Wise Towers
Contenuto
Titolo
Wise Towers
Data di inizio
November 1988
Titolo originale
Wise Towers
Ambiti e contenuto
Resoconto del rifacimento del 1988 della piazza originariamente ideata e realizzata da Costantino Nivola e Richard Stein nel 1964.
Autore del documento
American Society of Landscape Architects
Segnatura o codice identificativo
ISSN: 0023-8031
Lingua
Inglese (USA)
Condizioni che regolano l’accesso
Pubblico
Citazione bibliografica
Autore della riproduzione digitale
Formato
PDF
ESC - Ente schedatore
Creatore
Marta Melis
Data di creazione
22/06/2021
Identificativo
qualitative product or service property (0..*)
PDF
riassunto
Site: Wise Towers is a New York City Housing Authority project on Manhattan's Upper West Side, consisting of two 19-story residential buildings and a 31 ,500-square-foot plaza. The plaza as
constructed over the basements of demolished rowhouses.
Program: The plaza had deteriorated from more than 25 years of neglect without any major rehabilitation. The Wise Towers Tenant Association, responsible for organizing and coordinating many
community events in the plaza, requested a new design to complement their programs and activities. The tenants requested that the new design remove the plaza's cold, gray and barren feeling and replace it with color, warmth and life.
Concept: The plaza restoration aimed to create a gathering space that would strengthen the links among the commu nity groups in Manhattan's ethnically, socially and economically diverse Upper
West Side. The development of this communal space complements and encourages the activities organized by the cityhousing authority, the tenant association and other groups. Although these activities are geared for all ages, the plaza plays a particularly important role in the education and antidrug programs that need emphasis for young people. The space took the form of a multiuse amphitheater, designed around four existing large London plane trees. In addition to providing a formal stage and built-in seating for events, it also serves as a children's spray shower area. With the installation of a play cluster and related seating adjacent to the amphitheater, the southern portion of the plaza functions as the active half of the space. The area north of the sculptural cubes, with its seating alcoves, lawn areas and flowering trees, serves as a more passive alternative within the same plaza. The lawn and the
flowering trees added softness, tranquillity and color.
Materials: "Hastings" brown asphalt block on a reinforced concrete base; reinforced concrete pavement with a broom finish; concrete pavement with maroon acrylic color coat; poured-in-place concrete wall, steps and amphitheater seating; solid steel-bar fence painted black; flowering trees ( Cornus kousa, Oxydendrum arboreum and Prunus serrulata 'Kwanzan'J; tube and channel bench frames with 3-by-8-inch Douglas fir slats stained dark walnut; "Playbooster" play equipment by Mexico
Forge; and safety surfacing by Mitchell Rubber
Jury comments
M.S.: This was a gesture on the part of the housing authority, to say to the residents that they cared about them. There is now a ceremonial place for them to have concerts and so on. There are
places now for older people to sit. Trees have been added, which give shade. There is a little bandstand there. All these gestures mean something to people who live in that housing.
R.R.: It's an old-fashioned neighborhood, and this is a public housing project. I think the people who live in that project like to think that the city cares something about them and their neighborhood. A theater that allows them to stage community events is extremely important.
R.I.: He didn't improve it. If anything, he made it worse. All he had to do was put in a couple of good yellow fire hydrants and it would have been better than this. I don't see where the designer who designed this thing really used any juices at all. I think it restricts usage through some assumptions that have nothing to do with how people are probably going to use it.
R.R.: I think architecture and landscape architecture are disciplines that must respond to human needs and the constraints of the natural environment. Here a concerted effort was made to respond
to those needs; the people themselves were participating in the process. What came out may not be high art, it may not be perfect. But it improves this place and makes this space a part of an urban
environment, and in that degree is meri torious design.
R.H.: The design has a certain amount
of simple elegance to it.
constructed over the basements of demolished rowhouses.
Program: The plaza had deteriorated from more than 25 years of neglect without any major rehabilitation. The Wise Towers Tenant Association, responsible for organizing and coordinating many
community events in the plaza, requested a new design to complement their programs and activities. The tenants requested that the new design remove the plaza's cold, gray and barren feeling and replace it with color, warmth and life.
Concept: The plaza restoration aimed to create a gathering space that would strengthen the links among the commu nity groups in Manhattan's ethnically, socially and economically diverse Upper
West Side. The development of this communal space complements and encourages the activities organized by the cityhousing authority, the tenant association and other groups. Although these activities are geared for all ages, the plaza plays a particularly important role in the education and antidrug programs that need emphasis for young people. The space took the form of a multiuse amphitheater, designed around four existing large London plane trees. In addition to providing a formal stage and built-in seating for events, it also serves as a children's spray shower area. With the installation of a play cluster and related seating adjacent to the amphitheater, the southern portion of the plaza functions as the active half of the space. The area north of the sculptural cubes, with its seating alcoves, lawn areas and flowering trees, serves as a more passive alternative within the same plaza. The lawn and the
flowering trees added softness, tranquillity and color.
Materials: "Hastings" brown asphalt block on a reinforced concrete base; reinforced concrete pavement with a broom finish; concrete pavement with maroon acrylic color coat; poured-in-place concrete wall, steps and amphitheater seating; solid steel-bar fence painted black; flowering trees ( Cornus kousa, Oxydendrum arboreum and Prunus serrulata 'Kwanzan'J; tube and channel bench frames with 3-by-8-inch Douglas fir slats stained dark walnut; "Playbooster" play equipment by Mexico
Forge; and safety surfacing by Mitchell Rubber
Jury comments
M.S.: This was a gesture on the part of the housing authority, to say to the residents that they cared about them. There is now a ceremonial place for them to have concerts and so on. There are
places now for older people to sit. Trees have been added, which give shade. There is a little bandstand there. All these gestures mean something to people who live in that housing.
R.R.: It's an old-fashioned neighborhood, and this is a public housing project. I think the people who live in that project like to think that the city cares something about them and their neighborhood. A theater that allows them to stage community events is extremely important.
R.I.: He didn't improve it. If anything, he made it worse. All he had to do was put in a couple of good yellow fire hydrants and it would have been better than this. I don't see where the designer who designed this thing really used any juices at all. I think it restricts usage through some assumptions that have nothing to do with how people are probably going to use it.
R.R.: I think architecture and landscape architecture are disciplines that must respond to human needs and the constraints of the natural environment. Here a concerted effort was made to respond
to those needs; the people themselves were participating in the process. What came out may not be high art, it may not be perfect. But it improves this place and makes this space a part of an urban
environment, and in that degree is meri torious design.
R.H.: The design has a certain amount
of simple elegance to it.
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