Oldtopia 02

Location: Willets Point, New York City

Area: 27.4 ha

Institution: Taubman College

Instructor: McLain Clutter & Alina Nazmeeva

Cooperation with Shaoqun Zhao, Yufei Tang and Jingwen Zhang

Role in the team: design stategy, modeling, presentations and drawings. Period: 09.2022—12.2022

Willet Points is located in Queens, New York City. It is known for its automobile shops and junkyards. According to the census in 2010, the population in Willet Points was 10. The Willet Points has a great location, it is very close to Flushing. There is also a subway station and is a baseball field named Citi Field.

The idea of redeveloping Willet Points has been in the works since the end of World War II. Why does it only have a population of 10? What is its place in the city? What problems in Queens or New York would its redevelopment solve?

By studying the communities around willet points, especially Flushing, we believe that aging is a more prominent issue. Therefore, we want to build a senior-friendly community in willet points. But that doesn't mean it's a community just for seniors. We want this community to serve not only seniors, but also to attract people of other ages to live at Willet Points. We want Willet Points to be part of New York City as a brand new community and hope to design a process that can be applied to most cities so that these cities can think about the problems that seniors encounter in their community life and in turn solve problems for them and provide a higher quality of life.

Here is a short movie Ama's Magic Trip showing the senior-friendly community that we imagine: https://youtu.be/WxMc914hxPc