Data:
Date: Fall 2017
Collaborator: Bryce Taylor
Critics: Dasha Khapalova
Honors:
Project archived as best of studio and displayed in InProcess Magazine
Michael Hollander Drawing Excellence Award (MHDEA)
Program
Columbia University has decided to upgrade and modernize its boathouse facility on the Harlem River adjacent to Baker Field sports complex. Program is influenced by the choreography of boat movement. Building mass is swept throughout the site leaving a volume/void relationship influenced by the acts of retrieval, launch, and ultimate storage of the boats.
Two-dimensional analytic information is superimposed and negotiated. Program is imagined as sequence, rather than volumetric spaces. This datum is comprised of different forces acting and reacting to the site. This creates a stratified layering of information from which to negotiate.
The form was generated was through a process of reinterpreting the superimposed 2D information with the idea being that each cell of boat storage becomes a microcosm of the entire boathouse program.
Choreography of the Act of Rowing
The Rowing Complex for Columbia University is conceived of as an expanded choreography of the act of rowing. Situated in an inlet from the Hudson river, the building acts as a staging area for rowers to maintain and prepare racing shells, as well as a place for students to exercise and study. The composition of the building is conceived of as a consistent sectional drawing which is oriented along a line which moves throughout the site. The sectional condition defines the relationship between boat storage and all other programs. In this sense, the building is divided into discreet chunks which share overlapping roofs and circulation corridors.
Reinterpretation of Notation
The process for developing the design came from an effort to reinterpret the choreographic notation of getting a racing shell out of storage and into the water. This process involves a crew of several rowers carrying it from either side and conducting a two point turn in order to get the front in the right position. The composition seeks to add efficiency to this process by eliminating the two point turn. Indeed the base component which is repeated throughout the site is the storage of the boats.
The structure developed from a desire to integrate an idea of structural nodes on the site as important points. These structural nodes are made of concrete and have the ability to hold multiple long spanning concrete beams when they meet tangentially to the surface. These nodes are large and occupiable and allow for the ability of vertical circulation and ventilation.
Elevation. Scale 1/8" : 1'
Plan. Scale 1/8" : 1'
Collage Render. Coming around back of EKG room.
