Letter to the mayor architectures of freedom marina otero

NEW YORK, NY PERMIT #2667

US POSTAGE PAID

Letters to the Mayor is thus a compilation of briefs, facts, desires and dreams for the construction of our cities foundations and horizons.

All competition briefs and letters will be sent to each respective City Mayor after being presented at the Storefront gallery.

NONPROFIT ORGANIZATION

April 30–May 24

Sincerely, Storefront for Art and Architecture Letters to the Mayor Competition of Competitions, a project launched in 2013 that invited interdisciplinary teams of architects, artists, economists, philosophers, writers, and citizens at large to formulate their visions of the future of architecture and cities in the form of a competition brief. With the intention to provoke long-standing conventions of the architecture

Storefront for Art and Architecture 97 Kenmare Street New York, NY 10012

more than 100 entries, which were reviewed by a jury of professionals and visionaries including Amale Andraos (Architect, Work AC), Paola Antonelli (Architecture Curator, MoMA), and Michael Sorkin (Architect and architecture critic).

Letters to the Mayor

present ideas and methodologies and express some of the concerns and desires that might contribute to action within political spheres.

The Mayor of Amman The Mayor of Ann Arbor The Mayor of Barcelona The Mayor of Berlin The Mayor of Boston The Mayor of Buenos Aires The Mayor of Buffalo The Mayor of Dublin The Mayor of Essex The Mayor of Guayaquil The Mayor of Hong Kong The Mayor of Houston The Mayor of Istanbul The Mayor of Johannesburg The Mayor of Kuwait City The Mayor of Lisbon The Mayor of Los Angeles The Mayor of Madrid The Mayor of Mexico City The Mayor of New York The Mayor of Paris The Mayor of Ramallah The Mayor of Sarajevo The Mayor of Schiedam and more...

Throughout history, architects have engaged with this responsibility and the structures of economic, political and cultural power in different ways and with varying degrees of success. With the rise of globalization and the homogenization of the contemporary city, the role of the architect in the political arena has often been relegated to answering questions that others have asked. While designing the next economically driven cultural-iconic-touristic object, an increasing amount of both architects and with them, politicians, have forgotten the ethics that should be associated with architectural practice and the potential of design in the construction of public life.

Joyce Hwang, Catherine Ingraham, Catherine Johnson, Julia King, María Langarita, Alexandra Lange, Ana María León Crespo, Ariane Lourie Harrison, Jing Liu, Yeoryia Manolopoulou, Mpho Matsipa, Mitch McEwen, Shelley McNamara, Meredith Miller, Elizabeth O’Donnell, Marina Otero, Mariana Pestana, Rocío Pina, Anna Puigjaner, Danielle Rago, Suchi Reddy, Dagmar Richter, Florencia Rodríguez, Rebecca Rudolph, Saskia Sassen, Deborah Schneiderman, Annabelle Selldorf, Maria Smith, Michael Sorkin, Esther Sperber, Martha Thorne, Nathalie de Vries, Sarah Whiting, Mabel Wilson, Kim Yao, Marisa Yiu, Alejandro Zaera Polo, Mimi Zeiger, Zoka Zola, and more...

,

Ellie Abrons, Emily Abruzzo, Nora Akawi, Azra Akšamija, Zahra Ali Baba, Suad Amiry, Arielle Assouline-Lichten, Bronwyn Breitner, Alessandra Cianchetta, Odile Decq, Sonja Duempelmann, Keller Easterling, Pia Ednie-Brown, Frida Escobedo, Daniela Fabricius, Yvonne Farrell, Daisy Froud, Rosalie Genevro, Cristina Goberna,

to articulate and translate the collective aspirations of society, and

To:

Letters to the Mayor architects to the political leaders of more than 20 cities around the

From:

CC: Taking Buildings Down INC_A The Discreet Architect Local Provision Studio [Valeria Federighi, Janet Yoon] Open Source Open Space: Hacking the Built Environment Boot/Trunk [Nicole Lindahl, Louise Mackie, Samantha Senn] The City is The Room. The Room is The City.

