A front door serves not only as a threshold between a home and the street, but also a proscenium under which the first scenes of the day are played. The project attempts to clarify a tenuous ecosystem of a private dormitory, a semiprivate transition zone, the front door, and public programs. A central vertical void marks an extrusion of the train tracks which once fed a tunnel entrance. This space is a physical and psychological divider between public corridor and front door.

Extending the ground plane of Benefit defines a place for large scale works of contemporary art, open to Main Street. Above this plane, restrictive zoning regulation restricts building heights on Benefit Street, creating an intimate gallery. Increasing interstices of floor and ceiling creates a place for student residences. In section, the domestic lives of the students is pervasive, though visitors to the galleries suffer a certain obliviousness to their close proximity.

Download a summary of the project (PDF 3.6mb)

[Show as slideshow]

[View with PicLens]