Jonathan Livingston Seagull - Redesign

The assignment:

Book Cover Redesign Overview

You will be taking a classic book cover of your choice and re-designing it. Be smart and choose a book you’ve already read or will be able to find the summary online. Think about how you can improve it. Disruptive Thinking Method You will use each of Paul Rand’s “formal concerns” and create 14 book covers of the same classic book you chose. Be ready to explain each of the formal concerns and how you interpreted them. I would suggest you photoshop your covers on a photo of a blank book so they don’t look like posters. (Scale is important here.) Be sure to include the spine, but the back cover is optional. Similarly, include a slide with all 14 book covers on one page so we can see them all together.

Formal Concerns List

1. Space
2. Contrast
3. Proportion
4. Harmony
5. Rhythm
6. Repetition
7. Line
8. Mass
9. Shape
10. Color
11. Weight
12. Volume
13. Value
14. Texture

Rules
1. Choose a classic book cover and redesign it.
2. Use each of Paul Rand’s “formal concerns” to design 14 covers. 

 

Mosaic Man

Cardon Copy Flier/Tear-off

Overview Cardon Copy, (a project by Cardon Webb) takes the vernacular of self-distributed fliers/tear-offs we have all seen in our neighborhoods and rethinks it. The project involves hijacking these unconsidered fliers/tear-offs and redesigning them to overpower their message with a new visual language. Then replace the original with the redesigned in its authentic environment. Disruptive Thinking Method Choose one of your favorite designers and design as if you were them. What would they do? How would they approach it?

Rules

1. Find a hand-made flier/tear-off, take a picture.
2. Effectively redesign the flier/tear-off with the designer you selected in mind.
3. Photograph/document the process.
4. Replace the existing flier/tear-off with yours.
5. Bring in the photo of original flier/tear-off and your redesigned version.

Jerome S. Coles Sports & Recreation Center

Coles Sports Center is the only full blown athletic facility that belongs to the prestigious New York University. There are also fitness rooms in the NYU Residence halls of Palladium and Gramercy Green on a much smaller scale. But as the culture of NYU tends to be, Coles has transformed into a social spot to be seen more than a gym. Unfortunately, some of the design aspects of Coles have not kept up to its modern use and it seems more and more outdated. The building itself is dingy beige color, and doesn’t hint at all at the splendor that lies inside. From full sized Olympic swimming pool to basketball courts and fitness room, the inside of Coles has got it. The one blemish on the Coles athletic facility is the rooftop track and tennis courts are extremely boring and dull feeling. In attempt to build up some of the school spirit that NYU is lacking. The rooftop facility has a bright purple track that is paired with bright purple tennis courts. Also the hours are only during daytime because of the lack of lighting up there. This spot is one of the few spaces in NYU that has open air. The buildings around Coles’ rooftop are just short enough to let in tons of air and sunlight.

I decided to redesign the Coles’ rooftop to be a space that all NYU students could enjoy, that would still be functional yet fun. New York University is known for its artsy vibe, so why not fully embrace that personality… even in the athletic facility. The new NYU Cole’s rooftop will be a private art park for NYU students. The redesign to the roof will include some structural changes. But I believe each step should be planned out by NYU students and be supervised by real architects/contractors/whoever is most applicable. I think that we should elevate the roof about 5 feet and create room for a cistern below the new roof area. The way Coles is set up with the lower buildings around it must attract a lot of rainwater. Collecting this water and filtering it for the pool and fountains could be a great project to teach NYU students about conserving and reusing water. Also, it would teach them on how to create good water filtration systems. Obviously the grey water from the rest of the building could also be filtered through the cistern and the black water removed via normal piping. The track of the roof will have permeable pavement so the water can seep down into the cistern easily.

The basic structure of the park’s fountains and benches is designed to be a simplified version of Washington Square Park. This is in order to create a unified theme to the natural aspects of the NYU campus. The biggest downside to this project is that the tennis courts will need to be relocated.

The next step of the project should be to install solar panels along the south side of the building. The south side of Cole’s is the most visible, so I suggest making the panels look like a mosaic to maintain the beauty of the streetscape. The solar panels can be the main source of energy for the athletic facilities massive needs, obviously we will still need to use some energy from the energy plant because of the high volume needed to run the facility.

