small scale

2 Service
 Princeton Architectural Press
New York

name of project
 Contents

7 Acknowledgments
8 Introduction

Service
14 La Dallman: Marsupial Bridge
20 Moskow Linn Architects: Zipcar Dispenser
24 Ground: SuperNatural
28 Public Architecture: Day Labor Station
34 Heatherwick Studio: Rolling Bridge
38 Rogers Marvel Architects: TigerTrap
42 Ecosistema Urbano Arquitectos: Ecoboulevard
50 Machado and Silvetti Associates: Dewey Square MBTA Head Houses
54 designLAB: paraSOL and Light Rooms
58 Zaha Hadid Architects: Urban Nebula
64 Moskow Linn Architects: River Genie
66 Atelier Bow-Wow: White Limousine Yatai
68 Boora: Temporary Event Complex
72 Josef Paul Kleihues for Wall AG: City-Pissoir
74 Moskow Linn Architects: Urban Hookah
78 Morphosis: Caltrans District 7 Headquarters Public Plaza
82 Midwest Architecture Studio: MVG Retail Pavilions
84 Julie Snow and Matthew Kreilich: City Street Walk
88 Studio Luz: Union Square Performance Area
90 James Corner Field Operations and Diller Scofidio+Renfro: The High Line
Insight
100 Bunch Design: Greeting Wall
102 Owen Richards Architects: Mark Dion Vivarium
106 Diller Scofidio+Renfro: Facsimile
110 Antenna Design: Sidewalk Series
114 Rem Koolhaas and Cecil Balmond, with Arup: Serpentine Gallery Pavilion 2006
118 Choi Ropiha and Perkins Eastman: TKTS Booth
124 Diller Scofidio+Renfro: Have You Ever Been Mistaken For A...?
126 Kennedy & Violich Architecture: Interim Bridges Prototype
130 Studio Works/B.A.S.E.: Green Coat Surface
134 Local Projects: In Pursuit of Freedom
140 Adjaye Associates: Sclera
146 Schneider Studio: Making Time Visible
150 Bernard Tschumi Architects: Glass Video Gallery
154 Eric Owen Moss Architects: The Art Tower

delight
160 Ball-Nogues Studio: Maximilian’s Schell
166 Greyworld: Bins and Benches
168 Höweler+Yoon Architecture: White Noise White Light
174 Centerbrook Architects and Planners: Thread City Crossing
178 Stoss Landscape Urbanism: Safe Zone
182 Barnaby Evans: WaterFire
184 Greyworld: Railings
186 In collaboration: Ground, Höweler+Yoon Architecture, LinOldham Office,
Merge Architects, MOS, SsD, Studio Luz, UNI, Utile Inc., and over,under:
Parti Wall, Hanging Green
190 Janet Echelman: Her Secret is Patience
194 nArchitects: Canopy
198 Cho Benn Holback+Associates: The Hughes Family Outdoor Theater
202 Studio d’ARC Architects with Jeremy Boyle: V365/24/7
206 Mark Ryan Studio with Mayme Kratz: trueNorth
210 Robert Rovira and Azimuth Studio: 1-880 Gateway
214 SHoP Architects: Mitchell Park
220 Studio Olafur Eliasson: The New York City Waterfalls

224 Image Credits

Published by
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© 2010 Keith Moskow and Robert Linn

All rights reserved
Printed and bound in China
13 12 11 10 4 3 2 1 First edition

No part of this book may be used or reproduced

in any manner without written permission from the
publisher, except in the context of reviews.

Every reasonable attempt has been made to identify

owners of copyright. Errors or omissions will be
corrected in subsequent editions.

Editor: Becca Casbon

Designer: Paul Wagner

Special thanks to: Nettie Aljian, Bree Anne Apperley,

Sara Bader, Nicola Bednarek, Janet Behning,
Carina Cha, Tom Cho, Penny (Yuen Pik) Chu,
Carolyn Deuschle, Russell Fernandez, Pete Fitzpatrick,
Jan Haux, Linda Lee, Laurie Manfra, John Myers,
Katharine Myers, Steve Royal, Dan Simon,
Andrew Stepanian, Jennifer Thompson, Joseph Weston,
and Deb Wood of Princeton Architectural Press
—Kevin C. Lippert, publisher

Library of Congress
Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Moskow, Keith.
Small scale : creative solutions for better city living /
Keith Moskow and Robert Linn. — 1st ed.
p. cm.
ISBN 978-1-56898-975-4 (alk. paper)
1. Public architecture. 2. Public spaces. 3.
Architecture—Human factors. 4. Architecture and
society. I. Linn, Robert (Robert Spencer), 1967–
II. Title. III. Title: Creative solutions for better
city living.
NA9050.5.M68 2010
724’.7—dc22
2010005106
Acknowledgments

Thanks to the contributors of Small Scale,

who supplied all the material for the book.
Without their participation this publication
would not be possible.
Thanks to our associate, Sarah West,
who was the primary book organizer
and worked with the contributors from
around the world, managed the thousands
of files submitted, and provided thoughtful
insight into the book’s development.
Thanks to Princeton Architectural Press,
especially Becca Casbon and Jennifer
Thompson, who believed in the relevance
of Small Scale and shepherded the book
through design and distribution.
And thanks to our families, including
Allison, Erin, Zac, Jake, Jackson, and Ava,
who are always supportive and are fellow
cohabiters of our urban existence.

Keith Moskow and Robert Linn

 Introduction

Eight years ago, while sailing on a friend’s

boat in Boston Harbor, we noticed a floating
steel drydock that had washed up onto a
beach in East Boston. The abandoned and
decrepit ship-repair container had broken
free from its moorings and drifted to the
beach months before. Due to a complicated
ownership history and liability issues, no one
claimed any responsibility for the vessel.
There it sat, blocking views and preventing
residents from using their beach.
We immediately began brainstorming Urban interventions address the increas-
about how we might turn what the newspa- ing density and limited availability of land
pers called a “rotting, hulking eyesore” in cities by identifying and using leftover
into an asset. East Boston lacks green urban spaces or voids or unrecognized tears
space, so on our own initiative (and nickel) in the city fabric. They are eminently achiev-
we designed a sports facility that could be able: they do not require years of permitting
prefabricated and inserted into the dry- and government oversight, and they are not
dock’s rusting carcass. Where once there prohibitively expensive. These little architec-
had been chipping paint, now there were tural insertions do not require tremendous
soccer fields, bocce courts, children’s play use of natural resources or whole-scale
areas, public seating, and locker facilities. demolition and disposal of existing fabric,
The success of this theoretical project and suggest solutions to the larger problem
led us from then on to regularly investigate of energy consumption. Similar to how
schemes for making life better for city microloans made to individuals in develop-
dwellers, and also led to the creation of this ing countries can improve the socioeco-
book, which collects small-scale urban nomic conditions of entire communities,
interventions from architects around the these micro interventions hold the potential
world. [Figs. 1–3] for a macro effect on an entire city.

8
 1 2

Introduction 9
4 5

More and more people are choosing to

live and work in cities, seeking the stimula-
tion and opportunity available only in an
urban context. Small Scale contains case
studies—ranging from purely conceptual
to fully realized—that present visionary yet
simple solutions to many specific needs
inherent in contemporary urban life: places
to contemplate, to find reprieve from urban
intrusions, and to facilitate social interaction.
Cities can be made better and more livable
by employing innovative thinking to create
easily do-able projects.
The projects in this book provide
6
resources and amenities in the spirit of the
best “street furniture” from various cultures,
reminding us that urban invention is not a
new idea. They build upon the tradition of
such successful historical interventions as
Japanese pocket gardens, the iconic red
English telephone booths, the art nouveau
Parisian subway entrances, and the pis-
soirs of Amsterdam. [Figs. 4–6] While taking
inspiration from the past, the included works
also reflect the promise of new materials and
technologies—making ideas that were once
the realm of science fiction into reality.

10
 7

The abbreviated scope and budget of

some of these projects allowed for a more
hands-on, design-build approach. Often,
younger, less-established firms—in their Small Scale is loosely organized into
eagerness—have been able to make a sig- three sections based upon the projects’
nificant contribution to the urban context intentions: those that aim to provide a ser-
with interventions. Playfulness and an vice, those that attempt to communicate
entrepreneurial spirit enliven the included insight, and those that simply delight. The
projects, straddling the gap between fantasy service, or functional, category of interven-
and reality, as well as art and architecture. tions offers a response to a measurable
These intriguing examples of intelligent need. The designers of these projects
design are decidedly not grand planning realized a gap in the utility of an area and
schemes or outrageously expensive public designed a solution—providing services
facilities. They instead focus on everyday such as shade and cooling, nourishment,
human activities, while offering practical, cleansing, and security. The projects in the
sometimes humorous and ironic, means to “insightful” group share site-specific infor-
improve the lives of city dwellers while mation and interpretation with the public in
enriching and enlivening the urban fabric. an effort to impart a more complete under-
An example is Public Architecture’s Day standing of one’s surroundings, focusing
Labor Station (pp. 28–33). It provides a place on education, discovery, and reflection. The
for day laborers to wait for work in comfort, interventions in the last section intend to
giving them a less transitory space in their delight public audiences by adding beauty,
community. [Fig. 7] charm, play, and wit into the urban scene.

Introduction 11
12 Service
 Service

name of project
 An opportunistic pedestrian
connection and plaza

La Dallman:
Marsupial Bridge
Milwaukee, Wisconsin

Program
Like many North American postindustrial
cities, Milwaukee, Wisconsin, is replete
with leftover interstitial spaces that are
the by-products of urban infrastructure
planned without engagement to its context. A coalition of neighborhood groups
The multiphased Marsupial Bridge project sought a transformative intervention to
involves the regeneration of such a zone, activate this brownfield, surrounded
surrounding the 1925 Holton Street Viaduct by neglected spaces, empty storefronts,
that crosses the Milwaukee River. The via- abandoned industrial sites, and poorly
duct is located in the heart of the densest planned traffic patterns. The project renews
neighborhood in southeastern Wisconsin, this unclaimed territory, offering the urban
an emerging area for regeneration within traveler a new vantage point from which to
a city that has experienced dramatic experience the viaduct as an engineered
population loss since the middle of the artifact and its residual terrain as a produc-
twentieth century. tive civic space.

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name of project 15
 7

5 4 3

Solution
The project consists of multiple interwoven
components along, within, and through the
historic viaduct. A Media Garden acts as
a civic connector and urban plaza, and a The Marsupial Bridge weaves through
Marsupial Bridge offers a new pedestrian the viaduct, using the existing structure
and bicycle connection. Additional interven- as its “host.” The viaduct was originally
tions—including a bus shelter—preceded engineered to support trolley cars, a trans-
the bridge, and a moon-gazing platform is portation system that was abandoned due to
currently in progress. increased automobile use in the early 1900s.
The Media Garden converts an unsafe The Marsupial Bridge hangs opportunisti-
under-bridge area into a civic gathering cally from the over-structured middle-third
space for film festivals, regattas, and other section of the viaduct, responding to the
river events. The position of the Media changing transportation needs of the city
Garden within the existing viaduct presented for greater pedestrian and bicycle con-
an unusual challenge due to the lack of natu- nections. The bridge is a “green highway”
ral daylight for plant growth. Accordingly, that activates the unused space beneath
this area could not be defined through land- the viaduct, encourages alternative forms
scape design in the conventional sense; of transportation, and connects residen-
rather, concrete benches are set amidst a tial neighborhoods to natural amenities,
moonscape of gravel and seating boulders. Milwaukee’s downtown, and the Brady
By day, the benches provide a respite for Street commercial district. The Marsupial
pedestrians and bicyclists as they make Bridge’s undulating concrete deck offers a
their way across the Marsupial Bridge. counterpoint to the existing steel members
By night, the benches are lit from within, of the viaduct, inspired by the notion of
transforming the plaza into a beacon for weaving a new spine through the structure.
the neighborhood. This strategy challenges Floor lighting is integrated behind the apron,
the traditional notion of public space as a and precision theatrical fixtures are mounted
“town square” or “village green,” and above, creating a localized ribbon of illu-
provides a site-specific program for the mination with minimal spill into the riparian
under-bridge zone. landscape below.

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Marsupial Bridge 17
 1 2 3

10
8 9

5 6
MARSUPIAL BRIDGE - URBAN PLAZA AND MEDIA GARDEN

0 5' 10' 20'

1 STAINED CAST IN PLACE CONCRETE

2 SLIPKNOT STEEL PLATE
3 CRUSHED STONE
4 SEATING BOULDERS
5 ILLUMINATED BENCHES
6 CONCRETE PAVERS
7 EXISTING STEEL CROSS-BRACING
8 WOOD DECK OF PEDESTRIAN BRIDGE
9 EXISTING VIADUCT BENT
10 RETAINING WALL AND BENCH

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Marsupial Bridge 19
 Single-stacked, vertical parking
structure

Moskow Linn Architects:

Zipcar Dispenser
Boston, Massachusetts

Solution
The Zipcar Dispenser offers a solution to
the company’s biggest problem: locating
parking spaces available for lease in the
dense urban areas where their vehicles are
most needed. The dispenser is a self-serve,
Program mechanized, stacked parking prototype
Zipcar is a car-sharing company with for Zipcar, similar to a giant PEZ dispenser.
locations in more than fifty cities in North Here, cars are doled out in lieu of candy.
America and the United Kingdom. The The design allows for seven Zipcars to be
Zipcar business plan offers a new model for stacked in the same area as two tandem
on-demand, internet-reserved automobile nine-by-eighteen-foot parking spaces. At
transportation. Each Zipcar is said to replace the time of the dispenser’s conception, all
seven to ten privately owned cars, lowering cars leased by Zipcar were Volkswagen
both driving and parking congestion and Beetles, eliminating any need for consider-
reducing greenhouse gas emissions. ation of customer selection or sorting.

