Project by Adriana Gambirazio
Little Syria was an Arab American neighborhood in lower Manhattan until urban renewal nearly erased it in the 1960s. Only three buildings survive: a tenement, a community house, and a Melkite church. This project builds on these fragments to create a museum, community center, and residence where historic preservation, contemporary cultural production, and everyday life are not separate programs but continuous experiences.
Rather than reconstructing what was lost, the design makes the traces of survival part of the exhibit itself. Historic galleries occupy the existing buildings at the base, with a new museum volume above housing contemporary exhibition space, a black box theater, and artist residencies. A residential tower above keeps housing as part of the site’s identity. Between these volumes, transition spaces create points of connection through open terraces and community spaces. What survives isn’t frozen but continues to be shaped by the people and communities who inhabit it.
