The site for this project was a 1-acre urban block located in Manhattan's Battery Park City. Although it was technically a landscape design project, the studio required that we create the massing for a building that housed a not-for-profit organization, a branch of the New York Public Library, Parks Department offices, a cafe, and 150,000 square feet of condominiums. Inspired by the robust topography of parts of Boston's Emerald Necklace, my design introduces a grassy swell to lower Manhattan. As an architecture student in a landscape studio, I saw this project as an opportunity to explore and develop strong relationships between the buildings and their site. I split the architectural program into two buildings, one 35-story tower and a smaller 6-story building, and developed a landform that rises two stories. An ADA accessible path traverses the site, leading to "ground level" entrances to the building not only at the street but also at the second and third floors.