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name of project 21
 Once a Zipcar member inserts their
membership card into the dispenser’s card
reader, a translucent shroud lowers to the
street level, protecting the person from the
project’s mechanics. As the shroud rises,
a car is deposited—ready for use. The pro-
cedure works in reverse when the car is
returned. Additionally, the tower maximizes
Zipcar’s presence in the city by providing
a recognizable symbol for the emerging
company, and may serve as a canvas for
billboard-type advertising.

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ZipCar Dispenser 23
 A glacial erratic becomes a
traffic organizer

Ground:
SuperNatural
Vancouver, British Columbia

Program
SuperNatural is located on three adjacent
roadway intersections along Garden Drive
in Vancouver, British Columbia. While Solution
normally a quiet residential street, because The project takes as its departure the
of its proximity to two heavy-commuting double meaning implied in the phrase
arterial routes, Garden Drive had become “Super, Natural British Columbia”—the
a popular vehicular “cut through” during slogan of the province’s tourism campaign.
rush hour. A two-stage design competition Recognizing the paradox of Vancouver’s
sponsored by the city of Vancouver’s Public identification with an ideal image of raw
Art Program called for the creation of three nature, even while being a dense city,
small roundabouts to act as traffic-calming Ground designed SuperNatural to let the
devices that would slow cars down, provide crudeness of rock and the infrastructure
safe pedestrian crossings, and deter of the city intensify each other through a
commuter shortcuts. somewhat uncomfortable adjacency.

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name of project 25
 The supernatural, or unnatural, contiguity
of the natural and urban is emphasized
by a minimal installation strategy. At two of
the intersections, twenty-ton boulders seem
to have been dropped haphazardly in the
middle of the road. At the third intersection, The boulders of SuperNatural sit
a boulder sits in a field of ornamental within a grid of traffic reflectors, common
grass ringed by a concrete circle. Despite elements of city streets that in this project
their seemingly alien interruption of the signal the areas for pedestrian crossing
streetscape, the massive rocks are carefully and mark the zone of artistic intervention.
designed elements of the traffic system. In contrast to the obdurate immobility of the
Due to a combination of height, proportion, massive rocks, the “keep right” signs were
and facet angles, the rocks interrupt views, deliberately given a provisional character,
slow and reorganize traffic patterns, yet still as though hastily installed as warning signs,
accommodate pedestrian and vehicular further suggesting the oddity of the rocks’
visibility as determined by city guidelines. arrival in the midst of the city.

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SupernaturaL 27
 Shelter and services
for laborers

Public Architecture:
Day Labor Station
Prototype design

Program
Each day, more than 110,000 people look
for day labor work in the United States. Over
75 percent of day labor hiring sites occupy
spaces meant for other uses, such as
street corners and home improvement store Solution
parking lots. Due in part to their visibility, day Design is often viewed as a luxury, and yet
laborers are often seen as symbols of the it can be used as a tool with greater impact
country’s broken immigration system and and longevity than a political statement
its increasing dependence on a low-wage, or a judicial ruling. The Day Labor Station is
contingent workforce. Some residents, a prototypical solution—designed to be a
businesses, city officials, and police have model that can be replicated by anyone—
attempted to address the issues by margin- that provides an innovative vehicle through
alizing and criminalizing day laborers which to advance the status of day laborers
seeking work. This deflects attention from within the community. As the clients, day
the real issue day laborers face: their lack laborers are involved in the planning, build-
of integration into the community. ing, and maintenance of each station.

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 4

2 3

Day Labor Station Components

1 – Modular service cube (Kitchen, Restroom, or Office)
2 – “Interior” seating area (with built-in and pullout benches)
3 – Modular service cube (Kitchen, Restroom, or Office)
4 – Garage Door Canopy (covers both “interior” and “exterior” seating areas)

The station provides a sheltered space

to wait for work as well as restroom facili-
ties. The open nature of the seating area is
designed to provide maximum visual contact
between workers and potential employers.
For the workers, this visual contact is key
to their perception of a fair hiring process.
While green materials and strategies help
achieve a minimal environmental footprint,
the station also addresses issues of social
and economic sustainability, acting as
employment center, classroom, and meeting
space. In addition, it can contain a kitchen,
to provide an income-generating food busi-
ness, or, if preferable, a small office for
administrative functions.
By giving laborers a more dignified pres-
ence in the public realm, the station and
accompanying advocacy initiative elevate
the debate about the workers’ role within the
fabric of the community.

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 Translucent Garage Door Photovoltaic Panels
Polycarbonate Canopy As part of the canopy system,
Panel Canopy When active, photovoltaic panels allow
The canopy provides the garage doors the Station the possibility of
shade for the open to form operating off the grid.
workers while still a canopy. After
allowing natural light. hours, doors
are lowered
to secure the
Station.

Modular Service Cube

A flexible, kit-of-parts design
Message Board allows the insertion of a food
This board could be used service venue modeled after
to post job listings, general a mobile food cart.
announcements, and
communication tips.

Built-In Benches
Community Benefi t Two rows of benches provide Used Billboard
Implementation of a permanent seating for the Vinyl-Wrapped Panels
Station could incorporate workers. Space underneath the Panels provide a dynamic,
neighborhood elements benches allows for storage. sustainable facade and
such as a community form part of the rain
garden. screen system.
Day Laborer as Client
Day laborers are viewed as the Pullout Benches
client for this project and have All benches are made
participated in the prototype of locally sourced or
development. certified wood.

A B

1
2

7
3 4

9
8

6 10

5 5

Section A Section B
Drawing Key
1. Photovoltaic modules 6. Photovoltaic battery and inverter 9. Dry or incinerating toilet if off grid;
2. Translucent polycarbonate panels location low flow toilet if on the grid
3. Air flow through seating area 7. Fiber cement panels 10. Recycled PVC floor tile
4. Used billboard vinyl wrapped panels 8. Sink with low flow fixtures
5. Locally sourced, salvaged, or certified (Undersink greywater filtration
wood (used throughout the Station) system can be linked with toilet
if needed.)

Day LaBor Station 31

32 Service
Restroom Office Kitchen
Toilet facilities are a basic yet Day laborers are highly organized. The kitchen can function as a food
critical need often lacking at The Station not only has the business, serving as an income
most informal sites. In situations potential to host meetings, but in generator for the Station as well as
where there is a larger day laborer situations where the day laborers a food service training opportunity
population, the flexibility of the desire a coordinator, a cube can for workers. With employers as well
Station’s design concept allows for be designed as an office. as patrons from nearby businesses
more than one restroom cube. as customers, it also provides a focal
point for social interaction.

Day Labor Station 33

 A retractable pedestrian
drawbridge

Heatherwick Studio:
Rolling Bridge
London, United Kingdom

Solution
Rather than being a single, rigid element
that fractures to allow river traffic through,
Program Heatherwick Studio’s Rolling Bridge opens
Rolling Bridge, part of a five-hundred- by slowly and smoothly curling up, trans-
million-pound development of Paddington forming from a conventional pedestrian
Basin in Central London, came from a platform into a circular sculpture that sits on
commission for a pedestrian bridge to sit the bank of the canal. The studio’s aim was
across an inlet of the Grand Union Canal to make the bridge’s function and movement
and provide an access route for workers its extraordinary aspects. With this in mind,
and residents. Crucially, the bridge needed the architects kept the bridge’s design sim-
to open to allow boats moored in the inlet ple, leaving its real identity hidden until
to sail in and out. it starts moving.

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name of project 35
 The structure opens using a series of
hydraulic rams set into the timber platform
of the bridge. As it curls, each of its eight
segments simultaneously lifts, causing it Engineering firm SKM Anthony Hunts
to roll until the two ends touch and form a collaborated with Heatherwick Studio on
circle. The bridge can be stopped at any the project from its conception. The whole
point along its journey, whether at the very structure was built at Littlehampton Welding
start, when it looks as though it is hovering, on the Sussex coast and then floated up
or halfway through its opening path. The the Grand Union Canal, before being lifted
Rolling Bridge opens and closes a number into position over the canal, where it was
of times each week, including every Friday attached to the mechanics that power its
at midday. movement.

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Rolling Bridge 37
 A building-perimeter
security system

Rogers Marvel
Architects: TigerTrap
Prototype design

Solution
The TigerTrap is an innovative concept
designed to reduce the visual impact of
force protection installations on public
space. It employs subgrade, compressible
Program concrete in conjunction with pedestrian
In today’s world, critical buildings and amenities such as benches, low site walls,
public sites often require perimeter secu- or earthworks. The compressible concrete is
rity. The American landscape is historically carefully calibrated to withstand pedestrian
unaccustomed to the tyranny of security loads, but fail under the weight of a vehicle.
devices—our dense urban spaces grudg- By lowering the elevation and speed of a
ingly accommodate the traditionally vehicular threat, barrier strategies may be
cumbersome engineered solutions to force minimized. For sites with enough dimension,
protection criteria. The architecture of secu- the barrier strategy that accompanies the
rity should be a design problem as much TigerTrap may be constructed completely
as a technical problem. Rock 12 Security below ground level, eliminating all visible
Architecture and Rogers Marvel Architects aboveground security elements. The system
designed the TigerTrap as a holistic solution has been tested with a variety of surfaces,
to provide a point of balance between such as cobblestone paving and a vegeta-
engineered protection and an inhabitable tive lawn, both configured to accommodate
public realm. foot traffic.

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name of project 39
 The TigerTrap is a custom product,
designed specifically for each site. A proto-
type installation, developed in cooperation
with the Engineered Arresting Systems
Corporation, is currently installed in Battery
Park City in New York City, protecting the
New York Mercantile Exchange and the
World Financial Center.

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TigerTrap 41
 Revitalizing, vegetative
suburban structures

Ecosistema Urbano
Arquitectos:
Ecoboulevard
Vallecas, Spain

Solution
Ecosistema Urbano Arquitectos proposed
Ecoboulevard to make up for the lack of
social activity in Vallecas due to irresponsi-
ble planning. The firm believed that the best
adaptation for a public space would be to
Program add thick, solid trees, but these would take
Vallecas, Spain, is a poorly planned sub- fifteen or twenty years to grow large enough
urban neighborhood. The Ecoboulevard to make an impact. Instead, the architects
competition was organized with two objec- created an “emergency” intervention that
tives: to generate social activity in the could operate immediately in the same way
neighborhood and to make a bioclimatic that trees would in the future. The firm opted
outdoor space. Public spaces belong to for a strategy of concentration that acts
everyone, and they should support a variety on and adapts specific parts of the neighbor-
of activities and events, allowing people to hood, making these areas the seeds of a
act freely and spontaneously. public-space regeneration process.

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name of project 43
 Ecoboulevard consists of three pavil-
ions, which act as frameworks for multiple
activities chosen by their users. These
pavilions perform the following functions:
defining social spaces in an existing, but
unused, large public area; providing shade
and respite from the sun; and reducing and
reorganizing the asymmetric arrangement
of vehicular traffic circulation. Installed
in Vallecas as temporary prostheses, the
pavilions will be used only until the neigh-
borhood’s inactivity and climatic adaptation
problems are corrected. Once the necessary
time has elapsed, these devices should be
taken down, and their former sites should
remain as clearings in the wood.

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name of project 45
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Ecoboulevard 47
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Ecoboulevard 49
 Metro markers and
plaza patterns

Machado and
Silvetti Associates:
Dewey Square
MBTA Head Houses
Boston, Massachusetts

Solution
In attempting to maintain the space as a
distinctive, inclusive, and progressive pub-
lic plaza, Machado and Silvetti Associates
created a condition of orchestrated variety
Program through several components. The square’s
Dewey Square is a public plaza in Boston’s overall pavement serves as a continuous
Financial District with sizeable, privately carpet of stone and concrete, onto which
owned plazas abutting it. A privately funded a series of disparate objects are placed. The
redesign of the square and surrounding pavement’s patterns reflect the large scale
plazas, in conjunction with the city’s Central of the plaza, with a giant order of stripes that
Artery/Tunnel Project, called for the entire adjust in width to accommodate the differ-
area, public and private plazas, to be recon- ent objects. Each object is carefully aligned
ceived as one urban space with a single in order to establish visual relationships
contemporary character, unique within with the main pedestrian thresholds into the
the city. square.

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 The glass-louvered MBTA
(Massachusetts Bay Transportation
Authority) subway entrance pavilions lead
to underground train access, give the Dewey
Square precinct a distinctive identity, and
serve as glowing beacons at night. The glass
lobbies of the surrounding office buildings
inspired the concept behind these struc-
tures, with the completed head houses
acting as a public version of these private
spaces, in order to support urban activities
in the newly revitalized Dewey Square.

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name of project 53
 Light-therapy structures to lift
winter depression

designLAB:
paraSOL and Light Rooms
Boston, Massachusetts

Solution / paraSOL
The paraSOL is a personal nimbus for
the modern city dweller. A unique, iconic
accessory with a solid grounding in practi-
cal necessity, paraSOL makes a striking
fashion statement in even the worst of
weather. Powered by motion-sensitive,
piezoelectric material on its waterproof top
surface, paraSOL emits full-spectrum light
from its underside, using a lightweight,
Program electroluminescent fabric. The harder
Seasonal affective disorder (SAD) is a con- it rains, the brighter the underside shines,
dition that more than ten million Americans bringing light to an otherwise dark day.
suffer from, and many more worldwide, One paraSOL offers a break in the
with the highest incidence in northern clouds, a single halo; several create a
latitudes. Researchers believe that therapy hearth, a space for gathering that suf-
using bright light can lift depression or reset fuses its occupants with warmth. ParaSOL
a sleep cycle. DesignLAB proposed two makes the rain a reason to stay outside
solutions—paraSOL and Light Rooms—to and talk. Users are drawn to one another
provide respite from the darkness of winter. and rainy day friendships are formed.

