“This studio focuses its inquiry on a section of one of the most important streets of the world - upper Broadway from Columbus Circle to 170th Street. With seemingly contrasting goals of being a retail corridor, a planted greenway, an urban infrastructural system, and a vehicular thoroughfare, it’s hard to imagine packing in anything else.
As the economic models for retail engagement shift to new online shopping patterns, storefronts are no longer the public face of consumerism. If retail thoroughfares are dying, where will the life of our streets come from? What alternate typologies can we imagine filling those voids that maximize leisure, public health, and urban ecology?”
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After early research and site visit on Broadway, I developed interests in small and temporary elements like food vendors and emerging digital infrastructures like LinkNYC, etc. I was attracted to something dynamic, unstable and being ignored in Manhattan grids. Meanwhile, I did research on unhoused people encampment on Broadway which inspired me to create a more inclusive public space for diverse needs.
In addition to analytical mappings, I made several concept concrete study models and a box of curiosities to develop the initial ideas of my design. In this process, I tested with different materials and crafts. Following the kit of parts, my project started focusing on street design and playground design for diverse and flexible uses.
Instructor: David Seiter, Aaron Booher
(2020)![]()
