DENSE-city

DENSE-city

An Intensification of Manhattan’s 14th Street

Caroline Errico

DENSE-city:

Intensification of Manhattan's 14th Street

A thesis submitted to the Graduate School of the University of Cincinnati in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of

Master of Architecture in the Department of Architecture of the College of Design, Architecture, Art, and Planning by

Caroline Errico

B.A. in Urban Design and Architecture Studies New York University May 2013

Committee Chair: Elizabeth Riorden, M. Arch.

Committee Member: Vincent Sansalone, M. Arch.

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Abstract

New York City, like so many great metropolises across the world, faces a great

dilemma: as the demand for living there increases, it becomes all but impossible to afford that dream. Storefronts in Manhattan sit vacant as the population has begun to abandon the city for smaller and more reasonably priced markets. Much of the quirky eclecticism that the city is known for is being priced out, moved to far reaching corners of the outer boroughs, and replaced with large franchises and multi-million dollar apartments for the 1%. Manhattan is becoming generic and overly homogenized. The city stands at the brink of losing its identity and needs to adapt to survive.

Manhattan’s 14th Street is a major east west axis and transit oriented corridor.

The five block stretch between 9th Avenue and Union Square West serves as the transition between the luxurious and affluent Meatpacking/Chelsea neighborhood and the slightly gritty but trendy East Village. In stark contrast to the tranquil tree lined residential cross streets directly north and south, the street frontage of 14th Street is a riot of color, context and uses. Walking down the street, one could run the gamut of everything from pawn shops and bargain electronics to boutique eateries and specialized fitness gyms. Despite all of the options however, the nature of the space is very transitional: a place people move through rather than a destination. The street is a stage without a theater to observe it from.

For over a century, visionaries have speculated about future models of

Manhattan. Many of these proposals explore a dynamic urban landscape through hyperdensity and revolutionary architecture. These models remain in the abstract because they are designed in a vacuum without context and cannot be later applied to a specific site. Using West 14th Street as a case study, this thesis aims to address the potential densification of New York City through directly engaging with and redesigning one of its major street corridors.

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a sincere thank you...

To my family for your love and support, always.

To Liz for bearing with me through all my crazy ideas and entertaining me with your stories.

To Vince for challenging me to think differently and always expecting more from me.

To Carlos for being my biggest fan and a constant source of encouragement and perspective.

To Rachel for being by my side as we navigated this epic four year journey. #MArch1sforlife And to my fellow architecture classmates for making this experience so much richer.

(Bintou, Jeremy, Todd, Mandolin, and many more).

Without all of you, this thesis would not have been possible.

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Author's Foreword

Jeremiah Moss, author of the blog “Vanishing New York” begins his book of

the same name by clarifying that “there are many New Yorks, as many as there are New Yorkers” and his narrative is told through the lens of his own story, his own “personal metropolis [carried] in the heart.”1 This thesis is about my New York. It engages directly with the research and discussions of others to guide and sculpt my critical lens.

I moved to New York at 18 to start off as a freshman at NYU. Having grown

up in New Jersey with two parents who had formerly called the city home, I had some exposure to it. I knew my father drove there to work everyday; my mother and I had occasionally gone in to visit young and trendy relatives or see a Broadway show. I had a myopic perception of what the city was—one that changed dramatically within weeks of living there.

I like to say that I grew up in New York City, which is not to say that I lived

there through the years of childhood but rather that I lived there in my most formative and significant years of my early adulthood. To return to Moss, “open and permissive, insulating you with the sort of anonymity you can’t find in a small town or suburb, the city allows us to expand, experiment, and become our truest selves.”2 I came into my own as a person in that city. I learned to walk, I learned to explore, to observe, and ultimately to question. Although I traversed it from head to toe, river to river, my main stomping grounds extended from Greenwich Village and NYU, through the East Village and rounding out through Flatiron and NoMad. Union Square was my home base.

New York City is a chaotic torrent that seeps into you and swirls around your

psyche until you either have to escape for your life or it becomes a part of your soul forever. No matter how long I have been away, I slip back into New York’s current easily.

The second I step off the plane, the city wraps its gritty but loving arms around me and says “welcome home, life definitely went on without you but I'm glad you’re here.”

1 Jeremiah Moss, Vanishing New York: How A Great City Lost Its Soul, (New York: Harper Collins, 2017), 4.

2 Moss, 14.

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Contents Abstract

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Author's Foreword

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Image Index

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01 Orientation

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02 Flaneuse

2.1 Stock Characters

2.2 Retail

2.3 Neighbors

2.4 Stroll

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03 Visionary Cities

3.1 Villa Spatiale

3.2 LOMEX

3.3 Manhattan Ridge

3.4 Bridge of Houses

3.5 High Line

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04 New Ground

4.1 Express Busway

4.2 Palimpsest

4.3 DENSE-city

Works Consulted

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Image 0.01. Figure Ground, 14th between 4th & 11th Ave

Image Index All images are author's own unless otherwise specified.

3.01

Figure Ground, 14th between 4th & 11th Ave Greater Manhattan Region Map Lower Manhattan Subway Network Site of Investigation, 14th Street between Union Square West & 9th Avenue Area for Case Study, 14th Street between 6th & 8th Avenues 14th Street Observational Perspective Field Observations of 14th Street 14th Street Pedestrians 14th Street Ground Level Use 14th Street Storefronts 14th Street Retail Signage Types 13th Street Typical Street Width 14th Street Typical Street Width 13th Street Architectural Color Palette 14th Street Architectural Color Palette 14th Street between Union Square & 5th Avenue 14th Street between 5th & 7th Avenues 14th Street between 7th & 8th Avenues 14th Street between 8th Avenue & the High Line Proposal for Manhattan 1950

3.02

Visionary City

3.11

Villa Spatiale

3.12

Villa Spatiale

3.21

LOMEX

3.22

LOMEX

3.31

Manhattan Ridge

3.32-3.33

Manhattan Ridge

0.01 1.01 1.02 1.03 1.04 2.01 2.02 2.11 2.21 2.22-2.27 2.28 2.31 2.32 2.33 2.34 2.41 2.42 2.43 2.44

Raymond Hood, "Proposal for Manhattan 1950," 1929, in Carol Willis, "New York Modern," https://www. skyscraper.org/EXHIBITIONS/FUTURE_CITY/new_york_modern.htm.

