East Hampton’s LongHouse Reserve is heading to New York City where it will host its annual Winter Benefit on Thursday, February 21.
“The 2019 LongHouse Winter Benefit will honor architecture and design luminaries James Carpenter and Toshiko Mori with the LongHouse Award,” Wendy Van Deusen, LongHouse Associate Curator, explained.
Taking place on the top of the Hearst Tower, the evening will pay tribute to Carpenter who will receive an award for his use of light in architecture. LongHouse Reserve Founder Jack Lenor Larsen will introduce Carpenter.
“The celebration will take place at the Hearst Tower in Manhattan, where Mr. Carpenter’s spectacular Ice Falls Waterfall graces the entrance and can be viewed before joining the festivities on the 44th Floor,” Van Deusen explained. ” James Carpenter is a long time friend of Jack Larsen and once Dale Chihuly’s partner in building glass sculpture. Mr. Carpenter also designed the fabulous Israel Museum in Jerusalem, and expanded and modernized the Museum at the Gateway Arch in St. Louis.”
Mori is being honored for her architecture and championing of education.
“Toshiko Mori is the founder and principal of NY based Toshiko Mori Architects and is a proponent of sustainable architecture who often cites the Native American idea of ‘with every single decision you make, you should think of seven generations ahead,'” Van Deusen noted. “Her firm recently designed the Anni and Josef Albers Museum in west Africa, the Modern Art Museum at Rockport in Maine, and the splendid pavilion at Frank Lloyd Wright’s Martin House in Buffalo. Her new houses in New York State are featured in this month’s Architectural Digest.”
The evening will commence with a cocktail reception at 6 p.m., which will offer a magnificent view of Central Park. A conversion about design, led by Honorary Chair Paul Goldberger, will follow at 7 p.m. Then, it’s time for the awards ceremony and the evening will conclude with an intimate dinner.
Along with Goldberger, Leslie and Dale Chihuly and Lee Skolnick will serve as the evening’s Honorary Chairs.
In addition to incredible views of Manhattan, attendees will also have the chance to view Carpenter’s works Ice Falls (2006), a glass water feature situated in the lobby of Hearst Tower. “Transform[ing] the building’s threshold into one of the most extraordinary public spaces in New York. Beyond the sheer visual and audible pleasure, the Ice Falls becomes an ecological cooling device as the water is cooled to a temperature well below the ambient room temperature, condensing humidity in the air on its surface, while radiating cooler air to produce a more comfortable environment,” James Carpenter Design Associates Inc. said about Ice Fall.
Carpenter, who founded his cross-disciplinary firm in 1979, utilizes not just engineering on his projects, but also science to create unique eye-catching masterpieces. His latest projects include an Art Wall at Hudson Yards and in Denmark at the Bornholm Museum.
Mori’s reach can be seen globally, from Brooklyn to Senegal. She has also lent her expertise as the Robert P. Hubbard Professor in the Practice of Architecture at the Harvard University Graduate School of Design, as well as a member and former chair of the World Economic Forum’s Global Agenda Council on Design.
Tickets to the LongHouse’s Winter Benefit begin at $200.
Hearst Tower is located at 300 West 57th Street, floor 4, in New York City. For more information, visit www.longhouse.org.