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Parasol And Light Rooms 55
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 Solution / Light Rooms
Light Rooms are constructed of trans-
lucent polycarbonate panels, enclosing
simple benches for up to twelve people.
A full-spectrum, ten-thousand-lux light
source bounces light off one opaque wall,
simultaneously flooding the interior with
light and creating a glowing neighborhood
beacon. The result is happiness!

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 An urban bench built with interlocking
blocks to define an outdoor room

Zaha Hadid Architects:

Urban Nebula
London, United Kingdom

Solution
By combining traditional, repetitive precast
molding techniques with contemporary
computer numerical control (CNC) machine
molding, Zaha Hadid Architects created a
system of standard elements in which each
individual component has a unique variation.
Taking its name from the form of a nebula
gas, the individual elements of the piece
create a fluidity that resonates with the struc-
Program ture of a nebula, yet presents an enigmatic
Urban Nebula was created by Zaha Hadid contradiction by being made of concrete—
Architects for the 2007 London Design a material typically perceived to be inert.
Festival. Its intent was to visualize precast Areas of darkness and light visible in a neb-
concrete as a building material that could ula are evident within the Urban Nebula as
allow new formal expression of fluidity and hexagonal and triangular voids produced by
seamlessness, while adding a strong poetic the positioning of the installation’s individual
quality to the urban space of the city. elements.

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 The original design of one standard
element with a range of end conditions was
mapped using three-dimensional imaging
software. The individual elements were
then made using standard steel molds into
which computer-cut polystyrene end pieces
were inserted, together with stainless-steel
anchors for fixing. “In a design environment
dominated by new software enabling us to
rethink form and space radically, there is
always continued development of materials
that match our computer-generated complex
The 8-by-37-by-15-foot installation is shapes and spatial conditions. We aim for an
composed of 150 blocks of black, polished expansion of the material’s performance
precast concrete with a total mass of 30 and try not to think in the limits that are given
tons, bolted together to form a perforated to a certain material by conventional applica-
wall that seamlessly transforms into furni- tions. These new manufacturing processes
ture, resonating between architecture as a play an important role in the architectural
material system and sculptural form. Urban language of fluidity and porosity evident
Nebula is reminiscent of the rough, improvi- in our work, and an essential element in the
sational characteristics of dry stone walling sculptural sensuality of the piece,” states
(the construction of a wall of interlocking Hadid. “The complexity of Urban Nebula’s
stones without any mortar), yet adopts the casting regime and extreme form of con-
smooth, polished surface of stone pebbles struction were an exciting challenge for all
in a riverbed. involved.”

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Urban Nebula 61
 In their quest to address the underlying
problem of constructing free-form archi-
tecture, Zaha Hadid Architects worked with
Aggregate Industries to explore the plastic
qualities of concrete. Aggregate Industries’
experience in precision construction, mold-
ing techniques, and mix design enabled a
high level of experimentation—producing
intense color with exceptionally high dimen-
sional tolerance and surface finish across
the individual concrete elements of Urban
Nebula.

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 Passive, floating garbage
collectors

Moskow Linn Architects:

River Genie
Prototype urban river cleanser

Solution
The River Genie’s design is based on the
integration of the Native American seine fish-
ing net and the Playtex Diaper Genie. The
River Genie vessel is moored to the floor of
a river and oriented against the current.
Floating garbage is skimmed off the surface
of the water and funneled into an expand-
able net, which is monitored and replaced
when full. Escape louvers positioned at the
mouth of the net prevent the entrapment of
Program aquatic life. Pontoons, located on either
Each year, millions of tons of garbage float side of the vessel, consist of a translucent
down rivers worldwide. The most highly eco-resin shell supported by a rigid frame.
concentrated amounts are in and around At night, the pontoons are lit from within by
urban areas. Floating garbage pollutes solar-powered LED fixtures, emitting a soft
water sources, is hazardous to both marine glow much like floating Japanese lanterns
and avian wildlife, and is visually unappeal- to warn passing boats of their presence.
ing. The River Genie passively collects these The River Genie was designed as a theoreti-
disagreeable elements from the aquatic cal project and won the gold medal at the
environment. 2008 Seoul Design Olympiad.

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River Genie 65
 A supersized street-food cart

Atelier Bow-Wow:
White Limousine Yatai
Niigata, Japan

Solution
The White Limousine Yatai stretches to
become thirty-three feet long, enabling more
people to gather around it and elevating its
urban appeal. It was displayed at the 2003
Echigo-Tsumari Art Triennial in Niigata,
Japan. The long yatai, painted all white, vis-
ited various events and made a micro public
Program space. Every time it turned a street corner it
A Japanese yatai (street cart) serves food created a small traffic jam, but its humorous
from the side of the road, and has a wonder- appearance made people laugh. As refer-
ful charm that brings people together and ence to the heavy snow in the area where
encourages interaction. The standard yatai the festival was held, the architects selected
is about five feet long and is run by one per- white or translucent local food specialities
son. Inspired by this phenomenon, Atelier (Japanese rice wine, tofu, pickled white rad-
Bow-Wow designed a “limousine yatai.” ishes) to be served from the yatai.

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 8.6m

0.5m

white LimouSine yatai 67

 A temporary art festival space formed
by scaffolding and light

Boora:
Temporary Event
Complex
Portland, Oregon

Program:
The Temporary Event Complex was created
for the Portland Institute for Contemporary
Art (PICA) 2005 Time-Based Art Festival,
which brings contemporary performing and Boora’s design for The Works was built
visual artists to the city for ten days of per- on a full-block site in a small-scale com-
formances, expositions, salons, workshops, mercial section of Portland’s Northwest
and discourse. At the end of each day of neighborhood. A nineteenth-century
the festival, artists and audience members structure—originally used as a Wells Fargo
decamp to The Works, a late-night destina- stagecoach depot, stable, and hayloft—
tion offering food, lounges, cabaret, studio sits on the eastern half of the site, while a
theater, music, and dance performances. shipping and receiving warehouse—with
Each year, PICA looks for a different location an elevated loading dock, loading bays,
for The Works, and challenges a pro bono and overhead warehouse doors—shares
design team to create an innovative tempo- the western half of the site with an asphalt
rary installation to house it. service yard.

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Temporary Event Complex 69
 Solution:
The enclosed, high-volume, and clear- large crowds. Nearby, the overhead doors
span natures of the former stagecoach of the warehouse cabaret could be opened
and warehouse buildings made them or closed in a variety of ways, providing
logical choices for the locations of a different options for enclosing the cabaret
one-hundred-seat studio theater and a and allowing its sounds to escape to the
cabaret performance space, respectively. outside. At the rear of the warehouse
An antechamber leading to the theater cabaret, adjacent to at-grade warehouse
space became a lobby with the addition of loading bays that became a restaurant, a
seating, video installations, and beverage beer garden—open to the sky but softened
services. On the asphalt service yard on by potted trees—provided seating and
the opposite side of the site, a scaffolding alfresco dining and drinking. A construction
structure wrapped in orange construction fencing–clad scaffold wall at the back of
fencing and a canvas concert canopy the beer garden concealed portable toilets
provided shelter for a covered garden for and a service/food-preparation area.

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 N

Temporary Event Complex 71

 A public urinal developed especially
for inner-city areas

joSef pauL kLeihueS

for waLL ag: city-piSSoir
BerLin, DÜSSeLDorf, anD mÜnSter, germany

Program
Between 1997 and 2004, architect Josef
Paul Kleihues designed a number of units
for international street furniture provider and
outdoor advertiser Wall AG. One of these
units is the City-Pissoir, a public urinal that is The interior of the pissoir contains a
part of the product family “streetline,” which washroom and a urinal, separated by a
was developed especially for inner-city frosted glass pane. The washroom has a
areas. Kleihues created streetline in 1997, hand basin with a sensor-controlled cold
and City-Pissoirs have since been set up in water outlet, soap dispenser, and automatic
the German cities of Berlin, Düsseldorf, and hand dryer, ensuring water conservation and
Münster. touch-free usage of the washroom’s fittings.
The interior walls of the urinal are made of
Solution polished stainless-steel sheeting, the floor
Most of the street furniture developed by consists of checker plates, and the ceiling is
Kleihues follows the principle of type and a backlit, light-frosted security glass pane.
model, which allows for the production of Two sensor-controlled flush nozzles are
families or series of street furniture units. mounted above the urinal channel.
The City-Pissoir is a clean affair, requiring The framework of the pissoir consists of
minimum space. With its small surface area powder-coated, extruded aluminum. The
and discreet design, it adapts itself easily to outer shell of the urinal is formed by two
the existing cityscape. In highly frequented display cases, which not only provide an
areas like train stations and shopping advantageous presentation of advertising or
malls, it helps solve the problem of public information, but also an additional exterior
urination. illumination of the pissoir at night.

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city-piSSoir 73
 An outdoor smoking kiosk

Moskow Linn Architects:

Urban Hookah
Boston, Massachusetts

Consisting of a prefabricated kiosk, the

Program Urban Hookah is shaped to partially enclose
“No Smoking” laws have removed the envi- the user, with a heating and air-filtration
ronmental hazards of secondhand smoke system, lighter, and trash receptacle. It can
from within buildings, but the resulting effect be attached to any urban lamppost using
is smokers loitering around alcoves and its universal clamping collar—and removed
entryways. These fugitive smokers have a as needs change. Existing electric service
negative effect on the psyche of the street. brings power to the heating coils, which
are sheathed in a fiberglass shell. The shell
Solution wraps around the pole to create a radiant
The Urban Hookah—which could be heat “jacket.” Concealed within this jacket
installed adjacent to restaurants, offices, is an air-filtration system that draws smoke
commercial buildings, or any other place up and out the top of the structure, along
where smoking is prohibited—benefits with a receptacle for used butts. A polycar-
the general public by filtering smoke and bonate armature fastened to the structural
providing an integral ashtray. It is an “oasis” frame provides shelter from the sun, rain,
of defined sidewalk real estate for displaced and wind. The space accommodates two or
smokers. three smokers.

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Urban Hookah 77
 A lobby relocated to
the exterior

Morphosis:
Caltrans District 7
Headquarters Public Plaza
Los Angeles, California

Solution
The plaza’s organizational strategy
and the building’s public interior were
Program informed by an optimistic assessment of the
The new headquarters for District 7 vibrancy that will occur as the nearby urban
of Caltrans (California Department of environment develops further. Morphosis
Transportation) is located in downtown Los relocated Caltrans’s main lobby to the
Angeles. A public plaza was designed to exterior, as a large plaza for office workers,
be an outdoor lobby as well as an integral visitors, and the general public. Amenities,
element of the headquarters. The plaza including an exhibition gallery and cafeteria,
intensifies the circulation and encourages adjoin the outdoor lobby at ground level to
productive social exchange for both the draw users from pedestrian and vehicular
Caltrans staff and the public. traffic.

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 The project’s entire budget for public
art was invested in one installation—
designed in collaboration with artist Keith
Sonnier—that integrates inseparably with
the architecture. Horizontal bands of red
neon and blue argon light tubes cycle
through light pattern sequences, mimick-
ing the ribbons of headlights on California’s
freeways. The large, cantilevered light-
bar connects the structure to First Street,
while a forty-foot, forward-canted super-
graphic “100” marks the South Main Street
entrance. This layered sign, with its nod to
Los Angeles’s Hollywood sign, denotes the
building as an urban landmark.

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Caltrans District 7 Headquarters Public Plaza 81
 Drive-through kiosk
prototypes

Midwest
Architecture Studio:
MVG Retail Pavilions
Prototype design

Solution
MVG plans to find the best small-scale real
estate sites and offer them to retail brands,
complete with smartly designed, boldly
customized, and efficiently manufactured
Program and installed pavilions. The economic
MVG is a real estate, design, and manufac- inspiration for the pavilions comes from
turing company whose goal is to rethink the many drive-through-only coffee shops
the franchise model of large, expensive, of the Pacific Northwest. The pavilions’
stand-alone stores for national brands. design provides an environmentally smart
In every urban and suburban area, there use of materials, resources, land, and time.
are underutilized spaces in high-traffic (foot They can be efficiently mass-produced
and vehicle) locations that are too small off-site from modular components similar
for a traditional store, but big enough for a to a manufactured product, then quickly
walk-up or drive-through retail pavilion. shipped and installed on small-footprint
These spaces tend to become blemishes sites. The production of each unit takes
in the visual fabric due to their noncon- advantage of digital technology, with a
forming size. Populating these sites offers custom-modular approach to design and
consumers greater convenience, improves fabrication centered on a three-component
the aesthetic of the vacant spaces, and system: core (common to all unit types),
blurs the boundaries between manufactur- accessories (product-specific components),
ing and construction. and cladding (brand-specific identity).

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MVG Retail Pavilions 83
 A winter wayfaring system

Julie Snow and

Matthew Kreilich:
City Street Walk
studio at the University of Minnesota
College of Design, with
student work by Jesse Bauldry
Minneapolis, Minnesota

Program
Minneapolis’s urban streets suffer from
disrepair and lack of use. In the downtown
core, urban street life is limited to small
stretches along Nicollet Avenue, and only
during the summer months. Current city
initiatives have addressed the need for
clearer transportation infrastructure and an
improved pedestrian environment. However,
Minneapolis has an extensive skyway Solution
system that provides unique connectivity City Street Walk offers three program-
and comfort to those familiar with its use, matically hybrid and varied interventions,
drawing pedestrians off the streets without on three different sites. A food stand/bus
offering visible access to the street. In their shelter, a skyway access point, and a news-
design project, Julie Snow and Matthew stand/information station with interactive
Kreilich focused their study on the side- information and connections are located
walks and “in-between” spaces of two urban on the cross streets between Nicollet and
streets in the downtown core, Nicollet Mall Marquette. All three perform well year-round,
and Marquette Avenue, with possible inter- embracing the challenges of Minnesota
ventions between these avenues. winters.