FormFictionFormat [Elena Palacios Carral, Manijeh Verghese] NO TITLES, A Campaign for Illegal Architecture GroundLAB [Sean Billy Kizy, Sara Lum, Rakia Seaborn, Nicholas Sharma] Nature, Error, Babies Metonymy’s Architecture [Tom Nurmi, Jeffrey Dunn, Meagan Lehr, Erika Wilder] Deploy Yourself, Not Your Designs The Coalition for the Improvement of Refugee Camps [Mary Monroe, Lee Dykxhoorn]

[Min Chen, Kristin Enright] Amazonia 2020 Civic Projects [Kati Rubinyi, Deborah Richmond, Michael Powell, Ewan E. Branda] The Next Suburb The Thirteenth Hour [

]

Off-the-Radar: The Architecture of Non-Existing Space Mitnick-Roddier [Mireille Roddier, Keith Mitnick] Labyrinth grey_matter(s) [Annie Charleston, William McCommon, Megan McDonough, Shota Vashakmadze] ReDesign the Discipline of Architecture The Architecture Lobby BLISS: Better Living through Intuitive Soft Surveillance Yeadon Space Agency Future Factory Gretchen Wilkins [with Ian Nazareth and students Matthew Ellis, Ken Yip Lai, Sarah Moussa, Francisca Rodriguez, Nicholas Stathopoulos]

normaldesign [Matthias Neumann in collaboration with Shane T. Umman ] Second Nature El Corbusier Into the Void: An Architectural Competition on Emptiness Zooburbia [Felipe Orensanz, Rodrigo Duran]

About

Storefront for Art and Architecture is committed to the advancement of innovative and critical positions at the intersections of architecture, program of exhibitions, events, competitions, publications and projects provides an alternative platform for dialogue and collaboration across disciplinary, geographic and ideological boundaries. Through its physical and digital platforms, Storefront provides an open forum for experiments that impact the understanding and future of cities, urban territories and public life.

Since its founding in 1982, Storefront has presented the work of over one thousand architects and artists. and relies on the support of individuals. To make a donation or become a member, contact +1 212.431.5795 or visit website at www.store frontnews.org/ support.

Executive Director and Chief Curator

Eva Franch i Gilabert Director of External Relations

Kara Meyer Associate Curator

Carlos Mínguez Carrasco Development and Communications Coordinator

Zeynep Göksel

Finalists of the 2013 Competition of Competitions, a project that seeks to provide and deliver new and relevant forms of engagement and content to the economic, political and social systems that currently act as the voice of authority for the development of our cities. Competition of Competitions asks architects, artists, economists, philosophers, writers, and citizens at large to create interdisciplinary teams to formulate the questions of our

Gallery Manager and Project Coordinator

Piotr Chizinski Venice Biennale OfficeUS Project Coordinator

Irina Chernyakova Web Master

Greg Mihalko Interns

sion the visions for the future in the form of a competition brief.

Susana Holguin-Veras, Silvia Callegari, Ashley Kuto,

Tyrene Calvesbert, Diandra Cohen, Yuma Shinohara, Michael Signorile, Melody Stein, Elise Stella Volunteers

Jordan Marie Anderson, Sharif Anous, Tomaz Capobianco, Stine Ilum, Andrew Goodhouse, Amie Cunat, Megan Enright, Adam Feldman, Cara Cecilio, Lauren Johnson, Matthew Lohry, Ryan Ripoli, Benjamin Pollack, Marie Dyhr Caspersen, Liz Naiden, Lauren Trahan, Aurelia Rohrbacker, Charlie Sneath, Amanda Madigan, Daryl King, Jordana Vasquez, Isabelle Kirkham-Lewitt, Richard Duff Board of Directors

Charles Renfro President Campbell Hyers Vice President R. Douglass Rice Treasurer Lauren Kogod Secretary Carlos Brillembourg Hal Foster Belmont Freeman Terence Gower Steven T. Incontro James von Klemperer Marc Kushner Michael Manfredi William Menking Margery Perlmutter Linda Pollak Sylvia J. Smith Robert M. Rubin Artur Walther Mabel Wilson Karen Wong Kyong Park Founder Shirin Neshat Sarah Herda Joseph Grima Board of Advisors

Kent Barwick Stefano Boeri Peter Cook Beatriz Colomina Chris Dercon Elizabeth Diller Claudia Gould Dan Graham Peter Guggenheimer Richard Haas Brooke Hodge

Steven Holl Steven Johnson Toyo Ito Mary Jane Jacob Mary Miss Antoni Muntadas Hans Ulrich Obrist Lucio Pozzi Frederieke Taylor Anthony Vidler James Wines Poster Design

Lauren Francescone Gallery Location

Kenmare Street between Mulberry and Lafayette Streets. Trains: 6 to Spring; N/R to Prince; B/D/F/V to Broadway Lafayette Gallery Hours

Open Tuesday–Saturday 11am–6pm Closed Sunday–Monday General support for Storefront for Art in Architecture is made possible by the Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts; The Greenwich Collection Ltd.; the Lily Auchin-closs Foundation; the New York State Council on the Arts with the support of Governor Andrew Cuomo and the New York State Legislature; public funds from the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs in partnership with the City Council; The Peter T. Joseph Foundation; the Foundation for Contemporary Arts; by its Board of Directors, members and by individuals.