To make the rest of the building cohere with the eco-friendly vibe that the new roof is going for, I suggest adding some vines on the remaining three sides. This will not be expensive, yet will help transform what Coles is. Though it will take years for the vines to grow into what we want them to be, I think this will be a cost effective way to cosmetically enhance the exterior of the building.

Atop the roof there will be a black track, seven plots laid out for NYU students to place sculptures or installations, and a lot of greenery. In order to get your works placed in one of the spaces the student must be an NYU student. Other than that, we can create a student run organization that chooses what pieces get placed there for the semester. Essentially the space will be for the students and made by the students.

This space will be a public space for all students, faculty and administrators to enjoy art, nature and run. The track will allow students to continue running outside while appreciating the artwork of their student community. This fusion of art and athletics will combine the two main elements of New York University’s community. This will create an atmosphere that can be appreciated by every type of student. 

The Biltmore Room

The Biltmore Room, located in New York’s Grand Central Station, has an exciting and romantic history. Also known as the kissing room, the space is located under the former Biltmore hotel. It is situated in the northwestern corner of Grand Central, this sequestered spot used to be a place used to be a meeting place where loved ones would reunite and travel up to the hotel above for enjoyment, such as eating at the restaurant. The room is just as sweet as its name connotes, the space had a reputation of being a space where people would wait to meet soldiers upon their homecoming. This tradition has become obsolete with the reduction of certain train lines, inventions of new technologies, and closing of the Biltmore Hotel. In fact, this once vivacious meeting spot has been downgraded to a space that houses shoeshine kiosks, a flower stall and a massive newsstand; all of which are highly under-frequented. According to the MTA, the space has been underused for decades. The hotel above it was converted into yet another New York office space, and transit through the space was forever changed.  

The Hudson News Stand is really unnecessary in its placement for two reasons. The first reason being because there are two other Hudson News Stands in Grand Central Station. The other reason being because those other two stands have much more centralized locations, one in the main concourse area and the other in the center of the lower level near the food court. The Biltmore Room, as previously stated, is in the northwest corner of the station, and it is pretty much removed from the rest of the building. The decentralized location of this newsstand combined with the central locations of the other stands, makes this newsstand essentially obsolete. It’s very rare to see even one person in the News Stand other than employees. According to an MTAspokes person, this newsstand makes significantly less amounts of revenue than its counterparts. Now that we all agree that we should get rid of it, what can we do with the newly opened space?   

Grand Central is often looked upon as a city within a city, a microcosm for New York City as a whole. It is a tourist location and a functional place that provides transportation to the masses. Really, what doesn’t it have? It has shops, it has culture and performers, it has restaurants, it has people of all varieties, but what is it missing? It’s missing a park!

            The place to start with this project is to reflect on the rich and sweet history of the room. My idea at its core is to turn the space into a room that is once again a meeting place for people and a place that pays tribute to the history of the space. The first step of this plan is to get the inefficient Hudson Newsstand out of there. The next step is to put in a small boutique café in the corner to make the space a destination. The café will have seating out in front of it that looks like a patio. The chairs and tables should be made with delicate and subtle designs. The café will add a nice ambiance, especially because the other storefront in the Biltmore room is the Dahlia Flower Shop. The largest issue with the café is its proximity to one of the Grand Central Starbucks. But I think it’s vital to promote local coffee shops and give them a place within the station as well. Also, boutique cafés tend to have a completely different ambiance and charm than a chain.

Then, for the center that is newly empty, I want to transform it into an indoor art park. What this means is that there will be potted trees and plants, park benches, lamps designed like street lamps that fit the octagonal shape of the room. The room will feature art of the famous New York City artists to bring a touch of culture and romance back to the space.   

