12 West 27th St. 17th floor
New York City 10001
phone (212) 337-1002
Awarded first prize, this project establishes a major public space at the Manhattan anchorage of the Brooklyn Bridge, and creates connections to it through reconstruction of existing parks, buildings, and city streets. Current site conditions impede pedestrian passage. The haphazard landscapes of Foley Square, City Hall Park, and Police Plaza are disorienting, and auto ramps create dead space at grade. Residential superblocks interrupt movement, privatize green space, and isolate neighborhoods. Our proposed design bridges these urban gaps by envisioning public parks to reinforce axial relationships, infilling empty lots to create active public spaces below the bridge approaches, continuing existing streets through superblocks to encourage passage, and adding low rise residential construction to increase activity.
To aid in defining long-range planning goals for this rural boarding school, a multi-phase campus plan was proposed. The design focused on improvement of way-finding and campus circulation, enhancement and definition of green spaces within the sloping topography and capricious building adjacencies, preservation of the existing farm complex character, and future building project definition and location. The creation of a gathering space at the center of the campus is marked by a new chapel, a non-denominational meeting and meditation space. It responds in form, materials, and size to the surrounding vernacular, and includes an outdoor porch over-looking a green. Through several phases, existing pedestrian routes will be redefined with axial connections between existing, relocated, and new buildings.