The I Line focuses on transportation equity for Queens. Many immigrants work in the city and commute long distances back to Queens at odd hours of the day when most transportation systems are not operational. This building seeks to support and add to the city’s recycling network, provide infrastructure to local informal businesses, and provide a more reliable transportation alternative for the general public. The strategy consists of exposing the unseen inner workings of the city and making them part of the everyday lives of the people in the area. A sunken urban corridor that connects Broadway to Roosevelt Ave is the main entrance to the building and serves as a link between the existing subway station, the recycling center, public spaces, and the small business training center. Long-spanning ramps and bridges supported by trusses connect the programs, and the resulting sectional changes provide windows into other programs. This creates a visual and programmatic kaleidoscope of formal and informal infrastructures coming together. The recycling network first offers solutions at a city-wide scale by lowering the amount of waste in the state but aims to impact the global outflows of recyclables to junkyards, oceans, and other impoverished countries.
