Peace Pentagon Competition: A CALL TO ACTION
Friends of 339 invites architects, designers, artists, engineers and multi-disciplinary teams worldwide to participate in a competition to re-imagine and rebuild the Peace Pentagon, located at 339 Lafayette Street in New York City.
This is an opportunity to give a physical form to a name in-use since this building became the center of peace-promoting activism in the 1960s. We are seeking proposals that will support and expand the work of peace activists on several scales: as a financially and ecologically sustainable building, as a means of engaging with a neighborhood that has a rich history of activism and art, and as part of an influential city that can impact thinking in far away places.
Deadline: December 9, 2009
Eligibility. Open to all artists, architects, engineers & students. Multidisciplinary teams are encouraged

Jury: Ashok Raiji, Deborah Gans, DeeDee Haleck, Martha Rosler, Michael Sorkin, Mimi Hoang, Nato Thompson and William Menking
Prizes will be awarded as follows:
– First Prize: US$ 5,000.00
– Second Prize: US$ 2,000.00
_____________
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
CONTACT: peacepentagoncompetition@gmail.com
http://www.peacepentagoncompetition.org/
PEACE PENTAGON COMPETITION: A CALL TO ACTION invites architects, designers, artists, engineers and multi-disciplinary teams worldwide to participate in a competition to re-imagine and rebuild the Peace Pentagon, located at 339 Lafayette Street in New York City.
This is an opportunity to give a physical form to a name in-use since this building became the center of peace-promoting activism in the 1960’s. We are seeking proposals that will support and expand the work of peace activists on several scales: as a financially and ecologically sustainable building, as a means of engaging with a neighborhood that has a rich history of activism and art, and as part of an influential city that can impact thinking in far away places.
The New York headquarters of radical pacifism and social justice advocacy needs an outward presence and an internal locus. This call to action aims to challenge the usual approach of putting art into or on a building. The program work of this building needs an emotional/intellectual appeal to its surroundings that draws people inside and motivates them to get involved. The tenant organizations need spaces that encourage a sense of community and counteract the potential for internal division and burnout.
The 339 Building Community originally formed around a shared office in Lower Manhattan, which was re-located to the present site in 1969. The building is owned by the A.J Muste Memorial Institute. Part of the Muste Institute’s mission as a non-profit, is to provide low-cost space for a group of affiliated organizations, especially the original owner of the building, the War Resisters League. The 1st floor is currently rented to for-profit retail spaces and the two upper floors provide office space for peace and justice organizations at subsidized rents.
The Peace Pentagon Competition is a project for a living community and has been shaped by its need to balance resources, values, and priorities. The current condition of the building requires that action must be taken, to protect the value of this asset. We are seeking proposals for the building’s future that provide for the needs of its users in a dynamic way. The challenge is to develop a visionary plan that can be accomplished on a limited budget.
Objectives
1. Mobilizing the Building: Use the building to reach out to the neighborhood and to promote a sense of community with the neighborhood. Persuasively express the spirit of the peace and justice movement. How does the strategy express the basic values and respond to specific conflicts? How can the building’s presence inspire people to get involved?
2. Supporting the Movement: Create a program for a financially, socially and environmentally sustainable building community. What forms and spatial relationships are suggested by interactions between the different building functions? How can the architecture deepen a sense of internal community?
Deadline: December 9, 2009
Eligibility. Open to all artists, architects, engineers & students. Multidisciplinary teams are encouraged
Jury: Ashok Raiji, Deborah Gans, DeeDee Haleck, Martha Rosler, Michael Sorkin, Mimi Hoang, Nato Thompson and William Menking
Prizes will be awarded as follows:
– First Prize: US$ 5,000.00
– Second Prize: US$ 2,000.00
– Third Prize: to be determined