William Robinson Leigh, "Visionary City," 1908, in Ridley McIntyre, "William Robinson Leigh," http://www. ridleymcintyre.com/william-robinson-leigh-visionary-city-1908/.

Yona Friedman, “Villa Spatiale,” 1970, in Vladimir Belogolvsky, “Interview with Yona Friedman: “Imagine, Having Improvised Volumes ‘Floating’ In Space, Like Balloons,” ArchDaily.com, January 27, 2016.

Yona Friedman, “Villa Spatiale,” 1970, in José Miguel Martín Arquitecto, “Yona Friedman y el grupo de estudios de arquitectura móvil,” https://www.mvarquitecto.com/blog/yona-friedman-y-el-grupo-de-estudios-dearquitectura-movil/.

Paul Rudolph, “LOMEX,” 1967, In Paul Rudolph Heritage Foundation, “Lower Manhattan Expressway”, https:// www.paulrudolphheritagefoundation.org/196703-lower-manhattan-expressway.

Rudolph, Paul Rudolph Heritage Foundation.

“Zhenijla Wang and Xlayl Li, “Manhattan Ridge: Affordable Housing for Commuters,” 2018, in eVolo Skyscraper Competition, http://www.evolo.us/manhattan-ridge-affordable-housing-for-commuters/.

Wang and Li, eVolo Skyscraper Competition.

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3.41

Bridge of Houses

3.42

Bridge of Houses

3.51

High Line 2009

3.52-3.53 4.01 4.11 4.12 4.21 4.22 4.23 4.24 4.25 4.31 4.32 4.33 4.34 4.35 4.36 4.37 4.38 4.39 4.310 4.311 4.312 4.313 4.314 4.315 4.316 4.317 4.318 4.319 0.02

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Steven Holl, “Bridge of Houses: Pamphlet Architect No. 7, 1981” in “Pamphlet Architecture,” ed. Clare Jacobson, (New York: Princeton Architectural Press, 1998).

Holl, “Pamphlet Architecture.”

“High Line 2009” in “History”, Friends of the High Line, Highline.org.

High Line 2019 Schematic Programing & Concept Drawing Pre-Busway, High Congestion With Busway, Low Congestion New Massing Integration Strategies Selected Sites of Intervention Reinterpretation of Existing Facades Rainscreen Derivation Diagram Rainscreen Scale Iterations Overall Network Axon DENSE-city DENSE-city Program Distribution Cultural Amenity Distribution Gallery Retrofit Behind Existing Facade Library in New Tower Flexible Office Distribution Flex Office Unit Flex Office Retrofit Behind Existing Facade Housing Distribution Studio Apartment Unit Studio Apartment Floor in New Towers Housing Distribution One Bedroom Apartment Unit One Bedroom Apartment Floor in New Towers Residential Amenity Distribution Fitness Center and Sky Lounge West 14th Street, View from the Streetscape View from 7th Avenue Skybridge looking towards the Hudson New Figure Ground, 14th between 4th & 11th Ave

01 Orientation

01 Orientation

There are 2,872 street blocks on the island of Manhattan. It would take

someone weeks, months or even years to explore them all. New York City’s most famous borough houses a population of 1.63 million condensed into less than 23 square miles.

Millions more pass through the city every single day by train, subway, bus, path train, private car, truck, bicycle, and in some ambitious cases, on foot. Running up the entire island, there are 214 numbered streets, yet only 5 of those extend fully east to west, (Image 1.01). Those axes are significant double wide thoroughfares breaking up the lower half of Manhattan at roughly 10-block intervals coinciding with every time the diagonal axis of Broadway intersects with a north/south avenue. These thoroughfares are some of the busiest streets in the city with their own subway connections and dedicated buslines.

This thesis seeks to investigate the southernmost of these east/west corridors:

14 Street. 14th is a critical transit oriented thoroughfare, (Image 1.02). It is an express th

stop along every major subway line and its centrally located hub at Union Square is one of the most used subway stations in the entire network.3 It is the only Manhattan street that connects to the L train, which runs directly beneath it and is the only subway connection into North Brooklyn. 14th Street carves its way through six distinct neighborhoods creating a border between north and south. Despite its passage through these areas, it does not possess the same identity as the blocks above or below. It is the seam and the stitching that holds it all together.

Investigation into 14th Street was conducted by observational study and

documentation presented in Chapter 2. The study region, (Image 1.03), is the 0.8 mile stretch of 14th Street between Union Square West and 9th Avenue taking into account the paved street, the sidewalk and the built form on the North and South sides of the street. The context of the surrounding blocks above and below 14th Street as well as the adjacent neighborhood identities are also analyzed. From this exploration, the thesis identifies the 2-block portion between 6th and 8th Avenues as an area for a case study intervention, (Image 1.04).

3 “The Ten Busiest Subway Stations,” Metropolitan Transit Authority, http://web.mta.info/nyct/facts/ffsubway. htm

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Following this contextual investigation, this thesis examines a series of

theoretical urban megastructures explored through Chapter 3. These proposals are models of hyperdensity and architectural experimentation meant to revolutionize the urban form. The investigation will present these precedent studies and analyze their tactics and strategies. It will critique the potentials of these visionary proposals for their individual strengths and limitations.

The design responds to the need for increased housing in Manhattan for the

50% of New York City’s workforce. It will use the critical lessons from the architects and theorists examined and apply them to the case study area. Using the analysis from the investigatory research this thesis seeks to propose a potential solution to Manhattan’s housing shortage that could be applied and implemented at this site. The design responds to the specificities of the given location but proposes a system of densification which could be later implemented along any of New York City’s major street corridors.

