Project by Yifan Lloyd Zhang
“Christopher Street Watchtower sits on the lawn of Christopher Street Pier (Pier 45), a site shaped by the gentrification of the West Village. Although the pier was renovated in the early 2000s and maintained regularly, its lawn remains underutilized—used mainly for summer sunbathing, with no shade, seating, or nighttime lighting.
The tower responds by harvesting the pier’s abundant sunlight, wind, and rainfall to provide these missing amenities: shade, seating, illumination, and radiant warmth. It also changes its features, adapting different seasons. Built from leftover scaffolding materials sourced from nearby building maintenance, the structure is assembled from 5’×5’×5’ modules cut from standard wood planks with zero waste. Cored concrete blocks slot seamlessly into the modules, while wood offcuts from the joinery are recycled on-site into steam-exploded pine fiber board for seating surfaces.”
