Tag Archives: Market

DD PEER REVIEW: REBECCA LEFKOWITZ

Design Development Peer Review

Designer(s): Rebecca Lefkowitz & Laura Deluca


Rebecca and Laura started their presentation by siting the lack of a strong entrance into Dumbo, Brooklyn. Their design was a step towards addressing the lack of an entrance into the rapidly developing area via a major transportation hub. The transportation hub would service taxis, bikes, buses and cars as well as a car sharing service, and convert those means of transportation to pedestrian movement. Their meandering path then engage the pedestrians, providing movements for them to relax, work, and eat along the way. Continue reading DD PEER REVIEW: REBECCA LEFKOWITZ

The LINK

Design Development Statement:

By Selina Bitting & Hajir Al Khusaibi


 

The design creates an inclusive environment, providing opportunity and comfort to both those living on the site and those commuting to and through it. Catering to the local economy, the site provides space for more temporary businesses to set up market stands and to hold larger bazaars expanding into the plazas, while also offering permanent spaces for aspiring chefs to set up restaurants and for designers to set up retail space. Organizing program into layers creates a cohesive design which dominates the corner, creating a complex facade to juxtapose the surrounding area. However, the design caters to boosting the local economy to jump-start Brooklyn, not to bring in high-end clients but to aid those seeking opportunity and connect the Brooklyn Bridge park and Navy Yard sections of Brooklyn.

The Brooklyn Navy Yard, home to the tech startup industry borders the site to the east. The tech industry is a close knit community that thrives on constant collaboration and networking. Our design works towards furthering the process of collaboration by providing spaces in which like minded innovators can think, work and relax. Small companies or freelancers can inhabit the start-up office space on the complex. The Daycare allows freedom to work, as well as a unique space for kids to play and be safe. The gallery caters to the local artist, using moving walls as a responsive informal approach to exhibition and an open studio so the public can see artists at work.

The Performance center, market, and subway work together to accomplish the initiative to bring in outside customers. People experience the site, those working there, and become inspired and perhaps buy a piece of artwork, visit the restaurant to see what the aspiring chef has in store for them, or see a show performed by a local theater. By targeting those crossing the site with these three elements, they become drawn in and contribute to the local economy. This design becomes a stepping stone on the way to living the dream in Manhattan. Providing opportunity is the first step to such success, and this is the reasoning behind our design.

Featured Image: Dumbo, Brooklyn (brownstoner)

Design Development: Easing Access

Schematic Design 

Dumbo,  Brooklyn, often regarded as an up-and-coming, urban hot-spot, prides itself on its trendiness, youthful vibes, and  industrial chic culture. Over the past eight years, Dumbo has undergone tremendous renovations, repair, and an influx of artists and youth alike. To the east of this booming neighborhood, Vinegar Hill has not  thrived and prospered quite to the same degree as Dumbo, despite similarities in demographics.In an effort to integrate Vinegar Hill into Dumbo, our design takes advantage of the site’s unique placement on the border between these two neighborhoods. Our project creates pedestrian malls that branch out from Jay Street—a heavily pedestrian and commercial street—and Bridge Street, a  residential street of Vinegar Hill. The pedestrian streets  ease the transition between the  different conditions at the East and West side.

The architecture calls for a condition where people from each neighborhood funnel into pedestrian malls and congregate with their neighbors, integrating the two groups of people. By providing entertainment, dining, retail, and residential options, all logically sequenced throughout the site, the two groups come together in unison, bridging the cultural gap between the two neighborhoods.

Because of the emphasis on social interaction, the site operates on a few levels of circulation To accentuate the stratification of program, various levels of circulation exist. The ground floor level exists for the everyday citizen, a means to explore the retail and entertainment available at the site and as a means of compelling the resident of Dumbo and Vinegar Hill to stroll through the plaza space in an effort to connect the two neighborhoods more.

Design Development

The market, and its immediate context (the office tower and parking garage), has become the focus of the design development phase. The “levels of stratification” in the market, has taken a new meaning and form since the schematic design phase. Whereas at schematic design, the buildings (market) and the levels of circulation (generally platforms on stilts), were two separate entities, this time around, the market has become the means of circulation in two axes: the first axis between the parking garage and office tower, and the second axis between the plaza and street level. The market, as a shell, has essentially become a series of ramps, “strung taut” (think a rubber band between two solid masses) between the office and parking garage. The result is a series of alternating ramps with program on and underneath the inclines. An industrial style market, with linear circulation (a la Chelsea Market) exists on the ground floor. The second floor, a series of cafes and dining options, and market stalls on the exterior. The top floor, bars and green spaces to appreciate the view of the plaza and the remainder of Dumbo. Such a strategy has facilitated access to the market (and its subcomponents), from every point including the plaza, parking garage, the office tower, and the street level. Now a businessman on lunch break need not have to venture more than a few floors down to get lunch.

In accordance with the concrete shell of the theater (across the plaza), to maintain consistency and legibility between the gestural connection of both buildings, the market is composed of concrete slabs, and glazing to indicate internal program. Depending on the program’s function, the glass has varying degrees of permeability such as accordion doors, solid glass, traditional doors, and revolving doors to adapt to seasonal changes. Structure, as a result, is relatively straightforward, a concrete column grid supporting concrete slabs.