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Image 1.01. Greater Manhattan Region

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Image 1.02. Lower Manhattan Subway Network

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Image 1.03. Site of Investigation, 14th Street between Union Square West & 9th Avenue

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Image 1.04. Area for Case Study, 14th Street between 6th & 8th Avenues

02 Flaneuse

02 Flaneuse flân-uese: (noun, feminine) one who strolls through the city discovering it through the experience of its streets

I have always been a wanderer.

In my time living in New York City I made a habit of long meandering strolls.

I set off from my starting point usually without any care to where I ended up. If I saw something interesting, I moved towards it. If I got stopped at a light, I continued in another direction. If I had all day to myself I could cover 10 miles. I went alone, taking pause as I saw fit, walking faster or slower as my conditioning wanted in that moment.

I had no concerns about getting lost because Manhattan’s grid worked as a

constant compass. I did not worry about going too far away, I knew I could always take public transit home if and when my feet gave out. I wore through several pairs of shoes.

I learned New York City in the manner of Jane Jacobs: exploration through

immersion. I let the street and chance tell me where to go which way to turn next.

In return, I was promised that if I kept walking and I kept my eyes open, the city would slowly reveal to me its many secrets.

The initial approach to this research was conducted in a similar manner with

in depth observational analysis conducted over the course of several months.

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Image 2.01. 14th Street Observational Perspective

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Image 2.02. Field Observations of 14th Street

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2.1

Stock Characters

The street is public space; an open entity which anyone can occupy for any

span of time. Those who consistently occupy it are its constant faces and moving elements. Often, they tell us the most about the nature of the place.

At any given time, 14th Street hosts a widely diverse collection of figures

on its sidewalks, emerging from its subway stops, and stepping out of its buildings.

At the intersections, there is a noticeable difference in the appearance of the persons headed North or South on the Avenues rather than East/West on 14th. The population moving away from 14th overall tends to have a higher concentration of well dressed people that appear to be headed to or from work. This population appears to be more predominantly white whereas there are more Hispanic and Black people walking along 14th. Those who are on the street appear to be of a modest or moderate income. The figures stepping out of the apartment buildings along the street generally appear to be lower middle class white people aged mid twenties–mid thirties. Bus ridership along 14th Street seems to be most utilized by the elderly as well as Black and Hispanics of all ages. Understandably, there is higher foot traffic in the morning or early evening hours when people are commuting, but the street remains at least somewhat populated throughout the day. There is the least activity at night because the majority of the businesses are closed and there is limited residential foot traffic.

The observations led to the identification of certain core user groups: > The commuter coming out of the subway and turning off the street > The local NYU or New School students > The teenagers who animatedly hang out on the street after school lets out > The 20–30 something of average looking income stepping out of apartments > The tourist, probably on their way to Chelsea Market or the High Line > The homeless person asleep on the steps of the Salvation Army headquarters

Any intervention seeking to activate this corridor should consider these

existing user groups and identify if there are any additional target audience desired to be brought to the area. The public realm of the street and sidewalk should not be considered independently from the private realm of the inhabitants of the buildings.

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Image 2.11. 14th Street Pedestrians

2.2

Retail

Walking down the sidewalk on 14th Street one comes across a wide variety

of retail storefronts. West 14th is zoned as a "commercial overlay district" meaning that while the buildings are largely residential on the higher levels, the street level is dedicated to serve local needs, for example grocery stores, dry cleaners and restaurants.

The zoning also allows for high bulk commercial uses with a higher FAR, (Floor Area Ratio), than other areas due to the proximity to mass transit.4 There is a noticeable percentage of franchise backed institutions such as banks, clothing stores and food chains especially between 6th Avenue and Union Square. Scattered amongst them, there are several vacant properties and an increasing collection of new boutique shops. The most distinct businesses to this area are the convenience stores and service industries such as personal grooming.

The retail trends along 14th Street are representative of a larger pattern of retail

development across the city. According to studies conducted by both Morgan Stanley and Douglas Elliman, (a real estate company), the retail vacancies in Manhattan are as high as 20%.5 This incredibly high figure is at least partially reflective of the peril that retail is facing globally in a world where goods and services can be increasingly purchased online. In New York however, there are additional factors causing this problem.

The majority of real estate in the city is owned by landlords who have large

portfolios of property. It is financially more sustainable for building owners to take a loss on a few vacant properties than it is for them to lower prices across the board.6 Additionally, typical commercial lease agreements last for 10 years or more with a fixed percentage increase restricting a landlord from adjusting the price as the market changes. If a lease is established at a market rate at the beginning of that 10-year period, then tenants might be paying significantly below market rate by the end of that contract. Landlords would rather take a loss on a property remaining vacant, (a loss offset by the rest of their portfolio), and hold out for a larger franchise backed tenant who could afford to sign a lease at a higher price.7 This has resulted in the frequency of franchises over local businesses across the city but especially along major corridors where retail frontage is at a premium.

4 NYC Department of Planning, “New York City Zoning and Land Use”, https://zola.planning.nyc.gov/.

5 Derek Thompson, “How Manhattan Became a Rich Ghost Town: New York’s empty storefronts are a dark omen for the future of cities,” The Atlantic, Oct 15, 2018.

6 Justin Levinson, “Context,” Vacant New York.com, Sept 2018.

7 Levinson, “Context.”

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miscellaneous 12.6%

personal grooming 11.3%

academic institution 1.3%

grocery & bodega 1.3%

mobile shop 1.3%

eye glasses

restaurant 10.0%

1.7%

parking garage 1.7%

boutique shop 1.7%

street stand 1.7%

bar

1.7%

Image 2.21. 14th Street Ground Level Use

tobacco

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vacant 7.8%

1.7%

drug store 2.2%

agency building 2.2%

cafe & bakery 2.6%

quick food 7.4%

pawn & convenience 2.6%

private residence 3.0%

boutique food & drink 3.5%

private residence 7.0%

bank 3.5%

gym & specialty ďŹ tness 4.3%

clothing & shoes 5.7%

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Image 2.26. 14th Street Storefronts

Image 2.24. 14th Street Storefronts

Image 2.22. 14th Street Storefronts

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Image 2.27. 14th Street Storefronts

Image 2.25. 14th Street Storefronts

Image 2.23. 14th Street Storefronts

Analysis of the businesses along 14th Street has revealed three major categories: The local, The siteless and The global.