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85
 Operable skin enclosures used for the
food stand and newsstand slide open to
offer protection for patrons, or slide closed
to protect the stand itself. This dynamic
enclosure offers daily, seasonal, and opera-
tional options. Light and color animate all
three installations. At the skyway access Each component is repeatable through-
component, lights embedded in the side- out the city, able to “plug” into the existing
walk animate the street, direct users toward urban fabric at multiple locations while still
the skyway, and help locate the skyway user maintaining an architecturally similar whole.
in the city. LED lighting and the use of heat- Through the insertion of these new interven-
recovery systems to harvest warmth from tions, a broader, more cohesive system of
adjoining buildings reduce the environmen- private and public spaces along the avenues
tal impact of the proposed structures. will be developed.

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City Street Walk 87
 Reclaimed sidewalk materials
that define public theater

Studio Luz:
Union Square
Performance Area
Somerville, Massachusetts

Solution
Union Square Performance Area
incorporates the architectural component
of the street, literally reclaiming transitional
granite curbing and redeploying it to form
the performance area’s edge. By creating
Program an array of these self-similar members,
The city of Somerville, Massachusetts, held an undulating surface is formed, allowing
a competition to create a new performance for seating, repose, or even a backdrop.
area in Union Square, its oldest and largest The new form oscillates between landform,
commercial center, as a key component of seating, and urban infrastructure. It also
its broader arts initiative, “ArtsUnion.” Studio provides a large garden area for plantings.
Luz’s winning performance area project The performance area itself is defined by
was commissioned to give Union Square a solar-powered illuminated bricks, absorbing
distinctive, creatively conceived space for solar energy by day and creating footlights
public gatherings and performances. by night.

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 0’ 10’
N

5’

0’ 50’ N

25’

Union Square Performance Area 89

 An elevated ribbon park built on
postindustrial ruins

James Corner
Field Operations and
Diller Scofidio + Renfro:
THe High Line
New York, New York

Program
The High Line is a one-and-a-half-mile-long
public park built on an abandoned, elevated
railroad stretching twenty-two city blocks,
from the Meatpacking District to the Hudson
Rail Yards, in Manhattan. In stark contrast to the speed of nearby
Hudson River Park, the singular linear
Solution experience of the new High Line land-
Inspired by the melancholic, “found” scape is marked by slowness, distraction,
beauty of the railroad, where nature had and an otherworldliness that preserves the
reclaimed a once-vital piece of urban infra- strange, wild character of the High Line,
structure, James Corner Field Operations without underestimating its intended use
and Diller Scofidio + Renfro designed the and popularity as a new public space. This
High Line to re-fit this industrial conveyance notion underpins the overall strategy—
into a postindustrial instrument of leisure. the invention of a new paving and planting
By changing the rules of engagement system that allows for varying ratios of
between plant life and pedestrians, their hard to soft surface that transition from
strategy of “agri-tecture” combines organic high-use areas (100 percent hard) to richly
and building materials into a blend of chang- vegetated biotopes (100 percent soft),
ing proportions that accommodates the wild, with a variety of experiential gradients in
the cultivated, the intimate, and the social. between.

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name of project 91
 The High Line’s design respects
the character of the railroad itself: its
singularity and linearity, its straightforward
pragmatism, and its relationship between
wild plant life—meadows, thickets, vines,
mosses, flowers—and industrial ballast,
steel, and concrete. The architects’
design solution was threefold. First, they
created a paving system consisting of
linear concrete planks with open joints
and specially tapered edges and seams
that permit intermingling of plant life with
harder materials. Less a pathway and
more a combed or furrowed landscape,
this intermixing creates a textural effect of
immersion, of strolling “within” rather than
feeling distanced from. The selection and
arrangement of grasses and plants further
defines the park’s wild, dynamic character,
distinct from a typical manicured land-
scape, and representative of the railroad’s
extreme conditions and shallow root-
ing depth. The second strategy was to
slow things down, to promote a sense
of duration and of being in another place,
where time seems less pressing. Long
stairways, meandering pathways, and
hidden niches encourage visitors to take
their time. The third approach involved
a careful sense of scale, minimizing
the current tendency to make things
bigger and obvious and seeking instead
a more subtle gauge of the High Line’s
measure. The result is an episodic and
varied sequence of public spaces and
landscapes, set along a simple and
consistent line—a line that cuts across
some of the most remarkable elevated
vistas of Manhattan and the Hudson River.

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 Insight

name of project
 A mysterious shadow message
projected on an urban wall

Bunch Design:
Greeting Wall
Los Angeles, California

Solution
Bunch Design proposed a series of
Program tactical interventions to highlight minor,
A city is mostly made up of large, recognized hidden, sometimes-obvious-yet-overlooked
elements, along with some “nonrecognized” “characters” in sites around Los Angeles,
parts and components—small phenomena, through random sampling and taxonomic
anomalous cases, ignorable parts, and weak fieldwork/observation. The project’s inten-
connections. Although not major and mighty, tions were less aimed at leaving behind
these factors are the evidence, traces, and objects of architecture, but more devoted
alibis of our everyday living environment. To to creating awareness, curiosity, and ways
place something new in the city often means of (re)discovering what we already have.
to build new structures or add to/remove a Greeting Wall is a temporary mes-
large chunk of existing city, but the creation sage that appears on a blank urban wall
or discovery of something new could sim- every sunny afternoon. The words “Good
ply come from highlighting, exaggerating, Afternoon” are attached to a rooftop, and
remembering, or connecting things at hand, their shadow is cast onto the next building.
just like sticking a Post-it note on a page. In the mornings and evenings, the sun’s
Moments of attention and reexamination can angle prevents the greeting from being leg-
be created through sleight of hand. ible, or even visible, from the street.

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greetIng Wall 101
 An urban life-support system
for a fallen log

Owen Richards Architects:

Mark Dion Vivarium
Seattle, Washington

Program
In the temperate rain forests of the Pacific
Northwest, most nutrients must be bound
in the vegetation, or else they would be
leached away by the near-constant rain.
When a toppled old-growth tree decays,
it becomes a “nurse log,” fostering diverse
species of flora and fauna. These fallen Solution
giants become the foundation for the next The vivarium, built by Owen Richards
generation of forest. Can this wonder of Architects in collaboration with artist
nature be moved to the city for enhanced Mark Dion, creates a life-support system
human appreciation and access? What for a fallen log, attempting to replicate the
interventions are needed for a natural eco- forest habitat within a new urban context.
system to survive in an urban environment? Blown over in a windstorm in 1991, the nurse
For centuries, museums have removed log was discovered at the edge of an old-
artifacts from their native settings, creat- growth forest fifty miles from Seattle. The
ing artificial environments to sustain the fifty-thousand-pound tree was removed with
objects for human enlightenment. The Mark minimal damage to the surrounding ecosys-
Dion Vivarium, which occupies a prominent tem and relocated to its new urban site in
corner of the Seattle Art Museum’s Olympic 2006. A tapered greenhouse enclosure
Sculpture Park, explores the challenges was then installed to follow the form of the
of this grand tradition. nurse log.

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Mark Dion Vivarium 103
 Horticulturalists from the University of
Washington advised the Owen Richards
Architects team on necessary sustainment
systems. The vivarium’s dense, green-glass
roof maximizes photosynthesis by mimick- Visitors observe life forms within the
ing the color spectrum of the forest canopy. log using microscopes and magnifying
Large cisterns collect rainwater from the glasses, supplied in a cabinet designed
roof, feeding filtered irrigation and misting by the artist. Illustrations of log inhabitants
systems. Climate-control systems monitor decorate ceramic wall tiles that function
temperature and humidity, operating vents as a field guide. The vivarium is a hybrid
and evaporative cooling fans that pump work of sculpture, architecture, environ-
cool, humid air onto the tree. mental education, and horticulture.

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Mark Dion Vivarium 105
 An instrument of deception
and reflection

Diller Scofidio + Renfro:

Facsimile
San Francisco, California

Program
A tool of deception, Diller Scofidio+
Renfro (in collaboration with Ben Rubin facing monitor. The apparatus slowly
of Ear Studio and Mark Hansen) created scans the facade and broadcasts activity
Facsimile as an installation at the Moscone inside the lobby to the street. Fictional,
Convention Center West in San Francisco prerecorded video programs that appear to
in 2004. be live (virtual views into a fictional office
building, hotel, and lobby space during the
Solution natural course of day and night activities)
Facsimile is a sixteen-foot-by-twenty- are randomly substituted. While the live
seven-foot video monitor, hanging from a image naturally corresponds with the speed
traveling armature that glides along the and direction of the scanning motion, the
periphery of the glass convention center. prerecorded programs are constructed to
The one-hundred-foot-high armature simulate the same speed. Thus, actual
moves very slowly along the outer contour building occupants and interior spaces are
of the building, guided on tracks at the confused with prerecorded impostors. As
parapet and soffit. Along with a camera such, the apparatus could be seen as a
mounted at a high elevation looking toward scanning device, a magnifying lens, a peri-
the city, a live video camera mounted back- scope (with the high-elevation camera),
to-back with the monitor points into the and an instrument of deception. One round
crowded prefunction space on the second trip by the apparatus takes forty-five
level and transmits live feed to the street- minutes.

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Facsimile 107
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facsImIle 109
 Urban retreats for everyday actions

Antenna Design:
Sidewalk Series
New York, New York

Program Solution
Sidewalk Series—Shrink Bench, Hugging Shrink Bench
Tree, Exercise Stop, Escape Loft, Gum New York is a stronghold of psychoanalysis,
Sculpture, and Sidewalk Exchange—are but many people simply just need to talk to
proposed interventions for New York City someone. At the same time, there are people
sidewalks inspired by Antenna Design’s who love to listen to others’ stories. The
observations of the city. The interventions, Shrink Bench invites anyone—possibly com-
in the form of street furniture and fixtures, plete strangers—to be therapist or patient.
resonate with people’s obscure yearnings Hugging Tree
and facilitate odd actions and temporary Despite being around millions of others in
relationships between strangers. Their pres- the city, sometimes people feel lonely, or feel
ence shifts the perception and experience regressive and wish they could cuddle in
of their various locations. The interactions their parents’ arms. The enhanced Hugging
and artifacts shape the impression of the city Trees respond to and communicate this
and become part of the urban experience. need.

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name of project 111
 Exercise Stop
New Yorkers don’t like to stop moving—
every second counts. Here, the traffic signal Gum Sculpture
is turned into an exercise “trainer” to make Gum Sculpture gives people a target to
use of waiting time. While participating in deposit their used chewing gum on and
this shared activity, people also have an avoids the ugly gum stains on the floor.
excuse to chat with each other. It also exposes the tendencies of different
Escape Loft neighborhoods: “The sculpture in our
Sometimes people need to get away from neighborhood has funny body parts.”
their daily chores, even if it’s just for a few Sidewalk Exchange
minutes. Smoking has been banned in most There are plenty of people on the sidewalk
places in New York City, but on the Escape who have something to sell, tell, or ask for.
Loft platforms, smokers can chill out and The Sidewalk Exchange gives people a
socialize without bothering anyone or being proper setting to do this in a more civilized
bothered by anyone. manner and keeps the sidewalk neat.

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Sidewalk Series 113
 A temporary, flexible forum

Rem Koolhaas
And Cecil Balmond,
with Arup:
Serpentine Gallery
Pavilion 2006
London, England

Program
Since 2000, the Serpentine Gallery has Solution
commissioned a different architect each The Serpentine Gallery Pavilion 2006 was
year to design a temporary pavilion—to co-designed by Pritzker Prize–winning archi-
be used as a cafe by day and as a forum tect Rem Koolhaas and innovative structural
for learning, debate, and entertainment designer Cecil Balmond. The pavilion con-
at night—on 2,100 square feet of lawn within sisted of three structural elements—a floor
the boundaries of the gallery. The project platform, a circular wall enclosure, and an
represents a rare opportunity for architects inflatable floating canopy.
to create a more experimental structure The pavilion’s floor platform extended
in the United Kingdom, where none of those from the east side of the Serpentine Gallery
invited have ever built before. The gallery across the lawn. The central area within the
collaborates with the architect in the same walled enclosure contained a number of
way as it does with the artists who show mobile seating/table units, which could be
at the Serpentine: by working to realize their arranged by visitors for eating, drinking,
vision for a project as they conceived it. and more formal viewing.

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name of project 115
 The pavilion’s ovoid, helium- and air-
filled inflatable roof was the centerpiece
of the design and could be raised and low-
ered to accommodate the activities within
the structure. It provided protection from
A circular enclosure composed of a the weather—shade at the height of sum-
series of five-meter-high translucent poly- mer and rain and wind cover during autumn.
carbonate wall panels was built around The inflatable roof was sixty-five-feet high
the floor platform’s perimeter. An inner in its closed position, and could extend
circular wall constructed from the same to a maximum height of seventy-eight feet
material was set inside the outer wall, when open. The roof was fabricated from
with a space of five feet between the two. translucent, PVC-coated polyester, and
Tensioned steel cables held the two walls was illuminated from within at night.
in position. The pavilion’s central space The 2006 Serpentine Pavilion was
within the inner ring could be activated in designed to be defined by its events and
a number of ways, depending on the time activities. It was a space that facilitated the
of day and public program, and could inclusion of individuals in communal dia-
accommodate up to three hundred people. logue and shared experience.

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Serpentine Gallery Pavilion 2006 117
 A ticketing and viewing station
for urban theater

Choi Ropiha and

Perkins Eastman:
TKTS Booth
New York, New York

The original brief focused on just replac-

Program ing an already-existing TKTS booth, but
The goal of this project was to provide the project’s regenerative potential became
an efficient, engaging, and consumer- clear early in the design process, and
friendly facility for TKTS—which sells was expanded to become a more extensive
discount tickets for Broadway plays and inquiry about the relationships between
other performances throughout New York TKTS, Father Duffy Square, and the broader
City—while also creating a new marker context of Times Square and New York City.
for Broadway, the Theater District, and all
of the city’s performing arts. Father Duffy Solution
Square—the location of the new TKTS Booth The TKTS Booth’s design stemmed from
and the northern portion of the “bow tie” two instinctual responses: a resistance
that is Times Square—has a dynamic spatial to placing a conventional building in the
character generated by the intersecting of square, as this would undermine its spatial
Broadway with the Manhattan street grid. character; and an observation that, as one
It is a place of unrivalled urban intensity, of the city’s great gathering points, Times
driven by entertainment, information, and Square had nowhere for people to sit and
communication businesses. enjoy the passing show.

