JONATHAN ARCILA
ARCHITECTURE DESIGN
THE LIFE-CYCLE TOWERS
KINESTHETIC LIVING
PROF. BRADLEY WALTERS
*IN PARTNERSHIP WITH ALBIONA BALLIU
This new urban proposal is nestled with the neighborhood of Chelsea in the borough of Manhattan located in New York, New York. The design approach was inspired by the flow of pedestrian traffic, the circulation through the site. The design proposal consists of a continuous system of ramps that connect the different programmatic elements with the High Line. The project is composed of a hotel, residential community, exhibition space, cultural center, large retail space, and the velodrome. The velodrome is a cycling sports complex that allows for a competitive cycling to occur at a professional level. It is deeply rooted with the core idea for the New York city block intervention, as it provide a link for all other programs to exist. When designing the block, pedestrian traffic and existing circulation flow was reinvented to engage with the growing cycling culture of New York. A series of cycling ramps support the higher speeds for the bicyclists as they circulate through the housing tower, but also provide a welcome respite for the residents and pedestrians that gather along the fringes to watch them ride by. It is possible to observe the continuous motion inside the towers from the sidewalk below, creating a dramatic spectacle of the human itinerary from the metropolitan scale. Through the performance of occupation the street becomes reactivated by pedestrian traffic, which translates the success of the High Line from a local phenomenon to an urban one. The programmatic components incorporated into this urban project challenge the definition of dwelling in the city. The transition of the ramp circuit connects all elements of the tower system. The velodrome is reinvented to establish the event space necessary for the aggregation of thousands of people. The hotel and velodrome are meshed together, which directly engages the public. The ramp system winding through the hotel provides a tangible connection to the velodrome and the sport of competitive cycling.
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