The local businesses feel like they have been in this location forever. They tend to have the more cluttered and outdated signage that is often in poor condition.

They appear to be owned and operated by the same person or persons. They are the “non-expert experts” at what they do and what they sell. They are the kind of businesses that usually offer services that cannot be provided online which secures their ability to remain in business. They have dedicated return patrons and little aspirations to change for risk of losing them. These types of businesses can be found in neighborhoods across the city, but they are specific to their location and are mostly used by local residents.

The individual stores may not be recognizable to non-locals but their collective presence defines the character of the street and directly serves the residential community.

The siteless businesses are backed by a franchise or large corporation.

They can appear anywhere in the city and they are a safe real estate investment for landlords. These are the tenants that landlords wait for while holding onto vacant properties.8 These businesses often occupy the larger lots which would be financially prohibitive for a small private business owner. While they provide many staple goods and services, they offer little by way of defining the neighborhood.

The global businesses feel contemporary and brand new. They tend to be highly specific and specialized, and often boutiques. They are very clean and both simultaneously easy to look at but also to miss because they are unintentionally generic.

They are risky financial endeavors for both the business owner and the landlord. As a result, the turnover between them is quite fast and they are hard to keep track of. These kinds of businesses are often taken as markers of gentrification, but in this region it still remains unclear. These global businesses could define the neighborhood if they manage to stay there long enough.

8 Tim Wu, “Why are there so many shuttered storefronts in the West Village,” The New Yorker, May 24, 2015.

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Local

> The eyebrow threading places, nail salon & spa > The convenience and hardware stores > The dive bars, coffee shops & small food or drink places > The non-franchise pharmacy

Siteless

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> The fast food franchise > The retail clothing franchise > The bank or financial institution > The city agency > The franchise drug store > The mobile carrier > The doctor or specialist > The franchise gym

Global

> The retail boutique > The boutique food or drink spot > The new restaurant > The specialized fitness class

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Image 2.28. 14th Street Retail Signage Types

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2.3

Neighbors

In the juxtaposition of two radically different neighborhoods what

constitutes a boundary? West 14th Street is a seam that knits together the upper border of Greenwich Village and the West Village with southernmost Chelsea and Flatiron District.

Greenwich Village is one of Manhattan’s oldest and most famous

neighborhoods. It is distinct for its sleepy streets filled with row houses and modestly scaled local businesses, (Image 2.35). It is one of the most densely populated areas in the city and boasts one of the highest median incomes across the five boroughs.9 While there is a diverse mix of people to be observed moving through the neighborhood on a daily basis, the population of Greenwich village is predominantly white with a median household income of $150k.10

Walking along 13th Street in Greenwich Village is a completely different

experience than 14th to the North of it. The scale of the street is far narrower with only one lane of traffic and designated bike and parking lanes, (see Images 2.31 & 2.32). This narrower scale creates a far more intimate sensation for the pedestrian than the vast expanse of 14th Street. Whereas almost every building at street level along 14th has a commercial storefront, the majority of 13th are exclusively residential with only the occasional restaurant or small business. Without the bold color palette of all of the retail signage, the street is a mosaic of earthy brownstone and brick hues, freshly painted white facade details and lots of lush greenery. The smaller scale creates less through-traffic and at any given time there are far fewer people on 13th than on 14th. In contrast to the diversity of characters on 14th, the passersby in the Village generally appear as if they do or could live on these streets. If one needs to walk crosstown, they often choose to walk along a 13th or 15th street because the experience is perceived to be more pleasant than 14th.

9 “Household Income”, Statistical Atlas, 2018.

10 “New York City Neighborhood Data Profiles,” NYU Furman Center for Real Estate and Urban Policy, 2020.

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Image 2.32. 13th Street

Image 2.31. 14th Street

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Image 2.33. 13th Street Architectural Color Palette

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Image 2.34. 14th Street Architectural Color Palette

Chelsea Meatpacking is one of the most expensive and high-end neighborhoods

in the city. 14th Street terminates its western end directly into the trendiest part of this neighborhood. The redevelopment of the area through the late 1990’s saw the BDSM subculture that had come to define the neighborhood get pushed out by luxury fashion designers. The explosive popularity of the High Line park and Chelsea food market solidified Meatpacking District as a top tourist attraction.

As 14th street crosses over 9th Avenue, there is a palpable aesthetic and

demographic shift. The stores become prohibitively expensive, the sidewalks become cleaner and the road gives way to a nice paved pedestrian plaza flanked at its corners by a large Apple Store, a Dior boutique, a trendy Mexican fusion chain called Dos Caminos, and a gourmet eatery, the Gansevoort Market. The people on the street in this area are tourists, well dressed people in high fashion, or employees of any of the boutique office spaces nearby. Rather than an overall distribution of people moving with purpose down the street, the sidewalks and pedestrianized plazas in Meatpacking

Image 2.35. 13th Street between 6th & 7th Avenues

are populated with people pausing to take pictures or enjoying a meal in the sun.

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Image 2.36. 14th Street at Washington Street

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Image 2.41. 14th between Union Square & 5th Ave

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Image 2.42. 14th between 5th & 7th Ave

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Image 2.43. 14th between 7th & 8th Ave

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Image 2.44. 14th between 8th Ave & the High Line

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03 Visionary Cities

03 Visionary Cities

For over a hundred years, architects and urbanists have envisioned ambitious

futures for the world’s cities. If land is and forever will be a fixed commodity, urban expansion must continue into occupying the air. These proposals, usually told through dramatic imagery, depict a fantasy that is caught somewhere in between the realm of

Image 3.01. Proposal for Manhattan 1950

science fiction and speculative possibility.

