8 key projects that changed New York’s public space

Completed in 2020, the new headquarters of 1199SEIU - the largest health care union in the United States - is the brainchild of an engaged and politically active community. From a typical New York street, the union's new building welcomes its members with a replica of a mural depicting striking hospital division workers. The artwork was originally captured by Anton Refregier in 1930 on the façade of the headquarters building, rendered with colourful glass mosaic tiles. Here, the mural recreated by artist Stephen Mitto partly passes from the escalator wall to the background of the atrium of the headquarters building. The image then continues with a second mural depicting Martin Luther King Jr. during his speech to the 1199 union members, supporting their hopes as the volumetric space of the central circulation.

The Gowanus Canal in Brooklyn is being transformed over the past decade from a notorious waste disposal site into a cultural district, where several abandoned industrial buildings are being transformed into performance venues. These include the new Powerhouse Arts headquarters designed by Herzog & de Meuron and CO Adaptive's transformation of a metal foundry into the Mercury Store, a new space for theatre artists. Here, CO Adaptive opted for wood as the dominant material of the project: the old longleaf pine wood was reconstituted, while the new additions were made of cross-laminated timber - the first use of this material in an entirely commercial building in New York. This adaptive reuse project thus updates the original wood and brick building from 1900 and reuses the removed elements as the basis for new architectural elements.

The Fresh Kills landfill is one of the largest landfill complexes in the world, with 6 large landfills rising from a former salt marsh. In this particular context, James Corner has designed a landscaped park with the inherent power to change the way we see and think about the past and future of waste and therefore also of our cities. With a view to circular design, approximately 1.5 million cubic metres of land will be produced on site using dredging spoil and other recycled materials, and some existing land will be improved on site, while recycled materials such as slag are incorporated into the paving, architecture and other aspects of the park.

Set in an urban environment, Olalekan Jeyifous’ artwork for 8 Av Station explores the connections between the culture, architecture and food of Brooklyn’s diverse Sunset Park neighbourhood. The project consists of a series of 28 triptych compositions that combine architectural and urban elements of the neighbourhood with culinary dishes known and loved by the local community and visitors. Combining hand drawing and digital illustration, Jeyifous captures iconic food practices that reflect the diverse cultural composition of the neighbourhood. Foods such as dumplings, egg cakes, kebabs, tacos, churros, borscht and lasagne are transformed into building facades, shop fronts, mailboxes, fruit stalls and underground cars. Images captured from the surrounding neighbourhood are rendered in simplified graphic forms and vivid colours.

The building's linear footprint emerges from the reuse of the foundations of a Robert Moses-era bathroom, extended on two sides with additional poles. Organised around a series of interior volumes housing offices, support spaces and classrooms, a continuous sequence of exhibition spaces flows outwards to a shaded perimeter terrace and the site at large.  The characteristic undulating shape of the building, which signals the sloping ceilings of the exhibition spaces inside, conveys the waves in terms of both energy and nature. Conceived as a land reclamation project using native species, the landscape will also serve as a framework for an interpretative outdoor exhibition.

Curated by the Only If studio, a survey of public pools explores the history, form, social and cultural aspects of the pool as an architectural typology. The research is organised as a catalogue of New York's public pools and a collection of drawings, photographs and writings that highlight broader issues related to urban water. The pool is used as a tool to address specific aspects of public space and architectural invention, while revealing the undercurrents of urban politics.

Peterson Rich Office and Regional Plan Association presented in 2020 a report of scalable solutions and design strategies to improve New York City Housing Authority (NYCHA) properties in the five boroughs. Starting in June 2019, PRO co-founders Miriam Peterson and Nathan Rich led the research and design work focused on how to make homes healthier for the 600,000 people living in NYCHA flats. With $45 billion in unmet capital needs and residents facing increasingly dire living conditions, fixing New York's public housing is a growing priority for both government and civic sectors.

Hunter's Point South Waterfront opened its doors in 2018, transforming 5.5 acres of an abandoned industrial landscape into a new waterfront park. Phase II of the park begins south of 54th Avenue and wraps around Newtown Creek to complete the full vision of Hunter's Point South Park that began with Phase I of the park, resulting in nearly 11 acres of continuous waterfront parkland. The park offers places of retreat and invites intimate connections with nature by the sea. The park is also a new model of riverfront resilience, with a “soft” approach to protecting the shore from flooding. A path winds along the causeway, slightly above the river, for a stroll among changing skyline perspectives and close-ups of the marsh habitat along the river’s edge, and protects almost 1.5 acres of newly created wetlands.