Upon arriving at Williamsburg, I was initially intrigued by the art culture boldly encompassing the community. The streets of Wiliamsburg are filled with artwork, murals and political banners, there are many galleries and many of the people residing in Williamsburg are musicians. The many stalled construction sites in Williamsburg are an eyesore for the residents and there is no definite time that these sites will resume construction and move closer to completion. Being interested with the art culture of Williamsburg, I want to create a space for the creation and exhibition of artwork. In order to accomplish this, I surveyed the many sites and searched for a site with a large open space. I chose the site between N. 11th Street and N. 12th Street and between Bedford Street and Driggs Street. This site makes up the majority of an entire block and the dimensions of this site are 196' by 300'. It is surrounded by three public parks, a church, residential units, restaurants and commercial buildings. Although the surroundings to the site chosen has a mixed building use, what set this site apart from other stalled construction sites within Williamsburg is that this site is surrounded by parks/open public space. Wanting my site to also be a large, open and public venue, my site is an extension to the parks. The surrounding parks consist of kickball fields, pools and a track. Although my space will continue this idea of open public space for the community, rather than having a focus on athletics, my site will be an open public space for the community to gather and for the creation and/or exhibition of artwork.
As I mentioned above, the site I have chosen is very large ( 196' by 300'). Currently residing on the site is wood braces for the retaining wall, concrete blocks, concrete foundation, rebar and lots of dirt. On the north west side of the site, there is a 20' drop from sidewalk level. Although incomplete, all materials on the site are "fresh"; all materials are in good condition and construction could easily resume at any moment without having to replace existing material. The goal of my project is to create an installation on the existing site without altering any existing materials. The idea of temporality is vital to my project- I want to ensure that when construction begins again, my installation can be easily removed and no money will have to be reinvested into re-building materials.
Below is a 1/16" scale model of the site. Creating a model with the existing material, will allow me to easily experiment with different ideas of my installation. Having the existing materials in a model will allow me to incorporate my project into what is currently existing on the site.
Revised Site
Not wanting to alter any existing materials on the site, I began brainstorming ways to create a large public space for community interaction without dismantling materials and protecting the public from being hurt by the materials (safety).
As I have stated above, my site is surrounded by parks. I wanted to incorporate my site into this cluster of public open space and I accomplished this by "pulling in" the parks into my site, therefore my site is an extension of the park (look at diagram below for clarification). Along with "pulling in" the park into my site, I decided to further this idea of incorporating the surrounding and "pulled in" the sidewalk into my site as well. As a method of bringing people into the site, I built an undulating surface extending from the sidewalk on the north-west, north-east and south-west side of the site above the 20' drop down. This allows for easy access to my site from every direction. The undulating surface has a hole in the middle allowing views below to the construction site. Although I am protecting materials and adding surfaces for easier and safe access around the site, I wanted to preserve the feel of the construction site and constantly remind visitors that they aren't on any typical surface, but rather situated on a construction site.
Currently, there are 3' high concrete slabs with lots of exposed rebar on the site. I decided to make a platform with the concrete slabs incorporated into the platform so that the concrete slabs become a level, walkable space. In terms of safety for the public and in terms of protecting the rebar, I decided to encase the rebar in a plaster-like material that created columns. Inspired by Eisennman's Holocaust Memorial in Berlin, these columns would make the site inhabitable in terms of public safety and would also protect the rebar from destruction.
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