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Image 3.02. Visionary City

3.1

Ville Spatiale - Yona Friedman

In what could be considered either his magnum opus or just his lifelong

obsession, architect and urbanist Yona Friedman has continued to evolve the Ville Spatiale or the “Spatial Town” for over fifty years. The proposal seeks to occupy what Friedman has identified as urban voids; existing spaces of the city where there is underutilized space. By retrofitting these void spaces, new housing can be created that would not require expansion beyond existing city limits or the demolition of any existing structures. This system could be erected and implemented across bodies of water and across railroad complexes where the air above the ground had been previously considered to be unusable.

The ville is a space frame built up on a network of stilts proposed to be placed

at 40-60 meter (131’-196’) intervals. The module units of the ville can be flexibly interchanged within the network, the gaps between them so that then ground beneath still receives light.11 This project is a reaction against the architect’s belief that the city and its buildings are obstacles. “My interest is how to make the city less of an obstacle… to make buildings as mobile as chairs.”12 This proposal treats the space of the ground as a precious entity—one which should not be restricted by buildings and structures. By lofting into the sky, Friedman seeks to elevate the inhabitants of his new structures while respecting the existing ones who inhabit the ground.

Despite the stated intent for the condition of the ground in Friedman’s

writings, the imagery depicts a different story. The megalithic spaceframes dominating the skyplane to support the Villa structures seem highly ominous and aggressive. These structures could only be kept exclusively to unusable groundscapes such as waterways.

The Ville Spatiale could not work in a more dense urban context.

11 Yona Friedman, “Principles Ville Spatiale” http://www.yonafriedman.nl/?page_id=396 12 Yona Friedman, “Intelligence Starts with Improvisation,” Yona Friedman, ed. Luca Cerizza and Anna Daneri.

(Milan: Charta, 2008), 22.

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Image 3.12. Ville Spatiale

Image 3.11. Ville Spatiale

3.2

LOMEX - Paul Rudolph

The Lower Manhattan Expressway or LOMEX project was a proposal to

build a 10-lane highway cutting straight through lower Manhattan connecting the Holland Tunnel directly to the Williamsburg and Manhattan Bridges. The vision for the superhighway was the brainchild of Robert Moses; the most significant advocate and arch-villain of New York City infrastructural and urban development of the 20th Century.

Paul Rudolph was commissioned to design and illustrate this provocative

proposal in the late 1950’s. In consideration of the project, Rudolph recognized that an urban highway corridor could be an “abusive” insertion into the city.13 His design responded to those concerns by encapsulating the highway within a superstructure which could contain traffic noise, exhaust and other negative impacts of the expressway.

The incredible and dizzying drawings depict a megalithic infrastructural corridor where the huge expanse of traffic lanes have been decked over to create a massive brutalist housing complex. The design was proposed to be so overlarge, that Rudolph included the depiction of an elevated tram car to facilitate pedestrian circulation throughout the network implying that an additional layer of supplemental public transportation would be required.

The LOMEX drawings demonstrate how completely out of scale the proposal

was to the existing context. While Rudolph’s concerns for sheltering the surroundings from the expressway were admirable, the proposed creation would have overpowered the site so strongly that it would have ultimately been more harmful. The new super corridor would have been an entire city in and of itself. It rejected the urban fabric of Lower East Side as it stood at the time and wrote an independent narrative overshadowing those existing structures. Much in the spirit of Moses’ proposal, the focus was entirely on the potentials of the automobile and establishing this cross-island connection. It would have blighted the region on either side of it and treated the existing neighborhoods as insignificant. While it is somewhat understandable given the client and the era of this proposal, this kind of thinking would be entirely deplorable and inappropriate now.

13 Paul Rudolph, “Lower Manhattan Expressway,” Paul Rudolph Heritage Foundation. https://www.paulrudolphheritagefoundation.org/196703-lower-manhattan-expressway.

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Image 3.22. Lower Manhattan Expressway

Image 3.21. Lower Manhattan Expressway

3.3

Manhattan Ridge - Zhenjla Wang, Xlayl Li

This proposal for the 2018 Evolo Skyscraper Competition sought to resolve

the affordable housing shortage for Manhattan’s workforce. Recognizing that much of the island has already been built up to its limit, it proposed the creation of narrow super tall linear towers which could rise up out of a narrow footprint along all double-wide avenues and corridors. The proposal could rest on piers less than 10’ wide allowing all existing traffic patterns to remain. The structure would project up about the street level and never exceed a width of 36’.14 The residential units would be placed at interlocking intervals creating an open lattice-like screen stretched across the middle of the avenue allowing light and air to reach the ground below.

While the architectural footprint was proposed to be kept to a minimum this

project never loses focus of the connection to the street level and the human scale. The superstructure of the ridge creates a pedestrian pathway cutting down the middle of the avenue. Publically accessible viewing platforms would be established 2-4 stories in the air at a range that allows inhabitants to view and be viewed from the ground level.

The form language of this proposal was intended for use across any double-wide street throughout Manhattan which would break up the expanse of the block by creating a middle ground. It would bifurcate one side of the street from the other and allow for only glimpses through the lattice structure.

14 Zhenijla Wang and Xlayl Li, “Manhattan Ridge: Affordable Housing for Commuters,” eVolo Skyscraper Competition, 2018. http://www.evolo.us/manhattan-ridge-affordable-housing-for-commuters/.

