Join us on the afternoon of Sunday, May 29th for a virtual book club event at which we will discuss author Albena Yaneva’s most recent publication: Crafting Histories: Archiving and the Quest for Architectural Legacy. Albena’s book is available in various formats. Click here to use the discount code on the flyer for an additional 30% off your purchase: CSFF2020
Albena Yaneva is Professor of Architectural Theory and director of the Manchester Architecture Research Group (MARG) at the Manchester Urban Institute. She has been Visiting Professor at Princeton School of Architecture (2013), Parsons, New School (2015) and Politecnico di Turino (2018). She held the prestigious Lise Meitner Visiting Chair in Architecture at the University of Lund, Sweden (2017-2019). Her research is intrinsically transdisciplinary and crosses the boundaries of science studies, cognitive anthropology, architectural theory and political philosophy. She is the author of several books: The Making of a Building (Peter Lang 2009), Made by the OMA: An Ethnography of Design (010 Publishers 2009), Mapping Controversies in Architecture (Routledge 2012), Five Ways to Make Architecture Political. An Introduction to the Politics of Design Practice (Bloomsbury 2017), Crafting History: Archiving and the Quest for Architectural Legacy (Cornell University Press 2020), The New Architecture of Science: Learning from Graphene (World Scientific Publishing 2020), co-authored with Nobel Laureate in Physics Sir Kostya S. Novoselov, Latour for Architects (Routledge 2022) and Architecture After Covid (Bloomsbury 2023). Her work has been translated into German, Italian, Spanish, French, Portuguese, Thai, Polish, Turkish and Japanese. Yaneva is the recipient of the RIBA President’s award for outstanding university-based research.
About Crafting History: Archiving and the Quest for Architectural Legacy:
What constitutes an archive in architecture? What forms does it take? What epistemology does it perform? What kind of craft is archiving? Crafting History provides answers and offers insights on the ontological granularity of the archive and its relationship with architecture as a complex enterprise that starts and ends much beyond the act of building or the life of a creator.
In this book we learn how objects are processed and catalogued, how a classification scheme is produced, how models and drawings are preserved, and how born-digital material battles time and technology obsolescence. We follow the work of conservators, librarians, cataloguers, digital archivists, museum technicians, curators, and architects, and we capture archiving in its mundane and practical course.
Based on ethnographic observation at the Canadian Centre for Architecture and interviews with a range of practitioners, including Álvaro Siza and Peter Eisenman, Albena Yaneva traces archiving through the daily work and care of all its participants, scrutinizing their variable ontology, scale, and politics. Yaneva addresses the strategies practicing architects employ to envisage an archive- based future and tells a story about how architectural collections are crafted so as to form the epistemological basis of architectural history.
Please contact programming@nycarchivists.org with any questions or for more information.
Governors Island, Image courtesy of the Trust for Governors Island | Photo by Julienne Schaer
Join us for a memorable outing to Governors Island for a historic walking tour of New York City’s hidden gem. Governors Island is a 172-acre island in the heart of New York Harbor. The Trust for Governors Island will lead us on an hour-long walking tour around the past, present and future, exploring the historic North Island and new, climate-resilient park on the South Island. Following the walking tour, guests are invited to a potluck picnic located at The Oval of the park (see map below for details).
Please arrive as early as 11:30AM to drop off potluck items at The Oval. The start of the tour leaving from Soissons Landing (the drop-off point for the Manhattan ferry leaving from 10 South St.) is at 12:00PM.
If you miss the tour, simply meet us for a delicious lunch at the picnic spot! Let us know what you’ll contribute to the potluck picnic: sign-up sheet here
What to bring: comfortable walking shoes, sunscreen, food and/or drinks to share (please use sign-up sheet here), beach towel or picnic blanket, and friends!
This is an open event, so please let us know if you'll bring guests!
Getting to Governors Island
Schedule for Free Ferry Rides (tickets required):
Ferry tickets can be reserved online at govisland.org/ferry. Trust-operated ferries leave daily from the Battery Maritime Building in Lower Manhattan, and weekends from Red Hook/Atlantic Basin and Brooklyn Bridge Park/Pier 6 from May 7-September 25. A round-trip ticket is $4 for adults and free for seniors, children under 12, IDNYC holders, NYCHA residents, former and active military service members, Governors Island members, and for everyone on weekends before 12:00PM. NYC Ferry provides additional service to Governors Island, schedules and routes can be found at ferry.nyc.
Visitor Map of Governors Island
About Governors Island: Governors Island is just minutes from Lower Manhattan and the Brooklyn waterfront by ferry, the Island is a popular year-round destination for New Yorkers and visitors from around the world. An award-winning park complements its dozens of historic buildings, year-round educational and cultural facilities, rich arts and culture program and 22-acre National Monument managed by the National Park Service.
About The Trust for Governors Island: The Trust for Governors Island is the 501(c)3 non-profit organization created by the City of New York responsible for the planning, operations, and ongoing development of Governors Island. The Trust’s mission is to realize the full potential of Governors Island for the inspiration and enjoyment of all New Yorkers, demonstrating a bold vision for public space.
Unpacking the Meatpacking District: A Fifth Generation Daughter Remembers a Storied Meat Purveyor
Presented by Jacquie Ottman
While today's Meatpacking District is known for its trendy restaurants and avant-garde art, it had been New York's meatpacking hub for over a century. At its height, the neighborhood was home to not only meat wholesalers and retailers, but dozens of heretofore little understood “meat purveyors” – the “secret sauce” behind New York's top steakhouses including Delmonico's and Peter Luger. It's time to explore one of the most important industries in New York City history, through the very special lens of Ottman and Company, the storied meat purveyor dubbed the “Tiffany of the Meat Business.”
Join us on this fascinating journey led by native New Yorker and fifth generation member Jacquelyn Ottman. Her family of pioneering meat purveyors traces its roots to 1850 in NYC’s historic Fulton Market before setting into the West Washington Market in the now-famous Meatpacking District in 1918. Her family’s pioneering firm’s history parallels the story of New York City’s Meatpacking District – including its architecture, grit, and ability to cradle the present and the past while creating something entirely new and special.
Afterward, we'll have a Q&A with Jacquie — any and all questions about New York's meatpacking industry are welcomed and encouraged!
About Jacquelyn Ottman
Jacquelyn A. Ottman is a native New Yorker and an advocate for zero waste. Over her 40-year professional career, she was a consultant to industry on green marketing and the author of several books, including three editions of “Green Marketing” (Berrett-Koehler, 2012), considered the definitive text on the subject.
A scratch cook since childhood, and the fifth-generation daughter of a family that supplied some of NYC’s best restaurants with the finest quality meats since 1850, she is now focused on culinary issues.
She is the author of three self-published books on her personal culinary history: “Family Gatherings: Five Recipes from Five Generations” (2000), a collection of family recipes; Connecting from a Quarantine Kitchen: My Shelter Island Pandemic Story (KDP 2020), and “Ottman and Company: Meatpacking District Pioneers” (KDP 2022), the story of her family’s 150-year old NYC meat purveying firm that worked with DuPont, WR Grace and Clarence Birdseye to pioneer meat packaging technologies that changed the way meat is prepared in restaurant and home kitchens today.
An immediate past chair of the Manhattan Solid Waste Advisory Board, she is currently focused on reducing food waste by writing a book aimed at inspiring home and professional cooks to discover the joy in transforming leftovers from yesterday’s dinner into something new and special.
A graduate of Smith College with a degree in art history, she is a member of the Culinary Historians Society of New York and the Authors Guild.