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name of project 119
 The booth has a series of red,
luminescent steps rising from ground
level that simultaneously act as a roof for
the ticket booth—with twenty-four staff
members and twelve ticket counters—and
an inclined public space—capable of seating
seven hundred people—where visitors and
customers alike can pause to take in the
“theater” of Times Square. Twenty-first-
century technology gives the TKTS Booth
further potency. Glass is its sole structural
component, making the entire building
translucent, while LED arrays beneath the The multidimensional aspects of the
steps create a powerful glow that makes project unite to amplify the presence of the
the building part of the technological show booth and strengthen TKTS’s position as
of Times Square. Outside the booth, a a New York cultural institution, while the
deceptively simple plaza design organizes amalgamation of booth and plaza as a public
pedestrian movement while reinstating the venue has provided a new center for Times
prominence of the Father Duffy monument. Square.

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TKTS Booth 121
122 Insight
TKTS Booth 123
 Signage to confront social
stereotyping

Diller Scofidio + Renfro:

Have You Ever
Been Mistaken for a...?
Lille, France

Solution
Ten backlit screens evenly spaced along
the main pedestrian street in Lille feature
life-size fictional inhabitants of the city,
apparently selected at random from the
street. The images—shot in situ and dis-
played on lenticular screens—produce an
uncanny sense of virtual transparency with
Program physical depth and animation. Pedestrian
The deepening divide between French viewers encounter each character sequen-
society and its unassimilated immigrant tially. The characters perform ambiguous
populations boiled over into civil unrest gestures that, in a climate of fear, could be
in the suburbs of Paris in 2005. Have construed as suspicious. The sequence of
You Ever Been Mistaken for a...?, made micromovies produces a sense of appre-
in collaboration with filmmaker Mira Nair, hension and, ultimately, self-reflection
addresses the growing xenophobia in about our propensity to filter information
France and Western Europe in general. and misread it.

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haVe You eVer Been mIstaken for a...? 125
 An outdoor classroom for
urban archaeological exploration
of the Big Dig

Kennedy & Violich

Architecture:
Interim Bridges
Prototype
Boston, Massachusetts

Program Solution
Constructed in a parking lot adjacent to The Interim Bridges Prototype creates a
Boston’s Freedom Trail and Interstate 93, new kind of public space where tourism
the one-hundred-foot-long Interim Bridges and public education intersect with the dis-
Prototype provided public viewing of an ciplines of archaeology, engineering, and
archaeological excavation and served as urban planning. The prototype connects
an outdoor classroom for Boston’s public the daily activities of commuters and the
schools. Kennedy & Violich designed an experiences of tourists on the Freedom Trail
exhibition, Temporary City, within the project to the future location of the new roadway
that was open twenty-four hours a day. underground and the past life of the city. It
The National Endowment for the Arts and engages the circumstances of the archaeo-
the Massachusetts Cultural Council partially logical excavation and the reconstruction of
funded the Interim Bridges Prototype as a the interstate as contemporary urban events
case study for the creation of new forms of that make visible the economic, political,
urban public space during the demolition and legal forces of property allotments, emi-
of Interstate 93 and its reconstruction under- nent domain, and zoning regulations that
ground, the so-called “Big Dig” project. shape the physical form of the American city.

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name of project 127
 A standard wood-frame construction
system was used to form a conical volume of
space. This form expands the gap between
the structure and the exterior skin to provide
space for the exhibition and establishes a
generosity of enclosure along the public
walkway. Affordable materials and modes of The exhibition Temporary City presented
assembly were necessary for the prototype, historical documentation of the construc-
requiring a reconsideration of the idea and tion of the interstate in the 1950s, along with
role of the detail in this provisional architec- images of archaeological artifacts found
ture. The detail resides in the material choice each day at the excavation site. Where the
of a fiberglass envelope, and in an activation structure of the elevated highway interrupts
of the inherent properties of its surfaces and the prototype’s envelope, it is reframed as
their capacity to reflect and radiate light. an artifact of the exhibition.

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Interim Bridges Prototype 129
 A migrating symbol that questions
a city’s qualities

Studio Works/B.A.S.E.:
Green Coat Surface
Shenzhen, China

Program Solution
Green Coat Surface is part of City The contemporary city can be simplified as
Disturbance, a series of projects proposed a horizontal surface (often taken for granted
by architects Studio Works/B.A.S.E. for and “untended”) with objects (such as build-
City Mobilization, the 2009 Shenzhen Hong ings) sitting on this surface. Green Coat
Kong Bi-City Biennale. Green Coat Surface Surface mimics these simplified features of
is intended to be a migratory piece, making the city, but takes corrective measures, pro-
its way around the world and through voking a questioning of the city’s qualities.
cities and landscapes. Upon arrival at each Green Coat Surface is an extension of Green
site, the configuration can be adjusted to Mao Jacket, a project by B.A.S.E. subgroup
take advantage of local conditions. Two BASEline that referenced Mao’s famous
potential sites for the Green Coat Surface jacket and the impact he had on China. The
are the Crystal Island and South Square, Green Mao Jacket is a wearable coat made
both in Shenzhen, China. Crystal Island is of the 100-percent-fireproof polypropylene
a major traffic island and South Square mesh used in Chinese cities to wrap build-
is a formal park at the center of the city, ings under construction. Green Coat Surface
which is near the border between mainland takes this concept further into three forms:
China and Hong Kong. on the body, horizontal, and vertical.

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green coat surface 131
 For the “on the body” form of Green
Coat Surface, the Green Mao Jacket would
be enlarged slightly to become more of
a trench coat. Up to ten thousand coats
would be distributed to visitors to City
Mobilization. These people would act as
“buzz marketers,” provoking countless oth-
ers to buy their own green coats, making
them a kind of uniform for citizens.
Hanging from Shenzhen’s Civic Center
arch, the “vertical” version of Green Coat
Surface would be long enough to reach to
and spread out on the ground. City partici-
pants could then enter, leave, and re-enter
the “inside” of Green Coat Surface. When
inside the coat, participants would be within
a civic space, albeit a soft one, and would
be screened from the city itself.
The “horizontal” version of Green Coat
Surface would straddle Crystal Island
connecting Civic Square and South
Square—not quite straight, and not quite
on axis. The coat would be raised up onto
bamboo structures, producing a wavy
roof, constantly moving in the occasional
breezes within Shenzhen. One would hope
that this “provocateur” would stimulate the
city residents into actions—musical, the-
atrical, commercial, and perhaps political.
It would hopefully also stimulate them to
occupy the coat (an oversized urban play-
ground) by leaning on the collar, walking up
the sleeve, sleeping in the pockets, sitting
on a button mountain, and so on. At night,
it would be lit and glow from within, so it
could be inhabited twenty-four hours a day.

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Green Coat Surface 133
 Immersive images that connect
historical events to their sites

Local Projects:
In Pursuit of Freedom
Brooklyn, New York

Solution
Life-sized images of individuals from
various Brooklyn neighborhoods, sourced
from the Weeksville Heritage Center and
Brooklyn Historical Society archives, are
featured on historical markers. Sited to a
relevant historical location, these markers
activate the space with a glimpse into the
past life of each intersection. Moving past
traditional site-making, which relies on
austere plaques or stones, these sleek
Program contemporary forms allow daytime visitors
In Brooklyn, it’s often quite easy to imagine to gain a sense of the historic richness of
the shadow of past events and figures on these locations through photo-etched text
the borough’s streets. However, for some and imagery forged onto stainless steel that
neighborhoods years of neglect have fits soundly within the urban landscape.
erased all sense of history and place. In Adding to this experience, visitors can
Pursuit of Freedom seeks to create a public listen to era-inspired audio recordings via
connection to Brooklyn’s rich history with embedded headphone jacks, or by dialing
abolitionism through neighborhood site- or texting into a listed number located on
specific installations. the side of each marker.

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name of project 135
 At night, the markers subtly illuminate rugged projection system. These images
to maintain their presence, offering a are designed to be viral—a media cam-
connection to large, dynamic projections. paign within themselves, promoted by
Larger-than-life, these immersive images surprised onlookers taking photos of these
allow viewers to imagine the lives and street-level art installations, forwarding
activities that once existed in the surround- them to friends, and posting them online.
ing environment. The projections amplify Together, the projections, site markers,
the presence of the site marker as well and audio recordings create story-places
as the history that these markers represent. whose meaning is strengthened through
Carefully composited archival images are invisible technology that propels acces-
projected from streetlamps to nearby side- sible history forward into the twenty-first
walks, buildings, and walls via a permanent, century.

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In Pursuit of Freedom 137
138 Insight
In Pursuit of Freedom 139
 A meditative chamber

Adjaye Associates:
Sclera
London, United Kingdom

Solution
When architect David Adjaye met with the
American Hardwood Export Council and
London Design Festival director Ben Evans
to talk through the many potential timbers
Program to use for Sclera, he chose tulipwood,
Sclera was a temporary pavilion created also known as yellow poplar, because of
for the London Design Festival’s Size+ its unique color and wide availability.
Matter program. It was installed in Festival Often thought of as cheap or utilitar-
Square at the Southbank Centre for one ian, tulipwood is rather underappreciated.
month. Festival Square is a busy, pedes- It comes from the tallest hardwood tree
trianized site that acts as a recreational of North America, and grows abundantly
destination in its own right while also pro- throughout the eastern United States. Due
viding access to popular venues within the to sustainably managed forests, its growth
Southbank Centre. Projects created for constantly exceeds its harvesting. Today
Size+Matter are intended to experiment it is primarily used by the furniture industry
with materials. Sclera expresses what one for interior joinery, kitchen cabinets, doors,
material (in this case, wood) is capable and spindles. Sclera aimed to explore
of and its behavior, while also altering exist- the possibilities of tulipwood, and hopefully
ing perceptions of the material. increase its potential uses in the future.

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name of project 141
 On first glance the design looks very
simple, but the pavilion required a high materiality. Then, passing through into the
level of craftsmanship, from the manufactur- wider chamber, the experience gradually
ing of its precisely sized elements to their became about the view—a framing of the
professional assembly. Additionally, the London Eye, echoing its circular forms, and
fabricator had to finish the project in under the surrounding urban environment. The
three months, from the original blueprints interior of the pavilion was characterized by
to manufacture and assembly. Made entirely an undulating pattern that appeared to be
of tulipwood, Sclera was an elliptical random but was based on a loose system of
structure of approximately twenty-six by varying the lengths of the timber. The roof
sixteen feet (eight by five meters), with two and sides had gaps in the slats, allowing
chambers inside. Visitors first entered a light and wind to enter the pavilion, and at
small, round chamber and experienced the night Sclera was carefully lit, emitting a glow
pavilion’s inner environment and its out into the square.

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Sclera 143
144 Insight
Sclera 145
 A visual record of urban change

Schneider Studio:
Making Time Visible
Boston, Massachusetts

Program
“In a city, time becomes visible,” accord- renewal efforts in the 1960s bulldozed
ing to historian Lewis Mumford. Yet in Scollay Square and transformed it into
many places we’ve erased it. Downtown the monumental, vast Government Center
Boston has undergone—and continues to that still occupies the site today. Twenty-
undergo—radical physical change. Scollay two blocks were reshaped into six, giving
Square—at the site of one of the city’s the economically struggling city a much-
original seventeenth-century crossroads— needed new identity and international
was, by the early twentieth century, a recognition. City Hall Plaza sits at the heart
crowded, tightly woven fabric of low build- of Government Center, and urban designers,
ings and narrow streets. Containing hotels, journalists, and the general public have
hot dog stands, liquor stores, and burlesque decried the plaza’s “windswept sea of
theaters, the square at that time was bricks” ever since. The Trust for City Hall
an infamous entertainment district. Urban Plaza formed in 1995 to reimagine its future.

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name of project 147
 Solution
As Boston’s citizens debated abstractly had replaced it, and in doing so added
over the merits of a large civic plaza versus context to the heated, often-misunderstood
a collection of smaller buildings, Making arguments over “pedestrian scale,”
Time Visible used Boston’s current City “open space,” and Boston’s future urban
Hall Plaza as the canvas for a nine-acre, public space, without a bias of what that
life-size map of the same area a century future should be. Scollay Square historian
ago. Guided by an 1895 Sanborn map, David Kruh identified five sites of particular
on August 27, 2002, two dozen volunteers historic importance—where Alexander
drew 14,806 linear feet of chalk lines on Graham Bell first heard the sounds of a
top of City Hall Plaza’s bricks. This tempo- human voice through a telephone, or where
rary installation took advantage of the William Lloyd Garrison published The
unique opportunity to illustrate what had Liberator, for example—and the general
been erased simultaneously with what public was invited to color in the chalk lines.

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name of project 149
 A pavilion exploring spectatorship
and privacy

BernarD tschumI archItects:

glass VIDeo gallerY
gronIngen, the netherlanDs

Solution
The Glass Video Gallery is a simple
rectangular building made out of one
material: glass. It responds to a contem-
porary architectural condition in which the
appearance of permanence is increas-
ingly challenged by the immaterial
representation of abstract systems, in the
Program form of television and electronic images.
Commissioned by the city of Groningen The city’s invitation to design a special
as a temporary structure for a music and environment for viewing music videos
video festival, the Glass Video Gallery also offered an opportunity to challenge
extends the public realm within a wooded preconceived ideas about spectatorship
traffic circle in the city’s downtown, near and privacy. Was the video gallery to be
the Groninger Museum. An inclined glass a static and enclosed black box, like the
structure for viewing music videos and architectural type created for cinema?
video-based installation art, the gallery is Would it be an extended living room, with
composed of a series of transparent, inter- exterior advertising billboards and neon
locking spaces. Seen as an extension of lights? Or would it be a new “type” that
the tree-lined street in which it stands, the brought what was previously a living room,
gallery allows the viewer to be viewed. bar, or lounge event out into the street?

