Courtyard entrance perspective. Rendered in V-Ray for Rhinoceros, postprocessed in Photoshop.

Breaking Ground | Brooklyn, NY

This design for a 150 000 sqft performing arts center was primarily driven by its site in the middle of a waterfront park in Brooklyn, NY. Given the rarity of such park space in the thoroughly urbanized Greenpoint-Bushwick neighborhoods, preserving as much of it as possible was seen as a primary goal, which—using the adjacent community center as both formal and programmatic inspiration—led to the design of a performance-based extension of the community center, cantilevering over the park to maximize publicly accessible space while grounding the performing arts center as part of the community.

Further emphasizing the importance of public accessibility, the performing arts center’s enclosure is drawn back from the site boundary, creating a large semi-enclosed courtyard that visitors can either walk straight through (allowing the center to act as a gateway connecting the city and the park beyond) or ascend either of the large exterior stairs to a panoramic view of the East River and the New York skyline, thereby acting as a connection between Brooklyn and Manhattan as well. This project took place over two semesters: the first, schematic design, was an individual undertaking; the second, design development, was a two-person effort.