Saturday, February 28, 2009

Diagonal Cut into Building Allows Neighborhood Integration

In last fortnight's issue, TIME Magazine featured a really interesting article on how the Lincoln Center's new re-vamped design is more welcoming to the neighborhood's residents and visitors.

Also, more specifically, the diagonal cut into the building of the Lincoln Center (which, in addition to having that entire diagonal wall made of glass, is a crucial point to making it more inviting to people outside) is exactly what I was imagining we could do with our building at the Homans site. This would: (a) create enough room for the raingarden; (b) allow pedestrians to cut through the triangular area of the plot, passing by the rain garden and the cafe and, perhaps, entice them to come into the building itself. In addition, if we only make the diagonal cut on the first floor of the building and let the second floor of the building maintain a more rectangular form that juts out over the cafe's seating area, it will automatically provide some shade to people in the outdoor area.
Posted by at

4 comments:

  1. sarahworldwideFebruary 28, 2009 at 2:14 PM

    Great, I'm glad you found a good example. I wish there were more images of the new design. This kind of cantilevered upper level would allow us to add more square footage and shelter the cafe area from both the elements and the noise of the trains.... I'll make some sketches on Monday.

    ReplyDelete
  2. NupurMarch 1, 2009 at 7:15 AM

    Actually, since I'm looking at the Heat Island Reduction credit, I just realized that it explicitly states that: "Shaded areas for the purposes of this credit will include areas shaded by trees, other landscape features,
    but not awnings, buildings, or other structural features." So, even if we cut into the building and let the 2nd floor shade the cafe area, it might look nice, but we don't get any credit for it. Too bad, huh!

    ReplyDelete
  3. NupurMarch 1, 2009 at 9:57 AM

    This comment has been removed by the author.

    ReplyDelete
  4. NupurMarch 1, 2009 at 9:58 AM

    Aha! It does appear, however, that we can use this diagonal cut + overhanging floor shelter to count towards NPD Credit 14 (tree-lined or shaded streets) as it awards 1 point if "Trees or other structures provide shade over at least 40% of the length of sidewalks on streets included within or contiguous to the project."
    Sweet.

    ReplyDelete

Subscribe to: Post Comments (Atom)