2022 BROOKLYN Design Awardees

Since the 19th century, the Catskill Mountains have offered a serene and scenic reprieve for the increasingly urbanized northeastern seaboard. Thomas Cole enshrined the landscape into the American consciousness by painting its grand sylvan panoramas. 
The Piaule Landscape Retreat was designed to immerse visitors into that same natural setting while emphasizing the pristine beauty that the region is known for.

The hotel is comprised of 24 individual cabins that are scattered among the trees on a secluded, west-facing hill that overlooks the Catskill Escarpment. Each cabin is oriented to a large operable window that opens up to the outdoors to give bedrooms the feel of a screened porch. These windows present visitors with a sensory atmosphere of outdoor camping from the comfort and privacy of an indoor cabin.

The landscape hotel is designed to foster interaction among visitors in communal spaces, the lodge is a gathering space for dining and relaxing. Hidden below a green terrace is a fully featured spa with a pool and hot tub which overlook the western view.

Piaule Catskill encourages visitors to continue their exploration beyond the hotel grounds on foot with nature trails that loop in and out of the surrounding woods and wetlands.

The Seventy-Six will be the first triple Net Zero (Energy, Water, and Waste) multifamily/mixed-use project in the United States. The project seeks to create a complete transformation of the area, including the creation of economic and environmental equity by integrating scalable ownership models into businesses and homes. A radically sustainable infrastructure with high-quality, affordable, and flexible housing that meets universal design and accessibility requirements that can accommodate aging, changes in family size, and alternative living arrangements.

This Zero Impact Development will generate 100% of its energy demand from renewable sources, conserve 100% of its water consumption, and recycle and compost 100% of its waste. It will utilize interdependent biological cycles, including constructed wetlands, organics composting, and water reuse to achieve environmental justice. Regional food production and urban farming infrastructure are integrated through the use of vertical gardens and marine organism/terrestrial aquaculture, to create stable food markets, affordable, high-quality foods, and job opportunities.

Living Machine principles will be implemented and demonstrate interdependent biological cycles to grow, clean, and maintain the environment including constructed wetlands, organics composting, and water reuse; that will help to achieve environmental balance by providing clean air, water, and nutritious foods in a non-toxic material environment.

Hither Hill was designed for a family with five grown children who live within a beach-side community focused around the natural environment, food, health, and wellness. The site and buildings were created to allow for a smallscale farm-to-table life, integrating a contemporary but contextual residence and a multi-use pavilion and guest house into a garden with outdoor trellises and recreational space. Linking the landscape to food production and respecting the area’s rich history of farming connects Hither Hills to a long cultural landscape heritage while also serving as a catalyst for the interactions and conversations that will take place on this site for decades to come. This one-acre site is defined by their proximity to the ocean and distinct seasonal changes, therefore, creating a productive garden at the center of the project was the most important step in connecting to the cultural and ecological landscape of this region.

The Pasig City Parks Riverfront project is a system of waterfront parks that create recreational space, mitigate flooding, and redevelop natural habitat to create a cleaner, healthier Pasig River. The declared “dead” Pasig River has been revived by a mix of governmental and grassroots efforts that have had promising results in cleaning the river. As a result, the new administration seeks to continue these efforts through design and to reclaim these spaces for the citizens of Pasig. The Pasig Riverfront Project develops a community and environmental infrastructure that reinterprets the unique forms of a riveren people—as a series of floating parklets. On the river, floating parklets are reminiscent of the coconut rafts traditionally used to transport the fruit through the area’s waterways. These floating parks include amenities for sports, play, cultural events, and transit. They also protect a narrow habitat to restore the mangroves on the river embankment. These trees clean the river while also providing the rich habitat to reintroduce fish, mollusks, and native birds to the water’s edge. Further down-river a series of playful park follies, drawn from the history of the river’s fishing industry. These Salambaw bounce with the waves and reposition themselves with the tides.

Statement Of Design Excellence

Cultural Sustainability: The project recognizes the importance of history towards the development of new design as a way to enrich and preserve cultural identity. Careful research of historic maps, images, and photographs revealed a number of critical design opportunities that we have sought to tie into the design including: the recognition of a currently hidden but very culturally important precolonial dynasty at the existing site, the local flora and fauna at the water’s edge, the forms of commerce such as coconut rafts and salambaw, and the multitude of uses along the waterways. This allows us to reconnect the population to the cleaner, healthier Pasig River waterway.

Ecological Sustainability: The project will float at the top of the water so as not to obstruct the movement of water while still protecting a new mangrove edge. These mangroves will become home to fish, mollusks, and invite the return of native birds to the area.

An 1180 square meter metal foundry was transformed into a light-filled developmental space for theater artists. The adaptive reuse project updates and opens the original timber-and-brick building, repurposing removed elements as the basis for new architectural features. Wood is the project’s dominant material: old longleaf pine is reconstituted, while new insertions are made from crosslaminated timber. The project represents the first use of CLT on a fully commercial building in New York City.

Dating to 1902 and located in Brooklyn’s Gowanus Canal district, the building had three previous lives: First, as the Royal Metal Furniture Company foundry; next, as a warehouse and storage facility; and, just prior to this renovation, as highly compartmentalized art studios and office space. Within the context of the Gowanus neighborhoods vigorous transformation, the building’s renovation and change of use aims to blend in with the industrial neighborhood.