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name of project 151
 The video gallery explores the move-
ment of the body as it travels through the
exhibition space and enclosure, which is
made entirely out of glass held by clips,
including its vertical supports and horizon-
tal beams. The resulting structure gives
priority to the image. The monitors inside
provide unstable facades, while the glass
reflections create mirages, suggesting lim-
itless space. At night, the space becomes
an ensemble of mirrors and reflections,
questioning what is real and what is vir-
tual, and whether the envelope is an actual
structure or an illusion. The Glass Video
Gallery parallels urban space, inasmuch
as both contain video objects, or tapes,
that are on display, as well as methods for
displaying them. These parallels extend
to both the long monitor walls, viewed
through “television dealership” storefronts
on the street, and to the sex-video galleries
of urban red-light districts.

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Glass Video Gallery 153
 A wayfaring information
and display device

Eric Owen Moss Architects:

The Art Tower
Los Angeles, California

Solution
All the buildings in the immediate area are
governed by a fifty-six-foot height limit. The
Art Tower is an important exception to the
local height rule—it is seventy-two-feet high
measured from grade, and will also include
Program open-air, excavated, concrete seating and
The Art Tower is an information tower con- staging space at its base, which begins
structed in Los Angeles at the corner of twelve feet below grade.
Hayden Avenue and National Boulevard— The tower consists of five circular steel
the primary entry point into the redeveloped rings, each approximately thirty feet in diam-
zone of Culver City. Conceptually, the tower eter. The rings are stacked at twelve-foot
has extroverted objectives. In reference floor-to-floor intervals, and, as the height
to the growing community of new media increases, are staggered in plan in order to
companies, graphic designers, architects, establish proximity and viewing angles for
and galleries, the tower provides a chang- various levels at various heights. The curv-
ing art display for local viewing. A variety ing, conical projection screens are installed
of graphic content and data is offered between each pair of staggered, horizontal
on the five screens concerning upcoming circular steel planes. Digital projectors,
events and current achievements of the twelve in all, hang behind these screens
tenants who occupy that part of the city. from the tower floors and rear-project onto
The Art Tower, located on a busy thorough- the translucent acrylic screens. Inside the
fare, also displays information for those screens, steel decks are provided both for
driving through and anticipates the new viewers to look out at the city and for the
passenger-railways system, the Expo Line maintenance staff to service the projectors
light-rail, currently under construction. and screens.

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name of project 155
156 Insight
 The Art Tower has a glazed elevator in
an enclosed glass shaft, and an open-air
stairway to the top. And, while the tower can
be used as a viewing platform to overlook
the city, its primary objective is to distribute
art and other relevant content to the local
and in-transit audiences passing by.
The tower is fabricated from standard
structural steel sections—wide flange
beams, columns, and channels—with
panelized walls made of half-inch-thick steel
plate. All the shapes and components were
shop-fabricated and delivered to the site
for erection. Because of earthquake design
constraints, the tower is supported on a
deep foundation of concrete piles, with
a continuous-grade beam tying the piles
together.
the art toWer 157
Delight
 A diaphanous shading structure

Ball-Nogues Studio:
Maximilian’s Schell
Los Angeles, California

Solution
The interior of this immersive, experimental
installation created a beckoning outdoor
room for social interaction and contempla-
Program tion by changing the space, color, and
Maximilian’s Schell was created for Materials sound of the M&A courtyard gallery. During
& Applications (M&A), a courtyard exhibi- the day, as the sun passed overhead, the
tion venue for experimental architecture and canopy cast colored, fractal light patterns
landscape that is open fourteen hours a day onto the ground. When standing in the cen-
and is adjacent to a street busy with both ter, or “singularity,” of the piece and gazing
pedestrian and automotive traffic. The proj- upward, the visitor could see only infinite
ect functioned as a shade structure, swirling sky. In the evening, when viewed from the
overhead for the entire summer of 2005. exterior, the vortex glowed warmly.

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name of project 161
 Ball-Nogues Studio invested more than
a year in developing Maximilian’s Schell, The resulting project was neither a
going through several prototypes, though tent-type membrane nor a cable-net
actual fabrication took only two weeks. The structure in the manner of Frei Otto, but a
result was an installation that functioned unique tensile matrix composed of 504
not only as architecture and sculpture different instances of a parametric compo-
but as a made-to-order product, due to its nent, or “petal,” each cut and labeled using
unified manufacturing strategy. The design- the CNC system. Every petal connected
ers achieved their aesthetic effects by to its neighbors at three points, using clear
manipulating Mylar reinforced with bundled polycarbonate rivets to form the overall
nylon and Kevlar fibers with a computer shape of a vortex. As though they were
numerical control (CNC) cutting machine. warped by the gravitational force of a black
Simultaneously reflective and transparent, hole, the petals continually changed scale
the amber-colored film had a UV-resistant, and proportion as they approached the
laminated, golden metallic finish. singularity of the piece.

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Maximilian’s Schell 163
164 Delight
name of project 165
 Animated street furniture

Greyworld:
Bins and Benches
Cambridge, United Kingdom

Solution
Five bins and four benches have been
injected with a magical, life-giving serum,
Program allowing them to break loose from their
Bins and Benches was created for The staid and fixed positions and roam around
Junction, an arts center in Cambridge, a public square in Cambridge. Travelling free
United Kingdom. During its redevelopment, and happy in their natural environment, they
the center commissioned an artwork for the move and flock, drifting across the space.
new public square in front of its main build- They frolic with the other species that inhabit
ing. Speaking about their inspiration for their world, exploring their plaza and enjoy-
the project, Greyworld says, “It has always ing themselves.
seemed to us that there are many objects Each bin or bench has its own personal-
placed in our public spaces, all with a certain ity and impulses—if it’s raining, a bench
dry function. What if we turned the tables, may decide to park under a tree and wait for
and we found ourselves in someone or someone to sit on it, while on Wednesdays
something else’s space? If the objects the bins line up, waiting to be emptied.
placed there by us actually lived and loved Occasionally, they all burst into song, with
and frolicked? And in actual fact, it was the bins forming a baritone barbershop quin-
us that were in their space?” tet and the benches a high soprano choir.

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BiNs aND BeNches 167
 An interactive fiber-optic landscape

Höweler + Yoon
Architecture:
White Noise White Light
Athens, Greece

Program
White Noise White Light was one of nine White Noise White Light consisted of
temporary, interactive urban installations a field of fiber-optic stalks, a raised deck,
commissioned and installed for the Athens and four hundred custom-designed elec-
2004 Olympics. Part of a preplanned “Listen tronics modules. Each module contained a
to Athens” route, the project inserted a passive-infrared sensor and microproces-
luminous, interactive sound and landscape sor, which modulated the brightness of LEDs
within the plaza entry to the Theater of at the tips of the fiber-optic stalks as well as
Dionysus, below the Acropolis. the volume of a sound file played through
the speakers. The field’s distributed respon-
Solution siveness allowed each stalk to individually
Höweler+Yoon Architecture embedded gauge the degree of bodily presence so
electronics into White Noise White Light that when people’s motions ceased, each
to respond to individual bodies in a microprocessor smoothly lowered the light
collective field condition. Visitors to the of each stalk and faded the white noise to
urban plaza encountered a grid of flexible, silence. Collectively, the units responded
luminous stalks. Upon entering the open to the movement of pedestrians with an
field, the visitors experienced “washes” of afterglow effect. A flickering wake of white
white light and white noise, triggered by light and white noise trailed and traced
their movements. each visitor’s path.

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 Depending on the time of day, number
of people, and trajectories of movement,
White Noise White Light constantly recorded
the cumulative interaction of the public.
Visitors attempted to decode the installa-
tion’s responsive parameters by experi-
menting with their bodies in space: running,
dodging, stamping, and tiptoeing. The field
became an unpredictable aggregation of
movement, light, and sound—a site of play
within the city. Essential to the project was
the idea that individuals could affect the
field. Their actions produced new behaviors
and ripple effects of reactions from the
environment and the people around them.

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 DIM INTERACTIVE FIBER OPTIC BRIGHT ACTIVATED FIBER OPTIC

SPEAKER EMITTING WHITE NOISE

White Noise White Light 171

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name of project 173
 Wayfaring symbols that recall
local history

Centerbrook Architects
and Planners:
Thread City Crossing
Windham, Connecticut

Program
In the nineteenth century, Windham,
Connecticut, was called “Thread City”
because of its nearly one million square feet
of thread factories, many powered by the
Willimantic River. The town straddles the
river, and a new bridge was needed to con-
nect the borough’s suburbs to its historic Solution
commercial center. Engineers hired by the Centerbrook began their work by meeting
Connecticut Department of Transportation with the local bridge design committee,
(DOT) originally designed a standard inter- which included the mayor, representatives
state bridge for the site. Local people were of the local planning agencies, the town
offended by this design and demanded that historian, and concerned citizens. As the
the bridge be sensitive to its historic set- project progressed, Centerbrook included
ting, so the city approached Centerbrook the committee in the design process. Citizen
Architects and Planners for suggestions involvement enriched the final design and
on how to add character to this utilitarian was key to building public support for the
bridge. new bridge plan.

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Thread City Crossing 175
 Thread City Crossing now serves as a
gateway to the town and the historic district,
incorporating symbols of Windham’s his-
tory and industry. Giant concrete spools of
thread sit above each of the bridge abut-
ments, and twelve-foot-tall bronze frogs
enliven the spools at each end of the bridge.
The spools recall Windham’s history as a
major thread producer. The frogs were sug-
gested by David Phillips, a member of the
bridge design committee and a professor
at Eastern Connecticut State University, Centerbrook contacted sculptor Leo
based on the legend of the Windham Frogs. Jensen to create frogs for the bridge that
Windham gained renown one night in June were beautiful and a bit sassy. Local citizens
of 1754, during the French and Indian War, then raised money to have Jensen make
when the townspeople were awakened by a quarter-scale wood model of a frog on a
a tremendous noise. Expecting an attack spool to publicize the design and help raise
and fearing for their lives, they ran from money for the full-size frogs. After intensive
their homes to hide in the woods. The noise lobbying from the community, the DOT paid
turned out to be bullfrogs fighting for the for the frog sculptures out of the construc-
last drops of water in a dried-up millpond. tion budget.

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Thread City Crossing 177
 A pleasure garden built from
recycled materials

Stoss Landscape
Urbanism: Safe Zone
Grand Métis, Quebec, Canada

Solution
The garden used off-the-shelf safety prod-
Program ucts (poured-in-place rubber, safety tiles,
Safe Zone was a temporary, 3,400-square- goal post bumpers) turned or stretched to
foot garden installation commissioned for new ends. Safe Zone established a topogra-
the 2006 International Garden Festival, phy of code and regulation, manufacturing
held at Jardins de Métis/Reford Gardens in three-dimensional garden conditions
northeast Quebec. The site selected for this (hillocks and valleys). The garden was a
installation was rectangular, with the shorter contemporary reinterpretation of the classic
dimension on the greater garden festival pleasure garden: playful, tactile, sensual,
path. The existing conditions were approxi- engaging, uncertain, insidious, perhaps
mately half wooded, half cleared. even risky.

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name of project 179
 The garden’s main material, poured-
in-place rubber, was especially unique.
Often used as a flat surface beneath play-
ground structures to cushion falls, the
The design innovatively employed com- rubber is fantastically squishy. For Safe
mercial products designed for dangerous Zone, Stoss Landscape Urbanism pushed
situations in everyday landscapes (subway this material property, installing it thinner
platforms, sidewalks, playgrounds, sports at the hillocks’ crests and thicker at their
fields), coerced into a provocative public bases, varying its thickness to amplify its
space. The garden did so in response to ability to destabilize. Changes in resistance
government safety codes and regulations, to one’s body weight could actually induce
which typically alienate people in the public one to fall—into a pit, onto another visitor—
realm. Here, those same codes, and the or encourage one to burrow or bounce.
materials used to meet them, were turned The garden established a new sustain-
around, opening up possibilities for free, able aesthetic: while it was clearly synthetic,
uninhibited movement and exploration. 80 percent of the materials used in it were
Safe Zone was meant to encourage people’s either recycled or salvaged from sneaker
curiosity and sense of experimentation, soles, old tires, and discarded tiles. The
causing them to shed preconceptions and surface was also permeable, allowing
self-consciousness in an encounter with water to penetrate to irrigate tree roots
the unknown. and recharge the water table.

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Safe Zone 181
 A summer festival integrating water,
fire, and music

Barnaby Evans:
WaterFire
Providence, Rhode Island

Solution
Artist Barnaby Evans designed WaterFire as
a public artwork that modifies the experience
of public space and makes the urban envi-
ronment the actual canvas of the work of art.
WaterFire is a series of nearly one hundred
bonfires lining the surface of Providence’s
Program three rivers. It is a combination of light and
Downtown Providence, Rhode Island— fire, public ritual, subtle design, crowd psy-
once a thriving community—had seen most chology, community engagement, unusual
of its industries leave over the past one hun- recorded music, and live performances that
dred years, and was empty and dangerous forge a new vision for the downtown. Relying
on nights and weekends. In the early 1990s, on spectacle and surprise to transform the
the city opened up a long-covered river to visitor’s expectation of the urban experience,
form a mile of park through downtown that, WaterFire is a free, pedestrian-based explo-
despite excellent design, extensive pedes- ration of the downtown district. It combines
trian amenities, and thoughtful engagement a wide variety of installations and perfor-
with history, remained largely underused mances with a core ritual of redemption,
and failed to stimulate new construction with the light of its bonfires representing the
in the area. WaterFire was created in 1994 renewal of life downtown. WaterFire, now
to reinforce this initial effort and bring eco- a yearly festival, has attracted more than
nomic activity to Providence. A deeper ten million visitors to downtown Providence,
mission was to inspire the city’s residents transformed the city into a destination, and
to realize its potential and create a symbol sparked a broad reevaluation of the city
for its prosperous future and renaissance. and its future.