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Image 3.32, 3.33, 3.34. Manhattan Ridge

Image 3.31. Manhattan Ridge

3.4

Bridge of Houses - Steven Holl

How can an abandoned elevated railway threading along Manhattan’s west

side be reprogramming into inhabitable space? This was the premise behind Steven Holl’s 1978 “Bridge of Houses” project. Holl was inspired by the decommissioned freight railway which is now better known as the High Line. The High Line was used as an elevated freight railway throughout much of the 1930-1960’s until the popularity of freight trucking surpassed its function. Falling into disrepair over the years, several sections were dismantled to make way for new construction. The entire line was slated for destruction time and time again although for financial reasons and lack of prioritized incentive, the High Line never saw that fated wrecking ball.15

Holl’s proposal was inspired by the historic usage of bridges as inhabitable

spaces. In his submission to the architectural magazine Pamphlet architecture he states, “a bridge is more than a means of getting from one place to another...throughout history bridges have been a focus of legends...a tiny place for passing prayer.”16 The design detailed the creation of a series of individual houses along the rail link, each of which was arranged according to a specific type of patron. The houses would occupy the entire footprint from one edge of the High Line to the other, and were a near perfect cubic volume. In between each house would be an open courtyard of equal length so no more than 50% of the footprint would be built upon. Although each structure was to be an individual unit, there would be a centrally located circulation axis cut through the first level of every house such that residents could not only traverse underneath the homes of their neighbors, it was from this linear vantage point that they would be able to see a continuous view north or south without being blocked by the adjacent house.

This Bridge of Houses model was inspired by the existing structure of the

decommissioned High Line however its Utopian vision went far beyond the context.

Holl was proposing a network of private houses all inspired by fictional stylized patrons.

For example, the “House of the Decider” has a series of two dozen individual spartan sleeping quarters and a large and regimented food hall where the same meal could be served every day.17 Holl’s ultimate goal was an exploration of these moments rather than for devising a system that would actually be constructed.

15 “History”, Friends of the Highline, Highline.org.

16 Steven Holl, “Bridge of Houses: Pamphlet Architect No. 7, 1981” in “Pamphlet Architecture,” ed. Clare Jacobson, (New York: Princeton Architectural Press, 1998).

17 Holl.

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Image 3.42. Bridge of Houses.

Image 3.41. Bridge of Houses.

3.5

the High Line

Of all of the previous projects, this one is an obvious exception: it is the only

one to actually be executed. When it first opened to the public in 2009 the High Line was a revelation. The re-purposing of an overgrown abandoned rail line into an elevated parkway was so simple yet completely novel. It became a hit sensation almost overnight. People came from all over the world to see what New York had done and hundreds of imitation schemes have been devised and attempted with varying success.

After its decommission in the 1960’s the High Line, had been lying unused

and abandoned. In the late 1990’s/early 2000’s a non-profit called Friends of the High Line finally managed to step in to save the structure and transform it into a new kind of city park. When it first opened, it was an experience like no other. One could walk the span of 13 blocks without ever stopping at a traffic light. Visitors were raised up to an eye level they had never been afforded. The line snaked artfully through and around buildings but there was a constant reprieve in which one could gaze out across the city from an elevated open space.

In the last decade, the High Line has had two major expansion schemes,

pushing northward up to 34th Street and looping around the recently opened Hudson Yards, a major real estate development looking over the river. With the expansion of the park has come a huge turnover of the neighborhood. What was once a blighted and undesirable area of the city, is now one of the most expensive places to live with brand new starchitect designed residential towers going up on either side of the elevated park.

The transformation of the High Line was part of a speculative development proposal to create new luxury housing, gallery spaces, and boutique eateries along the western edge of Chelsea. These new luxury developments are projected to generate over $1 billion in tax revenues for New York City over the next 20 years.18

Walking through the park, visitors are periodically condensed into a unique

fishbowl experience squeezed in between shiny new buildings and construction scaffolding. The phenomenon is peculiar: by walking through a free public amenity, visitors and tourists can gaze directly into the apartment windows owned by some of the wealthiest in New York City.19 While these moments of compression can seem 18 Laura Bliss, “The High Line’ Next Balancing Act,” Citylab, Feb 7, 2017.

19 C.J. Hughes, “The High Line: A Place to See and Be Seen,” New York Times, December 12 2018.

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overwhelming at times, they make the moments of release into an expansive vista all the more dramatic. The High Line demonstrates that with the provision of a major public amenity, it can incentivize rapid new development in an area. Without the creation of the park, the residential densification would have never occurred. The developers targeted luxury buildings but the same formula could be applied elsewhere at a more

Image 3.52, 3.53. High Line, 2019.

Image 3.51. High Line, 2009.

affordable scale.

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04 New Ground

04 New Ground

New York City is always changing, always evolving—sometimes for better

and sometimes for much worse. In 2018, for the first time in over a decade, New York City reported a net loss in population. This loss signals the end of a continuous growth period that could not be sustained forever.20 People are leaving because they are getting priced out. The average cost of a one bedroom apartment in Manhattan is over $3,500 a month. That number, which is an average monthly salary for many Americans, represents an apartment that is on average less than 700 square feet.21 New York City has become home to a number of supertall skinny skyscrapers for the 1% but the market for housing for the 50% has been ignored. It is becoming impossible to find an affordable place to live in Manhattan. The workforce is being forced to take longer commutes from farther and farther away, relying on an already overtaxed system of public transportation. In order to maintain its competitiveness on a world stage, Manhattan needs to adapt to accommodate people to actually live there.

The visionary proposals investigated in this thesis sought to devise strategies

for increased densification. Their ambition was often radical and fairly heavy handed in its approach. Rather than catering and responding to a specific site or region, the systems were presented only in the abstract. This tension between concept and potential for implementation is something which this thesis seeks to resolve. Borrowing from the spirit of the previous projects, and working closely with the observational analysis of the previous chapters, this proposal seeks to implement an increased densification scheme onto 14th Street between 6th and 8th Avenues. This new massing would address the shortage of affordable housing units for the 50% of New York City workforce who are currently being priced out of the city.

20 Joseph De Avila, “New York City’s Population Dips for First Time in Over a Decade,” Wall Street Journal, April 18, 2019.

