Tag Archives: integration

DD PEER REVIEW: Tyler

Sitting in on Tyler and Alice’s critique, it was obvious that their design has moved forward considerably since the last review and has achieved a beautiful aesthetic that is ready to move forward. The aesthetics of their project was not discussed much, although touched on at the end.

One concern during the critique was circulation. This led to a more general concern of integration. While the design looks cohesive, the inner workings still have small details which need to be ironed out. For example, the subway and the performance center are rather separated. You have the ability to enter the subway and bypass the performance center, however this was identified as an opportunity to make people view your site and perhaps stay for some time. Creating a main entry for the subway in the performance centre could begin to finesse the inner workings of the design and benefit the people flow on the site to create a hub for people to stop for a moment. The subway was identified as having a lot of unused square footage. Moving forward, it was suggested to develop this space into more retail opportunity we find in other subway stations with space. On your way to the train, there can be many spaces for small cafés and other shops.

Every review has led to a conversation of “I wish you developed this more” as they point to the single element we simply did not have enough time to get to. For Tyler and Alice, this was their apartment building. However, imagining the apartment design to either complement or interject their themed “negative oval” which dominates their formal strategy creates a great opportunity. This also brings us to the corner this imaginary oval seems to radiate from. This was identified as a very important point, however there is nothing on this corner. Because the entire design seems to react to this one spot, Tyler and Alice were urged to design something that would be situated there to reflect and satisfy this apparent importance. Also, it was touched on that the apartment building footprint may not provide enough space for underground parking. However, extending this into partial underground/aboveground parking would create an opportunity to fit all the program and to design the circulation from the apartment building to other points on the site.

An overarching question posed to Tyler and Alice was this: What is making money? From a developer’s point of view, although we typically do not focus on this view, I believe this can help Tyler and Alice to develop more program for their site and to have some fun imagining things to do around the site to draw people in. Besides the performance center and added retail in the subway, how will the site react to create revenue from people traveling to, from, and through it? Sometimes we fixate on a single form of critique, so even though hearing the developer’s point of view isn’t something you want, using it to imagine a flow through the site where every space which touches the ground entices people to enter and spend time and money, this might help the design.

Another later comment on the geometry concerned the topography. The design seemed to be “trying too hard to make the geometry work. Let topography help. Let it slope. Put buildings on stilts and manipulate the ground plane.” This could be a really interesting way to address the ground plane, which is of great importance to this design because of the featured cut-out underground subway. Using Pilotis and manipulating the ground plane could develop entrances and circulation in a very cool way. Combining this with a strategy to bring in and keep people on the site could create a dynamic landscape which features a performance centre and apartment high-rise on stilts, but focusing visitors on places to eat and buy local goods. Simply an imagination of the site, this approach could help Tyler and Alice to think about the site in a different manner.

Overall, the relationship amongst the pieces on the site needed to be more integrated (the key word of the critique). “What are the big gestures you want to communicate to organize your spaces?” As a side note, something about the proportions of the buildings in the design, perhaps that both the apartment building and the performance centre are so big, the design appears proportionally as half of the actual site. This was hinted at when a comment was made to turn the apartment building into a high-rise. Perhaps trying to make the apartment have a dynamic staggering of heights, or become interlinked separate buildings reacting to the oval could start to bring an amount of scale to the design so the performance centre looks distinctively larger and more expansive than the apartments.


 

This critique seemed to go into just enough detail on the design and provide meaningful feedback. While some moments seemed to repeat over and over again, as I have “DEVELOP APARTMENT BUILDING” noted in all caps because that was all I heard for five minutes, there were suggestions that could stimulate some very interesting design which may prove possible despite the shortened time frame we have left on this project. All-in-all, there are definitely some good comments to be taken into consideration.


Featured Image: Ronan Kennedy

 

INTEGRATION OF TWO URBAN NEIGHBORHOODS

master plan 1

Dumbo, New York, Brooklyn, [pick one-R.] often regarded as an upandcoming, urban hot-spot, prides itself on its trendiness, youthful vibes, and embracing of industrial chic culture. Over the past eight years, DumboUMBO, Brooklyn has undergone tremendous renovations, repair, and an influx of artists and youth alike. To the east of this booming neighborhood, Vinegar Hill has not quite thrived and prospered quite to the same degree as DumboUMBO, despite similarities in demographics and age range. Continue reading INTEGRATION OF TWO URBAN NEIGHBORHOODS