The two defining two permanent art aspects of the park will be the fountain and the pergola like area. Both will be designed to make the indoor park feel welcoming, cozy, and romantic. The fountain will be a Romanesque fountain dedicated to the Roman goddess Venus, who is the goddess of love, beauty, sex, fertility and prosperity. The pergola will be white wood with green arrowhead philodendrons (Syngonium podophyllum) grown and intertwined between the structures. I choose the arrowhead philodendrons because they are great indoor vines. This vine also has little white markings, which compliments the white wood. The arrowhead shape slightly resembles aheart, which follows the themes of the room.

There will be four benches and four trellises between them to make the circular/octagonal shape evident. The trellises will be brief versions of the pergola, meaning they will have the white wood and arrowhead philodendrons vines. The motif of the area will be to bring the romance of an outdoor space into Grand Central. Having plants will even help better the air quality of the station. One of the biggest challenges that this project faces is that it is very unusual to have an indoor park space. But I think Grand Central’s air quality; combined with Manhattans reputation of being a concrete jungle warrants any and every integration of new park spaces.

Ideally for the trees, it should be dwarf citrus trees. This will be reminiscent of an Italian limonaia, as well as provide a tasty treat for visitors during some parts of the year. They should most definitely be dwarf trees so they don’t overtake the landscape of the space. It needs to be a careful balance of elements without being too busy or chaotic. The only problem with this plan is the lack of natural light in this space. I propose putting in some skylights, similar to those in the subway system. This way the integrity of grand central station is not compromised but natural light does flow into to the space. The natural light is crucial for the survival of the plants and for the park atmosphere to feel complete.

My inspiration for this space came from the rich historical background as well as Citygarden in St. Louis. St. Louis had a big problem of a large chunk of their downtown being underused. The New Art Parks article discusses the effect that a park area can have. The artist who created a lot of the artwork in the 2001 Citygarden comments on how the art and space was used differently than the architect thought it would be, because people like to go into fountains or play on sculptures. Therefore I think it would be fun to require all artists to think about their projects as interactive. The St. Louis project livened up the downtown and brought traffic to an area that had been underused for years. Which is why I thought it was a great inspiration for this project, even though this is a much smaller scale.

The rest of the space will be open for movement and for artists to create proposals.  I think that the Biltmore Room should cultivate a temporary arts program where artists submit their ideas for an installation. For the installation space, there are currently two plots of space in the Biltmore room dedicated to Eddie’s Shoe Repair. Since shoe repairs are kind of outdated (though still charming and functional), I suggest cutting down from two plots to one plot for the shoe repair kiosk. This additional space will keep the area from feeling over crowded. And can be used for interactive art installations.

            With themes of Italian gardens, a new café, and the first indoor art park, the “kissing room” will once again be a destination within Grand Central Station. It will once again be a spot where people will want to meet, a place that will pay tribute to its beautiful history, a place that will make Grand Central even more appealing than it already is.

 

 

WORKS CITED

"Arrowhead Plant." - Syngonium Podophyllum. Web. 12 Dec. 2013.

"Grand Central Centennial." Mta.info. Web. 12 Dec. 2013.

"How to Grow Citrus Fruits." WikiHow. Web. 12 Dec. 2013.

"MTA Releases Renderings, Floor Plans for Grand Central Apple Store." The Mac Observer. Web. 12 Dec. 2013.

"New Art Parks Enliven Urban Centers."  David Sokol, Web. 12 Dec. 2013.

"Photos of Grand Central Terminal." About.com New York City Travel. Web. 12 Dec. 2013.

Pulvers, Marvin. Roman Fountains: 2000 Fountains in Rome : A Complete Collection. Roma: "L'Erma" Di Bretschneider, 2002. Print.

"Secrets of Grand Central Terminal." About.com Manhattan, NY. Web. 12 Dec. 2013.

"See the Most Famous Terminal in the Nation Up Close and Personal." Grand Central Terminal. Web. 12 Dec. 2013.

Interrupted:

This project was intented to study a human pattern in Washington Square Park and then to create an intervention in the park that does something about it. 

