Community Musicworks

A community center hosts an after-school program for children who live in the neighborhood to learn musical instruments. On the weekend, it opens up for potluck dining and offers free indoor and outdoor performance. The program also encourages the practice of local composers through performing premiere.

In addition, it provides a secured alternative pathway to the school by stitching two open public areas and establishing a continuous alley where children can gather and play.

The site sits on the Auburn Place at Fort Greene, Brooklyn in New York, which is on the south side of Brooklyn Queens Expressway and is surrounded by public housing named Whitman Houses and Ingersoll Houses operated by NYCHA. It is adjacent to educational program, including PS067, the Walt Whitman Branch Public Library. The building on the east, Auburn Assessment Center offers affordable medical health clinics

While the downtown of Brooklyn was redeveloped and gentrified by the rezoning promotion under Michael Bloomberg’s administration in the early 2000s, the Fort Greene area is not yet redeveloped dramatically and maintains classic cityscape. However, the community is suffered from chronic health issues due to the adjacency to the industrial district.

Parti-prix of the program is to offer a safe space for children to commute and play. The program is organized along the periphery of the courtyard and the descending grand stairs, which are positioned in the lower half of the community center. The hierarchical relationship creates a surveillance condition and avoids the emergence of blind spots.

The primary access point is on the cellar level. It directly connects to the library for children to check out sheet music before ascending to the second floor, where the practice rooms are located. While the upper and lower levels consist of a single mass, the ground level is split into three volumes to create an interstitial courtyard condition and programmatically differentiate the destination of visitors.

The building is framed by two by six wooden studs. Stone panels are not structural but fastened to the wall by brackets as cladding. While the bottom is a rigidly solid structure, the upper level is finished with spruce cladding to secure the permeability of light to the practice space.

The wall, roof, and slab are filled with cellulose insulation, and the roof is coated with light color mortar to avoid the concentration of heat during summer and achieve the thermal comfort of interior space. Insulation is mostly done in two layers so that it does not create an thermal bridge. The soundproof Acourstiboard laid under the decking helps absorb the sound and enables students to practice in a quiet and intimate space. It also decreases the noise transfer to the performance space, office, kitchen, and surrounding neighborhood.

The masonry facade aims to merge the community center with the existing landscape of the neighborhood. Historically, Brooklyn was developed as an industrial district, and most buildings were constructed with masonry units. Fort Greene area is not an exception. The Walt Whitman library adjacent to the site is made out of brick in Flemish bond on the foundation of limestone and the akin facade system is used for the surrounding public housing. The construction with repetitive masonry units and rough texture visually dissolve into the neighborhood and diminishes the presence to the local community.