The project focuses on restoring the character of the heavy timber building, exposing and honoring its substantial wood trusses and reinforcing the double A-frame, while also adapting the building to meet the new program. From a highly compartmentalized warren of dark spaces, it was transformed into an interconnected, spacious, and flexible environment for theater rehearsals and performances.

Design For Resources

Overall, the project exemplifies a commitment to low-carbon design thinking in three major ways. First, in the evolution of existing building stock to support an innovative new use, simultaneously reducing demolition waste and engaging with the history of the site. Second, in leveraging low-carbon alternatives to standard construction practices, with the application of CLT, in the required structural insertions. Finally, in repurposing removed building materials to create architectural features, while minimizing the use of virgin materials.

The reconstruction of Stanton Court after Superstorm Sandy is a prototype for resilient design at the scale of a neighborhood according to the will of the community. This scale is missing from current policy and practice. Block scale planning required the team to challenge the standards of the City’s Build-it-Back program to foster collaboration among city agencies. It produced urban mews united in its architectural character, collective social space and shared stormwater management infrastructures.

The historic character of the Court was threatened by both Federal Emergency Management Agency guidelines calling for the single-story cottages to be raised ten feet, and current zoning requirements mandating for them to be replaced by narrower, two-story buildings. To preserve the scale of the block, the team developed a new typology that places the two-story massing of the new house behind a living room with a lower bungalow profile. On the inside, that living room is double height, with an expansive sense of space. Balconies, in lieu of the original porches, connect neighbors, who can often be found chatting across the court. The shady space beneath the house functions as an outdoor summer room that connects to the court at grade.

Garden Place is a short street in Brooklyn Heights with splendid 19th century residential architecture. This house dates from the 1840s, with Greek Revival detailing on the façade. In the 1980s the house was divided into two apartments. Our clients’ apartment, occupying three floors in the top of the building, had been modified to include a skylit double height space taking over part of the old attic. The 1980s renovations had grown tired, and the space had been subdivided in ways that compromised the intrinsic elegance of the building. Our renovation was conceptually a ‘deep cleaning,’ like polishing a neglected artifact. Though not apparent in the finished product, substantial structural modifications were required to create a more gracious flow of spaces. To highlight the unexpected nature of the double-height space, we clad the remaining sections of the old attic in walnut planks, which continue onto the ceiling of the living room below—and surprisingly—into the interior of the low-ceilinged, Hobbit-like attic room. Materials were selected to be both earthy and modern. A terrace extends the interior language of the apartment into the outdoors and gives this upper floor apartment a green space.

Statement Of Design Excellence

By carefully preserving and altering the existing structure, the environmental and resource impact of construction was minimized, in comparison to new construction. Improvements to the exterior contribute to the integrity of the context while also upgrading the quality of the interior space. Within the constraints of its location in a Landmarks district, the apartment was designed to maximize its openness to the outdoors, through maximizing daylight and maximizing screened operable glazing. The open layout and double-height space capture cross breezes and reinforce the quality of bringing the outdoors to an interior urban space. These strategies maximize the well being of the occupants. Energy conservation strategies were employed in the historic building envelope, and outdated and inefficient heating and cooling equipment was replaced.

This three-story, 5280-square-foot Neo-Federal rowhouse is located in Brooklyn’s Park Slope Historic District. It was built circa 1910. Our challenge was to preserve the architectural and historic integrity of this home while updating it for modern use. Our most significant intervention was the relocation of the kitchen. Originally, the kitchen was housed in the rear extension, closed off from the rest of the house. We swapped the location of the kitchen and the dining room—a simple move that helped reorient the building’s entire center of gravity. The new dining room is housed in a long, narrow space. To create a feeling of openness, we added large, curved windows, which were inspired by the observation windows found on early twentieth-century passenger trains. We then applied this design language to the remainder of the rear façade. We rehabilitated the interior of the entire home. We restored the stoop and vestibule, repointed the masonry, restored the cornice, and installed modern windows in the original masonry openings. As one moves through the home, the design transitions from classical to contemporary. The result is a building that reflects the nature of architecture itself: a conversation across time, transcending generations and sensibilities.

Design For Equitable Communities

Per New York City’s Landmarks law, when rehabilitating a building in an historic district, the front façade must retain its original appearance. Modifications to the rear façade must be sensitive and contextually appropriate, and are subject to the approval of local community boards and the Landmarks Preservation Commission. We restored the historical and aesthetic integrity of this street wall adjacent to Prospect Park in the Park Slope Historic District. One of our millwork installations at the front of the home contains storage for our client’s e-bike. The millwork incorporates a concealed charging station and mount for the e-bike. This integrated transportation strategy favors humanpowered mobility, decreases dependence on cars, and connects people to place.

pARC is an open-ended programmable extension to the conversations, events, teachings, and more that currently exist within the doors of the Ackland Art Museum in Chapel Hill, NC. The spatial installation serves as a visual landmark inviting people up off the street and into the museum. The design both mimics and contrasts the museum’s Georgian style architecture through an interconnected system of arcs that frame out various open-ended social spaces. The space consists of two defined stages or seating areas and a multitude of other open-ended social opportunities.

The work provides an opportunity for the user to put their identity onto the work, museum, and surrounding space. Through utilizing various play methodologies, the design begins to break down social barriers and democratize the public/private terrace of the museum. The work utilizes light both during the day and at night as a tool to evoke spontaneity and wonder through its shadow play component. pARC becomes a flexible communal space evoking endless ways to play, gather, perform, teach, converse, or even take a nap.