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Waterfire 183
 Fences adjusted for musical delight

Greyworld:
Railings
London, United Kingdom
Paris, France

Solution
Railings plays on the simple pleasure of
picking up a stick and running it along
Program a set of railings to make a lovely “clack-
Railings was installed in 1997 without clack-clack” sound. We loved doing this as
permission in public spaces around Paris children, but often forget about it as adults.
and London by tuning the preexisting metal Greyworld chose railings in small green
railings on the sites. Some examples remain, spaces, side alleys, and other liminal loca-
especially in the centers of both cities. tions, then tuned the railings using one
According to Greyworld, “Public art is a of three methods so that when you run a
flawed term. What is public about the bronze stick along them, they play “The Girl from
man on a horse, or the highly polished rock Ipanema.”
so beloved of town planners?” They set There was no plaque to let passers-by
out to create artworks that would reappro- know about the intervention. The architects
priate the elements of urban space and allow hoped, instead, that people might just pick
some kind of creative expression in areas up a stick and have a play anyway—perhaps
where usually there is none. the railings would play a tune, perhaps not.

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Railings 185
 Vertical landscapes for vacant walls

In Collaboration:
Ground, Höweler +Yoon Architecture,
LinOldham Office, Merge Architects, MOS, SsD,
Studio Luz, UNI, Utile Inc., and over,under

Parti Wall, Hanging Green

Boston, Massachusetts

Program
The shifting development patterns of
Boston’s evolving urban landscape have Solution
created conditions where urban infill lots sit Parti Wall, Hanging Green consists of panels
empty. Bare parti walls (short for partition of live vegetation suspended from cables
wall, or the lot-line wall) are symptomatic of and forming an overall abstract pattern. It
this uneven development. The vacancy of aims to transform the character and texture
these urban lots and their provisional uses, of the urban environment—providing visual
typically consisting of grade parking, made relief, color, and texture—as well as to bring
them an ideal test site for Parti Wall, Hanging a range of ecological benefits—including
Green—a vertical green wall created by a insulation, sound absorption, reduction of
group of young Boston-area architecture storm water runoff, and mitigation of the
firms. heat-island effect.

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name of project 187
 er
3'-0"
er
'- "
PATTERN 07 Hangers: 16 @ 3'-0" o.C.
3' ' ma panel 35 panels - 10 6 s co erage 1 15 columns
3' ca le spac ng 16 ca les < 30 panels per column

The project is a prototype, in the sense

that it proposes a system of components
capable of being deployed to sites across
the city. After testing several varieties of
grasses and groundcovers, the architects
selected sedum for its visual properties as
well as its resilience. The panelized nature of
the installation allows for the easy removal
of individual modules and the substitu-
tion of other varieties. The hope is that the
prototype will demonstrate the feasibility of
vertical landscaping, as well as promote
a larger discussion about urban ecologies,
microclimates, and vegetal effects.

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Parti Wall, Hanging Green 189
 A suspended fabric sculpture that
activates public space

Janet Echelman:
Her Secret is Patience
Phoenix, Arizona

Solution
Program The 145-foot-tall sculpture is monumental,
Downtown Phoenix has never had a public yet also soft and flexible, with its semi-
gathering space where residents would translucent weave. Its lightness allows it to
spend time by choice. The new, two-city- be animated by “wind choreography,” which
block Civic Space Park is intended to create engages people emotionally and kinestheti-
an enticing public space in order to foster cally, drawing many viewers to lie down on
a sense of community. Janet Echelman’s the grass underneath it for extended periods
sculpture Her Secret is Patience is sus- of time. The elevated location of Her Secret
pended in the center of the park and acts as is Patience pulls the gaze up to the sky and
an iconic landmark of a new cultural identity optimizes a relatively small footprint for a
for the city. The sculpture creates a sense downtown park by allowing the same area to
distinct yet equally compelling environments be both recreational and iconic sculpture at
during both day and night to visually attract the same time. Local curator Marilu Knode
people to the downtown civic areas. says that Phoenix “finally has a heart.”

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name of project 191
 The sculpture’s multilayered form
was created with a combination of hand-
baited and machine-loomed knotting, and
is the result of a collaborative effort with an
international team of award-winning engi-
neers. During the day, the high-tenacity,
polyester-net sculpture projects “shadow
drawings” onto the ground, inspired by
Phoenix’s cloud shadows. The piece
appears delicate and diaphanous, a unique
quality for outdoor sculpture, and incorpo-
rates the surrounding landscape. Her Secret
is Patience’s visual form makes reference to
local desert flora (such as night-blooming
cacti), Phoenix’s distinctive monsoon cloud
formations, and the city’s geologic history
(the local fossil record shows evidence
that this site was once an ocean filled with
marine life). At night, the illumination pro-
gram changes color gradually through the
seasons, enhancing without overpowering
the richness of the net’s integrally colored
fibers. The lighting design also changes
what portion of the sculpture is illuminated,
leaving parts obscured in mystery.

192 Delight
Her secret is Patience 193
 An undulating bamboo lattice that
forms a “deep landscape”

nArchitects:
Canopy
Long Island City, New York

Program
Canopy was a temporary structure created
by nArchitects for the courtyard of the P.S.1
Contemporary Art Center in Long Island
City, New York. The courtyard space hosts
weekly Warm Up music parties, which attract
eight thousand revelers every Saturday in
the summer. Canopy relied on a singular tectonic
system for shade, structure, and atmo-
Solution sphere. Pinches in the undulating lattice
The word canopy refers to both a rooflike produced a range of shadow densities and
structure and the uppermost region of a for- patterns across the courtyard. Dips in the
est. The architects developed the idea of canopy defined rooms open to the sky,
a “deep landscape” to stitch together the each with a distinct climatic environment
limits of the existing site (ground, concrete for different modes of lounging: a Pool Pad
walls, sky) with one material. Canopy was incorporated a large wading pool; a Fog Pad
built with green bamboo and existed for was surrounded by nozzles that spread a
five months. During this time, it was host to halo of cool mist on revelers; the Rainforest
more than one hundred thousand visitors featured a sound environment and misters
and underwent a slow transformation as the that provided intermittent rain showers and
freshly cut green bamboo turned from green randomly soaked the crowd; and a Sand
to tan, allowing visitors to experience the Hump’s sandy cove maximized exposure to
effects of time in a direct and tactile way. either sun or shade.

194 Delight
name of project 195
 ARC PROFILES

The project’s challenge resided in the thirty-thousand feet of flexible, freshly cut
physical translation of a geometrically green Phyllostachys aurea bamboo from
precise structure using a natural material Georgia, spliced and bound together with
with inherently variable characteristics. thirty-seven-thousand feet of stainless-steel
The architects digitally modeled each wire. The final canopy lattice acted as a
arc in Canopy in three dimensions, and multidirectional structural network of more
then exported these into two-dimensional than three hundred individual arcs whose
elevation drawings, with the arc’s exact shapes were precisely translated from the
length and intersection points indicated. digital model.
The type, general shape, and critical At the end of the summer, nArchitects
radius of an arc dictated its pole selection, sold the bamboo as raw material to the
orientation, and splicing method. With studio of artist Matthew Barney for the
their team of architecture students and construction of scaffolding in a film set.
recent graduates, nArchitects then spent Everyone assumed that the bamboo would
six weeks on-site testing each arc type to have lost its elasticity after being effectively
determine the maximum span, minimum molded into shape for so long, so it was a
bending radii, and overlap dimensions surprise when the bamboo immediately
before building the structure itself over a sprang back to being straight as soon as it
period of seven weeks. The project used was cut loose.

196 Delight
Canopy 197
 A “divine hand” supporting public
movie screenings

cho BeNN holBacK +

associates:
the hughes faMily
outDoor theater
BaltiMore, MarylaND

Program
The American Visionary Art Museum (AVAM)
is dedicated to the study, collection, preser-
vation, and exhibition of artworks created
by self-taught artists, and to using such art Solution
to explore and expand the definition of a AVAM began its “Flicks from the Hill” out-
worthwhile life. door family-film series in the spring of 2005.
The Rouse Visionary Center on AVAM’s Inspired by the popularity of Little Italy’s out-
campus, designed by Cho Benn Holback+ door film series, AVAM took great advantage
Associates, is dedicated to the goals of of the adjacent three-tiered, grassy green
the late urban visionary Jim Rouse. The slope of Federal Hill Park—using it as a natu-
Center for Visionary Thought, housed within ral outdoor amphitheater, capable of easily
this building, promotes low-cost, grassroots seating more than one thousand people with
solutions to improving urban life while fur- clear visual and audio access. Federal Hill is
thering Rouse’s belief that “cities are meant an ideal perch to gather in warm weather to
to be gardens in which to grow beautiful watch movies under the stars, and the city
people.” The museum wanted to embody enthusiastically granted permission for this
this notion by extending beyond its doors, usage. Movies themed around the current
embracing the community and celebrat- museum exhibition are shown on Thursdays
ing urban life and art. throughout the summer.

198 Delight
NaMe of project 199
 AVAM board member Patrick Hughes
established the Hughes Family Outdoor
Theater with initial funds for the purchase
and installation of a giant, thirty-two-foot
outdoor movie screen on the rear wall of
the Rouse Visionary Center, as well as the
delightful twelve-foot-tall Golden Hand,
a sculpture by Adam Kurtzman that projects
from above the screen, giving the illusion
of a “divine hand” supporting the public
movie screenings.

200 Delight
the hughes faMily outDoor theater 201
 A musical description of the time of
day and the time of year

Studio d’ARC Architects

with Jeremy Boyle:
V365/24/7
Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania

Program
V365/24/7 is a collaborative project
designed by Studio d’ARC Architects
and artist Jeremy Boyle for the Pittsburgh
Downtown Partnership’s (PDP) public Solution
art competition for Strawberry Way, a Observing the way light and shadow
much-used, three-block-long downtown played on the AT&T Building from First
pedestrian thoroughfare. The V365/24/7 Lutheran’s spire, the design team realized
proposal responded to the found conditions the relationship of sunlight and shadow
along Strawberry Way with a unique under- was quite different for the pedestrian
standing of light, along with the twin goals throughout the year. From this, they devel-
of being self-sustainable and easily oped the idea of collecting sunlight from
demountable. The primary elements that this vertical space, far from the reach of the
define the alley are natural light, vertical pedestrians below, and to transform this
space, and the relationship to the horizontal energy into a new form and experience
ground plane of the pedestrian passage, in Strawberry Way. Location, the time of
especially on a block bounded by the city’s day, and the time of season would inform
AT&T Building, Reed Smith Building, and and accompany the passersby on their
First Lutheran Church. daily commutes.

202 Delight
V365/24/7 203
Solar Study on the Vertical Surface of the AT&T building (South Face located on Strawberry Way)

01.01.05 @ 12.00 p.m.

Solar Noon on December 21

Solar Noon on June 21

Public Art Submission for Strawberry Way

Using a solar panel on the AT&T Building,

collected light is transformed into energy,
which then powers a computer-generated
algorithm that loosely translates the well-
known composition by Antonio Vivaldi, The
Four Seasons. This music was selected for
its direct connection to time and season,
as well as for its familiarity. The audio signal
travels to four speakers positioned along
Strawberry Way. The music shifts slowly
throughout the day and, like the Vivaldi
piece from which it is based, evolves with the
changing seasons, giving a unique musical
description to both the time of day and time
of year in a 365-day composition.

204 Delight
Shadow Studies of Street Context

Area of indirect light

Area of direct sunlight

Area of indirect light

Area of indirect light

(closed and defined)
Area of direct sunlight

Area of direct sunlight

(open and less defined)

Selected Site Area

June 21 Shadow Study (Solar Noon) June 21 Shadow Study (Solar Noon)
Strawberry Way, Pittsburgh Strawberry Way, Pittsburgh

Public Art Submission for Strawberry Way

Conceptual Sketches (making something happen in the shadows)

Light as a natural A single line which

power source transforms light energy
into sound activity

Public Art Submission for Strawberry Way

V365/24/7 205
 An urban campfire

Mark Ryan Studio

with Mayme Kratz:
trueNorth
Tempe, Arizona

Solution
TrueNorth functions primarily as a hearth—
a gathering place and a focus point both
for the art center itself and the surrounding
community. It provides seating, including
wheelchair accessibility, and accommo-
dates drainage and circulation concerns, yet
it also attempts to transcend the necessary,
utilitarian aspects of its program in order to
Program form a place of meaningful connection. The
Thought of conceptually as a campfire at work has an appearance from afar that is
the edge of the water, trueNorth sits at the intentionally distinct from the personal, more
northern periphery of downtown Tempe, intimate reading when confronted up close.
Arizona, as part of the Tempe Center for the The project is simultaneously inward-look-
Arts, immediately adjacent to the southwest- ing and focused out beyond its constructed
ern bank of Tempe Town Lake. boundaries.

206 Delight
name of project 207
 Rooted in the long history of this par-
ticular place, trueNorth was inspired by an
American Indian legend of the Great Spirit.
Passed down through generations of sev-
eral tribes, the story tells of the Great Spirit
assigning guardianship of the earth, wind,
fire, and water to different races of people Early walks on the site revealed some-
and assigning them a direction. To the north, thing interesting, a bit of unexpected magic.
the Great Spirit gave fire. The ground seemed to sparkle. A photo-
From the geometric center of the art graph of this phenomenon, thought of as a
center’s semicircular plan, a line was struck site-specific constellation, was mapped on
on the true north alignment. This axis the surface of trueNorth’s black concrete
emanates outward from the project and plinth and determined the particular place-
extends across the water, through the foot- ment of 120 individually cast resin rods.
hills of the Papago Buttes to Camelback Suspended within each resin rod is some
Mountain and beyond. Lining up the flames special aspect of the project: sketches from
of two hearths, viewed through a stra- the process, correspondence, screenplays,
tegically placed aperture, connects the sheet music, poetry, or natural objects
individual to this greater perspective. collected from the site.

