Gray Organschi Architecture launched its completely new website, designed by mgmt. and built by GrayBits.
With the new interface and updated content, it is now much easier to navigate through our past 20 years of work, including the research and teaching that is critical to our practice. If this is your first time on our new site, welcome!
Gray Organschi Architecture collaborated with the Yale Center for Ecosystems in Architecture to design, fabricate, and install the Ecological Living Module (ELM) for the United Nations Environment Programme.
The 22-square meter home is constructed from renewable bio-based building materials and fully self-sufficient in terms of energy and water. The first demonstration unit, located in the UN Plaza in New York City, from July 9–August 23, contains features relevant to the local climate and context of New York. Future iterations of the module—including one in Kenya, the home of UN Environment—will respond specifically to local climatic and cultural contexts.
The 2018 USDA Forest Service Wood Innovation Grants have allocated $8 million to 34 projects brought forward by business, university, nonprofit, and tribal organizations in 20 states to stimulate the growth of wood-based technologies and markets. In addition to increasing the health, efficiency, and resilience of US forests, projects were also selected for the use of wood products in innovative ways and promoting economic development in rural communities.
GOA and its affiliate projects have received three of these grants.
"Northern Forests to Timber Cities: Linking Urban Construction Demand to Northern Forest Mass Timber and Harvested Wood Products" works to develop new supply chains and material flows that connect the underutilized supply of New England softwood forests and rural workforce to the region's insatiable demand for dense sustainable urban construction. "Overbuilds with Mass Timber—Building Preservation, Restoration and Growth" is centered around the Acme Lofts project, which restores a historic downtaown masonry and increases its intensity of use with a circulation core and two additional storeys made of mass timber, and extends from our experimentation with a timber rooftop addition on Firehouse 12. "Affordable Housing Opportunities with Mass Timber" uses the 340+ Dixwell project as a precedent and catalyst for the use of mass timber structural systems as a way to create high-quality, healthy affordable housing stock in urban centers while empowering a new regional workforce.
Principal Alan Organschi has been named as the 2019 Portman Visiting Critic at Georgia Institute of Technology School of Architecture. As Portman Critic, Alan will participate in the academic life of Georgia Tech as a visiting design studio critic and guest lecturer, as well as chair the jury for the Portman Prize, which recognizes student achievements in integrating technical detail considerations into the larger concepts and process of design. He will also contribute to the curriculum of the School's comprehensive building design workshop, sharing his experience at the intersections of architecture, site, detail, and building technology.