F23
How are landmarks constructed and perceived in contemporary society? What does it mean to set out to design a landmark whose physical life as an intervention is temporary, and its perceived effects are ephemeral? How can this conflicted setup open opportunities in devising new ways to think of public space and the construction of landmarks?
- Architect
- Method Design Architecture + Urbanism, PLLC
- Builder
- Van Alen Institute (Competition Holder)
Method's response, LAND|MARK approaches these questions while also examining what it means to construct such a piece in the literal shadow of one of Manhattan’s most famous landmarks, the Flatiron Building. This proposal responds by putting forth operations that result in what we believe to be the required ecological feedback loop between:
- Place-making
We utilize a sinuous curb filled with sloping crushed stone to harness the hustle and flow at the intersection of 23rd and Madison Square Park into places of respite and recollection. - Space-making
These places are then intensified as spaces through the extrusion of a series of synthetic ‘reeds’ that diffuse light and create privacy between each constructed scape. - Social Amplification
Finally, an alternating combination of urban furniture and calibrated sensory environments within the scapes promote social interaction, and connection with the context of the Flatiron Plaza.
The result is a robust micro-urban system that both taps into and creates new context, memory, and inhabitation in the city.
