter of + POOL.  

Summer is here and gone, but it wasn't too long ago that New York was collecting heat like it's going out of style. It's days like those that sparked an idea - on an island born from the rivers that define it, why must New Yorkers leave the city to enjoy clean, natural, swimmable water? 

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Interview with Jonathan Posnett

Two Twelve has recently had the pleasure of beginning work on several projects in the Middle East. Creative Director Jonathan Posnett is currently overseeing the wayfinding and signage design for a large parking structure in Dubai.

What were the problems this project solved?

Well, it’s one of the largest malls in the world, and the parking garage is immense: it’s actually three garages, all completely different. Parking was essentially a maze.  It was so difficult to find your way around inside the garage that management was receiving regular complaints from people who had trouble navigating the garages and couldn’t find their cars after leaving the mall. Something needed to be done. We were hired to refresh painted wall graphics inside the garage, but a careful strategy analysis resulted in a much larger project, reinforcing navigation into and out of the garages and internal pedestrian and vehicular orientation.

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Two Twelve and Hurricane Sandy

While we all knew hurricane Sandy was on her way to New York a week in advance, no one suspected the level of devestation our city now faces.  Whole neighborhoods destroyed, extensive flooding, and millions cold and in the dark without power left us feeling very much at the mercy of nature.  Fortunately, everyone at Two Twelve made it through safely.

Our office in the Flatiron district, like most business below 39th street in Manhattan, was affected by the widespread power outages that persist throughout the region.  Without electricity or access to our servers for an entire week, we did our best to keep in contact with our clients and worked from home whenever possible. Power was finally restored over the weekend and by this morning many busses and trains were limping back to life.  As of today, our office is bright and warm once again, our servers are online, and we're all grateful to be back at work and moving forward.  

New Yorkers are resilient, and we are confident that our city will recover from this disaster.  If you would like to help the regions affected by the storm, please visit the Red Cross' website for more information on donating and volunteering.

http://www.redcross.org/hurricane-sandy?scode=RSG00000E017&subcode=paiddonationssearch&gclid=CP-P7om5uLMCFYuZ4AodAGIANw

Two Twelve's Work Featured in Green Building & Design

Two Twelved designed and devloped interpretive graphics and signage in and around the Botanical Research Institute of Texas' new building in Fort Worth, designed by H3 Hardy Collaboration Architecture.  This unique project was featured in an article for Green Business & Design magazine, check it out HERE.

CMYK for the Win!

A summer of tight deadlines and long hours delivered our team to that rarified cliff of inspiration: how can we lighten the mood? Do something silly. Our solution? Sweatbands!

With an office conveniently located near an American Apparel (like so many a New York office), we took a short field trip in search of color inspiration. As we poured through the colorful pile of stretch terry accessories, we found our inspiration: CMYK! We present Team CMYK! Happy Autumn, everyone!

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Charlotte's Got A Lot

Described by First Lady Michelle Obama as "vibrant, diverse, and full of opportunity," the City of Charlotte, current host of the Democratic National Convention, is a welcoming place.  We here at Two Twelve know the Queen City very well, a result of our recent work with the Charlotte Department of Transportation developing a comprehensive city-wide wayfinding and signage system.

We found the hidden logic in this quirky, once famously hard-to-navigate city, creating distinctive and informative tools to help residents and visitors alike get around easily and efficiently. Our helpful and intuitive system is being put to good use as thousands of visitors descend on Charlotte for the Convention.

This progressive and prosperous city is growing rapidly and has a lot to offer. The Democrats' choice of Charlotte as the site for their national convention, and analogy for the country as a whole, is apt: Charlotte has been through myriad positive changes in the past four years, and the future is bright for this American city.