Urban Palette

This project aims to create an art center that functions as the connector of the various aspects of the site. First of all, the project spatially links the geological areas of Manhattan and Bronx. Secondly, it also socially bridges the art communities with the local communities. Lastly, the project connects the time between the past era when the Highbridge was used as an aqueduct and the era when it exists as an important cultural heritage of the city.

The Highbridge Park, in the city scale, is located within the linear network of parks that connects the Central Park in Manhattan to the parks in Bronx. In the local context, the Highbridge Park is influenced by the surrounding highways, railroads and Harem River. The Highbridge itself is isolated from the each side of the Highbridge Park due to the steep river banks of the Harlem River.

In this context, the project focuses on becoming an art center that functions as a community center as well as become a ‘connector’ that links the various conditions of the site. Strategically, the facility functions not as a static building mass but rather as a continuous flow of activities. This is achieved by distributing the mass into smaller program blocks which flows through as well as overcome the steep river bank and dense forest of trees. The various exterior and interior spaces that are created by this strategy interacts and intervenes together to formulate an organic atmosphere. The ‘palette’ that links the scattered program blocks becomes a platform to grow crops and vegetations, to store water, and to be used as a public plaza.