GREENHOUSE FOR ARCTIC PLANTS
HARLEM, NEW YORKThe granite and steel gatehouse on West 119th Street was built during the cholera outbreak of the 1920s, fulfilling a need for access to clean water in the island of Manhattan. The greenhouse program, developed in the context of plant preservation in a climate emergency, generates an alternative definition of value on land that has, over time, accrued monetary and historic worth. The adaptive re-use project at this site retains much of the existing building material, and strategically re-orients the structure to prioritize plants and their solar radiation needs. The right triangle design offers two meaningful effects: first, it densifies the available footprint of the small site by looking upward, and second, the long hypotenuse maximizes southern sunlight into the otherwise dark interior. Arctic plants naturally remain on the interior, while the native New York plants grow along the south wall. In the summers, the highest point of the structure receives over 12 hours of sunlight per day, supporting arctic plants especially. The triangle building is an altered memory of the rectangle with a pitched roof, an old emblem of the city’s modernization of infrastructure and interest in engineering hygienic water.
Model Photograph: Exterior Axonometric
Model Photograph: Interior Axonometric
Model Photograph: Shell and Core Axonometric
Model Photograph: Exterior Axonometric
Model Photograph: Existing Building Elevation
Analysis Drawing: Arctic Plants
Analysis Drawing: Indigenous Plants
Analysis Drawing: Three Sisters Planting
Analysis Drawing: Scales of Organism
Analysis Drawing: Material Construction
Orthographic Drawing: Long Section
Orthographic Drawing: Short Section
Orthographic Drawing: PlanPerspective Rendering: Circulation Interior
Perspective Rendering: Greenhouse Interior