Student: Benjamin Carr
Project: Metropolitan Museum Islamic Art Wing

This project is the design development of an earlier proposal from a vertical studio for a 40,000 SF addition to the Metropolitan Museum in NYC. The new wing is for Islamic Art, with a public lobby space and outdoor landscape which reintegrates the museum into Central Park. The entire proposal is geared towards a combination of new construction techniques, using pre-fabricated CNC formwork for reinforced concrete components as well as Building Infomation Modeling to organize and streamline the assembly of parts on-site.

Student: Benjamin Bradley
Project: Islamic Art Wing Extension : Metropolitan Museum of Art

Ascending the Minaret - A Climb to the Top of Central Park

The program for this project consists of a forty thousand square foot addition of exhibition space along with forty thousand square feet of exterior public green space. Galleries house a variety of artifacts from textiles to sculpture to paintings to an archeological ruin. The light conditions within each separate gallery must be highly controlled. There are also support spaces, curators’ offices, storage facilities and a café included in the program.

The extension exists as a series of vertically organized galleries which stem from one end of a day-lit subterranean exhibition space housing Islamic ruins excavated from Jordan. Each gallery exists within the ordered system of ascension through the wing as a non-uniform floor plate buffered by two separate conditions: on the exterior side it is buffered from the park context by a lighting-control façade composed of an opaque material perforated with a pattern of translucent and transparent panels, while the interior edge condition of the floor plates, open to the atrium which slides vertically throughout the galleries, completely visually accessible to the visitor. This will allow complete visual access to the galleries above and below, emphasizing the vertical orientation of the experience. The exhibits are experienced from top-to bottom, but the top-down orientation is not a huge emphasis – random circulation is encouraged. With each floor changed, the dynamic of the gallery space changes due to the visual connection made with the galleries above and below, hinting at what’s to come next while constantly reminding of what was just experienced.

The tower is located away from Fifth Avenue in order to afford an opportunity for the visitor to engage the Manhattan skyline in a manner previously unavailable to the public. The focus within the galleries, however, will not be on the skyline, but rather on the exhibitions. There will be controlled levels of visual permeability thru the exterior façade, which will become completely porous once the highest level of the tower is reached, acting as a pinnacle to the journey thru the exhibits.

The experience of moving thru the Islamic wing will be one of ambiguity for the visitor. In Islamic cultures the screen was used for functional and aesthetic reasons, and the exterior façade of the tower seeks to function in the same way, masking the context of the site to a degree while controlling light levels and hinting at the overall ascension of the visitor into the airspace above central park. This aesthetic functions on a number of levels, providing visual turbulence and ambiguity on the small scale of the visitor as well as ambiguity and a moiré effect for the experience of the third person party, perhaps viewing the tower from across Fifth Avenue or Columbus Circle. The screen of the façade will also generate complex patternings of shadows that will register across the site and existing south west corner of the Met.

Student: Mike O'Mara
Project: Crevice Tower

Located on the southeast corner at the intersection of Greenwich Street and Liberty Street, Lower Manhattan, sits a slim site that divides the east-west pedestrian passage (comprised mainly of public parks/plazas) that migrates from the East River at Wall Street west to Battery Park City. In order to continue the flow of movement and park space, this design proposes a residential tower that serves as an urban crevice. From the macro scale of the urban environment, this crevice will afford and intensify substantial movements between the two east-west park systems, allowing that space to become not of a territorial nature, but one that addresses the desire for openness of movements from which new aleatory connections among people and activities can emerge. This crevice also exposes the micro-scale conditions of an urban residential environment. Similar to the organization of geologically occurring crevices or canyons, in which a stratification of information emerges exposing the history and composition of our Earth; this urban crevice exposes the stratification of various systems integrated with a residential community and how those systems are “cross-stratified”. By carving away the interior “core” of a tower multiple systems emerge, more rigid in their composition are structure, program, lighting, materials, and more flexible systems involve social conditions of the tower. This crevice is the core organizational element of the tower, it is the space where the mega-truss structure exposes itself as the skeleton of the building (rigid system), and also it is the larger community center of the residential environment (flexible system), a space where people will socialize, relax, eat, and exercise. The stratification of these systems is what comprises the building, but the dynamic conditions emerging from this “cross-stratification” are what organize this as a vertical urban environment.

Student: Michelle Georgens
Project: Almada Catholic Church

The Almada Catholic church was designed to imply a higher force both physically and spiritually. The sun and the moon change the space over time. This is similar to the definition of spirituality. This is why I decided to design a church, a space where wonder is inspirational in the form of the church. The architecture seems to float up from the land and levitate. Light is reflected off of the water and onto the levitated surfaces suggesting the strength of the power above. My scheme addresses the issue of sacred space by separating the sanctuary physically from the land and allows the water to engulf the site.

