Using two overlapping field conditions – a grid of sycamores and a grid of spaced reinforced concrete cubes – the challenge was to create a landscape for “hanging out” having degrees of enclosure and definition, located within the main campus pedestrian flow. In the more secure portions of the enclosures, changing exhibits of current design activities from all sectors of the Institute would afford the occasion for people from differing disciplines to informally interact, thus modifying the tendency for everything and everyone to remain within a given category.

The primary challenge in this study was to build a gallery (The Drawing Center) under a park in Lower Manhattan in a way that both fully explores the public qualities of “park” and, at the same time, provides a gallery experience that is sympathetic to materials exhibited and also remains connected to the city above – that does not feel buried.