21 Hillary Hoffoer and Shayanne Gal, “How much it costs to rent in 28 Manhattan neighborhoods,” Business Insider, May 20, 2018.

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Image 4.01. Schematic Programing & Concept Drawing

4.1

Express Busway 14th Street has long been the center of planning and news attention due to the announced closure or partial closure of the L train for necessary repairs after Hurricane Sandy. The L train runs underneath 14th in Manhattan beginning at 8th Avenue and terminating at Canarsie Rockaway in Brooklyn. It is the only direct subway connection from Manhattan into North Brooklyn. In 2018, it supported an average daily weekday ridership of 390,000 people.22 Any plans to close or partially close the subway line required extensive planning to provide alternate means of service.

In an effort to reduce commuter congestion caused by the L train slowdown, New York City has recently initiated an 18 month trial period where private traffic on 14th Street will be restricted between 3rd and 9th Avenues from 6am to 10pm. Private cars can still make pick-ups and drop-offs but they must turn off the street, (making right turns only) within one avenue. Of the remaining four traffic lanes, the M14 Select Bus Service (SBS) are given priority in the center lanes. Trucks are allowed continued use of the street with increased efficiency.

Prior to the “express busway,” the M14 bus was one of the slowest routes in the system, with traffic congestion slowing bus riding time considerably. Since its implementation, a full trip across 14th Street decreased from an average time of 25 to 15 minutes. The trip between one avenue to the next can take less than a minute.

Ridership reported within the first month was up by 17% on weekdays and 37% on weekends.23 Traffic agents in yellow jackets are stationed at 3rd and 9th Avenues and many along the intersections in between to remind cars of the new restrictions. Despite the initial concerns from opponents of the busway, as of the first six weeks of the launch there has been no significant change in the traffic density on the adjacent streets. The 14th Street Busway will continue to be evaluated to assess the feasibility of making it a permanent condition and the potential to apply the same traffic policies to other overly congested major thoroughfares such as 34th and 42nd Streets.

The new condition of the street provides for an interesting new phenomenon: a Manhattan street that is largely empty. At each red light there is a M14 bus, (or often multiple), with a handful of trucks waiting behind. Once the light turns and the vehicles clear, the street is open enough that pedestrians are even bold enough 22 “Annual Subway Ridership,” Metropolitan Transit Authority, http://web.mta.info/nyct/facts/ridership/ridership_sub_annual.htm 23 Sandy Smith, “Riders Flock to Faster Buses in Manhattan,” NextCity.org, Oct 23 2019.

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Image 4.12. With Busway, Low Congestion

Image 4.11. Pre-Busway, High Congestion

to walk across mid block, (a distance of roughly 50’). This new condition calls into question the traditional model of the street. While it once made sense to dedicate so much precious square footage to automobiles, that logic must now be reconsidered.

According to studies conducted under the administration of the former Transportation Commissioner of New York, Janette Sadik-Khan, “New Yorkers have a carbon footprint 71 percent lower than the average American.”24 59% of the workforce in Manhattan commute via public forms of transportation and over 10% walk. The density of the city allows its inhabitants to live vertically and closer to commerce and services.25 New York is not a place where citizens have to rely on private cars to get around. If the busway were to be instituted permanently, it can be postulated that the lanes of traffic could be reduced from two lanes down to one. Furthermore, traffic lanes in cities have been historically constructed at a width of 12’ or wider, a width only necessary for highway speeds. Given that the average commercial vehicle and city bus is no more than 8.5’ wide, the street lanes could easily be slimmed down to 10’.26 The new busway is an invitation to reconsider the scale of the streetscape. Through a simple narrowing and reduction of traffic lanes, it would free up a lot of the space that was once dedicated to cars. This reclaimed space could be rechoreographed to change the perceived sense of scale of the pedestrians to the buildings and create new pockets for activity to occur. 14th Street could be used as a test case for similar pedestrian-orientated spaces to be designed and implemented on other major NYC streets.

24 Janette Sadik-Khan and Seth Solomonov, Streetfight: Handbook for an Urban Revolution, (New York: Penguin Books, 2016), 23.

25 Sadik-Khan and Solomonov, 24.

26 Ibid, 50.

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4.2

Palimpsest

14th street is a riot of architectural heterogeneity and random juxtaposition.

The portion that has been selected for this case study contains an eclectic variety of building typologies from the 60’ four to five story brownstones placed adjacent to a 285’ Art Deco office tower. The majority of the buildings date to the 1920’s with a handful of newer buildings constructed in the 1960’s and 80’s. While there are several large buildings which have considerable street frontages of 100’ or longer, the majority of buildings on 14th Street occupy only one or two 25’ wide x 100’ deep lots, (a size typical of major double wide NYC street). These small footprints are well suited to five story residential walk-ups but are difficult to redevelop for increased housing density.

In the last few years, a handful of new buildings have sprung up by purchasing and combining several parcels and maxing out the FAR with a new residential tower.

The height of these new structures and the larger massing is not of particular importance to the pedestrian at the street level. Urban theorist Jan Gehl has investigated the human sensory apparatus with regard to vertical distance. According to Gehl, from the street level pedestrians are consciously aware of the first story of a building and some of the second story. Since the body has to crane their neck upwards to see more, higher up upon the building is only experienced incidentally or from a great distance.27 Because this sensory threshold is limited to the lower portions of the building, this region becomes the most significant in defining the nature of the street. The new buildings along 14th are starkly out of character with the rest of the street and become visually disruptive to the narrative of the block.

In order to address the need for more housing, NYC needs to densify. Rather than simply tear down old buildings which have an established connection to the site, the new architecture could spring out of an existing plinth. Several sites have been identified for this, (see Image 4.22). These buildings have been selected for their footprints of at least 50’-75’, their distance off of the other tall buildings on the stretch, and their placement apart from one another. Each of these potential bases has its own unique features which contribute to the rich heterogeneity of the architectural palette of the street. New towers could be integrated behind these facades maintaining the perception of the street for the pedestrian while creating increased density in the sky.

