urban interiors

Course: Spring 2024 Advanced Options Studio (Pratt)

Professor: Alison B. Snyder

This design studio explores the dynamic and diverse character of the Bowery, a historic neighborhood in lower Manhattan known for its eclectic mix of urban energy and cultural layers. Spanning from Chatham Square/Park Row near Chinatown and City Hall, north to Peter Cooper Square below Cooper Union, and sometimes extending to the East Village and Lower East Side, the Bowery is a rich tapestry of contrasts. Its storied past, marked by 19th-century notoriety, continues to influence its vibrant present, blending entrepreneurial spirit, historic and modern residential and educational spaces, and a varied street life.

The Bowery juxtaposes boarded-up storefronts with striking graffiti, old dive bars with upscale boutiques, and artist studios with landmarks like The Bowery Mission, a soup kitchen located right next to the New Museum. This area, with its legacy of vaudeville theaters, punk music clubs, poetry groups, dancehalls, dime museums, boxing exhibitions, and traveling 'freak shows,' is in a state of continuous transformation.

This studio focused on enhancing the Bowery’s “urban interior character” by delving into its multifaceted environment, challenging conventional notions of gentrification and preservation, avoiding binary distinctions between old and new. Instead, we investigated underutilized sites, developed a deeper understanding of the area through local history, literature, films, guest lectures, and fieldwork.

This first 4 week project in the course explored the urban interior through the streetscape, by designing kinds of 'street furniture,' and also ended up being incorporated into the second project, a mixed-use adaptive reuse project that houses culinary and environmental education, art workshops using food scraps, market pop-ups, and meeting spaces for food activists. This project, titled 'the scrap,' can be found here.

existing street conditions on the Bowery

Image c/o Bowery Alliance of Neighbors "Save the Bowery!"

observations

not many places to sit, mostly cold metal benches with anti-homeless design

visible shift in demographic; Asian people nearer to Chinatown; large age range: young adults, middle aged and elderly people

not many people lingering on the street, everyone seemingly going from point A to B

no significant student presence even with NYU + Cooper Union nearby and almost no children

corner buildings being more modern/more high end stores (Supreme, OVO Store)

massive new construction on the East side

lack of sense of destination

lack of sense of history/place

sense of ‘lighting district ’ between Kenmare and Grande + many of these specialty stores closed down or seem empty(restaurant supply & lighting) at one point the very thing that brought people to the Bowery

many people lined up outside of the Bowery MIssion— next to to the New Museum; jarring adjacency

large variation in architectural styles, many historic looking buildings

intentions

to create a destination

to provide a space for rest

to highlight architectural history and diversity of the Bowery

NeoBowery Site #1

Image c/o "Manhattan Bridge approach, New York City" The New York Public Library Digital Collections. 1913. https://digitalcollections.nypl.org/items/fe2cbf80-6f63-013b-7530-0242ac110004

This first pavilion design takes inspiration from the classical form of the Manhattan Bridge, combining traditional form with modern, informal material. Visitors are encouraged to pause within the pavilion, whether they’re seeking a moment of solitude, a place to contemplate the Bowery's rich history, or simply a spot to enjoy the view. The interplay of traditional forms with modern materials creates a sense of timelessness, making the pavilion not just a shelter, but a place where past and present coexist.

site plan

A: existing site condition

initial pavilion path ideation

exploded isometric: structure + material

B: view from the Bowery

pavilion model

C: view towards the Bowery

NeoBowery Site #2

Image c/o "El, Second and Third Avenue lines, Bowery taken from Division St." New York Public Library Digital Collections. https://digitalcollections.nypl.org/items/21336610-eb3c-013a-e92a-0242ac110003

“People yearn for a past that they feel has

slipped away, or is in danger of doing so…

but nostalgia hides as much about the past as it reveals”

Richard Ocejo,

“Upscaling Downtown: From Bowery Saloons

to Cocktail Bars in New York City”

This exploration for the 'street exchange' uses existing symbols found along the Bowery to create new patterns which could be utilized in different modern technologies and materials, such as CNC, laser engraving, and 3D printing. Creating a series of pavilions with a ’universal’ site in mind, this installation brings a play of light and shadow to the street.