My intervention is on the 238th step street in the Bronx to reconfigure and reconsider an important interstitial space in a New York neighborhood.
The “In-between” – phases that exist on a multi-planar level down to the atomic scale and offer up unique and exciting spatial conditions in the urban fabric of delirious New York. Through administrative or topographical chance, such space collides with normative grid and lot patterns, existing as carved-off remnants of industrial or residential land. The fractal landscape of the West Bronx is an exemplar of this boundary condition in New York where the city bisected geography with paved stairs to connect neighborhoods and improve pedestrian circulation. As the poorest of the five boroughs, many of these transit corridors exist in a state of disrepair, unfunded and damaged from years of neglect and increasing social disharmony. How do we rethink urban damage and utilitarian thoroughfares? How do we reconfigure the space for visual spectacle and meditation, while also improving the street wall relationship to create a vibrant bedrock for the community?