This project transforms the I-81 overpass from a divisive artifact into a framework for collective use. Instead of removing the structure, we integrate it into a new civic typology. A steel space frame spans the site, organizing public and production spaces while connecting back to the overpass above. A central concrete core anchors the composition, cutting through the frame to hold vertical circulation, services, and administrative spaces. The west side of the frame is enclosed, housing workshops, studios, and suspended circulation paths. The east side remains open, with inserted volumes for shops and galleries and a reactivated pedestrian promenade atop the overpass. These zones are linked by public paths that cut through, float across, and stitch together the building’s front and back halves.
The frame is not just structural—it’s a spatial and environmental system. It supports double-glazing on the enclosed side, forming a thermal cavity that captures solar heat and allows passive return airflow. In summer, vents at the sawtooth roof release excess heat; in winter, it’s recovered through the air-handling units. On the open side, solar panels provide shaded outdoor space and energy. Volumes within the frame are semi-independent, enclosed in perforated mesh and designed for flexibility—workspaces can open or close, reconfigure, or grow over time. Inspired by projects like the Fun Palace and Expo ‘70, this is not a fixed form but a responsive framework: a platform for making, showing, and adapting. It absorbs the context, bridges infrastructure and program, and invites continuous reinterpretation.
In
Fourth-Year Integrated Studio led by Lauren Scott
Collaboration with Noyonika Gaba
5. 6mm+6mm tempered glass in U-section with gasket
drain 7. clevis hanger
8. spider clamp 9. 50/50 mm steel tub
10. 6mm+6mm tempered glass in U-section with gasket
11. setting blocks
12. gutter sandwich panel 13. 2 mm aluminium sheet, seal,
6mm+6mm tempered glass in U-section with gasket
5. 6mm+6mm tempered glass in U-section with gasket
6. drain
7. clevis hanger
8. spider clamp
9. 50/50 mm steel tub
10. 6mm+6mm tempered glass in U-section with gasket
11. setting blocks
12. gutter sandwich panel
13. 2 mm aluminium sheet, seal, 14. 45 mm stone wool insulation, 15. 4 mm steel sheet 16. 13. 6mm+6mm tempered glass in U-section with gasket
THE FLOOR Ground Floor Plan
scale 1/16”=1’
355 Lexington Ave Sofia Cisneros
355 Lexington Ave
Midtown, New York, NY
Amidst the modern housing crisis, middle-income families face increasing challenges in finding affordable accommodation, particularly in cities like New York where soaring real estate prices offset higher incomes. 355 Lexington Ave addresses this issue by introducing a cooperative housing model tailored for families of two to six members. The building will boast two floors dedicated to shared spaces and amenities, eliminating the need for additional memberships and afterschool programs. These amenities will include sports clubs, an indoor pool, a gym, a track, multipurpose studios, a garden balcony, a playroom, event spaces, a television lounge, and various communal areas. The building’s seven setbacks will be reoccupied as accessible balconies, while floors lacking balconies will feature rooms with permeable boundaries to facilitate passive lighting into deeper parts of the floorplate The ground floor will maintain retail space, and a public basketball court to facilitate the integration of the urban environment and encouraging tenant engagement with the local community.
Third-Year Studio led by Laura Salazar Altobelli
THE FLOOR Partial Section scale 1/8”=1’
Terra Ritrovata reimagines Arborea’s middle back to the community. and dynamic environment from the southeast is organized along administrative offices, café. Natural ventilation, surroundings, and By merging architecture social interaction,
Fourth-Year Studio in Florence, In Collaboration with Sia
Arborea, Sardinia,
reimagines the relationship between school, community, and environment by embedding middle school into the land itself. The existing school is pushed underground, giving the site community. The roofscape becomes an active, multi-functional space, creating an engaging environment for both students and the community. The main entrance is a piazza, accessible southeast corner, that serves as a gathering space and connection point to the city. The school along an interior courtyard that links private academic spaces, such as classrooms and offices, to publicly accessible programs including the gymnasium, auditorium, library, and ventilation, skylights, and terracotta finishes enhance the integration of the building with its and the nested courtyard provides opportunities for hands-on learning beyond the classroom. architecture with landscape, Terra Ritrovata transforms the school into a civic space, fostering interaction, sustainability, and a renewed sense of place in the town center of Arborea.
Sardinia, Italy
Florence, Italy led by Olivia Gori
Sia Limaye + Riley O’Toole
Tower karsts, a topographical erosion of soluble limestone layers, span of Southern China and foster rich biodiversity. A prospective to this landform addresses the weightlessness that are inherent cantilevered exhibition space contrasts the natural vastness confined circulatory paths. Through this design approach seeks to natural environment and architectural dialogue between the built environment geological context.
South China Karst, Guizhou, China
Second-Year Studio led by Larry Davis
China
topographical phenomenon formed through the layers, can be found along a 40km foster a distinctive landscape and prospective residential property integrated the tension between solidity and inherent in these formations. Through a and angular volumes, the design vastness of the karst landscape with more Through analysis of the landform, to bridge the gap between the architectural intervention, creating a environment and the surrounding
PS 64 Intervention
Alphabet City, New York, NY
Upon the analysis of two designated Snyder’s H-plan public schools, to their former state in an aesthetically-motivated communities they served. To constraints, creating fluid connections building through a majorly form-inspired volume, forming a U-shape that for exploration and learning, with office, conference, and archive Loisaida community and employees Tompkins Square Park encouraging
Fourth-Year Studio in New York City led In Collaboration with Clareese Bonsu
Intervention
designated New York City historical landmarks, the Yiddish Art Theater, and another of Charles B. schools, PS 109, Calreese Bonsu and I concluded that while both projects had restored the exteriors aesthetically-motivated process, they failed to honor their past functions and the respective address this, the proposed design aims to preserve the facade while mitigating structural connections between new and old elements of an adddition that intervenes with the existing form-inspired approach. The resulting geometry comprises two towers meeting at a cantilevered that plugs into the H-plan layout, leaving courtyards on either streetfront. One tower is designated featuring galleries referencing the CHARAS movement, while the other serves LPC workers archive spaces. This dual circulation fosters unique relationships between the building and the employees of the Landmark Preservation Commission, allowing for visibility of the hearing hall from encouraging community engagement in preservation hearings.
