The design proposition is to create a strategy for the expansion of the Columbia University campus in the Morningside Heights neighbourhood.
The university has acquired a significant number of properties in the neighbourhood over the past 100 years. The property lines between some of the adjacent sites therefore no longer have the significance they once held. This discovery has led to the assumption that the blocks can be reconfigured in order to facilitate future expansion.
Broadway connects the campus and the neighbourhood to the city. It has a schizophrenic character and along it are a multitude of scenes which are repeated both within and between neighbourhoods. The interventions are injected into the residual spaces within the blocks which front Broadway directly and link in a lacing pattern across Broadway to mark the extent of the neighbourhood.
The street wall is punctuated in the middle of each block along Broadway. The internal laneways run in an east west direction. The through block links in the north south direction are made using arcades. These walkways facilitate movement through the blocks making the blocks essentially more porous - accessible to the whole community.
proposition
broadway
laneways
+
arcades