GSD Core Studio; Critic: Felipe Correa

This studio in Queens began with the design of an urban framework and continued with the design/integration of a large-scale public building within this framework. The site is a 170-acre catchment area called Willets Point in Corona, Queens. Although it has rich adjacencies to a waterfront, transportation, airport infrastructures, and Citifield (formerly Shea Stadium), it has become a provisional urban zone of temporary industrial buildings and polluted ground and waterways. Adding an atmospheric quality to the potential of the site is its adjacency to Corona Park where the 1939 World’s Fair was held. The site’s proximity to the stadium and the vast amounts of asphalt that surround it compound the problems of both urban heat island and water runoff. As the recession stalled the development pressures that would bring density and urban renewal to the area in the near future, we were given the space of time to imagine an alternate future.

For the design of this mixed-use recreational facility, I developed a mat building to extend the enclave tradition of both New York City in general and Queens in particular, I designed a space in which the densification of the program, with a rhythm of open and closed spaces would provide a destination for outsiders and residents and creates an opportunity for both private moments and public gatherings.