27 Jan Gehl, Cities for People, (Washington DC: Island Press, 2010), 40-41.

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Image 4.21. New Massing Integration Strategies

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Image 4.22. Selected Sites of Intervention

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Image 4.23. Reinterpretation of Existing Facades

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Image 4.25. Rainscreen Scale Iterations

Image 4.24. Rainscreen Derivation Diagram

PROJECT DOMINANT VERTICALS SPAN ACROSS MEMBERS

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VARY THICKNESS

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DISSOLVE DENSITY VERTICALLY

4.3

DENSE-city

Image 4.31. Overall Network Axon

DENSE-city is a vision of a densified network of built form along New York City streets, demonstrated as a case study on 14th Street. It brings much needed living spaces along a key transit corridor and establishes a bridge between where people live and work. Rising out of their contextual plinths, the new towers integrate into the existing urban fabric of 14th and the surrounding streets. The buildings are stitched together in pairs and trios across a series of skybridges.

The network maintains street level retail which defines the 14th Street corridor.

Flexible office units retrofit behind the existing facades of the bases of the new towers.

These units, which are equipped with essential core amenities, are rentable on an hourly to monthly basis for professional services and start up businesses which may not require the investment in a costly fixed class A office space. The housing units are intended for young professionals working in the towers or in the surrounding Manhattan area. The apartment units are kept to an efficient minimal size and amenities such as laundry, recreational and exercise facilities are available across the buildings via the skybridges.

One full tower and the central monumental bridge are dedicated to the public with the creation of new cultural amenity spaces.

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Image 4.32. DENSE-city

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Image 4.33. DENSE-city Program Distribution

Private

Public

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Image 4.35. Gallery Retrofit Behind Existing Facade

Image 4.34. Cultural Amenity Distribution

Cultural Amenity

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Image 4.36. Library In New Tower

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Image 4.38. Flex Office Unit

Image 4.37. Flexible Office Distribution

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Image 4.39. Flex Office Retrofit Behind Existing Facade

Image 4.311. Studio Apartment Unit

Image 4.310. Housing Distribution

Housing

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Image 4.312. Studio Apartment Floor in New Towers

Image 4.314. One Bedroom Apartment Unit

Image 4.313. Housing Distribution

Housing

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Image 4.315. One Bedroom Apartment Floor in New Towers

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Image 4.317. Fitness Center and Sky Lounge

Image 4.316. Residential Amenity Distribution

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Image 4.318. West 14th Street, View from the Streetscape

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Image 4.38. View from 7th Avenue Skybridge looking towards the Hudson

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Works Consulted Appleyard, Donald. Livable Streets. Berkeley: University of California Press: 1981.

Barron, James. “Relaxing, Weird, Beautiful: Riding the Bus on the New 14th Street.” New York Times, October 11, 2019. https://www.nytimes.com/2019/10/11/nyregion/14th-streetbusway.html Bliss, Laura. “The High Line’ Next Balancing Act.” Citylab, February 7, 2017. https://www.citylab .com/solutions/2017/02/the-high-lines-next-balancing-act-fair-and-affordabledevelopment/515391/ De Avila, Joseph. “New York City’s Population Dips for First Time in Over a Decade.” Wall Street Journal, April 18, 2019. https://www.wsj.com/articles/new-york-citys-population-dips-forfirst-time-in-over-a-decade-11555560060?ns=prod/accounts-wsj.

Friedman, Yona. “Intelligence Starts with Improvisation.” Yona Friedman, edited by Luca Cerizza and Anna Daneri. New York: Charta, 2008. 22-27.

Friends of the High Line. “History.” Highline.org.

Gehl, Jan. Cities for People. Washington, D.C.: Island Press, 2010.

Holl, Steven. “Bridge of Houses: Pamphlet Architect No. 7, 1981.” In Pamphlet Architecture, edited by Clare Jacobson. New York: Princeton Architectural Press, 1998.

Hughes, C.J. “The High Line: A Place to See and Be Seen.” New York Times, December 12 2018. https://www.nytimes.com/2018/12/12/realestate/the-high-line-a-place-to-see-and-beseen.html Jacobs, Jane. The Death and Life of Great American Cities. New York: Vintage Books, 1992.

Kaijima, Momoyo, Kuroda, Junzo, Yoshiharu, Tsukamoto. Made in Tokyo. Tokyo: Kajima Institute Publishing Co., 2015.

Koolhaas, Rem and Bruce Mau. “The Generic City.” S,M,L,XL, 1248-1264. New York: The Monacelli Press, 1995.

Levinson, Justin. “Context.” Vacant New York.com. September 2018. http://www.vacantnewyork. com/context.html Moss, Jeremiah. Vanishing New York: How A Great City Lost Its Soul. New York: Harper Collins, 2017.

Rudolph, Paul. “Lower Manhattan Expressway.” 1967, In Paul Rudolph Heritage Foundation.

“Lower Manhattan Expressway”. https://www.paulrudolphheritagefoundation.org/196703lower-manhattan-expressway.

Sadik-Khan, Janette, and Seth Solomonow. Streetfight: Handbook for an Urban Revolution. New York: Penguin Books, 2017.

Smith, Sandy. “Riders Flock to Faster Buses in Manhattan.” NextCity.org, October 23, 2019. https://nextcity.org/daily/entry/riders-flock-to-faster-buses-in-manhattan Sorkin, Michael. Twenty Minutes In Manhattan. London: Reaktion Books Ltd, 2009.

Whyte, William H. The Social Life of Small Urban Spaces. Washington, D.C.: The Conservation Foundation, 1980.

Thompson, Derek. “How Manhattan Became a Rich Ghost Town: New York’s empty storefronts are a dark omen for the future of cities.” The Atlantic. October 15, 2018. https://www. theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2018/10/new-york-retail-vacancy/572911/

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Image 0.02. New Figure Ground, 14th between 4th & 11th Ave

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