Electric Feel

project: Peace Pentagon Competition

location: New York New York

date: 2009

scale: Urban Corner Building

status: Speculative

design: Ramiro Diaz-Granados

 

This proposal for a new Peace Pentagon in the Lower East Side of Manhattan focuses on the architectural envelope in relation to the urban corner. Since the buildable site is quite narrow (+/- 30 ft.) a modernist office tower composed of open, stacked floor plates is inserted in order to accommodate the demands of the program. The tower is wrapped with a double layered envelope of filigree piping, resembling the organization of electrical fields, and producing a moire effect. These effects are intended to remove the legibility of the corner through diffusion.

The two layers of the envelope are interrupted by a fire stair that weaves between them in a staggered arrangement, thereby avoiding the provision of a datum for which to locate the corner.  At the nodes of the piping are located solar reflectors. These are used to illuminate the envelope producing a rich “electrical field” for the urban environment.

At ground level the fire stairs continue downward and provide a new connection hub to the Bleeker St. metro stop. At the roof is a public terrace, terminating the vertical connection from subway to skyline.