The sanctuary needs to inspire prayer and hope through the strength of the architecture. It is to evoke thought of that which is not on this earth, by restricting views to the exterior but allowing light to penetrate the space from unseen openings. The walls work as a canvas for the light. Light appears at the top of the sanctuary as it reflects from the water onto the ceiling. In the sanctuary there is no view of the outside world. Large walls separate the space from the rest of the complex. Light enters through these large walls in various ways to provide lighting where needed and inspire thoughts of what might be above the space, providing the light for instance this happens above the offices. The sanctuary space is very simple and neat, only the necessary furniture is present. There is no decoration or ornamentation. It is plane to show the reflection of the light and create this heavenly presence within a space on earth. The water is used to reflect the light into the space, providing a wavering light on the ceiling and overhangs of the sanctuary and processional space. The way light affects the form of the building. It makes the building float above itself or above the water. Light becomes a structural object and this inspires aw and wonder, which is the essence of spirituality. However, at night the complex becomes a beacon of light to the people around the site or on the water.

The rest of the complex is composed of three large walls that represent the holy trinity. The walls create the armature for the circulation of the building as well as the structure for the classrooms and offices. The classrooms are of translucent glass to appear mystical and yet have some degree of presence on the exterior of the building by omitting light at night.

Student: Corey McCormack
Project: Splintering, a Method for Re-stitching Urban Fabric

Rome, the jigsaw puzzle of a city, has numerous dynamic forces which impact its formation and growth.  The Tiber River is one of these dynamic forces and continues to be instrumental in shaping the city.  The Tiber River constitutes a continuous slice through the city center leaving in its wake a tremendous void.  The Romans constantly struggle to reprogram this space back into a functional part of the city…

‘Temporary – Those conditions that inform a length of duration for the use of a particular space.’

The Program:
This instance of temporary pertains to housing aimed at students and young professionals who need a place for both living and working throughout their stay/visit to Rome.  Each apartment is designed in such a way to allow its configurations to be expanded out or compacted in.  Every occupant is able to employ these various configurations to meet their daily needs.  This type of apartment is advantageous for their stage in life and particular situation but will be left once that stage is completed and this arrangement is no longer suitable.  The space that is below the apartments, subject to the rise and fall of the river, is home to daily markets and other temporary activities that can sustain against an ever changing environment.

The Building:
A new structure is going to be placed here to which is going to permeate this emptiness and re-stitch the city fabric left unraveled by the presence of the Tiber River.  The actual building components include a ‘splinter’ of the original embankment wall containing the apartments and a vertical piazza, the ‘thread’ connecting the old fabric to the new.  Out in the open, possibly floating, the ‘splinter’ appears sharp and unrefined but still emanates an association with its parent, the embankment wall.  This tension with the original wall creates incredible spaces, being highly sculptural and easily programmed.

Student: China C. Clarke
Project: 70 Kurfurstemdamm Berlin, Germany

The site is 70 Kurfurstemdamm Berlin, Germany. It is 4 meters by 20 meters. The size of the site has been the driver of the circulation. Zaha Hadid had the idea to cantilever the upper floors. The building hovers over the pedestrians that move along the sidewalk below.

The façade curves in plan as if being pulled along the road by the force of the traffic movement. The façade pulls at the building, shifting the once orthogonal elements slightly out of plane. This shift has the benefit of adding structural stability to the building. It is also pulling the inhabitants towards the east edge of the building. The steel members that support the glass enclosure are highly specular and reflective so as to almost disappear. The façade is inhabitable, within its thickness you can circulate vertically within each office space. Once one is inside the façade 180° views of the city (both horizontally and vertically) are possible.

To enter the building one moves up a low inclined ramp and then a staircase or an elevator. The circulation spaces have surface finishes that are highly textured, the office interiors have smooth and slightly reflective surfaces the inhabitable area of the facade has highly reflective surfaces. This shift in surface finish is a way of further enhancing the feeling of dematerialization as one moves toward the east façade.

The office spaces shattered in section in an attempt to create several types of spaces to inhabit. Although these spaces are physically removed from one another they are visually connected. The visual connection is vital in order for the spaces to not seem too small. Each office floor plan is completely unique. The only element that is repeated is the location of the restrooms (on the west side between the circulation cores).

Hadid takes visual compositional cues from Malevich and other Suprematist artists. I will follow these cues through the shifting of formal elements. This shifting will create dynamic spaces that are only understandable by moving thorough them.