Natan Wise

March 3rd, 2014

It may just be my tendency to overanalyze and cross-relate, but I felt that Constace Haydock’s lecture and the subsequent trip to the Museum of Architecture perfectly captured the creative, let’s-convert-this-space-into-something-more-practical character trait latent in New Yorkers.

Firstly, the lecture itself was wonderful.  Ms. Haydock showed a bunch of incredibly cool examples of green architecture projects around the city.  Because of the nature of Manhattan, namely that we have squeezed way more infrastructure into this urban metropolis then should be possible, it is necessary to engineer our green spaces to fit wherever there may be space.  The plan for a park on Sherman Creek is brilliant and, as her track record has proven, will surely be successful.  I couldn’t help but think about the planned recreational centers on the unused docks of Brooklyn Heights.  In a few years, Brooklyn Heights will have its very own Chelsea Piers-esque facility equipped with golf, basketball, gymnastics, concerts and other activities.  They’re building the facility on the unused docks that once housed a bustling shipping business but now lay abandoned. The project is related to Ms. Haydock’s in spirit: New Yorkers find new purpose in otherwise purposeless spaces.

I wasn’t necessarily thrilled with the content of the museum, but the design of the museum was related in spirit as well – It is tiny,  yet is able to house multiple visual exhibits.  It brilliantly uses its space, both open and secluded, to give the museum goer a sense of grandiose, when in reality, the museum pales in size to say, a Museum of the City.  Its lack of space makes it all the more difficult to design; like a tangible version of the famous Mark Twain “I wrote you a long letter because I didn’t have time to write a short one” quote.  Its innovation is in its lack of size, and like countless other projects around the city, it was impressive in its ability to make much out of little.