Framing Hudson Square: A Stair Encloses a Converging Grid in the City

Abstract

This thesis explores an alternate typology for a residential high rise in the Hudson Square neighborhood in Manhattan. The units that make up the building are organized with stairs and corridors placed along the interior perimeter of the unit which both bound the central floor space and expose it, creating a layered vertical circulation space around a central, permeable core. The collective organization of units within the building recapitulate their interior organization to form the building object creating a whole that is governed by the same organizational rules as the parts. The building is created as an object in the city meant to frame the duality between transparency and reflection, between lines and surfaces and ultimately between exhibition and anonymity.