Architects
Nicholas Goldsmith and Gisela Stromeyer
"MisGuided: the Fruits of Error and Misconduct"
On the 400th anniversary of the discovery of the Hudson River by Henry Hudson, what interested us was that this discovery is the fruit of a completely misguided expedition. The journey begins by going in the wrong direction and continuing with little evidence that the passage makes sense, until finally [following his fourth and final voyage] Hudson is sacrificed for this lost cause. But in applying himself in this wayward journey, he actually discovers an amazing land, incredible rivers and a vast bay. Just like the expedition of Lewis and Clark, Expedition who were meat–eating hunters and almost died of starvation at the mouth of the Columbia River where some of the highest concentration of salmon exists, so, too, Henry Hudson’s myopic vision of a passage to India didn’t allow him to accept and embrace his new discoveries which that surrounded him. No new colonies were set up;, no lasting relationships with the native populations were created. Hudson was never able to see the fruits of his journey, only his misconduct symbolized by jail time in England and death with his son and a few scurvy infested sailors in Hudson Bay. Most journeys in life turn out differently than first imagined and the Artist and Designer’s creative process is at best a series of harvesting errors and turning them into gilded fruit.
We felt that at this moment it is worth pointing out Hudson’s error and at the same time, the wonderful discovery that came as a result. As the sketches suggest, we will create a framework using a symbol of a mariner’s quadrant (the navigational instrument that a sailor like Hudson would have used in the 17th century). From there, we will use sail–like elements to point out the correct direction to India and frame the element in the Hudson Valley setting.
Bio
Circus tents, not fortresses, are the model for the light, collapsible architecture that distinguishes the work of Nicholas Goldsmith. He and Todd Dalland, partners in New York's FTL/Happold, have specialized in flexible structures for the fashion pavilion at "7th on Sixth" fashion shows to enormous cocoon-like buildings that the U.S. Army can transport and deploy, to the Olympic Village for the 1996 Atlanta games that could be disassembled and relocated from city to city along with the games.
Its structures rely on the tension distributed through tightly stretched fabric to maximize their strength. Their shapes resemble the complex geometries of natural forms. Goldsmith’s award–winning designs include a traveling concert facility for the Metropolitan Opera, the award winning seabird aviary at the Bronx Zoo, a theater for AT&T at the 1996 Olympics and the Harley–Davidson 2003 Open Road Traveling facility.
He has been featured in innumerable publications including an Architectural Monograph titled: FTL: Softness, Movement & Light (Academy Editions, 1998).
Nicholas Goldsmith’s academic experience includes Adjunct Professor at the University of Pennsylvania from 1990 to 2004.
Gisela Stromeyer comes from a family of fourth–generation German tentmakers. Her father Peter Stromeyer, and his partner, the renown architect Frei Otto, were pioneers in the specialized arena of tensile structures. Gisela uses fabric not to create shelter, but to visually and texturally enhance existing spaces. Her architecture training taught her to define spaces within built form, but it was her experience as a dancer that prepared her to create a sense of movement with those spaces. By building with fabric, she creates sensuous forms that satisfy the desire for softness and flexibility.
Stromeyer has been publicshed in Metropolitan Home, Interiors Design, Elle Décor, Interiors, Harper’s Bazaar, New York Times, Metropolis, ID Magazine, VM&SD, Leonardo, Vogue Brazil, and Architecture Und Wohnen. She has been honored with five awards for design and fabrication of the IFAI and Best of Furniture Award by ID.
