In the 1960s, an urban renewal project used eminent domain to demolish the neighborhood of University Heights and replace it with the NJ College of Medicine and Dentistry. This hospital campus now functions as a superblock and island void of any sense of the community that was removed.
My proposal, a new library, begins to chip away at the superblock and reintroduce the community while simultaneously integrating much needed programs like computer labs and resources for child development. The design is driven by reintroducing the old housing typology’s volumetric identity as the building’s envelope and structure with the goal of getting back in touch with the damage and creating a familiar space the community can embrace. This volume that is translated, stretched, scaled, and flipped is perfect for creating intimate moments within the intersections and between repetitions. Overall, the library acts as a space to bring the community together by reintroducing the intimate and informal spaces that were lost like the stoop, backyard, and other gathering places the old architecture generated.