For more information about upcoming events and projects, or to learn about different ways to get involved with Storefront, visit www.storefrontnews.org, e-mail info@storefrontnews.org or call +1 212.431.5795.

New York, April 2014 Dear Mayor Bill de Blasio, In New York freedom is now a tourist attraction, I thought you should know. For about 50 dollars and in less than four hours, the ‘Freedom Tour’ takes you from the Statue of Liberty to the Four Freedoms Park; from the 9/11 Memorial to the One World Trade Center—also known as Freedom Tower—which has already conquered Manhattan’s sky.

He also made it. Fearless and staring at the tower, we see him standing on the top of the Brooklyn Heights promenade fence. You know what came next. Passing "no trespassing" signs and bypassing security measures, he got in. He then climbed up through the scaffolding onto the sixth floor, took the elevator up to the 88th floor, the staircase up to 104th floor, and finally to the spire of the Freedom Tower. A 16-year-old boy from New Jersey made it into the United States' tallest building; into a tower that claims to exceed the safety requirements of the building code, and expects to create a new standard for tall buildings through its “structural redundancy, enhanced fireproofing, biological and chemical air filters.” He made it into—let’s call it—the ‘architecture of security,’ the paragon of 21st century global architecture: “We continue to reassess our security posture at the site and are constantly working to make this site as secure as possible," said the chief security officer for the Port Authority in a statement, after Justin Casquejo, regardless of any fence, made it into the Freedom Tower. In an image circulating in media we see him standing on the top of the fence, staring at what is now is a tower, and before were two—hijacked planes cutting through cloudless September sky, the Twin Towers collapsing to the ground, a cloud of dust and office papers crossing the river towards the promenade.

The NYC Freedom Tour, for about 50 dollars and in less than four hours, dear Mayor. It takes you from the Freedom Tower to the Four Freedoms Park, through straight lines of trees and granite blocks—perfectly and homogeneously cut—to an empty room facing the horizon; to a view of skyscrapers and their reflecting glass; to a security wire; to a sign in the ground—please do not enter—right before the water. In the background, the Freedom Tower.

You weren’t there yet to perform the ribbon-cutting ceremony. It was forty years after its commission to architect Louis I. Kahn in 1972 that the Four Freedoms Park finally opened to honor President Franklin D. Roosevelt and his legendary speech of January 1941. Roosevelt went on to state: "This is not the vision of a distant millennium...That kind of world is the very antithesis of the "New Order” of tyranny which the dictators seek to create with the crash of a bomb...The world order which we seek is the cooperation of free countries, working together in a friendly, civilized society."

Roosevelt’s Four Freedoms Speech drew a world founded upon four essential freedoms that would have to be ensured to any person anywhere in the world: freedom of speech, freedom of worship, freedom of want, freedom from fear. The speech act was,

paradoxically, the prelude to the United States intervention in the war; the park and the tower are its contemporary monuments.

Contemporary global security regimes have acquired material reality in the architecture of freedom—or security, war and fear. It arises in global cities such as New York, and unfolds in less polished examples in Iraq, Afghanistan, Pakistan or Yemen, under "Enduring Freedom” operations, in the “right to self-defense” or in Article 51 of the Charter of the United Nations.

"Freedom means the supremacy of human rights worldwide. Our support goes to those who struggle to achieve those rights or keep them,” Roosevelt continued. But freedom, in New York, means security—from the Freedom Tower to the Four Freedoms Park, through metal detectors, body scanners, fences, mass data collecting programs, police and ideological barriers. “Remain alert and have a safe day,” says the subway voice while I finish this letter.

In New York, freedom means economic liberalism and its forms and technologies of power—for about 50 dollars and in less than four hours, the official NYC Freedom Tour takes you from The Statue of Liberty to One World Trade Center, also known as Freedom Tower. It also includes a stop at Wall Street.

Whom do these architectures of freedom—that don’t set us free—finally benefit? Dear Mayor de Blasio, I thought you should know. A ribbon-cutting ceremony could be performed for a new Freedom Tour in New York, for a different architecture of freedom: one that challenges fences, limits, boundaries, security wires; one that releases us from the tyranny of record-high housing rents, foreclosures, income inequality, unaffordable education, racial profiling, precarious labor conditions or immigration laws; one that deserves to become a tourist attraction. Or, at least, one that doesn’t promote security, war or fear in the name of freedom.

Sincerely, Marina Otero Verzier