Ubuntu Garden

“I am because we are”

Ubuntu is a zulu word that doesn’t have a direct translation in any other language. Basically it means, “I am because we are”. This is a concept that I am passionate the world needs to embrace right now. The world needs to embrace it on so many scales, from one person to another and from one country to another. One place that I strongly believe humans need to embrace this is in the relationship between animals and humans. Because of us, so many animals are endangered and losing their homes. But what we fail to realize is the impact these animals have in our world. Every animal has a function in the ecosystem and if we keep reducing other species and increasing our numbers, the world’s balance will be more than thrown off.

 

My garden is a garden that helps the World Wildlife Foundation. The garden is in the shape of a bamboo plant because the panda bear is the “face” of the WWF. I also like the idea because the stem of the bamboo can be the main axis and the branches and leaves can be minor axises. All of the components work together to form the plant and without any single component the plant would not function as well. This ideology applies to how the ecosystems in our world will slowly diminish as these animals near extinction. This garden should be a space that both animals and humans can enjoy. It will be sustainable because all the animals will be provided, in the design, everything that they need to live as they would in nature. That is what truly differentiates this garden from a zoo.

The approach to the garden is simple; one drives up to this garden in China and parks in the parking lot. From here on out, their journey will be by foot. This way the parking lot will be distanced from the animals, leaving them less disturbed. The entrance is a long rectangular lawn. Along the lawn there are numerous animal topiaries and informational signs. The entrance moves the visitor into the first compartment. There are five compartments and each one is themed after a different animal. There is a path running on the west hand side of each compartment where people can observe and learn about the animals. The people are divided from the animals by a haha; this way the distance and barriers between the two is minimalized. The land to the east  of the structured garden is extra land where some of the animals are free to roam. The first compartment is to the north and the next compartments build downwards south from there.

The first compartment is Panda themed. The featured of this compartment include real pandas, a bamboo bosco, panda topiaries, and a Chinese fountain. There is also a huge pergola that covers the human path as well as provides shade for the pandas. This is a way to reinforce the Ubuntu idea within the garden.

The second compartment is dedicated to tigers. In this compartment there is the beginning of the mangrove swamp that continues through the next two compartments as well. This compartment has the four-river motif with four lawns lined with short box hedges and a Chinese themed pond in the middle. The path between the four lawns has patches of tall grass where tigers love to play. There will also be tiger topiaries and a banyan tree for shade.

The themes of the Banyan trees, bamboo trees and mangrove swamp all continue into the third compartment. This compartment was dedicated to chimpanzees. There is a pergola for climbing as well as two ponds, a stream, a bridge and bamboo trees. A sustainable feature in this compartment is that there will be banana trees as well. On the human pathway, there will be a pergola, monkey topiaries, another set of benches and a break area. The break area branches off to the west from the path and has a small lawn, snack shack, and restroom area.

The fourth section is dedicated to tuna and salmon. This section is very important because this is somewhere where humans can make a big difference. The only reason these fish are endangered is because they are overfished and over consumed. This pond showcases tuna as a beautiful creature of nature; as opposed to a delicious fish to eat on sushi.  There will be beautiful and ornate fish topiaries to help accomplish this. It is nearly impossible to have salmon here because they need to live in both freshwater and saltwater, but there will be plenty of information about them. This is the compartment where the mangrove swamp ends. Tuna eat waterweeds; waterweeds thrive in water where there are eels, so both of these species will be included also.

            The final compartment is dedicated to sharks and dolphins. Again there are logistic problems with having both because sharks prey on dolphins.  Instead of trying to have a salt-water pond, this pond will just feature Chinese river dolphins that live in freshwater. There will be various other fish, turtles and frogs to make this an ecosystem and not just a tank. There is a beautiful Chinese themed waterfall to keep aerating the water for all of these animals to breathe. The pathway that goes into these two sections is modelled after the isolotta in the Boboli gardens. It is a floating pathway surrounded by water on all sides but one. Once a visitor is on it, it should feel like they are floating on an island with nature completely surrounding them.

                       After returning to the main pathway, the visitors walk through a topiary allee where they can branch off to the visitors center; an area where people can learn to reduce their footprint on nature and learn more about the WWF or donate money and time to the cause. There will also be a restroom and café here. Then after this, people proceed to the loading dock where they can either walk or take the shuttle bus back to the original parking lot. This distance should be about two and a half miles.