208 Delight
name of project 209
 An urban threshold for pedestrian and
vehicular passage

Roberto Rovira
and Azimuth Studio:
I-880 Gateway
Oakland, California

Solution
Program I-880 Gateway, the winning competition
Interstate 880 is an undeniable compo- entry, proposed an experiential pedestrian
nent of Oakland’s vehicular and pedestrian and vehicular gateway that would respond
landscape. The massive highway displaces to—and not conceal—the innate qualities
urban fabric and severs the continuity of this critical urban threshold. The proposal
between the city’s revitalized waterfront embraced materials that were “natural”
and its downtown. Even though the areas to the context of the highway: guardrails,
below the highway’s overpass experience recycled car tires, LED lights, red safety
a large amount of pedestrian traffic, they paint. The highway’s material vocabulary
were an undeniable product of car culture. became an essential part of a design that
A forest of columns, the thick concrete slab transformed the space while simultaneously
above, the oversize turning radius of the embracing its inherent identity. The common
ramps, and the soot collected on all surfaces reading of building materials used almost
were all indicative of a place designed exclusively within the domain of vehicu-
almost exclusively for cars. A competition lar infrastructure was countered by their
brief called for a gateway that would trans- unconventional application, as elements that
form this otherwise unforgiving weave around brightly painted columns and
environment. help dissolve the overpass’s imposing scale.

210 Delight
name of project 211
 Although not all the proposed elements
were employed (such as an undulating,
recycled rubber sidewalk flanking the road
and pulsating LED lights that would register
the movement of cars above the overpass),
sculptural walls made of highway guardrail
material and brightly painted and illumi-
nated red columns provide a language that
addresses the urban problem of interstitial
spaces that were designed for vehicles
but that inevitably encroach on the pedes-
trian experience of a city.

212 Delight
 UNDERSIDE OF EXISTING HIGHWAY (I-880).

3" DIA. E.S. PIPE COLUMN; PAINTED W/

RUSTPROOF PRIMER (PENETROL).

18 GA. GALV. STL. GUARDRAIL; RADIUSED PER

PLAN; BOLTED @ STEEL PIPE COLUMN; 1/2" DIA.
BOLT W/ NEOPRENE WASHER.

W.W.F.; FLAT TO BACK OF

GUARDRAIL; CONT.

EXISTING COLUMN;
PAINTED.

3/4" RECYCLED RUBBER SHEET (BLACK);

ADHESIVE FASTEN TO CONCRETE SUBDECK.
2" RECYCLED RUBBER SHEET O/
CLASS II BASE O/ DRAINAGE
4" CONCRETE SUBDECK, REINFORCED; O/ 8"
MEMBRANE.
CLASS II BASE LAYER.

6" CONC. CURB & RETAINING WALL.

24" CONC. CURB

SECTION @ EXISTING PAR60 UPLIGHT; TWO(2)
STREET. PER COLUMN TO
BACKLIGHT GUARDRAIL.
EXISTING
EXISTING PARKING
ROADWAY
SURFACE.
TOPPING.

DRAINAGE MEMBRANE CONT.

UNDER BASE LAYER.

12"x12"x9" CONC. PLINTH @

SPREAD FOOTING; CONT. STEEL PIPE COLUMN ONLY.

SECTION OF WALKWAY THROUGH EXISTING COLUMN

0 5ft

I-880 Gateway 213

 Recreational pavilions and utilitarian
amenities

ShoP Architects:
Mitchell Park
Greenport, New York

Solution
The five-acre site spans from the last Long
Program Island Rail Road station on the North Fork
Mitchell Park is located in Greenport, a and the Shelter Island ferry terminal at
historic seaport at the eastern edge of Long the west, to a public marina and commercial
Island’s North Fork. Its proximity to farmland zone to the east. The spaces between these
and a sheltered deep harbor supported destinations are linked by a hardwood
commercial industries and recreational boardwalk and a delineated network of
activities throughout its long history. bluestone and stabilized gravel paths. The
Founded in 1838, Greenport’s past is park’s collection of architectural programs
marked with significant episodes of change. radiates from a multi-use plaza situated
In 1996, the town embarked on a nine-year at the visual center of the site.
campaign to revitalize its public, commer- The plaza supports an amphitheater
cial, and recreational infrastructure. Mitchell and an open-air, seasonal ice rink that turns
Park is the nucleus of this program, which into a mist garden during the warm summer
evolved from the acquisition of private land months. The mist garden is flanked by a
parcels with the assistance of state and contemporary house for a vintage carousel,
local agencies. The project’s intent was to shade arbors, a mechanical building, and
activate and build upon existing transporta- a camera obscura. The palette of building
tion and commercial infrastructure through claddings (ipe, cedar, and zinc) responds to
a mesh of recreational pavilions and the coastal environs, as they develop
utilitarian amenities. a patina over time.

214 Delight
name of project 215
 The Carousel House is a radial building
designed to blend the interior experience
with the exterior environment. The structure
is used year-round, and twelve steel and
glass bifold doors—each fourteen feet high Mitchell Park provides access to two
and independently operable—allow flexibil- deep-water piers supporting tall ships, ferry
ity in passive temperature control. A surface service to Plum Island, and a floating marina
design on the doors was derived from a for sixty-two transient vessels. The marina
study of wave patterns—common to both the program is augmented by the Harbormaster
movement of the carousel ride and its loca- House, situated at the easternmost edge
tion on the Peconic Bay. of the site. This building provides the public
The Camera Obscura is a rare program with restroom/shower facilities, an informa-
with significant historical and scientific tion kiosk, a harbor management center,
underpinnings. The “darkroom” utilizes a and an elevated outdoor bar that engages
mirror and lens to project exterior imagery the Mitchell Park panorama with the neigh-
into the dark interior chamber. The build- boring islands. The Harbormaster House
ing is composed of 2,300 individual and is the literal and figurative termination of
unique structural components, which were Mitchell Park’s harbor walk. The park’s paths
three-dimensionally modeled, laser-cut, and and boardwalk spanning west to east wrap
labeled as a kit of parts to be fully assembled and unfold, resulting in the harbormaster’s
on-site. The building’s innovative construc- observation deck. This unique vantage
tion techniques, materials, and spatial clarity point offers repose and views of the paths,
function as a complement to the phenom- links, and architectural programs that form
enal experience of a camera obscura. Mitchell Park.

216 Delight
Mitchell Park 217
218 Delight
Mitchell Park 219
 The New York City Waterfalls

Studio Olafur Eliasson:

The New York City Waterfalls
New York, New York

Solution
The New York City Waterfalls attracted
approximately 1.4 million people to New
York’s waterfront between June 26 and
October 13, 2008, creating a unique way
for people to interact with the city through
viewing a work of art, both collectively and
Program individually. Viewers were able to experience
Olafur Eliasson’s The New York City the waterfalls in a number of ways, includ-
Waterfalls consisted of four monumental, ing from suggested vantage points along
temporary, man-made waterfalls, sited at the shore and “biking the falls,” as well as
four different points on New York’s historic from dedicated ferry and boat routes in the
harbor: at the Brooklyn anchorage of the East River. According to a survey, 23 per-
Brooklyn Bridge, between Piers 4 and 5 in cent of the viewers made their first trip to the
Brooklyn, on Pier 35 in Lower Manhattan, Lower Manhattan or Brooklyn waterfronts
and on the north shore of Governors Island. to see this monumental public art project.
The waterfalls were intended to highlight Additionally, the Public Art Fund joined with
New York’s natural environment alongside government agencies and environmental
the city’s industrial and commercial land- organizations to develop New York City’s
scape. In particular, the project aimed to call first K–12 curriculum on public art, using
attention to the viewer’s relationship to the The New York City Waterfalls as a model.
riverfront, and to the way it has been and A description of the project by Eliasson
is currently being developed, experienced, was also available by dialing the city’s 311
and used. information hotline.

220 Delight
name of project 221
 The waterfalls were designed with the
utmost consideration for local environmental
and ecological concerns: intake filter pools
and special pumps beneath the water
protected fish and aquatic life; the waterfalls
were run using electricity generated from
renewable resources; and at night they were
lit with LED lights. Following the project’s
conclusion, 90 percent of the materials of
The New York City Waterfalls were reused in
other construction projects, allowing parts
of the work to live on.

222 Delight
name of project 223
Image credits Insight
Greeting Wall: Bunch Design (101)
Introduction Mark Dion Vivarium: Ben Benschneide (105
Moskow Linn Architects (9), Fred Gurner (10 bottom), Owen Richards Architects (103 , 104 ,
bottom), Margot Lystra and Phoebe Schenker 105 top and middle)
for Public Architecture (11) Facsimile: Courtesy of Diller Scofidio+Renfro
(107–9)
Service Sidewalk Series: Masamichi Udagaawa and
Marsupial Bridge: Bloom Consultants (17 bottom Sigi Moeslinger / Antenna Design (111–13 )
left), Jim Brozek (17 top, 19 top), La Dallman Serpentine Gallery Pavilion 2006: Rem Koolhaas
(15 , 16 , 17 bottom right, 18 , 19 bottom) and Cecil Balmond with Arup (115–17 )
Zipcar Dispenser: Moskow Linn Architects TKTS Booth: Emile Wamsteker (119 , 121 bottom,
(21–23 ) 122–23 ), Choi Rophiha (120 , 121 top)
SuperNatural: Howard Ursuliak (25 , 27 bottom), Have You Ever Been Mistaken For a ...?:
Ground (26 , 27 top) Courtesy of Diller Scofidio+Renfro (125 )
Day Labor Station: Margot Lystra and Phoebe Interim Bridges Prototype: Kennedy & Violich
Schenker for Public Architecture (29 top, Architecture (127–29)
30 , 31 top), Francesco Fanfani for Public Green Coat Surface: Studio Works / B.A.S.E.
Architecture (29 bottom), Public Architecture (131–33 )
(31 bottom), H0K for Public Architecture In Pursuit of Freedom: Local Projects (135–39)
(33 top), Elena Dorfman Photography (32 ), Sclera: Adjaye Associates (141–45 )
Albert Vecerka Photography/Esto Making Time Visible: Alex MacLean (148 right,
Photographics (33 bottom) 149), Peter Vanderwarker (147, 148 left)
Rolling Bridge: Heatherwick Studio (35–37 ) Glass Video Gallery: Bernard Tschumi
TigerTrap: Rogers Marvel Architects (39–41) Architects (151–53 )
Ecoboulevard: Ecosistema Urbano Arquitectos The Art Tower: Eric Owen Moss Architects
(43–49) (155–57 )
Dewey Square MBTA Head Houses: Steven
Poon (51, 53 ), Machado and Silvetti Delight
Associates (52 ) Maximilian’s Schell: Ball-Nogues Studio
Light Rooms and paraSOL: DesignLAB (55–57 ) (163 top), Benjamin Ball (162 left bottom),
Urban Nebula: Luke Hayes (59–63 ) Benny Chan (161, 164), Neil Cochran (162
River Genie: Moskow Linn Architects (65 ) right), Oliver Hess (162 left top), Scott Mayoral
White Limousine Yatai: Atelier Bow-Wow (67 ) (163 bottom), Joshua White (165 )
Temporary Event Complex: Sally Schoolmaster Bins and Benches: Greyworld (167 )
(69 , 70 ), Boora (71) White Noise White Light: Höweler+Yoon
City-Pissoir: Archive of Josef Paul Kleihues (73 ) Architecture (169–73 )
Urban Hookah: Moskow Linn Architects (75–77 ) Thread City Crossing: Jeff Goldberg/Esto (175 ,
Caltrans District 7 Headquarters Public Plaza: 176 top, 177 bottom), Centerbrook Architects
Morphosis (79–81) and Planners (176 bottom, 177 top)
MVG Retail Pavilions: Midwest Architecture Safe Zone: Stoss Landscape Urbanism (179–81)
Studio (83 ) WaterFire: Barnaby Evans (183 top, middle, and
City Street Walk: Julie Snow, Matthew Kreilich, bottom left; Thomas Payne (183 bottom right)
and student work by Jesse Bauldry (85–87 ) Railings: Greyworld (185 )
Union Square Performance Area: Studio Luz (89) Parti Wall, Hanging Green: Höweler+Yoon
The High Line: Patrick Hazari for James Corner Architecture (187–89)
Field Operations and Diller Scofidio+Renfro, Her Secret is Patience: Janet Echelman (191–93 )
courtesy the City of New York, produced by Canopy: Frank Oudeman (195 , 197 top and
Friends of the High Line (92 ), James Corner middle right), Sam Dufaux (197 bottom),
Field Operations and Diller Scofidio+Renfro, nArchitects (196 , 197 middle left)
courtesy the City of New York (93 ), James The Hughes Family Outdoor Theater: Alain
Corner Field Operations (94 middle left), Jaramillo (199), Anne Ditmeyer (200–1)
Timothy Schenck (94 bottom right), Front V365/24/7: Studio d’ARC Architects (203–5 )
Studio@flickr.com (95 top), pongNYC@flickr. trueNorth: Mark Ryan Studio (207–9)
com (95 bottom), Iwan Baan (91, 94 top, 1-880 Gateway: Robert Rovira (211–13 )
middle right, and bottom left), courtesy of Mitchell Park: Seong Kwon (215 , 217 bottom,
Diller Scofidio+Renfro (96–97 ) 219), SHoP Architects (216 , 217 top), David
Joseph (218)
The New York City Waterfalls: Bernstein
Associates Photographers courtesy of the
Public Art Fund (221–23 )

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