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Articles 1 - 8 of 8
Full-Text Articles in Architecture
Waiting: Sidewalk Sheds And Urban Identity, Sukhmann Aneja
Waiting: Sidewalk Sheds And Urban Identity, Sukhmann Aneja
Architecture Thesis Prep
In New York City, a sidewalk shed is a structure that covers a sidewalk immediately adjacent to a site under construction in order to protect pedestrians from falling debris. There are currently about 9,000 sheds in the entire city, with a lifespan of about 300 days. In total, all of the sidewalk sheds take up about 1,000,000 feet of space.1 Their existence is unwanted but inevitable, and, over the last four decades, these sheds have become an integral part of the City’s identity. This thesis proposes an intervention that allows the shed to better engage with the general public, particularly …
Naturalizing The Neoliberal Subject, The Object: To Change The Soul, Hanneke Van Deursen
Naturalizing The Neoliberal Subject, The Object: To Change The Soul, Hanneke Van Deursen
Architecture Thesis Prep
Neoliberalism exists in two forms: policy and ideology. On the policy side, a crusade of deregulation, privatization, and the competition was ushered in by Neoliberal politicians like Margaret Thatcher and Ronald Reagan. On the ideology side, Neoliberalism constructs for us a series of truth games. It tells us: our society is too complex for us to understand, and therefore it can not be ordered by humans. In contrast, the market is itself a mechanism of spontaneous order, and therefore is better suited to calculate, process, and order our society. Subsequently, it is humans who must adapt to the needs of …
"The Cornerstone And Abode Of Our National Progress": New York City's Skyscrapers As An American Story Of Innovation And Teamwork, Meghan Hamel
History Theses
This paper examines the early history of skyscrapers using New York City as its case study. Skyscrapers become possible because of the Industrial Revolution which provided the steel needed for its tall structure and the demand for office space. The early skyscrapers were both praised and criticized by the public. Concerns over the health, economic, and aesthetic consequences led to the passing of the 1916 Zone Ordinance. Following the ordinance, New York City saw a boom of skyscrapers and the creation of a uniquely American architectural style. Before all skyscraper construction completely halted, the Empire State Building was completed. It …
But Soft! Fabricating Adaptive Urbanism, Caroline Barrick, Arezo Hakemy, Sabrina Logroño
But Soft! Fabricating Adaptive Urbanism, Caroline Barrick, Arezo Hakemy, Sabrina Logroño
Architecture Senior Theses
We contend that a performative fabric that combines strategies of comfort and adaptation and deployed as large-scale soft architecture can challenge the approach to urban infrastructural issues currently only managed by hard architecture. We are investigating both soft and hard architecture through the human scale and experience, the urban scale, materiality, adaptability, and temporality. Soft architecture produces comfort and ergonomic design for both physical and mental benefit and affects the built environment through its tactile materiality, its ephemeral temporality, and its swift adaptability. Hard architecture resists environmental and human adaptation through its rigid materiality, its lasting temporality, and its reluctant …
Towards A Floating Urbanism: Adapting To Water As A New Ground, Chris Autera
Towards A Floating Urbanism: Adapting To Water As A New Ground, Chris Autera
Architecture Senior Theses
Climate change offers myriad challenges to society, including a rising sea level and increasingly intense storms. Resilience to climate change, particularly the reliance on hard barriers, only protects certain areas and raises the risk of catastrophic failure. More deeply, these approaches reflect an attempt to preserve society as it exists today, denying the reality that the multi-millennia process of climate change necessitates a more profound reevaluation of how society operates. Adaptation takes this need as a given, arguing for the retrofitting of infrastructure to regular inundation when possible and the abandonment of at-risk areas when not. However, these strategies are …
Re-Imagine Air: Transforming Zoning Around Landmarks, Brian Hurh
Re-Imagine Air: Transforming Zoning Around Landmarks, Brian Hurh
Architecture Senior Theses
Today’s New York City skyline has been developed as a result of over a century of zoning resolutions and changes. Zoning code were first established in 1916 to regulate the building of skyscrapers. These resolutions act as “harm preventing” 1 measure to provide limits, meaning the zone prevents extremities in building dimensions to have some control. However, today’s skyscrapers are built higher and higher through exploits and loopholes. The transfer of development rights from adjacent lots or landmarks allows developers to break regulations. It also allows structures to reach unexpected heights to the most recent zoning resolution in 1961 . …
Walking Titanic's Charity Trail In New York City: Part One, Gramercy Park And Madison Square Park, Eric C. Cimino Ph.D.
Walking Titanic's Charity Trail In New York City: Part One, Gramercy Park And Madison Square Park, Eric C. Cimino Ph.D.
Faculty Works: HPS (2015-2021)
This article combines insights form travel writing, history, and urban studies to explore the social welfare milieu of early twentieth century New York City and its connection to disaster relief efforts for Titanic survivors in 1912.
Robert Moses And The Real Estate City: A Reexamination Of The Legacy Of New York's Master Builder, Jack Fascitelli
Robert Moses And The Real Estate City: A Reexamination Of The Legacy Of New York's Master Builder, Jack Fascitelli
Senior Theses and Projects
The history of New York City would not look the same without Robert Moses. For over three decades, the city's "master builder" reshaped its urban landscape during an era of unprecedented top-down planning and mega-projects. The ideas of this era, once reviled, have seen a revival in the modern day, particularly in the first two decades of the twenty-first century. This essay seeks to reconcile this revival with the ongoing legacy of Robert Moses and to present an argument that such a reconciliation argues for a reconsideration of his career and his ideas.