Columbia University’s Manhattanville Campus master plan isolates the new campus and their users from the remaining Manhattanville community. As a response, this project aims to weave the University with its neighbors.
The park is situated on Broadway, under the elevated IRT platform and directly across from the Jerome L. Greene Science Center. Programming includes public storage, urban agriculture, a marketplace, and community gathering space to provide economic empowerment and act as a social condenser for a diverse range of users. Storage spaces, used by students and residents alike, turn into temporary shelters for displaced residents. The vertical farm provides research samples to Columbia and jobs for displaced workers. The upper levels are enclosed in a polycarbonate skin with panels that drop down to shield the ground level in winter and at night. The following phases would include new Columbia facilities opening to the public, including a makerspace and potentially a new gym.
