17winter 2004

The best designers under-

stand that they’re much

more than that.

Historians, modernists

and futurists all rolled into one, able

designers envision a structure as an

embodiment of a fluid timeline of

past, present and future.

The founders of New York-based

Pasanella + Klein Stolzman + Berg

(PKSB) have realized this ideal

since they opened the firm nearly

20 years ago.

“One style is always a reaction

to the next,” says Partner Henry

Stolzman. “We like to think of every

project as a reaction to the past. We

openly question what the goals of

the structure were at the time it

was conceived. The approach is to

question on the broad scale what

the aesthetic principles are and ask

whether they are working here.”

This attitude helped put the firm’s

design for the Brooklyn, N.Y.-based

Williamsburg Community Center

at the forefront of the 2003 IIDA

Interior Design Competition, where

it was named Best of Competition.

IN EVERY CORNER

Certainly, in the case of the

Williamsburg Community Center,

the designers had a lot of historical

substance to build on — it seemed to

emanate from every corner. Standing

amid a large 1930s modernist urban

housing project, the precedent was a

solid, boxy, exclusive design.

To satisfy its modernist and

forward-thinking motivations, the

designers had to find a way to

{In a League of Their Own}

The 2003 IIDA Best of Competitionwinner uses historical context to create a valid contemporary designwhile reinforcing the firm’s values. BY NATALIE BAUER

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18 winter 2004 www.iida .org 19winter 2004

In the case of the Williamsburg

Community Center, the higher pro-

gram demanded an amalgamation of

security and community, a space that

allowed participants to feel safe yet

connected. “That became the whole

notion of the building,” Zeroth says.

“All the materials and the floor plan

came from that idea. There’s no sepa-

ration of spaces from one to the next

— inside and outside become one.”

The partition between the center’s

basketball court and the walkway

from the kitchen to the entryway

exemplified this integration, creating

an interplay between participants

and onlookers. “There’s a scrim —

made of vinyl weave — that’s open

enough to see through, but you feel

protected,” Zeroth says. “You can

actually feel like you’ve walked

across the basketball court.”

Stolzman says this aspect of the

design plays up one of the firm’s

biggest strengths. “We’ve always been

very cognizant of what makes social

spaces. We’ve done lots of school

[designs] where the corridors are

more than just a passageway,” he

says. “We compare them to city

streets, give them more meaning and

make them much larger than sim-

ply for circulation — a place to see

and be seen — because socialization

occurs in the sort of water cooler. The

casual intercourse, the unplanned, is

much more meaningful.”

The vinyl weave partition was one

of many metallic and glass materials

that Zeroth used to play off the build-

ing’s history and integrate the struc-

ture’s many uses, from sports center to

infuse this historical building with

an urban, contemporary style. One

of the design’s touchstones was a

series of WPA-commissioned

murals that were restored to recall

the center’s early days. “They’re

ingrained in the history of the site

and the context,” says Associate

Lawrence Zeroth. “We looked at

them and thought that they were a

great point to start with the old and

the new. There’s a sense of tying the

structure back to its roots and yet

looking toward the future.”

But this is not history just for

history’s sake, both Zeroth and

Stolzman stress. “We’re a firm that

very happily always avoided post-

modernism,” Stolzman says. “Not

because we don’t believe in history,

obviously, but because we look for

more significant ways of [evoking

history] than just tacking it on.

These murals were so appropriate

for the community center, and

using them was so natural, because

there’s nothing forced about it.”

GET WITH THE PROGRAM

Historical sensitivity is only part of

the approach, though. PKSB part-

ners and associates strive to honor a

structure’s veritable nature, one that

defies yet considers time and space

at any point. “We take a very honest

attitude,” Stolzman says. “We’re very

much interested in the integrity of

design, materials, and following

what the program is asking for —

the higher program of what we’re

really trying to create, what the real

vision of the structure is.”

“We’ve always been very cognizantof what makes social spaces.We’ve done lots of school[designs] where the corridors aremore than just a passageway.”—HENRY STOLZMAN

{Personal Heroes}Pasanella + Klein Stolzman + Berg Partner Henry Stolzman and Associate Lawrence

Zeroth are hesitant to speak of their personal influences — mostly because there are

too many to count on two hands.

But to name a few, the representatives of the firm, which won IIDA’s 2003 Best of

Competition, offer these luminaries.

Robert Irwin, the environmental artist and sculptor who launched the light and

space movement, inspires Zeroth to look at light from many different perspectives. “It’s

one of the things that can really make or break a project,” Zeroth says.

