Since Governors Island first opened to the public in 2004, the attention and interest that this new public place has received has increased exponentially. In 2012, over 300,000 people visited the island through its summer season.

Figment has once again teamed with the Emerging New York Architects Committee (Enya) of the American Institute of Architects NY Chapter (Aiany) and the Structural Engineers Association of New York (SeaoNY) to host a competition to design and construct an architectural pavilion on Governors Island, the City of Dreams Pavilion.

Figment, Enya, and SeaoNY are excited to announce they are now accepting entries for The City of Dreams 2013-2014 Pavilion Design Competition!

Registration deadline: May 1, 2013
Submission deadline: June 1, 2013

To register and for more information, visit the website.

Entries are encouraged from individuals or teams of architects and non-architects of any age or experience level, provided they are prepared to carry out the project.

Instead of a typical design competition, the City of Dreams Pavilion asks entrants to consider how they will construct this temporary structure in the most efficient and sustainable way possible. Entrants are being asked to consider using “borrowed” materials—from existing construction sites and from places where the materials can be returned after the season is over and the temporary structure is disassembled. In the end, the goal is to create a pavilion that has net zero impact and that serves as a prototype for a new, truly sustainable, way of thinking about design and construction.

The 2013-2014 competition will be the fourth City of Dreams Pavilion Design Competition. The third pavilion, Head in the Clouds, is currently being designed by StudioKCA, and will be constructed this summer for the 2013 season. The winner of the 2013-2014 City of Dreams Pavilion competition will be installed and open to the public on New York City’s Governors Island throughout the entire 2014 summer season on Saturdays and Sundays while Governors Island is open from June 8 until September 22, 2013.

The City of Dreams Pavilion at a glance

The City of Dreams Pavilion will be a gathering place for people to meet, learn about the arts programs on the island, be able to enjoy a performance or lecture, and experience the interaction of art and the historic context of Governors Island. Our theme for the pavilion, the City of Dreams, points toward the future. If we imagine a future New York City where anything is possible, what would it look like? In our wildest and most optimistic dreams, what is the future of the city?

The current state of the world is such that both economic and natural resources are limited in ways we have never experienced in our lifetimes. A new way of thinking is necessary to solve the problems that the world faces. Inevitably, the result will be a change in the basic practices that have driven the world to its current state. One place to start to activate and energize these changes in within the architecture and design community, where the movement toward sustainable design has only scratched the surface of what is possible and necessary.

The Competition Jury

The City of Dreams 2013-2014 Pavilion Design Competition will be a two-stage process, in which a jury of leading architects and other industry professionals will review initial submissions and select a number of finalists. These finalists will receive comments and will have the opportunity to revise their proposals. The jury will meet again and select the competition winner in September 2013.

The confirmed jurors for the 2013-2014 City of Dreams Pavilion competition are as follows:
-John Czarnecki, Assoc. AIA, Editor-in-Chief, Contract
-Susannah C. Drake, ASLA, AIA, Principal, dlandstudio
-Mark L. Gardner, AIA, NOMA, Principal, Jaklitsch/Gardner Architects
-Marc Leff, AIA, Leed AP, Partner, Deborah Berke Partners
-Scott Lomax, Vice President, Thornton Tomasetti
-Kate Raudenbush, Sculptor, Photographer, Designer, Kate Raudenbush Experiments

Aleksey Lukyanov-Cherny, Partner, Situ Studio, will serve as a design mentor to the finalists and winning design team.

about Figment

Figment catalyzes and celebrates an abundance of creativity and passion, challenging artists and our communities to find new ways to create, share, think, and dream. Figment’s free annual participatory arts event began in New York City in 2007 and has expanded to include events in cities around the US and now in Australia. In New York, Figment hosts an annual summer-long exhibition on Governors Island that includes an interactive sculpture garden, an artist-designed minigolf course, and an architectural pavilion co-presented with Enya and SEAoNY. For more information, visit the website.

Figment is a 501(c)(3) not-for-profit organization entirely funded by grants and individual donations. Figmentaccepts no corporate sponsorship of any kind. Figment NYC is supported by public funds from the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs, in partnership with the City Council, as well as by the Fund for Creative Communities, supported by the New York State Council on the Arts with the support of Governor Andrew Cuomo and the New York State Legislature and administered by the Lower Manhattan Cultural Council.

about Enya

It is the goal of the Emerging New York Architects Committee to encourage membership, participation, and leadership in the Aiany Chapter among intern architects, young architects (licensed 10 years or less), and emerging professionals in the fields of design and construction. The committee engages NYC’s diverse emerging design professionals through lectures, design competitions, and networking opportunities, with a focus on Professional Development, Design Excellence, and Public Outreach.

Founded in 1857, the AIA New York Chapter is the oldest and largest chapter of the American Institute of Architects. The Chapter’s members include over 4,600 practicing architects, allied professionals, students, and public members interested in architecture and design. The AIA New York Chapter is dedicated to three goals: design excellence, public outreach, and professional development.

about SEAoNY

SEAoNY is a member organization of the National Council of Structural Engineers Associations. Presently, 39 states and the District of Columbia have structural engineers’ associations, the largest of which is Seaoc, Structural Engineers Association of California, which was founded in 1930 and presently has approximately 4000 members.

The association sponsors workshops, panel discussions, lectures and seminars with the aim of addressing topics of interest and concern to structural engineers. Our membership, which is over 500 members, includes individuals from most major structural engineering design firms in New York State.

SEAoNY also reaches out to other professionals, outside the engineering community, who work in related fields with common interests. Currently, 10% of our membership are affiliate members who come from a variety of disciplines such as geotechnical, civil, construction management and architecture.

The purpose of SEAoNY is to advance the art of structural engineering in New York by improving the flow of ideas and building the community of colleagues.