Fabian Llonch
Spring 2012
Spitzer School of Architecture at the City College of New York
Artur Dabrowski and Jamie Edindjiklian
Manhattanville is a hidden world of New York City, concealed under elevated train arches, and sheltered between the Hudson River and Harlem proper. Much of the neighborhood has seen an upswing in occupancy by food establishments. The locus is appropriate for a school of culinary arts, and its construction would complete the site’s identity and food focus.
The intervention is a reclamation and celebration of old steel, offset by the infusion and liveliness of new steel. We composed a taxonomy of site context and program attributes that assigned architectonic moves to inform the volumetric rhythm and composition of the project. In occupying the area underneath the viaducts, a modular is delineated by the two existing column grids. The system allowed for individualization of program and a symbiotic relationship between the volumes. Based on the framework of the taxonomy, each component allowed the modular to break, augment, and sculpt itself for optimal light, ventilation, storage, and use. The result is a site-specific response that respects the existing infrastructure as artifacts. Circulation is residual space; an interplay of solid and void.