Another favorite is Swiss duo Jacques Herzog and Pierre de Meuron, the 2001

Pritzker Architecture Prize Laureates who recently caught the spotlight with their

conversion of the Bankside Power plant in London to the new Gallery of Modern Art

for the Tate Museum. “They explore materiality in ways that affect space,” Zeroth says.

“And they question everything,” Stolzman adds.

Alternatively, Stolzman says, Frank Gehry, the renowned architect of the

Guggenheim Museum in Bilbao, Spain, is on his list of influential designers, not

for his ability to question design but for his ability to propone his individual vision. “He

had something he truly believed in and just kept pushing and pushing,” Stolzman says.

“He just pursued it and made it happen.”

Finally, reaching back into the dusty pages of history, Zeroth offers the great

Michelangelo as one of his biggest inspirations in creating modern design. “When you

look at the arts and how it can influence architecture,” he says, “it has a lot of potential

to take you out of your typical way of thinking.”

20 winter 2004 www.iida .org 21winter 2004

dance and art studio to movie theater.

At the start, he was inspired by a

photograph taken during initial

surveys that showed children playing

in the center’s yard, enclosed by

chain-link fence. The material aptly

reinforced the secure yet transparent

look that Zeroth and his team were

aiming for. “We wanted to preserve

[the chain-link fence and its notion],”

Zeroth says. “It existed in the old

beat-up playground, but it was the

positive part. When you’re inside, you

know you’re inside. You know the

boundaries exist, but natural lighting

provides that open feeling.”

The flow of similar materials

from inside out also adds to the

center’s feeling of what judges called

“a true example of seamless integra-

tion.” “We almost eroded the discon-

nect between interior and exterior,”

Stolzman says. “We made as much

integration as possible. In every

sense, it is a public space, it is a

community center. Whoever comes

here feels like they’re a participant.”

TABULA RASA

These recurring themes of partici-

pation and preservation in the

community center reflect a core tenet

of PKSB itself. Partners and associ-

ates alike strive to maintain the

firm’s original emphasis on integral

participation. “We have a long history

of being very much the same firm

today as we were 20 years ago. We’re

a mid-size firm of about 20 people.

That size allows us to be the atelier,”

Stolzman says. “That has always

been our goal — to maintain our size

and approach small and big projects

in the same way. Our goal has never

been to do a huge project or to be a

huge firm, but to be able to really

practice architecture. Admittedly,

that limits the projects we can do.”

But Stolzman reasons the limita-

tions in projects are in size, not

style. Other key drivers for the firm

are diversification and the continual

search for challenge. Recently the

firm has been doing a lot of design

for synagogues. “There’s a real

challenge as to how you, in a mod-

ern way, evoke the past and create

the romance that the congregation

is looking for in a comfortable way

appropriate to today’s building and

audience,” Stolzman says. “It’s not

an easy task.”

Although more difficult than

focusing on a particular genre or

design realm, PKSB’s architects and

designers say, starting out with a

clean slate on each project proffers

great results that lend to the firm’s

continual success over the years.

“In a sense, it’s not surprising that

when you really start at the begin-

ning, that’s when you come up with

the best designs,” Stolzman says.

“It’s very important that we be as

diverse as possible so that we can

always be questioning design so we

don’t fall into a sort of recipe, which

is our greatest fear.”

“There’s a sense of tying the structure back to its roots and yetlooking toward the future.”—LAWRENCE ZEROTH

{Design Facts}Firm: Pasanella + Klein Stolzman + Berg

Firm Location: New York, N.Y., USA

Award: 2003 Best of Competition

Winning Design: Williamsburg

Community Center

Design Location: Brooklyn, N.Y., USA

{Judges’ Commentary}The Williamsburg Community Center is a wonderful example of the seamless flow

between interior design and architecture. The consistent and harmonious treatment of

the exterior and interior blend to create an overall emphasis on texture, transparency,

practicality and modernity.

The design of this new community center had to be sensitive to a large, urban 1930s

public housing project considered to be an important modern masterpiece. The new

building has a complex program and incorporated a variety of facilities for children,

youth and adults. Facilities include a gym, a dance studio, a stage, a music recording

studio, art studios, classrooms, computer facilities, a movie projection screen and a

commercial kitchen. The design balances the need for physical security with a desire

for visual permeability.

The judges considered this work a true example of seamless integration of exterior

and interior environments. Its well-proportioned, nicely detailed space is at the heart of

its great design.