Office to Residential Conversion

In this group project we were tasked with tackling the ongoing housing and climate crises by converting an existing office building into affordable collective housing. The question we began with asking ourselves was: what can we as designers do—spatially, programmatically, architecturally—to optimize for both proforma and experience during this conversion?

The Midtown South Mixed-Use Plan (MSMX)
The Midtown South Mixed-Use Plan (MSMX) seeks to foster vibrant, 24/7 mixed-use neighborhoods across 42 blocks of Midtown South. MSMX focuses on these centrally located areas where new housing is not permitted under today’s half century-old zoning rules. The Plan aims to expand housing opportunities, including affordable housing, support economic activity, and enliven the area’s public realm.

The Hall FWC Migrant Shelter

In 2016, RXR acquired the Hall Street, a compound of warehouses and older buildings, for over $160 million to be converted to luxury office, retail, and residential spaces, to create a community of creatives which had to stop in the middle of renovations due to COVID-19 regulations.

In 2021, Texas Govenor Greg Abbott started sending busloads of immigrants to New York City. The city guarantees a bed to anyone who was seeking asylum according to the right-to-shelter laws. Prior to this, over 60,000 people were already living in the New York City shelter system. Therefore, RXR entered a licensing agreement with New York City Health and Hospitals to turn the Hall into a long-term, large-capacity migrant shelter since there was such a dire need for more shelters.

However, to mitigate the current immediate need for beds they were also asked to create “respite centers” for 450 male asylum seekers as a quick short-term housing solution. The living conditions for these migrants are obscene. The beds were cheaply made cots that were lined wall to wall which created zero privacy, the florescent lights were bright all day, there were very few toilets on each floor, and no showers inside of the shelter itself. There were only 4 trailers, making it 30 men to 1 shower, outside that only ran cold water.

Currently, RXR’s The Hill is housing over 3,000 migrants across their properties. If RWR does not renew their lease that will be up in March 2025, thousands of migrants will be displaced.

RXR is also looking to rezone the Hill as to give them more ability to create multi-use buildings in place of the current migrant shelters. So either way these migrants will need to be re-sheltered very soon.

El Jardín on 7th

In recent years, there has been an urgent call for the rectification of intense overcrowding that creates extremely inhumane conditions in shelters across the city.

Additionally, there is not enough space in these shelters to house migrants for the amount of time that is required to obtain a work permit, which is six months.

Therefore, our goal is to design a secure and supportive environment that creates opportunity while embracing migrants’ culture through the fostering of a multi-generational community.

Communal Space: General Program

The communal areas revolving around the atrium will serve to create a community three connecting floors. Each level will be dedicated to some facet of Latino culture. These environments are designed to cultivate spaces where migrants feel comfortable to cook, dance, and grow plants. In these spaces there is a fostering of relationships within the community that desires for people from all over South America to connect and share their culture with one another.

La Plaza

The top floor is the community center. This space will be multiuse including a garden space, dance floor, tables, and chairs that will allow for an easily transformable space. There will be supplies for embroidery, painting, jewelry making, and any other form of cultural expression. These creations can then be sold in the market on the street level of the building allowing families to create another form of revenue.

La Cocina

The middle floor is the kitchen, intentionally placed in the center of these connecting levels to create a landing between the two sets of stairs. Due to the significance of an enriching cooking experience there will also be lots of dining space to allow for the larger multigenerational families to all feel included in the process of creating these cultural meals. In Latino culture, it is very important that fresh vegetables are used in these dishes so there is plenty of space to store fresh tomatoes, basil, chilies, etc.

La Hacienda

The bottom floor is the farm, which will incorporate many different systems such as hydroponics, aquaponics, aeroponics, and traditional farming. All the irrigation systems will be fed rainwater collected from the roof and dispersed through the building in color coded pipes streaming down the atrium. The atrium will also help cutting mitigate the humidity that these irrigation systems might create.

This large unit is designed for a multigenerational family of 6-8 people who need a larger living area to congregate while also simultaneously require their own private areas to escape the chaos of a larger family.

Prefabrication

In order to fast track the conversion of office buildings to residential buildings there will be many prefabricated components built off-site simply out of plywood.

Design Provocation

Representation of Latino culture in the vibrancy of colors with the paint, textiles, and tiles. Utilizing prefabricated components that are quick and inexpensive to build. They are made with a utilitarian feel due to the simplistic forms using maple plywood.