3/4 Jury Stuff

More to follow later

3/4 Jury: Where is the Architecture?

The title pretty much sums up what I need to do until final jury. More architecture, more 'Adam' in the buildings instead of the banality of minimalist architecture.

Clarity through plans is essential for the conveyance of ideas


The potential of viewing areas: This site and buildings have the potential to view Serra, etc from ABOVE, something that no other facility can really provide. Show this more, and capitalize on it.

Site plan with interaction of the buildings, of the site with the buildings, of the site with the surrounding community.

What is the experience of the site and of the architecture, this should be Jewish Museum-esque in that it can be interesting and exciting when there arent any exhibits or works of art inside. Make the architecture an exhibit in itself.

Take a creative leap - make my own sculptural intervention that is enjoyable as an experience by itself and one that interlaces itself with the community (do a section trhough the site and the surrounding community)

* Site plan, engagement of outside space, communal involvement, and 'Adam' space *

More to follow soon but I gotta get to the paper for now

Mid Jury Reactions

Human scale:
Obviously lacking in most of our presentations.
-Address it by combining the next reaction of:

Zooming In
-Where do the interventions work the best?
--Focus in on these to get the pint across and then move on from there, provide a few different examples for the much discussed variation and evolution in program.


Support Space
-What do the users do after they are done with the art?
--Mixed-use space and support facilities, i.e. hotels, shopping, restaurants, ampitheater (already in place and in schematic / hypothetical phases

Embrace the open space, lead the user to the art with the architecture and show it to them, don't force the art on them, they will not realize it is actually considered 'art.'
-Red Trevi Fountain (again)

Find a larger theme
-Hadrian's Villa
-Disney
--A palace of spatial experience

Link the art to the history and to the specific site
-What?

Create guidelines of interventions
-What, where, parameters, etc.
--Battery Park

Overlying theory
-Individual narratives and experiences
--Numbers of users
--Numbers of artists

Seeding into the city
-Already shown, but needs to be reinforced

Images/Brief Reactions

Image 1: Reading Yard facing south ca. 1945

Image 2: Reading Yard from the 'mountain'

Image 3: Aerial image of Reading Yard

All show dense city grid surrounding site... Have to get more organized on the presentation side of things, so I will be organizing a Ppt for the history of the site and surrounding neighborhoods/edge conditions to get that more across than I have up to this point.

Also, more art needs to be shown, the likes of Christo, Tacha, Jansen, Serra, DAIM, GRL, etc. to allow the jurors to see what scale of art is possible here and WHY it is so much more convenient and better than MoMA, D:B, GFS, SK etc.

Placement of parkway next to overall site plan for idea of immense scale.

Thesis statement!

Updated map with section lines and newer info.

Topo map @ same scale

Transportation lines notated.

Emphasize how the site meets the neighborhood, and how this will branch out into the community and how the community will reach in to the site.

More later.

Post 2/25 Meeting

Looking at new case studies of retractable roof systems and their components/structures due to their similarities with trains and movable floors and platforms. If an artist requires larger platforms, screens, etc., tracks that are laying around the site unused can easily be relocated and connected to the existing network of rails to provide easy configuration of installation space. As these platforms (probably of boxcar proportion, 5:1) are manipulated and shifted, they may block certain vistas and pathways, forcing users around them and revealing other works of art.


Above: Images from site of unused tracks being 'stored' adjacent to the active rails.
Possibility for more interaction between the surrounding community and the site and its artwork. This adjacent structure lies on the east side of the site and can serve as a blank canvas or projection screen for various art forms. The works projected or placed on this building can be continually altered to provide a variation in the program and layout. Due to its large size, the structure is visible from all around the site itself as well as from various areas outside of the street, which can form nodes with its artwork and draw further interest to the site.
Sketchup model of site as is... In place are all of the remaining buildings and most of the tracks.

More 'virtual' graffitti

Page Tears: 2ESAE & Sling Shot Hip-Hop from fi5e on Vimeo.

Layout/Zooming In

Providing an anchor point:
Not sure if it's terribly clear in this sketch, but I have a few ideas to throw out there...
First, in the central portion of the sketch, directly to the left of the green area is the Reading 'Spring St. Subway,' where the street level and the site are on even topo lines, providing strong connections and potential access points.
As far as drawing people in to the site, what about creating an anchor point in this area (visitor center, etc) since directly to the south (left side of the sketch) is a large parking area. This can allow for a beginning point for patrons, community members, etc traversing the site.
From here, the user/viewer can follow the site flow reminiscent of the path of the rails all the while encountering various installation spaces (indicated by the purple-ish and reddish boxes proportioned to the existing structures, all of a more simplistic, modular, adaptable design) and experiencing the motion and movement of the entire layout/building orientations, etc.
These modular installation spaces and galleries, etc can also be applied to the interior of the buildings (inside the shells and thus, the memories) of the industrial buildings on the site, shown in the northern area (right side) of the sketch... The boxes can protrude at varying lengths from the buildings to enhance the connection between interior and exterior and further increase the sense of motion in the former railroad.
Each of these buildings can be surrounded in greenspace reminiscent of the Highline Project to provide the ever-important greenspace for the surrounding communities.
The pathways cutting through the site are still up in the air design-wise... I'm really stuck as to whether or not they should slice directly through the site in a rectilinear fashion or follow the ribbon language already in place to break the grid system. What I am sure about is the change in levels the paths will take on. After penetrating the buildings, stairs and ramps will carry pedestrians traversing the site to the ground level providing a complete viewing experience from many different levels and interiors/exteriors.
Bringing the users to the ground level will also draw more intrigue and draw more interest for continual flow through the site.
Cutting off and restricting or creating resistance of flow through the site in certain areas will also form interesting nodes and areas for installations and events to occur be it sculpture, water features, public theaters and performances, etc.

New case study:
Fuksas' Competition CANAL + Louvenciennes
Paris, France

More to follow later today...