URBAN DESIGN STUDIO/ FALL - 95
PROBES
LOWER MANHATTAN
Stefan Scheiber
Stephan Scheiber notes by Grahame Shane.
Stephan's initial Regional studies concentrated on the impact of West Street as a boundary between the old Dutch core and the new edge city, Battery Park City. Stephan also began an investigation of the 24 hour life of Downtown, working very hard to record multiple points day and night, but finding only that the city followed obvious and fairly well known patterns. Stephan's design sketches began to probe the sectional qualities of West Street, starting a line of research that eventually led him to abandon this site and move to a far more utopian and abstract proposition of "Vertical Landfill". Stephan projected the outward landfill tendancy of Downtown up into the section of the city and began to think of recolonizing the empty middle segments of vacant skyscrapers with a horizontal band of parks and public spaces. "Vertical Boulevards" would give access to this new realm. This concept was clear by midterm but its application was difficult and delayed until suitable buildings could be found to provide a test site. After settling on the east of Wall Street as a site, Stephan continued to develop a complex multi-functional program for the area, including reprogramming the ground floor of surrounding vacant buildings and underground connections. For the Final Review he developed both the subway level, street level and a "Netscape Cafe" on a bridge at the upper "Vertical Landfill" level (which reprogrammed the top of the tower as Theater and Dance Theater, with live-work housing above). The Cafe linked to Reina's neighboring building, as did the street and subway levels.
Final Jurors; Irena Latek, Christine Boyer, Marissa Oliver, Mark Robbins, Michael Webb, Michael Manfredi, Joan Ockman, Andrea Kahn.
At the Final Jury of the two partners Irena Latek found the concept of the buildings as a natural landscape with a geography of its own an interesting idea. Brian McGrath pointed out it would mean changes in the mechanical systems of the towers.
Christine Boyer questioned what was the "Vertical Boulevard"? What was the "Landfill"? These were imprecise terms. The "Infill" was not really filling anything, what did the mesh in the drawings symbolize?
Joan Ockman asked what was the reward for linking the two buildings, what was the nature of this new public realm?
Andrea Kahn felt that the criteria for generating the project were mysterious and it would have helped if there had been a positive reality test giving a sense of specific spaces.
Mark Robbins pointed out the mismatch between the language used to describe the project and its representation. He asked if the project was going to be like the DIA Earth Room, if so it require massive structural alterations which would alter the quality of the public space (he also pointed out the difficulty of getting the public up to the DIA room).
Christine Boyer agreed asking what type of public space would be created at this height, she would have liked to have seen views out and an articulation of the experience at that level. She felt the project was driven by the computer representation techniques, the grid, the mesh etc. These were abstractions which represented curviliner 3 dimensional forms very poorly.
Toni Schuman added that showing the ground plane as a green mesh raised many problems about its junction with the building frame, was it all interior, accessible, continuous? Joan Ockman wondered if it would feel like an exploded mall or atrium building, a non urban condition on the top of the building, interiorizing the city further? The two sites were different yet they received the same treatment, masking the specifics of the issue of emptiness which always was related to a container, modern containers in this instance. The attempt to fill emptiness was thus a part of a historical process which was far more profound than the mesh could ever represent. Mike Webb agreed, joking that the project reminded him of a recent visit to the dentist for "advanced bridgework", a very painful procedure suspending a simulated tooth betwen two posts, which required much local anaesthetic (the green mesh??).