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New York City High-Rise Housing: Distribution of Public Space in the Late Capitalist Metroplois

pzuro

Hi Archinect,

I'm currently doing research on high-rise housing as a typology, and looking for precedents (built or unbuilt, probably they will be unbuilt) that display a novel use of public horizontal space (i.e sky plazas/atriums/parks, aggregated terracing, etc.)  in the vertical city. The heroic illustrations by Hugh Ferris of the 1916 zoning code describe the maximum building envelope in Manhattan as a soaring volume that is pentagonal in section, however--with the few exception of buildings like Jean Nouvel's yet to be built Midtown tower--most residential buildings in NYC interpreted the zoning code through the use of mild set backs, resulting in terraces (usually private) every 10, 15, or 20 stories. Others gifted part of their plots to city in the form of plazas (public), so as to gain the right to build higher, gain certain tax benefits,  and maximize square footage vertically, i.e. rentable space, profit.

I'm not interested in either of these design strategies. I would like to find projects that innovatively work with and/or against NYC's zoning requirements to introduce other forms of vertical urbanism into the city. Examples might be Holl's Linked Hybrids, creating public space through bridging--but that's in China. Another example might be MVRDV's Mirador Housing--which carves a volume out of itself and offers the resulting horizontal surfaces as collective space--but again that's in Spain.

Hopefully I can tap the knowledge of the Archinect community to find some super cool and obscure examples with plans, sections, elevations, which I can model in Rhino (to analyze square footage, volume, public/private/service ratios) and diagram in Illustrator. Extra points for Metabolist projects!

p.s. this research is part of Ciro Najle's studio at the GSD and will result in a publication, I will make sure to thank whoever helps me out here.

 
Feb 3, 12 3:54 pm
ngpgsd

BIG's W57 possibly? 

Feb 3, 12 6:40 pm  · 
 · 
Kamu Kakizaki

highline park by sc+r. what was a transportation artery, then industrial wasteland, then as one article calls it 'homohistory of the highline', was recently transformed into an above-ground 1.6m park. spaces and design thoughts popped up underneath, alongside, and on top of what is now one of the most desirable and expensive areas on nyc. although not necessarily metabolism, one can make a connection to the continuity of linear infrastructure that, stretched out over history, has an organic growth and decomposition much like the envisioned movement. the standard hotel and restaurant below by ennead architects is one example that touches on your 'vertical urbanism' (though more like intersecting of private/public in a vertical way).

i'm personally interested in the transformation under the park. 

 

 

 

Feb 6, 12 11:33 pm  · 
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