A new coexistence Chinatown’s culture could not have been in further opposition to the requirements of my own studio assignment; my program was to create an archive preserving documents from the 1811 Commissioner’s Plan for the Manhattan street grid. My proposal seeks to retain a space for local community life within the context of the institutional archive. The library program follows the grid of the street to create a glass wrapper of book stacks. At the same time, spaces for local commercial and community use occupy the voids between the orthogonal grid in a decentralized network of nodes and pathways. The open nature of the atrium, and the diversity of its programming, work to position disparate types of users into a state of mutual awareness.
Travel by book
TRAVEL BY BOOK
Travel by foot
Travel by eye
Travel by tour
TRAVEL BY TOUR
TRAVEL BY TOUR
TRAVEL BY FOOT
Section showing the building’s relationship to its context.
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