This project is an institutional building in Upper West Manhattan near Grant’s Tomb and Riverside Church. The site has a very rich history which I chose to highlight in this design through the domestic scale. This building matches the fabric of the city in material, and shifts between readings as a large institutional building and a series of domestic buildings. This building aims to facilitate the transition between city, to the Southeast, and garden, Riverside Park to the Northwest. It also facilitates the transition between and domestic and institutional since it lies at the edge between the mostly residential Harlem and more institutional Upper West Side of Manhattan. It produces this transition through a cross-grain rhythm particularly evident in plan which balances the structural scale of row houses with the structural and ornamental rhythm of the Jewish Seminary and the Riverside Church. The program includes five major elements: assembly, exhibition, contemplation, archive, and printmaking studios. The assembly space is both indoor and outdoor with the opportunity to open the wall between the two spaces creating an even greater space of assembly.
Aerial collage of rhino model rendered into NYC site
Contemplative space
Preliminary rhythm and spatial analysis studies of the surrounding city fabric. This analysis greatly informed the final design in plan and facade.
Final documentation of site studies
Final documentation of site studies
Riverside Drive level plan
Cross section showing connection from Riverside Drive to the rest of the city through the site
The plan and section above are final presentation drawings which aimed to highlight the relationships between the garden (Riverside Drive and Park) and the City. The indoor assembly space shown in plan connects to the large outdoor assembly area (plan and section). This connection is shown in process perspective drawings (bottom of page) where the indoor assembly space is able to be opened up to the outdoor assembly space for larger demonstrations and other events that are intended to take place in this active complex. This plan shows most clearly the cross-grain rhythm and its structuring effects on circulation and program. This rhythm is drawn from the plan analysis of the surrounding area, a sample of which is shown above.
Longitudinal section highlighting the rhythm and repetition of the galleries and studios
My design process was primarily sketch-based. I was constantly shifting between plan, section, axonometric, and perspective to work through different issues in the project. These perspective sketches show designed moments in the primary sequence, especially the main assembly space and the contemplative space. The clear division and sidedness of the plan was something I tried to break down over the course of the project through the introduction of cross-grain.
Design sketches for assembly space and guiding hearth and the contemplative space in the complex.
Precedents for hearth and ruin studies. (Left-right top: Robert Venturi, Piranesi, Corbusier; bottom: John Soane, Piranesi, Corbusier)
Design sketches in ink, pencil and water color for a small one-room memorial. Collage material tests for mid-review drawings.
Charcoal, chalk, ink, and acrylic design sketches, large.
This series of sketches was for a preliminary partner project, a small one-room memorial in Providence Rhode Island to Roger Williams. This project was intended to both inform and spark the design work for the remainder of the semester.